Hard to reconcile China releasing thousands of doves in the name of peace with kids watching this at school and my kid coming home to tell me they did army drills and played rifle games at school today. Mixed messaging to say the least.
Linguistics PhD, Sydney > Köln > 台北 Linguistics (Creoles, Australia, Asia-Pacific, morphosyntax, policy, endangerment), politics (Syria, Taiwan, Australia in particular ig), history and other ramblings Anarchist at heart @tobbinatorscw in most places
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Hard to reconcile China releasing thousands of doves in the name of peace with kids watching this at school and my kid coming home to tell me they did army drills and played rifle games at school today. Mixed messaging to say the least.
Rare language with zero negation ofc
Ohhh he's getting into the ancient emperor spirit now. Matter of years until he dies from a poisonous elixir provided by a court alchemist
Actual Russian laws that exist
I don't think it's an unintended consequence of hate speech laws for people promoting hate speech to be punished? Very much intended even?
We spent a whole day inside there and could've easily spent a few more. Hard to beat
Cc: the JAO, which basically only worked because people were literally being deported there (and left as soon as they could)
It's got fortifications and withheld against a siege! That counts imo (also such a beautiful place)
today's weibo is the epitome of completely normalized everyday militarism... if you want to browse endless photos of missiles and see everyone repeat "打击范围覆盖全球” (strike range covers the entire globe)
They've already got some spin on it (if I know who you mean) in the Taipei Times a few days ago (Saturday opinion I think)
The og was the only one worth actually doing imo
I expect the one in Beijing tomorrow will be more about Chinese might and intimidating Taiwan, wrapped up in anti fascist or (more likely) anti Japan platitudes
You really need look no further than the evolution of Russian victory day parades the further they get from 1945
Military parades are actually a pretty obscene way to commemorate WW2 and, especially decades on, are used solely to launder the reputations of fascists
She has been a regular guest in Beijing and even openly praised the "Xinjiang model" (of genocide) a couple of years ago
Hung really went off the deep (blue) end since being such an unpopular presidential candidate she got switched out by the KMT at the last possible moment (who then lost by a landslide anyway)
The State of Israel had already been occupying East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for approximately 20 years prior to the founding of Hamas in 1987. In that time, over 250,000 Israeli Jewish settlers were embedded in the occupied territories. Why would it be any different if Hamas dissolved?
Doesn't matter what anyone says about "concerns", yesterday's marches had literal out and out nazis as guest speakers and shouted abuse at anyone present who was unlucky enough not to be white
the word "levantine" would also be very useful for some people engaging in discourse about food in a historically very mixed region
Police already deployed on this sunny late afternoon to remind everyone they nothing happened on this day 6 years ago.
🤬 While Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko shows the body of a murdered child who died as a result of a Russian attack during the UN Security Council, the Russian representative demonstratively looks at her phone…
So they decided to throw themselves a year long $21 billion military parade on the sea while the pension system is collapsing
The Republican party longs for a party-state where power ultimately rests wherever they happen to hold office at any given time
We don't have frats in Australia so this all happened in the residential colleges. One year they tried to take over the university paper (elected editorial board) to suppress sexual assault reporting
We all know it's pure hopium but we'll all be sorely disappointed when he reappears all the same
what
Xi would agree to this for the PR and go on a state media victory lap about him being the harbinger of peace and then never actually deploy anyone and the war just keeps going
huh, rubio bases this feckless decision on palestinian resort to ICJ and ICC? lots of states have intervened in both. is he prepared to deny visas to that growing number of states' diplomats? this is really just an abusive use of the fact that the UN is headquartered here.
Disgusting shameful move. While so many Australians are so pleased to call out the US for its xenophobic and dystopian disregard for the human rights of those deemed "not American enough", we'd better not fucking forget that Australia has been doing this for decades. One only needs to read the
but was any foul language used? thought not! (didn't hear it, didn't want to hear it, pretended not to)
Important use of resources to have at least 30 police standing around outside, lest someone do something as traumatic and horrific as "use foul language"
A stupid meme is making the rounds again, claiming the Nahuatl word for avocado, "ahuacatl," means "testicle." FFS, no it, doesn't. Not any more than "nut" or "ball" does. Those are METAPHORICAL USES. Quit othering / ridiculing Indigenous languages. @magnuspharao.bsky.social explained this: 1/
Same crowd that made fun of (and still do) a scared Syrian 8 year old and if you called it out they'd accuse you of wanting to start WW3
Thinking about the time someone misunderstood a parliament being "unable to form a government" as the country having dissolved the state and achieved an anarchist society
Ten years out of power and the KMT really doesn't have any vision for the country any more other than being wreckers and enriching local patronage networks (and for some, probably being collaborators)
what do you mean we can't just nearly double local government shares of tax revenue and just pocket it all without taking on more responsibilities to compensate
BREAKING: KMT finds out their decisions sometimes have consequences www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/a...
Surprisingly similar to Hong Kong's newest electoral mess of committees all ultimately appointed by the executive
Protests as newborn removed from Greenlandic mother after ‘parenting competence’ tests www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a... 💔 I hope she gets her baby back. she gave birth in the same hospital I did.
Fortunately for both sides there aren't many stray chimpanzees in Europe
The British Library's exhibition area isn't too big so I'd recommend seeing it all, lots of cool manuscripts on display, probably an hour or two at most. They usually have one or two temporary exhibitions (free/paid) too, which can be good depending on interests
I assume this is from hostile media coverage of rail strikes to make them look entitled (rather than the regular strikes showing the opposite)?
While the mainstream discussions are depressingly about *how* best to remove and stop immigrants, it’s a revolutionary act nowadays to say that immigration is actually a positive thing and an essential component of a thriving country, so please join me in doing so!
The main problem seems to be they can't even find any fringe local sympathisers to hide behind to begin with
Every country has a custom made excuse for tariffs tailored by trump and his personal vendettas
(I'm fine financially so don't worry there at least, just trying to get back into academia formally)
Yeah I kinda misunderstood the nature of the position (they were a bit vague in the ad I guess), thought it was what they apparently call "contract teaching" with more regular semester hours. At least the offer helps the self esteem
Included in the agenda legislative agenda is another legal formalisation of China's assault on minority language rights and reinforcement of Mandarin
Israel justified its strike on the Nasser Hospital, which killed six journalists and more than a dozen others, by claiming a "Hamas" camera was set up there. The location they attacked is where Reuters and the AP livestream. From me and others (see byline/contribs) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/w...
The EU and Spain incentivised repression in Mauritania primarily against black African people attempting to get to Europe irregularly, says Human Rights Watch.
Okay yeah they offered the position but it's only 4 hours a week, cannae do
They love the Gestapo except when it's too visible or affects themselves
"worries Hitler has gone too far" in 1938/39 right before shooting up for almost the entire duration of the war is just......
Not in Germany either! Finished my doctorate with the certificate in the post
From ugly boring flag (literally just text) to another ugly boring flag (sterile corporate, somehow from 2003), Taiwanese vexillology is terrible tbh www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/...
Direct through line from the Associated Press refusing to clearly condemn Israel's destruction of its press office in Gaza in 2021 to today where Israel attempts to exterminate every single Palestinian journalist, even the ones who work for the Associated Press
Actually think the interview went really well. The panel ran out of questions and started trying to figure out where I'm from exactly Though I don't think the position itself would work for me from what they said (too few hours to relocate, too far to commute)
Warnings from Macao as well as Hong Kong: i.e., "Hong Kong resisted and was repressed. Macao complied and was absorbed."
I think Lu Shiow-yen is smart enough to realise this and it is why she hasn't rested her campaign on it (she is absolutely running in 2028), and why the DPP can't get comfortable either
I think the message was effective during the recalls because it was so soon since the election and was very much about flipping the party balance. As long as Lai doesn't do anything stupid, I doubt people are going to relate so much come 2028 (or even 2026 for locals)
I can really see the KMT "we're fighting green dictatorship!" line wearing thin within a couple of years without any major executive overreach and memory of recalls fading, just as the DPP's classic "fight China protect Taiwan" has grown less effective without tangible threats or escalation
English language caveat, I suppose, since Elon doesn't pay attention to anything not in English anyway
All those big "socialist" accounts still over there have been so flooded by the fascist environment that they have become part of it, and it really shows when you compare them with people on here
Good rule of thumb for social media is that anyone active on twitter in a personal capacity is a fascist or fascist adjacent, including the ones calling themselves left wing
The person running the campaign to freeze min wages for domestic workers in Hong Kong is part of the patriotic Chinese Dream think tank. They also campaign against Soros, real MAGA-CCP shared ethos
Why the strange reluctance of Labour to stand up for ethnic minorities is damaging integration policies and weirdly also Labours own prospectives to win another election. This, by @anandmenon.bsky.social is nailing it.
🎁 link A high level takeaway from this excellent and thorough investigation is just how much folks are willing to sell out their own for the right price, and also how little Chinese govt gives a shit about the wellbeing of the diaspora that it claims as its own far-flung children.
Also it's 14 months to local elections and the DPP campaigning here is already in full swing, people all vying for party nominations well in advance. Little KMT presence in the city
The one city that actually feels connected to Taiwan's maritime heritage rather than being a KMT housing project. I hear a lot of the nicer development has been just over the last 20 or so years with the waterfront opening up
In Kaohsiung for an interview for a couple of days and you can really feel the difference of a competent local government
(the secret ingredient is colonialism)
We've been watching it on Line TV but I'm not sure where/if it's available outside Taiwan yet
The direction of Zero Day so far after 4 episodes seems to be Taiwanese Black Mirror but every episode ends in an implied invasion?
I feel like it was the right kind of result for the DPP. Enough yes votes in case they want to change their minds on nuclear, but such a low turnout their hands aren't tied on anything
Every now and then someone proposes Dayton as a model for peace in X or Y conflict, and you just know they've just not paid attention to the trajectory of the serb entity since it was formed
The government has been pretty clear from the start that increased revenue allocation means fewer central government subsidies, but the KMT ignored that because they want to have their cake and eat it too
What do you mean we can't just embezzle the extra funds for our retirement in China and/or America
The KMT really almost doubled local government funding and are now shocked it means being given extra responsibilities. Truly a party of spoilt children www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/20...
Read this reflection by Taiwanese American organizer and writer Leona Chen on how her Indigenous Pingpu heritage has helped to shape her solidarity with Palestinians: lausancollective.com/2025/pingpu-...
I need people to know that she both supports repression of Americans and Chinese people through her work and through her money. She is a fascist like Adams
The "these" in that quote was inclusive
The country voting against restarting nuclear plants in a failed referendum in 2021 and then voting in favour of restarting nuclear plants in a failed referendum in 2025 is why the median voter should have nothing to do with nuclear policy
(is there any better sign the referendum was always just an electoral survival ploy from the KMT? They don't care about the plant at all)
No real surprise today, everyone basically gave up campaigning since July. DPP was just never that into it and the KMT went back to regular operations after surviving the last round
This feels like a really moderate opinion but internationalism even on the left is at an all time low these days
I don't see why I should have more of a say in a country's affairs (as interested as I can be) I haven't properly lived in since I was 8 than someone who has been living and working there for years but doesn't have a local passport
Purely residency based political participation, none of this citizenship nonsense
I think a lot of older true believers of Israel in the west were shaped by the lofty (proclaimed) ideals of Labour Zionism, which made it much easier to overlook the genocide and apartheid for a long time
"timely" is a word literally only academics ever use, i don't think I've ever heard it anywhere else
A ten minute teaching demo in front of professors is something I haven't quite figured out exactly how to act
Faculty interview on Tuesday! Let's see if I've still got some teaching knack left in me for the sample lesson
A classic example of the problems with google translate when it uses English as an intermediate, pivot language to translate from one language into another. Polish "nijaki" means (grammatically) "neuter" (or featureless, nondescript) not "kastrieren" (to castrate) #language #linguistics
On this day in 2013, Bashar al Assad launched the biggest chemical attack of the 21st century, killing over 1,400, including 426 children. I wrote for @newlinesmag.bsky.social a detailed account of what happened that day and the impact this event had globally. newlinesmag.com/review/the-d...
'That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars.'
Imagine being rescued from the peak of the region's tallest mountain by someone in crocs and a tracksuit focustaiwan.tw/society/2025...
Today marks 12 years since the Assad regime murdered more than 1400 civilians with sarin nerve agent, in Eastern Ghouta, Syria. 🧵
Gas was greenwashing until it became "energy security" but from the left
Handing over my bribe in a 乖乖 packet to make sure it *really* works
Latest TPOF survey on identity and politics in Taiwan, including capturing some of the complex views in the electorate on the recall elections. www.tpof.org/wp-content/u...
As well as labour issues, tbh this project would be a waste, only marginally improving times. Resources would be better used improving capacity and connections on the TR lines, especially in this terrain