Benjamin Balthaser
@blbalthaser.bsky.social
Assoc prof of multiethnic US lit; au of Dedication (2011), Anti-Imperialist Modernism (2016), Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism & the Cultures of the US Jewish Left (2025). He/him. 🕎🌹😷🇵🇸Chicago 🐢
https://iusb.academia.edu/BenjaminBalthaser
https://iusb.academia.edu/BenjaminBalthaser
W every passing day after the cease fire the global silence over Israeli’s admitted crimes is deafening
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
November 11, 2025 at 2:22 AM
W every passing day after the cease fire the global silence over Israeli’s admitted crimes is deafening
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Funny, the Right wants to force kids to pray in schools but prevent adults from praying in public for prisoners
November 9, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Funny, the Right wants to force kids to pray in schools but prevent adults from praying in public for prisoners
A friend asked why Marx’s Capital spends so much time on the appearance of commodities & markets, & takes so long to get to questions of exploitation. One answer is that the success of capitalism as a system is convincing even its victims that it is not a system at all… 1/2
November 9, 2025 at 6:20 AM
A friend asked why Marx’s Capital spends so much time on the appearance of commodities & markets, & takes so long to get to questions of exploitation. One answer is that the success of capitalism as a system is convincing even its victims that it is not a system at all… 1/2
Nations ofc, are no more a feature of nature than gender is, which is why the Supreme Court fears the questioning of one will lead to the undoing of another.
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
November 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Nations ofc, are no more a feature of nature than gender is, which is why the Supreme Court fears the questioning of one will lead to the undoing of another.
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
“Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth”
I suppose it is not surprising to learn that contemporary reactionary politics, like old fashioned reactionary politics, imagines all hierarchies as rooted in a mythical, organic ideal of nature, & finds any attempt to suggest hierarchies are arbitrary & contingent v threatening
November 6, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I suppose it is not surprising to learn that contemporary reactionary politics, like old fashioned reactionary politics, imagines all hierarchies as rooted in a mythical, organic ideal of nature, & finds any attempt to suggest hierarchies are arbitrary & contingent v threatening
So quickly Zionism turns eugenicist - diaspora Jews “dying out” is ofc a Nazi idea (to say nothing of how Palestinians are regarded)
November 6, 2025 at 5:28 AM
So quickly Zionism turns eugenicist - diaspora Jews “dying out” is ofc a Nazi idea (to say nothing of how Palestinians are regarded)
There are none. Socialism, to quote David Harvey, is what happens in cities or, as Baudelaire put it, modernism
November 6, 2025 at 5:19 AM
There are none. Socialism, to quote David Harvey, is what happens in cities or, as Baudelaire put it, modernism
The NYT gets even more craven
November 6, 2025 at 12:15 AM
The NYT gets even more craven
The funny thing is that Democrats often say they want to tax the rich and expand social services - Mamdani is “aggressive” and not “conciliatory” bc he apparently was not lying and actually wants to accomplish these goals
November 6, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The funny thing is that Democrats often say they want to tax the rich and expand social services - Mamdani is “aggressive” and not “conciliatory” bc he apparently was not lying and actually wants to accomplish these goals
As my friend Ben said, all Bens entering a room
November 5, 2025 at 9:33 PM
As my friend Ben said, all Bens entering a room
November 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Translation: Mamdani should do everything possible to ensure he accomplishes nothing bc we are the paper of the status quo
“He should start by building a leadership team light on democratic socialists and heavy on officials with records of accomplishment and proven management skills”
“He should start by building a leadership team light on democratic socialists and heavy on officials with records of accomplishment and proven management skills”
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Translation: Mamdani should do everything possible to ensure he accomplishes nothing bc we are the paper of the status quo
“He should start by building a leadership team light on democratic socialists and heavy on officials with records of accomplishment and proven management skills”
“He should start by building a leadership team light on democratic socialists and heavy on officials with records of accomplishment and proven management skills”
I have to say, in the long history of “Marx failed to consider” takes by internet reply-guys, “Marx failed to consider the use-value of warm coats” should win its own category of award
November 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I have to say, in the long history of “Marx failed to consider” takes by internet reply-guys, “Marx failed to consider the use-value of warm coats” should win its own category of award
I have a feeling I don’t want to know what Trump has in mind for Jews who do not do what is in what he perceives to be their best interests
November 4, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I have a feeling I don’t want to know what Trump has in mind for Jews who do not do what is in what he perceives to be their best interests
Mamdani answering the ? of whether he will moderate his message w a photo of Paul Robeson & a quote by Marcantonio: “If it be radicalism to believe that our natural resources should be used for the benefit of all, and not for the purpose of enriching just a few, then I plead guilty to the charge.”
November 4, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Mamdani answering the ? of whether he will moderate his message w a photo of Paul Robeson & a quote by Marcantonio: “If it be radicalism to believe that our natural resources should be used for the benefit of all, and not for the purpose of enriching just a few, then I plead guilty to the charge.”
This NYT piece quietly drops 3 key take-aways: there is an anti-Zionist Jewish left; it’s growing; it tells a v different story of Jewish history than Zionism: rather than a Holocaust fueled tale of Biblical deliverance to a colonial nation, a Jewish history of solidarity & multiethnic community
November 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
This NYT piece quietly drops 3 key take-aways: there is an anti-Zionist Jewish left; it’s growing; it tells a v different story of Jewish history than Zionism: rather than a Holocaust fueled tale of Biblical deliverance to a colonial nation, a Jewish history of solidarity & multiethnic community
A friend pointed out this comparison and it’s impossible to unsee: Mamdani is read by the press as both a “Judeo Bolshevik” and a “Muslim jihadist” at the same time, or more precisely, the way these have both fused into a single image - the “Judeo Muslim threat”
October 31, 2025 at 6:57 PM
A friend pointed out this comparison and it’s impossible to unsee: Mamdani is read by the press as both a “Judeo Bolshevik” and a “Muslim jihadist” at the same time, or more precisely, the way these have both fused into a single image - the “Judeo Muslim threat”
According to generic rules of the diasporic Jewish/blond WASP marriage plot, this clearly was the arc in Curb all along
October 31, 2025 at 5:51 PM
According to generic rules of the diasporic Jewish/blond WASP marriage plot, this clearly was the arc in Curb all along
“cool girls for capitalism” is apparently an attempt to compete w “hot girls for Zohran,” except no one, not even these cool girls, could write in Cuomo, so they replaced his name w the nearest abstract noun for exploitation and theft
October 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
“cool girls for capitalism” is apparently an attempt to compete w “hot girls for Zohran,” except no one, not even these cool girls, could write in Cuomo, so they replaced his name w the nearest abstract noun for exploitation and theft
The perceived threat of someone promising of free stuff seems to make news commentators forget to not say racist and antisemitic comments out loud
October 29, 2025 at 11:06 PM
The perceived threat of someone promising of free stuff seems to make news commentators forget to not say racist and antisemitic comments out loud
Apparently the gap btw “centrist liberal” and “full blown klan” is closed by the radical demand that Palestinians be seen as people and buses should be free
October 29, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Apparently the gap btw “centrist liberal” and “full blown klan” is closed by the radical demand that Palestinians be seen as people and buses should be free
The American Jews who were most active in helping to build the labor mvt and New Deal were by and large socialists and communists and were fervent anti-Zionists.
![Batya Ungar-Sargon: "Only 13% [of Democrats] stand with Israelis against the Palestinians...
"The thing that makes this so appalling is that Jews built the left in this country. We built the labor movement. We wrote the New Deal. 70% of the lawyers who worked on civil rights cases were Jews!"
"We've been at the forefront of every liberal and leftist issue in this country!"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zgnkx3z75dmchqkaykcwhyzx/bafkreiez5ty5ipoqt6jaap65uqsqmvnrvz7yuwmbhz57am6wtigg3j6mo4@jpeg)
October 29, 2025 at 2:37 PM
The American Jews who were most active in helping to build the labor mvt and New Deal were by and large socialists and communists and were fervent anti-Zionists.
The right-wing response to Mamdani pits Jews & Muslims against each other while also mobilizing racist tropes against both. I argued last summer this racial/racist unsettling is part of the way ZM’s socialism upends demographic scripts about power in urban America spectrejournal.com/mamdanis-jud...
October 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The right-wing response to Mamdani pits Jews & Muslims against each other while also mobilizing racist tropes against both. I argued last summer this racial/racist unsettling is part of the way ZM’s socialism upends demographic scripts about power in urban America spectrejournal.com/mamdanis-jud...
TFW when you stan Zionism so hard you start to hate the Jews in yr city
October 28, 2025 at 12:45 AM
TFW when you stan Zionism so hard you start to hate the Jews in yr city