Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
@OlufemiOTaiwo
Followers
69,330
Following
10,266
Media
391
Statuses
15,775
Associate Professor of Philosophy and African Studies at Georgetown. Author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture, @cpluscp member.
Joined November 2019
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
NACIONAL NACIONAL
• 316757 Tweets
#GranHermano
• 144215 Tweets
スタンプ
• 138197 Tweets
GPT-4o
• 104502 Tweets
#JACKANDJOKERQ1
• 95694 Tweets
#WWERaw
• 83379 Tweets
Rangers
• 54370 Tweets
Luciano
• 39660 Tweets
Dallas
• 39095 Tweets
Cavs
• 37484 Tweets
Thunder
• 36866 Tweets
#साथी_मुहिम
• 28718 Tweets
Diniz
• 26107 Tweets
Mavs
• 20864 Tweets
Dort
• 20224 Tweets
Canes
• 19816 Tweets
Gunther
• 17702 Tweets
Shai
• 16068 Tweets
Dario
• 15509 Tweets
スナック
• 13739 Tweets
スクエニ
• 12738 Tweets
Jey Uso
• 11728 Tweets
Daronco
• 11262 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
Elite Capture is officially out today. Thanks to
@haymarketbooks
and
@PlutoPress
and a whole mess of people besides.
124
744
5K
nobody ruin this with context
753
44K
362K
okay but they stumbled onto something great here: every race should have a regular person running it for scale, so you can understand how fast these athletes are
The Ministry of Youth and Sports should step down. It's disheartening to witness such an incompetent government. How could they select an untrained girl to represent Somalia in running? It's truly shocking and reflects poorly on our country internationally.
4K
10K
52K
172
4K
45K
i like teaching lefty theory as much as the next guy but I can rarely do better at explaining the connection between capital and social-political domination than just pointing at what the guys with the capital do and say
Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become "arrogant" since COVID and "We've got to kill that attitude."
12
2K
4K
271
8K
35K
refreshing when folks find the capitalism-colonialism connection to be this clear
44
5K
33K
the stage of capitalism where we explain the wealth of an affluent nation by comparison to the net worth of less than a dozen dudes
4. Norway Is So Damn Rich
In 2022, Norway's oil fund was larger than the combined wealth of the 10 richest people in the world.
It makes $1 billion per week -- and holds 1.4% of the world's shares.
(Nuance: Be skeptical of individual Forbes net-worth figures)
61
316
3K
38
5K
30K
seeing this tweet about a steroid user doing less than a plate for 8 struggle reps has finally convinced me that there is a crisis of masculinity. we must make America lift again
RFK Jr. is probably the most jacked presidential candidate we’ve ever had.
7K
3K
33K
173
2K
24K
the video is good for the most part, but it says that "thousands" of Kenyans were "detained in inhumane conditions". despite attempts by the British empire to softpedal this for generations - the more accurate scale is 1.5 million people
She was tortured with axes during Kenya's struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
As Britain celebrates the Platinum Jubilee of its monarch, this old fighter wants to send her a message: "Let Elizabeth bring what belongs to me."
2K
64K
156K
34
7K
23K
a lot can be done about urban flooding and stormwater. none of it will be, as long as our public institutions function primarily as sites of extraction for cops and corporations
A wise person once said that you will experience climate change through a series of increasingly wild videos, until you are the one taking the video.
705
18K
77K
37
5K
23K
what is the "vote harder" response to this?
New York's Democratic supermajority just refused to pass climate policy for the 3rd year in a row. National solar industry lobbyists teamed up with fossil fueled merchant power producers to kill a bill because they were scared of losing market share to public renewables
200
3K
13K
140
2K
15K
back when I was in high school I couldn't imagine something like this this happening anywhere.
58
1K
14K
from a comrade: "Not to be controversial but I think white women and all middle class and even rich women and anyone with a uterus is going to suffer...Weird that we're means testing sympathy instead of trying to build solidarity between everyone this will affect."
96
1K
12K
I think every leftist should pass this around once or twice a year just so we're all on the same page: from recently WW-II era CIA "Simple Sabotage Field Manual", guidelines for how to disrupt organizations.
120
3K
11K
When Lincoln signed laws from Congress outlawing slavery (1862) and issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), he defied SCOTUS' infamous Dred Scott decision (1857). The New York Times' comment: "Nobody pretends this act is constitutional, and nobody cares if it is or not."
supreme court precedent this, supreme court precedent that...
there's precedent to just ignore the supreme court, and more people should know that
43
1K
10K
44
3K
10K
can't stand waking up in a country where my tax obligations involve paying for benefits I do not personally receive. hope these new IRS agents ask me for an amount that perfectly represents my proportional use of roads, libraries, Predator drones, and Blackwater contractors
44
1K
9K
me, a US leftist watching the Brazilian elections
39
740
9K
As someone here reminded me earlier today, time helps us think about this scale of wealth:
A million seconds ago was less than 2 weeks ago: June 27th 2023
A billion seconds ago? 1992
A trillion seconds ago? tens of thousands of years before recorded human history: 29665 BCE
According to new research, U.S. multinational corporations funneled at least $1.2 trillion into offshore tax havens between 1998 and 2018.
Don’t tell me that corporations can’t afford to pay their fair share.
122
2K
5K
47
3K
9K
one thing I'm trying to get better about from here on out is writing and thinking even less defensively. trying to craft sentences into fortresses is a waste of valuable time and effort. what would you say if you were speaking to someone who's trying to understand you? say that.
58
1K
8K
flabbergasted by the volume of takes about how limited her choices were. if the literal Queen of England is not responsible for her decisions or complicity with harmful structures, who is?
if I didn't already find "complicity" to be a bogus moral framework, I'd start today.
38
1K
8K
I try to avoid dunking on here and conspiracy theorizing anywhere. but it's worth reflecting on the very nakedly organized effort in this country (particularly in Florida) to make sure schoolchildren never know the answer to this question or questions like it
@jduffyrice
@thomaschattwill
How did the Montgomery Bus Boycott inconvenience anyone other than the people participating?
229
4
51
16
1K
8K
on some level I get the whole "why didn't Palestinians protest peacefully" knee jerk reaction, but you have to understand that it hits different for people who have spent years watching themselves and their friends get added to watch lists for doing exactly that
88
830
8K
strong discourse, still going, but I'm guessing we are less than 48 hrs from some "she lock on my heed till I martin" type tweet finally ends it all
56
291
8K
While Boomers were partying in their homes with affordable mortgages, we studied the avocado toast. And now that the crates are full and the barbarians are at the gates they have the nerve to ask us for help?
Amid an oversupply of avocados, how can we find ways to eat more? Here are some tips
280
49
399
37
1K
8K
I am old enough to remember 2001, when many adults advocated non-violence after the police murdered Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati, almost all of whom turned into believers in the transformative power of overwhelming violence that September when hijackers destroyed the Twin Towers.
17
958
8K
seems like a good time to mention that the good folks at
@haymarketbooks
put together an absolutely gorgeous cover for Elite Capture. comes out in May
106
601
7K
turned out poverty was a problem of access to money rather than credit. who knew
Microfinance, once hailed as a miracle cure for poverty, has become a lending system run amok — and institutions that could help fix it are feeding the frenzy
42
189
572
13
966
6K
what's wild to me about this (beyond the garden variety colonial apologia) is that the Spanish and the Portuguese showing up is known to have set off the 'Great Dying', killing upwards of 50 million people over the following century.
South and Central America before the Spanish and Portuguese showed up.
963
2K
11K
43
561
6K
"This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan who has seen conflict rage for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully - city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it was going to happen."
177
1K
6K
more of this
Ireland will waive visa requirements for all Ukrainian people who travel to Ireland following the Russian invasion, the Taoiseach has confirmed
66
3K
12K
8
753
6K
for the life of me I'll never understand why "explain your life in a way that will inspire a middle aged urban professional" is supposed to be a better deal for working class kids than tests
good piece here -- as expected, colleges are going to shut down any measures they might get sued over. It's why they all decided to stop taking the SAT. And what's next is going to be a whole lot of subjective measures like the personal essay
18
54
478
62
576
6K
i hate it here. i'm not having a good time
In one of the most absurdly cynical co-optations of racial justice politics imaginable, the CIA just unveiled a statue of Harriet Tubman at their HQ in Langley, "honoring" her as an "intelligence pioneer."
149
633
4K
39
519
5K
in an era of imperial decline, ecological collapse, and historically unprecedented protests against police violence, you really gotta admire Obama's total commitment to not being about shit.
24
380
5K
I understand this man less yet like him more with every additional fact I learn about him
Ben Affleck speaks Spanish like if he were raised in Tijuana
1K
16K
193K
25
149
5K
we are so back
20
530
5K
RFK campaign in shambles
Be sure to always center your health and well-being as we fight to save democracy and humanity.
3 reps of 405 and I'm ready to go! 💪🏿
609
637
15K
16
203
5K
the world would be better off if it had more actual, committed, principled pacifists. but I suspect that what we have instead are mostly people who believe that violence is only the legitimate province of some people, and what is morally required of everyone else is submission
8
1K
5K
Me & my husband stand with the people of Iran fighting for freedom.
5K
22K
211K
13
410
5K
I love a lot of things about this, but among them is the fact that Amazon basically up and said "let's try real regular, vintage racism" and Amazon workers collectively said "no"
This, from Amazon, has to be one of the greatest self-owns ever:
“Make [Chris Smalls] the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement.” - Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky in April 2020.
108
2K
22K
8
890
5K
on this stretch of Connecticut ave you are mostly in danger of having to buy an overpriced salad at sweetgreen
when it’s your first time out of racism county alabama
700
548
18K
53
243
5K
if you had asked me a week ago to write up a cartoonishly horrific caricature of police indifference to actual public safety, I would probably have come up with something milder than what has actually happened over the last couple of days
It’s worth repeating. A mom drove there. Got handcuffed. Got out of handcuffs. Hopped a fence. Went inside the school and walked out with her two kids. All while 19 officers waited outside the classroom where the gunman was.
#UvaldePolice
#Uvalde
3K
80K
395K
11
724
4K
this is breathtaking, even by the considerable standards of imperial violence over the last 500 years. this is also being done by the champion of the "rules-based international order", in case anyone still wonders what that phrase is worth
Breaking News: President Biden is moving to split $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets between 9/11 victims’ families and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. The highly unusual set of moves is expected to be announced on Friday.
3K
2K
4K
27
944
4K
Lula's victory in Brazil means leftists now lead Latin America's seven largest nations by population and six largest by GDP.
#PatriaGrande
🌎✊🏾✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿
232
3K
17K
5
425
4K
more countries should hire an official roaster. this is crucial to state sovereignty in 21st Century information environments
24
437
4K
bleak fucking era developing
Over 93,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have now fled Nagorno-Karabakh, local authorities say, meaning 75% of the enclave's entire population has now left in less than a week.
29
379
724
14
538
4K
they emptied the clip on ol boy. the DC coke orgy wing of the deep state is a harsh mistress
NEW: Mounting scandals fuel uncertainty over Cawthorn’s reelection
44
15
76
16
230
4K
good thing my guy chose his words carefully, could've gone wrong otherwise
14
118
4K
"We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around."
who said it: Lex Luthor, Skeletor, or some private developer somewhere?
22
356
4K
me thinking about how the British Empire really, actually plunded a quarter of the world's lands and peoples and used the hoarded wealth to build a transit system including a "Piccadilly Line" that runs to "Cockfosters"
19
274
3K
It's not only possible, it is now the norm, to go from Pre-K to PhD without reading a single word from the RZA, the GZA, Ol Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck,
Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah or the Method Man
It’s not only possible, it is now the norm, to go from Pre-K to PhD without reading a single word from Homer, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Jane Austen, Frederick Douglass, Tolkien, Churchill, C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, or MLK.
853
586
3K
41
387
3K
I have a few NYT posts left in me. here's one: I really can't stand the cult of "new". seems like it cuts across academia, journalism, and even art - the drive for novelty or the appearance of it. puts me into curmudgeonly uncle mode immediately
32
234
3K
lots of different threads so just going to say this here: mvmts need weapons, hours, resources to succeed. oppressive systems tend to deny these to the bottom and hoard them at the top. this is the strategic basis for coalition, which you cannot moralize yourself out of.
5
503
3K
people often act like leftists are conspiracy theorists for saying that the state coordinates the rule of capital. helpful to remember that state representatives basically say this themselves
On Initiative 82, Bowser said it was an "overwhelming vote" in favor. Still, she says she was confused by the wording on the ballot, and wants to work "to partner with industry to facilitate conversation" about how to move forward.
12
16
88
6
567
3K
been holding this in until I could make it a clarification rather than a dunk:
when you say "race is a global political system" to some people, they seem to hear "particular social categories/hierarchies/norms from the US are used everywhere". but it's this, actually:
The whole Ukraine situation is radicalising as hell. We’ve spent over ten years watching North African/Middle Eastern refugees being killed by xenophobic anti-refugee policies. Children washing up dead on beaches, refugees being gassed and beaten by European border police >
66
3K
17K
12
606
3K
I don't care what word people use - decolonial, anti-colonial, etc. But if we *are* going to all agree on something, I hope it's that we're leaving "no actual material redistribution just vibes" theory and politics behind
16
364
3K
having read this article it is extremely wild to me that the headline leads with fat shaming
JUST IN: Lizzo sued over claims she created a hostile work environment where former dancers say they were weight-shamed and sexually harassed.
558
2K
7K
13
240
3K
free speech discourse in the US makes more sense when you remember that, for the majority of the history of the English colonies and eventual US, "freedom" *very explicitly* meant the freedom for whites of means to buy, sell, and plunder from other people
12
602
3K
somebody tell the orcas about this guy
The tables are set for a celebration of Henry Kissinger at 100, hosted by
@EconClubNY
at the Yale Club.
What would you ask Dr. Kissinger?
1K
85
209
10
224
3K
one thing to accept intellectually that the world revolves around capital. but what's solidified ecosocialism for me in recent years is water: a critical resource to all life *literally falls from the sky* but isn't secured for all because it's more profitable to be dumb about it
19
473
3K
"Critical race theory is a subset of critical theory, which began with Immanuel Kant in the 1790s. Critical theory rejected the principles of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason on which the American Republic was founded."
you have to be kidding me
88
278
3K
the history will continue until morale improves
18
549
3K
"Researchers in Japan have confirmed that microplastics are present in clouds, where they are likely affecting the climate in ways that are not yet fully understood."
cool
33
740
3K
"Organizing is not a process of ideological matchmaking. Most people’s politics will not mirror our own...if we cannot organize beyond the bounds of our comfort zones, we will never build movements large enough to combat the forces that would destroy us."
23
784
2K
i take it all back: there is, in fact, exactly one version of the trolley problem i care about
Deeply obsessed with this tiny Irish child’s trolley problem joke
1K
20K
137K
11
243
2K
in today's episode of imperial decline
JUST IN: An arena in South Dakota is holding a “Dash for Cash” where teachers get on their knees and fight for one dollar bills that they can use for classroom supplies while spectators watch and cheer. (h/t
@AnnieTodd96
)
8K
5K
18K
19
394
2K
everybody's materialist until it's time to explain the behavior of people they don't like
21
222
2K
i understand, intellectually, that we just have way quicker access to more and more visceral kinds of information about things being fucked up across the planet than we did decades ago. still, though
Awful situation unfolding right now in Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina as a fast-moving wildfire is approaching the city. Multiple structures on fire. Urgent evacuations are underway.
568
9K
20K
19
359
2K
however tough it may be to feel sympathy or empathy for people who've done serious harm, it should be easy to understand how a society that tolerates institutionalizing this kind of violence will produce people willing to dish it out
BREAKING: A federal judge ordered Louisiana to remove all children from the nation's largest adult maximum security prison, Angola, by September 15, finding the state's treatment is cruel and unusual punishment.
140
4K
13K
5
482
2K
"First, Barbados severed ties with the British monarchy. Then, it crowned Rihanna as an official national hero. Now, the country wants to give all of its citizens a universal basic income.
It's been a busy two weeks."
iconic
7
432
2K
"There is a strong network of abortion funds throughout the country that have provided financial and practical support for decades! Visit to find your local one."
image and text from:
3
1K
2K
there's a curious genre of post that is determined to define unions narrowly as "the thing people did back when kids worked in factories and mines" yet is doggedly determined to learn 0 political lessons from the fact that it took unions to get kids out of factories and mines
9
510
2K
"One of the reasons Amazon worked so well is because people worked when Amazon said you must work."
sometimes students look at me funny when *I* say you need to understand corporations as an (authoritarian) governance structure. helps to remember that *they* say so, too
Jim Cramer melting down over Amazon union victory: “The unions will be in charge of time that you need to work, and that would be dreadful”
636
1K
11K
10
374
2K
on my way back from the gym today I saw a car get stuck in the snow. 4 bystanders dropped what they were doing, immediately ran over to help push it out, and then wordlessly went on about their business. what I mean to say is: communism will win
14
173
2K
ah yes, how we dealt with "the Taliban", also currently known as "the reigning government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan"
I hunted terrorists. I know a thing or two about dismantling dangerous organizations. We can dismantle cartel and human smuggling networks by treating them the same way we treated the Taliban and al Qaeda.
1K
40
348
25
204
2K
Reconsidering Reparations is out this coming January. Basically it makes a case for two things: 1) reparations should be worldmaking 2) in the 21st century, that requires climate justice.
Thanks to
@OxUniPress
for putting this out (and for the 30% discount code!).
90
510
2K
agree but maybe the worse thing is that they get everybody to vastly overestimate the importance of intelligence or whatever passes for it. Capitalism is watching the smartest people you've ever met spending their days trying to make the most powerful people alive .0784% richer
a lot of “smart” people (by this I mean people with fancy jobs who went to fancy schools, not actual smart people) really overestimate how much more intelligent they are than the average person
186
1K
17K
7
285
2K
how did slavery end, anyways? why don't US children do hard labor? where did the 40 hour work week come from? lots to complain about our education system but somewhere on the list: you can finish high school without anyone even bothering to lie to you about most of these
6
247
2K
me: no conspiracy theories! they make reactionaries look stronger/smarter than they are and make struggle seem unwinnable
shadowy injustice league: *daily, increasingly odd Madison Cawthorn content after public allegations about coke orgies*
me: ok one conspiracy theory
22
214
2K
forming like anti-colonial Voltron
Irish, Indian, Kenyan, Nigerian, South African, and Caribbean Twitter right now.
1K
35K
214K
3
308
2K
@jduffyrice
@BrandyLJensen
"Hey! I'm so glad you reached out. I'm actually at capacity / dealing with some personal stuff right now, and I don't think I can hold appropriate space for your orgasm. Could we connect [later date or time] instead / Do you have someone else you could jerk off to?"
7
34
2K
at some point one should consider generalizing
In a “breathtaking disrespect” for the law, “100s of Connecticut state police troopers falsified information on at least 26,000 traffic stops from 2014 to 2021.”
109
1K
3K
3
321
2K
this special pleading for the violence of states while insisting on non-violence as a categorical principle - is most certainly a moral stance. but not one on violence itself, so much as it is at bottom a commitment to the moral perspective that underlies apartheid to begin with
9
346
2K
"It should be obvious by now that fossil fuel companies have no real plans to change in response to the climate crisis. And that the only way forward is without them." - LA Times Editorial Board
39
789
2K
I am once again asking what the proper word to describe this politics is
Republicans in Ohio have introduced a bill that would require state colleges and universities to guarantee that they will refrain from endorsing, opposing, or commenting on "any controversial belief or policy" including the idea that climate change exists
350
1K
2K
46
277
2K
"Here's the idea behind why boosting the nation's unemployment could cool inflation...When companies assume their labor costs are unlikely to rise, the theory goes, they will stop hiking prices."
what gets me: the admission that companies drive inflation
37
532
2K
okay the new Castlevania series doesn't just have the occasional reference to the Haitian Revolution: there's Vodou superpowers, Yoruba cosmology, colored abolitionism and a maroon enclave subplot. which of you Black lefties wrote this? come clean (and receive your flowers)
34
174
2K
every time you see this mf the plot of the show you're watching is about to get dark af
43
149
2K
Coalitional politics continues. We have nothing to lose but our food chains
The orcas are organizing internationally across species now
447
5K
36K
6
206
2K
Today is the official publication date for Reconsidering Reparations. The acknowledgements section could easily have been as long as the book itself. For now I'll just say that I am extremely grateful to the many who made this possible, and I hope it contributes something.
74
216
2K
"What we have now challenges a presupposition that I long held: that sexual desire was fairly fixed. I think we now see that...heterosexuality is partly something innate, but also something that must be achieved."
Gender studies won. They fucking did it
47
126
2K
IMMANUEL KANT: WRONG ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT. WRONG ON REASON. WRONG FOR AMERICA.
22
182
2K
"But another story is rarely taught or acknowledged: The first people in the modern world to free themselves from slavery and create their own nation were forced to pay for their freedom yet again — in cash.
10
582
2K
me as a reader/grader: "ugh why so roundabout and indirect? just tell me what the main point is already God"
me as a writer: "what explains this odd thing we see today!?!? first follow me back to a cold autumn morning in 1492, betwixt the allied kingdoms of Castile and Leon..."
14
113
2K