"It is crucial for human freedom, indeed for a civilised society, to acknowledge that human beings aren’t simply political or communal animals." I reviewed Tiffany Jenkins' illuminating history of privacy/private life via @quillette.bsky.social quillette.com/2025/08/29/s...

Portrait of a Young Spanish Woman by Anton Ebert (1880)

www.compactmag.com/article/the-... The Right Doesn’t Deserve the West | Compact @buffsoldier96.bsky.social

"Jubilee’s Surrounded is a warped caricature of modern debate. It’s more of a game show than a forum for political dialogue." I've written about Mehdi Hasan going at it with semi-literate fascists on Jubilee's "Surrounded" via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/the...

That time when the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann was followed by a policeman in Genoa because they thought he was Lenin (he got that comparison a lot). Source: his autobiography

I wrote something on the argument over whether Britain should ban the Muslim face veil via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/bur...

I wrote something on the argument over whether Britain should ban the Muslim face veil via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/bur...

"the BBC permitted Lineker to criticise the human rights record of Qatar when the World Cup was held there; why should the line be drawn when he publicly takes issue with Israel’s human rights abuses?" My take on the Gary Lineker situation via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/gar...

I've written for @unherd.com on Trump's proposed tariffs for "films produced in foreign lands" and how if it actually happened it would backfire, and, if it led to counter-tariffs, create a big problem for Hollywood. unherd.com/newsroom/tru...

He really is a just bitchy showbiz guy at heart — and his populism stems from being rejected by pop culture elites

I've written for @unherd.com on Trump's proposed tariffs for "films produced in foreign lands" and how if it actually happened it would backfire, and, if it led to counter-tariffs, create a big problem for Hollywood. unherd.com/newsroom/tru...

I wrote about the Dave Smith-Douglas Murray debate on Joe Rogan's podcast via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/dav...

Israel – ein siedlerkolonialer Staat? Der Zionismus basiert auf dem ethnischen Nationalismus Europas. Doch auch die linke »Dekolonisierungsthese« ist problematisch Ralph Leonhard @buffsoldier96.bsky.social , 07.04.2025 www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1190...

I wrote about the Dave Smith-Douglas Murray debate on Joe Rogan's podcast via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/dav...

Der britisch-nigerianische Autor Ralph Leonhard hat ein großartiges und differenziertes Stück über "Israel - ein siedlerkolonialer Staat?" geschrieben. Unbedingt lesenswert. Auf Deutsch heute im ND. www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1190...

I've written my thoughts on Slavoj Zizek's Christian Atheism for @thefreethinkermag.bsky.social freethinker.co.uk/2025/03/can-...

I sometimes think I left school at just the right time. Like I was part of the last generation to still have had a somewhat 'normal' education just before smartphone dominance, teachers turned into glorified day care workers, & then ChatGPT being a cheat code.

I sometimes think I left school at just the right time. Like I was part of the last generation to still have had a somewhat 'normal' education just before smartphone dominance, teachers turned into glorified day care workers, & then ChatGPT being a cheat code.

Fastenzeit Lektüre

I've written my thoughts on Slavoj Zizek's Christian Atheism for @thefreethinkermag.bsky.social freethinker.co.uk/2025/03/can-...

Today in the Freethinker, Ralph Leonard reviews Slavoj Žižek’s recent book on 'Christian Atheism'. @buffsoldier96.bsky.social freethinker.co.uk/2025/03/can-...

Here is my review of Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag. A film I rather enjoyed and in its own way is a very pro-marriage film. Black Bag; Suave, Sexy and Smart blackjacobin.substack.com/p/black-bag-...

Here is my review of Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag. A film I rather enjoyed and in its own way is a very pro-marriage film. Black Bag; Suave, Sexy and Smart blackjacobin.substack.com/p/black-bag-...

I have written about the recent US-Israeli plans to try to 'transfer' Gazan refugees to various African countries for permanent resettlement & the neocolonialism behind it. Via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/wil...

I rather liked the Spanish black and white silent adaptation Blancanieves from 2012.

I have written about the recent US-Israeli plans to try to 'transfer' Gazan refugees to various African countries for permanent resettlement & the neocolonialism behind it. Via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/wil...

"All are cruel whose power is so newly won." Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

Wrote a piece for @telegraphnews.bsky.social on attempts to snuff out protests against the English monarchy & the fact of republicanism being crucial to English liberty. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03...

Wrote a piece for @telegraphnews.bsky.social on attempts to snuff out protests against the English monarchy & the fact of republicanism being crucial to English liberty. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03...

This is also one of my most conservative views. The reason to get a liberal classical education is not to make you into a person who is better at a job but because becoming more intellectually well rounded with an understanding of the ideas of your progenitors promotes for intellectual growth

Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will be Blood is magnificent and helped make that film so atmospheric & evocative. Try listening to some of the songs while reading Blood Meridian. They are congruent with each other.

Wrote a column for The Telegraph on the question of free speech and the workplace www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025...

Wrote a column for The Telegraph on the question of free speech and the workplace www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025...

So John Cena turned heel and the post-Cold war international order ended before GTA 6 😆

The MAGA critique of Zelensky basically relies on him being the shifty foreigner unduly feasting on America's largesse, that has been taken away from the good people of the heartland. That is all there is to it. There's really no depth to it. Just small town isolationist bilge.

The MAGA critique of Zelensky basically relies on him being the shifty foreigner unduly feasting on America's largesse, that has been taken away from the good people of the heartland. That is all there is to it. There's really no depth to it. Just small town isolationist bilge.

My take on Suella Braverman's recent Telegraph article on Englishness via @unherd.com (Although many black and Asian Britons, even those who despise her politics, would actually agree with her basic point.) unherd.com/newsroom/wha...

My take on Suella Braverman's recent Telegraph article on Englishness via @unherd.com (Although many black and Asian Britons, even those who despise her politics, would actually agree with her basic point.) unherd.com/newsroom/wha...

I'm in The New Statesman where I have written on the row over Rishi Sunak & Englishness. Of course, Rishi Sunak is English www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

I'm in The New Statesman where I have written on the row over Rishi Sunak & Englishness. Of course, Rishi Sunak is English www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

"Trump's plans for Ukraine is akin to a mafia-style protection racket, except without the protection." My latest for @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/tru...

"Ever since man invented robots, he has been searching for ways to fuck them." My review of Drew Hancock's debut film, Companion, that deals with themes surrounding AI & sexuality. blackjacobin.substack.com/p/review-of-...

"Trump's plans for Ukraine is akin to a mafia-style protection racket, except without the protection." My latest for @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/tru...

"Ever since man invented robots, he has been searching for ways to fuck them." My review of Drew Hancock's debut film, Companion, that deals with themes surrounding AI & sexuality. blackjacobin.substack.com/p/review-of-...

I've commented on the Karla Sofía Gascón controversy via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/kar...

I've commented on the Karla Sofía Gascón controversy via @unherd.com unherd.com/newsroom/kar...

The 1937 "Peel Plan" for an "orderly" and "agreed" population "exchange" - was buried, but its principles - partition and expulsion - lived on to be implemented in 1948 through war, violence and chaos. And that's exactly where the Trump statements are taking us.

What made the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians thinkable was, among other things, the fact it was officially put forward as a "solution" by a British Royal Commission in 1937. That went beyond our wild dreams, wrote Ben Gurion at the times, we would never have dared to suggest it.

The Parthenon in Assassin's Creed Odyssey