Many political partisans, in practice, believe in their party structures more than they do in any abstract set of philosophical principles, and that this is correlated neither with the left/right axis nor educational attainment.

Doc is quite right. It’s particularly ridiculous because British/Imperial racism has been intertwined with the American variety and vocabulary for centuries. It’s not just about TV or social media- the Australian public had sadly strong opinions about American race relations in the 19th century!

As a young man, I found myself at a reception at New Zealand House in London. While returning with a round of drinks, I tripped over myself (I wasn't even drunk, just very clumsy) and proceeded to pour half a pint down the back of someone who turned out to be Prime Minister Bill English.

Young people today no longer read Redwall, proving that the modern generation doesn't love small animals or vegetarianism.

I was privileged to work at NZ’s Royal Commission into Abuse in Care, and it meant dealing with many, many horrific files. We had training and mandatory therapy. It still messes you up. Do not traumatise yourself out of a misguided sense of political obligation.

This is a modern Jameson Raid. Its short term success will not change the day that it has revealed the inherent lawlessness of its perpetrators. It is an action of imperial weakness, not strength.

-- I tell the tale that I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.

This unrelated thread gets to the heart of why Stoppard's plays are so delightful; they are clever and humanist and densely intellectual, but they can also be joyful and funny and farcical and strange. 'R&G are Dead', 'Real Inspector Hound,' 'Travesties' are all great art that leaves you delighted.

People get really, performatively weird about the difficulty of Ulysses. It's not that inaccessible, particularly if you listen to it; it demands attention and mental effort, but it's not some literary shibboleth or an emperor with no clothes.

Why do you feel the need to believe you were born in Babylon? What do you get out of it, emotionally?

American sports, or Yugoslavia in 1942, who can say.

My undergrad lecturer, the late and much lamented Chris Jones once succinctly taught a lesson through three 16thC portraits: which of these three men is most confident in his power? It’s remarkable that Charles looks more like a merchant or lawyer than the most powerful man in the Atlantic world.

Stephen is quite wrong about the Craig era being a total disaster, but quite right that people sleep on the Tosca scene in QoS: it's a perfectly absurd Bond set piece, overdramatic, mildly comic, and the right amount of camp. Pity about the rest of the film mind.

Remember when Scorsese - quite rightly - pointed out that Marvel movies were the simply rollercoasters and was decried on twitter? A varied media diet matters, which means you can enjoy the trite or trashy or childish. In fact, some children's art is profound. But you need the other stuff!

Sensible historical critique this, and I don't understand the medievalists quibbling. As a late Victorian historian, I can confirm that medieval people wore dirt and all early modern people wore silly wigs and ruffs. I hope this helps clear up the distinction for any lay people.

A good essay on a series I have a lot of residual fondness for. A lot of ink has been spilled on 'YA fiction' that's actually written for and read by adults; the Wheel of Time is a great example of 'adult' literature whose ideal audience is a bookish eleven year old.

I think the CANZUK delusion is more widespread than people think. Story time: At the graduation drinks for my masters, I spoke to a fellow student who was very excited about the job he was going to at an exciting new campaign: Brexit.

Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, for starters.

The bizarre thing about Starfield is that it has one (1) really good idea, a genuinely innovative advance in not just the studio's formula but the entire genre of the western RPG... and it's locked behind completing the main quest, which the studio's players never, ever, do.

I'm recovering from surgery so I can't join the #marchforhumanity in Sydney today. I'm so glad to see so many people rallying against starvation and ethnic cleansing. Solidarity!

Frustratingly, most of the Tom Lehrer clips on youtube cut out his extremely witty intros. This man was a comedy titan; my family loved him since the 60s. My extremely Catholic grandfather loved the Vatican Rag; my mum hummed 'The Masochism Tango.' But as a history nerd, this was my favourite:

I'm sorry, but for a list of Australian Songs, the top 100 is picking the wrong Crowded House numbers. 'Four Seasons in One Day' is one of the great songs about Melbourne, and is the band's great Australian song. 'Don't Dream it Over' is a New Zealand song, that's settled fact. #hottest100

Yep. The other point, is that just like today, people in the past could say the same word and mean different things. And those people might not realise that the people they were talking to meant different things! (traumatised phd flashbacks.) There's no shortcut or ai summary to historical truth.

This sounds like a dream project and a great example of what the humanities can be: it's fun, it'll open up understandings of post war Europe, it engages with mass culture, it works across disciplines... some young scholar deserves a great experience working on this.

I thought a lot about this doing my doctorate, and I landed on 1: 'it's a good tool for forcing you to think about why what happened happened, but it has no predictive value, nor can it be used to prove things.' History can't really be wargamed, nor can you change variables in an experiment. 1/7

This is a pun worthy of Asterix

A weird consequence of the discrediting of fascism in WW2 meaning that subsequent movements occupying the similar political ground run away from the label is people act as if the concept is itself fictional. But the bad guys in WW2 were in fact real.

I’ve never before seen rats drill a hole in the side of the ship before they leave.

I'm very pleased to be published in the excellent Liberal Currents, writing about how Trump's foreign policy is actually not a return to colonial imperialism. It's much stranger and more stupid, and it presents quite the challenge to what remains of worldwide liberal democracy.

I can’t reply but yes - a non human working with a Jedi and another group of aliens. In the old canon, they’re all absent from the imperial campaigns we see in the films - and suddenly appear to be demonised as alien traitors, dark Jedi, and Vader cultists once the Kenobi/Skywalker clique wins.

It was aid of Louis XVI that he was like a pillow - the last to sit on it leaves the impression

And the voices of trans women were entirely excluded from the case. Shameful stuff.

'De l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace!'

I mean, there's a lot that's baffling and repulsive about this line of thought, but he's suggesting that the Christian course of action was to join in on the side carrying out the Armenian Genocide.

An interesting comparison, but of course the point about Leopold II is that he engaged in an elaborate and successful pretence that he wasn’t in the Congo to make money. The striking thing about Trumpian imperialism is that there’s no pretence at a casus belli - the knives are sharpened openly.

Studying the laboratory of democracy that was 1890s Australasia should teach you some intellectual humility on this; you nod smugly along as you read about female suffrage, workers' rights, republicanism, the secret ballot... but genocide, white Australasia, and eugenics are all in the same program.

I would be in an audience of dozens, but I’d love to see someone reboot the IP as a Mad Men /Halt and Catch Fire 1980s corporate tech drama where the enterprise just happens to be about single-handedly creating a new tech revolution just so you can compete with Disneyworld.

I'm not proud of this, but when I watched Gladiator II and the enemy champion rides into the arena on a giant rhinoceros, I actually thought 'Ha! He's using stirrups in AD 200, what a goof!'

Having watched Gladiator II my objection aren't so much historical (what's the point? In comparison, the first is a documentary) as they are dramaturgical. The storytelling is muddied. At one point, two scenes repeat the same plot point beat for beat and back to back. Still, Denzel is good fun.

In my first year as a student, my lecturer Geoffrey Rice diverted from our medieval survey course to tell us the story of Marc Bloch. He spent his last breaths comforting a frightened boy before the Nazi firing squad. A great scholar, a brave man, and a model of resistance. Long may we honour him.

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Remember those who have been killed, injured, abused, tortured for being who they are. Remember those who have taken their own lives because they could not live in a world where they could not be themselves. Remember them. And make the world remember them.

New intro time: I’m a historian of 1890s/1900s Australasia, looking at how these new societies saw their place in the wider Pacific - and who was included or excluded in that vision. Hopefully I can pitch it as a book. Other interests include foreign policy, and boring people about Terry Pratchett.

I picked up a stick to throw to a dog, don’t realise it was black thorn, and smashed the back of my head and right ear open.

You know, the thing about spending years reading late nineteenth century Australian racism is that it shouldn't teach you so much about the present bloody moment.

I voted 'Yes' today, and I wish I did it with optimism; but even if we lose tomorrow I promise that I won't move on. Voice. Treaty. Truth.

The Email is J'Accuse as written by Regina George.

Rupert Murdoch's an oligarch who's poisoned the well of democracy in multiple countries, but I'll give him this one thing over Elon: Rupert Murdoch has never lain awake at night worrying that internet posters don't understand how funny he is.

As with everyone, I've built a bolthole here because Musk appears to be dancing through Twitter HQ juggling cans of petrol and lighted torches.