iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Reactionary settler colonial discourse 101. It's from Canada, but uses identical tropes to Australian anti-language revitalization discourse.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I'll be giving a talk two weeks from now for the Forum for Non-Violent Alternatives. Registration is via the QR code below for anyone who'd like to come along.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I'm really grateful for this generous review of my book, The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet, from Samar Sinha from Sikkim University. Link to follow below for anyone who would like to read the full review, which includes some good critical engagement with my arguments.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

In response to the current inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, my colleagues and I made a submission focusing on linguistic racism. Link for the full submission in the next post.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

this is what I think of when I write to you saying "I hope this email finds you well"

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

love this critique of corporate wellness initiatives from the early 20th century - today we would have an app for that

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Glad to be able to submit this testimony in support of proposed changes to strengthen the Language Access Act in DC. Local measure like this are more important now that the executive order declaring English the US's official language has undermined language access

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

It looks like the proposed Act relies on the repression of a single Tibetan language as part of its effort to determine whether genocide or crimes against humanity have been carried out in Tibet.

Black text on a white background. The refers to 'actions and statements by the Government of the People's Republic of China' to 'repress Tibetan language'

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

It would be a shame if this report overlooked all the hard work that communities across Tibet have done to protect their languages in the face of continuous pressure to assimilate, like the Gyalrong speakers who made this book.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

It certainly wouldn't support their aim of influencing policy-makers if their report presents misleading information about the languages in Tibet. Getting such basic facts wrong might also erode public trust in the veracity of the report.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

It would be a real shame if HRW's forthcoming report didn't make a single mention of Tibet's minority languages. I sure hope they don't throw some of Tibet's most vulnerable communities under the bus just so they can present a more streamlined narrative.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

The planning committee that named La Trobe University rejected the name Birrarang, a word in the local Indigenous language, Woiwurrung, because it was considered "difficult to pronounce; not euphonious".

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I wrote an article called "Conquered Primitives Have No Written Language" which shows how this kind of backlash against Indigenous languages is part of genocidal ideologies and practices. The appeal to 'common sense' here is simply a fig-leaf for a pro-genocide stance.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

now this guy, on the other hand...

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

I did my best to conclude the article with some practical recommendations for a range of different people. For me, personally, the key consideration here was: how can autistic people create respectful, productive solidarities with other groups who experience linguistic injustice.

What does the author recommend?The author makes recommendations for autism researchers, practitioners, families, and autistic people. For autism researchers, more interdisciplinary research is recommended. For families, the author suggests how they can create environments that allow autistic people to communicate authentically. For practitioners like teachers and doctors, the author suggests how they can remove barriers to autistic communication and advocate for policy changes. Finally, the author suggests how autistic individuals can develop theories and practices that create acceptance of our unique ways of communicating.
How will these recommendations help autistic adults now or in the future?These recommendations will help autistic adults by providing new ideas and practices to help non-autistic people accept and accommodate our unique ways of communicating. It also helps autistic people to understand our communication style as a social and political problem that needs social and political solutions.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

The article introduces five different concepts to help autistic people, activists, allies, and researchers think about ways to support autistic people to communicate in ways that work for us. This table gives a quick overview of each concept and how it relates to linguistic justice.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

The article builds on the work of autistic activists and researchers who reject deficit views of autistic communication, and instead argue that autistic communication is a difference that should be accommodated. I draw on interdisciplinary work on linguistic justice to explore how to do this.

Screen capture of an academic article abstract. Dark grey text on white background, with one sentence highlighted in blue. For abstract text please use OCR or go to https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/25739581251408623

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

In 2024, the Bhutanese government released its official guidelines for the use of GenAI. The entire document is written in Comic Sans.

Screencap from a document. Two circular government seals are in the top left and right corners. Between the two circular seals is some colored text in Tibetan script and the latin alphabet. Below that, in comic sans font, is some black text. Pale colored background with a watermark that looks vaguely like a brain.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Article proofs are back with the publishers, so it looks like this will be up online next week or thereabouts.

screencap of text - mostly grey text but also some blue, red, and green text on a white background. Text reads: Five Key Concepts for Autistic Linguistic Justice: Securitization, Revitalization, Rights, Planning, and Ethics. Left running head: ROCHE. Right running head: FIVE KEY CONCEPTS FOR AUTISTIC LINGUISTIC JUSTICE. AQ1. Gerald Roche,

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

everyone time I wade into the autism literature a little John Ruskin pops up inside my head to say this

Screencap of text which reads: Observe, I neither impugn nor doubt the conclusion of the science if its terms are accepted. I am simply uninterested in them, as I should be in those of a science of gymnastics which assumed that men had no skeletons. It might be shown, on that supposition, that it would be advantageous to roll the students up into pellets, flatten them into cakes, or stretch them into cables; and that...

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

pictured: me when I come home from a public event and celebrate how well I masked

A meme consisting of a five panel comic. 1: man in blue and white track suit bows his head while a woman in a pink dress places a medal round his neck. 2: man bights on medal 3: man sprays champagne from a bottle. 4. man raises two hands, giving the finger to the crowd, and shouts at them 5. wide angle shot of man standing on the lowest place on a podium next to eight other people; he is spraying champagne in his face

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

I was using a lino cutting tool & my hand slipped. I ended up thrusting the blade right up my nostril, leaving a long gash. I had a shift coming up at work and I didn't want to miss it, so I just got in the car and drove to work (had to pull over before I got there due to dizziness from blood loss).

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

One way I update Krauss's article is to rethink the word 'crisis'. Krauss meant something like 'emergency', but I argue that it is helpful to think of crisis in the way that Antonio Gramsci did (he was a linguist!).

black and white graphic with text and image. Image is a black and white photo of a man wearing glasses. The text on the right says "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The good folks at @e-l-p.bsky.social are taking applications for their "Ready to Revitalize" training program until Dec 1. It's a great chance to learn more about language revitalization and meet other revitalizers from all around the world. www.surveyhero.com/c/rtr2026

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

"War is the health of the state."

Black and white text and image, showing the frontspiece of "The State" by Randolph Bourne. Image is an etching of a skeleton sitting on a throne.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

i found this really helpful video which says that if a kid has trouble reading social situations and people hate them for it, they should just read social situations more appropriately. problem solved

scene from a cartoon. an elephant in a green t-shit speaks to camera and there is a hippo standing outdoors in the background. closed caption text reads 'appropriately read the situation he saw that young hippo was busy and he decided'

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

if this bear doesn't make eye contact in job interviews he obviously deserves to never get a job and maybe also to starve to death. since it is frustrating when bears just decide to die like this i'm really glad this instructional video exists. problem solved.

screen-cap from an animated film, showing a bear in a suit - closed captions on the image read "good idea to have good eye contact during meetings like a job interview"

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

anyway i have lots of thoughts about this glue now

photograph of a bottle of glue in front of a white background. The bottle is white and has a red cap and a label that is mostly red, with while text on it that reads "Super 'Phatic! Glue"

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

if anyone at the Louvre would like to get in touch, I can help you prevent further losses

a page from the book Flat Stanley. Black and white image with text above it. In the image, Flat Stanley hides in a painting and two robbers flee in terror.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Love this interjection from 'unknown' in Pete Hegseth's speech to US generals, which absolutely had to be transcribed and made part of the official record.

black text on white background. Text reads: "And since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our republic a military that will win any war we choose or any war that is thrust upon us. Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, FAFO.

UNKNOWN: Fantastic."

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

My article exploring the connections between language revitalization backlash and genocide is now out. Complimentary copies are available using the link below, or feel free to message me for a copy if the link doesn't work for you. utppublishing.com/stoken/autho...

Black text on a white background, showing the title and abstract of an academic article. The title is ‘Conquered Primitives Have No Written Language’: Language Revitalization, Reactionary Settler Colonialism, and Perpetual Genocide. For the abstract, please visit https://doi.org/10.3138/GSI-2024-0011.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

just watched the autism announcement by Trump et al.

Meme based on the 'get in losers' template. Photo shows three women sitting in a silver convertible car, turning their faces towards the camera. Text of the meme has two lines, at the top, and bottom. The top line says "Get in neurokin". The bottom line says "We're starting the clock again". The face of the middle of the three women is covered with the screencap of an book chapter title that reads "The Autistic Genocide Clock".

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Not only is this a real book, but the two editors, and a third collaborator (Weixiao Wei), have published 9 Routledge handbooks since 2017. Very confused about what is going on here. 1/x

A book cover. There is a photo of tree branches against the sky, and below that is a black background with white text. The white text reads The Routledge Handbook of Language and Mind Engineering.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Backlash against the reclamation of Indigenous languages in Australia and other settler colonies imposes a state of "perpetual genocide," in which the victim group is forcefully prevented from reconstituting itself once genocide by direct, physical violence as ceased. doi.org/10.3138/GSI-...

screencap from the website of an academic journal. The article title is "Conquered Primitives Have No Written Language": Language Revitalization, Reactionary Settler Colonialism, and Perpetual Genocide. For the article abstract, please visit: https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/GSI-2024-0011

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

For anyone who wants to read this information in context, the section on language loss is on page 111 - 117 in volume 2 of the final report, which can be found here: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/parliamentar...

Screencap of a report cover. The upper two thirds of the cover show a large grey gum tree (a scar tree). The bottom third is light grey and dark grey. Text in maroon on the left hand side reads: Yoorrook for Transformation. Third Interim Report. Volume 2. The URL and page numbers for this thread are in the body of the skeet.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

The report's section on language concludes by showing that the state of Victoria currently offers insufficient support for First Nations languages, and argues that this is "out of step with international standards."

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Drawing towards the section's end, Dr Aunty Vicki Couzens says, "Language revitalisation, it’s our birthright … language is culture, language is family, language is land, and they are inseparable." The report then looks at the urgent need for state support of First Nations languages.

Screencap of text. Brown and blue text on beige background. URL and relevant page numbers for the text can be found at the end of this thread.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

After concluding the section focused on the Church, the report then moves on to look at the significance of language for First Nations people. A key quote here: "Aboriginal people have been denied the opportunity to learn, study, live and work in their own language."

Screencap of text. Brown and blue text on beige background. URL and relevant page numbers for the text can be found at the end of this thread. The bottom quarter of the page has white text on a yellow ochre background.

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Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

The report contains admissions from representatives of the Church that they harmed First Nations people and their languages.

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