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Shervin Malekzadeh

@swarthy-bastard.bsky.social
1K followers 325 following 1.3K posts

Pitzer prof. Former kindergarten teacher, & sometime swarthy bastard. I work on democratic movements and the politics of postrevolutionary schooling in Iran. www.shervinmalekzadeh.org

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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 13h
Many modern examples from South America to East Africa to Southeast Asia affirm the wisdom that impunity only invites *recurrence.* “Ni olvido, ni venganza, ¡justicia!”
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 13h
LL is the extension of intelligence
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
squad goals
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
This is the way
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
squad goals
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Regarding that Rubio speech in Athens www.theguardian.com/world/2016/n...
theguardian.com
There is no such thing as western civilisation | Kwame Anthony Appiah
The Long Read: The values of liberty, tolerance and rational inquiry are not the birthright of a single culture. In fact, the very notion of something called ‘western culture’ is a modern invention
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Just started my lectures on Rwanda 1994 this week. "Inyenzi" (cockroach) and "Ibyitso" (accomplice) as precursors to the horrors of those 100 days.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Just started my lectures on Rwanda 1994 this week. "Inyenzi" (cockroach) and "Ibyitso" (accomplice) as precursors to the horrors of those 100 days.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Devastating 💔 Abolish ice www.instagram.com/reel/DePkMcN...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I don’t think a 21X increase in the cost to get a tanker out of the Persian Gulf with lower total exports than before the war is an achievement. And I think it’s odd that so much of the press has been covering it as if we should see this as positive, with “Better Than You Think”-style “explainers.”
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/10/2026
the funny thing about this of course is that "athenian democracy" was a cautionary tale to the framers, who saw it as unstable and prone to demagogues and tyrants like the one rubio works for
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Abu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
“to anyone watching the deployment of American power around the globe in the seven months since Mr. Trump decided to attack Iran, it was another glaring example of how..have been forced into retreat, pulling back military forces that had been deployed.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...
nytimes.com
From Iran to the U.K., Trump Is Being Forced Into Retreat (Gift Article)
A war that was intended to demonstrate the reach of American power has now done the opposite. It is a lesson in unintended consequences.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Trump says 'Let them take out Los Angeles.' Recall this map: The *entire states* with population smaller than LA County. Among them they have 80+ US Senators. LA is about 1/3 of Calif's population, which has 2.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"Among the first to appear before the judge was Angel, a 13-year-old. He had no attorney. “Would you like to request voluntary departure, or should I issue a removal order?” the judge asked “I don’t know,” Angel said, bursting into tears: “I have no one. I have nothing.” www.cnn.com/2026/09/28/p...
cnn.com
Inside the Texas courtroom where toddlers face immigration judges | CNN Politics
Migrant children as young as 2 are showing up at immigration courts nationwide, many without attorneys, to try make their case to stay in the US and avoid deportation.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🌹
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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 02/10/2026
just wanna re-up the part where I wrote that many immigrants in Maine have been sheltering in place since January for their own safety, with ICE still operating in the area. it is October.
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Yu-Ming Liou @yumingliou.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Every single Democrat elected this November should be followed by a staffer whispering: “Remember, liberalism has a specific solution for those who want to return to the state of nature by attacking the liberal state itself.”
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
He’s going to use nukes before it’s all over. People need to wake up
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“Annihilating Iran”—which can only mean the widespread use of thermonuclear weapons against Iran’s nearly 100 million citizens—is, I’m afraid, the Chekov’s gun of Trump’s second term. He has spoken too often and too explicitly about unleashing such wanton destruction for it to be an idle threat.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Big day for Shervins
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 27/09/2026
Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister: "In 2015, we had a deal, we remained committed to that deal, it was the US that withdrew with zero justification"
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I hadn't really encountered Rich Kids until I went to college and then law school. Of course, they're not all bad. But the ones who are bad are bad in such a distinctive way. Like they are insulated against accountability and are intoxicated by that fact.
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The American Prospect @prospect.org · 14/09/2026
“If you know what it’s like to work three jobs at a time and take classes and still come up short on rent, you might fight harder on housing.” Progressives running in swing seats will come to define where Democrats go as a party. buff.ly/cHsXfTf
prospect.org
The New Majority Makers - The American Prospect
A group of unapologetic economic populists are defying the conventional wisdom that only moderates can succeed in swing seats.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/09/2026
this guy is one of the architects of a war that might rank as one of the worst strategic missteps in american military history and here is on CBS getting a softball interview about his feelings
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
In my office I have a picture a dear parent gave to me of her daughter and I on the First Day of School, September 9, 2001. I was a new Kindergarten teacher at Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, DC. Those fateful days, the memory of that same mom rushing in two days later…1/2
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Abu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The DC blob line is that this doesn’t matter, but it obviously does.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New revelations from Spain's failed Francoist coup in 1981 got me thinking of how we balance the contingencies of the moment with the long view of history in battling Trumpism. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/in-an...
talkingpointsmemo.com
In and Outside of History at Once
Yesterday I was kind of randomly rereading some details about Spain’s transition...
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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Happy 72nd Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.
Ruby Bridges, age 6Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her schoolNorman Rockwell’s painting depicting the event, “The Problem We All Live With,” originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine. Ruby Bridges talking with President Obama as they look at Rockwell’s painting while it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Screenshot of a headline and quote from the Financial Times following the 2024 election. The quote reads:

“I feel liberated,” said a top banker. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled… it’s a new dawn.”
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
(NBC News) — It is now the least rewarding time to be a worker in the U.S. economy since the government started keeping track. @nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
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caroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nancy 9/7/26 … Happy Labor Day 🛠️
8 Hours for Work, 8 Hours for Rest, 8 Hours for What We Will. Based on a screenprint by Ricardo Levins Morales after the organizing work done by Robert Owen.
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 02/09/2026
This image.
An image of a man in a grey shirt, standing in a doorway, embracing another man in a red shirt, both man in a posture of grief. Affixed to one nearby wall is a calendar. On another, a sign that reads "blessed."

Below, a caption reads: "Carl Ruby, pastor of Springfield's Central Christian Church, comforts Pierre Ronal Bel after the death of his son, Pierre Damas Bel, 20, on Aug. 31, 2026, in Springfield, Ohio. (RNS photo/Carol Guzy)"
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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 31/08/2026
in 1989 francis fukuyama invented the clickbait title and has been punished for his sins ever since
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
An update to the syllabus, a chance to pay tribute to the 👸🏼 #DollyParton #ScrippsCollege
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Adapted from archive.ph/WVpag
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Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
damn its almost like preferences change and consensus can shift
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 30/08/2026
I feel like white people would flip the fuck out if the rest of us went around saying things to them like you can’t possibly be an expert on whiteness
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
US national debt just hit $40 trillion. Why? HINT: It's NOT because the government is trying to provide its citizens healthcare or childcare.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"It doesn’t have to be this way." To work and write on Iran is to experience futility in its most bitter forms. Six months and four days ago I wrote the following plea against war with Iran, a calamity that was eminently predictable to anyone willing to see and listen.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"I Wish I Could Go Back to Iran and See My Real Identity" 🧵 That the first to arrive after the revolution were the pioneers who struggled to secure the benefits enjoyed by the subsequent generations has become integral to the story Iranians tell themselves 1/n
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"It doesn’t have to be this way." To work and write on Iran is to experience futility in its most bitter forms. Six months and four days ago I wrote the following plea against war with Iran, a calamity that was eminently predictable to anyone willing to see and listen.
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Adapted from archive.ph/WVpag
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
We become better Iranians by becoming Americans. America gives us that. 8/fin
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The sentiment, I suspect, has it exactly backward. Our truer selves are made here, by the second and third generations, the native-born Americans who have the ability and the desire to go beyond forgetting and remembering in order to imagine new communities and new memories. 7/n
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
In a wonderfully reported piece in the Los Angeles Times on the history of the Iranian diaspora in “Tehrangeles," Melissa Etehad quotes longtime resident and dual citizen Sadra Ford: “I wish I could go back to Iran and see my real identity.” 6/n
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Azadan, Hakopian, Elghanian, and Farmanfarmaian—all are unpronounceable in the same way. If Iran shapes how Iranians become Americans, then America offers them new possibilities for defining what it means to be Iranian. 5/n
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Shervin Malekzadeh @swarthy-bastard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
thanks to Iranians who grew up in the United States as the children of immigrants. In the US, hardly anyone knows, much less cares, what your father does for a living, whether a last name is Persian, Armenian, or Jewish, or whether from a powerful family or an obscure one. 4/n
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