Sign in

Alex Says Stuff

@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
6.7K followers 601 following 29K posts

Historian of the former Yugoslavia and ethnic partitionism. X-Men opinion-haver. Did a PhD on diplomacy in the Bosnian War, and currently writing a book about it. Host of The History of Yugoslavia podcast. Personal account, views expressed are mine alone.

PostsRepliesMedia
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 6h
Frankly, I continue to think that "Zionism" is no longer a particularly useful term of analysis nowadays. As a historical ideology and movement, for sure, but in a world where Israel as a state exists and does concrete things I don't see what "Zionism" as an abstraction adds to the discussion.
3424
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 8h
While I'm here: no, I don't particularly have any detailed thoughts on the Bosnian elections today. Best presidency outcome would be Bećirović-Kovačević-Vukanović, but I'm supremely confident Vukanović won't win.
1150
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 8h
Carla is also absolutely right here: this is going to force the Greens into endless navel-gazing and constantly having to talk about this motion at every single political event from now on.
6374
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 8h
(No, I'm not permanently reactivating, I just particularly wanted to comment on how stupid and bad I think this resolution was)
4220
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 8h
To state the obvious, the actual resolution being discussed and voted on wasn't "Ethnostates are bad", was it?
36310
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
OK, will stay active for another few hours so people can see this, but then probs going to deactivate for a bit, both for mental health reasons and because I still have a book to finish writing.
6191
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
And a reminder that we're talking about kids here. The players were teenage boys.
2245
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Relevant:
theguardian.com
Senior UK rabbis come out in support of sanctions on Israeli settlements
Spiritual leaders stress diversity of views within Jewish community and warn against inaction on settler violence
0125
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 10/09/2026
This is heartbreaking, and I think the correct angle of attack. Prisoners’ rights are broadly unpopular, so focus on the collateral damage. Their kids didn’t do anything to deserve this.
currentaffairs.org
Children Deserve the Right to Hug Their Incarcerated Parents
Forty years after my family fought for the right for me to hug my mother in prison, children are still being denied the same human connection.
9468115
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We're clearly in an anti-LGBT moral panic and anyone denying it at this point is either clueless or actively supportive.
020346
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New in the Ulsterisation of UK national life. If the authorities don't confront far right paramilitaries in part of the state, expect this sort of group in other parts of the state to want a piece of the same action.
12464195
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Oh, she's almost certainly made far far more money from the films than any of the actors in them have. The difference is that it raised them from "Not rich" to "Typical celebrity rich" whereas it raised her from "Typical celebrity rich" to "Oligarch level rich".
2333
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Lmao
1659
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"But what about when the Depression hit?" Well what happened then was that the Allies agreed to suspend German obligations to pay for a whole year in 1931, and then when that was done offered to write off 90% of the bill because of the economic situation. The Germans still rejected it.
1283
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Brian Jacques has been dead for 15 years and he's still managed to get out the next book in his series before George RR Martin.
210428
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fundamentally, this just cannot be allowed to continue.
1033256
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Miliband has also said in more recent years that he's largely vegetarian now and doesn't eat bacon any more, albeit for environmental reasons rather than religious ones.
2193
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"We're totally doing this out of concern for all the women being cancelled" say two men who, when asked to give an example, name not a woman but another man.
45016
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Thugs try to violently attack teenage boys because they're brown"
0113
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Now, that actually is a better statement.
theguardian.com
Merz accuses AfD of ‘ethnic cleansing’ policy and cancels call with Trump
German chancellor attacks Alternative für Deutschland after far-right party’s win in Saxony-Anhalt election
1113
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
(Also the leaders are mostly Hadash activists anyway so in practice this is no different to a joint bloc with them)
081
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Needs to be, how else would it accommodate all the huge Panserbjørn bears?
0283
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Listening to Eric Foner's history of Reconstruction atm, and he makes this point that, though there are occasional incidents of it, there's no sustained *tradition* of mass Black racialised violence against Whites in American history, whereas the reverse is constant throughout it.
25210
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Rugby has this rule: the game ends not when the clock hits 80 minutes but the first time the ball goes out of play *after* 80 minutes.
6161
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brotherhood and Unity
051
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Reminder that describing the Chief Rabbi as "leader of British Jews" is as inaccurate as describing the Archbishop of Canterbury as "leader of British Christians". He is the leader of one particular Jewish religious grouping that, for historical reasons, is officially "recognised".
112522
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The operative word in "Protect our women!" is not "women" but "our".
141497420
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think I noted during the recent Belfast riots that a certain kind of man is not really interested in protecting women & girls; he's interested in protecting the exclusive right of his kind of man to abuse and control women and girls.
412795620
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
oh fuck off, WSJ www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
wsj.com
Opinion | Mamdani Denounces an Indian Nonprofit
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh—a vast, powerful Hindu volunteer organization—has become the target of a counterproductive Western campaign.
3346554
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Sorry but it just is not reasonable to expect people to treat Itamar Ben-Gvir as like “the silly Minister” or whatever, whose words and deeds mean nothing. There’s been more than enough time to discipline him for all the vile things he’s done but he’s got off every time.
1127134
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
On Germany: something I can’t stand is the idea that the Left and the Green parties haven’t offed arguments about the cost of living. They have! It’s just that they haven’t offered *hate*. The AfD have offered hate, that is their most passionate offering, that is primarily why they are thriving.
241053219
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Turing Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The thing is also that the far right's voting bloc in Europe has perfectly coherent and logical opinions if you simply believe them when they say that they are bad people who like bad things.
624153
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Worst game of Splat I've ever witnessed
040
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Nice try, this is clearly just a man wearing a very cheap disguise
290
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What collective punishment of all Germans?
3483
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
a lot of people want to believe that right-wing beliefs are rooted in some legitimate material grievance. that makes it easier to imagine that if we simply solved the material problem, they’d deradicalize. but they won’t, because they aren’t disillusioned, they’re just morons.
965065850
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The closest thing to a "real" reason I can think of is that UKIP under Farage burst onto the British political scene around the same time as the peak of the BNP, roughly 2008-10. This laundered Farage for a crucial few years, and people were unwilling to row back from that.
1263
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The heavy focus on median/swing voters can tend to obscure how statistically unusual they are. That they are invariably part of a winning majority does not mean they are themselves a majority (or anything remotely close to one).
2171
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
👻 🎃 🦇 Bela Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The idea that the police are the solution to this problem is fucking idiotic. The police are part of the problem. How do you think Danny Tommo is getting the information that is enabling him to mobilise groups of 300 lads at the drop of a hat?
theguardian.com
Black-clad Dover vigilantes will return if police do not act, say campaigners
Far-right linked group able to mobilise at scale due to police ‘inaction’, says founder of Hope Not Hate
817150
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Hitler issued formal orders specifically exempting his childhood doctor, a Jewish man named Eduard Bloch who had cared for Hitler's dying mother, from Nazi antisemitic laws! There's always a "good one", because racism and bigotry is arbitrary by nature!
311616
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Natasha Devon @natashadevon.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
‘Protect our women and girls’. Only not if you’re a disabled British woman…. Or a trans British woman. Or an ethnic minority British woman. Or a British woman who needs an abortion. Or a British woman who is attacked by a man we like. Or a British woman who says something we don’t like.
12486132
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Kind of morbidly funny that Prajd and Mladić's funeral have been in the same long weekend and Brnabić isn't wanted at either of them... You made this bed for yourself, Ana 🙄
070
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Nadia Whittome MP @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
When blackshirts are marching through the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, the focus shouldn’t be on the disruption they cause, but on their fascist ideology and deliberate intimidation of migrants and people of colour. [1/2]
801510345
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Newspaper that spent years mocking the idea of teaching about consent wonders why people don't respect consent.
0245
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Make Britain a hostile environment for fascists
8556109
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I don't know why Merz even bothered giving a speech, he said absolutely nothing new.
0150
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Literally demonstrating the Eric Williams quote.
0110
Reposted by Alex Says Stuff
Emil Kerenji @emilkerenji.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Svaki dan je dan za sećanje na žrtve. Svaki dan je dan za osudu zločina.
0113
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Ugh, that Merz is still implicitly equating AfD and Die Linke is not a good sign.
3588
Alex Says Stuff @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"threatening to go under the water"
static.klipy.com
Willy Wonka Says 'Don't Come Back'
ALT: Willy Wonka Says 'Don't Come Back'
2352