"Dear Professor, the Vice Rector for Didactics has informed me of a decision taken with the rector to postpone the course on Dostoevsky," the email said, according to Nori's video.

Nori went on: "I realize what is happening in Ukraine is horrible, and I feel like crying just thinking about it. But what is happening in Italy is ridiculous."

"In this time we need to study more, not less: in the university we need teachers, not incapable bureaucrats," [former-PM Matteo] Renzi wrote.

On Wednesday, the university released a statement on its social media accounts confirming the course would go ahead.
[...]
"The course of the writer Paolo Nori is part of the writing course aimed at students and citizens who aim to develop transversal skills through forms of writing. The university confirms that this course will take place in the established groups and will deal with the contents already agreed with the writer. In addition, the rector of the university will meet Paolo Nori next week for a moment of reflection," it said.

If your first reaction to Russian aggression anywhere is to bring up the Cold War or NATO (or anything you think the US or UK governments have done worse), your priorities are in the wrong place. We just need you, even for one single day, to simply and firmly stand with victims of Russian imperialism, or fucking stay quiet.

If your second reaction is to denounce armed resistance? 🚩🚩🚩 again. It's hard to understand outsiders wielding language like "civilised" and suddenly "European" and then also shouting at everyone to be pacifists like are we being classed as violent or civil today? I can't keep up.
[...]
And while it is truly understandable that many people hate Russia and Russians and anything to do with Russia, part of the narrative Putin is giving to Russians is that he is the only person on their side. "It's us against them". He says the rest of the world hates us, watch how they treat us. He says Ukrainians are Russophobes (imagine). The insular, exceptional nationalism which Putin has been carefully nurturing and weaponising will only become more effective if the rest of the world turns its back on Russian people.

It also isn't anti-left to be anti-Russia, but taking Russian bands off festival line-ups also isn't going to help anyone. Do you think Putin watches Eurovision? Do you think cancelling football will finally stop him? Is de-platforming meerkats going to help? Do you find yourself suddenly crying when you hear Tchaikovsky for some reason? If so, have you considered simply not telling everyone about it? 🚩🚩🚩

(Sorry. I'm sooo tired of being on the "same side" as so many toxic people... just needed to reassure myself that all right-thinking leftists think like me.)

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

How many seats in parliament?

Poland's Left: Fragmented and in disarray | June 2018 |

2019 Polish parliamentary election

Russia's aggression towards Ukraine in the last few days requires us to work and - unfortunately - to explain many issues of the Western European left. Responsible for this, among others Magdalena Milenkovska, member of Razem Berlin and expert of the Secretariat of International Affairs Together.

Yesterday our National Council decided to leave Progressive International and DiEM25. Why? For reasons incomprehensible to us, both movements did not unequivocally condemn the imperialist and aggressive actions of the Russian Federation and did not unequivocally support the sovereignty of Ukraine, dangerously relativizing this war.

Magda, together with Zofia Malisz and Dorota Kolarska, is the author of an article that appeared in the Berliner Zeitung and Krytyka Polityczna, and co-authors of the position of the National Council.

Enough with the struggle of superpowers. Voices from Central and Eastern Europe | Partia Razem Poland |

Beyond the imperialistic cliché

Unfortunately, these facts seem to be overlooked by some of our German partners on the left. Gregor Gysi and Sevim Dagdelen of Die Linke repeatedly use phrases like NATO's ,,expansion" or ,,aggression". During this tense week, Rolf Mützenich of SPD, in turn, expressed understanding of Russia's ,,justified security concerns". Such statements embed these politicians, often incidentally, in a Cold War rhetoric, which the left is, after all, trying to move away from. 

Michael von der Schulenburg also describes the situation in Ukraine as a ,,conflict between the two strongest nuclear powers in the world, the USA and Russia, on European soil". Conducting a public debate on this crisis over the heads of the people in Central and Eastern Europe ultimately leads to the exclusion and objectification of the countries directly affected by the conflict.

A good example of sidelining Eastern Europe in action not only words is Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline project that has been repeatedly protested against by Central and Eastern European politicians, and which today reveals its destructive potential. From our point of view, such words and actions are reminiscent of similar haughty politics that the West has pursued and continues to pursue towards Africa or the Middle East.

Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, or DiEM25

Countries of "New Europe" founded by Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George Bush and consolidated by Donald Trump. The expansionist and policy of aggression by NATO US Military Command should be criticized.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said so in an opinion piece December 2017 ... NATO crossed the red lines of Russia.

'Sapere aude'

As for the community angle, the problem began years ago when the friendships and chit-chat migrated to other "social media". I think there is a POLITICAL case for bringing it back to actual "community" sites like this one; what that needs is critical mass.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

I understand that much of the debate has moved to the so-called "social networks" (I assume the scare quotes). I avoid Facebook like the plague and I'm only reading a few people on Twitter, but haven't signed up, no matter what their marketing is trying to twist my arm.

As you pointed out, we have never pushed anyone away based on their unpopular views. All people who were kicked out were so for trolling and outright disruptive behavior, never for their opinions.

Do we need to go to that extreme? Frankly, I'm hesitant. We might have a smaller community, but I'm not sure this will give ET its groove back. Openness works better, on the whole.

This doesn't mean we have to be open to any kind of abuse: I could consider that we revise some of our rules about disruptive behavior to add things like not engaging in debates, posting comments that are just link farms, "flooding the zone" with content that rival in length with Tolkien...

Again, not sure what's the best way forward. Colman, who's running the hosting, could also pull the plug and put the site in read-only: we could still peruse the archives when we want; and we'd all move on.