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Dan Vitkus

@danvitkus.bsky.social
241 followers 164 following 598 posts

Literature Professor, historical materialist, eco-theorist, solarpunk

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Reposted by Dan Vitkus
Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 21h
A naked, gold-covered Trump statue has been unveiled inside the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It’s called “Orange Plague,” also known as “King of Injustice,” and shows him sitting on another man’s shoulders holding an enormous golf club. Covered in reportedly 23-karat gold, of course.
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Petisia @petisia.bsky.social · 7h
A powerful moment that should be replayed, shared, and amplified until the message sinks in. That’s the definition of what’s bad for the Jews and I didn’t know this man. I just knew he was a threat to my child. I later learned his name was Benjamin Netanyahu. ―Mandy Patinkin #October7 #PINKS
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I know Rahm Emanuel. I worked with him for years in the Clinton administration, and then when he was Obama’s chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel represents everything that’s been wrong about the Democratic Party for the last 30+ years. Be warned. robertreich.substack.com/p/the-rahm…
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I spelled out "superpower suicide" in this essay from May 2026. Empires have risen and failed before, but to my knowledge no state has ever chosen to kill its own power, and succeeded with such rapidity. snyder.substack.com/p/on-superpo...
snyder.substack.com
On Superpower Suicide
And the recovery of justice
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John Mullinax @johnmullinax.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This discussion with @doctorow.pluralistic.net is great. Really worth watching the whole thing. Starts with some of his thoughts on AI but, IMHO, the best bit is the stuff on digital sovereignty.
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Stephen Shapiro @stephenshapiro.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Now ban powerpoint slides for teaching www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2026...
columbiaspectator.com
Why we decided to ban electronic devices in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization
In early September, we—the chairs of Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization—announced to our fellow instructors a new policy restricting the use of digital technology in the two Core Curr...
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yuck! I wonder what the demographic of the requesters is? Male 12-25 must figure hugely
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Noel Healy @drnoelhealy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Move to Italy?
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
That was some superficial pseudo-intellectualism! Especially if you compare that with, say, how The Gang of Four took Marx, Gramsci etc. to heart.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
But it is also the cradle of its bastard child, organized religion
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
O so capitalism really gave us a happy, safe, just world? Please. We are talking about a pragmatic, real world, concrete economy, one that has failed in so many ways. Wake up, dude.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Oh boo-hoo for you, you closed minded snowflake. Do you realize what China was like before the revolution?
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
More blame should go to the poco-pomo liberal identitarian careerists who found comfortable spots in the neoliberal academy and flogged their essentialist formulaic circuit while turning a blind eye to historical materialism, class, political economy etc
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Mao was born in 1893. So yeah, it’s good that he is dead. Because if not, he would have to be a zombie-vampire.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
You are clearly an underthinker
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Thanks for your helpful, intelligent, subtle, sensitivity
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Rebecca Blood 🇺🇦 @rebeccablood.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
@doctorow.pluralistic.net
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Newshound411 @newshound411.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
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W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This was a nice series of push notifications this morning. Basically says everything about the state of American media.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So “love it or leave it”?! You have regressed back about 60 years, you clueless neoliberal shill. I challenge you to move to a homeless encampment in LA.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Investopedia, lol. Nice source, for all those clueless propaganda dupes out there! You mean “neoliberal corporate capitalism only actually ever benefits the people in charge.” Love the irony!
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It’s insane that such a complex figure is being reduced to the word “bad.” If you want to go down dumb-dumb historical reductionist road, we can also sad the whole social fabric in China before the revolution was “bad.” Not helpful. Short-form shit posting slop.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Most of us were born in one.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
And yet, the cone of probability, moving forward, is narrowing around a future of collapse. That’s just the science part. Still waiting for the political will…
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The dude is a scumbag with a megaphone.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The water will come…
nbcnews.com
Satellites show Earth lost more than 12 trillion tons of ice from Greenland, Antarctica in 47 years
The numbers behind the melting ice are both mind-bogglingly huge and deceptively small.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Please sign this pledge to hold Biden administration officials accountable for supporting genocide: www.dropthegenocide20.org?utm_source=s...
dropthegenocide20.org
Drop the Genocide 20 | Advocate for Justice: Take Action Now
Join the campaign demanding accountability for US officials involved in Gaza genocide cover-up. Support the #DropTheGenocide20 pledge today.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
That's more like it!
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Please blur out Josef Stalin next time
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Can we remove Stalin, please?
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Yum! And solidarity
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
a blood sacrifice?
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Fall of Freedom is a nationwide festival convoking artists to stand up against authoritarian assaults on free thinking, free expression,+creative making. Find events all over here: www.falloffreedom.com/fall-of-free... and join us in Chicago for a packed weekend of ART IN THESE TIMES #falloffreedom
falloffreedom.com
Fall of Freedom
Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation.
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James Kennedy @jameskennedy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Ed Sheeran's crimes against music have now been overshadowed by his crimes against truth, justice and solidarity. What an absolute puppet. Shameful cowardice. We won't forget. Respect to Macklemore. Free Palestine 🇵🇸✊️
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Since it can be hard to believe that political and corporate elites would actively give up on our shared future on this singular planet, we made a short film so folks can hear from the end timers and judge for themselves. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: the future according to end times fascism
In a new video, Klein and Taylor outline a ominous evolution taking shape on the far right – and how to stay loyal to this planet and each other
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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 12/09/2026
Tech fascism is becoming impossible to ignore. It's a key mechanism of the climate crisis, the economic crisis, and the democratic crisis. Use your voice to raise the alarm and fight back. The establishment can ignore some of us. It cannot ignore all of us. 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/m...
nytimes.com
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Say the End of the World Is Now on the Table (Gift Article)
In a new book, the writers argue that a powerful coalition of “end times fascists” is just fine with the earth’s demise.
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Zeteo @zeteo.com · 11/09/2026
“The burning towers foreshadowed a burning world.” The horrific Sept. 11 attacks exposed the simultaneous power and vulnerability of the American empire and its imperial citizens, writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social zeteo.com/p/the-burnin...
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Werner Herzog's Bear @jasontebbe.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
That awful day a quarter-century ago killed thousands, and the wars it spawned killed thousands more. It also killed a part of our society's collective soul: faith in the future. I desperately want to get it back. jasontebbe.substack.com/p/the-day-th...
jasontebbe.substack.com
The Day the Future Died
25 Years Later We Still Live in the World 9/11 Made
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Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A tiny gang of extremists found a flaw in US airline security to commit an atrocity that killed 2,977. Bush and the Epstein class used it as a pretext to weaken civil liberties, establish mass surveillance, put the US on a permanent war footing, and increase wealth inequality to ensure plutocracy
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A quarter century ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the word "terrorism"..
The Real 9/11: Citizens Succeeded, Institutions Failed

I wrote this for the eighth anniversary of 9/11, drawing on my 2009 book A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster; it felt right to revise and reissue for this twenty-fifth anniversary.
A quarter century ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word "terrorism," which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, a war we lost, and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it. 

Only We Can Terrorize Ourselves
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Mondoweiss @mondoweiss.net · 11/09/2026
Progressive candidates won Democratic primaries by centering Palestine. Now, advocates warn that without a firm demand like an arms embargo, politicians can co-opt 'pro-Palestine' rhetoric without real accountability. mondoweiss.net/2026/09/demo... #Palestine #Israel
mondoweiss.net
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Colleen but feral ❌️👑 @sickofthisbs77.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
youtu.be/ee9fYVwhBsU?... 1:16 41 billion tons a year of CO2 we add each year, 38 billion is from burning fossil fuels That is the decarbonization we need.
youtu.be
Natural Disaster Expert: Elites Have NO PLAN for Climate Collapse | Aaron Bastani meets Bill McGuire
YouTube video by Novara Media
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fionafc.bsky.social @fionafc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Couldn't agree more - people must know what's happening and what needs to be done.
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Mann is one of the biggest problems now with McKibben and other mainstream scientists. And he has long hated activists and denigrates those who warn about overshoot and tipping point.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
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Dan Vitkus @danvitkus.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
And a big part of that problem: so many people that really are dumbed-down, deluded, and distracted.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Turns out, lots of people have studied how higher education works under dictatorship. Curious how these points echo so many of our current travails.
Screenshot of article which reads: Hungary is not the first country to experience this coup d’université. The conclusion to an incisive collection of essays, appropriately titled Universities Under Dictatorship (Penn State University Press), notes that gaining control of higher education was “a vitally important goal for every dictatorship” they studied. The dictatorships profiled in the essays, from Germany to Spain to Poland to Russia, used multiple pathways to exert power over universities: coercing institutions to adjust research and teaching topics to align with the government’s preferred ideology; expelling faculty, staff and students; gaining additional control over who can access higher education; replacing university leadership with people who agree with the government (thus reducing institutional autonomy); and reducing access to international colleagues and institutions.
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