Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
@aivalentin.bsky.social
🇺🇦 Writer, artist, PhD candidate | C19 US, New Orleans, immigration, religion, death | Disabled Jewish queer trans | Husband and cavalier of @thelionmachine.bsky.social 🪬
Pinned
Hello new followers!
I'm Aleksei (he/they) and I'm the other half/cavalier primary of @thelionmachine.bsky.social
I'm a PhD student working on German Catholic immigrants and yellow fever in 19th c New Orleans. I write spec lit, dabble in art, and generally nerd around.
I'm Aleksei (he/they) and I'm the other half/cavalier primary of @thelionmachine.bsky.social
I'm a PhD student working on German Catholic immigrants and yellow fever in 19th c New Orleans. I write spec lit, dabble in art, and generally nerd around.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
“I say, here’s to Pyrrha, the woman I cultivated a smoking habit to impress—the cavalier, the legend, the stone-cold fox … John, please stop joggling my elbow, I have heard stone-cold fox from your own holy lips.”
The Emperor protested, “Respectfully! Respectfully.”
The Emperor protested, “Respectfully! Respectfully.”
December 26, 2025 at 10:20 PM
“I say, here’s to Pyrrha, the woman I cultivated a smoking habit to impress—the cavalier, the legend, the stone-cold fox … John, please stop joggling my elbow, I have heard stone-cold fox from your own holy lips.”
The Emperor protested, “Respectfully! Respectfully.”
The Emperor protested, “Respectfully! Respectfully.”
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Did someone say 'boxing'?
'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨
Happy Boxing Day!
#BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️
'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨
Happy Boxing Day!
#BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️
December 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Did someone say 'boxing'?
'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨
Happy Boxing Day!
#BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️
'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨
Happy Boxing Day!
#BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
Tiny
Tim, who did
NOT die,
and who
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
he was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
I have eaten
Tiny
Tim, who did
NOT die,
and who
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
he was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
"My name is Tiny Tim, who did NOT die,
Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair"
Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair"
‘It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite, Tiny Tim who did NOT die, when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me’
December 26, 2025 at 8:24 AM
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
Tiny
Tim, who did
NOT die,
and who
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
he was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
I have eaten
Tiny
Tim, who did
NOT die,
and who
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
he was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Reposting out of a response thread to remind US people: if you make people mad on the internet, it is a VERY worthwhile investment to add an umbrella policy to your homeowners' or renters' insurance. I recommend a $2m per incident minimum; we increased ours to $5m recently just in case.
This is part of why I *strongly* recommend anyone who makes assholes on the internet mad a lot should have a umbrella liability policy added to their homeowners' or renters' insurance, with a minimum coverage of $2m per incident, although we just increased ours to $5m just in case.
December 26, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposting out of a response thread to remind US people: if you make people mad on the internet, it is a VERY worthwhile investment to add an umbrella policy to your homeowners' or renters' insurance. I recommend a $2m per incident minimum; we increased ours to $5m recently just in case.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Happy holidays, folks. I hope next year is a little kinder.
December 24, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Happy holidays, folks. I hope next year is a little kinder.
Take a moment to enjoy Ukraine's famous Christmas carol and to remember those still on the front lines of freedom. 💙🌻💛
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFq...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFq...
Carol of the Bells [Shchedryk] near the frontline in Ukraine
YouTube video by Cultural Forces International
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Take a moment to enjoy Ukraine's famous Christmas carol and to remember those still on the front lines of freedom. 💙🌻💛
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFq...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFq...
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Oh hey look, it's Sarah Ditum, a raging fucking transphobic bigot who has been a major player in the UK "gender critical" multi-year public campaign to manufacture consent for stripping trans people of their legal rights because she's a raging transphobic bigot!
Yeah, no thanks.
Stop guilting people about being estranged from family members. It someone is they likely have personal reasons for being so.
Stop guilting people about being estranged from family members. It someone is they likely have personal reasons for being so.
December 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Oh hey look, it's Sarah Ditum, a raging fucking transphobic bigot who has been a major player in the UK "gender critical" multi-year public campaign to manufacture consent for stripping trans people of their legal rights because she's a raging transphobic bigot!
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
🎄STORY: After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their 5 children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings & no lights on the Christmas tree.
New Orleans has long been a second home for Hondurans, now they feel under siege.
wapo.st/3YdQNYx
New Orleans has long been a second home for Hondurans, now they feel under siege.
wapo.st/3YdQNYx
For one migrant family, no Christmas lights in New Orleans
After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their five children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings and no lights on the Christmas tree.
wapo.st
December 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
🎄STORY: After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their 5 children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings & no lights on the Christmas tree.
New Orleans has long been a second home for Hondurans, now they feel under siege.
wapo.st/3YdQNYx
New Orleans has long been a second home for Hondurans, now they feel under siege.
wapo.st/3YdQNYx
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
The river parishes tradition is said to light the way for Papa Noel.
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/watch-bonfires-light-up-the-levee-on-christmas-eve-st-john-st-james-parish-papa-noel/289-bc3d5b0e-43e9-4e03-b0fe-e2270d044eb9?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/watch-bonfires-light-up-the-levee-on-christmas-eve-st-john-st-james-parish-papa-noel/289-bc3d5b0e-43e9-4e03-b0fe-e2270d044eb9?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
WATCH: Bonfires light up the levee on Christmas Eve
The river parishes tradition is said to light the way for Papa Noel.
www.wwltv.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:11 AM
The river parishes tradition is said to light the way for Papa Noel.
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/watch-bonfires-light-up-the-levee-on-christmas-eve-st-john-st-james-parish-papa-noel/289-bc3d5b0e-43e9-4e03-b0fe-e2270d044eb9?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/watch-bonfires-light-up-the-levee-on-christmas-eve-st-john-st-james-parish-papa-noel/289-bc3d5b0e-43e9-4e03-b0fe-e2270d044eb9?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
My brain is possessed by an earworm. In the 80s, my grandfather had a parody version of "Anchors Aweigh" for their answering machine, and I keep getting the first line in my brain. But I can't find a recording of it online, so I feel like I'm hallucinating again.
December 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM
My brain is possessed by an earworm. In the 80s, my grandfather had a parody version of "Anchors Aweigh" for their answering machine, and I keep getting the first line in my brain. But I can't find a recording of it online, so I feel like I'm hallucinating again.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
‘Open thy nostrils, thou wretch, smell the funk of divinity!’
A divine micro from @notveryalice.bsky.social in @hexliterary.bsky.social 💦
hexliterary.com?p=3003
A divine micro from @notveryalice.bsky.social in @hexliterary.bsky.social 💦
hexliterary.com?p=3003
Thrift Store Perfume by Alice M
See here, o ye wistful, see here! The sweat of God, bottled. Collected from His pits. A drop grants salvation. Smell here, o ye damned! Open thy nostrils, thou wretch, smell the funk of divinity! Anim...
hexliterary.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:05 PM
‘Open thy nostrils, thou wretch, smell the funk of divinity!’
A divine micro from @notveryalice.bsky.social in @hexliterary.bsky.social 💦
hexliterary.com?p=3003
A divine micro from @notveryalice.bsky.social in @hexliterary.bsky.social 💦
hexliterary.com?p=3003
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
To understand who we are as a couple @aivalentin.bsky.social pointed out "pep peppovich pig" scans to Pink Pony Club ("I'm gonna keep expanding as the pep peppovich pig") and I came back with "Peppovich Farm Remembers"
In Andrei Bely's Petersburg, the protagonist Kolya has a nightmare about a bouncing ball turning into a round man who explodes like an overinflated balloon whose name is Pepp Peppovich Pepp (it's an onomatopoeia) but my brain keeps replacing it with "Pepp Peppovich Pig"
December 23, 2025 at 8:26 AM
To understand who we are as a couple @aivalentin.bsky.social pointed out "pep peppovich pig" scans to Pink Pony Club ("I'm gonna keep expanding as the pep peppovich pig") and I came back with "Peppovich Farm Remembers"
When I was in undergrad 20 years ago, conservative students said this shit to me. They also disrupted a final presentation on Jews in the Civil War by calling me a Christ killer. Prof did nothing. This was at a small, liberal college in PA.
It's not new. It's just picking up authority and speed.
It's not new. It's just picking up authority and speed.
Things that conservative students have said to me at the uni of Oklahoma
Hitler was misunderstood/his economic genius downplayed.
We should be using data from Nazi medical experiments.
‘Reverse racism’ is worse than racism.
Enslaved people were ‘well taken care of’
This has been building for so long
Hitler was misunderstood/his economic genius downplayed.
We should be using data from Nazi medical experiments.
‘Reverse racism’ is worse than racism.
Enslaved people were ‘well taken care of’
This has been building for so long
December 23, 2025 at 6:28 PM
When I was in undergrad 20 years ago, conservative students said this shit to me. They also disrupted a final presentation on Jews in the Civil War by calling me a Christ killer. Prof did nothing. This was at a small, liberal college in PA.
It's not new. It's just picking up authority and speed.
It's not new. It's just picking up authority and speed.
I need to hem my trousers for tomorrow, and the idea of putting them on to mark the hem length sounds like agony, tbh.
December 23, 2025 at 2:11 AM
I need to hem my trousers for tomorrow, and the idea of putting them on to mark the hem length sounds like agony, tbh.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
literally fuck anyone who doesn’t see at this point that it’s an organized nationwide effort to make trans people unemployable.
every trans person they push out of public life is a win for them & a whole hell of a lot of cis people need to start stepping up and saying fuck off to freaks like this.
every trans person they push out of public life is a win for them & a whole hell of a lot of cis people need to start stepping up and saying fuck off to freaks like this.
December 23, 2025 at 1:50 AM
literally fuck anyone who doesn’t see at this point that it’s an organized nationwide effort to make trans people unemployable.
every trans person they push out of public life is a win for them & a whole hell of a lot of cis people need to start stepping up and saying fuck off to freaks like this.
every trans person they push out of public life is a win for them & a whole hell of a lot of cis people need to start stepping up and saying fuck off to freaks like this.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
I posted this👇 to a claim that genAI is better than Ctl+F to search historical docs. @tristanpalmgren.bsky.social replied with a genAI summary of my document and @bookllyfr.bsky.social asked if it was accurate.
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
Ctl+F this
December 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I posted this👇 to a claim that genAI is better than Ctl+F to search historical docs. @tristanpalmgren.bsky.social replied with a genAI summary of my document and @bookllyfr.bsky.social asked if it was accurate.
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
The right, along the Roberts Court, is trying to nullify the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing equality under the law, in order to restore the Antebellum Constitution, which envisions “liberty” as an eternal aristocracy of race and class (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
December 22, 2025 at 1:11 PM
The right, along the Roberts Court, is trying to nullify the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing equality under the law, in order to restore the Antebellum Constitution, which envisions “liberty” as an eternal aristocracy of race and class (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
This is it this is the one
December 21, 2025 at 4:58 PM
This is it this is the one
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Happy Solstice ❄️
December 21, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Happy Solstice ❄️
"We have come this far, always believing
That justice will somehow prevail
This is the burning, this is the promise
And this is why we will not fail."
Chag sameach, y'all.
That justice will somehow prevail
This is the burning, this is the promise
And this is why we will not fail."
Chag sameach, y'all.
December 22, 2025 at 12:52 AM
"We have come this far, always believing
That justice will somehow prevail
This is the burning, this is the promise
And this is why we will not fail."
Chag sameach, y'all.
That justice will somehow prevail
This is the burning, this is the promise
And this is why we will not fail."
Chag sameach, y'all.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
imagine lecturing historians on how to do historical research without knowing who the Luddites were and what they were about while also claiming to be pro-labor
December 21, 2025 at 7:22 PM
imagine lecturing historians on how to do historical research without knowing who the Luddites were and what they were about while also claiming to be pro-labor