Van Jackson
@vanjackson.bsky.social
3.6K followers 370 following 1.2K posts
Working-class kid doing professor shit. Newsletter, http://Un-Diplomatic.com. Co-host, https://www.BangBangPod.com; https://www.undiplomaticpodcast.com. 🇺🇸🇵🇭🇳🇿. https://www.vanjackson.org
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Reposted by Van Jackson
vanjackson.bsky.social
"The challenge for public intellectuals in this moment is to explain how crazy things are without sounding like a raving fucking lunatic”
vanjackson.bsky.social
The US stock market lost $1.65 trillion in value today on Trump’s coercive economic measures against China’s new export controls. It will rebound, but that won’t matter if we end up with a Great Depression or a shooting war between great powers. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/the-china-...
The China-US Economic Security Dilemma
It’s a nuclear war waiting to happen if rationality does not prevail
www.un-diplomatic.com
vanjackson.bsky.social
Every government in the world needs to work backward from the assumption that the former hegemon and financial backstop of the world-system is 1) authoritarian, 2) predatory, 3) conspiratorial, and 4) racist. Its impulses are violent and it’s not dealing in facts. 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Reposted by Van Jackson
jamiemerchant.bsky.social
this was a really fun convo w/ @vanjackson.bsky.social , a great host & one of the sharpest analysts of international politics in the game
vanjackson.bsky.social
"The challenge for public intellectuals in this moment is to explain how crazy things are without sounding like a raving fucking lunatic”
vanjackson.bsky.social
Trump’s also threatening to kick Spain out of NATO (which at this point would be a gift)
vanjackson.bsky.social
You can’t do rational deterrence in a country whose politics are grounded in conspiracy theory. One of many insights we get from Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick’s ultimate classic. Don’t sleep on this episode of the pod! @bangbang1492.bsky.social
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overungerdunn.bsky.social
"...what is condemned as “violence” is not what kills or inflicts harm. It is what threatens oligarchic control or challenges national mythologies upon which established order depends."

Excellent article.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/wha...
What Is Political Violence? - Boston Review
Pundits and politicians conceal the truth: it’s all around us, perpetrated by our political system itself.
www.bostonreview.net
vanjackson.bsky.social
Mark Bray—a Rutgers professor—is trying to leave America for Europe because he’s getting MAGA death threats and he’s being stopped because he wrote a book about antifa during Trump 1.0. This is so fucked www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport
Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled
www.theguardian.com
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mehdirhasan.bsky.social
"As one of the few Jews on [the flotilla]...they asked me if I was Jewish...threw me in front of the Israeli flag... we were strip-searched & zip-tied & blindfolded, & sent to this detention camp."

Horrifying testimony to Zeteo from freed activist David Adler:
zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...
vanjackson.bsky.social
I’ll say this as many times as it needs to be said, but socialism is not anarchism; the left is neither an org nor a movement; and left-right distinctions are only useful as shorthand for clarifying assumptions and intellectual tendencies
Reposted by Van Jackson
resnikoff.bsky.social
I am not a DSA member and I have various grievances with different local DSA chapters and committees, but I will 100% join and start paying them dues at the first sign that Trump is going to weaponize DOJ and DHS against them.
vanjackson.bsky.social
Something tactically brilliant about the disarming, inherently non-menacing nature of meeting force with inflatable fun shit
golikehellmachine.com
lmao, kristi noem wanted a black bloc fight and got an inflatable rave instead. fuck you DHS, rip city forever.
courtneyvaughn.bsky.social
Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.
vanjackson.bsky.social
“Far right political movements are not good at economic analysis, but even if they were, they’re not exactly invested in the global implications of their nation-centric ideology.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/war-on-the...
War on the World (in the Name of Hollywood)
Hollywood drew my attention last week in two ways—one catastrophic, one hopeful.
www.un-diplomatic.com
vanjackson.bsky.social
"Being a citizen or a veteran does not inoculate you from ICE detention. Being part of the property-owning class does not guarantee your right to free speech, or your ability to vote in the next election. If you are in a place the state decides should be occupied, there are no exemptions for you”
vanjackson.bsky.social
Bring back the #samuelljacksonchallenge for 2025
vanjackson.bsky.social
You can’t be neutral on a moving train
cristianfarias.com
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Reposted by Van Jackson
vanjackson.bsky.social
“The state form is not looking after its citizens. It’s sucking up the resources of citizens and using them to repress citizens. It’s a violation of any social contract that justifies the way life is organized”
vanjackson.bsky.social
“The state form is not looking after its citizens. It’s sucking up the resources of citizens and using them to repress citizens. It’s a violation of any social contract that justifies the way life is organized”