iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In most likelihood, the election that will ultimately decide whether Israel continues its expansionary campaigns of destruction in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria is not the Knesset elections, but the November mid-term US congress election.

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 29/09/2026

The Talmud teaches that anyone who sustains one soul, has sustained an entire world. For generations, Jewish New Yorkers have sustained our city. Today, we are launching the first-ever municipal Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

hear me out: I think the workday should end at 3pm - point at which most people (myself included) begin to unravel and no real meaningful work gets done. Plus, that way you can make it home for 4 o’clock tea. Or, 5 o’clock tea, aka 5 çayı, as they say in Türkish.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

the radical left? just like that, without saying goodbye? 🥺 ( the internet is lucky to have me, vallaha. )

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

just donated to the Cornell Daily Sun for the student journalists who broke this story. I hope you do too.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As someone working on the unhoused crisis at the municipal level in Montreal, Paris, and New York, I can confirm this holds for Canada and France.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." —FDR, 1936

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

being hated by people you don’t respect is a marker of authenticity. be authentic. and you’re welcome.✌🏾

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Fun fact: Cornell University has been estimated to expel ~26 students for protesting against the genocide in Palestine but has only expelled 2 out of the 7 students who have gang raped their own student. I hope it helps.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The fact that people need the records of a dead man to believe a thousand living women tells you everything about the voices they listen to—and the ones they don't. So, no, I’m not surprised to hear about Cornell gang rapes. It may be “news” to some. But for the other half, no news was broken.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Reading the “news” coming out of Cornell - my mind goes to my days at the University of Virginia in autopilot. Quelle vie. Quel monde.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The President of the United States is a sexual abuser and that wasn’t a deal breaker for people. So no, leadership at Cornell wouldn’t see the actions of the Cornell 7 as a punishable offense.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

in world where we love to flaunt only success, I would like to confirm that I have received two desk rejections today. ✌️

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

student: “how did u even survive grad school without ai??!” moi: my child, one, we were doing the assignment while they were collecting it, two, i wrote a 350 page thesis with fuckallgpt 😭

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Bonjour hi, this is your kind reminder that Palantir secured a £330 million contract with the NHS. It has already secured a £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence, as well as contracts with 11 UK police forces. I hope that helps.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Bonjour, bon matin, bon après-midi, où que vous soyez- this is your weekly reminder that Bill Gates is not a scientist. He is a business person and programmer.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The combination of books that are never not in my syllabi made of women scholars only. By the ever-excellent Isabella Weber and Yuen Yuen Ang. Along with Mazzucato, Raworth, Robyns, and the incredible Anna Gifty of course.

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Foreign Policy @foreignpolicy.com · 26/09/2026

The Saudis believed that a corrupt U.S. government was in their interest, writes Nicholas Grossman. But in reality, bribable usually means selfish and weak. foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/24/i...

foreignpolicy.com

Saudi Arabia Bribed the Wrong People

Riyadh’s bet on Trumpism has failed.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

like seriously, the amount of my times my close male friends always "remind" me in their natural ease of confidence how smart this guy is, i am become a massive eye roll. like, friend, be serious. like, hotdamn the concept of "smart" be relative.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“What goes too long unchanged destroys itself. The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so lives.” — Ursula K. Le Guin

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

sadly, hiring a politician really is one of the best investments a big company can make - esp if its profits depend on close relationships with governments. The most important thing to secure isn’t a direct exchange of money for favours - it’s access.

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

One of my most galaxy-brained takes is that politicians and political groups should talk more about workers’ share of national income. It's one of the clearest, simplest ways to describe how billionaires and corporate elites captured so much of the economy--and something policy can change.

axios.com

U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low

Labor's bargaining position has worsened markedly in the last half-decade.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"let AI summarize this email for yo-" for fucks sake. NO. I CAN fuckin read. I DO KNOW HOW TO FUCKING READ. I AM A READER. I CAN FUCKIN READ EMAILS. I AM GONNA LOSE MY MIND.

static.klipy.com

Michael Scott's Shocked Reaction in The Office

ALT: Michael Scott's Shocked Reaction in The Office

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026

Last night I planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza. May peace be our future.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Edward Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935, given an English first name after the Prince of Wales, attached to an unmistakably Arabic surname. He spent decades describing that combination as absurd. A name that announced a mismatch before he had said anything at all.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

the tragedy of being so well-read is that you start getting the ick in the most ordinary dialogues. The lack of curiosity, empathy, and diversity of perspectives genuinely saddens me. You start noticing how rarely people question what they already so indoctrinatedly believe,

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Economic relationships are political decisions. Calling them pragmatic does not make them apolitical. Calling them economic does not make them neutral. Us economists, we assume everything, except responsibility. More here:

dileksay2.substack.com

Canada on My Mind

Mark Carney, economic “realism,” and the strangely familiar world of neoliberal trade

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

i am yet again noticing that as a woman you're always either too young or too old for things, because the perfect age is when you're a man. cool cool cool.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

En choisissant la littérature, vous avez opté pour l'un des modes d'évasion les plus écologiques✌🏾

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Reposted by Dilek Sayedahmed

Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

hear me out: ratemyprofessors but for landlords.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

hear me out: ratemyprofessors but for landlords.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I am back baby! Severely sleep deprived? Check. Lost complete control of work life balance? Check. Drowning in manuscript & journal deadlines, whilst coauthors waiting? Check. Avoiding all that by writing her little pieces on her sad little shameful platform of Substack. Yessiree bob, check.

static.klipy.com

Elaine Benes Waves Hello in Seinfeld

ALT: Elaine Benes Waves Hello in Seinfeld

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I open every lecture of mine with this quote by David Graeber: "the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently." I am obsessed with it. I teach it. I live by it. So, I wrote this. Bonne lecture!

montrealserai.com

The Sidewalk Is Political: On ranked mourning, looking away, and what keeps us going

The piece you are about to read is by an economist who works inside, and often against, the inherited colonial systems of knowledge that the discipline carries.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"let AI summarize this email for yo-" for fucks sake. NO. I CAN fuckin read. I DO KNOW HOW TO FUCKING READ. I AM A READER. I CAN FUCKIN READ EMAILS. I AM GONNA LOSE MY MIND.

static.klipy.com

Michael Scott's Iconic 'No! God! Please! No!' Reaction

ALT: Michael Scott's Iconic 'No! God! Please! No!' Reaction

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A kind reminder: some women will give birth to children. some will give birth to art, movements, businesses, medicine, healing, communities and entirely new ways & examples of living & being. some will do some, all, or none. Always remember that none of these paths makes a woman more or less worthy.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

as i severely miss and grieve my father these days, this floored and shattered me in the most beautiful and touching ways. so precious.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

a friendly reminder: Macklemore & what he says is not what disrupted the status quo. What disrupted the status quo was a stadium full of ppl agreeing. That couldn’t be allowed to happen across America - in the land of the empire whose magnificent support makes occupation possible in the first place.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

once I realize someone is committed to missing my point, I shut up. and I humbly recommend it to everyone.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

bonjour hi. please stop fighting. and have a nice weekend! ✌🏾

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

wow, so many new followers here. well folks, i am a real person, not a (ro)bot. nothing fancy about this gal. i am, originally & sadly, an economist, but one who has gone rogue, known to my students & colleagues as the elaine benes of economics. i am a professor of social policy at nyu paris.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Listen, i may not be a football girlie but game theory-wise i will say this: the way Robert Kraft collaborated with other NFL owners to get Macklemore kicked off of Ed Sheeran's tour speaks to why Colin Kaepernick was never given another shot after taking a knee for racial justice.

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I kind of miss the days when “the news” was basically just a person in a suit telling you what happened during the day, instead of a panic machine designed to make you hate your neighbor so I dunno you don’t have the energy nor the bandwith to notice that your rent went up around 30%. Just sayin. 🤷🏽‍♀️

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Écoute: a monthly bookclub but we’re not all reading the same book, instead we gush about the books we r each individually reading. An opportunity to socialize with readers, learn about one another, and get new reading recommendations from real people instead of an algorithm. ✌🏾

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