Benjamin Balthaser
@blbalthaser.bsky.social
Assoc prof of multiethnic US lit; au of Dedication (2011), Anti-Imperialist Modernism (2016), Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism & the Cultures of the US Jewish Left (2025). He/him. 🕎🌹😷🇵🇸Chicago 🐢
https://iusb.academia.edu/BenjaminBalthaser
https://iusb.academia.edu/BenjaminBalthaser
The American Studies Association was one of the first US academic institutions to approve by member vote the academic boycott of Israel. I was proud to vote “yes” on the resolution. The US ACBI guidelines are v clear usacbi.org/guidelines-f...
November 26, 2025 at 7:08 AM
The American Studies Association was one of the first US academic institutions to approve by member vote the academic boycott of Israel. I was proud to vote “yes” on the resolution. The US ACBI guidelines are v clear usacbi.org/guidelines-f...
The only thing more unsettling than the social media streamed spectacle of ICE raids is the chilly lack of spectacle surrounding the Trump admin's plan for “regime change” in Venezuela. They are barely going through the motions; they don’t seem to be trying v hard to make their lies plausible
November 25, 2025 at 11:49 PM
The only thing more unsettling than the social media streamed spectacle of ICE raids is the chilly lack of spectacle surrounding the Trump admin's plan for “regime change” in Venezuela. They are barely going through the motions; they don’t seem to be trying v hard to make their lies plausible
Ok if there is any reason for DSA to strategically part ways w Mamdani, this may be it. The historical mission of DSA’s electoral wing should be to unseat Jeffries and Schumer 🌹🧹
November 22, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Ok if there is any reason for DSA to strategically part ways w Mamdani, this may be it. The historical mission of DSA’s electoral wing should be to unseat Jeffries and Schumer 🌹🧹
I’ve always been uncomfortable w “the Holocaust industry’s” underlying assumption, that “Auschwitz” is no longer a usable antifascist history. What is so remarkable about this clip is the admission that the Zionist colonization of this history has failed
November 22, 2025 at 3:34 AM
I’ve always been uncomfortable w “the Holocaust industry’s” underlying assumption, that “Auschwitz” is no longer a usable antifascist history. What is so remarkable about this clip is the admission that the Zionist colonization of this history has failed
I can’t tell if I am more stunned someone still thinks IQ is real, or that someone is surprised the historical accumulation of wealth under capitalism might not meritocratically reflect the score a nation gets on an exam
November 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I can’t tell if I am more stunned someone still thinks IQ is real, or that someone is surprised the historical accumulation of wealth under capitalism might not meritocratically reflect the score a nation gets on an exam
Apologies to my working class NYC comrades, we tried
November 16, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Apologies to my working class NYC comrades, we tried
The anti-Sheinbaum protests were sparked by the assassination of a mayor who flew in helicopter w an assault rifle shooting at suspected, unarmed criminals.
November 16, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The anti-Sheinbaum protests were sparked by the assassination of a mayor who flew in helicopter w an assault rifle shooting at suspected, unarmed criminals.
I can’t remember a plausibly threatened invasion by the US that has received less attention and alarm by the press.
November 15, 2025 at 4:43 AM
I can’t remember a plausibly threatened invasion by the US that has received less attention and alarm by the press.
Beyond implications the president is a rapist of underage women, the Epstein scandal has been a parallax view into the economy & political imaginary: at once a window into the predatory workings of neoliberalism, also a de-politicized conspiracy theory laden w tropes of Jewish men devouring children
November 15, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Beyond implications the president is a rapist of underage women, the Epstein scandal has been a parallax view into the economy & political imaginary: at once a window into the predatory workings of neoliberalism, also a de-politicized conspiracy theory laden w tropes of Jewish men devouring children
I have a professional obligation as a teacher of literature to quietly pt out Humbert Humbert was not the “good guy” in Nabokov’s Lolita, anymore than Tom Buchanan (or even Nick Caraway) were the “good guys” in Gatsby.
Goddamn if being rich don’t make you dumb
Goddamn if being rich don’t make you dumb
November 13, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I have a professional obligation as a teacher of literature to quietly pt out Humbert Humbert was not the “good guy” in Nabokov’s Lolita, anymore than Tom Buchanan (or even Nick Caraway) were the “good guys” in Gatsby.
Goddamn if being rich don’t make you dumb
Goddamn if being rich don’t make you dumb
Sorry buddy, if you think Mamdani and Fuentes are “threats to the Jewish people” deserving “equal” denunciation yeah, um, we aren’t gonna be friends
November 13, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Sorry buddy, if you think Mamdani and Fuentes are “threats to the Jewish people” deserving “equal” denunciation yeah, um, we aren’t gonna be friends
What if grandma had wings would she be an airliner
November 12, 2025 at 5:17 AM
What if grandma had wings would she be an airliner
cool when I lose my job bc I criticized Israel and my students are expelled from university for belonging to SJP or JVP I’m glad to know you’ve got my back
November 11, 2025 at 10:03 PM
cool when I lose my job bc I criticized Israel and my students are expelled from university for belonging to SJP or JVP I’m glad to know you’ve got my back
The Bean was always my least favorite work of public art in Chicago: simply a refracted curved surface reflecting the viewer’s narcissism back to themselves, shrinking the city & expanding the viewer: it is the American tourist in a word, completely compatible w the grotesque banality of fascism
November 11, 2025 at 8:49 PM
The Bean was always my least favorite work of public art in Chicago: simply a refracted curved surface reflecting the viewer’s narcissism back to themselves, shrinking the city & expanding the viewer: it is the American tourist in a word, completely compatible w the grotesque banality of fascism
W every passing day after the cease fire the global silence over Israeli’s admitted crimes is deafening
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
November 11, 2025 at 2:22 AM
W every passing day after the cease fire the global silence over Israeli’s admitted crimes is deafening
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Funny, the Right wants to force kids to pray in schools but prevent adults from praying in public for prisoners
November 9, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Funny, the Right wants to force kids to pray in schools but prevent adults from praying in public for prisoners
A friend asked why Marx’s Capital spends so much time on the appearance of commodities & markets, & takes so long to get to questions of exploitation. One answer is that the success of capitalism as a system is convincing even its victims that it is not a system at all… 1/2
November 9, 2025 at 6:20 AM
A friend asked why Marx’s Capital spends so much time on the appearance of commodities & markets, & takes so long to get to questions of exploitation. One answer is that the success of capitalism as a system is convincing even its victims that it is not a system at all… 1/2
Nations ofc, are no more a feature of nature than gender is, which is why the Supreme Court fears the questioning of one will lead to the undoing of another.
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
November 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Nations ofc, are no more a feature of nature than gender is, which is why the Supreme Court fears the questioning of one will lead to the undoing of another.
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
I suppose it is not surprising to learn that contemporary reactionary politics, like old fashioned reactionary politics, imagines all hierarchies as rooted in a mythical, organic ideal of nature, & finds any attempt to suggest hierarchies are arbitrary & contingent v threatening
November 6, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I suppose it is not surprising to learn that contemporary reactionary politics, like old fashioned reactionary politics, imagines all hierarchies as rooted in a mythical, organic ideal of nature, & finds any attempt to suggest hierarchies are arbitrary & contingent v threatening
So quickly Zionism turns eugenicist - diaspora Jews “dying out” is ofc a Nazi idea (to say nothing of how Palestinians are regarded)
November 6, 2025 at 5:28 AM
So quickly Zionism turns eugenicist - diaspora Jews “dying out” is ofc a Nazi idea (to say nothing of how Palestinians are regarded)
There are none. Socialism, to quote David Harvey, is what happens in cities or, as Baudelaire put it, modernism
November 6, 2025 at 5:19 AM
There are none. Socialism, to quote David Harvey, is what happens in cities or, as Baudelaire put it, modernism
The NYT gets even more craven
November 6, 2025 at 12:15 AM
The NYT gets even more craven
The funny thing is that Democrats often say they want to tax the rich and expand social services - Mamdani is “aggressive” and not “conciliatory” bc he apparently was not lying and actually wants to accomplish these goals
November 6, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The funny thing is that Democrats often say they want to tax the rich and expand social services - Mamdani is “aggressive” and not “conciliatory” bc he apparently was not lying and actually wants to accomplish these goals