iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 11h

is increasingly a matter of reflecting individual preferences collated & manipulated by private platforms, rather than public debates which inform & shape a democratic polity which informs government policy.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 11h

& politics subordinated to commercial logic. Rather than engaging in collective will-formation, users of social media engage in forms of political self-display & form affective rather than deliberative online communities. "Representation w/o a public sphere" means that democratic representation...

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 11h

Whereas Habermas was worried that citizens are being turned into passive consumers by the mass media, Staab & Thiel argue that social media has made citizens politically expressive but in a way which no longer informs democratic representation, because the arena has been effectively privatised...

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 11h

Baecker's claim that the "spaces" of digital networks are replacing the public sphere. In researching this thesis I came across an essay by Staab and Thiel who develop a similar idea, but coming at it from a Habermasian rather than systems theory perspective. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

journals.sagepub.com

Social Media and the Digital Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 11h

Vincent Bevins observations on Brazilian election are worth reading. His section on "The End of the Public Sphere", where he notes people don't seem to know what the campaigns are about because they're too busy playing w/ their phones is consistent w/ "next society"... substack.com/@northsouthn...

substack.com

Vincent Bevins (@northsouthnotes)

Three notes on the Brazil elections - - - I decided that I don’t have the time, and I have not carried out the necessary investigation for the right to speak on the subject – at least not in a proper...

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

becomes disconnected from communication about it. Trump's recent tweet about Somalis smacks of old-fashioned race baiting, but its deployment in a networked space seeks to provoke opposition in order to ensure its circulation and reinforce network identities through second order observation. /End

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Notice how far we are from the civil solidarity of the public sphere? The communicative success of Trump's remarks depend far less on a moral or civil evaluation. Transgression becomes domesticated. The capacity for civil repair (w/ respect to the communities harmed)... /7

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Across networked space, the question is how communication connects to subsequent communication. Irony and disagreement rather than agreement can become the basis of communication's success. And network identities form according to how others are perceived to react to the same communication./6

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A moral orientation to the comment was replaced by an ironic orientation toward it as comic or absurd. This allowed for its repetition across network space. It's not so much that we're now dealing with many distinct, isolated publics with their own standards of right and wrong. /5

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Trump's comments weren't just interpreted by civil actors seeking to influence the opinion of an all encompassing public. Far more consequential was the fact that his comments were "sampled" in viral music clips and memes on social media. ("The Boys" later satirised this in its final season.) /4

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This is consistent w/ Jeff Alexander's model of the public sphere (cf. "The Civil Sphere"), though he wouldn't agree w/ my conclusions. Now I think we need to acknowledge the transformations in the public sphere itself due to social media: a "network" (Castells) or "next" (Baecker) society. /3

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In the past I've argued that the left failed to respond effectively to Trump's racism because it had become associated w/ a radical ("woke") multiculturalism that abandoned civil solidarity in favour of a power struggle between identity groups (so a mirror image of the far right). /2

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Trump got elected while claiming that Haitians were eating people's pets. I haven't seen too much discussion about how that was possible in a civil society with a long established tradition of multiculturalism. One explanation could be the shift from a public sphere to a networked space. /1

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The woke stuff (“A cis white man should not be the next speaker of the Council”, etc) is a perversion of & antithetical to the civil solidarity that BLM and other social movements rely on. I don't have access to the full article so I don't know whether the author would agree.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So this techno-optimism has been baked into the policies on climate change from the beginning. What a lot of Bluesky commentators probably don't want to hear is that it is also imbricated with the whole idea of an "energy transition," the central focus of Fressoz's critique. /End

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The climate crisis requires eliminating fossil fuels in a shorter time frame & in the context of abundance. By employing the same thinking about both, it led to a go-slow approach which of course fossil fuel companies could take advantage of - more consequential than any disinformation campaign. /3

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The scandal, as he points out, is that these are two very different problems. The energy crisis was about replacing increasingly expensive fossil fuels w/ nuclear power and renewables over the course of a century, mainly affecting wealthy countries. /2

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Fressoz's "More & More & More" traces the history of thinking about climate change in terms of technological diffusion back to the engineers and futurists who were originally concerned w/ the depletion of fossil fuels (i.e. an energy crisis), & then applied the same thinking to climate change. /1

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

But for that rational tradition to exist you need someone to assess your reasoning in turn, by distinguishing what *you* think are good reasons from what *they* think count as good reasons. You can't do this monologically, even if hermeneutically. It's a social normative practice.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

No books are not interlocutors. They give us reasons which we can assess, but they can't reciprocate and assess our reasons in turn. An interlocutor, another person or an LLM, can do this, In fact they have to do it in order to understand what we're saying.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Let me offer a (c). For the first time in history we can engage in the game of giving and asking for reasons with a technology whose patience and breadth of knowledge far exceed those of any human.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's time to call it out for what it is in the hope that one day we can talk about Zionism again in a way which acknowledges its complicated history and also see it as consistent with our collective civil ideals & values. /End

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

the motion have *absolutely no strategy* for confronting Israeli violence in a way that will save the Palestinians. The situation has been getting worse for years & years and all we get from those writing op-eds are crocodile tears. /16

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So I understand the trepidation of Jews, but it is not about telling Jews what to think but rather reaffirming our own collective humanity by opposing the Zionism of fanatics. There is no clean or perfect way to do this; especially since it's clear that those progressives who oppose... /15

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Of course we must be careful not to conflate this abomination w/ Judaism, but neither can the latter be used to obfuscate racism and war crimes, any more than Islam be used to obfuscate the crimes of Hamas. In Israel's case, the people carrying out these crimes *call themselves* Zionists. /14

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

There are children in Israel & the Jewish diaspora who are being taught that there was no nakba or dispossession and that Palestinians do not have a right to live on their own land. This Zionism is not about overcoming suffered social history but perpetuating it, both for Jews & Palestinians. /13

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

threatens the global economy. The institutions of international law, founded in the wake of WWII, are being dismantled. Fascists on the right who historically have been the mortal enemy of Jews are being courted by Zionists in an effort shield Israel from accountability! /12

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"telling Jews what they ought to think" by making demands that seem to ignore this history. But having said that, the ressentiment expressed by political Zionism has now grown to such monstrous levels that we are watching a genocide take place in real time, and an illegal war launched that ... /11

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

religious traditions and nationalist projects. One can't demand that Jews, or any other group of human beings, simply transcend a history of often violent anti-semitism to embrace only the "good" Zionism. And I can understand the frustration of those who resent people... /10

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The other is manifested in the current state of Israel in which both biblical prophecy & past & present suffering is used to morally justify the repression of Palestinians, the destruction of Lebanon, etc. These meanings are historically imbricated of course, just as they are in most other... /9

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

One involves bearing, working through and integrating trauma. In N this takes the form of convalescence, while Judaism has its own very rich tradition of this, e.g. “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Binationalism could be its political expression. /8

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"ressentiment" whereby injury becomes the source of moral authority, and an ascetic ideal which makes suffering bearable by devaluing this world in favour of another one (ultimately nihilistic). So one could analytically distinguish two senses of Zionism as a response to historical suffering. /7

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

by which we can overcome our suffered social history by locating it within a larger narrative. I'm not dismissing religion by noting this; Nietzsche for one thought this longing for an "elsewhere & otherwise" was an integral part of the human condition. But he also noted it can breed... /6

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

facilitates bearing & working through this history or whether it instead offers an "elsewhere & otherwise" by which one hopes to escape suffered history, to not depend on others for security etc. It's true of virtually all religions that they invoke a kind of magical thinking... /5

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So I can understand the position of Monbiot, Lucas & others in opposing the Green's motion. But it's worth highlighting that they also acknowledge the fact that Zionism has multiple meanings, i.e. a dark side. The question I think we need to raise, respectfully, is whether Zionism... /4

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It embodies the story of exile and return which is central to Jewish identity. Rejecting Zionism as uncivil (racist, etc) is, from this perspective, to deny this story a place in civil discourse and eventually erase Jewish identity from the civil sphere - the stated aim of anti-semites. /3

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The arguments made allude to a complex history of religious identity and suffering (trauma). Even for many Jews who aren't explicitly Zionist in a political sense, the Zionist project is an expression of this history and the need to make sense of the suffering of Jews, to make it bearable. /2

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

From the fact that a political ideology has its roots in a religious tradition, it doesn't follow that rejecting that ideology involves rejecting or discriminating against members of that religious tradition. But let's take seriously the claim of those who say it does in this case. /1

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I look forward to another essay from Freedman about how the left has been radicalised. At the same, maybe he could write about how being taught from a young age that Palestinians weren't forced from their land somehow doesn't constitute a form of radicalisation.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Freedland doesn't think Israel is committing genocide. How can he, as a Zionist, believe that? A priori it can't be true. It would be an attack on his very moral identity. Plenty of Jews can see that it is a genocide. But Zionists? And if I'm right, what should we conclude from that?

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

How many Zionists believe Israel is committing genocide? I know there are plenty of Jews who think that. But how many people who identify as political Zionists believe that? Freedland doesn't think Israel is committing genocide. See the problem?

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

on IQ & race. She notes he's probably ineligible, not because his conclusions are profoundly racist, but because he's a "biological philosopher" not a social scientist. Ugh. Her other picks are basically catnip for the heterodox right. I'm surprised she didn't suggest Joe Rogan. /End

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Since I defended Sabine Hossenfelder recently, I feel obliged to say she doesn't do herself any favours in a recent video where she celebrates a billionaire funded (sigh) prize in social sciences. She mentions Nathan Cofnas as a potential candidate for his work... /1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xP...

youtube.com

One Million Dollars for Telling the Truth. Who Might Win It?

YouTube video by Sabine Hossenfelder

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Also, if this is one of those "false flag" theories... Israel and the US didn't need an excuse to launch a massive bombing campaign and siege against Iran. Why would they need an excuse to escalate now?

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Iran had no trouble radicalising people to murder book publishers & translators during the "Satanic Verses" period. Al Qaeda & ISIS more recently. I have no trouble believing the pilot in this case was radicalised against Jews or Israelis. It's just there's plenty of radicalisation to go around. /1

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Anyway, it's funny how the charge of radicalisation never seems to be applied to Zionists. /End

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Australian society was. A few months later, Stewart again brought up a very smart friend from Australia, this time in despair that his friend was calling the Nakba a hoax, etc. Well, decades ago another very smart Zionist friend of mine was trying to convince me of exactly the same nonsense. /2

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Netanyahu talking about "radical indoctrination" reminds me of Rory Stewart talking about an "Australian friend" on his podcast. After the Bondi beach massacre, Stewart mentioned a very intelligent friend from Australia who told him about how anti-semitic.../1 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

theguardian.com

Co-pilot in flight stabbing had ‘Islamic radical indoctrination’, says Netanyahu

Alleged flydubai attacker interrogated by Saudi security services as investigation into apparent crash attempt opens

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Corey Robin recommended an interview about AI with someone who... hates AI and has nothing to do with it. I understand there's a lot of anxiety out there about this topic, but presumably at some point intellectuals are actually going to have to *think* about it. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Model Behavior: George Saunders

“Of course, if AI can cure cancer, bravo. I’m all for it. But even with cancer cured, death will still arrive somehow.”

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