D Muthulingam
@dmuthu.bsky.social
Writer, infection doctor, St.Louis (HIV/STI). Essays on science, med, tech, culture, care work & post-empire. Eelam Tamil diaspora. Once & maybe future med academic. Sex, drugs, microbes. Writing book re: post-imperial science https://www.dmuthulingam.com
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D Muthulingam
@dmuthu.bsky.social
· Feb 27
There are now 955 cases & 60 deaths from an unknown illness in DRC (links below). As this outbreak is growing, CDC is not permitted to exchange information with WHO and USAID outbreak response support is banned. Yesterday the Supreme court “paused” a federal judge order for USAID payments to resume.
“Typhus is not dead. It will live on for centuries and it will continue to break into the open whenever human stupidity and brutality give it a chance, as most likely they occasionally will.” – Hans Zinsser
Like Amrita Sen identified about famines, infectious diseases are fundamentally political
Like Amrita Sen identified about famines, infectious diseases are fundamentally political
I miss the professional banter i used to have in places like twitter--follow conferences, research updates, hash out complex cases & academic politics...its not like horrible things werent happenning then too...but the divided reality wasnt so in our faces, we could be deluded otherwise.
May 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I miss the professional banter i used to have in places like twitter--follow conferences, research updates, hash out complex cases & academic politics...its not like horrible things werent happenning then too...but the divided reality wasnt so in our faces, we could be deluded otherwise.
Reposted by D Muthulingam
Sen Henry Stern also claimed a keffiyeh was a Hamas garment, when confronted after bill SB472's hearing. I pointed out a keffiyeh has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, whereas Hamas has only existed since the 1980s. His eyes glazed over and he shook his head.
April 30, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Sen Henry Stern also claimed a keffiyeh was a Hamas garment, when confronted after bill SB472's hearing. I pointed out a keffiyeh has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, whereas Hamas has only existed since the 1980s. His eyes glazed over and he shook his head.
Moms. Literally just moms telling you, its you, you gotta do it, no one's coming, clean up ur own civilization, stop shoving things under the bed, if we want nice things (like a breathable atmosphere) we have to take care them, we all just have to pitch in and get it done
We wait for unlikely and unknown heroes to appear.
April 2, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Moms. Literally just moms telling you, its you, you gotta do it, no one's coming, clean up ur own civilization, stop shoving things under the bed, if we want nice things (like a breathable atmosphere) we have to take care them, we all just have to pitch in and get it done
There are no civil rights for all without economic democracy for all
March 31, 2025 at 12:47 PM
There are no civil rights for all without economic democracy for all
We are collectively not reading nearly enough noam chomsky
No grift has ever come to a dead stop like "Free Speech On Campus". Months of headlines when Oberlin changed some cafeteria wording. But when students are kidnapped and imprisoned - from universities denied billions on speech grounds - the free speech zealots roll up the medicine tent and skip town.
We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now
March 29, 2025 at 4:36 PM
We are collectively not reading nearly enough noam chomsky
The nuclear family trains us to have no sense of kinship, to enforce atomization, to neither ask for help nor expect it nor offer it. We all have to remember all of us know better, of the necessesity of kinship, how we rise & fall together, to coordinate & protect each other. That is the work.
March 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
The nuclear family trains us to have no sense of kinship, to enforce atomization, to neither ask for help nor expect it nor offer it. We all have to remember all of us know better, of the necessesity of kinship, how we rise & fall together, to coordinate & protect each other. That is the work.
Idk guys
The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...
Trump Administration Abruptly Cuts Billions From State Health Services
States have been told that they can no longer use grants that were funding infectious disease management and addiction services.
www.nytimes.com
March 28, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Idk guys
Favorite thing re: being a doctor is that for all grandiose history, theory, econ, i still have to walk into clinic & face this material reality, this specific patient's needs, adapt to what is, even as we imagine what could be; but also they keep us scrambling to prevent us from seeing big picture.
March 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Favorite thing re: being a doctor is that for all grandiose history, theory, econ, i still have to walk into clinic & face this material reality, this specific patient's needs, adapt to what is, even as we imagine what could be; but also they keep us scrambling to prevent us from seeing big picture.
"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
March 27, 2025 at 12:55 PM
"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Ok academic medicine showed up!
The 66-year-old woman kicking this guy’s ass is a retired professor of medicine with 16,000 citations on Google Scholar
Goals
Goals
March 25, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Ok academic medicine showed up!
the problem is the grinding relentless war death machine not whether it is done with enough gravitas.
March 25, 2025 at 3:59 AM
the problem is the grinding relentless war death machine not whether it is done with enough gravitas.
Scientific funding has always been political
March 25, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Scientific funding has always been political
March 24, 2025 at 5:59 PM
you have to understand the military (now policing) industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about is a literal mass monetary incentive for division & violence--if profit is the ultimate good (w/ no other checks or values), & violence is profitable, then violence is cause & solution to every problem
March 22, 2025 at 5:16 PM
you have to understand the military (now policing) industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about is a literal mass monetary incentive for division & violence--if profit is the ultimate good (w/ no other checks or values), & violence is profitable, then violence is cause & solution to every problem
Calisthenics is a physical practice--like all body training, rewires nerves, builds out muscles, atrophies others: literally reshapes ur physical body & alters its capacity. Political imagination, relationship skills, resisting obedience, building alt structures work this way too: practice & study
the one really solid rule at the moment is that almost every institution in America is unbelievably fucking cowardly
Paul Weiss caving is some of the most pathetic shit I’ve ever seen. You assholes should burn your bar cards; you don’t deserve them
March 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Calisthenics is a physical practice--like all body training, rewires nerves, builds out muscles, atrophies others: literally reshapes ur physical body & alters its capacity. Political imagination, relationship skills, resisting obedience, building alt structures work this way too: practice & study
They have spent last few decades since at least Reagan kneecapping universities from having public accountability or intellectual independence. To rebuild we need to have at least as much imagination, understanding, strategy, radicalism & long term investment as federalist society & tech dystopians
If giant universities would step up they'd be extremely formidable adversaries.
Even other than the ones with endowments, they have extraordinary cultural capital and the love of alums.
Put half the effort into fighting this that you put into March Madness and mobilize your powerful constituents.
Even other than the ones with endowments, they have extraordinary cultural capital and the love of alums.
Put half the effort into fighting this that you put into March Madness and mobilize your powerful constituents.
so far I'm seeing a lot of universities respond to grant terminations with
"oh I guess now we don't have that grant anymore"
instead of
"your assertion of a grant termination is executive overreach, see you in court"
So, universities: respectfully, what the fuck?
"oh I guess now we don't have that grant anymore"
instead of
"your assertion of a grant termination is executive overreach, see you in court"
So, universities: respectfully, what the fuck?
March 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
They have spent last few decades since at least Reagan kneecapping universities from having public accountability or intellectual independence. To rebuild we need to have at least as much imagination, understanding, strategy, radicalism & long term investment as federalist society & tech dystopians
Reposted by D Muthulingam
small brain: severance is about grief
medium brain: severance is about addiction
big brain: severance is about puerto rican statehood
medium brain: severance is about addiction
big brain: severance is about puerto rican statehood
March 21, 2025 at 4:00 AM
small brain: severance is about grief
medium brain: severance is about addiction
big brain: severance is about puerto rican statehood
medium brain: severance is about addiction
big brain: severance is about puerto rican statehood
!!!
So good
So good
New at PB, @amnaakbar.bsky.social chats with @silkys13.bsky.social about her new book “Unbuild Walls,” which offers a primer for activists, organizers, students, and intellectuals who wish to approach immigrant justice through an abolitionist lens.
buff.ly/hRv49ZG
buff.ly/hRv49ZG
“The Basic Liberal Narrative Is Gone”: Immigrant Rights and Abolition with Silky Shah - Public Books
“A singular focus on conditions, rather than the violence of immigration detention itself, just lent itself to expansion.”
buff.ly
March 21, 2025 at 3:17 AM
!!!
So good
So good
concise & illuminating summary
March 21, 2025 at 3:15 AM
concise & illuminating summary
This is happenning right now with relentless frequency, at level of tenure and kangaroo court student discipline, disproportionately to poc and femme. Its so naked & shameless, so reckless and frustrating...its also...revealing. they are scared...
My statement on being denied tenure at the Medill School of Journalism drive.google.com/file/d/1BBBI...
March 21, 2025 at 12:45 AM
This is happenning right now with relentless frequency, at level of tenure and kangaroo court student discipline, disproportionately to poc and femme. Its so naked & shameless, so reckless and frustrating...its also...revealing. they are scared...
Cărtărescu's Solenoid so far giving Severance, with the surreal hallways and alienation, but instead of american cult corporate and grief of the lost beloved, its rural middle school teaching in 1970s Communist Romania, and grief over foiled ambition
March 20, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Cărtărescu's Solenoid so far giving Severance, with the surreal hallways and alienation, but instead of american cult corporate and grief of the lost beloved, its rural middle school teaching in 1970s Communist Romania, and grief over foiled ambition
If you recall, goverments that are "run like corporations" have historically been called "company towns" that destroyed swaths of American Appalachia and the west, early 20th-century Guatamala under United Fruit Company, and mid-century fascist Italy.
March 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM
If you recall, goverments that are "run like corporations" have historically been called "company towns" that destroyed swaths of American Appalachia and the west, early 20th-century Guatamala under United Fruit Company, and mid-century fascist Italy.
I feel bananas that this is not more commonly understood
Let me put it in gamer terms for y'all: lawful good is going to lose to any evil ideology every single time. Appeals to law require morality &/or order: if someone is operating in bad faith, they don't care about order except as it serves them. They'll just lie about intentions, make a mess, & win.
March 20, 2025 at 2:19 AM
I feel bananas that this is not more commonly understood
I am so frustrated with everything for a long while but this moved me
12. Like art, music, philosophy, and literature, science is literally part of humanity's heritage.
My colleagues and I have had the amazing opportunity to be part of something vastly larger than ourselves, with meaning that transcends any state, regime, or generation.
They can't take that away.
My colleagues and I have had the amazing opportunity to be part of something vastly larger than ourselves, with meaning that transcends any state, regime, or generation.
They can't take that away.
March 19, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I am so frustrated with everything for a long while but this moved me