darryl li@dcli
4h
new essay in saq on the open letter genre — its stakes, it dynamics, its occasional silliness — in the shadow of genocide

open access link: read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic…
Darryl Li A Theory of Open Letters: Notes on the Politics of a Genre Open letters are a curious genre, especially as an attempt to engage in politics. These epistles are open in two senses: First, they are meant to circulate among and elicit engagement from some kind of public beyond any named addressees. While they may take the form of a bilateral communicative encounter between two interlocutory positions (whether they are composed of single individuals or groups is immaterial), they are intended to be “overheard” by others. ...The realm of appearance (to borrow Arendt’s phrase) or the sphere of the sensible (à la Rancière) both point to a paradox of the open letter that needs to be thought through in relation to material conditions. We are talking about a public, and hence the open letter tends to make its appearance in professions of publicity, an affliction of occupations in which value is derived through reputation produced in public circulation and indexed to individualized notions of achievement, creativity, genius, flair: the arts, academia, science, journalism, sports. Yet this individuality often exists in great tension with the open letter’s collective voice. This can make the process of crafting open letters and debating them quite tedious or even exasperating, as all manner of objections are raised to tone, structure, wording, and the like. ... Accordingly, open letters are often the product of an atypical and perhaps unusually estranged relation to one’s written expression.
As for the open letter genre, what makes Palestine distinctive is not the nature or extent of atrocity to be denounced, but the misfortune of being colonized by a movement that enjoys widespread support and sympathy within the academic milieu of the United States. ... And insofar as this essay was produced largely in response to conditions in that context, it is no coincidence that Palestine is the exemplary case. (In other contexts, agreement about Palestine may be so widespread that it does not strain these fault lines.) To speak of Palestine here is often to invite and incite dispute. To speak of Palestine is to take a stance, to assume risk, to potentially join a cause or ...... even a movement. Under these conditions, the tension between the different values invoked in open letters becomes particularly fraught, and the strains activate all the tendencies of professional deformation. Wielding an open letter in the face of genocide is the height of absurdity, and yet it is precisely this apparent triviality that renders refusals, prevarications, and attacks all the more egregious and all the more revealing. Palestine brings out the worst and the best in the open letter form, just as it brings out the worst and the best in so many of us.
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darryl li@dcli
3h
Replying to @dcli
part of this issue on 'criminalizing and policing dissent' edited by erin pineda and eraldo souza dos santos
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darryl li@dcli
3h
Replying to @dcli
nb:
1. i know the rilke reference is wrong, smh
2. this was written long before that iran letter
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Daniel Lambert@dlLambo
8h
I assumed it was made up. It's not.

Apple Maps has reinstated old imagery of Gaza.

So all the buildings still exist.

The left is Apple and the right is Google of Rafah, a city that is entirely "erased" by the IOF.

What stage of propaganda for Israel is this?
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darryl li retweeted
Zo Brown
@receipts_lol
18h
Built a new tool to assist investigators determining which IDF unit committed a particular war crime in Gaza.

Just enter a date and location, see which units were verified to be there.

Link to tool in next tweet.
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darryl li@dcli
Nov 1
now out in print

academia.edu/179994381/The_…
THE MOST MORAL GENOCIDE IN THE WORLD Darryl Li Atop a hill in the western outskirts of Jerusalem sits Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial and museum of the state of Israel, a pilgrimage destination for visiting dignitaries and children on school trips alike. Barely a kilometer away on an adjoining hilltop is Kfar Shaul, an Israeli community that includes a mental health hospital well-known for first diagnosing the so-called “Jerusalem syndrome,” whereby awestruck tourists temporarily believe themselves to be Biblical figures. Kfar Shaul was built atop the ruins of the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, site of the most infamous massacre of the 1948 Nakba. Some of the stone houses of Deir Yassin are still standing as part of the Kfar Shaul mental health hospital. ...
darryl li@dcli
24 Dec 2025
Spoke at Collège de France last week about The Most Moral Genocide in the World

youtube.com/watch?v=zNT-5E…
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darryl li retweeted
soup🕷️
@thrluv
Oct 29
"ai will replace u" i'd like to see ai cry at work
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darryl li@dcli
Oct 29
probably needs the girl, i guess voter guide as much as the rest of us
Tina Sfondeles@TinaSfon
Oct 29
He may be the leader of the Catholic church, but Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV is still a registered voter in Illinois and requested a mail ballot for the midterm elections.

chicago.suntimes.com/pope-leo-xiv/2…
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darryl li retweeted
Esmat Elhalaby@thaqafatalhind
Oct 16
you can't do more than two searches in worldcat without having to "sign in" whatever that is. i will never forgive whoever destroyed worldcat (the Ex Libris Group)
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darryl li@dcli
Oct 9
They should have given it to @pchrgaza @alhaq_org @AlMezanCenter
Muhammad Shehada
@muhammadshehad2
Oct 9
The Nobel peace prize was just awarded to the UN official that found Israel guilty of an ongoing genocide

An extraordinary turning point & a vindication of everyone who stood against Israel's atrocities in Gaza!
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darryl li@dcli
Oct 8
new report from @MESA_1966: three years on, the campus protests were vindicated by public opinion, but the repression against campus workers continues

afi.mesana.org/resource/lesso…
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 29
with this bomb plot thing they are trying to remake “four lions” but are ending up with a bad reboot of “in the loop” instead
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darryl li retweeted
Nihal | نهال
@nihalist___
Sep 28
I profiled Shabjdeed for @Dazed MENA. we talked about the Saint Levant diss track, hip hop in the region and the role of the Palestinian artist amongst other things

dazed.me/music/shabjdee…
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darryl li retweeted
Ayesha A. Siddiqi@AyeshaASiddiqi
Sep 26
hate to say it, so have avoided saying it here, but it’s becoming harder to ignore that the willingness to recognize genocide is proportional to how successful the genocide is. they want the functional equivalent of land acknowledgements they do not want to confront génocidaires
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darryl li retweeted
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany
Sep 23
New ACLU and Amnesty International USA Report Uncovers Widespread Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech Across College Campuses aclu.org/press-releases…
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 16
the history of saudi (and gulf) military aviation is actually pretty wild from the beginning
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 16
The government of Palm Beach County is the largest holder of Israel Bonds in the world
Internationalist Law Center@Intllawcenter
Sep 16
Today, 100 South Florida residents alongside Noura Erakat, Oliver Larkin, and former US State Department Official Charles Blaha came to give public comment during the Palm Beach County Budget hearing against Israel Bonds.
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 16
flags of inconvenience
MenchOsint
@MenchOsint
Sep 16
Fox News confirmed that Oil Tankers crossing the southern corridor of the Strait of Hormuz are crewed by US soldiers.
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 15
perhaps the purest form of solidarity there is ...
josh!@queersocialism
Sep 14
absolutely kills me how everyone feels the need to have to preface any compliment or expression of solidarity with macklemore with some semblance of “this guys music fucking sucks”
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darryl li@dcli
Sep 11
would be nice to read a 9/11 retrospective by someone who isn’t one of the losers polluting the discourse for the past 25 years
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