Jophin Mathai

Books I read/finished reading in 2025 🧵 This is a yearly ritual. I shall be adding to the thread every now and then. May you happily stumble upon something worth your time: #booksky

BREAKING WaPo: Brazil's right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro just effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president — minutes after Trump indicated he would not intervene on his behalf.

Brazil!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️

“Women and queer people have occupied the front lines of this protest. They are the ones throwing themselves in front of lathis and detention buses, standing as human shields in front of male protesters. The masculine State sees this.” A profile of rage by Nidhi Suresh.

💯. There is no critical mass here. Bluesky predominantly holds space for North American discourse that, sadly, does not lift its head to see beyond its borders.

"Birds sang even during the war. Therein lies the whole horror . . . and consolation." - Georgi Gospodinov, ‘Time Shelter’

While Western cities like New York ban generative AI in primary schools, the UAE has become the first country to mandate AI literacy for K-12 students as young as seven. https://restofworld.org/2026/uae-mandates-k12-ai-education-schools/?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky

Meanwhile, the default way for 10th graders to do simple fraction problems in my partner’s econ class is calculators and AI. They have little number sense.

Excellent graphical piece. www.reuters.com/graphics/IND...

We’re starting a new series at India in Transition, a publication from @casipenn.bsky.social, with the Centre for Himalayan Studies at Shiv Nadar and @jabinjacob.bsky.social, bringing in voices and research from and on India’s Himalayan states.

Politics: caught in the pincers of a fascist, hindu supremacist party (RSS, BJP) Economy: ensnared by Oligarchs Ecology: wrecked in the name of Development Grounds for hope? India's most youthful generation bursting with energy & creativity www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-a...

“Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government's confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,
If the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?” - Bertolt Brecht

“Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government's confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,
If the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?” - Bertolt Brecht

“…we should be able to see ourselves as bound to the laws of the state by virtue of our own commitment to lead a free life, which requires that the laws of the state in turn are seen as contestable and transformable by us.”

“The psyche is our defence system – it makes sure we’ll never understand what’s going on around us…For it would be impossible to carry the weight of this knowledge. Because every tiny particle of the world is made of suffering."

Just watched Digger. Incredibly good movie. I don’t know what kind of people/critics didn’t like it. My inkling is that it has a mood and humour that can be deeply appreciated by folks from the Global South (and, of course, marginalised people in the imperial core).

“If the coalition in End Times Fascism is defined by abandonment of a shared future, then the response cannot itself be a form of abandonment—not a smaller commune or a more righteous collapse. There’s little difference, after all, between a bunker and a tomb.”

“What’s perhaps most important for understanding A.D.H.D. is to not allow its name to confuse us; it’s a poor guide to how the human mind works.”

"We observe how students actually used the AI tutor, and the answer is: not much." hechingerreport.org/proof-points...

“There are many people who should read but they write.” - Jaun Elia

“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.” - Octavia Butler

Turnitin has long used its end user licence agreement to use students' work for product devt. Now it's trying to update it to use essays for AI devt too! Prime example of academic content assetization - turning student IP into a source of value codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/a...

“Rising climate costs erode sovereign creditworthiness, which in turn limits the fiscal capacity to spend on adaptation and mitigation, leading to still larger costs in future.”

India had one helpline that functioned well. It was shut down. Here’s what happened next.

Hilarious that the Hindu right in India is trying to make an issue of protesters using foul language after spending 12+ years calling every Indian woman on social media every variation of 'bitch' 'slut' etc and making receiving rape & death threats a regular-ass part of online life in India.

"When we use another, we have only the picture of the end to be gained. The end, the gain, prevents relationship, communion."

In July 1983, anti-Tamil pogroms engulfed Sri Lanka, killing and displacing Tamils and destroying homes and businesses. For many Tamil families, Black July transformed what it meant to call Sri Lanka home. https://www.himalmag.com/shakthidharan-sri-lanka-conflict-tamil-history-memoir/

100% this: "Real intelligence is inextricable from organic embodiment, from being a feeling organism passing through time and space shaped in every moment by its needs, fears, desires...“Artificial intelligence” is a highly consequential misnomer."

“Once citizens remember they have rights, the paternalistic illusion of a strongman state begins to unravel.”

As I see Gen Z fearlessly take to the streets in India, I also see each of them become ‘a small republic of unconquered spirit’, as @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social puts it. There are no guarantees, but oh—the joy of witnessing these republics!

As I see Gen Z fearlessly take to the streets in India, I also see each of them become ‘a small republic of unconquered spirit’, as @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social puts it. There are no guarantees, but oh—the joy of witnessing these republics!

One of my former grad students has related research showing that, when young people get involved in political organizations, it's often because those organizations have events with free food and a chance to hang out with friends. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“Twelve years ago, Modi rode to power and pioneered in many ways, leveraging social media platforms to reach the masses. Today, Gen Z is flipping his Hindu majoritarian party’s dominance on social platforms, weaponising against it the very tools the Bharatiya Janata Party has long relied on.”

"But the bubble eventually burst because Hindutva cannot feed the stomach with flags. It has bred a deep discontent because its economic model inherently favours cronyism while leaving a vast majority of the population to scramble over a few crumbs." www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/youn...

“The spontaneous rage we are witnessing will dissipate unless some real political work begins. Unless adults and opposition parties stop their jockeying and petty squabbling and show some solidarity.“ Arundhati Roy on the perils and promise of the student protests in India.

“The spontaneous rage we are witnessing will dissipate unless some real political work begins. Unless adults and opposition parties stop their jockeying and petty squabbling and show some solidarity.“ Arundhati Roy on the perils and promise of the student protests in India.

Democracy is not a staged “election” when the oppressed provide legitimacy to ruling class tyranny. It is when millions converge and physically de-install fascism. South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, perhaps now India) revealing what mutual aid and democracy could mean.

“We understand [politics] every time a school has no teacher, a hospital has no doctor, or a recruitment exam is cancelled. Politics is not something we watch on television. It decides whether we get an education, a job or a chance to build a better life”.

“Who said one can't make a hole in the sky? Throw at least one stone with the right intention, friends”

“The police reportedly used unnecessary and excessive force against peaceful protesters and installed barricades to prevent them from reaching parliament. Authorities also suspended metro services and mobile internet, further restricting the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly.”