Sign in

Alex von Tunzelmann

@alexvont.bsky.social
44K followers 3.5K following 10K posts

Historian, writer, broadcaster. She/her. Latest book, FALLEN IDOLS, shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022. HISTORY’S SECRET HEROES and THE LUCAN OBSESSION on BBC Radio 4. One of the Silk Road Slippers www.silkroadslippers.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Elad Nehorai @eladn.bsky.social · 23h
The best argument for leaving Twitter has less to do with giving oxygen to a Nazi platform than what spending a lot of time on such a platform does to our brains. It’s easy to see how many once normal people on there, right or left, have truly lost themselves in conspiracy theories and false facts.
20897176
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
timoconnorbl.bsky.social @timoconnorbl.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Thread. I think he’s right.
1208
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I reckon the Russian ones are a stretch but a good team should be able to get at least some of the rest with some decent arguing… 4-5 is pretty good!
100
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Just as I hoped!
110
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I think “name the ten largest first-tier administrative subdivisions within countries” would lead to some excellent fighting en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
en.wikipedia.org
List of first-level administrative divisions by area - Wikipedia
270
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I got lucky with that today, because last week I really thought I must sort my Guineas and Guyanas out. So I sat down with a map. But I would still definitely have mixed up Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. Papua New Guinea, I have more or less in the right place. Guinea pigs are all over the shop 🐹
280
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Why is it so LONG. Indonesia is also unreasonably large.
490
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
¡Ay Baston! Hasta la victoria siempre
020
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I suppose there is a finite number of places that anyone might reasonably know!
250
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I'm sure the Kremlin was delighted we voted to leave the EU, but I also think it's passing the buck to blame it on Russian interference. Russia's role in Brexit was tiny compared to that of unscrupulous hedgies, ambitious politicians and decades of lies from right wing newspapers.
67582110
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Richy Craven @richycraven.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
My online girlfriend was so shocked by the Ukraine drone strike on the Russian data centre that she's been too upset to message me all day.
323658698
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
The French Republican Calendar @sansculottid.es · 11/10/2026
Today is Primidi the 21st of Vendémiaire in the year 235. Vendémiaire is the month of vintage. Today we celebrate hemp. #JacobinDay See today's page
An old time-y illustration of a Hemp.
116656
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Good GRIEF
041
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Red Sky At Night / Joanne Sheppard @redskyatnight.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Lads, he’s not someone from a council estate who’s won Britain’s Got Talent
2343076
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Abolish the Home Office
613642
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I think you have to work within existing law, though!
010
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I think maybe, where applicable, the conversation needs to be about holding executives criminally liable. I suspect they understand that language very clearly.
7625
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I think this editorial is generally heartening but one aspect of it has been rankling with me, and it is this bit. Corporations are run by people and I don’t think those people do understand money. The opposite. If they get fined or sued, they’ll just hit their shareholders up for it and keep going
responsible. These liability laws are one of the oldest forms of corporate regulation, and an effective one. Liability is a powerful incentive to behave responsibly. It speaks to corporations in a language they understand: Money.
2429
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Revenge of the Man-Thing’s Menagerie of Marvelous Monsters @adventurin2fear.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
He already had his face used by someone else, he’s not about to do that all over again.
7797139
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Mark @worgztheowl.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Tbf, I think there's a good reason why. Neither have to worry about the nitty-gritty of politics so can say stuff out loud. Whereas, say, Burnham, might be well briefed but isn't going to openly say 'tech firms are a huge societal danger' straight up, as him saying so has lots of consequences.
2535
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
four years ago I posted this image of paleontologist Jan Smit looking at rocks and his son-in-law replied with something even better
58151732916
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It is something that repeats so often that one day I’d like to try and study it properly - when, how and why does an elite consensus become resistant to new info that is neither hard to find nor hard to correctly interpret? Because it happens a lot, but not always. What are the preconditions?
109910
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 09/10/2026
what a grim and mean little quote
24588106
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"Makers of cars, airplanes, tobacco products and opioids have all been forced by lawsuits to change how they do business. They made their products safer, restricted access to them or both."
05718
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
republicans used to complain about the violence in gangster rap and now they want to livestream an execution
12293901740
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Micah @rincewind.run · 09/10/2026
Ossoff is one of the very few people adequately channeling Evelyn Normielib these days the base doesn't want to hear entreaties to our better natures, they don't want to go high while the other side goes low, they want someone to come on the TV and go "these people are garbage" he's good at it
573963556
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Saul Steinberg, Self Portrait, 1949
130154
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Greg Morosoff @gregmorosoff.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Cat-shaped vessel from Peru (c. 200–700 CE) #MenWithCats
Cat-shaped vessel from Peru 
(c. 200–700 CE)Cat-shaped vessel from Peru 
(c. 200–700 CE)
22772233
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
So it is particularly awful if people feel they cannot wear their spectacles in situations like that, where they and/or their partner may be in a state of some vulnerability.
140
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
You’re welcome - it was a slightly tricky question to answer without being gross, too! I think it is probably far more necessary to wear them with a new partner, because one may need even more to be able to pick up on subtle signals both out of consideration for them and for one’s own safety.
140
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Alasdair Cameron @alasdaircameron.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The side effect of this is that people will refuse to have sex with anyone wearing glasses. It will be like being young in the 1990s all over again.
1465
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I have a -6 prescription in both eyes which means I can’t see clearly beyond a few inches from my face. So I’m afraid the answer to your question is me and anyone else with bad eyesight who might want to be able to discern clearly their partner’s expression, for instance.
2120
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yes, perhaps rimless ones will become popular, or clear frames for those of us with prescriptions too high to go rimless. Unfortunately I bought a pair of thick black frames earlier this year, which I liked to think looked quite chic until they became associated with perverts
5531
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Literally a selling point of the pervert glasses. And now no one can feel safe getting undressed in front of anybody wearing spectacles, in case they’re being secretly filmed. Thanks a lot, Mark Zuckerberg, for making anyone with bad eyesight now inherently an object of suspicion.
1025473
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I'm sorry if this is obvious but the Tory proposal to exempt family homes completely from IHT will lead to 1] pensioners buying the biggest houses they possibly can 2] pensioners refusing to downsize which can only be bad news for younger families trying to buy family homes
871040242
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I’m not convinced by the first one either.
1170
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I want to hear more about the second of these writing sessions
Jeffrey Archer, former
Conservative politician and novelist, dies aged 86
Publisher says author died peacefully at home
'between writing sessions'
491540281
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 05/10/2026
in a just world someone would stone cold stun these guys into concrete
1045836480
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Richard Parkin @richardparkin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I know what's going on. The hijabs are disguises to enable these 'young men of fighting age' to enter women's toilets. It's the only explanation.
2719
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Danielle Blake @abradacabla.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A common theme that drives me absolutely wild with elections/polling these days: 1. Right wing wrecks everything 2. Left of centre figure elected 3. Left of centre can’t fix all the damage in 5 seconds so the right wing, who have got 10x worse in the meantime, lead polls again/win next election
225461
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
So many people already dealing with parents/grandparents with the toxic combination of diminishing mental faculties, online radicalisation via social media and AI slop, and chatbot seduction. Unfortunately we are now all getting to see what happens when one of those cases is the president of the USA
2487137
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Kevin McKenna MP @kevinmckenna.co.uk · 03/10/2026
It should have been a much bigger wake-up call to the risks of online radicalisation associated with more and more unlikely topics for such inexcusable violence Instead, from too many who should know better, there was excuse-making about using a bomb in a political campaign they supported
1588
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Nathaniel Tapley @thatnatt.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Ha ha! That reminds me of the first thing I ever posted on B3ta in 2002. Spent hours trying to find the right bits of letters to construct ARMADILLO in Photoshop...
A Photoshopped bit of the Bayeux Tapestry with an armadillo in. HIC EST ARMADILLO
2528
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It creates a massive inequality around them where everyone is dependent, few are prepared to be honest with them, & on the rare occasions someone is they don’t have to accept it. They can have relationships with other super-rich people, but those people are just as messed up as they are
1492
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is one of the (many) reasons I believe societies should structure their tax systems to prevent people from becoming billionaires. It’s bad for society & it’s also extremely bad for them. Many of the super-rich are totally messed up because they can’t trust anyone & they’re right, they shouldn’t
312031
Reposted by Alex von Tunzelmann
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“You're not an Ai influencer”, the sickest of burns a pope has ever received
3348784
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is absolutely not how it comes across
120
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Also, the cats aren’t fat enough.
1140
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My goodness. I hadn’t even noticed the rats chasing the cats. I would like someone from the Conservative Party to explain this to me. Not because I can’t understand it. Because I would like to hear them explain it. In their own words.
7404
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Good grief. They couldn’t even get the AI slopbucket to mimic the correct language or style. Maybe it was embarrassed for them too.
2201