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
Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:36

@simchaonn they didn’t. I had a weird hobby at age 11 of translating Maya hieroglyphics. Which weren’t yet translated in the ’70s. I sent a letter to one of them, and they arranged to get me into a fancy school, as Scotty MacNeish was based at the Peabody

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:34

@enfantmarxiste it’s totally bizarre, especially because my “preconceptions” are based on 20 years of activist engagement with people on the ground, while their established truth is a bunch of World Bank statistics that everyone knows are a political football

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:31

@hartsellml @jasonhickel as John Locke once said, you can’t make a person taller by declaring there’s now 13 inches in a foot

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:30

but it’s very clear there’a a huge investment in maintaining this illusion when you look at the virulent wolf-pack-like reaction that occurs when you cast doubt on it in any way. Interesting to speculate why, 11/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:29

so the new line was “any resulting improvement isn’t because the poor self-organised to stop those policies, it’s because of the policies themselves! Capitalism is making everyone rich!” Even then they had to largely cook the books be able to make the case 10/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:28

this is course implied the poor, and all the organisations they’d created in the global south, were stupid & didn’t know what was good for them (but Warren Buffet did) – but in fact, those movements were successful in blocking new trade agreements, structural adjustment halted 9/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:26

back in 2000, when that was the instant response to Global Justice Movement e.g. from The Economist: “free trade policies are great for the poor, if the activists stop structural adjustment that’s literally killing the poor it’ll cause everyone to become even poorer.” 8/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:23

even then, things are basically only getting better in 1 country, China, w an enormous population, & most of that positive change was in a single decade. That was BEFORE covid-19 started causing actual starvation & let’s not even talk about the coming effects of climate change 7/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:20

in fact, as .@jasonhickel elaborately demonstrated, the World Bank came under huge pressure to change the poverty line to something that could look like things were improving; if you choose almost any other number, things are clearly getting worse 6/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:18

but these guys were so insane they actually edited my wikipedia page to say that I was caught admitting bias on this issue, despite the fact they were the ones guilty of presuming their conclusions since they had no idea & didn’t asked what the basis of my skepticism was 5/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:17

in fact, I’d been working with anti-poverty groups in the global south for over 20 years, had lived in one very poor country for years, if the triumphalist narrative contradicted what everyone I knew had been saying, I had every reason to assume there was another narrative 4/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:16

@enfantmarxiste don’t want to go into it. Just suffice to say they employ extremely dirty tactics & I wouldn’t touch any of the core members I dealt with with a barge-pole now. Kind of awful people. They’ve also been politically disastrous for the US left but that’s another story

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:12

I’d never seen anything like it since I once signed a petition against some guy who was trying to bring back “race science” – or once when I annoyed Jacobin, who use similar wolf-pack tactics borrowed from the right – it was continual & virulent 3/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:10

on a personal note, I might add I’ve got incessant attacks, personal targeting, & abuse when I once asked who was out there countering the triumphalist narrative – by people who said I had fallaciously presumed my conclusions 2/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:08

@hamasinpitta @georgeeaton yes they destroyed our culture. Historically they will be remembered as on par with Alaric the Goth or Attila the Hun.

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:07

RT @gal_Parla: @davidgraeber https://t.co/PafOppczDT cuestiones cruciales para una aproximación libertaria a la antropología. La relación e…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:06

this is very important. For 10 years now we’ve been fed a lie that “capitalism” is causing massive reductions in global poverty. In fact global poverty has been getting worse. Now COVID is making the debacle precipitous .@jasonhickel https://t.co/vnxV52699D

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:01

RT @PhilipGAlston: Today I am releasing my final report as UN Special Rapporteur. I find that global poverty is rising, and that a decade o…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:00

RT @thepileus: Owen Jones really does give here one of the best explanations of how the economy works are who are the truly valuable people…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 12:54

RT @CFArtTherapy: @christi02455387 @Richard90850020 These. I’m not impressed as yet, in fact I’m not happy at all. https://t.co/Mz1EJfsFXi

Tue 7 Jul 2020 12:52

RT @Lawbow3: It’s so good Starmer is helping educate people on antisemitism. I had no idea that “Israeli security forces taught their US co…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 12:52

RT @nikadubrovsky: David Graeber describing the idea behind Visual Assembly “City of Care” https://t.co/Kj01xxEulf via @YouTube

Tue 7 Jul 2020 11:05

RT @georgeeaton: Often struck by the thought of how many great British bands started on the dole – the era of benefit sanctions and punitiv…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 11:02

@MayhemH @Prolapsarian It’s not like we’re displacing anyone. Adding moreTurkish and Indian (etc) options under the new lefty-in-exile regime is hardly a disaster

Tue 7 Jul 2020 11:00

RT @GreenRupertRead: Come along to the virtual book launch of ‘Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside’ on July 16th with @MikeBerne…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 02:36

RT @gabi_cabana: Los escolásticos argumentaban que por supuesto que no. Sin embargo, eso nos pide hoy el gobierno: que hipotequemos nuestro…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 02:35

RT @gabi_cabana: La idea de que un precio justo era cualquiera que emanara del acuerdo entre dos personas se cae con el ejemplo de un hombr…

Tue 7 Jul 2020 02:35

RT @gabi_cabana: Ya que estamos comentando la horrenda política de endeudamiento como protección social, me acuerdo de un ejemplo que @davi…