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Itay Lotem

@ilotem.bsky.social

3K followers 840 following 290 posts

Looks like I’m a historian. Senior Lecturer at UWestminster: wrote a book about the memory of colonialism in Britain and France, and another one about the pitfalls of memory politics in post-WWII Europe. Dogs are better.

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · Dec 5

My new book, ‘Dealing with Dark Pasts’, where I try to coin a new memory concept, is now out online and is free to download for the first four weeks…! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Dealing with Dark Pasts

Cambridge Core - Global History - Dealing with Dark Pasts

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 19h

if all my group chats were leaked tomorrow I don't know that I could say for certain that my career would necessarily retain the trajectory it's currently on, but I will say I'm pretty sure I've never mentioned Hitler in any of them, so at least that's something

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

Ms. Otoo @sharondoduaotoo.bsky.social · 1d

#Berlin Kommt feiern!
Die Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD) wird 40 Jahre alt 🎊

🫶🏾 Kinderbetreuung
☝🏾 Rollstuhlgerecht
🤙🏾 DGS-Verdolmetschung

Am Freitag, den 24.10.25 ab 12:30 Uhr
Powered by @isdbund.bsky.social
Unterstützt von @hkw-berlin.bsky.social & #Heimaten

Wir feiern: 40 Jahre ISD

Freitag, den 24. Oktober 2025

12:30-23:00 Uhr
ISD Programm
Keynotes, Panels, Performance

19:00 Uhr
HKW Programm
Panel: Heimaten zur "Jungeren Schwarzen Geschichte" (5€ Eintritt)

Ganztägig Kinderbetreuung & Dolmetschung in DGS

Catering gegen Aufpreis

Performance, Live-Musik, Party

Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 1d

Ein „Stadtbild“ von gelebter Vielfalt war das einzige, was mir ein Gefühl von Sicherheit gab. Ich habe schnell gelernt, dass es gerade für Juden und Jüdinnen nicht gefährlicheres geben kann, als der merzische Traum von Reinheit und Säuberung des Stadtbildes. 2/2

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 1d

Seit Tagen geht es mir genauso wie Sasha Marianna Salzmann. Ich weiß ja, dass Merz mich wohl meint. Als aschkenasischer Jude habe ich gerade in Deutschland gelernt, was es bedeutet, als nicht ganz „weiß“ gelesen zu werden: Haare zu dunkel, Gesichtszüge zu „südländisch.“ Irgendetwas stimmte nie. 1/2

Autor*in zur Stadtbild-Debatte: Der böse Traum vom gereinigten Deutschland

Woran will Bundeskanzler Merz eigentlich das irregulär Migrantische erkennen? Seine Äußerungen zum deutschen Stadtbild sind menschenverachtend.

taz.de

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

Ms. Otoo @sharondoduaotoo.bsky.social · 1d

"Für Jüdinnen und Juden kann es aus der Geschichte nur eine Lehre geben: Die Einteilung in jene, die aus dem #Stadtbild entfernt gehören, und in jene, die in das Stadtbild passen und deshalb verschont bleiben, ist nicht hinnehmbar"

~ Sasha Marianna Salzmann @taz.de

Autor*in zur Stadtbild-Debatte: Der böse Traum vom gereinigten Deutschland

Woran will Bundeskanzler Merz eigentlich das irregulär Migrantische erkennen? Seine Äußerungen zum deutschen Stadtbild sind menschenverachtend.

taz.de

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 2d

Because even if the system you’re in makes total suspicion normal (which is kinda the gist of a dictatorship), it leaves you short of tools to deal with complexity. If your you can only trust your biases, you’re often left with nihilism and cynicism, because nothing really matters.

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 2d

“You see,” he said, “we are not as naive as you. I grew up in a Soviet system, where you knew you couldn’t trust anyone, so you learned to read between the lines. And that gave you the power of insight into what was REALLY going on.”

I was, indeed, more sheltered (and young), but he scared me. 3/4

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 2d

Over 20 years ago in Berlin I had an English pupil whom I often referred to as “conspiracy Birgit,” An old East-German apparatchik married to a Russian doctor whom she idolised. Once at their home he took me to the side to explain why intelligent people believed in total suspicion (and conspiracy) 2

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 2d

This is a welcome post about expertise, but even more so about the dangers of total suspicion and the nihilism it encourages. Thinking of societies fueled by total suspicion always gets me back to experiences in Russia recently, but also to close post-Soviet contacts. One story always returns 1/4

David Avrom Bell @davidavrombell.bsky.social · 3d

Do we need to "stop trusting the experts"?
davidabell.substack.com/p/do-we-need...

Do We Need to "Stop Trusting the Experts"?

(As RFK, Jr. Urges)

davidabell.substack.com

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

James Vaughan @equusonthebuses.bsky.social · 5d

👀

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 5d

This is so so awful. I am so sorry 😢 (and angry, but there’s so much of that to go around right now).

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

So that is foregrounding vibes in social media bitesize interventions. And those come from what is now a tradition of producing content to provide that mic drop effect of “giving the best answer”.

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

So that’s where substantive is a difficult one. I think Mamdani is more substantive also because he’s very focused on mayoral issues and coming from a position of fighting for an actual job (rather than the role of the disruptor). But I think that in both cases the method requires the same gist.

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

Is it surprising though? And I don’t mean this as a tedious “like duh”. You’ve kinda got the nail on the head there, but also looking at political culture (including student contact) recently, is it not what we should expect (and in a way exactly the same thing that’s happening with Mamdani)?

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

Liam J. Liburd @liamliburd.bsky.social · 6d

New article out in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's gestation began in late 2021, shortly before I started my current job teaching Black British history. It's the product of my frustrations with the way that the histories of racism & fascism in Britain are written about.
doi.org/10.1017/jbr....

The Lost Pillar of British Political Culture: Black Constructions of British Fascism, 1930s–1970s | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core

The Lost Pillar of British Political Culture: Black Constructions of British Fascism, 1930s–1970s - Volume 64

doi.org

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

Also, “fun” and “PhD” in the same sentence?

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

Für sie ist es wirklich ein reiner politischer Slogan, aber sie sehen sich als „postkoloniale“ Menschen, indem sie sich gegen Rechts positionieren.

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

Ich unterrichte gerade einen MA-Kurs über postkoloniales Denken in Marseille und die Studierenden (die sehr enthusiastisch sind) sehen nicht mal, dass es wirklich etwas mit Forschung, Theorie und Positionierung ggü tatsächlicher kolonialer Geschichte und kolonialen Beziehungen zu tun hat.

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 6d

Eine sehr beunruhigende Entwicklung, die schon seit einer Weile in Frankreich auch stattfindet, ist wie das Wort „postkolonial“ so ne Art Schimpfwort in konservativen politischen Kreisen (und auf sozialen Medien) auf der gleichen Ebene wie wokisme geworden ist.

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 7d

I think it’s mainly that nobody knows or cares, and for them, it makes it a very low-stake-issue to be clever about (as in, to show one’s clever credentials by sticking it to the big man with no consequences. It’s just that the big man isn’t that big and isn’t that responsible for all your woes?)

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 7d

Yeah, it always strikes me how, at random dinner tables, people I don’t know (btw usually the self-proclaimed radical lefty) would start badgering me about “their critique of the education robbery” and blame just about any bad thing in the UK on… universities.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 9d

this is sociopathic behaviour and I think we need to treat it as such! just because something has become easy to do doesn't mean it has become less creepy, or more acceptable!

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Reposted by Itay Lotem

Marghost 👻 @mitildide.bsky.social · 10d

Encore 7 Lecornu et on a le droit à un Lecornu gratuit

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Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 10d

It’s that moment when you wish you were GenZ enough to create a meme that shows the sheer ridiculousness of someone (let’s call him Macron) convinced that repeating the same mistake would eventually yield a different result? Is there a reason to think the laws of gravity do not apply to French PMs?

Bon Pote @bonpote.com · 10d

Sébastien Lecornu REnommé à Matignon : le message d’Emmanuel Macron à tous les Français.

Dessin d’ @allanbarte.bsky.social pour Bon Pote

Itay Lotem @ilotem.bsky.social · 10d

As much as I appreciate AI’s ability to help very supervised streamlining of certain technical tasks (code! Correspondence with German bureaucrats!), this is the correct answer to anyone asking me why I don’t use ChatGPT to write more books (and believe me, I’ve been asked many a time).

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 12d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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