Patrick Iber
@patrickiber.bsky.social
Co-editor, Dissent Magazine. I teach history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Write books about Cold War culture and propaganda. Have written for the set of all publications that are not members of themselves
Reposted by Patrick Iber
The case against Graeberism and for Mamdanism dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
January 12, 2026 at 6:04 PM
The case against Graeberism and for Mamdanism dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
New issue out today, special section on municipal socialism’s challenges and promises
Our winter issue, Socialism in the City, is out now!
Featuring @resnikoff.bsky.social @wlacher.bsky.social @yguichaoua.bsky.social @awhf.bsky.social @alanyan.bsky.social @atossaaraxia.bsky.social @mmschwartz.bsky.social @cgmaisano.bsky.social @arvinalaigh.bsky.social @ninasparling.bsky.social
Featuring @resnikoff.bsky.social @wlacher.bsky.social @yguichaoua.bsky.social @awhf.bsky.social @alanyan.bsky.social @atossaaraxia.bsky.social @mmschwartz.bsky.social @cgmaisano.bsky.social @arvinalaigh.bsky.social @ninasparling.bsky.social
January 12, 2026 at 6:48 PM
New issue out today, special section on municipal socialism’s challenges and promises
Reposted by Patrick Iber
Zohran Mamdani’s successes and failures will shape how people around the country think about the viability of a socialist program, and whether socialists are capable of enacting it.
Read @patrickiber.bsky.social's introduction to our new issue: dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
Read @patrickiber.bsky.social's introduction to our new issue: dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
The Dignity of All People - Dissent Magazine
Mamdani’s failures and successes will shape how people around the country think about the viability of a socialist program, and whether the people who identify as socialists are capable of enacting it...
dissentmagazine.org
January 12, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Zohran Mamdani’s successes and failures will shape how people around the country think about the viability of a socialist program, and whether socialists are capable of enacting it.
Read @patrickiber.bsky.social's introduction to our new issue: dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
Read @patrickiber.bsky.social's introduction to our new issue: dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
I've been thinking along similar lines. Like w/r/t Venezuela, almost everyone outside of their equivalent of the Fox News Grandpa is celebrating Maduro's downfall. But if Trump creates a resource-extraction-for-foreign-profit regime, well, you know the drill (pun intended)
January 12, 2026 at 11:17 AM
I've been thinking along similar lines. Like w/r/t Venezuela, almost everyone outside of their equivalent of the Fox News Grandpa is celebrating Maduro's downfall. But if Trump creates a resource-extraction-for-foreign-profit regime, well, you know the drill (pun intended)
I left it out because I'm not sure it does split the military in the same way that Greenland or domestic suppression would. Seems like a situation where people would follow orders even if they didn't like them
January 12, 2026 at 2:33 AM
I left it out because I'm not sure it does split the military in the same way that Greenland or domestic suppression would. Seems like a situation where people would follow orders even if they didn't like them
We are in a classic Linz "Perils of Presidentialism" situation, though not the one in which multiple institutions claim to represent the will of the voters, but lack mechanisms to determine hierarchy
January 12, 2026 at 2:12 AM
We are in a classic Linz "Perils of Presidentialism" situation, though not the one in which multiple institutions claim to represent the will of the voters, but lack mechanisms to determine hierarchy
It's very easy to this isn't democratic but people support it when they think that the regime in power is behaving undemocratically, in the absence of a legal mechanism for removal. The US has impeachment of course but the threat of violence stays Republican hands for now
January 12, 2026 at 2:11 AM
It's very easy to this isn't democratic but people support it when they think that the regime in power is behaving undemocratically, in the absence of a legal mechanism for removal. The US has impeachment of course but the threat of violence stays Republican hands for now
Well yeah, I mean, I'm in Chile again, right? Thinking a lot about how people respond to military coups. Working on a biography of a guy who you could describe as pro-coup but anti-dictatorship, as was a lot of the Christian Democratic Party. They wanted the military to step in and then leave
January 12, 2026 at 2:09 AM
Well yeah, I mean, I'm in Chile again, right? Thinking a lot about how people respond to military coups. Working on a biography of a guy who you could describe as pro-coup but anti-dictatorship, as was a lot of the Christian Democratic Party. They wanted the military to step in and then leave
This is something that you know from experience better than I do, so I trust your instincts more than mine. (Though certainly I am aware of the purges.) If you're right, then the counter-revolution will deepen and I need to think more seriously about exile
January 12, 2026 at 1:58 AM
This is something that you know from experience better than I do, so I trust your instincts more than mine. (Though certainly I am aware of the purges.) If you're right, then the counter-revolution will deepen and I need to think more seriously about exile
Right, I'm sure, my wife was at Costco today getting new tires for our car, etc.
January 12, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Right, I'm sure, my wife was at Costco today getting new tires for our car, etc.
Any "revolutionary" situation in the US would have to involve military defection: a palace coup with popular support. It's not going to be torches and pitchforks
January 12, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Any "revolutionary" situation in the US would have to involve military defection: a palace coup with popular support. It's not going to be torches and pitchforks
Maybe, but I'm not sure that the repressive apparatus is in full alignment - I don't think the military and ICE are on the same page. Of course the "military" is a lot of institutions and a lot of people with diverse views, but you know what I mean
January 12, 2026 at 1:34 AM
Maybe, but I'm not sure that the repressive apparatus is in full alignment - I don't think the military and ICE are on the same page. Of course the "military" is a lot of institutions and a lot of people with diverse views, but you know what I mean
Because of course they are - even in situations of extraordinary political crisis people continue to go about their daily lives. And I should clarify that by "revolutionary" I don't mean that we are headed for full Communism or something like that
January 12, 2026 at 1:26 AM
Because of course they are - even in situations of extraordinary political crisis people continue to go about their daily lives. And I should clarify that by "revolutionary" I don't mean that we are headed for full Communism or something like that
If business elites and those in nonpartisan technocratic circles start whispering that we can't do three more years of this, as street protests mount, where's the off ramp? But like I said, I've been away for a month, no doubt when I get home people will still be shopping and going to school etc.
January 12, 2026 at 1:24 AM
If business elites and those in nonpartisan technocratic circles start whispering that we can't do three more years of this, as street protests mount, where's the off ramp? But like I said, I've been away for a month, no doubt when I get home people will still be shopping and going to school etc.
They are, and I too was desperate and furious at the time
January 10, 2026 at 11:22 AM
They are, and I too was desperate and furious at the time
Yes. In the RGV, he didn’t. Lots of families there had friends in the military and those who didn’t went to church with those who did. There was a deep commitment to supporting the wars as supporting the troops. But, elsewhere, obviously, it didn’t last
January 10, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Yes. In the RGV, he didn’t. Lots of families there had friends in the military and those who didn’t went to church with those who did. There was a deep commitment to supporting the wars as supporting the troops. But, elsewhere, obviously, it didn’t last
I moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 2003 and I was somewhat astonished to see that homemade, life-size cutouts of NYC firemen that some people had placed on their lawns. The identification was deep, and I was five minutes from Mexico. Didn’t matter
January 10, 2026 at 10:45 AM
I moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 2003 and I was somewhat astonished to see that homemade, life-size cutouts of NYC firemen that some people had placed on their lawns. The identification was deep, and I was five minutes from Mexico. Didn’t matter
By the way, I ran this by a retired US diplomat and he wasn't convinced; he said that lots of other countries, in his experience, "hide" behind US objections to things and if the US withdraws then someone else will step in to be the obstructive power
January 9, 2026 at 9:31 PM
By the way, I ran this by a retired US diplomat and he wasn't convinced; he said that lots of other countries, in his experience, "hide" behind US objections to things and if the US withdraws then someone else will step in to be the obstructive power
Hmm
The U.S. withdrawal from a whole host of international organizations, and in particular climate-related ones like the IPCC OR THE UNFCCC), removes the most powerful obstructionist force within them, which may enable them to finally hit the necessary stride.
open.substack.com/pub/nilsgilm...
open.substack.com/pub/nilsgilm...
January 9, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Hmm
Educational polarization in everything
getting most of the pre-2020 joint chiefs and officer corp in the national divorce is an odd, but good thing
They have lost McChrystal
January 9, 2026 at 1:50 AM
Educational polarization in everything
Here's Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map in case you want to visually know how big things actually are (to a reasonable approximation)
January 9, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Here's Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map in case you want to visually know how big things actually are (to a reasonable approximation)
Reposted by Patrick Iber
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
As history shows, maintaining domestic and international hegemony by being evil famously works out forever for those who employ it as a strategy
January 8, 2026 at 1:21 PM
As history shows, maintaining domestic and international hegemony by being evil famously works out forever for those who employ it as a strategy
The scene that has been most memed is indeed memorable but there are others that remain really embedded for me, including the last few seconds
January 8, 2026 at 12:24 PM
The scene that has been most memed is indeed memorable but there are others that remain really embedded for me, including the last few seconds
I also recently watched the 2023 Chilean film "Los colonos," about the genocide of the Selk'nam in Patagonia at the beginning of the 20th century, and similarly the final ten seconds just floored me in a way that was really unexpected www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDQ9...
LOS COLONOS | Tráiler Oficial | Enero 25 en cines
YouTube video by MUBI Latinoamérica
www.youtube.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:23 PM
I also recently watched the 2023 Chilean film "Los colonos," about the genocide of the Selk'nam in Patagonia at the beginning of the 20th century, and similarly the final ten seconds just floored me in a way that was really unexpected www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDQ9...