A Dutch version of this post has been published on doorbraak.eu.

On 4 November 2025, Science Guide reported on the decision by the rector of University Utrecht, Wilco Hazeleger, to allow the founder of the FvD - Thierry Baudet - to speak at a debate night at the university.

This is simultaneously shocking, and completely unsurprising. It is shocking because the academic community has apparently still - after everything that is happening in the world - not built up the necessary immune response to keep out the fascist virus. It is unsurprising because this moral failure of university management has been with us for many years.

One of the worst things of teaching at the university is that students are constantly graduating. I wish I could prevent you all from graduating.

This is a sticker that I got from students who graduated last year. These were very impressive students. They played an important role in the city-wide protests against the silence and complicity of this society in the face of the ongoing genocide.

• N.B.1: 14 July 2025: I originally posted this on 12 August 2024. But the content is now new and improved.
• N.B.2: A small discussion can be found underneath this Lemmy post.
• N.B.3: To skip the explanation, and immediately create and download your own version of the new graph, click here: https://mishathings.org/co2-graph. It runs on a small server, so you might need to have a bit of patience. Also it works better on a desktop/laptop than on a phone 😬).

A powerful but problematic graph

For some years now, I have seen this graph go around on social media. I think it’s a powerful image, because it shows us so clearly that it is happening in our lifetime and under our watch.

A few days ago I shared this post, which basically adds to the many warnings (within and outside the Fediverse) that the U.S. is quickly descending into fascism. What is new?

One of the (private) responses came Nuwagaba Gift, a 21-year old teacher, community organizer and farmer from Uganda, and we ended up exploring some of the historical details of this Sturmabteilung (SA). Among other things, Nuwagaba pointed out the crazy story of the co-founder and leader of the SA, Ernest Röhm, who, before he was killed in night of the long knives, was recruited by the Bolivian military ataché of the Netherlands to serve in the Bolivian army…

This article tells a fascinating story about how the municipality of Amsterdam tried to build an AI model to help officials detect fraud in welfare support. In particular, the article describes how the municipality tried to do it the right, ethical and fair way by avoiding bias.

The article presents many interesting and critical angles, but I still felt like adding my own two cents.

Some direct thoughts:

Treating everyone equally

Hace algunos días estabamos en Zea Maíz, en Cali. No solo es un restaurante construido y gestionado en torno a los principios de la soberanía alimentaria, sino que también ofrece un espacio para que artistas y escritores anarquistas compartan su arte.

Encontramos este librito hermoso, escrito por Viviana Gutièrrez e ilustrado por Lina Ipia, quienes nos dan permiso para compartirlo con ustedes.

Next time you have to explain to someone why it’s better to not eat meat, you can tell them that it is to make sure that the next asteroid impact will not prevent electronic life from knowing the universe.

Let James Lovelock be a vehicle for the universe to say crazy things about itself.

Renegade scientist, deranged technocrat

I have always had a hard time making up my mind about James Lovelock. On the one hand, his Gaia hypothesis has really changed the way I (and many others) think about the remarkable equilibria we are born into. On the other hand, the way his ego and his (largely self-acclaimed?) engineering credentials have consistently manifested in confused appeals to technocracy - “it may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while” - has been misguided and dangerous.

In het artikel “Heil Israël” in de Groene Amsterdammer van 30 april 2025 spreekt Ian Buruma zich uit tegen de arrestaties en deportaties die plaatsvinden onder de regering Trump.

Demonstranten als Mahmoud Khalil worden beroofd van hun burgerrechten, zo stelt hij, en dat dit gebeurt onder het mom van fascistische strijd tegen Khalil’s vermeende “internationalisme” en “wortelloze kosmopolitisme” maakt het een vorm van antisemitisme.

Het lijkt me nogal een stretch om hier van antisemitisme te spreken¹, maar dat er ijzingwekkende parallellen bestaan tussen het antisemitisme van de jaren 30-40 en het racisme/ de moslimhaat van onze tijd is wat mij betreft overduidelijk.

A couple of weeks ago, a few kind students warned me about a post on Instagram: link.¹

I am always open to hear how my ideas and positions are hurtful in ways I do not realize yet. And I believe that when it comes to antisemitism, non-Jewish people like me have a special duty to be extra wary. As I have written here:

In the end, the conflict in Palestine knows many monsters, and they all feed on each other. But many of these monsters came from white, Dutch, German, French etc. non-Jewish people, manifested as the genocidal antisemitic and colonial violence committed abroad and at home. And since we cannot go back to fight these monsters in the past, the second best thing is to fight and resist their manifestations in the present, both at home and abroad.

This is the second part of a two-part series. See also this article. Both articles first appeared in a slightly different form on the blog of OpenTech(AUC).

“…if we can’t convince people to take over the means of production when it only requires a USB stick with Linux and a short online course on bash/python, how are we ever going to gain control over (and share the fruits of) other, more material and inert kinds of technology?”