Associate Professor of Sociology in Norway—with a global perspective. Research: victorshammas.com. Newsletter on politics, culture, and social theory: theorybrief.com.https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mvg32y3qns2kSweden’s nominally center-right PM, parroting Trumpian rhetoric, says he wants to “make Sweden great again”—which means, in practice, catapulting the far right to power. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/sep/11/russia-strikes-ukraine-europe-nato-poland-latest-news-updates13 Sep 2026 17:00 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvg32y3qns2khttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mveyurircc22Today’s election in Sweden is a choice between the far right entering government, aided and abetted by Moderates, Liberals, and Christian Democrats—or a Social Democratic-led alternative. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/12/sweden-extremely-close-election-could-see-far-right-enter-government13 Sep 2026 06:48 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mveyurircc22https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mv3shpgrts2i"Job postings and interviews with senior security officials at Anthropic show that the frontier AI lab is building out an extensive monitoring system to keep tabs on activists who oppose the rapid development of artificial intelligence." #AI #CriticalTech https://prospect.org/2026/09/09/anthropic-artificial-intelligence-surveillance-system-monitor-activists/09 Sep 2026 15:00 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mv3shpgrts2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3msoc56bhks2f“In June of 2025, the United Arab Emirates-based Aqua 1 Foundation – run by Zhou – purchased $100 million in digital tokens from World Liberty Financial, an organization run by Trump’s family, along with the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special peace envoy.” https://www.rawstory.com/trump-crypto-2677676854/09 Aug 2026 19:12 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3msoc56bhks2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mslfuhq7qk2x"It’s another example of how quickly Meta dropped its once-stricter content moderation policies when Donald Trump returned to the White House. Shortly before his second inauguration, Meta loosened its standards around hate speech, particularly on topics like gender identity and immigration." ⚠️ https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-caught-paying-nazis-to-post-on-facebook08 Aug 2026 15:41 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mslfuhq7qk2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mshu3g645c25The WSJ asked whether it’s time to “liquidate” sociology. It’s a question tied to a wider reactionary politics. My essay: https://www.theorybrief.com/p/the-politics-of-sociological-liquidation07 Aug 2026 05:45 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mshu3g645c25https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mshu3g645c25The WSJ asked whether it’s time to “liquidate” sociology. It’s a question tied to a wider reactionary politics. My essay: https://www.theorybrief.com/p/the-politics-of-sociological-liquidation07 Aug 2026 05:45 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mshu3g645c25https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3msfpslbvbk23Slobodian & Tarnoff's book "Muskism" shifts attention from pure biography to the political-economic formation Elon Musk might represent. My review: https://www.theorybrief.com/p/elon-musk-for-the-not-so-perplexed06 Aug 2026 09:23 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3msfpslbvbk23https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mra3iokyxk2qSo now we know the price of that red card removal (and the FIFA “Peace Prize”). https://nypost.com/2026/07/21/us-news/trump-wants-to-nominate-fifa-boss-gianni-infantino-for-un-secretary-general-following-world-cup/22 Jul 2026 10:11 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mra3iokyxk2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mr6rn6afrc2x"The minute you deny the legal standing of a minority and refuse to acknowledge that they exist within legal and public discourse, you nullify their legal and public existence…They fall into a kind of legal unreality…that allows for their rights to be taken away, including the right to life." https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/judith-butler-explains-the-gender-panic21 Jul 2026 21:42 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr6rn6afrc2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqwqkcjpf22b"Fascism has a script…You attack the universities, you attack the journalists…You attack voting rights. And he's doing it, step by step." (Video source: @thegoodliars.bsky.social)18 Jul 2026 17:01 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqwqkcjpf22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqvvaok5p22p“For a starting fee of about $2,000, the rich and aggrieved can pay to put a journalist’s work on trial before an ‘AI jury,’ which then issues a verdict and assigns the reporter an ‘Honor Index’ score. A private, billionaire-funded tribunal that uses AI to attack journalists.” @gilduran.com https://www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiel-snags-top-prize-from-politicos-owner/18 Jul 2026 08:53 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqvvaok5p22phttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqu7tn7sj22g“A guest on Malaysian soil…is publicly threatening the prime minister with capital flight unless he is granted an audience—and a memorandum of understanding. This is the Network State ideology performed in real time: power and sovereignty as a negotiation between a government and a bloc of capital.” https://www.thenerdreich.com/balaji-srinivasans-tech-cult-threatens-malaysia/17 Jul 2026 16:57 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqu7tn7sj22ghttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqowaiprlk2t"The father of a Colombian immigrant shot and killed by a federal agent in Maine on Monday described him as 'a good person raised with strong values,' who worked two jobs to support his wife and 3-year-old daughter." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/us/joan-sebastian-guerrero-maine-ice-shooting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.x1A.gfOU.1fvkawHgvB6y&smid=url-share15 Jul 2026 14:22 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqowaiprlk2thttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqe4zxq2zk26Reflect Orbital wants to reflect sunlight onto Earth during the nighttime, brightening the night sky artificially. The Trump-aligned FCC just approved the first satellite. The company wants 50,000 of them. #SpacePolitics https://spacenews.com/fcc-approves-first-reflect-orbital-satellite/11 Jul 2026 07:24 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqe4zxq2zk26https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqczawt6ts27“Mr President, your plan will fail miserably. If you think the American people will allow fascism, you are gravely mistaken. The NAACP will do everything in our power to send people to the polls and make their voices heard.” –Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/trump-accused-election-rig-federal-commissioners-fired10 Jul 2026 20:44 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqczawt6ts27https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mqcpjsrevc2eSteven Shaviro reviews a biography "tracing the strange alchemy by which [J. G.] Ballard was able to transmute both his personal experience and the often dreadful historical events of the mid- and late-20th century into fantastic fiction." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/jg-ballard-illuminated-man-christopher-priest-nina-allan/10 Jul 2026 17:50 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqcpjsrevc2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mq35ackwec27The real puzzle is why so many keep backing Musk—from Tesla-driving, Starlink-surfing consumers to governments and corporations that continue doing business with him. Musk has agency, but we also need to understand the social order that has permitted his rise, despite his noxious views and actions. https://open.substack.com/pub/victorshammas/p/elon-musk-for-the-not-so-perplexed?r=2tqlj7&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web07 Jul 2026 17:34 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mq35ackwec27https://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpxlopkf6c2dPost-Orbán: “MCC Brussels…declared €6.37m in annual funding in 2024 from MCC Budapest, making it one of the best-funded thinktanks in the EU capital. … Furedi…now a leading ideologue for the new right, said that MCC Brussels would need alternative funding from September.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/05/why-viktor-orban-favourite-thinktank-is-in-crisis06 Jul 2026 07:42 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpxlopkf6c2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpwmrjyvq22sTrump called Infantino on Wednesday. Result: "The first time since 1962 that FIFA has nullified a suspension for a red card received during the World Cup." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/us/trump-fifa-balogun-world-cup.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vVA.6GFR.UcmFM-hBGJMt&smid=url-share05 Jul 2026 22:28 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpwmrjyvq22shttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpspisjvx22xMusk’s amplification of the movie “Citizen Vigilante” legitimizes violence against immigrants. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/30/elon-musk-anti-migrant-armie-hammer-film-free-download-citizen-vigilante04 Jul 2026 09:07 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpspisjvx22xhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpoylldxcs2y"Nigel Farage and his partner have built a mortgage-free property empire worth more than £4 million in the last decade…Land Registry records show that all but one were purchased with cash since 2020." https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/nigel-farage-ps4-million-property-empire-reform-b1288554.html02 Jul 2026 21:39 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpoylldxcs2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpnq2tyiak2q“Hungary’s government has begun dismantling controversial public-interest asset management foundations created under Viktor Orbán’s previous administration, taking direct state control of dozens of institutions.” https://www.euractiv.com/news/hungary-starts-taking-back-control-of-orban-era-foundations/02 Jul 2026 09:33 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpnq2tyiak2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/victorshammas.com/post/3mpg7x2fr3c2qRight-wing lawlessness: "President Donald Trump said on Sunday that work will begin Sept. 1 on the public East Potomac Golf Course despite a federal judge's warning of "serious consequences" if the administration begins major work without getting approval and notifying the court in advance." https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-work-begin-dc-golf-despite-judges-warning/story?id=13429359129 Jun 2026 09:56 +0000at://did:plc:c2fn4ldt5li6ompalqlkocko/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpg7x2fr3c2q