iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 20m

The most important books I’ve ever read

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Hunting leg locks but end up with a triangle choke

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Few things more satisfying than a reader sending proof that they’re REALLY reading your book

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

People should be more worried that the secretary of war, who's literally wearing a t-shirt that says "This Is War," thinks he's presiding over the end of days. I doubt even half of these troops knew they were signing up for white Christian nationalist Armageddon

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

You can’t seek security for the US by redirecting insecurity at everyone else. Might as well invade Iran and back a genocide www.un-diplomatic.com/p/killing-em...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Bro is harsh on the Fabians but he called me “young-ish” so I guess it’s all good!

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The important thing is I got past his guard to side control

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Too much fun revisiting Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds on the pod. Also dismayed to learn about Tarantino’s Zionist politics (!)

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to erase the word "class" from our political vocabulary.

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Political parties need to ask the question, "Whose side are we on?" and then answer it with their policies. I was sick, but still had a great talk at the New Zealand Fabian Society last night, covering left-populism and democratic socialism with some equally great panelists

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

People running on their “national security” experience are losing primaries to democratic socialists and left populists. If you’ve touched the national security state (like I have) and haven’t recoiled, sought repentance, or become its critic, you disqualify yourself

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Would love to cover Bacurau on the pod

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Awesome having the actor Ryan Perez on the pod to talk about Alex Garland’s 2014 thriller Ex Machina! We get into AI, imperial relations in a robotic age, the political economy of Hollywood, and the death of mass culture

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Congrats to Abdul El-Sayed, Will Lawrence, and the majority of progressives and democratic socialists who last night!

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

10k new defense tech companies since 2024! It’s not just war profiteering; it’s the material basis to perpetually wage illegal wars with impunity. Rosa Luxemburg warned us

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Tinkering with a new move--an alternative to the single-leg wrestle up

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Red scares are manufactured moral panics that serve three purposes: 1) Justify military buildups; 2) repress political enemies; and 3) weaken organized labor. We’re in the thick of one now. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/the-sixth-...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Back take from a 50/50 leg entanglement--even when you don’t quite get it, you end up in mount

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Keep my name out your stupid robot mouth

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Gorgeous day on the Kapiti Coast

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

How I escape and sweep from bottom side control

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Teaching in a room w a view today

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Grand Strategies of the Left spotted on cable news!

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

In the lab cooking up my ninja shit

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

The only president strong enough to be a peacemaker wasn’t even real! Historian @pauladlerstein.bsky.social joins the pod to discuss Seven Days in May, a film about a president who negotiates a peace treaty to end the Cold War, pursue nuclear disarmament, and faces down a military coup

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

The spread of imperialist statecraft. The rise of repressive capital. And the consolidation of oligarchy as the corollary of permanent war. All that and more in my public lecture tonight, available as a livestream open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I’ll be giving a public lecture next week about the geopolitics of class war at the NZ Fabian Society. If you’re in Wellington, come in person! If you’re elsewhere, it'll be live-streamed on YouTube www.fabians.org.nz/index.php?op...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I loved Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton when it came out, but it’s way more cringe and politically problematic than I remember! Hilarious convo w/ comedian @hiremeimfunny.bsky.social on the latest episode www.bangbangpod.com/p/hamilton-a...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Officially part of the flannel revolution. Half Cholo, half Graham Platner

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

The Iran war broke the first rule of imperial warmaking. Amazing convo w/ Morgan Spector (star of HBO’s The Gilded Age)! Available wherever you get your podcasts undiplomaticpodcast.com

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

The crisis facing most people isn’t who participates in athletics; it’s a very active class war, facilitated by denying equal rights to marginal populations on the grounds of outrage politics. Also fuck you if you want to come at me attacking trans people for any reason

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

By invading Iran, the US has committed a strategic blunder that costs lives and steals money from workers everywhere. But also, crucially, the US is in denial about having forced Iran into controlling the Strait of Hormuz—one of the capitalist world’s most important choke points

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

The NZ Greens show up and show out every time the people get together. Where u at, Labour!? @nzgreensglobal.bsky.social

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The Iran war is also a war on the working class, literally www.un-diplomatic.com/p/aoc-agains...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Did Iran fire MRBMs at Diego Garcia or not!?!?!?!?!??! I Don’t think anyone is in position to be making claims like the WSJ is here

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

In 1999, Mos Def rapped, “$69 billion in the last 20 years, spent on national defense but folks still live in fear.” Imagine how he'd have to rewrite those bars now

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Just finished a 2-hour recording with Morgan Spector, star of The Gilded Age and The Plot Against America. I’ve worked for 5 secretaries of defense. I’ve been in the situation room with Obama. He’s smarter (and obviously better) on policy than any of them. Kind of wild

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

A group of more than a dozen 0-6s

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Looks like somebody wishes they’d bothered to manufacture consent

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

From a lecture I just happened to give this week. Someone send to the White House

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

The solution to a munitions shortfall is not more missiles. It’s to stop doing illegal f*cking wars and salvage democracy at home www.un-diplomatic.com/p/does-war-w...

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Van Jackson @vanjackson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Jiu-jitsu has many benefits, including spending 90 minutes not thinking about our collective death spiral

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