Mathew Abbott
@mathewabbott.bsky.social
Philosopher & NTEU Pres, FedUni.
New pubs:
Eco-Marxism & the Anthropocene: https://doi.org/10.1177/07255136251401907
Marx’s naturalism: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2025.2554130
Critique of posthumanism: https://doi.org/10.1177/07255136241256980
New pubs:
Eco-Marxism & the Anthropocene: https://doi.org/10.1177/07255136251401907
Marx’s naturalism: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2025.2554130
Critique of posthumanism: https://doi.org/10.1177/07255136241256980
Pinned
Mathew Abbott
@mathewabbott.bsky.social
· Sep 30
I’ve an article out in Angelaki this week. It reconstructs Marx’s notion of species-being in light of contemporary naturalism. It argues his thought differs from McDowell et al as he thinks achieving naturalism is a practical task requiring social revolution. It’s open access - link below!
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
No Adelaide Writers Week for me. I can’t in any good conscience now appear at a festival seeking to mute a very necessary public conversation … Randa Abdel-Fattah is an important voice. Here’s something I published from her on, guess what, Palestinian marginalisation. meanjin.com.au/latest/the-g...
The Great Palestinian Silence
It seems everyone is tweeting about freedom of speech. So let me tell you a story about freedom of speech and the exceptional case of Palestine. In the days leading up to Israel’s proposed annexati…
meanjin.com.au
January 8, 2026 at 7:33 AM
No Adelaide Writers Week for me. I can’t in any good conscience now appear at a festival seeking to mute a very necessary public conversation … Randa Abdel-Fattah is an important voice. Here’s something I published from her on, guess what, Palestinian marginalisation. meanjin.com.au/latest/the-g...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
I stand with Randa and everyone standing against hate, genocide, oppression and terror. In all its forms.
January 8, 2026 at 5:28 AM
I stand with Randa and everyone standing against hate, genocide, oppression and terror. In all its forms.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s response:
January 8, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s response:
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
What’s the point of writers’ festivals — or, for that matter, writers — if they can’t discuss issues that matter? Australian arts administrators would rather destroy the whole sector than allow Palestinians to speak about genocide. It’s beyond shameful.
January 8, 2026 at 4:57 AM
What’s the point of writers’ festivals — or, for that matter, writers — if they can’t discuss issues that matter? Australian arts administrators would rather destroy the whole sector than allow Palestinians to speak about genocide. It’s beyond shameful.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Boycott the racist Adelaide Festival. If you are presenting or performing, withdraw. If you are attending, ask for a refund.
If you proceed with your engagement with Adelaide Festival, you have to be taken to mean that you think Arabs should be cancelled for being
If you proceed with your engagement with Adelaide Festival, you have to be taken to mean that you think Arabs should be cancelled for being
January 8, 2026 at 2:57 AM
Boycott the racist Adelaide Festival. If you are presenting or performing, withdraw. If you are attending, ask for a refund.
If you proceed with your engagement with Adelaide Festival, you have to be taken to mean that you think Arabs should be cancelled for being
If you proceed with your engagement with Adelaide Festival, you have to be taken to mean that you think Arabs should be cancelled for being
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
January 5, 2026 at 1:19 PM
BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
I’m still amazed that the sub judice aspect has been ignored in the rolling media campaign for a Bondi royal commission.
In case you’ve not read about it (and why would you) I’ve written about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
In case you’ve not read about it (and why would you) I’ve written about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
January 5, 2026 at 4:44 AM
I’m still amazed that the sub judice aspect has been ignored in the rolling media campaign for a Bondi royal commission.
In case you’ve not read about it (and why would you) I’ve written about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
In case you’ve not read about it (and why would you) I’ve written about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Rallying to oppose the US attack on Venezuela at Flinders St Station this evening. ✊
January 4, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Rallying to oppose the US attack on Venezuela at Flinders St Station this evening. ✊
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Imagine being the person brave enough to leak this in the hopes that media attention could stop it and then the media just……buries it.
NEW: Plans for secret U.S. raid to capture Maduro leaked to the Washington Post and New York Times before it happened, but both decided not to publish to protect U.S. troops - Semafor
January 4, 2026 at 4:36 AM
Imagine being the person brave enough to leak this in the hopes that media attention could stop it and then the media just……buries it.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
"We urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy"? What kind of nonsense statement is this? The US just bombed them with no cause, kidnapped their president and his wife, and declared that they would be running the country in order to secure its oil for themselves.
January 3, 2026 at 11:20 PM
"We urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy"? What kind of nonsense statement is this? The US just bombed them with no cause, kidnapped their president and his wife, and declared that they would be running the country in order to secure its oil for themselves.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
just so it's clear: this is the exact core function of genAI
Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism.
Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)
Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism.
Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)
Bob and I were among the hundreds of researchers that were supposed to conduct the 6th U.S. National Climate Assessment. Now it looks like they're gonna produce it with a few people and Grok? Communities need rigorous and accurate information about climate change. This will put communities at risk.
January 1, 2026 at 7:11 AM
just so it's clear: this is the exact core function of genAI
Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism.
Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)
Fascist government and climate deniers love it because it can produce the aesthetics of knowledge without any actual tendency towards truth. It is automated denialism.
Shame on every climate scientist promoting its use (there are lots)
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Happy new year to the Crown Melbourne workers taking industrial action x
January 1, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Happy new year to the Crown Melbourne workers taking industrial action x
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Now reading. Best handbook yet for the AI hysteria era. Laser-focused on question of profitability and value capture instead of personality and projections, on enterprise instead of chatbots. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
December 31, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Now reading. Best handbook yet for the AI hysteria era. Laser-focused on question of profitability and value capture instead of personality and projections, on enterprise instead of chatbots. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
‘You may reasonably object to the orthodox Freudian picture of the unconscious. But can we doubt that there is more, much more, to our individual and collective lives than that of which we are consciously aware?’
Amia Srinivasan on developing a psychoanalytic politics:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan on developing a psychoanalytic politics:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan · The Impossible Patient: Return of the Unconscious
You may not wish to commit yourself ontologically to some thing called the ‘unconscious’, and you may reasonably...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 1:03 PM
‘You may reasonably object to the orthodox Freudian picture of the unconscious. But can we doubt that there is more, much more, to our individual and collective lives than that of which we are consciously aware?’
Amia Srinivasan on developing a psychoanalytic politics:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan on developing a psychoanalytic politics:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
Three Meanings of Political Economy: Reflections on Intellectual History, Marxism, and Capitalism’s Unthought
by Nate Holdren
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
theconversation.com/with-every-e...
theconversation.com/with-every-e...
With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
Every new extinction ripples out beyond the affected species, from ecosystems to human knowledge across culture, spirituality and science.
theconversation.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
theconversation.com/with-every-e...
theconversation.com/with-every-e...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
'Grief can be incredibly isolating. Once you see the tear in the fabric, the scribbling of the dieback on the tree trunk, the endless lines of grey dead trunks, there is no going back to being oblivious to the reality of the collapse happening around us'.
themountainjournal.com/2024/10/11/m...
themountainjournal.com/2024/10/11/m...
Managing the grief
For the last few years, Friends of the Earth has been hosting guided walks in the high country to show people areas at risk from logging. These have included Mt Stirling, the upper Little Dargo Riv…
themountainjournal.com
December 27, 2025 at 8:52 AM
'Grief can be incredibly isolating. Once you see the tear in the fabric, the scribbling of the dieback on the tree trunk, the endless lines of grey dead trunks, there is no going back to being oblivious to the reality of the collapse happening around us'.
themountainjournal.com/2024/10/11/m...
themountainjournal.com/2024/10/11/m...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
This is an astonishing thing to delete. On what grounds was it complained about, other than being actively opposed to reconciliation and actively support of hate and bigotry?
Please share widely. The SMH took it down after complaints by the AJA.
open.substack.com/pub/deepcutn... ... ppl who had never met a Muslim
open.substack.com/pub/deepcutn... ... ppl who had never met a Muslim
Ahmed Ouf: I went to Bondi and hugged people who'd never spoken to a Muslim before
Read Cumberland councillor's deleted opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald
open.substack.com
December 26, 2025 at 10:24 AM
This is an astonishing thing to delete. On what grounds was it complained about, other than being actively opposed to reconciliation and actively support of hate and bigotry?
A surprise Xmas gift, my article on the Anthropocene and self-consciousness is out!
The article develops an eco-Marxist interpretation of the discovery that Earth is an integrated system, a discovery we have made in grasping our own role in shaping it.
It’s open access: doi.org/10.1177/0725...
The article develops an eco-Marxist interpretation of the discovery that Earth is an integrated system, a discovery we have made in grasping our own role in shaping it.
It’s open access: doi.org/10.1177/0725...
December 25, 2025 at 5:54 AM
A surprise Xmas gift, my article on the Anthropocene and self-consciousness is out!
The article develops an eco-Marxist interpretation of the discovery that Earth is an integrated system, a discovery we have made in grasping our own role in shaping it.
It’s open access: doi.org/10.1177/0725...
The article develops an eco-Marxist interpretation of the discovery that Earth is an integrated system, a discovery we have made in grasping our own role in shaping it.
It’s open access: doi.org/10.1177/0725...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Chris Minns' protest ban in the wake of Bondi attacks is racist, authoritarian and must be resisted
@nickriemer.bsky.social #auspol
michaelwest.com.au/minns-protes...
@nickriemer.bsky.social #auspol
michaelwest.com.au/minns-protes...
Minns’ protest ban: breathtakingly racist, authoritarian, and must be resisted - Michael West
Chris Minns’ protest ban is not just authoritarian: it is breathtakingly racist and must be resisted, writes Nick Riemer.
michaelwest.com.au
December 22, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Chris Minns' protest ban in the wake of Bondi attacks is racist, authoritarian and must be resisted
@nickriemer.bsky.social #auspol
michaelwest.com.au/minns-protes...
@nickriemer.bsky.social #auspol
michaelwest.com.au/minns-protes...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Please share and sign this petition from the Jewish Council of Australia: we will not be divided after Bondi.
jewishcouncil.good.do/unity/jewish...
jewishcouncil.good.do/unity/jewish...
SIGN ✍️ We will not be divided after Bondi
Add your name to the Jewish Council petition today
jewishcouncil.good.do
December 22, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Please share and sign this petition from the Jewish Council of Australia: we will not be divided after Bondi.
jewishcouncil.good.do/unity/jewish...
jewishcouncil.good.do/unity/jewish...
“Organising rests on the insight that… what is sometimes needed to become the sort of subject who feels empowered to stand up to the boss or the police or the state, is simply to act, in some small way, as if you already were that sort of subject”
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan · The Impossible Patient: Return of the Unconscious
You may not wish to commit yourself ontologically to some thing called the ‘unconscious’, and you may reasonably...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 21, 2025 at 10:31 AM
“Organising rests on the insight that… what is sometimes needed to become the sort of subject who feels empowered to stand up to the boss or the police or the state, is simply to act, in some small way, as if you already were that sort of subject”
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
I agree w/ this and the replies. I also think what's really going on, at least in part, is that for some academics writing is what it also is for a lot of students - something done instrumentally to avoid a penalty. In important respects they don't want to be intellectuals. I think this reflects a
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
December 20, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I agree w/ this and the replies. I also think what's really going on, at least in part, is that for some academics writing is what it also is for a lot of students - something done instrumentally to avoid a penalty. In important respects they don't want to be intellectuals. I think this reflects a
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
Interesting Morozov critique of @abenanav.bsky.social on the challenge of the non-neutrality of generative AI www.theideasletter.org/essay/social...
December 20, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Interesting Morozov critique of @abenanav.bsky.social on the challenge of the non-neutrality of generative AI www.theideasletter.org/essay/social...
Reposted by Mathew Abbott
made a graph about the return of psychoanalysis
December 19, 2025 at 10:46 PM
made a graph about the return of psychoanalysis