I’m an anthropologist, sometimes I occupy things & such.

I see anarchism as something you do not an identity...

...so don’t call me the anarchist anthropologist

Twitter was David’s public platform and tools for practicing a new language – clear and understandable for everyone, it was a space where he made friends and enemies.

Tweets 7,501 Replies 51,144 Retweets 24,559 Everything 83,204
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:58

17/ the only people who helped us other than the YPG in Rojava were the PKK in Qandil. There was also a group of 12 experienced PKK cadres who came to advise people on self-defence for when Daesh attacked; 3 were arrested on the way by the KDP, but 9 reached us.

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:58

16/ however it was very difficult, because the KRG (the autonomous government of the Kurdish region of Iraq) was steadfastly opposed to the project & threw every sort of obstacle in our way

6
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:50

15/ the YPG provided weapons & ammo, mostly guns but such heavier stuff as they had. 3 days before the genocide, we were about to declare our own self-defense forces. 150 fighters had been trained, & we hoped to train another 1000 and position them around the area

8
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:49

14/ As a result the YPG said ‘if you send us volunteers we can give them a 2 week training in AK47s, etc.’ We sent 3 groups, & the last was still in training when the genocide began. When the corridor was opened to rescue us, our own forces were among those who saved us

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:47

13/ When Daesh entered Mosul [in June 2014], we as TevDa & Shengal regional assembly thought to create self-defense forces; we traveled, talked to young people… We even went to Rojava to meet for advice on his to do this

6
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:45

12. On 14 Jan 2015, we formed the founding assembly; after PKK & YPG come to stop the genocide we held elections & these became a regular regional assembly; the old city council became entirely inactive. (HaS also appointed official governors, but these too only exist on paper.)

8
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:42

11/ In Shengal we Yezidis have built up our own institutions, which include: a municipal council, women’s movement, & youth movement. The Iraqi gov’t refuses to recognise any, claiming they still recognise the municipal assembly from before the genocide that no longer exists

9
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:39

10/ most Peshmerga fed, refusing to defend us during the genocide of 2014, but any remaining Peshmerga left when the Haadz-al-Shaadi came. The army has some mixed checkpoints with both HaS with our self-defence forces.

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:36

9/ There are three main military forces in the region: 1. Yezidi self-defence forces YBS & Yezidi women’s forces YBJ, 2. the Iraqi army, 3. the Haadz-al-Shaadi. The latter two also have some Yezidis serving in them. The Peshmerga (Kurdish Iraqi forces) no longer operate here

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:34

8/ This movement has also formed a political party and is running in elections as the “Party of Democracy & Freedom for Yezidis”

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:33

7/ “at the moment all Iraq is in process of elections and we don’t know how things will turn out, but here we have an autonomous democratic assembly, a movement called TevDa, (Parti Yezidi Demokratiyen)

7
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:32

6/ very little donations or aid money ends up getting to the poor or survivors. The Iraqi state has done nothing to develop this area, and promised aid never arrives.

9
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:31

5/ there is also little work, he emphasised (“we don’t like to use term “employment” as we don’t want it necessarily to take the form of jobs). international institutes donate money, but at most 10% gets here, & that under control of only a small number of people

8
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:29

4/ people he said have not overcome the mental obstacles either, they fear Daesh or something similar will return. The education system is still in tatters. We’ve opened a couple schools of our own that use Latin characters but not nearly enough ..

8
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:28

3/ Shengal, they emphasised, has not recovered from 2014; Daesh (ISIS) may be gone but devastation & destruction is everywhere, the city lies in ruins [we witnessed this; it was comparable to Raqqa] & many of those who fled have not returned which makes rebuilding difficult

10
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:25

2/ Mam Zekî Şengalî was one of those who received us, & gave us a summary of the current situation in Shengal (Arabic SInjar), and of events leading up to the genocide of August 2014, which the Yezidis refer to as a “ferman”, which also means “order of the Sultan”

12
Sat 18 Aug 2018 18:22

1/ the funeral was held today for the Yezidi leader Mam Zekî Şengalî, assassinated by a targeted Turkish airstrike while returning from a commemoration of a massacre of only four years ago, I thought I would commemorate him by tweeting some extracts from a visit to Shengal in May

137
Fri 17 Aug 2018 19:48

Workers in Musk’s factory attempting to unionize. I’m sure he’ll be totally down with that. https://t.co/VqFySi7g4G

29
Thu 16 Aug 2018 16:33

today the Turkish military murdered Zeki Şengali, Yazidi KCK Executive Council Member, in a targeted assassination. A lovely man & dedicated democracy activist. Here’s a few pictures from my visit to Shengal in April https://t.co/3FMmYrbYgr https://t.co/DNXEN23bf0

55
Thu 16 Aug 2018 12:25

JT asks “Why do conspiracy theories & general charlatanism so often receive their strongest support from the world’s dictators?” Maybe because they engaged in conspiracies themselves that must have worked or else they wouldn’t be dictator? https://t.co/FXZzd3PMs7

11
Thu 16 Aug 2018 09:54

nice @_ClaireConnelly piece about what taxes really do. Almost no politician has even a basic understanding of how money works. https://t.co/czjTWQQXaK

152
Tue 14 Aug 2018 17:01

So nerd question of the day: Jews in space. Even though many of the actors particularly in the original series were Jewish, has there ever been a Jewish CHARACTER on Star Trek? Or even one with a likely name, like Ensign Rabinowitz? I can’t think of any.

10
Tue 14 Aug 2018 09:48

does Don Kalb even care whether the things he writes are true? “David Graeber can write about anything, including debt and credit, but capitalism is not what he seeks or finds or discusses.” Actually in the book on Debt he cites the word “capitalism” appears on 75 of 544 pages.

8
Mon 13 Aug 2018 21:29

does anyone out there know when the first US public debate specifically about Nazi-punching took place? https://t.co/jMwlqarW4M

4
Mon 13 Aug 2018 11:23

if we imagine he was serious about his campaign pledges to reduce the US’s global imperial presence, & opposition to finance capitalist (all on scary right-wing white nationalist grounds, obviously), how could he actually go about it? This would be one very plausible way.

1
Mon 13 Aug 2018 11:22

he must know it will both encourage much of the world to start seriously thinking about trading in something other than dollars, and create endless rifts between the US and European companies (and he says he sees the EU as a rival)

2