‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...

In an unjust world, let love leash the force of hatred rather than extinguish it.

This workshop was amazing, and I’ve decided to name my learning experience from it ‘The Reasonable Effectiveness of Biology in the Social Sciences’! 🙃 Thanks so much to the organisers! www.bristol.ac.uk/arts-law-soc...

How do we establish reliable medical knowledge in the age of AI, big data, and evidence-based medicine? Looking forward to The Epistemology of Medicine workshop (25–26 June, Munich), bringing together philosophers, statisticians, and medical researchers for two days of interdisciplinary discussion.

Second instalment of ‘Epistemology: Normal meets Formal’ happening in Oxford tomorrow!! www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/event/episte...

In memory of the great David Hockney here’s his 1971 drawing of the anthropologist Edmund Leach of @kingscollege.bsky.social I love the focus on the frames of his glasses

I broke up with Google Sites (it kept eating my text) and moved my website to somayehtohidi.github.io. Plot twist: now I have to fight Google’s own search engine to get the new link to show up. So clicking it is an act of solidarity! :)) Research, talks, and forthcoming work all live here now.

My heart goes out to my sisters in Herat…💔 www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

And he turned away from them and said, “Oh my sorrow over Joseph,” and his eyes became white from grief, for he was [of that] a suppressor. (84)

The unexpected connection between algebraic number theory and discrete geometry revealed by the solution is part of what makes the result notable. /1 openai.com/index/model-...

When responsibility feels like a long thread tangled around my limbs, tripping me up, maybe the thing to do is weave it into a garment and wear it. Maybe some responsibilities shouldn’t be something we do. They should be something we are.

As comforting and safe as staying in these quiet rooms is, moving between them takes real effort. I wonder how running parallel projects feels in other fields, but I think in philosophy it can be quite demanding.

There’s a recurring scene in Perfect Days where the main character opens his door in the morning, looks at the sky and tree branches, and takes a deep breath with a grateful smile. I think I’ll remember that scene for the rest of my life, and it makes me look up more often and smile whenever I do.

Whoever invented cheese strings deserves a global award from kids! They peel into infinitely narrow strips, stretching to fit any TV session from 5 to 5000 minutes. The moment screen time ends, a kid asks for just one more cheese string’s worth, and they’ll have indefinite time 🤦🏻‍♀️

The recording of the session: www.youtube.com/live/ursZB34...

Realizing that you are conditioned to subordinate yourself is way more painful, and more transformative, than realizing you are being subordinated./1

Almost a week until this event!

And they asked him: Why do you sing? And he answered: I sing because I sing… And they searched his voice But could only find his grief And they searched his grief But could only find his prison And they searched his prison But could only find themselves in chains

Salve for the soul-7 youtu.be/uetKLSRXDRY?...

#VidSource Siba Alkhiami, Berlin DOUNANA (Without Us) sibasmusic (SIBA - صِبا) www.instagram.com/sibasmusic/ Nov 10, 2024: www.instagram.com/monkyman_mus... MONKyMAN (@monkymanmusic): www.youtube.com/@monkymanmus... Nov 9, 2024 DOUNANA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFl...

Bomb our roofs and make us out liars and deny our feelings Destroy our dreams Objectify our bodies and darken our skies and kill our peace We will keep standing still and our love stands in us

A small joy: something I’ve always done (and got all sorts of labels for) is apparently a thing in critical theory. Inspired by Brecht: genuine critical thinking means positioning yourself against the consensus of whatever group you’re in. If you’re comfortable, you’re not thinking critically.

Some days I miss you more than I remember you. Some days I remember you more than I miss you, and I don’t know which one is more painful. I’m going to let the pain of exile erase this distinction from my vocabulary. I’m going to let the pain of exile devour all the pains.

The ideal modern human and the ideal religious human share a common aim: independence from other humans. The former seeks it through self-reliance, the latter through reliance on an infinite other. In theory, the self-reliant should be more arrogant: “I am my own best provider.”/1

“A whole civilization will die tonight…” I’m so tired of reading his words and telling myself that he is a lunatic…maybe I’m a lunatic…what sane person can read this while having no access to their whole family under this threat and still act like everything will be ok? I’m not sane…I’m not ok…

Reading a quote from a ‘proud Islamophobe’ doesn’t shake me, but reading it while knowing she has influence on the lunatic running this war does.

“And then we need to make the people beg on their knees for humanitarian food assistance from the international Red Cross so that the people force Iran to surrender to the US.” Laura Loomer

If you’re going to rage-tweet a war, at least learn the difference between “reign” and “rain.” 🤡

Ten years ago today, I became a mother to an amazing soul.

-Mum! What are you doing these days without any internet connection? +I sew…I sew a lot…

Salve for the soul-6 youtu.be/ipemfEvbth0?...

The best moment of the day: when he’s asleep and I lie beside him, smell his small head and wait until I feel the warm energetic pulse on his neck… when I can finally tell myself that ‘you’re safe, we’re safe’ and believe it.

I wrote this two years ago and came across it again today. I was thinking the passion for survival is probably so strong and addictive that once you’ve fully developed it, you can never turn it into a passion for life. That’s why staying in survival mode for too long is dangerous.

Today, Tehran…

I wrote about good imaginary interventions, ugly rallies, bad politicians, and the moral snobbery tearing Iranians apart. Please have a read and let me know what you think. open.substack.com/pub/somayeht...

Salve for the soul-5 youtu.be/eriJu-goXEw?...

“We negotiate with bombs! You have a choice as we loiter over the top of Tehran!” said a senior official of a major Western country in the 21st century!

The situation is so ridiculous, surreal, and messy there’s no need to even joke. I just saw a tweet by Ghalibaf, the most militant and corrupt official rumoured to be negotiating with Trump, retweeted by Larijani, who was assassinated a week ago! Apparently the afterlife has better wifi than Iran.

If I wanted to promote a stereotype about Iranians, it would be that in any crisis we laugh as hard as we cry. Yesterday, I finally managed to have a proper talk with my dad, and he couldn’t stop joking and laughing about what’s to come.

I was watching this knitting competition on Channel 4 and one of the knitters said “I’m probably perceived as being quite quiet, but I’m just soaking everything up and seeing what I can really do to be really loud with my knitting, albeit being quiet myself”. I loved it!

Salve for the soul-4 youtu.be/kmxUXVJ6VUo?...

The idea that one’s political project should not be an extension of their personal trauma is as appealing as it is absurd, much like the idea that science should be value-free. Activism is inherently emotional, and detaching it from personal trauma is not possible./1

By Anna Cunha annacunha.com

Join us at LSE for a panel on the ethics of foreign intervention, with Kieran Oberman, Jonathan Parry, Paola Romero, and myself, chaired by Alex Voorhoeve. In person and online. www.lse.ac.uk/events/inter...

I opened Instagram and the first story was from a friend from my undergraduate years, reporting that she had lost her dad in the recent strike. As the missiles hit closer, they become more painful. I’m ashamed of having an extension. I’m ashamed of being here.