Toots for Alon@mastodon.social account

Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:47

5. But the best external validation comes from the group Germans have learned to historically trust: WW2 Western Allies, chiefly the English-speaking world; Jewish validation is always good, too, which is related to the "how can you call him anti-Semitic, he visited Israel once" apologia. If someone from the Anglosphere says AfD aren't Nazis, then who is a mere Die Welt reporter to argue. /end

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:46

4. Normative Germans feel guilty for the Holocaust, and this has positive downstream effects like less racism than in e.g. Austria and Switzerland, contrition over colonial crimes, etc. But they don't want to feel guilty and look for various forms of validation for not feeling guilty. The validation can also be de-Judaization of the Holocaust - (some) disabled Germans end up feeling like they'd have been victims of Aktion T4, including Germans with disabilities that Aktion T4 never touched.

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:45

3. The normalization of AfD could not originate from within Germany. Two months ago, Merz was still promising no cooperation with AfD; Axel-Springer's line was that the racism was legitimate but the party itself wasn't. But once an American billionaire wrote in favor of it, it was legitimized. (He's lived most of his life in the US and not South Africa, but regardless, both countries would count as Anglosphere for German guilt purposes).

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:44

2. It's acceptable to engage in extremism, whitewashing of historic crimes, romantic nationalism, etc., if someone from the Anglosphere or maybe the Jewish world legitimizes it first. For example, the conventional non-Marxist explanation of WW1 is, the Kaiser and his inner circle made a decision to go to war as soon as there was pretext. A German could not write a book like The Sleepwalkers saying it was just a failure of diplomacy. But once an Australian did, the book became popular here.

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:43

1. 🧵 about Germany and normalization of nationalism here. It's well-known in English-language discourse that romantic nationalism is unacceptable in the mainstream here and that there's a baseline expectation of Holocaust guilt. But what's less remarked on is that Germans crave outside affirmation, on AfD, WW1 guilt, colonialism, etc.

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-05 at 02:41

Avrum Burg wrote a book called, in Hebrew, Defeating Hitler, calling for moving on beyond defining Jewishness by the Holocaust. But its translation was called The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From its Ashes. He explained that in English the name would otherwise seem like a military history text.

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-04 at 18:03

Live now, talking about government efficiency or lack thereof; references to DOGE may get heated. https://www.twitch.tv/alon_levy

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-04 at 17:30

Okay, I need to get back to streaming. 19:00 (in half an hour), talking about government efficiency issues in the current context, see you then?

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-04 at 16:14

Q. Why is the Trump administration dead set on promoting higher birthrates?

A. To balance out RFK on child mortality.

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-03 at 13:13

If I want to hang a large progress flag from my window, where do people suggest I buy one on short notice?

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-03 at 11:58

Liberal Zionism is Ashkenormative and racist.

(The above is a commentary on the selective aliyah proposals of the Progressive Movement and Haaretz in the 1950s.)

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Written by Alon on 2025-02-02 at 02:59

Some right-leaning American economists, like Arnold Kling, were suggesting a politically appointed CEO serving under the president as a solution to what they saw as bureaucratic dysfunction.

This is what is happening and the results speak for themselves.

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-31 at 13:34

Note to self: when you run a last-minute D&D session and look up specter stats mid-game, make sure you use a consistent edition or else the combat will be wildly undertuned and the PCs will mow down what was built up as a serious threat.

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-30 at 23:47

I propose a new software movement: Libre and Open Source Software, or LOSS. The stable version of a LOSS operating system is 1.2.2.50.

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-29 at 05:00

Pedestrian Observations: Privatization is not an Alternative to the State https://pedestrianobservations.com/2025/01/28/privatization-is-not-an-alternative-to-the-state/

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-26 at 10:52

Brief guide to phone security for protesters in North America, Europe, Israel, and democratic East Asia:

Keep your phone charged before the protest so that you can take plenty of pictures of protest signs (with consent of course).

That's it. Any protest anyone has any business going to is fully legal and you don't need to fear being extremely open that you went there. To the contrary, be proud. People who tell you to hide your face at protests are terrorists and anti-regime demoralizers.

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-25 at 09:25

Pedestrian Observations: Quick Note: Rural Drivers Aren't Being Oppressed https://pedestrianobservations.com/2025/01/25/quick-note-rural-drivers-arent-being-oppressed/

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-23 at 23:37

What's the best birth control for men?

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-21 at 23:46

Bracket for Jewish media, from S-tier to F-tier. The Forward is S-tier, Channel 14 is F-tier. (Also mirrored on Bluesky.)

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Written by Alon on 2025-01-21 at 12:17

I just got a package:). @blaft

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