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
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Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser
johnpfaff.bsky.social
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.
flglchicago.bsky.social
Here’s video of the incident
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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.
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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
2/2
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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
blbalthaser.bsky.social
Yes all protest is a performance - and if this is a performance, the dear Moishe let’s have more performance
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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
blbalthaser.bsky.social
I’m sorry to hear - my father is currently disabled w LC. I am furious
blbalthaser.bsky.social
Apologies for the typo in sentence’s fourth clause “is disabling tens of millions” - extra “of”
Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser
onlypianos.bsky.social
i miss the time when most liberals could identify the policies suggested in the great barrington declaration as evil, eugenic, and unsupported by science!
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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.
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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
blbalthaser.bsky.social
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.
blbalthaser.bsky.social
I would assume the GOP would get pulverized in the mid terms…if there are mid terms and anyone will be able to vote in them ….
Reposted by Benjamin Balthaser
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
Free Greta Thunberg and the rest of the illegally detained flotilla activists.
blbalthaser.bsky.social
Since I live in Hyde Park at first I thought the helicopters flying all last night were for the UofC trauma center (which has a helipad) - a friend just confirmed - they are ICE Blackhawk army helicopters deployed to terrorize the city.
blbalthaser.bsky.social
This is the real price of silencing movements for justice on the left that one may disagree w: it doesn’t make one necessarily a hypocrite; it just in the end makes us all more alone and more vulnerable 3/3
blbalthaser.bsky.social
Rather, many prominent liberals’ refusal to stand w students fighting for justice Palestine - was not only immoral - it eroded the solidarity we need now, desperately, to fight off MAGA 2/3