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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem
@ilotem.bsky.social
3K followers 840 following 270 posts
Looks like I’m a historian. Senior Lecturer at UWestminster: wrote a book about the memory of colonialism in Britain and France, and another one about the pitfalls of memory politics in post-WWII Europe. Dogs are better.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Dec 5
My new book, ‘Dealing with Dark Pasts’, where I try to coin a new memory concept, is now out online and is free to download for the first four weeks…! www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Dealing with Dark Pasts
Cambridge Core - Global History - Dealing with Dark Pasts
www.cambridge.org
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
mitildide.bsky.social
Marghost 👻 @mitildide.bsky.social · 11h
Encore 7 Lecornu et on a le droit à un Lecornu gratuit
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 11h
It’s that moment when you wish you were GenZ enough to create a meme that shows the sheer ridiculousness of someone (let’s call him Macron) convinced that repeating the same mistake would eventually yield a different result? Is there a reason to think the laws of gravity do not apply to French PMs?
bonpote.com
Bon Pote @bonpote.com · 12h
Sébastien Lecornu REnommé à Matignon : le message d’Emmanuel Macron à tous les Français.

Dessin d’ @allanbarte.bsky.social pour Bon Pote
ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 11h
As much as I appreciate AI’s ability to help very supervised streamlining of certain technical tasks (code! Correspondence with German bureaucrats!), this is the correct answer to anyone asking me why I don’t use ChatGPT to write more books (and believe me, I’ve been asked many a time).
junoryleejournalism.com
Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
adambienkov.bsky.social
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 1d
Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues.

Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject.

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 4d
Also. On a personal note, nothing gets me angrier than a tedious mediocre man who decides to take his aim at Brum. I’m allowed to slag it off. Wankers who never set foot there should put a sock in it.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 4d
As someone from Small Heath, I’m allowed to talk shit about Handsworth. But it won’t be anything about “feeling uncomfortable,” because Handsworth also represents the best of Britain, big warts and all.
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Sadiah Qureshi @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 4d
I grew up in Handsworth. It is one of the most vibrant and diverse places in the UK, whether in terms of complexion or creed. For someone to feel uncomfortable there says everything about the kind of sameness they crave, rather than anything meaningful about Handsworth or Birmingham.
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
samfr.bsky.social
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 8d
One reflection talking to other Jews today is how unshocking this is.

Numbing, upsetting, scary but not shocking. We all knew it was coming. Given the enormous rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, it's a surprise it hasn't happened more often.
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 12d
I realize many people don’t quite get that not every single professor in every single university teaches computer science and might actually be trained in and invested in teaching other things, like let’s say, history? Or poetry.
Or sociology.
It is not our job to teach students how to use AI.
matt94250.bsky.social
matt94250.bsky.social @matt94250.bsky.social · 12d
If you don’t teach your students how to use AI, you’re doing them a huge disservice because they won’t have jobs in the future.
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
rrresrobot.bsky.social
RRResRobot @rrresrobot.bsky.social · 22d
Do you know of interesting research that I'm missing? Check out the bibliography at https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/extreme-right-western-europe-bibliography, DM @kai_arzheimer
Bibliography on the Extreme Right in Western Europe
A bibliography of more than 1600 titles on the parties of the Extreme Right in Western Europe (aka the Populist Right, Radical Right, Anti-Immigrant Right)
www.kai-arzheimer.com
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 19d
Possibly also any dish that I enjoy.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 19d
Any dish that makes the world a better place.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 19d
I actually don’t get the point of waffles.

Don’t @ me. I don’t make the rules. Waffles are pointless.
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 19d
noticing more "oh so you hate waffles?" style randomly aggro replies these days. winter is coming
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 19d
Wow. Das ist wirklich ein wirrer, peinlicher Wortsalat (und hat nichts mit irgendwelchen verständlichen Kritikpunkten an unsauberer Arbeit Schärs zu tun. Aber einfach unter der Gürtellinie mit den gröbsten „anti PoCo Einsatz“). Echt eh.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 19d
Yes, it’s a pretty basic political job (to think about how to use words, reception of one’s own base vs others). Thing is I’m not sure how coalition building works in the current frenzy in the US.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 20d
I’ve seen the word become increasingly detached from its institutional meaning on social media, and I’ve often thought the way my students use it now,for example, has very little to do with how I (and many other people) would have understood it.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 20d
I agree it’s counter-productive to use that language, BUT I also think there’s a lost-in-translation element here. I don’t think AOC meant educated as “someone who went to university,” but rather in the GenZ use of the word, where everyone should “educate themselves” (via social media etc).
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Reposted by Itay Lotem
mrothberg.bsky.social
Michael Rothberg @mrothberg.bsky.social · 22d
Statement in Solidarity with the Intern. Assoc. of Genocide Scholars by the Genocide & Holocaust Studies Crisis Network:

We condemn attacks on the IAGS Gaza genocide resolution & abhor the denialism & bad faith that persist among some in the fields of Holocaust & Genocide Studies.
IAGS Solidarity Statement 9-18-25.pdf
drive.google.com
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 24d
Haha yeah. It’s also a pretty local and unknown grape from a region people do not tend to “respect” as a big quality wine making region. So makes it harder to break into the big French market, but in the UK it only takes a Tesco buyer.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 24d
It’s a small and pretty old appellation from around Sète that was definitely not engineered, but for some reason broke into the British market (about half of all Picpoul de Pinet is consumed in the UK).
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 9
Let me get this straight. So a day before what could be a large wave of French protest due to widespread anger at presidential arrogance, Macron decides the PM should be the one person who really seems like raising the middle finger to basically everyone because… he’s a smooth operator?
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 9
I can’t thing of a worse choice for “stitching together a parliamentary majority” than Lecornu. There’s always the weird moment of looking at Macron’s being too smart by half and wondering: “is it a genious maneuver or is it as awful as I think it is?”
ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 9
Lecornu? Huh? Ils sont fous, ces macronistes.
ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 5
2) After a recent visit to Lithuania I was astounded by much of the startup discourse there in taxis: people who had grown up without public transport think of it as irrelevant and see the future through different taxi apps, plus find public transport backwards and want to be picked up by drivers.
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 5
Ugh NO? Because public transport obviously. BUT 2 things:

1) Sustaining high-level public transportation services requires continuous investment and governments looking to save money can be inspired by this bollocks. So this is dangerous.
economist.com
The Economist @economist.com · Sep 5
Will the absence of robotaxis in Europe mark the moment its citizens notice how far their continent has fallen behind?
Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe
A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads
econ.st
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ilotem.bsky.social
Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Sep 1
That might be true, but I am too old for the endless tedium of short videos.
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · Sep 1
anyway my brave take is that Bluesky isn't really working because you just can't launch a text-based social media platform in the era of Big Video And Picture Slop and expect it to flourish, most people don't really want to type or read
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