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Arieh Kovler Profile picture
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
Writer, political analyst, comms consultant. UK, Israeli, US. Politics, current affairs and technology. arieh@ariehkovler.com. https://t.co/IMhU6FoiIS
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Sep 4, 2024 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
This means a Russian intel agent was part of the internal conversations with Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan about how much to pay Benny Johnson and Tim Pool
Image The Russians asked Chen to recruit Benny Johnson and Tim Pool to make some content and offered $2m a year each. Johnson said he wanted $5m. Pool demanded $100k per episode.

NB the indictment does not suggest that they knew the money was coming from Russia. Image
Apr 18, 2024 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
OK, so let's talk about this. The term "Ashkenormativity" is used *internally* in Jewish communal discourse to refer to discrimination against non-Ashkenazi Jews — like north African and Yemenite Jews. In the US, for example, most Jews are Ashkenazi: their ancestors come from eastern or central Europe, and they follow the traditions, liturgy and religious rulings of the Ashkenazi communities.
Jan 31, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Why does the far Right hate Taylor Swift so much? Well, *partly* because they used to worship her as a secret White Nationalist 4channer and still feel betrayed that she wasn't actually any of those things. 4chan a decade ago was full of photoshopped pics of Swift in wehrmacht uniforms and excited posts about how her (then) political silence proved she was actually going to be the Aryan mother of the next generation of American Nazis. All total fantasy of course.
Oct 7, 2023 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
I am reconnecting after a day offline. This is the worst single day of casualties Israel has suffered in my lifetime. Civilians massacred, reports of many kidnapped into Gaza. More than 100 dead and that total is rising. Hamas launched this mass surprise attack into Israel, an invasion covered by huge rocket fire, without any escalation or specific trigger. They did it because they can and because they wanted to.
Sep 28, 2023 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
This is happening now. It's hosted by the Daily Wire and so far it's just Ben Shapiro interviewing Musk, asking hard-hitting conversations like "How do you stand up to the ADL and organizations that want to control speech?".
Image Also, when talking about Chaya Raichik, Musk pronounces Chaya as if it rhymes with 'China'. Right now he's saying that he's going to find ways to let advertisers choose to advertise next to risky content if they want to.
May 31, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
This paid anti-Ukrain propaganda ad, in Hebrew, just popped up on my Facebook. The cartoon's message is hardly subtle, but let's see what we can find out. Image First, the advertiser. It's a nothing Facebook page targeting people based in Israel who've interacted with content like graphic novels and consumer electronics. ImageImage
May 30, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
So, black Aragorn.

These perfect cultural storms happen when you have *both* detail-oriented superfans and far-right culture warriors pulling the same direction. Image Remember when Daniel Craig was cast as James Bond and the Bond fans went nuts because he was blond and had blue eyes?

May 30, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Obviously I don't know who is responsible for the Moscow region drone strikes, but I am wary of the reflex to claim this was a "Putin false flag", because it seems to be more likely to harm Putin domestically than help him. It could be Putin! Or it could be Ukraine. Or domestic Russian opposition, whether pro-Ukraine or far-right Russian nationalist. Or some other player altogether. But we just don't know.
May 9, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Thoughts:

1. How much is Musk paying him? Just to break even, Tucker needs upwards of $25M to cover breaking his noncompete. Are we talking 50-100 million here? More? 2. What's Twitter's side of the deal? Sure, Carlson brings in the viewers but Twitter isn't a platform built for embedded video ads like YouTube.
May 9, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I don't know how to post articles from the place below the stacks these day, but I just published a piece, originally written back in 2021, about why the Metaverse would fail. Image Basically, the thing they called "Metaverse" wasn't a new idea. Second Life has been around almost 20 years, for example. Image
Apr 3, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Twitter desktop no longer shows that a tweet is a retweet and who retweeted it. It just puts RTd tweets directly in your chronological "following' timeline. Very confusing. Bug or deliberate behaviour?

Compare new Twitter and Tweetdeck. A big part of the *point* of retweets is seeing who RTd them. The messenger is the message. Hiding the retweeter isn't just confusing, it weakens the signal of retweets altogether.
Mar 31, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I'm looking through the beautiful AI-generated haggadah haggad.ai made by @ywoolf and Royi Shamir. All the images are by MidJourney, and the commentaries by ChatGPT. The creators worked hard on prompt engineering, and also did the hard work laying out the traditional Haggadah text in a clear, modern and readable style. They also included all of the prompts for the generative AI content in an appendix.
Mar 30, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
No I don't think this will be 'another Jan 6'. Trump's early telegraphing of the indictment took a lot of the shock value out for his supporters, and he doesn't have the same capacity to organise, promote or inspire a mass event like Jan 6 from out of office. I do think Trump *wants* angry protests, riots, violence. But if we see anything it's much more likely to be smaller groups of the most hardcore supporters, not the tens of thousands that made Jan 6 possible.
Mar 27, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
I am on Jaffa St in Jerusalem. Many anti-government protesters are heading away from the 2pm demo at the Knesset on to other points. In the opposite direction, right wing protesters are flocking to the pro Government protest that begins in half an hour. There's a 'shift change' feel here as anti government protesters leave and pro Government protesters arrive.
Mar 27, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Anti-government protesters can be dangerous and violent. But PRO-government protesters are many times more dangerous, operating in the name of the country and believing they won't face policing or other consequences. The story of January 6 is a story of pro-government protesters facing off against law enforcement who knew better than to mess with people marching in the name of the President.
Mar 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Supporters of the Israeli government have called a rally outside the Knesset for 6pm tonight with the tagline "Emergency — they won't steal our election!"

Opponents are already massing for a huge 2pm rally in the same spot. Right-wing Telegram groups are ablaze about the 6pm rally, using violent language. "we must end Leftists" etc

Far right leaders are using the slogan כָּל דַּאֲלִים גָּבַר, an Aramaic phrase from the Talmud: "the violent side wins".
Mar 26, 2023 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
Unnamed Israeli government sources are briefing that the legislation to take over the Supreme Court will now be delayed after all, following tonight's public outcry. I'm sure those sources believe what they're saying, but the counter-pressure from the Right will be enormous. Constitution Committee chair Simha Rothman, one of the driving forces behind the legislative blitz, has announced that committee votes on the laws will begin at 8am tomorrow regardless. Justice Minister Levin is saying there will be no delay. So 🤷‍♂️
Mar 23, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Netanyahu will address Israel at 8pm tonight following reports that Defence Minister Yoav Galant is about to publicly call for the judicial 'reform' legislation to be stopped. These 8pm 'dramatic' Netanyahu press statements have a habit of being more bluster than anything else, but it isn't clear at all what he will say tonight. Will he take a hard line? Fire Galant? Back down? Blame 'anarchists, the left and foreign funding'?
Feb 26, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Are Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk so credulous and incapable of critical thought that they can't look at "58% miscarriage rate in the vaccinated" and figure out that the real world would be radically different if that number was correct? Most people in the world are vaccinated against Covid. So any claim that the vaccine causes X is also a claim that X has increased.
Feb 22, 2023 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Thanks to /u/Independent-Tutor721 on the Tipofmytongue subreddit, I know the book. It was the deeply weird Ann in the Moon by Frances D. Francis and Alan Aldridge. Ann in the Moon was really disturbing and psychedelic, to the point that I was worried I'd made it up.
Feb 22, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Remember when radical Islam and terrorism was a primary domestic and geopolitical concern with huge political valence such that it shaped a whole generation of policymaking? Then, one day, it wasn't anymore, but it took a while for anyone to notice. Some of this is because the threat declined. Al Qaeda and ISIS massacres in the 'West' seem very long ago (though they weren't, really). But it's deeper than that. Smaller fatal terror attacks don't seem to fit into a major metanarrative anymore so they get quickly forgotten.