People gripe about The Pop Chords, but if you watch any music theory YouTube you'll hear a phrase like "and then because we're in B-sharp the raised major with a depressed freshman dictates that the following note is a G-SSJ4" because music is shockingly algorithmic.

always a lot of panic about right wing young men, the second most progressive demographic in britain

I had to write a corrective. This crisis is anything but over. Even by the standards of Trump speeches, this was psychotic.

It took a while, but the deep unseriousness that defined so much of the coverage of the slow motion crisis of climate change for decades has now infected basically everything.

Starmer is going after the Greens with smears about drug use. This is a perfect time for the Greens to push for every member of parliament to receive regular drug testing. At the very least for Polanski to challenge to Starmer to take a drug test.

Having plenty of money famously deterred Donald Trump from being the most corrupt US president ever.

A question for the book I'm working on: what is the cruellest thing a higher-up, such as a boss or manager, has done to you at work - the things that have absolutely no business justification and are pure sadism?

I've been thinking about this a lot, for months: Gaza was a breaking point between verifiable reality and liberal governance. "AI" sparks fears ppl will believe things that aren't true, but Gaza SHOWED things that WERE true—& western governments, universities & news outlets pretened they were not.

Take your time!

TRUMP: honk honk honk, I'm a big goose. everyone tells me whenever I enter a room, that's the biggest goose I've ever seen and I say yes. I'm a big goose. in a good way. a lot of Somalians are small stupid gooses but I'm a big goose BBC NEWS: a disciplined Trump sticks to the script on the economy

Ok things aren't great but laughed solidly at this What would he say? 'pls dont'

54% of people are in favour of decriminalising cannabis in the UK? And that's without any push from government to make a case for it? The reason Starmer goes SOFT ON DRUGS is because that's a tabloid headline his advisers are *terrified* of. Because (partial) legalisation requires a backbone.

Bad day in the polls? Just say Putin. Just say they love Putin. Say they are on drugs.

Once again, I'm resenting having to know stuff. So jealous of all those people who live in complete ignorance of the world and only pop up every now and then to confidently reckon stuff

what do you MEAN Al Gore heckled Lutnick at Davos

If you have a weapon but you aren’t allowed to use it, do you have a weapon at all or do you have something that’s a bit more like an expensive ornament

What nuclear deterrent is this now

They are an occupying force and should go.

Look. All rich people are at least somewhat like this. You get promoted for being an ignorant loudmouth piece of shit and so that's what you keep on being like. You'll note how the media is still trying its best to pretend this oaf is "presidential"?

This cherished tenet of Sensiblism is obv such utter rubbish. Those motivated by money never or v v rarely ever say: "know what? I'm wealthy enough. I'll stop there". Cos enough is *never* enough for the greedy. If we paid MPs more they'd simply pocket the pay rise & continue with the side hustles

Und thus, modernity comes to a close just like it started, with a guy ranting at windmills

Don't blame me I voted for Kodos ass discourse

unless we’re suggesting that Britain’s polluted waterways are a deterrent to Russian invasion I’m not sure what Vladimir Putin has to do with a question about river-friendly farming practices

Mafia goon: Nice house you got here...it'd be a shame if something happened to it Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it

because they tried to treat a mad vindictive king like a rational actor

Meta trying to understand British humour will never not be funny.

“The truth always lies somewhere in the middle” has to be one of my least favorite phrases. Sometimes, one side is actually truthful and one side is actually malicious and lying!

Even after Trump is gone, the world will remember that he threatened to forcibly seize the territory of a peaceful democratic ally, and our institutions failed to immediately remove him. That makes US dangerously unreliable, not just one senile gangster.

I keep coming back to the paper by Cosma Shalizi and @himself.bsky.social . Is a polity that has elections but an absolutely destroyed information sphere — where for example, everyone keeps pretending racist football hooligans being banned is antisemitic — actually a democracy?

Reminder that it wasn't just right-wing columnists bigging up Trump after the 2024 election win. Anas Sarwar too was saying how crucial it was to put Scottish business links ahead of silly political concerns Somehow I doubt he will want this messaging in election flyers now

The latest line seems to be 'Poalnski is a Putinist.' that might seem absurd to anyone interested in reality but you have to remember that aggro-centrists have an activation code that overrides critical thinking whenever Putin is mentioned.

Right on cue, here are the push alerts from the 3 major newspapers lmao

This is the extent of the opposition in the US at the moment. Utterly hopeless. No wonder Trump is doing whatever he likes.

Americans under the impression that immigration is easy really piss me off. Even legal immigration is incredibly difficult. It's really annoying seeing this discussion from people who genuinely don't understand how these systems work. You don't fucking get it. You don't care.

i don't understand why so many people are so adamant that what ICE is doing is not the same as law enforcement. i disagree and i think a lot of the arguments ring very hollow, but more to the point: what's behind the desperate need to protect police legitimacy right now?

What do these two companies even DO anymore?

Labour - trading on second hand ideas that are long passe.

i don't think "what about [quickly googles 'past crimes of the country the guy criticizing me is from, in which the US was at least passively complicit']" is the gotcha people seem to think it is

on the one hand i think the american response to criticism here is kind of petulant and sad, on the other hand, a lot of the criticisms seem to both ignore the action that is taking place and expect a sort of action that can't take place

"Kate, you should use AI to handle your terrible email inbox!" Microsoft Copilot: "Sorry, it looks like I can’t respond to this. Let’s try a different topic. Suggestions: Write a rap song. Show me some cool facts. Teach me a new word!"

These people simply could not be more useless.

Same here! Though most know me as AI’s Most Grizzled Hater, I started on the remote work debate in 2021 www.wheresyoured.at/the-upcoming... bsky.app/profile/devi...

Remote work 2. Exact same people exact same problem

The disconnect between management and employee on AI usage is big. At the same time, CEOs are reporting they aren't seeing any revenue growth from AI. 🤷 www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...

In the same way that Britain can’t have a proper national outrage scandal based on e.g. Boris Johnson killed your gran. We can’t have people thinking the state fed your granny into the wood chipper for coins. It makes everyone look bad.

It's a mystery to me why our oligarch-owned press apologise for and feel kinship with an oligarchical US president put their by oligarchs to serve the oligarch interest.

Process matters as well as rules. We don't make it easy to interact with the immigration system because our starting premise is always that they need us more than we need them. People aren't daft, they see and feel this message, even if they are in the group we notionally want to attract.

not particularly inclined to allow europeans to lecture me on fighting fascism while actual nazis represent a quarter of the bundestag, rijksdag, and assemblée national. it’s coming for you too, bud

Labour quietly dropping a doomsday report they have no intention of ever acknowledging or grappling with is very in the nose