Alex Gil
@elotroalex.bsky.social
faculty of collective wonders for Yale Spanish & Portuguese. materialist spelunker and otrAmerican. he/him/colibri.
...thinking how sexual abuse is not a separate realm than power at this particular juncture when everything revolves around the idea of clubs and networks of influence. Time of monsters indeed.
November 17, 2025 at 9:28 PM
...thinking how sexual abuse is not a separate realm than power at this particular juncture when everything revolves around the idea of clubs and networks of influence. Time of monsters indeed.
The well-lived lives and well-died deaths of so many anti-colonialists and anti-fascists in the 20th century, working together, creating worlds, resisting the darkness. Hope their memory lives on as we see the 21st producing an equally strong army of light.
November 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
The well-lived lives and well-died deaths of so many anti-colonialists and anti-fascists in the 20th century, working together, creating worlds, resisting the darkness. Hope their memory lives on as we see the 21st producing an equally strong army of light.
“La crisi consiste appunto nel fatto che il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere: in questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati” — Gramsci's notebooks.
November 17, 2025 at 2:58 PM
“La crisi consiste appunto nel fatto che il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere: in questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati” — Gramsci's notebooks.
I just read the testimony of these 60 former DOJ attorneys in the NYT. I couldn't look away. If you have too much stuff to do today, don't start reading. Here's the tl;dr, which you already knew anyway: DOJ is gone gone. It's just the private legal army of a cruel madman.
November 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I just read the testimony of these 60 former DOJ attorneys in the NYT. I couldn't look away. If you have too much stuff to do today, don't start reading. Here's the tl;dr, which you already knew anyway: DOJ is gone gone. It's just the private legal army of a cruel madman.
Reposted by Alex Gil
I'd go further and say there's a nightmare mirror version of any political issue you'd care to mention. RFK Jr is like this with our food system and environmental illnesses. Terfism is like this with feminist politics. This is why people should read Doppleganger.
Antisemitism is a lot like Qanon child abuse conspiracies in that there’s this real and bad phenomenon and, parallel to that, what can only be described as a large scale mass psychosis about a mostly fictional version of the same phenomenon
November 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I'd go further and say there's a nightmare mirror version of any political issue you'd care to mention. RFK Jr is like this with our food system and environmental illnesses. Terfism is like this with feminist politics. This is why people should read Doppleganger.
Brilliant insight.
Antisemitism is a lot like Qanon child abuse conspiracies in that there’s this real and bad phenomenon and, parallel to that, what can only be described as a large scale mass psychosis about a mostly fictional version of the same phenomenon
November 16, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Brilliant insight.
I'd never heard this line until yesterday, when my younger idiot brother said it to me with a disgusting you-know-what-im-talking-bout look. I almost slapped him on the spot. Clarified I don't want that nor would do it, and that he just confessed to being a pedophile. I was angry and sad. Still am.
every time some prominent man is like ‘but all men want to fuck 17 year olds! every last one!’ i feel just fucking empty man. because there’s no way to confirm it isn’t true is there? i can’t prove that all of civilization isn’t just an elaborate cover for men’s supposed desperation to fuck children
November 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
I'd never heard this line until yesterday, when my younger idiot brother said it to me with a disgusting you-know-what-im-talking-bout look. I almost slapped him on the spot. Clarified I don't want that nor would do it, and that he just confessed to being a pedophile. I was angry and sad. Still am.
Reposted by Alex Gil
in the wake of Trump's extortion, higher ed in the US has reached a fork in the road: Texas A&M or UCLA?
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
in the wake of Trump's extortion, higher ed in the US has reached a fork in the road: Texas A&M or UCLA?
Reposted by Alex Gil
WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 15, 2025 at 12:01 AM
WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.
Reposted by Alex Gil
Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, darting among the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. Australia’s only shrew, Crocidura trichura, has been declared extinct.
Touching obituary by @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social
🧪🌏🦊
www.butlernature.com/2025/10/24/r...
Touching obituary by @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social
🧪🌏🦊
www.butlernature.com/2025/10/24/r...
Requiem for the Christmas Island Shrew
The Cry That Faded It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean...
www.butlernature.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, darting among the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. Australia’s only shrew, Crocidura trichura, has been declared extinct.
Touching obituary by @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social
🧪🌏🦊
www.butlernature.com/2025/10/24/r...
Touching obituary by @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social
🧪🌏🦊
www.butlernature.com/2025/10/24/r...
Did not know I was in the majority. That's a funny way of asking the question, because my mom would say for example that she's spiritual, which is her way of saying she is a monotheist who doesn't go to church. I'm so atheist, I don't even want to be called an atheist. Smacks of religion.
More US adults identify with no religion (29%) than with the Catholic Church (19%) or evangelical Protestant denominations (23%).
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
November 13, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Did not know I was in the majority. That's a funny way of asking the question, because my mom would say for example that she's spiritual, which is her way of saying she is a monotheist who doesn't go to church. I'm so atheist, I don't even want to be called an atheist. Smacks of religion.
Reposted by Alex Gil
New: Google has chosen a side in Trump's mass deportation campaign. Google is hosting a CBP facial recognition app to hunt immigrants; no indication Google will remove. At same time Google takes down apps for reporting ICE sightings
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...
www.404media.co
November 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
New: Google has chosen a side in Trump's mass deportation campaign. Google is hosting a CBP facial recognition app to hunt immigrants; no indication Google will remove. At same time Google takes down apps for reporting ICE sightings
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Reposted by Alex Gil
It’s wild how many of the ICE/CBP detentions are turning out to be illegal — and yet in the US system, there are no consequences for the agents and no recourse for the victims.
Judge rules mandatory detention of Chicago day care teacher by ICE is illegal
Judge rules mandatory detention of Chicago day care teacher by ICE is illegal
According to the ruling, Diana Santillana will be given a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge, who could order her released while her civil deportation case proceeds.
trib.al
November 13, 2025 at 1:19 AM
It’s wild how many of the ICE/CBP detentions are turning out to be illegal — and yet in the US system, there are no consequences for the agents and no recourse for the victims.
Reposted by Alex Gil
Grijalva: That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. Justice cannot wait another day.
November 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Grijalva: That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. Justice cannot wait another day.
Years of working the line in the service industry, followed by years of reading, and I had to wait until 2025 to give the concept "class warfare" its due—not because we achieved universal class consciousness in our time, but because the rich have, and they're coming all guns blazing for us.
November 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Years of working the line in the service industry, followed by years of reading, and I had to wait until 2025 to give the concept "class warfare" its due—not because we achieved universal class consciousness in our time, but because the rich have, and they're coming all guns blazing for us.
Reposted by Alex Gil
An excellent and inspiring talk from @elotroalex.bsky.social this evening, ending with a reflection on the difference between ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘expressing freedom’.
Delighted that @elotroalex.bsky.social will deliver this lecture at UAL on 12 November. He will discuss the difficulties of speaking freely under and beyond fascism, through the lens of Aimé Césaire's play about the Haitian Revolution “… Et les chiens se taisaient” (“… And The Dogs Were Silent”).
ONLINE TrAIN Open Lecture: Alex Gil
Writing Freedom Without Freedom of Expression
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
An excellent and inspiring talk from @elotroalex.bsky.social this evening, ending with a reflection on the difference between ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘expressing freedom’.
Reposted by Alex Gil
Baltimore! I’ll be live and in in person with the Banner Bookclub Wednesday at 6. Join us! www.thebanner.com/culture/book...
November 11, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Baltimore! I’ll be live and in in person with the Banner Bookclub Wednesday at 6. Join us! www.thebanner.com/culture/book...
Want to know something else that's neat about making low-emission sites in 2025? They probably will last longer than the gas guzzlers.
#minicomp
#minicomp
We are featured in over 50 news outlets today: PhD student David Mahoney's research using web archives, @archive.org, to measure historic website emissions, offering a new method and open-source code for analysing & highlighting online environmental impact. www.energylivenews.com/2025/11/11/c...
COP websites emit 10 times more carbon than average webpages - Energy Live News
COP conference websites emit more carbon per page view than typical webpages
www.energylivenews.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Want to know something else that's neat about making low-emission sites in 2025? They probably will last longer than the gas guzzlers.
#minicomp
#minicomp
Reposted by Alex Gil
We are featured in over 50 news outlets today: PhD student David Mahoney's research using web archives, @archive.org, to measure historic website emissions, offering a new method and open-source code for analysing & highlighting online environmental impact. www.energylivenews.com/2025/11/11/c...
COP websites emit 10 times more carbon than average webpages - Energy Live News
COP conference websites emit more carbon per page view than typical webpages
www.energylivenews.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:34 AM
We are featured in over 50 news outlets today: PhD student David Mahoney's research using web archives, @archive.org, to measure historic website emissions, offering a new method and open-source code for analysing & highlighting online environmental impact. www.energylivenews.com/2025/11/11/c...
Very kind review of my translation of Césaire's lost play by Laëtitia SAINT-LOUBERT. I like that she noticed a few things others had missed. Hope someday I get to thank her in person for the kindness.
www.jwilonline.org/wp-content/u...
www.jwilonline.org/wp-content/u...
www.jwilonline.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Very kind review of my translation of Césaire's lost play by Laëtitia SAINT-LOUBERT. I like that she noticed a few things others had missed. Hope someday I get to thank her in person for the kindness.
www.jwilonline.org/wp-content/u...
www.jwilonline.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Alex Gil
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
Ha! Doing a bit of research on the French education system under Vichy.
Would you believe me if I told you that at some point many people seriously believed that textbooks could replace teachers?
Would you believe me if I told you that at some point many people seriously believed that textbooks could replace teachers?
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Ha! Doing a bit of research on the French education system under Vichy.
Would you believe me if I told you that at some point many people seriously believed that textbooks could replace teachers?
Would you believe me if I told you that at some point many people seriously believed that textbooks could replace teachers?
Starting to sound like we're gonna have to primary a good chunk of senators. Mine are ok for now. Here to support y'alls house cleaning, tho.
November 9, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Starting to sound like we're gonna have to primary a good chunk of senators. Mine are ok for now. Here to support y'alls house cleaning, tho.