Ben Gidley @bengidley Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@DP_57

@KubilayOzyer

@OwlAiNft

@LifeWithThami

@MatumotoPharmac

@mmatussek

@NatunohaRekka

@realdillonstone

@coachjayjohnson

@d__kany

@Ayami1801332320

@emrastik19

@Ory_v8

@JWalu

@dharmindia51

@WebsterLisa

@Cometfloats

@sichosae

@blockdemy

@NicolasAube

@ShimmyArts

@luisspl

@GDT_Lancer

@papila_tulin

@hasbygang_val

@x3t0x

@bokeplokalmalam

@Tormentazk

@THEBlGSHORT

@elonreevemus000

@itscinnamonboy

@attas441

@BonesEighty8

@galery_basah10

@realassbunny43

@elon__musk109

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Government source says French threats against Jersey are worse than Nazi occupation: “At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” The ignorance & denialism about history here is shocking. The scale of violence in the Channel Islands, occupied June 1940 until 9 May 1945, was vast…

148

2K

5K

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” The Jews of Jersey were registered within weeks of the Nazi occupation, then had their businesses appropriated, then their homes, and then were deported to the concentration camps and death camps of the Nazi empire, mostly to Auschwitz.

17

320

1K

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” Islanders who weren’t locally born were deported en masse to Germany, where many died in prisons and labour camps. Dozens of islanders were sent to concentration camps for resisting the occupation.

7

177

876

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

The Johnson government wants our schools and universities to teach more about our island history. It seems this is a part of the history of these islands which they skipped.

8

136

845

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” Thousands of Russian, Ukrainian & Polish slave labourers died on the Channel Islands, of disease, brutality & hunger. Vichy France sent African & Indo-Chinese labourers; most died. Jews in the labour camps were routinely worked to death.

2

169

739

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” The Channel Islands were fortified by the Nazis, the fortifications built using forced labour. Twelve hour days of arduous work either under the earth or on the Atlantic coast, starvation rations, rampant dysentery...

3

138

716

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” The Slavic & Jewish labourers were in concentration camps, Lager Nordeney and Lager Sylt, operated by the SS as part of the Neuengamme camp network. It’s estimated up to 40,000 died on the islands, and others on forced marches east.

3

128

672

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

“At least the Nazis kept the lights on.” Nazi racial hierarchy determined whether labourers had a chance of surviving. A small number of “volunteers” from NW Europe were more or less fed in work camps. Spanish Republican prisoners were mistreated but most survived...

2

98

623

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

[this thread thanks to research of @CarrGilly and Marcus Roberts. More info, and sources of images above, at:

On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands - The Wiener Holocaust Library

During the German occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945, many thousands of people were persecuted, including slave labourers, political prisoners and Jews.

wienerholocaustlibrary.org

28

88

580

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

7 years

UK academic Twitter this morning: 30% hangovers; 70% oh god no not Toby f*cking Young.

6

115

466

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

[cw: racial abuse] On Saturday, I went to my dear friend's daughter's bat mitzvah (Jewish coming of age ceremony). Before it began, my friend asked a van driver to move his vehicle, which was blocking the entrance to where the event was. This triggered an antisemitic tirade...

55

117

442

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Deeply ashamed that someone representing my union, @ucu , would be sharing this kind of pro-Kremlin disinformation. I note this is a consistent pattern. Couple of examples to follow…

Dr Anna Hájková

@ankahajkova

2 years

No she has not deleted it yet. So here per popular demand.

8

7

38

10

54

246

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

The shadow cast over a special day was huge, and will be permanent, but the rest of the day was joyful: the caring love of the family & community was far greater than this man's hate. I'm still processing it all, but sadly, for most UK Jews, this story will be all too familiar.

12

11

261

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

This is a thread about the Buffalo shooter, who slaughtered 10 people and injured three in a horrific racist attack last Sunday. I’ve read large chunks of the killer’s so-called manifesto and dipped into his diaries and Discord logs, and these are some observations. 👇🏼

14

78

242

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Bristol University professor David Miller finally terminated. Three thoughts:

2

91

233

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

"I know who those people are: they kill Palestinian babies", the driver said. And: "Hitler should've succeeded." This would be offensive to anyone, but my friend's father survived the Nazi camps, making it even worse. The man didn't stop at words; he then assaulted my friend...

6

19

206

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Personal small good news: As of today I am now a Reader (the most bizarre and obscure of British academic titles, right?). I somehow don’t think I’ll actually be reading more. Huge thank you to my referees, both nominated and anonymous, who supported me in this step.

44

1

187

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

To add, as this got more attention than I expected, that this occurred just before I arrived so I didn’t witness it. My understanding is the perpetrator was charged swiftly.

7

6

172

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

In the West, there’s a growing narrative that the Syrian crisis is winding down so refugees can return. In the region’s main refugee receiving countries, xenophobia is growing; migrants are being deported. This thread is on some recent reports on why these trends are dangerous…

6

91

161

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

First, as David Feldman says, his comments on Jews, including, crucially, Jewish students, aren’t just textbook antisemitism but also a clearcut case of harassment. It’s not an academic freedom issue, it’s about fitness to do a job in a diverse classroom.

1

24

151

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

8 years

So excited to finally see this in print!

19

43

114

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

@jrschlosberg Did you think he was a critical sociologist interrogating power four years ago when he was writing papers claiming that Syrian civil defence volunteers were actually jihadi terrorists massacring their own families in gas chambers to persuade America to invade Syria?

2

6

101

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

(Who could forget this allegation that @MitzvahDay & @StokeyShul making chicken soup with the East London Mosque to feed the homeless was a Trojan horse from normalising zionism in Muslim communities?)

Marlon Solomon

@supergutman

3 years

And remember kids, if you do see Jews & Muslims participating in interfaith events like making chicken soup, don't assume its an Israeli plot to hypnotise people into being Zionists. I mean, I know its hard for some but matzoh balls aren't *always* a sign of a Jewish conspiracy.

5

21

79

1

13

100

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Second, as @KeithKahnHarris convincingly argues in this great @ThinkJew piece, Miller’s scholarship isn’t worth defending. It’s not sociology; it’s conspiracy theory. The usefulness of his work on Islamophobia is limited because it is flat and ahistorical.

Daniel Randall

@therubykid

3 years

Reposting this, from @KeithKahnHarris , which explains what’s wrong with David Miller’s form of conspiracy-theorist “anti-Zionism”. Whether or not you think holding such views merits sacking, at least try to engage with why Jewish students objected to them.

0

8

17

1

11

98

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

David Feldman ( @PearsInstitute ), @b_mcgeever & I have written in the Guardian about the #EHRC 's Labour antisemitism report, standing back from the factional tumult to understand what the findings mean for anti-racism. Here’s a thread summarising it:

The EHRC report shows how difficult building real anti-racist politics will be | David Feldman and...

The antisemitism inquiry calls for a change of culture in Labour. To do this, the party must confront its complicated legacy, say David Feldman, Ben Gidley and Brendan McGeever of Birkbeck, Univers...

www.theguardian.com

14

53

95

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

So disappointed to see colleagues & folks I respected signing this letter. There may be good faith arguments for “free speech” & academic freedom, & I understand the urge to close ranks when an academic job is threatened, but the letter goes further. 1/2

Yair Wallach

@YairWallach

4 years

Utterly disgusting

10

22

174

3

15

93

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

1/ Anti-black & anti-Jewish racisms are intertwined and cannot be understood separately. 2/ We need to left-right convergence. 3/ Gender-related ideologies are key to current fascist formations. 4/ Authoritarian state disinformation networks both feed & use far right radicalism.

1

12

93

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

What will be particularly depressing for anti-racist Jews is watching those who should know better, friends & colleagues, supporting not just his free speech rights but his actual words, showing us again how poorly understood antisemitism is in today’s anti-racist movement.

2

7

91

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Third, an issue that’s neglected in the discourse: Miller’s conspiracism doesn’t just target Jewish students; it also targets Sunni Muslim Syrians.

Velvet | ڤلڤت 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 #DroneAssad

@proud_damascene

3 years

(2) David Miller dedicated a significant amount of time and energy towards denying the chemical weapon attacks perpetrated by the Assad regime, as well as smearing the brave White Helmets and their co-founder (the late James le Mesurier) with baseless Russian/Assadist propaganda.

1

10

23

1

16

92

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

7 years

Scholarships for asylum seekers to study at Birkbeck, University of London: Apply by 17 July

2

210

94

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

10 years

Once your name is linked to drug abuse, there's nowhere to go except academia. http://t.co/1y7JJnNwfh

15

122

83

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

8 years

#SocBrexit Sociologists been complicit in culturalist framings of class that let pundits think "working class" excludes migrants/minorities.

4

76

78

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

Next Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment webinar, on racism and surveillance during the pandemic, on 6 July with amazing line-up of Adam Elliott-Cooper, @MayaGoodfellow and @SaskiaSassen . (Registration link will go live shortly - check back.)

3

36

74

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

A student journalist with a maybe Jewish name writes about Syrian students feeling unsafe at an elite UK university and this one of the replies, illustrating how Syria brings together conspiratorial antisemitism and sectarian/islamophobic tropes about “headchopping” Sunnis.

7

41

67

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

The Great Replacement Theory (GRT) follows this pattern. It’s not just a racist fantasy about non-white “invaders/replacers”; it’s also a conspiracy theory about Jews being responsible…

2

8

72

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

@SomersetBaller @pauloCanning @castletongreene Lewisham, Devon, Glasgow, Barnet

0

2

70

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

And just as his statements about British Jews arguably create a hostile environment for Jewish students, the disinformation campaign he promotes about Syria creates a hostile environment for Syrian students.

Velvet | ڤلڤت 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 #DroneAssad

@proud_damascene

3 years

(4) Imagine being displaced from your country by a mass-murdering regime, and upon settling in/gaining a place at a prestigious university in your place of refuge, you learn that you share the university with s/o who whitewashes the crimes of the very regime that displaced you.

2

5

28

1

9

71

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

8 years

It's true. We academics actually live in a parallel, entirely fictional, non-real universe. We might not even exist.

Glyn Davies

@GlynDavies

8 years

Personally, never thought of academics as 'experts'. No experience of the real world.

1K

208

140

10

52

68

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

A quick ethical note: I will not name the shooter or link to or even screenshot any of this material. The killer’s texts illustrate four of the features of today’s international far right scene that I think are especially important.👇🏼

1

6

70

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

3/ Gender-related ideologies are central to current fascist formations. Among the threads running through the text are opposition to trans rights, hatred of trans people, backlash against feminism.

2

10

68

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

As Chip Berlet @cberlet notes, fascism is essentially parasitic: it can draw on ideologically divergent ideas (today that may be racism, conspiracy theories, anti-Zionism, ecological fears, etc) and makes them coherent, binds them, via antisemitism, the meta-conspiracy theory…

3

11

69

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

*This means analysis of the Buffalo shooter can’t stop at anti-black racism, but must foreground contemporary fascism’s esoteric antisemitic core. Meanwhile, we can’t understand today’s antisemitism without recognising how it’s synchronised with anti-black & anti-Muslim racism.*

1

9

66

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Perhaps because his work on Islamophobia is so analytically thin & ahistorical, focusing on networks, he is unable to recognise the Islamophobic tropes involved in painting Syrian Muslims as monstrous jihadi fanatics.

1

8

65

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

The shooter says he doesn’t mind “LGB” people, but sees a “slippery slope” from gay marriage to the nefarious imposition of trans ideology. The language he uses directly echoes mainstream anti-“woke” right, showing how gender focused culture wars can embolden for right violence.

2

10

66

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

As anti-fascist researcher Spencer Sunshine @transform6789 has long argued, these “unorthodox” forms of fascism are no longer peripheral to it, but increasingly crucial to fascism’s eco-system.

1

4

64

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Out on 2nd July from @UCLpress — and PDF will be free open access! Other contributors include Ann Phoenix @cldwyer @nazneen372 @katyBeinart @SarahCrafter @HumeraIqbal1 @maggieoneill9 @Agata_Lisiak @KaczmarekAlicja @donflynnmrn @WoodleyKarin @AcademicDiary

2

44

65

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

As noted above, fascism is essentially parasitic and syncretic, drawing magpie-like on different sources. The shooter’s half-plagiarised, collage style “manifesto” is a good exemplar of this. The “leftist” sources are worth attending to. They include:

1

14

61

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

Deeply thoughtful and thought provoking piece by @MartinRowson to his cartoon which deployed antisemitic tropes. Reflect/atone instead of deny/defend: this is how ethically serious people should respond when they are accused of racism in this way.

Bite the air in Britain and you can taste the prejudices that haunt us. I’m sorry I became part of...

After drawing a cartoon including antisemitic tropes, I am trying to apologise, to learn and to be vigilant, says Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson

www.theguardian.com

2

15

64

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

-Stuff from alt-left conspiracy sites, e.g. Whitney Webb in MintPress -Unz Review, a far-right site that is widely shared in pseudo-left scenes -Deep ecology, such as the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski -The ex-Trotskyist LaRouche movement and its front the Schiller Institute

2

7

61

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

First, though, if you’re not familiar with the outlet there, read this by @InvisiblesMuros

3

8

55

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

…Everyday racism brought recruits into the movement, but then their radicalisation involved a training in antisemitism, a conspiracy theory about Jews which “explained” everything wrong with the world.

2

4

62

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

7 years

My first ever opinion piece in @haaretzcom

12

40

56

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

2/2 It praises bad research (have the signatories even read it?), is dishonest about why people are upset, & cynically plays antisemitism off against other racisms in a toxic way that blocks solidarity.

6

57

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

The QC apparently said his speech was *lawful*, not that it met standards of behaviour acceptable in a university. If a lecturer’s habitually drunk in class, that wouldn’t be *unlawful* but it would be unacceptable. See this thread by @sundersays :

Sunder Katwala

@sundersays

3 years

Is all lawful speech something we want to protect as academic freedom? Or are there some categories of lawful speech we do not want to protect, because they are inimical to academic freedom? Eg, holocaust denial is lawful but we may want to stigmatise it, not protect it on campus

2

0

6

2

9

58

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

We saw how the Pittsburgh killer targeted Jews for bringing Syrian refugees to America while the Christchurch killer targeted the Muslims he saw as the replacers. Or how the Halle shooter turning to a kebab shop when he couldn’t get into a synagogue.

1

3

58

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Many people are seizing on Bristol’s comment that a QC felt that Miller’s speech was lawful as a reason he shouldn’t be censured. But unless you think all lawful speech is acceptable from teachers (including eg Holocaust denial or white genocide theory) then this argument fails.

1

4

58

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Explaining how he does seminars and lectures from the trenches in his four-hour off duty slots, he says “We are fighting for an educated nation. If I did not lecture, it would be a sin. Why did I go to war?” Puts my complaints about teaching on Microsoft Teams into perspective.

Eduard Andryushchenko

@kgb_files

2 years

Fedir Sandor, a professor at Uzhhorod National University, gives a lecture to students

125

3K

21K

1

20

56

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Racial pseudoscience, largely discredited since the Holocaust, has been a resurgent influence for today’s far right terrorists, including this shooter, via messageboard infographics, pop genetics and “post-liberal” pseudo-academic defences of race science.

1

4

58

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

Enraged at @jimmycarr ’s vile mocking of genocide. The fact he thought it was acceptable shows how mainstream racism against Roma people still is.

The Traveller Movement

@GypsyTravellerM

3 years

This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humor. We need all your support in calling this out. #StopTravellerHate @StopFundingHate @jimmycarr 'No one ever wants to talk about the thousands of Gypsies killed by the nazis, because no one wants to talk about the positives'

309

1K

4K

5

18

59

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

The killer targeted African-Americans and devoted pages of his “manifesto” to anti-black hatred — while his primary animus was for Jews, to whom he devotes a huge percentage of his ranting. Every single type of contemporary antisemitism is drawn on in his texts:

1

3

58

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

And this is why we need to ensure these ideas and the voices that promote them have no place in left-wing spaces, but that’s an increasingly uphill struggle.

2

4

56

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

2/ We need to pay attention to left-right convergence. Conservative tweeters claimed the shooter was left-wing coz of a couple throwaway remarks in his rantings. His views are incoherent, but by any measure solidly on the fascist right. This incoherence, tho, is key:

2

8

56

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

@KarenPollock100 @thetimes @HolocaustUK But Lineker was making a much more modest and specific point - “language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s” - not comparing policies to the horrors of the Holocaust.

0

2

53

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Michael Billig in his classic 1978 analysis of the British NF, “Fascists”, showed that, while the “exoteric” rhetoric of the NF targeted Asians & migrants (appealing to mainstream British bigotry in the Enoch Powell era), the esoteric core of the ideology was antisemitism.

1

4

57

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

I wrote this thread up as an article for @BylineTimes . Yesterday was Liberation Day in the Channel Islands - a full day after VE Day, as the islands weren’t liberated until after Berlin fell.

‘At Least the Nazis Kept the Lights On’: Brexit Amnesia Airbrushes Out Genocide in the Channel...

Yesterday the Channel Islands celebrated Liberation Day. Ben Gidley explains the grim realities of starving islanders and concentration camps

bylinetimes.com

5

32

56

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Important public event at UCL on Thursday: Refugees, Migration, Racism and the Global Compacts With Alice Bloch, @MyriamCherti , Giorgia Donà, Ann Phoenix and Nira Yuval-Davis. Including a launch of our forthcoming report, Migration, Racism and the ‘Hostile Environment’

2

33

54

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

For info, a summary of his views on Syria, from @daverich1 via @Sundersays :

1

6

53

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

@HollieStaffor12 @SixVpf Indeed. Always strikes me on VE day (day after tomorrow!) that the Channel Islands remained occupied for another day, but that doesn't fit so well into the UK's national narrative of victory...

2

3

52

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Last week a SOAS Law reader standing for the far right AfD in Germany. This week this from a KCL mental health lecturer. Next time someone tells you our elite universities have been taken over by Cultural Marxism, tell them about these stories.

Femi

@Femi_Sorry

5 years

@KingsCollegeLon But he's always been such a great example for the students...

51

193

761

0

23

50

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

So here goes: 1/ Anti-black and anti-Jewish racisms are completely intertwined here and cannot be understood separately. The killer…

2

4

51

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

He quotes & screenshots raciological, classic Nazi, Holocaust denialist, alt-right, Christian, Afrocentric, anti-Zionist & New Age sources. This great thread gives a taste of some of the materials, and how they circulate & find their way into the mix:

Dr Meredith ‘Land Back’ Warren

@DrMJCWarren

2 years

So over the last week I’ve been reading and analyzing the manifesto attached to the white supremacist terrorist attack that killed 10 people in Buffalo. 1/14

9

66

188

2

5

53

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

8 years

Nothing that Enoch Powell lost his career for in 1968 couldn't be said by a mainstream politician now with total impunity.

5

74

50

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

6 years

1/x I’m in Zaragoza. Here’s a mini photo essay, including some thoughts on the Muslim/Jewish presence in Europe....

1

19

50

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Next time someone says “as British as fish and chips”, remember it was migrants that brought it here. The fish-frying method was brought to Britain by Spanish and Portuguese Jews.

Hidden Treasures

@SeeTheTreasures

2 years

For #nationalfishandchipday from @JewishMuseumLDN : this photo of the UK's first fish & chip shop: Malin’s on Bow's Old Ford Road. Malin's was named for its original Jewish proprietor, Joseph Malin, possibly born Joseph Malinsky ca 1826. "Very little is known about his life… 1/3

1

18

49

2

9

51

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

7 years

Cheerful, defiant mood at @UCU march as it sets off. #NoCapitulation

2

13

52

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

So I saw on here that over we’re nearly through “Balance Awareness Week”. There’s lots going on in the world right now so this may seem a little trivial and self-indulgent, but for those of us with balance disorders, the issues are a big deal. I thought I’d share my story… 1/11

6

24

52

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Authoritarian leaders globally are at war against social sciences and humanities but this is among the worst instances. Solidarity with Brazilian colleagues.

Angelo Martins Jr

@MartinsJr_a

5 years

Brazilian Presid. Bolsonaro and the ministry of education say they will no longer invest in courses such as sociology and philosophy, which means they will eliminate these courses from public Univ. They have been claiming social scientists destroyed the country and its youth.

53

1K

960

2

36

47

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

(Self-promotional aside: The need for this relational understanding of antisemitism and other racisms is the main argument of my work with @RentonJE on Islamophobia

x Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe

From Palgrave MacMillan: Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe A Shared Story? Editors: Renton, James, Gidley, Ben (Eds.) Uncovers the connection and separation of antisemitism and Islamophobia i…

171bus.wordpress.com

1

4

45

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Totally brilliant to see so many @bbkpsychosocial students on the picket line in solidarity with #UCUstrike . Proud of their critical thinking and touched by their support for our struggle.

2

10

43

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

Beautifully written and insightful reflections on Diane Abbott’s letter and its aftermath by @chakrabortty (including wise comments by my colleague David Feldman of @bisa_bbk ):

The lesson from the Diane Abbott row: if we fight racism in silos, we just can’t win

The row caused by Diane Abbott’s dreadful letter was depressing, but just as sad was what it revealed about modern racial politics, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

2

10

44

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

In this important recent @IndexCensorship article, @NermaJelacic highlights how free speech arguments are manipulated by denialists such as Miller

Spinning bomb: Fighting the disinformation war - Index on Censorship

Nerma Jelacic argues revisionists are manipulating free speech defenders

www.indexoncensorship.org

1

6

44

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

Very proud of my former doctoral student Anthony Nicholls, whose book will be published by @PalgravePhil in the Autumn. (Moral: you’re never too old to do a PhD or publish your first book!)

2

46

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

In fact, the shooter said Ukraine has a Jewish government, Azov’s an Israeli puppet, NATO should be fractured, & Russia’s enemies need removing. These talking points circulate in the pro-Kremlin media ecosystem, to feed the global far right & undermine Putin’s enemies.

2

3

40

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

@gibtsdes The awful motion (5) passed unamended with a majority of 11. The sensible motion (6) passed with a large majority. The union is now committed to a ridiculous and contradictory policy.

5

4

45

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

Remember the antisemitic Mear One mural that played a part in the Labour Party antisemitism controversy a couple of years ago? I see that it’s circulating now in the MAGA scene. Sidney Powell, from Donald Trump’s legal team, shared it last week. 1/3

If you can’t see antisemitism, it’s time to open your eyes | Michael Segalov

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t alone – everyone in the Labour party should have recognised how offensive that mural was, writes journalist Michael Segalov

www.theguardian.com

Nick Martin

@nickmartin

4 years

1. Looks like Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell retweeted a grossly antisemitic image to ring in the new year. The same image was part of the antisemitism allegations that followed former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for years. I'll explain. A thread. 👇

12

131

348

1

21

42

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Today Miller attacks anti-fascist heroes the 43 Group, who defended Jews from resurgent Mosleyism after WW2. A few ago he was pushing the pseudo-scientific “Khazar” theory about Jewish genetics. Four years ago he promoted inane conspiracy theories about was Sunni Syrian rebels…

Yair Wallach

@YairWallach

2 years

My working assumption is that all those academics who signed up to support Miller, and who still haven't retracted their support, are ok with this 21st-century-edition of the protocols-of-Zion

18

100

538

1

8

37

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Three nights teaching evening classes on top of full working days, I’m totally failing to work to contract this week: I’ve done 36 hours & it’s only Wednesday. Should just stop now but I’m examining a PhD on Friday. The crisis of overwork in the HE sector is so corrosive.

5

6

43

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

I still find it extraordinary that until quite recently this man was teaching university level social science. Nothing here is factual, or even logically coherent. (It also continues to sadden me how many colleagues I’ve respected actually defended him – and his “scholarship”.)

David Miller

@Tracking_Power

1 year

The facts: 1. Jews are not discriminated against. 2. They are over-represented in Europe, North America and Latin America in positions of cultural, economic and political power. 3. They are therefore, in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups.

429

70

256

5

6

40

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Non-accredited short course this summer, of interest to those involved in equality/diversity, widening participation and antiracist work, led by my colleague Tarek Qureshi of @bbkgeography :

3

12

44

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

1 year

Working in HE it feels the summer is increasingly as (or more) intense a time for student-facing work as the rest of the year. The fiction that we spend ⅓ of our time on research is so threadbare.(Docking ½ our pay just for not marking shows how seriously our employers take it.)

3

1

39

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

But how can we think about the relationship between his African-American targets and Jewish figures of hate? 👇🏼

1

3

42

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

Meanwhile, my news today is I got a positive result back from my CV19 antibody test – which means it wasn’t the man flu my family suspected I had.

18

0

40

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

It’s also clear Miller will be an effective martyr. In the conspiracist worldview he promoted, his termination (after literally years of complaints) is of course proof of the tentacular omnipotence of the Zionist lobby.

1

4

37

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

4 years

The first in a new series on the Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE) blog, on race and migration in the time of the pandemic, by @GeorgieWemyss & Nira Yuval-Davis

1

32

42

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Of course these themes aren’t new: fascism’s always been foundationally anti-feminist/gender-reactionary. What’s new is the angry, revanchist urgency, based on a sense of dispossession, plus the role of the revanchist Manosphere as one of biggest gateways to far right activism.

1

41

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

Or this open letter by Latin American academics and activists @NewPoliticsMag

Open Letter to Editors of Jacobin and Monthly Review - New Politics

Scholars and activists respond to attacks on Yaku Pérez—the indigenous candidate in Ecuador's presidential election.

newpol.org

1

7

36

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

6 years

Do you ever have those days when you find as it rains that you have a hole in your shoe, sit through a meeting with wet socks, then buy yourself a cup of tea to warm up, only to pour it all over yourself so you have to teach wearing cold tea-coloured jeans? I'm having one today.

7

1

42

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

5 years

Report by @julie_renbe @jacob_p_davey @ISDglobal on the far right “great replacement” demographic theory which inspired the Christchurch massacre, and how it seeped into the mainstream: Guardian write up:

2

20

40

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

2 years

@Otto_English Good to see you’re still beating Jordan Peterson in the airport non-fiction battle royale

5

4

40

Ben Gidley

@bengidley

3 years

One thing I should’ve included in this thread: the Nazis *didn’t* even, actually, keep the lights on. “The electricity supply is on its last legs it is off all afternoon from one till six and from ten at night till six next morning…"

Nikki Holmes

@nikkstercricket

3 years

@Baddiel Here’s my grandad’s German’s Occupation ID card & the letter from Nov 1944 he smuggled out to free France “we are getting thinner every day and we haven’t had any gas since 3rd Sept. We don’t get any soap not even for washing ourselves”

0

2

20

2

15

39