Laura J Hilton
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ljhilton2.bsky.social
Laura J Hilton
@ljhilton2.bsky.social
Historian. Professor. Sox Fan. Writing about the culture of rumors in postwar Germany & statelessness after the Second World War. I speak for myself.
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...
November 2, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
“The researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.” Yes!
November 2, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
“.. I absolutely couldn’t care less what he [Trump] thinks about me … He’s the living personification of what the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for. If Congress had any guts, he’d be consigned to the trash heap of history.”

@time.com
time.com/7319963/bruc...
September 25, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
“What fascisms old and new have in common is they tend to look to women to fill in the gaps that the state misses."

And, I'd add, they get women to fill these gaps by making patriarchy's coattails the only way means by which women can achieve security or esteem.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
From Nazi Germany to Trump’s America: why strongmen rely on women at home
Fascist regimes pushed narratives of domestic bliss, yet relied on women’s unpaid labor. In the US today, ‘womanosphere’ influencers promote the same fantasies
www.theguardian.com
September 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Some personal news:

I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.

Thread incoming.

substack.com/@karenattiah...
The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.
I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.
substack.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
The special section from our 50th anniversary issue, The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide, is now online.

Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.
The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide - Boston Review
Speaking the truth and exposing lies is not enough.
www.bostonreview.net
September 2, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Dozens of Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Sunday as they tried to get food aid, according to local health authorities, one of the deadliest days in recent months for those seeking assistance.

By Joe Hernandez, @danielestrin.bsky.social and Anas Baba
Nearly 100 people killed seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials say
Dozens of Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Sunday as they tried to get food aid, according to local health authorities, one of the deadliest days in recent months for those seeking assistance.
n.pr
July 20, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
My NYT op-ed this morning
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...
Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.
www.nytimes.com
July 15, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.
July 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.
Opinion | Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp.
This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.
www.msnbc.com
July 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
They’re planning on building a detention center for migrants in the middle of the fetid swamps of Florida.

If you think this is something new, the first internment camp they sent me and my family to in 1942 was a barbed wire prison called Rohwer. It was located in the swamps of Arkansas.
June 24, 2025 at 9:43 PM
No Kings Protest, Zanesville, OH.
We fought one war to get rid of a king and tyranny. And another to defeat Fascism.
June 14, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Commentary: In August 2023, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected lawmakers' blatant attempt to undermine our citizen-initiative process. Instead of listening, politicians are now aiming to shut down grassroots campaigns before they ever reach the ballot. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/06/11/o...
Ohio lawmakers once again ambush the citizen ballot initiative process • Ohio Capital Journal
In August 2023, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected lawmakers' blatant attempt to undermine our citizen-initiative process. Instead of listening, Ohio politicians are now aiming to shut down…
ohiocapitaljournal.com
June 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Speaking of the horrors of detention without charges by an authoritarian state, most semesters I'm able to raise awareness of the situation of the Uighurs in China. This explainer from @pbsnews.org is very helpful.
What is happening with the Uighurs in China? | PBS NewsHour
At least 1 million Muslim minority Uighurs are held in Chinese government-run detention centers. There are at least 85 known centers in Xinjiang, China, which the government claims are “re-education c...
www.pbs.org
April 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
May 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
2/4. The entire practice of the Holocaust of the Jews involved zones of statelessness. It is easier to move people away from law than it is to remove law from people. Almost all of the killing took place in artificially created stateless zones.
April 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Russia has kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Putin was indicted for this crime. Yale has a unit searching for them. Musk eliminated the funding.
inews.co.uk/news/world/m...
Musk cuts the team finding Ukrainian children stolen by Russia
Trump’s federal cost-cutting - led by Elon Musk's Doge – has now hit the unit helping rescue Ukrainian children taken by Russia
inews.co.uk
March 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Musk states "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy". Charles Darwin, who actually researched this stuff, showed it was empathy, specifically, that enabled humanity to flourish.
Government AI, defending DOGE and more: Takeaways from Elon Musk’s three-hour interview with Joe Rogan
The wide-ranging interview between the two prominent Trump supporters comes as Musk remakes the federal government.
www.politico.com
March 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
Pass it on.
#StandWithUkraine
February 28, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
🧵"So this is how liberty dies..."

Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up.

I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9
February 13, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Laura J Hilton
"One of the world’s largest Holocaust archives is accessible online for the first time after a three-year digitisation of much of the collection... the Wiener Holocaust Library’s new online platform includes more than 150,000 items collected over nine decades" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
‘New way of bearing witness’: one of biggest Holocaust archives goes online
Exclusive: Wiener Holocaust Library has digitised more than 150,000 items including letters, pamphlets and photos
www.theguardian.com
January 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM