Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

vijay iyer

@vijayiyer.bsky.social

7.2K followers 2.9K following 710 posts

music maker // free all political prisoners // fight all supremacies // latest albums: Defiant Life (2025), Thereupon (2025), Compassion (2024), Trouble (2024), Love in Exile (2023) // prof @ h*rv*rd // linktr.ee/vijayiyer

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 6m

NYC: GET YOUR TICKETS NOW

VIJAY IYER QUARTET
w/ ADAM O’FARRILL, YUNIOR TERRY, & TYSHAWN SOREY

THE VILLAGE VANGUARD
NOVEMBER 4 - 9

🎫👇🏾
vv.squadup.com/artists/vija...

3 8

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 6m

NYC: GET YOUR TICKETS NOW

VIJAY IYER QUARTET
w/ ADAM O’FARRILL, YUNIOR TERRY, & TYSHAWN SOREY

THE VILLAGE VANGUARD
NOVEMBER 4 - 9

🎫👇🏾
vv.squadup.com/artists/vija...

3 8

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 42m

Yes— projects.propublica.org/protest-poli...

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 43m

From summer 2024, after the encampments: ”Only a few dozen of these thousands of protest days have seen property damage or injuries to police or counter-protesters. Despite that fact, many public figures continue to describe the protests as violent”

ash.harvard.edu/articles/cro...

Crowd Counting Consortium: An Empirical Overview of Recent Pro-Palestine Protests at U.S. Schools – Ash Center

Crowd Counting Consortium data show several thousand days with pro-Palestinian protest activity across more than 500 U.S. schools since October 7, 2023, including encampments at more than 130 of them....

ash.harvard.edu

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 53m

this “violence” resulted in a a felony charge for “promoting anarchy,” a college student having bail set at $10,000, and a flood of law-and-order rhetoric from Mass dems. can’t wait for DJT to hear about this www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/09/m...

Suffolk prosecutors file felony ‘promotion of anarchy’ charges against 13 pro-Palestinian protesters - The Boston Globe

The new charges are based on a Boston police review of postings on the Instagram account of march organizers that includes the phrase “Students For Justice in Palestine."

www.bostonglobe.com

2 1 10

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 1h

In case you’re hearing about the “protest that turned violent” in Boston last week, here’s the “violence” in question, per the police report

Following the protest, four officers were taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries. One officer had a broken nose and had his glasses broken, another was treated for pepper spray exposure, one sustained a finger injury while handcuffing and another sustained a lower back injury attempting to make an arrest.

2 56 160

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 8h

it’s as though he fell into a couple of youtube rabbitholes like any basic teenager. that, plus he makes billions off of genoc!dal tech

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 8h

seriously: is there now a massive contingent of “liberals” who viscerally hate anti-genocide protestors, or are they bots?

2 7

Reposted by vijay iyer

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 3d

"politics the right way," says Ezra Klein

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

2 36 140

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 8h

“Such is the hallmark of a famine. The first to fall victim are generally those who had underlying conditions to begin with”

Ryan Grim @ryangrim.bsky.social · 8h

Full story with Maha Hussaini

www.dropsitenews.com/p/bari-weiss...

The Free Press Called Out "Incomplete" Reporting on Gaza's Starving Children. Here's the Complete Story.

CBS's Bari Weiss touted Free Press article as the "ground truth." Drop Site spoke to the actual families.

www.dropsitenews.com

Reposted by vijay iyer

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 8h

New, from me:
Trump's 3 step plan to create a military omniforce
1. Purge - those deemed disloyal
2. Merge - different parts of law enforcement/military
3. Surge - impose the omniforce on Dem cities; instigate unrest; assert dominance; silence dissent
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...

Purge, Merge, and Surge

Trump is creating a omniforce of armed loyalists to establish his police state

donmoynihan.substack.com

44 640 1.5K

Reposted by vijay iyer

Todd (they/them) #AbolishThePolice @toddbohannon.bsky.social · 2d

“In 2 Years of #GazaGenocide , Sunday Shows on NBC, ABC and CNN Have Not Featured a Single Palestinian Guest” #MediaBias
inthesetimes.com/article/gaza...

In 2 Years of Gaza Genocide, Sunday Shows on NBC, ABC and CNN Have Not Featured a Single Palestinian Guest

In a microcosm of the U.S. coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, since Oct. 7, 2023, influential Sunday news shows have not seen fit to book any Palestinians.

inthesetimes.com

3 62 150

Reposted by vijay iyer

Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 1d

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

420 6.1K 20K

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 8h

you guys are mad that someone interrupted a book tour? or is this another level of psyop. I’m missing something

1 1 10

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 9h

wow, he really wants to k!ll us all

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 11h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

2 2 8

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 9h

why are prisoners not hostages? why are hostages not prisoners?

1 2 13

Reposted by vijay iyer

+972 Magazine @972mag.com · 4d

An analysis of dozens of 3D animations published by the Israeli army discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but rather from commercial libraries and content creators as far afield as Scotland and Port Orchard.

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

@mekomit.bsky.social

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

5 46 72

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 18h

Astonishing thread & investigation of falsified images of “command centers.“ Whole teams generated fake news for western media.
@972mag.com

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

One of the earlier and most-viewed examples was an animation of Al Shifa Hospital, published in October 2023.

The “underground command room” was recycled from a 2022 IDF animation of an UNRWA school in Tel Al-Hawa; the street above was built from prefab @kb-3d.bsky.social storefronts

1 10 20

Reposted by vijay iyer

Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 1d

An underreported aspect of the Gaza ceasefire: The business deals that Trump's family made with Gulf Arab states gave Trump a personal stake in restraining Netanyahu — my piece @theguardian.com | www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

7 55 130

Reposted by vijay iyer

Harms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 1d

"On August 8, masked men in tactical gear surrounded the Van Nuys Community Job Center, and pointed weapons at my coworkers and me."

"ICE has raided our day labor sites at least 14 times since June."

"Refuse to let kidnapping become normal."
#California #USA #Deportation #EthnicCleansing

ICE Is Targeting Day Labor Centers in LA That Hold Contracts With the City

Elected leaders are failing to protect immigrant workers. We must build community power, as only we can keep us safe.

truthout.org

1 27 79

Reposted by vijay iyer

Ria Chakrabarty @riachia93.bsky.social · 1d

Most of these people are Bengali-speaking Muslims who have long been labeled “infiltrators” by the far right in India, including the Prime Minister himself.

NPR @npr.org · 1d

In the aftermath of a deadly militant attack in Kashmir in April, authorities have expelled more than 1,500 Muslims from India, often at gunpoint. n.pr/473MnY4

India is forcibly deporting Muslims, including its own citizens, after Kashmir violence

In the aftermath of a deadly militant attack in Kashmir in April, authorities have expelled more than 1,500 Muslims from India, often at gunpoint.

n.pr

1 4 9

Reposted by vijay iyer

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 1d

They're talking about killing leftist activists. They're talking about murdering people organizing in defense of immigrant communities, doing mutual aid work, and protesting their violence. They are talking about murdering people like me and my friends. We must do more than acknowledge it's fascism.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 4d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

26 1.1K 2.3K

Reposted by vijay iyer

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

73 1.2K 2.2K

Reposted by vijay iyer

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

380 5.7K 20K

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 1d

”bright kid syndrome” is so 💯

1 1

Reposted by vijay iyer

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 1d

Standing in solidarity with colleagues at the CDC who were fired as part of yet another RIF wave.
We are all less safe without their expertise and dedication.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

3 60 220