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Ben Gook

@bengook.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.5K following 53 posts

Theory, cultural studies, sociology etc

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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
His previous column suggests, ja, eindeutig: 'Eine sozialistische Bürgermeisterin wäre eine schlechte Nachricht für Berlin, aber eine Chance für den Rest des Landes. Die „Brandmauer“ nach rechts wäre damit hinfällig – und nichtlinke Mehrheiten wären möglich.' www.welt.de/debatte/welt...
welt.de
Elif Eralp: Lasst die Linke doch regieren! - WELT
Eine sozialistische Bürgermeisterin wäre eine schlechte Nachricht für Berlin, aber eine Chance für den Rest des Landes. Die „Brandmauer“ nach rechts wäre damit hinfällig – und nichtlinke Mehrheiten wä...
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A lot more to be said about it. The abyss will yet go deeper, it seems…
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Fascinating piece on Gen Z pro polymarket bros - especially the mood of alienation and ennui, that isn’t even lifted by big wins share.google/i6MBW68Jptxl...
share.google
Polymarket’s Alpha traders
In a private group chat, an elite crew of prediction-market bettors turn elections, wars and disasters into ‘free money on the floor’
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Indeed! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
The nihilism industry: Streaming disavowal and ressentiment in the age of prediction markets | Finance and Society | Cambridge Core
The nihilism industry: Streaming disavowal and ressentiment in the age of prediction markets
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robin celikates @robin-c.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’m so angry I wrote an article: In Germany, fascist majorities are a real possibility again, but the centrist merger of a revived Red Scare with open racism shows that mainstream media & politics are unable or unwilling to comprehend the seriousness of the crisis tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/germ...
tribunemag.co.uk
Warning from Germany: It’s Socialism or Barbarism
Fascism is at the door, and liberals are ushering it in. Only the left offers hope.
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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
fantastic piece, now in english. one of the more sophisticated accounts in the ongoing F-debate taking place in the German public sphere. see also texts by m. paul, r. jaeggi, r. celikates, jp. reemtsma, d. loick, o. nachtwey, c. amlinger, v. thompson, ev. redecker, and a. demirovič
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
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Jason Read @jasonread.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
newleftreview.org
Frédéric Lordon, Warning Signs — Sidecar
On the economics of AI.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Same genre. Satire ftw! www.tiktok.com/@vinn_ayy/vi...
tiktok.com
things are not going well at the BPAF you guys I did not realize that the pots could advance so quickly
TikTok video by Vinny Thomas
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Sadly not. It always coincides with the teaching semester here in Australia. I've only made it once. Enjoy if you are!
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Super interesting - & nice timing! I even quote the same CFTC speech / announcement. Coming at it from a different conceptual angle, but grappling with the same questions about information, insider trading, house wins, gambling etc. Interested to see where you go with this. bsky.app/profile/beng...
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It started with the new book from @aminsamman.bsky.social and spiralled from there to the many faces of contemporary nihilism.
Harper Stern from IndustryWet Peter Thiel is Pleased memeTimothy Chalamet hits the roof in Kalshi ad
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
My new article is just out in @finandsoc.bsky.social. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
The nihilism industry: Streaming disavowal and ressentiment in the age of prediction markets | Finance and Society | Cambridge Core
The nihilism industry: Streaming disavowal and ressentiment in the age of prediction markets
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Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy @mscphilosophy.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Our Evening School programme is open for registration. Two semester-long courses are on offer. - Philosophy and Poetry: The Originality of Poetry in the Writings of Martin Heidegger - Andrew Benjamin - Nietzsche’s Symptomatology of Value - Max Lowdin www.mscp.org.au/courses/even...
mscp.org.au
Semester 2 2026
Two semester long courses taught in-person and online
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Thanks, Frank!
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Excellent reading for those seeking to trace the earthquakes of contemporary politics to the plate tectonics of social psychology.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Tried to get at this even before the current collapse. In the conclusion to the libidinal economy collection. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
In the reality principle of rational asceticism and self-command central to the earlier capitalist spirit described by Max Weber and Adam Smith, emotional suppression was required for future goals to be prioritised over an urgent desire.100 Yet those goals, in contemporary crisis times, can be difficult to glimpse or, in the case of climate change, can be outright terrifying. Goals, whether collective or individual, become more challenging to commit to and it becomes more difficult to believe in the worth of self-denial in the present; the desperate spectacles of selfdenying fitness influencers and tech entrepreneurs only attest to the crisis of mass investment in the old mythos. The ascetic denial of satisfaction via consumption recedes with this missing horizon; gratification collapses into the present or near future. Objectively – which is to say, following the reality principle – accumulation and hope through the subject’s denial no longer seem to be wise bets. Agentive futures feel barred. What is the subject’s sacrifice, foresight, industry, application, constant effort and purpose for, if, beyond the passing esteem and recognition of a job well done, or the transient power and recognition of wealth, all are hostages to the fortune of a grim future in which even the wealthy will burn with the koalas, jobs are all gig work and the prospects of economic growth, on which so much is premised, are serially revised down?
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Future Histories @futurehistories.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
A new episode of Future Histories Live! This time I talk to Rabea Berfelde ( @ktbberlin.bsky.social, @humboldtuni.bsky.social) about socialisation, its history, and contemporary movements. Recorded during the 2025 Rethinking Economics Summer School Switzerland. Full Episode: buff.ly/EeUb9Wj
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robin celikates @robin-c.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
this is so sad … Asad was such an incisive thinker & wonderful human being. he joined us for the 2021 Summer School in Critical Theory on solidarity & our discussions on Stuart Hall still echo in my mind. a video of the public panel with him is here: criticaltheoryinberlin.de/en/event/fou...
criticaltheoryinberlin.de
Foundations of Solidarity - KTB
In this round table event we discussed with Hauke Brunkhorst, Stefan Gosepath, Asad Haider, Sabine Hark, Serene Khader, Stefan Lessenich, and Frederick Neuhouser. Organized by the Humanities and Socia...
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Rob Horning @robhorning.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
not clear if the loneliness becomes visible to the chatbot user, though it certainly becomes visible to tech companies, who have incentive to perpetuate it datasociety.net/points/all-t...
Being digitally alone, then, is not merely a social condition but a method of relating to oneself. In conversation with a chatbot, loneliness becomes visible as this existential condition is translated into text and archived, interaction after interaction. For some, this aids in the unfurling of patterns they could not otherwise name; it might surface feelings they would rather keep private. Technology mediates a fundamental, familiar act: talking to oneself via another. 
And what begins as a private exchange soon reveals itself as a social system, reflecting both the self as well as the architectures of isolation that shape us all.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Oh shit, it's already 1 December here in Australia. Best get writing!
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Great looking event with @robin-c.bsky.social @dirkmoses.bsky.social and Teresa Koloma Beck at diffrakt for @blnreview.bsky.social, discussing Dirk’s piece on critical theory (vor allem in Deutschland?) after Gaza blnreview.de/events/educa...
blnreview.de
Berlin Review · Education after Gaza—Critical Theory and the Present
Zeitschrift für Bücher und Ideen.
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Critical Theory in Berlin @ktbberlin.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
CfA for our next summer school is now online on our website. Our Benjamin Chair Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lillian Cicerchia, Maeve Cooke & Massimiliano Tomba will join us to discuss concepts of history and human agency. More information and application form: criticaltheoryinberlin.de/summer_schoo...
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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Save the date: I am very excited to be part of this roundtable with some amazing colleagues — on February 16 at HU Berlin, Matteo Pasquinelli, @annanosthoff.bsky.social, @rainermuehlhoff.bsky.social and yours truly will discuss our perspectives on the «Critique of AI», moderated by Jacob Blumenfeld
criticaltheoryinberlin.de
Critique of AI - KTB
with Matteo Pasquinelli (Ca’ Foscari University Venice), Anna-Verena Nosthoff (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg), Roland Meyer (University of Zurich), Rainer Mulhoff (University of Osnabrück...
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robin celikates @robin-c.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Excited that my paper ‘Staatsräson as State Racism’ is part of this forthc. issue on ‘German Memory Politics at a Crossroads’ thanks to @joncatlin.bsky.social for including me along fantastic colleagues @danielloick.bsky.social, @vethompson.bsky.social & others! ngc.arts.cornell.edu/forthcoming....
ngc.arts.cornell.edu
New German Critique: Forthcoming Issues
Widely considered the top journal in its field, New German Critique is an interdisciplinary journal that focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century German studies.
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daniel loick @danielloick.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Learned so much from my exchange with Rosaura Martinez Ruiz on surplus populations and authoritarianism - the first of our transnational and transconceptual dialogues on the Emergencies of Authoritarianism @eoaproject.bsky.social
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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
There’s a growing & deeply problematic tendency to use #genAI for political and historical education Take this example from Germany, which translates as: «Hey AI, who should I vote for.» What’s typical here is that AI is not only addressed as pseudo-person but also as a kind of impartial judge 1/
landtagswahl.ai
Landtagswahl.ai
KI-generierte Bilder aus den Wahlprogrammen der Parteien zur Landtagswahl - Ausstellung und Podiumsdiskussion; Materialien für Schulklassen
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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
fantastic book, now in English divided.online/all-books/bo...
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
It was more sociological. Reconstructed from Wright Mills, then through some ecohumanities work.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
I feel like there was a queer theory thing with lichens a few years ago; a parallel track to the mushroom obsession. currents.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cu...
currents.journals.yorku.ca
View of Queer Theory for Lichens
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Interesting topic! Funnily enough, I had an honours student write a thesis this year on the idea of 'milieu' and Bresson's final films, including L'Argent
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
The next post is the real kicker bsky.app/profile/miri...
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
The corrected version of a Deloitte report to the Albanese government reissued by the big consulting firm after it was found to include AI-generated mistakes contains new citation errors and other flaws in referencing the academic work it relies on.

Two academics have questioned the relevance of citations of their work in the new report, raising concerns that Deloitte merely substituted out false references to works that don’t exist in favour of real works with no or very limited relevance to welfare compliance, which was the subject of the report.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
archive.md/EgUkg
archive.md
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Defund consultants www.afr.com/politics/fed...
afr.com
More errors, ‘irrelevant citations’ in Deloitte’s revised AI report
Academics question how AI-generated “gobbledegook” can be justified after the fact by irrelevant citations, as the big four firm republishes its welfare report.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
"Unwritten laws form the very fabric of society+ its ethical foundation. Every populism starts with breaking the unwritten rules. Psychoanalysis was born at exactly the historical moment of the rise of new authorities. its mission demanded their dismantling." www.e-flux.com/notes/505443...
e-flux.com
Freud, Slovenia, and the Origins of Right-Wing Populism - Notes - e-flux
Mladen Dolar uncovers a series of curious historical encounters that set the stage for the world we know today.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
I remember reading that; great essay. (Redundant statement where the byline is M Dolar.)
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Has there ever been a bubble with so much reflexivity regarding its status as a bubble as this one? www.ft.com/content/6cc8...
ft.com
America is now one big bet on AI
It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy
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Philipp Hölzing @philipphoelzing.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
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Bernard E. Harcourt @bernardharcourt.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Join us tonight (10/1) for the launch of Michel Foucault's 1953-54 book, newly published in English by @columbiaup.bsky.social, *Binswanger and Existential Analysis* at 7pm at @bookculture.com on 112th bet. Broadway and Amsterdam. We will discuss the early Foucault: cup.columbia.edu/book/binswan...
cup.columbia.edu
Binswanger and Existential Analysis | Columbia University Press
In the early 1950s, the young Michel Foucault took a keen interest in the method of existential analysis—Daseinsanalyse—developed by the Swiss psychiatri... | CUP
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Dr. Judith-Frederike Popp @judithpopp.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Jonathan Lear has died. I had the pleasure to work with him in Chicago a couple of years ago. We had fruitful disputes about philosophy and psychoanalysis as well as about the need to appreciate the silent presence of negativity in both. What a devastating loss.
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Jason Read @jasonread.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Cool, so what happens when they graduate and their access ends. All this is doing is turning students into a guaranteed revenue stream for the company.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Or Andrew Arato. That guy does not hold back in a review. Also a constitution guy.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Always interesting to see some Flusser get a run.
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robin celikates @robin-c.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
“The far-right AfD, now the 2nd largest party, is attempting to revive the stigmatisation of the disabled, on the basis of the populist fantasy that they are the product of incestuous unions between immigrants. Prejudice against disabled people & racial minorities is being whipped up once more.“
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
See the post before my repost of your post ;) bsky.app/profile/beng...
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Solange Manche @smanche.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
🌹 Hi there: I'm still looking for a job & short-term gigs 🌹 • Main research interests: financialisation studies, French philosophy/political phil, French econ history & francophone colonial hist & activism. • Journalism: French politics & activism & long-form on French thought & culture.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Job in feminist continental philosophy! uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/uqcare...
uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Lecturer in Feminist Philosophy (Continental Philosophy)
School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry , Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Full-time, permanent position Base salary will be in the range $114,824 to $136,048 + 17% Superannuatio...
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Kinda mirrors how the Spotify founders (per Liz Pelly's book) couldn't give two shits about music but started it as an advertising grift.
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Ben Gook @bengook.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Also not coincidental that "regulation" is the shared bugbear of AI boosters and "abundance" hacks
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