People use fascism loosely to speak of that which they dislike, but the term has a meaning. Most reductively: cult of personality; nationalism; eroticized violence, internal enemies, purity myths, politicized gender.

“We are praying for the victims [our prisoners] and their families [whom we were working to tear apart].”

the actual Prime Minister is still missing, presumed shit

yay! premium artificial ignorance

I hear endlessly (including right now on the radio) that “the new consensus” is that Covid was “almost certainly” caused by a lab leak. This might be a political “consensus”, led by the same White House that says tylenol caused autism. But it’s not the scientific one.

I can read the words but not take this in

OSINT experts may finally have geolocated the site of the Bowling Green Massacre

BTW, this is the primary reason for evangelical Christian support for Israel. American Christians donate 10x the money to Israel and the Israel lobby that Jews do, and their reasons are purely genocidal.

parabolic ≈ hyperbolic

meowi vice

Having pondered it all morning, I'm still incredulous that all that Today programme coverage of migrant hotels at no point (unless I missed it) mentioned why people were here, what they might be fleeing from etc.

Please join us to remember with love all who have died whilst homeless in 2024. 9/10/2025 Opposite Downing Street. Gathering from 6pm, we will read the names at 7pm. Organised by Museum of Homelessness as part of the Dying Homeless Project 🕯

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

This. I think it's very tempting to impute far more organized intelligence here than actually exists. (Not that the bozo-ness isn't terrifying on its own.)

What Got Descartes Out Of Bed Every Morning

I'm sad this still feels so urgent, timely and relevant, a full decade later, but I guess generational changes take time

This. And I'll add one. The number of people I know of south Asian origin who are economically right-leaning but won't vote that way because as they say "they don't like brown people and would get rid of us if they could"

The immigrant experience, even the second or third generation immigrant experience, so often adds up to keeping the suitcases handy.

If you thought that Reform were just about stopping illegal migration, gangs small boats etc, now is the time to re-examine that. These people are not who you thought they were, they are the enemies of everyone in Britain with any shred of foreignness about them

And yeah, 'don't worry, it's not going to happen' doesn't quite cut it right now. And the only way 'it's not going to happen' is if we fight it--that is, Reform getting in--rather than dismiss it as silly and impossible.

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

Farage has been targeting my immigration group since the early 2010s. I'm confident, that, just like during the run up to the Brexit vote, my English colleagues will completely downplay my stress and fear, xenophobic threats made at my family, proceed to ghost me and provide no help and support.

I think this argument (see picture) by Jamelle Bouie, and the points that followed from David French, are exactly right. The right has gotten the idea that politicians and elites control American culture in a very top-down way. This is mostly, as Bouie says, "a bit of projection"...

Building on my experiences & those folks are sharing here, please know—particularly if you work with children in the US—that a significant number of them will be dealing with some heavy shit this week—thinking they’re going to die—worried they won’t—reckoning with the aftermath when nothing happens

also missing is the global context that most other countries already recognised Palestine

we should totally pretend we saw several people Rapturing, it was glorious, and then commiserate with the weirdos left behind that weren't good enough

And today I’ve been speaking to Agnes’ family, not about how she died, but about how she lived. This is who Agnes Wanjiru was, and what she meant to her family: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

“She'd been stabbed several times in the chest and placed in a septic tank, possibly while still alive...It is the most horrific death imaginable.” — David Collins This has been a huge source of anger and frustration in Kenya, and the abuses and effective impunity of BATUK go back much further.

Revealed: the British ex-soldier accused of killing Agnes Wanjiru Thirteen years after the 21-year-old’s body was dumped in a septic tank, Kenya has finally issued an arrest warrant — for ex-combat medic Robert James Purkiss

Again Bouie from the top rope

more every single day, but that's just background noise now — the subliminal background hum as men women and children are being murdered

they are never going to ripen, just let them go

And who protects migrant women? Nobody, because migrant women cease to be women. Normative and mainstream ideas of femininity no longer apply to us. That's why the violence and abuse against us is completely invisible to british politics and feminism (and feminists). We simply don't exist.

what St George' cross and the Union Flag also mean is centuries of violence against Moorish infidels (eight crusades)/centuries defending British interests with blood and treasure (three Anglo-Afghan Wars) and ongoing ethic cleansing/genocide in the Middle East but I'm now being rude, impolite

My Party

We aren't. That's why there's strength in numbers. Collective action is our best hope.

Thinking of something @prisonculture.bsky.social kept repeating at a workshop I attended last year: "Most people are not brave"

funny how queuing and pubs were both seen as deeply British but also fundamentally incompatible

we'd need to find someone else to hate though, think of the poor newspaper columnists

pointing out irony and hypocrisy at this point is missing the point some people live in an entirely separate bubble of mediated 'facts' and values (including who is human, how power should operate) others are just gleefully tearing up social norms (always patchy) or trying to revert to older ones

Exactly right. It's not hypocrisy, it's hegemony.

land of the fear home of the crave/n

I remember finding two old letters, displayed I believe in Jan Smuts' home in Pretoria, from both the French Republic and a younger version of the USA, offering support to the Afrikaans nation against the violent bullying hegemon of the day

I remember feeling floored by this point made by a graphic in Bjorn Lomburg's 'The Skeptical Environmentalist' (he's slightly discredited now I know, but this remains valid) but it eventually flipped the challenge for me we need to transition to carbon neutral energy, and we eventually will…

'logistical reasons' means the need to genuflect more deeply, cravenly

"It's all good. You know what? It's all good." man lacking basic human intelligence, in front of fawning idiots

Two pieces worth reading from a former fact checker with the New Yorker bidoun.org/articles/hou... & former journalist with the BBC www.newarab.com/opinion/why-... who felt forced out of their jobs re Gaza coverage. "Every time we stay quiet, we help write the story against ourselves."