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Michael Sappir

@m.sappir.net
2.6K followers 1.6K following 1.8K posts

Socialist, Jewish-Israeli, text guy, against apartheid and genocide. Never not mad at Germany. Founding editor @thediasporist.bsky.social, co-host parallelweltpalaestina.info 📍Chicago, via Leipzig and Jerusalem

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Reposted by Michael Sappir
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 5h
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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Tremendous Kielbasa @rsaltasaurus.bsky.social · 4h
This is incomplete reprint designed to provoke. The bill had voter ID attached to it in order to get it killed, making it so Republicans could run this exact headline.
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 6h
Ladies and gentlemen, the Zionist “opposition”! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 7h
The new West Bank policy if the “centrist” Gadi Eisenkot beats Netanyahu next month in the Israeli elections: ❌ Palestinian state ❌ Binational state ❌ Remove settlers / settlements ✅ Expand illegal settlements ✅ Legalize illegal settler outposts ✅ Demolish more Palestinian homes
Yashar!
"Yashar! supports strengthening the settlement blocs and establishing new communities legally, in accordance with Israel's national interests and the recommendations of the security establishment."
MAKE ynetGlobal
MY TRUSTED SOURCE
Add as a preferred source on Google
on a future diplomatic agreement, the party said: "The establishment of a Palestinian state is not on the agenda as far as we are concerned. We have no plan to evacuate communities as part of a diplomatic arrangement."On sovereignty: "Yashar! opposes moves that would endanger the Jewish majority in the State of Israel, something that would lead to a binational state. Israel has no interest in assuming responsibility for the civilian lives of some 2 million
PalestiniansỊi
The party said it would strengthen existing communities and promote legal construction, while examining the legalization of unauthorized outposts on a case-by-case basis. It also supports enforcement against illegal Palestinian construction in Area
C.
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Robert Rotifer @robertrotifer.bsky.social · 13h
For a deeper understanding of what’s going on in post-Berlin local elections discourse around the Left, recommend Eva von Redecker’s piece in the Guardian which doubles as a potted version of her fascism analysis & counter-strategy. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
A leftwing victory in Berlin shows people want freedom, and liberals cannot deliver it | Eva von Redecker
Die Linke’s surge was propelled by a compelling promise: for voters to have the freedom to stay in their city. This is how to fight back against the far right, says writer and philosopher Eva von Rede...
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Waldpol @waldpol.eurosky.social · 29/09/2026
Warum rückt die sogenannte "Mitte" nach rechts? Ein Grund dafür ist nach Eva von Redecker, dass rechte Parteien als Verteidigerinnen eines "Phantombesitzes" auftreten, auf den die "Mitte" einen natürlichen Anspruch zu haben glaubt. Umgekehrt erklärt dies auch die Panik vor der Linken.
theguardian.com
A leftwing victory in Berlin shows people want freedom, and liberals cannot deliver it | Eva von Redecker
Die Linke’s surge was propelled by a compelling promise: for voters to have the freedom to stay in their city. This is how to fight back against the far right, says writer and philosopher Eva von Rede...
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 9h
This reminds me of the folks who said that VR was getting so good that people wouldn’t want to have sex with other people
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the abbot of unreason (a returned archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 16h
Israel's horrific, in your face conduct, combined with the suppression of antizionist criticism by pro-Israel political and social elites, has created a kind of cognitive permission structure to deny that Jews face any oppression whatsoever.
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.
A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with 
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future
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Silvia Secchi @profsecchi.bsky.social · 9h
Here is an excellent example of framing issues using the appropriate and socially relevant terms, directly addressing the power dynamics embedded in institutions. I wish people would do that more often, especially in the MSM and academia itself.
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Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 21h
they DIDN'T REFUND her fucking TUITION?????
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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 23h
Okay, seriously, what the fuck is this?
The top of the Google results when I went looking to see just what Mamdani's tweet that mentioned the Talmud actually said (a search for "mamdani talmud"). This top search reasult appears to link to Mamdani's Twitter account ("NYCMayor" on "X"), then has a truncated header ("Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani on ...") and then it has a vile lying antisemitic screed that ABSOLUTELY DID NOT COME FROM MAMDANI and I can only assume is some typical-for-Elon's-Nazi-website antisemitism someone wrote *about* Mamadani's post, but it's presented in the Google search results as if it's from Mamdani.

(text of the screed below, if you want to read it)
The Talmud teaches that the best of Gentiles should be killed, Jesus is boiling in excrement, and that non-Jewish souls are inferior and impure.
Read more

Mamdani's post, linked from that vile preview, in full (but a screenshot, so it doesn't include the video). Text below:

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.

Together, we will ensure Jewish New Yorkers are safe and celebrated. We will invest in their protection, their history, and their future.

Our safety and our thriving are tied together.
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 29/09/2026
Yikes!
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Look, the solution is obvious. Hold the execs accountable for the crime that the committed by their greedy negligence. Who cares about "superintelligence", what's rogue here is a number of companies with unsafe business practices which knowingly endanger the public
nytimes.com
OpenAI Ignored Employees’ Warnings About Safely Testing A.I. Models
Employees and security researchers said they had cautioned the company on safely testing its A.I. models and strengthening its corporate infrastructure, but OpenAI did not listen.
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sleepynaut @grovewalker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
photo of werner herzog with a speech bubble added so that it looks like he is saying the quoted post
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 29/09/2026
Deeply bizarre how many people not just tolerate, but demand, that politicians respond to antisemitism by talking obsessively about Israel, when that obviously *encourages* antisemitism.
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Simusz @simusz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
PdL Berlin, Hefte raus, das ist Prüfungsrelevant
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 29/09/2026
“Mamdani Announces Plan to Fight Antisemitism, Without Discussing Israel” It can be done! We have the technology! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/n...
nytimes.com
Mamdani Announces Plan to Fight Antisemitism, Without Discussing Israel
A report issued by Mayor Zohran Mamdani describes ways that New York City is funding hate crime prevention and celebrating the contributions of Jewish New Yorkers.
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Ben Eidelson @beidelson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
1/ The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights just released its report on campus antisemitism and Title VI. I testified at the hearing. The report is unanimous, bipartisan, & debunks the main legal theories behind recent attacks on universities for allegedly tolerating antisemitism. 🧵
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Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul @tombasgen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Social life requires social labor!!!! Social Media is social consumption!!!! Those are different things!!!!
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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Always funny when ostensible liberals are like "You see, this postcolonial conflict is actually very nuanced and complex, because what makes it so very unique is that the majority ethnic group doesn't want to share power with the minority ethnic groups." Oh wow, I didn't know that, that's wild man.
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 29/09/2026
If you use this new tech you’re gonna get left behind, folks
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Nash @radiodeadair.com · 28/09/2026
All it took was getting kicked out of the White House press room and suddenly CNN remembers that "lie" is a word.
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Ben Prunty @benprunty.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I don't love dunking on folks but it's so fucking funny to me that Trump was convicted of 34 felonies 2 years ago, faced no punishment, and went on to win the presidency a second time and journalists are still like, "hmm, I have an inkling that maybe he believes he's above the law for some reason."
Post from NYT reporter Eric Lipton 

"What an odd moment in United States history.

A U.S. president is running an overtly political campaign advertisement, right before midterm elections, paid for by the U.S. government.

Trump appears to believe he is immune from any kind of legal limit."
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 28/09/2026
Der „jüdische Staat“ unterbricht die Einbürgerung zwei junger jüdischen Personen, weil sie Palästinenser*innen vor Gewalt geschützt haben. Wie war das nochmal mit dem „sicheren Hafen“ für Jüd*innen? www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
haaretz.com
Israel freezes aliyah for two Jews over activism protecting Palestinians
In both cases, the protective-presence activists, who did not know each other, had their passports photographed by a soldier or settler. These are the first known cases in which Israeli authorities ap...
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 28/09/2026
So much for pretending to be a safe haven for Jews everywhere, I guess. “Israel has revoked the aliyah approval issued by the Jewish Agency of two Jewish activists in their 20s – one a British citizen and the other an American” www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
haaretz.com
Israel freezes aliyah for two Jews over activism protecting Palestinians
In both cases, the protective-presence activists, who did not know each other, had their passports photographed by a soldier or settler. These are the first known cases in which Israeli authorities ap...
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This whole entire thread, and… People often conceive of their lives — or rather, often *live* their lives without that reflective remove — as a set of relationships in ways that are imperceptible to the creators of dehumanizing systems. What you get when you actually care and listen to people.
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Understanding Capital @ucapital.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Episode 4 A! The Fetish Character of the Commodity: Social relations between people? Quantitative relations between things? What's going on with society in capitalism?!
understandingcapital.github.io
Episode 4 A - Chapter 1.4: The Fetish Character of the Commodity [p. 47-59]
Player
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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
AI #slopaganda is not so much about fakes or disinformation. It's about aligning the world with your preformulated descriptions of it, making reality disappear behind its formulaic image, rendering visible all your fears at once in order to enjoy them more. It's a technology of fascist daydreaming
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 25/09/2026
America cannot have a multiracial, multicultural democracy if the United States Supreme Court is allowed to continue to exist in its current form
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.
theintercept.com
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why.
In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mam
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bree bird 🇨🇦 @goose.ski · 25/09/2026
[image of saw gerrera]

People who become right wing because they get annoyed by leftists are weak willed, most leftists are annoyed by leftists every single day.
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Ben Miller @benwritesthings.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
An opinion column in BILD, Germany’s most-circulated newspaper, written as a series of tendentious questions aimed at newly elected Linke MdA Martha Kleedorfer, theorizes that young women are pro-Palestine because they yearn for macho Arab men and Palestine allows them to express it in a PC way.
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Ste Jormur @stejormur.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Dril tweet reading "if you ask me this election could end about 100 different ways:
1) trump gets 0% of the vote
2) trump gets 1% of the vote
3) trump gets 2% o"
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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The mayoral discourse in Berlin continues to be *utterly* unhinged. If the AfD had topped the polls the narrative would be “finally the people have been heard!” but since the Left won, it’s all “Queer Islamofascists and Woke are trying to conquer us with, er, affordable rents!”
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Raskin made a holy shit observation on MS Now this afternoon: Since taking office, Trump has made a million dollars per hour for himself. Every hour, he has made more than twice the president’s annual salary.
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'm so glad we live in a world in which a handful of rich people get to gamble with the future like this. Capitalism truly is the best mechanism for allocation decision power.
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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.
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smokey eunuch™ @dommedeluise.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
this is what being an anti-trans democrat who goes out in public and says shit like "theres male, female, and a tiny percentage of intersex people, and then heheh yeah theres some OTHER PEOPLE" buys you
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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Excellent analysis. There is no sugarcoating what is happening here in Germany. Most of the political centre is enabling if not actively supporting the rise of fascism. The Left‘s remarkable performance in the Berlin elections is not being heralded as an earthquake but treated as a threat.
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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It is a profound indictment of most media coverage of Big Tech that your best bet for getting an informed understanding of AI and its dangers is following a decently curated list of Bluesky shitposters
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Hanno Hauenstein @hahauenstein.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Dieser „Diskurs“, der sich grad über den Wählerwillen von fast 50 Prozent der jungen Berliner:innen ausschüttet, wird übrigens maßgeblich von ex-antideutschen, verkoksten alternden Männern in einem zunehmend bedeutungsloseren Medienbetrieb angeheizt. Hier gut zusammengefasst: taz.de/Wahlsieg-in-...
taz.de
Wahlsieg in Berlin: Willkommen in der islamo-sozialistischen Höllendiktatur
Der Wahlsieg der Linken löst in bürgerlichen und rechten Kreisen eine Kernschmelze aus. Doch hinter der Schmierkampagne steht ein gefährliches Kalkül.
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Michael Sappir @m.sappir.net · 24/09/2026
„Hamas versuchte immer wieder, Zugeständnisse zur Verbesserung der Lebenssituation im belagerten Gazastreifen zu erreichen – die Verhandlungen wurden von Netanjahu hinausgezögert. Die Entscheidung, letztlich militärisch gegen Israel vorzugehen, fiel erst, nachdem alle Versuche gescheitert waren.“
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ceej @ceej.online · 24/09/2026
impeach them all. fuck em. why should they get to fly around on our dime and hurt people? “they’ll never actually removed from office” who gives a shit? I want them miserable every day for the rest of the term. I hope they have nightmares. air their dirty laundry. make em sweat
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Knesset barred today the only two Palestinian led parties from running in the coming election. According to an overwhelming majority in the Knesset, the constitutional meaning of a Jewish State is a state where Palestinian citizens cannot run for parliament.
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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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Jacobin Magazin @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Der Vorwurf des Antisemitismus dient dazu, SPD und Grüne von einer Zusammenarbeit mit der Linken in Berlin abzuhalten – und damit die Vergesellschaftung von Wohnraum zu verhindern.
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