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elia ayoub 🌱

@ayoub.bsky.social

23K followers 3.1K following 5.4K posts

Authoritarianism, memory, violent temporalities and alternative futurities. Post-doc researcher and journalist. In Sussex, from Lebanon. @thefirethesetimes.com / @thestartrekpod.bsky.social / https://hauntologies.net / @972mag.com / https://shado-mag.com

hauntologies.net

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 7d

I added some thoughts on the Peacehaven mosque attack here www.hauntologies.net/p/going-to-t...

Going to the Peacehaven Mosque

Some reflections following the 4 October terrorist attack

www.hauntologies.net

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 9h

Already did

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 9h

These people don‘t understand what makes something fun for humans

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

Yeah, it’s incredible to say but on a lot of things. There are ppl like Mamdani among the Dems that are actually popular

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

None of these are actually controversial outside of the rightwing echo chamber

Bradford District Green Party @bradfordgreens.bsky.social · 17h

🟢 Here's why you should join the Green Party 👇

Join.greenparty.org.uk

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

In what world is this not a rightwing party? I know it’s a big tent, but it is undeniable that the leadership is rightwing - and that’s just not what people voted for. It took 15 months for the Starmer leadership to potentially turn a century-old party irrelevant in the near future.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

Labour’s position is basically “we are being criticised for violating fundamental human rights, therefore we must abandon our public commitment to these fundamental human rights“

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

It’s almost impressive what a complete shit show Labour has been. The only consistent position they’ve had is a total unwillingness to learn from anything and instead shift further and further to the right while their entire base is demanding more progressive policies. It’s baffling.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 10h

Trans ppl and pro-Palestine ppl would have been among the two easiest demographics for Labour to keep but this leadership decided to adopt a far right transphobic position on basic rights while also cracking down on the freedom to protest while also being complicit in the Israeli genocide

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 11h

Woah! So Labour's position really is, 'telling us off for breaching human rights undermines the case for human rights'? Proper Trumpian stuff from Labour's answer to Suella Braverman.

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Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 12h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 11h

Israel is still preventing aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza

Israel is still collectively punishing the entire civilian population to pressure Hamas

It is still a crime against humanity to withhold aid from civilians

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Israel limits aid and keeps Rafah crossing closed in dispute over hostage remains

Tensions high as Israel accuses Hamas of breaching agreement by withholding bodies of 24 hostages

www.theguardian.com

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 11h

You know I’m starting to think this Trump fascism thing isn’t a good idea

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 11h

This is the Trump Youth. We know their names and we have confirmation of what they believe in.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 11h

Leaders of Young Republican groups “referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers.“ They ‘joked’ about raping their enemies and wondered which politician supports slavery.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 12h

There is zero chance of that happening and nothing suggests any of this is remotely viable

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 1d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 12h

I didn’t know that. It was free for me, no questions asked (beside the usual ones - blood pressure, allergies etc)

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 12h

Definitely getting it! I’m on a semi-break from @thefirethesetimes.com but would love to do an episode once I’m back to it

Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 7d

It's pub day for my book, "Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley," which chronicles the rise of the tech right and their role in the 2024 election. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way.
linktr.ee/gildedrage

Gilded Rage | Linktree

A searing look at the rise of Silicon Valley's far right. Out October 2025.

linktr.ee

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Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

Polari Press @polari.press · 10d

After launching them at Queeriosities last weekend, the A3 Risograph posters are now up on our website with all profits going to the Sameer Project in Gaza: polari.press/throw-sand-i...

A poster that says “Throw Sand in the Gears of Genocide” against a monochrome image of a bunch of poppies in red.

A poster that says “Throw Sand in the Gears of Genocide” against a monochrome image of a bunch of poppies in green.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 13h

This will age really well

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 1d

Time magazine doing Nazi propaganda and using its language

This is very very specific language they only had one parallel and it’s originally in German.

TIME
HIS
TRIUMPH
by ERIC CORTELLESSA
THE LEADER
ISRAEL NEEDED
by EHUD BARAK
HOW GAZA HEALS
by MUHAMMAD BIN ABDULKARIM AL-ISSA

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Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

robfay.bsky.social @robfay.bsky.social · 14h

UK limits on who can get NHS-provided covid vaccines are really strict now; you have to be over 75, or immunocompromised (from a condition/treatment on a list), or be in a care home. It doesn't include those people's carers. Meanwhile, studies continue to show the effectiveness of the vaccine. 1/3

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 19h

(UK) “It’s really bad, I won’t lie to you” is what the pharmacist told me as she had to deny me the covid vaccine. I got the flu one, no problem. A 74 year old got denied bcs he isn’t 75, so he said he’ll do it next year bcs he cannot afford to pay for private. It’s really bad. 1/4

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Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 1d

Reform UK's deputy leader has broken parliamentary rules by failing to register hospitality. So what's the story with Richard Tice, the French villa and the ex-Kremlin minister?

hopenothate.org.uk/2025/10/13/r...

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 15h

this was an illuminating read by @edwinheathcote.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/e637... via @okwonga.bsky.social

Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world

Design was once seen as a tool to improve lives — but as modernism has become marketing, that sense of social purpose has drifted away

www.ft.com

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Reposted by elia ayoub 🌱

gugalanna daddy issues @ninazu.bsky.social · 15h

Just want to say that I happened to be at a hospital today and had to wait around to see someone. In that time a head nurse from a specialist unit mentioned having EIGHT nurses off sick right now. In case people are wondering who’s hurt by costly and inaccessible vaccines.

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 19h

I’ll find something and I can afford the £80, but many cannot afford to go wherever it is let alone afford the £80.

Again: they changed criteria just a few weeks ago. All to avoid spending money on essential care. People are going to die as a direct result of this.

It’s immoral. 4/4

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 16h

What better example of how we live in multiple worlds at the same time than a bunch of people living in the french catacombs together watching movies and eating couscous

the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 2d

In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 16h

respect

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