Agnostic Pessimist
@scandired.bsky.social
Northern European with a recreational obsession with geopolitics. Esp. Oman/GCC/Arab Gulf/Yemen, Palestine-Israel, MENA, European rightward lurch, imperialism old and new, racism at home and abroad, in that order.
Medical student on the side.
Medical student on the side.
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Here is a good opinion:
January 25, 2026 at 5:24 AM
Here is a good opinion:
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
My latest www.hauntologies.net/p/getting-us...
Getting "Used" to the Israeli Drone in Lebanon
It ain't normal
www.hauntologies.net
January 21, 2026 at 9:17 AM
My latest www.hauntologies.net/p/getting-us...
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
This account from the Financial Times about Iran's protests has been making the rounds since it is one of the few in a major Western news outlet to suggest that "armed agitators" participated in the demos. Here's a link archive.is/202601220210...
January 23, 2026 at 4:47 AM
This account from the Financial Times about Iran's protests has been making the rounds since it is one of the few in a major Western news outlet to suggest that "armed agitators" participated in the demos. Here's a link archive.is/202601220210...
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
"on what basis do you claim the right to speak for christians in the holy land?"
"um. we are those christians?"
"um. we are those christians?"
January 22, 2026 at 11:59 PM
"on what basis do you claim the right to speak for christians in the holy land?"
"um. we are those christians?"
"um. we are those christians?"
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
No, seriously, though, where? Will they be here soon? Because the fucking country is sliding into moronofascism.
No, seriously, though, where? Will they be here soon? Because the fucking country is sliding into moronofascism.
The president is now demanding the investigation of a member of Congress for “Political Crimes”
January 22, 2026 at 11:17 PM
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
No, seriously, though, where? Will they be here soon? Because the fucking country is sliding into moronofascism.
No, seriously, though, where? Will they be here soon? Because the fucking country is sliding into moronofascism.
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
JD #Vance talking about the Titanic not to be turned around over night is the most accurate description of the current state of America. We all just watch it stearing right towards the iceberg (somewhere south of Greenland) - an noone feels ready to get the captain off the bridge and turn the wheel.
Vance on the economy:
"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"
"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"
January 22, 2026 at 6:50 PM
JD #Vance talking about the Titanic not to be turned around over night is the most accurate description of the current state of America. We all just watch it stearing right towards the iceberg (somewhere south of Greenland) - an noone feels ready to get the captain off the bridge and turn the wheel.
I'd love to know:
1) What operations Scandinavian SOF commands are hypothesizing these days.
2) What DGSE is up to in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela to make a potential US quagmire more quagmire-y.
1) What operations Scandinavian SOF commands are hypothesizing these days.
2) What DGSE is up to in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela to make a potential US quagmire more quagmire-y.
January 21, 2026 at 3:29 PM
I'd love to know:
1) What operations Scandinavian SOF commands are hypothesizing these days.
2) What DGSE is up to in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela to make a potential US quagmire more quagmire-y.
1) What operations Scandinavian SOF commands are hypothesizing these days.
2) What DGSE is up to in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela to make a potential US quagmire more quagmire-y.
I hear pundits claim US will take Greenland and Europe will do nothing. If so, the embarrasment of our current leaders would & should linger for decades, and a competent European far right party could build a strong "stab in the back" accusation against current goverments on the back of it.
Think the Americans in general and the Trump administration in particular has savagely misjudged how Europeans feel about territorial sovereignty. It’s on an entirely different level of importance from economic security and there is almost no chance Greenland will be surrendered without bloodshed.
January 21, 2026 at 2:11 PM
I hear pundits claim US will take Greenland and Europe will do nothing. If so, the embarrasment of our current leaders would & should linger for decades, and a competent European far right party could build a strong "stab in the back" accusation against current goverments on the back of it.
Naomi Klein: "Gaza has blown a hole in our moral universe!".
Watch how European stances shift when comparing the oppression of women in Iran vs. Palestine. Why the loud condemnation for one and silence for the other?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments ⬇️
Let us know your thoughts in the comments ⬇️
January 21, 2026 at 1:48 PM
Naomi Klein: "Gaza has blown a hole in our moral universe!".
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
If we want to survive in this world, we need to be ready to just do things. It'll be imperfect and some people will inevitably lose out but if we cannot find the strength to agree to a trade deal that has been negotiated for more than 25 years (!) at a moment like this, we will get destroyed
🚨 BREAKING: In a vote that could delay the EU’s trade deal with Mercosur by up to two years, the European Parliament has sent the Latin American accord for a judicial review.
Read the story: politico.eu/article/eu-m...
Read the story: politico.eu/article/eu-m...
January 21, 2026 at 12:37 PM
If we want to survive in this world, we need to be ready to just do things. It'll be imperfect and some people will inevitably lose out but if we cannot find the strength to agree to a trade deal that has been negotiated for more than 25 years (!) at a moment like this, we will get destroyed
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
“The IPS men dragged me to a place where it was hard to breathe. I was so exhausted that I threw myself face down on the floor, and they started beating me again. One of them sat on my back, another trod on my head, and the third tried to push something hard into my anus. I tried to clench my...
January 21, 2026 at 6:22 AM
“The IPS men dragged me to a place where it was hard to breathe. I was so exhausted that I threw myself face down on the floor, and they started beating me again. One of them sat on my back, another trod on my head, and the third tried to push something hard into my anus. I tried to clench my...
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
He might die tomorrow or moderate Dem senator Jeff Cornsteelmidwest might win a majority in 2028 and appoint a Supreme Court justice or two, but I don’t see how you can continue to ally yourself with a country with millions of voters who support this and no institutions that are able to reign it in.
Trump amplifies post that says NATO — not China or Russia — is part of the “real threat” to America.
January 20, 2026 at 4:55 PM
He might die tomorrow or moderate Dem senator Jeff Cornsteelmidwest might win a majority in 2028 and appoint a Supreme Court justice or two, but I don’t see how you can continue to ally yourself with a country with millions of voters who support this and no institutions that are able to reign it in.
Obv. Too early to do anything but speculate but I feel like this has echoes of US' behaviour in cold war Latin America. Struggling to recall other examples of domestic violence being fuelled to this extent.
THREAD: Iranian authorities released new footage this weekend that appears to show armed men among protesters across multiple Iranian cities carrying out attacks during recent demonstrations, including shooting police officers at close range and beating people until they were left unconscious...
January 20, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Obv. Too early to do anything but speculate but I feel like this has echoes of US' behaviour in cold war Latin America. Struggling to recall other examples of domestic violence being fuelled to this extent.
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
"Israeli agricultural exports face looming ‘collapse’ as world rejects products over Gaza genocide"
mondoweiss.net/2026/01/isra...
mondoweiss.net/2026/01/isra...
Israeli agricultural exports face looming ‘collapse’ as world rejects products over Gaza genocide
Israeli farmers warn the country’s agricultural export industry is facing a looming “collapse” due to international opposition to the Gaza genocide. Recent reports show the impact of boycotting Israel...
mondoweiss.net
January 19, 2026 at 9:09 PM
"Israeli agricultural exports face looming ‘collapse’ as world rejects products over Gaza genocide"
mondoweiss.net/2026/01/isra...
mondoweiss.net/2026/01/isra...
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
And once that's done, make the price of military action astronomically high. Is it insane to deploy a tripwire force of European soldiers to force Trump to kill Danes and Germans and Brits if he wants to conquer Greenland? Yes, it's completely insane but that should be our policy
January 19, 2026 at 10:24 AM
And once that's done, make the price of military action astronomically high. Is it insane to deploy a tripwire force of European soldiers to force Trump to kill Danes and Germans and Brits if he wants to conquer Greenland? Yes, it's completely insane but that should be our policy
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
This is a red line. If we let the United States force Denmark to give up territory by threatening an invasion, we're done. There are no good options here, but we have to stand with Denmark
January 19, 2026 at 9:41 AM
This is a red line. If we let the United States force Denmark to give up territory by threatening an invasion, we're done. There are no good options here, but we have to stand with Denmark
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
*Whereas all the rest of the world considers that the peace is about to be broken by Germany, that it is Germany that is threatening to attack Poland over Danzig, here in Germany, in the world the local newspapers create, the very reverse is being maintained." Shirer, Berlin Diary, Aug 1939
January 19, 2026 at 12:13 PM
*Whereas all the rest of the world considers that the peace is about to be broken by Germany, that it is Germany that is threatening to attack Poland over Danzig, here in Germany, in the world the local newspapers create, the very reverse is being maintained." Shirer, Berlin Diary, Aug 1939
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Secretary General of the Council of Europe says “International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.” Yes, well. Did Gaza show which one we choose?
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Opinion | I’m the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. This Is Something I Thought I’d Never Have to Write.
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 10:22 AM
Secretary General of the Council of Europe says “International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.” Yes, well. Did Gaza show which one we choose?
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/
January 18, 2026 at 3:04 AM
Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Cathartic analysis by @nathalietocci.bsky.social, among so much Euro-pessimism, vague statements and sanewashing. The optics of LatAm courage to stand up to Trump over Madure vs. European cowardice feels similar to Brazil's ability to prosecute Bolsonaro vs. US' inability to do so with Trump.
On the first War & Peace podcast of 2026, @nathalietocci.bsky.social joins @alissadecarbonnel.bsky.social & me to talk U.S. actions in Venezuela, its threats to Greenland, & what's wrong (& right) with European security responses. Plus, multilateralism, what does it even look like now?
Can Europe Solve Its U.S. Dilemma? | International Crisis Group
This week on War & Peace, Olga and Alissa speak with Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, about Europe’s response to the U.S. operation in Venezuela, the Trump administratio...
www.crisisgroup.org
January 17, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Cathartic analysis by @nathalietocci.bsky.social, among so much Euro-pessimism, vague statements and sanewashing. The optics of LatAm courage to stand up to Trump over Madure vs. European cowardice feels similar to Brazil's ability to prosecute Bolsonaro vs. US' inability to do so with Trump.
I've been thinking about for the last few years: Norway likes to think of itself as somehow special, and EU scepticism is a bit of s defsult position for the public, but I'm not sure how feasible it is for NO to sit outside of EU going forward in this environment.
Trump vows tariffs on eight European nations over Greenland
Trump said additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain, and they would rise to 25% in Jun...
www.reuters.com
January 17, 2026 at 5:49 PM
I've been thinking about for the last few years: Norway likes to think of itself as somehow special, and EU scepticism is a bit of s defsult position for the public, but I'm not sure how feasible it is for NO to sit outside of EU going forward in this environment.
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
This is the argument of slave owners. If we free them they will kill us all. It’s like the ghosts of Haiti and the US South mixed in with South African Apartheid, which that man is clearly still a fan of. He never evolved beyond any of this shit.
January 10, 2026 at 8:28 PM
This is the argument of slave owners. If we free them they will kill us all. It’s like the ghosts of Haiti and the US South mixed in with South African Apartheid, which that man is clearly still a fan of. He never evolved beyond any of this shit.
Reposted by Agnostic Pessimist
Small peeve: Punditry (or GOP boosterism) that pretends Greenland would be the 51st state.
Of course it wouldn't. We bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark a century ago. More than 2x the population of Greenland. It's a territory, and its citizens don't have voting DC reps. Neither would Greenland.
Of course it wouldn't. We bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark a century ago. More than 2x the population of Greenland. It's a territory, and its citizens don't have voting DC reps. Neither would Greenland.
January 16, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Small peeve: Punditry (or GOP boosterism) that pretends Greenland would be the 51st state.
Of course it wouldn't. We bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark a century ago. More than 2x the population of Greenland. It's a territory, and its citizens don't have voting DC reps. Neither would Greenland.
Of course it wouldn't. We bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark a century ago. More than 2x the population of Greenland. It's a territory, and its citizens don't have voting DC reps. Neither would Greenland.