One of the things which "sensible" immigration sceptics often say is that GDP increases from net immigration are illusory because only GDP per person really matters. But this is actually false, given that fiscal sustainability depends on the ratio of debt to GDP.

Look how Chomsky provides a classic example of how narcissists with persecution complexes are prone to sympathise with (other) bad people who have done unrelated bad things.

There are no interests all white people share, that no not-white people have. There are no [not racist] examples of a British value or cultural practice or identity that must *by definition* exclude Black or Asian people 'Demography' or 'numbers' isn't a counter as there are no different interests

The point this post is making is essentially the positivist one that there can be morally bad laws, and so there can be behaviour that is obviously unobjectionable but nevertheless illegal. That is, of course, correct, which is why it is not so important whether Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally.

Other folks have already noted much of this, but I think the MAGA 'theory of victory' here is: 1) DHS provocations trigger a riot or attack on agents which 2) Leads to widespread civil unrest in many 'blue' cities so that 3) Trump can invoke the insurrection act and send in the troops...

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

I agree with the original post, though I don't think it is in any way obviously true, in part because it is not obvious how to imagine the absence of laws.

There's a part of me that thinks there must be many Republicans in Congress who hate their country's international standing being trashed by a President who openly threatens war because he has not been given a Nobel Peace Prize. And they could just...remove him. But they won't.

I see these stories about FIFA (now?!) being embarrassed about giving their "Peace Prize" to Trump, but really it looks like a more and more sensible decision. Their job is to run a football tournament and they don't have a reputation to ruin. Why not give a shiny bauble to the dangerous madman?

"We’ll update with news of resignations as and when it arrives." Chef's kiss.

On the Alaa El-Fattah case, it is possible to hold two thoughts together: (1) that he should not have been granted citizenship; and (2) that his citizenship should not be taken away now.

Look, as everyone knows, the only notable thing that the post-war Labour government ever did was pass the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which lies at the root of all the country's problems. Were Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald NIMBYs? No, iirc correctly their motto was "Build, baby, build!"

The ****** chutzpah of Stephen Miller to ask for kindness from others. Kudos to the photographer for firing back rather than gaping in incredulity.

It's weird to present things as though the dangerousness of right-wing domination of Twitter doesn't depend on network effects.

This is a wrong and foolish decision by HMDT. Standing Together does very important work in trying to make space for peace-building. Whether or not you agree with their labelling of Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocidal, they should not be cut off in this way from mainstream Jewish organisations.

I saw this initially without reading the context, and was like cool cool cool, Liam thinks the self is an illusion, no biggie.

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

"there's a new serif in town"

I've been thinking about this, and I wonder whether "being paid to have particular opinions" is exactly the core of the sophistry here. I suspect the deeper problem is that these people do not care about truth and do not care about intellectual virtues.

Wow, Elon Musk looks almost unrecognisable here, must be all the ketamine.

A brief thread on the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal ruling. It seems to me a very sensible judgement, and I particularly liked what the ruling said about the application of the FWS Supreme Court ruling.

Not many people know this, but the so-called FIFA Prize in Economics is not a real FIFA prize because FIFA did not set it up in his will.

Nigel Farage was a racist bully at school but Rachel Reeves won the wrong chess championship so who can say who is worse?

Many people are (rightly!) saying that Lizza's revelations about Nuzzi reflect very poorly on him, not least for only exposing her misconduct now. But the only way this kind of stuff gets revealed is when one awful person's hatred for another awful person outweighs their sense of self-preservation.

I was talking to my parents the other night about where my worldview came from. I put it down to their influence when I was growing up, but my mother said it was more to do with all the German philosophy I read as a teen. Classic question, isn’t it? Nietzsche versus nurture.

People are calling my lede here "appalling," "nightmare fuel," "actively evil," and "a desecration of the human spirit"

new favourite New York Times term for a British thing just dropped

One more thought about the jewellery fiasco. Everyone knows that Starmer will not be Labour leader at the next election, so there will be a leadership contest. Voting for the jewellery proposal will likely scupper any candidate. So no cabinet member can be the next leader if it gets to a vote?

The jewellery policy is obviously repulsive, and an example of vice signalling that I would not have expected from any manifestation of Labour. I don't keep up a running commentary on Labour's failings, but if the PLP lets that through I am done with them.

In 2025, media often misuse the term ‘blood libel’ to describe e.g. accusing the IDF of war crimes, but it turns out the lecturer was literally teaching the Damascus Affair, when Syrian Jews were tortured into falsely confessing to murdering a priest to use his blood in matzah for Passover, as fact.

Clearly they are the same size, the one on the right is just further away.

My great grandparents fled Tsarist Russia as teenagers to build a better life for themselves in America. Almost every Jewish family in America, including Katie and Stephen Miller, share this background. I'm not sure how people like the Millers lost their way, but it breaks my heart to see. 1/x

Germans are like: mash up two wildly unrelated Italian specialities but give the misbegotten fusion a French name so they will get the blame.

What a power move. A lot of people will be wondering how they can join the Assyrian Church of the East.

We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers' rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ys...

Truly this has to be seen to be believed. Very disturbing but also revealing of how severe Trump's character flaws are. Hard to imagine how someone could be so petty and lacking in dignity to behave this way, but here we are.

Tory MP and "rising star" Katie Lam supports the mass deportation of families who came to the UK legally — a policy so unprecedented it has been compared with Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians. But did you know Lam has drawn sartorial, as well as policy, inspiration from the brutal Ugandan dictator?

Alexis Petridis called it, I think it works www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmZX...

This is a lie. There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years. But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

The Board of Deputies’ response to the Israeli government inviting Tommy Robinson to visit

Harassing the mods into banning someone has never worked. And harassing people in general has never changed their mind.

There is something really puzzling about DonkeyGate as a political attack. When the heart of the issue is that your political opponent bought a field so that his disabled mother could look after donkeys there, and then sold it after his parents died, this is not obviously a winning attack line.

The “Debate Me Bro” Grift: How Trolls Weaponized The Marketplace Of Ideas Among the attempts to create hagiographic eulogies of Charlie Kirk, I’ve seen more than a few people suggest that Kirk should be respected for being willing to talk to “those who disagree with him” as a sign that he was…

This is of course correct, but I think the blind spot identified here is actually too specific. To say that the far right cause harm for pleasure risks focusing too much on the causing harm, and not enough on the pleasure. People get emotional payoffs from their ideological commitments themselves.

HOPE not hate can reveal that Lee Twamley, photographed at the front of Britain First’s “March for Remigration” in Manchester this month, has served prison time for trying to smuggle Vietnamese migrants into the UK. hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/19/e...

This vibe is indeed pervasive in the UK, but there is something odd about it. The worst piece of UK public policy in the last decade is Brexit, a policy driven explicitly over the heads of the governing class.

DUNE 3: JUST DESERTS

Somehow we allowed the meaning of "doxxing" to go from "exposing private information about people you disagree with in order to harm them" to "identifying the people doing crimes so they can be brought to justice". We should have called bs on this earlier.

Change my mind: some people need training to make them less assertive.

I haven't read Schuringa's book, so perhaps Setiya is unfair to him. But I do think it is worth expanding a bit on the discussion of the role of intuitions (since it seems to me that the true position is more nuanced than either acknowledge). So, a 🧵: