Mehdi Semati
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msemati.bsky.social
Mehdi Semati
@msemati.bsky.social
Professor, (Global) Media Studies, Internet-Distributed TV, Cultural Studies, Cross-border media, Digital Diasporic Media, #terrorism studies
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
Liz Oyer
@lawyeroyer.com
Former DOJ Pardon Attorney. Forever a public defender. Hardwired to stand up to bullies.
August 26, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
I always hate this odd interregnum between the mass shooting and the emergence of details about the shooter. Will it be revealed that the shooter is white, and thus we will here about mental illness, of will he be a terrorist, in other words not white.
www.unemployednegativity.com/2015/06/the-...
The Stories We Tell: Event and Mythocracy
www.unemployednegativity.com
August 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
The Iranian media landscape is awash with propaganda—from Israel, from the Islamic Republic, from diaspora monarchists. Yet amid this toxic atmosphere an anti-war message is crystallizing, writes Nahid Siamdoust in this outstanding essay for @newlinesmag.bsky.social.

newlinesmag.com/argument/bom...
Bombarded by Propaganda, the Iranian People Are Uniting Behind an Anti-War Message
A public mood is coalescing as narratives from both Israel and the regime of the Islamic Republic jostle for position across networks and airwaves
newlinesmag.com
June 20, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
Iranian dissidents—including former political prisoners—almost unanimously oppose military intervention, notwithstanding their deep animus toward the Islamic Republic. An in-depth report on this from 10 years ago is suddenly more relevant than ever. My 2015 piece 👇

inthesetimes.com/article/iran...
Iranian Dissidents Explain Why They Support the Nuclear Deal
We know what politicians from the U.S. to Israel think about the Iran nuclear deal. How about asking some opponents of Iran's regime?
inthesetimes.com
June 15, 2025 at 10:10 PM
This #AI thing in the hands of idiots is going to kills us all! ;)
wapo.st/45wdA6A
White House MAHA Report may have garbled science by using AI, experts say
The report, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was intended to address the reasons for the decline in Americans’ life expectancy.
wapo.st
May 30, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
This vividly illustrates the point of my recent @newlinesmag.bsky.social piece: Trump/Vance sell their ‘America First’ doctrine as neutral on the domestic affairs of other countries yet they lecture South Africa on its treatment of Afrikaners—they're selective crusaders.

www.cnn.com/2025/05/18/w...
Last look: Trump’s White South African ‘refugees’ | CNN
As dozens of White South Africans from the Afrikaner community arrive in the US as refugees, Fareed fact-checks President Trump’s claims that the ethnic minority is facing discrimination and political...
www.cnn.com
May 18, 2025 at 9:05 PM
"The point isn’t just that sanctions don’t work. It’s that they were never meant to work in the way we’ve been told. They are not strategies for peace or tools of diplomacy. They are economic weapons, wielded for political gain and private profit."
tinyurl.com/49rrxwr8
Sanctions Don’t Weaken US Adversaries — But They Do Enrich Oligarchs
Trump officials admit that sanctions don’t accomplish stated US foreign policy goals, but they’re still using them.
tinyurl.com
April 29, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
NEW: The detention of Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri parallels the cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. His colleague Nader Hashemi reflects for @newlinesmag.bsky.social on his recent visit with Suri in an ICE facility in Texas.

newlinesmag.com/first-person...
Teaching Gandhi in a Texas Detention Center
A visit to the ICE facility housing the Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri, whose case parallels those of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk
newlinesmag.com
April 23, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM

My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social.

The governing ideology of the far right has become a
monstrous, supremacist survivalism.

Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The rise of end times fascism
The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them
www.theguardian.com
April 13, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
We are deeply saddened by the loss of CCC Editorial Collective member Jonathan Sterne.

A major figure in media history, sound studies, disability studies, and the critical study of technology and culture, he will also be sorely missed for his kindness and generosity.

www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
April 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Mehdi Semati
The Office for Civil Rights has requested the names & nat'lities of students & faculty..involved in alleged Title VI violations.
Today, the AAUP wrote to college & universities to clarify that they are under NO LEGAL COMPULSION to comply. Doing so enables deportations.
www.aaup.org/news/institu...
Institutions Should Not Provide Student and Faculty Info To Enable Deportations
In response to news reports that the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education has requested the names and nationalities of students and faculty who may have been involved in alleged T...
www.aaup.org
April 2, 2025 at 9:20 PM