This was such a wonderful experience. Thank you again to @implicitreligion.bsky.social for the invitation and to everyone there for the engaging and fantastic conversations!!

Join us at Writing the Occult: Belief on 6 Sept when we ask: What’s it like to live in a cult? Why do we get swept away by charismatic leaders? Why might someone *not* believe? Where do conspiracy theories come from? Let’s ask if the truth really is out there. Details: writingtheoccult.carrd.co 🧵⬇️

Come hear me speak on September 6th! I'll be talking about my work on spiritual warfare, demonology, and America today!

Speakers: @deborahhyde.bsky.social, @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social, @lilithdorsey.bsky.social, @wtalabi.bsky.social, @demonologian.bsky.social, @bgrafius.bsky.social, @jordanscarroll.bsky.social, Ella Snyder, Sarah Elliott & Chris Hawton. 🎟️ www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-th...

Come and hear me speak on September 6th! Going to be talking about demons, spiritual warfare, and US politics! Wholesome uncontroversial dinner topics.

It's difficult to consider 'belief' in today's world without looking at the influence of religion on world politics, so we're excited that @demonologian.bsky.social is joining the Writing the Occult: Belief speaker team on 6 September. Meet them ⬇️

Starmer like "I deeply regret saying the quiet part out loud. I should not have drawn attention to my policies."

Frankly I would believe Starmer regretted paraphrasing Enoch Powell somewhat more if he wasn't pushing ahead with the some of the most anti-immigration, anti-asylum, policies in decades. His "regret" doesn't make a difference when his actions are the same. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Fascism erases and rewrites history. It debases facts. The fascist narrative supplants all else. Restricting the acquisition and exchange of information allows the regime to replace evidence with myths and propaganda, while silencing and punishing all contradiction.

Religion was not explicitly an issue in Skrmetti, but the gender affirming care bans we've seen across the country were cooked up by Christian nationalist activists, and SCOTUS upholding the TN ban is more evidence of how we are increasingly living under Christian nationalist law.

Corbyns first act after being elected leader of the Labour party in 2015 was speaking in support of refugees The Labour right spent years helping to destroy Corbyn so they could regain control of the party, & for what? 8.30am press conferences scapegoating & demonising migrants

The Prime Minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening. That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk. Shame on you, Keir Starmer.

Unfortunately, Starmer has no principles and no governing ideas at all, so since Farrage is doing well his one impulse is to become as Farrage as possible because surely that way lies success, right!?

(Me, a genius) I see no through line with how George W Bush, who legalized torture through illegal means and illegally invaded a country and killed millions of people, is connected to the current moment

If you want to understand why progressive people don't believe in the Labor Party anymore, here's a prime example. Julian isn't interested in justice, he's interested in being comfortable. Equating spreading race hate with opposing genocide should be unforgivable. Centrism is a brain disease.

This. It isn't hard. People really need to stop taking these institutions at face value regarding their motives.

Everyone in the past was neurotypical, which is how we got things like this single-author, eight-volume encyclopedia of ferns

All charges against pro-Palestinian student protesters in Michigan have been dismissed today 🍉

Scholars leading research centres and groups devoted to feminist/gender/sexuality research have joined together to condemn the recent UK Supreme Court judgment that erroneously reduces “sex” to biology and claims to represent feminist and gay people while doing so. Well, not in our name!

we didn’t abandon labour. after 20 years of loyally voting labour, in every election, your leader told me to fuck off and your party is now actively persecuting me and my community. betrayal doesn’t even come close to describing what labour has done.

I have so little faith in this fucking government and yet they continue to disappoint me.

If only a bunch of professors had been warning about this looming threat of tech giants merging their interests with autocratic governments to build total surveillance states for, oh, about 25 years.

OPEN LETTER: HISTORIANS FOR TRANS RIGHTS Are you a historian in the UK or working on UK history fed up at seeing the history of LGBTQIA+ discrimination repeat itself? Sign this open letter to MPs demanding they stand up for trans rights now! Letter: tinyurl.com/879vuver Sign: tinyurl.com/4p7wktrn

Palestinians are not “facing” starvation. They are being starved to death by Israel. Yet our government still refuses to end all arms sales and implement sanctions, granting endless impunity for Israel's crimes against humanity. End the blockade — and stop the genocide.

In times like ours, the biased approach in social science is to stay silent We know through the vast body of research we read and write that reactionary politics cause extreme suffering and are a threat to democracy Pretending we can't say this is fear of power, not "objectivity"

If you ask GC people what you would need to be able to change about your physical body in order to change sex in their eyes they will never give you an answer. They can't. Because to them "biological sex" is a non material essence like a soul, given to you at conception

The thing about this is how completely unsurprising it all is. The absolute frothing-at-the-mouth fascist loonies get closer and closer to the circles of power. Pub-table-banging nutters are two or three steps removed from Cabinet-level influence. It's all real. It's all deadly.

This statement about the transphobic Supreme Court ruling by the UK's Crab Museum (yes a museum about crabs) is better than 99% of the statements I've seen on the topic www.crabmuseum.org/visit 🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

@whatthetrans.com @transworld.bsky.social @transsafety.network @pinknews.bsky.social @wearequeeraf.com @networkgender.bsky.social @natacha.bsky.social @lgbtqnation.com @transsomething.bsky.social @katymontgomerie.com @kateronaone.bsky.social @nancymk.bsky.social Please share far and wide.

just imagine what tomorrow's big fascism holds

The Race & Class in UK Religious Studies and Theology project is recruiting a part-time postdoctoral researcher (3.5 hrs pw) to work on the project's qualitative research. Further details are available here: www.abdn.ac.uk/racrest Please circulate it to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!

What absolute pieces of shit.

I've said it before, but the mainstream parties only think about "countering the right" in terms of purely electoral seats, not ideology or message. This was clear when they "defeated UKIP" by becoming it in 2015 and it continues to be clearer every day.

A book list I made for Shepherd, featuring the work of @demonologian.bsky.social, @profgagne.bsky.social, and @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social! shepherd.com/best-books/d...

do i roll my eyes at a lot of DEI stuff? yeah, i wrote a whole essay about why i thought it was bullshit back in 2020. but trump et al aren’t saying, “corporate DEI policies mainly exist to protect corporate interests from discrimination lawsuits.” they’re saying “get the blacks out”

Fucking good.

I would like a word with whoever taught cis people that if they see a trans person who is upset about the rise of transphobia, they have to tell them they’re “valid” I’ve been out as trans for 13 years. I know I’m a man, I don’t need your personal validation, maybe protest against fascism instead?

I found persimmons in one of the local supermarkets and omg my life is complete again. I haven't had one since I found them in a random Sainsbury's in the UK like 5 years ago.

It's often not realised that the term "Anti-Semitism" was originally coined by antisemites, who wanted to insist that they weren't opposed to *Jews*, but to "Semitism" or "Jewish ideology". It's a well-trodden fake distinction.

A friend found some "tarot cards" they made when they were 11 and kindly gave me a reading. One "card" got drawn to predict for each month starting with February 2025. Excited to find out where this year is going to go.

The safest European country for trans people these days is Spain. The Spanish state guarantees each refugee free legal assistance and an interpreter for the duration of their asylum application. If you're a USA trans refugee headed this way, your European friends WILL do our best to support you.

Always wonderful when someone find my work useful, especially in times like these. It makes it worth it.

My constant dysphoria is REALLY bad today, and I'd be grateful for some boosts! Still at Code Desperate, so I appreciate any help I can get. I also write and sell pretty rad queer horror pulp, if that catches your fancy! It's my only income. Both my linktree and my pinned post have some good stuff.

Ever hear MAGA evangelicals (in Congress) talk about literal demons and a spiritual war for America? Tomorrow on Zoom, a terrifying examination of these beliefs that fuel the Christian Nationalist Movement by @demonologian.bsky.social Dr. Jonathan O'Donnell. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/demonology...

UK courts are preparing to overrule Gillick Competency - laws that allow a teen to get medical treatment (like an abortion or a vaccination) without parental consent - all because the young person is trans! 😣 PS: The lawyer is an ADF-aligned anti-abortion Christian Evangelist! ➡️ archive.is/XtSLo

Again trans people said this would happen, when the current “gender-critical” anti trans hate campaign started in 2017