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Markus Sam Merin

@markussammerin.bsky.social

400 followers 200 following 120 posts

PhD Candidate, UMich History. Studying the death of Italian Communism. I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vick's. His hair was perfect. 🕎

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · Nov 19

"My dear son, my late great joy, am I thus leaving you without a father? An entire people - no, that is still too small - the human race will be a father to you"

-letter of a victim of the Nazi prison camps, reproduced at the 'Museo Monumento al Deportato politico e razziale' in Carpi

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 23h

"this is how we talk in our own spaces" my group chats are full of Sonic the Hedgehog references and charts of precious metal prices. You need to get new friends

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 5d

No, this is how Nazis talk in their own spaces. I don’t know abut this dude, but I never talked about gassing people and raping women when I was hanging out with my pals.

Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Blueroses78 @blueroses78.bsky.social · 1d

My dad worked his whole adult life in the mines. He has black lung. Enforce the fucking silica rule.

Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 1d

Black lung is still killing America’s coal miners. Last week, a group of black lung patients made the long journey to Washington D.C. with a simple plea for Trump’s Department of Labor: enforce the silica rule, and stop this plague.

My report for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump Has Handed Coal Miners a “Death Sentence.” But They’re Not Going Without a Fight.

After the government betrayed them by refusing to enforce a crucial workplace health rule, a group of coal miners traveled to DC to put Trump on notice.

www.thenation.com

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Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 4d

Your semi-regular pic of Bologna's tramway works

Via San Felice. In its narrowest point, this street is around 6.5 meters wide.

(Pic not mine)

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Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 4d

Like it or not, the emergence of historic preservation is deeply linked to car-lite policies.

When automobility became a mass phenomenon, there were only two viable options: either adapt the existing city to car mobility or curb down car mobility demand to make it compatible with the existing city.

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 4d

Yesterday in the archives the former mayor of Bologna walked in and sat behind me and started reading a century-old socialist newspaper on the microfilm machine while I happened to be reading a speech he gave in 1988 from before he was mayor. This is such a weird place

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 10d

There's (of course) always a lot of nonsense presentism in these sorts of conversations about "imagine if people back then were to see politics now"

Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 11d

I enjoyed speaking with Juliet Schulman-Hall for @masslive.bsky.social about how the Professor Watchlist and Canary Mission get us farther from, not closer to, a free exchange of ideas on campus. www.masslive.com/news/2025/10...

This isn’t Rate My Professor: Explosion in watchlists brings new threats to academics

Online commentary used to be limited to sites like "Rate My Professor," which jokingly rated how "hot" a professor was. It's changed drastically.

www.masslive.com

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you for sharing, this looks great! All of my work on Emilia-Romagna is focused on the 70s and 80s, so it's really nice as an outsider to be able to see where my story leaves off

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 11d

So you're saying that the tram lines I've been seeing built around town would have been functional by now if not for the scounrel - great, cool!

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 12d

Do you have any sense for how, if at all, Guazzaloca's mayoral victory in '99 had any impacts on this project during his tenure or in subsequent decades?

Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 12d

I'm wrapping up the case study of Bologna's 1970s - 1990s traffic plans, and I think that there are three main overarching policy takeaways:

- a strong initial vision, which is both simple and sophisticated;
- incrementalism, but with strong commitment over time.
- total pragmatism;

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 14d

The curse of being a researcher in Italy is that the archival process is just as lonely as it would be anywhere else but because you work in a picturesque Mediterranean country no one will ever feel bad for you (and maybe they shouldn't)

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 14d

It's funny more than anything

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 14d

It's not that I have problems with people asking about things only kinda relating to my work , and I get the appeal of going to someone you think is an expert on something instead of trusting the internet. It's just that these are those kinds of questions we'll probably never have good answers to

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 14d

Haven't watched it actually! Need to get around to it but I need to watch RAI's series "The Night of the Republic" first

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 16d

Opening a folder in the Gramsci institute on the crisis in Modena's ceramics industry and a handwritten letter falls out

"Dear society,

I did it.

-Giulio Andreotti"

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 16d

Being "the Italy guy" in my social circles means a lot of people reach out to me with questions about Operation Gladio/the years of lead I'm not equipped for.
"Did the French blow up the Ustica flight?"
"Did the CIA/KGB/Mossad kill Aldo Moro?"
Dude. I spent today reading about fishing cooperatives.

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Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

The Flenser @theflenser.bsky.social · 19d

Agriculture’s new album The Spiritual Sound is available everywhere today.

The record is a study in joy and intensity, carrying forward the ecstatic spirit of their debut while pushing deeper into grief, transcendence, and renewal.

Listen: youtu.be/k9yMIboriEY
@agriculturemusic.bsky.social

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 17d

Do you have examples you'd be willing to share?

Reposted by Markus Sam Merin

Hell Gate *subscribe today!* @hellgatenyc.com · 17d

You now have ***less than 24 hours*** to take advantage of Hell Gate's Biggest Year Ever, Biggest Sale Ever! 34 percent off all annual subscriptions until the end of the day. Do NOT miss it! hellgatenyc.com/membership/

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 18d

Which is also funny because when I was here two years ago the same people complained about big strike actions because of the notion that they were the cause of wage stagnation

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 18d

At least in relation to the strikes here today, the biggest form of anti-strike discourse seems to be people cynically pointing at Italy's terrible history of wage stagnation and going "OH BUT IT'S GAZA YOU STRIKE FOR"

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Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 29d

I don't understand how every person interviewed by this man doesn't commit harakiri after it goes to press

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · 29d

It feels like Miller's country sometimes these days

Markus Sam Merin @markussammerin.bsky.social · Sep 20

I would stand for the national anthem if they made it something cool, like "Tip Your Bartender" by Glassjaw