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Benjamin Balthaser

@blbalthaser.bsky.social

5K followers 2.3K following 2.1K posts

Assoc prof of multiethnic US lit; au of Dedication (2011), Anti-Imperialist Modernism (2016), Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism & the Cultures of the US Jewish Left (2025). He/him. 🕎🌹😷🇵🇸Chicago 🐢 https://iusb.academia.edu/BenjaminBalthaser

iusb.academia.edu

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 5h

Even if one believes conjectures about Trump’s ego, Epstein files, Nobel Prize, UAE jet planes etc remember it is conditions on the ground that makes such self serving actions of leaders possible: growing pariah status of Israel, arrest warrants for leaders and soldiers, arms embargoes etc

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 7h

Trump deserves no credit for this ceasefire - even in a backhanded way. He could have stopped the war this entire past year. If you have to thank someone - and there is little to be thankful for given the ruins of Gaza - please thank the global protest movement.

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 11h

One of my least favorite ways to learn a scholar is Jewish is reading fascist death threats against them

Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser

RutgersAAUP-AFT @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social · 1d

This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 15h

❤️🕎✊🇵🇸

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 1d

One of the worst cultural crimes of Zionism has been its attempt remake Jewish history into a weapon for fascism, rather than a narrative for ongoing solidarity w the oppressed

Chicago protester: The National Guard is not welcome here. Crime is under control. Military occupation doesn't make our cities safer.
Resources and investment in community makes our city safer. My family left Eastern Europe because of the pogrom.

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 1d

So banning conversion therapy is an attack on free speech but banning abortion and trans care is a question of religious freedom?

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 1d

I was wondering when MAGA would go full Joe McCarthy. Yes, DSA is an anti-fascist, socialist and democratic organization. I am now, have been, and will continue to be a member.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Jonathan Choe to Trump: "Another group right now that is behind antifa and working with antifa very closely based on the research that we have right now that we're gonna give to you and your team are the Democratic Socialists of America."

Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 2d

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 2d

Here’s video of the incident

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 2d

based

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Adler, who is Jewish, wrote in a piece for the Nation that his grandfather joined the Parisian resistance against the Nazis, and that he draws from his heritage in his rationale for joining the flotilla.

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 2d

Guess the flotilla struck a nerve

BREAKING: Trump on Greta Thunberg:
She is just a troublemaker, she has an anger management problem.
She should see a doctor.

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 2d

it does create an opening for a new anti imperialist politics in the US, of which Zionism is the most visible symbol of it’s moral bankruptcy, racism and also, growing global weakness - if ofc ppl can survive its violent decline
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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 2d

The American Jewish - and more broadly - the American consensus on Zionism is over. And in that Israel is now like all other life and death questions on which the ruling class imposes its brutal will on the world. But … 1/2
www.theguardian.com/world/commen...

The Zionist consensus among US Jews has collapsed. Something new is emerging | Shaul Magid

Two years after the 7 October massacre and the onset of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, American Jewry has been profoundly transformed

www.theguardian.com

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 3d

Yes all protest is a performance - and if this is a performance, the dear Moishe let’s have more performance

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 3d

Why is it when someone posts “check in on your Jewish friends to make sure they’re ok” it’s always about some Zionist garbage, and not whether someone can cover my classes during Yom Kippur

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 3d

The oddest criticism of the freedom flotillas is that they are “symbolic” & “performative.” I am curious to know what practical politics one deploys against a genocide: do they want Thunberg to carry nuclear weapons?It’s simple: the flotilla makes ppl feel ashamed: by their own silence, & cowardice

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

I’m sorry to hear - my father is currently disabled w LC. I am furious

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

Apologies for the typo in sentence’s fourth clause “is disabling tens of millions” - extra “of”

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

💯

Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser

zane @onlypianos.bsky.social · 4d

i miss the time when most liberals could identify the policies suggested in the great barrington declaration as evil, eugenic, and unsupported by science!

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

The Great Barrington Dec. aka the “let covid rip” policy, legitimated the death of over a million Americans, is disabling of tens of millions more, & failed to achieve its own instrumental goal, ending the pandemic. It did succeed hwvr in gutting public health & eroding public trust in science

Five years ago today, we authored the Great Barrington Declaration, arguing for focused protection instead of lockdowns. A wholehearted thank you to the almost one million co-signers. We were proven right.

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

I mean please tell us more about herd immunity www.luriechildrens.org/en/news-stor...

Risk of Long COVID in Kids Doubles After Second Infection

A new study co-authored by researchers at Lurie Children's found that children and adolescents were twice as likely to experience long COVID after catching COVID for the second time, compared to their peers with a single previous infection.

www.luriechildrens.org

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

I just rewatched raiders of the lost ark: my new theory is that it’s about a liberal new deal state forestalling the messianic power of fascism and the occult through the force of weberian administrative rationality. A liberal fantasy tbs but not a bad description of the new deal itself

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

That a good line

Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

lol on the nose, so to speak

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 4d

New, highly transmissible COVID-19 strain fueling wave of infections across US

By Tracy Swartz
Published Oct. 1, 2025, 8:21 p.m. ET

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