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Torsten Kathke

@kathke.com

Historian. 19th/20th century US & Germany. JGU Mainz. 70s/80s cultural criticism, pop science, futurology. Book: Wires That Bind.

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Latest posts by Torsten Kathke @kathke.com

Made a new folder for documents that I should file away.

Started pulling binders off the shelves to file away documents.

Spent a solid five minutes wondering why I couldn’t find any of the important documents I needed to file away.

Reader, you know where they were already.

04.03.2026 12:52 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Stop worrying and love the bomb!

03.03.2026 17:05 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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(S+) Iran-Israel-Konflikt: Blockade der Meerenge könnte Heizen und Tanken verteuern Die USA und Israel haben mit Iran einen der größten Gas- und Ölproduzenten angegriffen. Nun dürften Tanken und Heizen teurer werden – vor allem wegen der Sorge, Teheran könnte als Reaktion eine wichti...

Eine bittere Ironie der Geschichte: In der Woche, in der das missratene Heizungsgesetz kommt & Ministerin Reiche erneut Gas preist, mahnt ein neuer Krieg zum xten Mal an, wie riskant diese Ressourcen sind.
Wann verstehen Merz & Co Fossile finally als Sicherheitsrisiko?
www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/i...

28.02.2026 16:10 👍 679 🔁 226 💬 39 📌 6
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Europa und der Iran-Krieg: Schrödingers Völkerrecht Der Krieg der USA gegen Iran verstößt gegen internationales Recht. Merz & Co weigern sich das Offensichtliche auszusprechen. Und schaden sich selbst.

Der Krieg der USA gegen Iran verstößt gegen internationales Recht. Merz & Co weigern sich das Offensichtliche auszusprechen. Und schaden sich selbst.

01.03.2026 15:16 👍 154 🔁 50 💬 8 📌 6
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Pentagon Names Iran Mission ‘Operation Epic Fury’ The Defense Department posted on social media that the Iran mission’s name is “Operation Epic Fury.” It was the first public statement from the U.S. military since the beginning of the U.S. and Israel...

Oh good. The adults are absolutely in charge.

28.02.2026 09:34 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 3 📌 0

Gibt’s irgendwo Berichterstattung dazu, welche europäischen Medien bald unter Kontrolle eines Trumpisten sind?

28.02.2026 09:46 👍 56 🔁 20 💬 2 📌 0
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Pentagon Names Iran Mission ‘Operation Epic Fury’ The Defense Department posted on social media that the Iran mission’s name is “Operation Epic Fury.” It was the first public statement from the U.S. military since the beginning of the U.S. and Israel...

Oh good. The adults are absolutely in charge.

28.02.2026 09:34 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 3 📌 0

People are always like what’s something you miss from the past and one of mine is antitrust laws

26.02.2026 23:06 👍 13118 🔁 3033 💬 52 📌 49

Halleluja! Yes. 🙋🏻‍♀️⬇️

26.02.2026 18:52 👍 26 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

Well shit. I have the 100GB plan… 🫠

26.02.2026 19:19 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh, THIS is why I keep getting them?!?

26.02.2026 12:32 👍 27 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
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a woman is standing in front of a group of people and says " and to janet the best robot . " Alt: Janet from “The Good Place” is standing in front of a group of people. Someone says “And to Janet! The best robot”. She replies: “Not a robot” with a pained smile.
26.02.2026 12:13 👍 18 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Forever clicking newly introduced “I am not a robot” pages because AI is now in everything and not wanting to use it in search is suspicious.

26.02.2026 12:08 👍 23 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 1

AI is going to increase my skeptical historian tendencies in an unhealthy way.

Whenever I see something interesting/new/fun on the internet I now spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the background to see if the posters on the wall make sense or if there are two suns in the sky.

17.02.2026 22:50 👍 17 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

The reason these people have been attacking scholars and universities is that they stand in the way of the ahistorical bullshit they need to spew in order to construct white Christian nationalism

15.02.2026 16:17 👍 1263 🔁 335 💬 53 📌 8

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

15.02.2026 22:10 👍 10964 🔁 2782 💬 110 📌 33

The fact that large parts of the German media landscape “reported” on this White nationalist fever dream of a speech by Rubio as merely reaffirming the transatlantic alliance is so far removed from reality that it truly makes me speechless.

15.02.2026 10:41 👍 1983 🔁 645 💬 49 📌 25
15.02.2026 07:53 👍 55 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0

Not me going "well this really only makes sense after at least four or five years, what good is a PhD if you haven't even completed the research?"

15.02.2026 11:02 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Good times. Right before bad times.

15.02.2026 10:58 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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"Reducing reliance on fossil fuels looks like Europe’s best shot at saving its domestic manufacturing and stopping other governments from pushing it around."

Outstanding article in The Wall Street Journal. www.wsj.com/business/ene...

14.02.2026 13:04 👍 590 🔁 191 💬 26 📌 13
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Yes it’s Valentine’s Day. But it’s also the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass who was born in 1818 on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. He escaped from slavery & rose to become the most eloquent and forceful voice for the abolition of slavery & for Black voting rights in the U.S.

14.02.2026 18:45 👍 13997 🔁 3733 💬 232 📌 133
14.02.2026 18:27 👍 3787 🔁 683 💬 50 📌 15

We're taking crashout literally now.

14.02.2026 12:39 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Raus aus der Manege - Warum öffentliches Reden mit Rechten ein Problem ist - 54books von Simon Sahner Vor bald zehn Jahren erschien ein Buch mit dem Titel „Mit Rechten reden“, in dem drei Autoren darüber nachdachten, wie…

"Was immer das Reden mit Rechten also gebracht haben soll, geschwächt hat es die Rechtsextremen innerhalb und außerhalb der AfD nicht. Trotzdem hat man das Gefühl, dass derzeit mehr als je zuvor mit Rechten geredet wird."

@simonsahner.bsky.social argumentiert gegen das öffentliche Reden mit Rechten

14.02.2026 08:05 👍 234 🔁 90 💬 3 📌 11

I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.

13.02.2026 17:09 👍 6741 🔁 1818 💬 98 📌 35

The fact that everything these companies do is for profit is fundamentally at odds with the goals of public health. This was true under Biden and has just gotten worse under this administration.

13.02.2026 01:43 👍 96 🔁 34 💬 3 📌 0

Still wild to think that humanity in a hundred years might be living in a climate catastrophe we could have prevented because a couple of ten thousand voters in three US states thought the reality TV star who had bungled the pandemic response would single-handedly fix inflation.

13.02.2026 10:11 👍 29 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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Nein danke, ich denke noch selbst 🌿 Die Suchmaschine will mir mit KI das Denken abnehmen. Als Biologin weiß ich: Die besten Funde macht man auf Umwegen. Warum ich wieder öfter rausgehe.

🌿 Hab das Gefühl, je mehr uns KI aufs Auge gedrückt wird, um unser "Leben zu erleichtern", umso komplizierter und verkrachter wird das alles. Ein paar außer-der-Reihe-Gedanken dazu:

steady.page/de/db21f24b-...

12.02.2026 15:50 👍 616 🔁 152 💬 32 📌 24

Absolutely perfect professor name though.

13.02.2026 08:57 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0