We see here "free speech" being morphed into "everyone has to listen to us"

I feel bad for getting my partner into Leicester City during the promotion campaign

Dear Bluesky Meet Harlequin and Dude

🌟PSA Mackenzie #BookPrize Shortlist 2025-26🌟 Congratulations to Dr Gabriele Badano & Dr Alasia Nuti for 'Politicizing Political Liberalism: On the Containment of IlIiberal and Antidemocratic Views' published by OUP @academic.oup.com ➡️ buff.ly/X13TKjK #Books #Politics #Liberalism

Building a house of sloppy racist cards - the pinnacle of human intelligence

I'm back in Leicester and I'm starting to think the fascists are right - living in a multicultural city is awful. Namely 1) living near a mosque means there are lots of parking spaces taken on a Friday 2) there's a shop I don't go into (Indian sweets are not for me) Put together, utter torture

Can we please retire the use of the phrase "legitimate concerns"? Or, at least, start using the phrase "bastard concerns".

At this point we seriously have to consider if Donald Trump is actually 47 crows in a suit.

But what if there's someone in charge who's not as morally upstanding as Trump?!?!

My teenage collection of music was on CDs and mp3s that took at least half an hour to download

On a brand new train carriage (they're even training staff about where things are). I feel privileged to smell the new train smell

I've been out of oil politics and international relations for a good few years, so I wouldn't say I'm an expert. But it does position me as being good at seeing uninformed opinions at the moment, and the arrogance built on those uninformed opinions. Stop parading your ignorance so fucking proudly.

just saying: it's possible that "I'm gonna dramatically constrict my state capacity while plotting dramatic imperial expansion, and expanding my set of internal enemies while alienating most of my foreign allies" is the beginning of a world-historical masterstroke. but also possible that it isn't

Starting to think "Trumped up charges" was accidentally introduced by a time traveller.

The US has reportedly been importing kangaroos for this very moment

NEW: Trump says Venezuelan President Maduro has been “captured” and flown out of the country. Full on regime change. Trump to hold a press conference from Mar-a-Lago at 11 ET.

Fascists gonna war crime

It's like the FIFA peace prize doesn't mean anything anymore.

"Merit" has been translated into (what is understood as) a singular objective test of ability when still a child. Fascinating.

Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2026. Let's. Go.

I'd love to have the job of installing security lights. It seemingly doesn't matter what angle you install them at and you obviously get a bonus payment for directing them into neighbours' houses.

They've moved from "Respect the flag, and the history of this country" to "Depose the king" in just a few small months. Here's hoping horseshoe theory is correct (it's not) and they come out for the abolition of private property sometime in April.

That's a bloody beige barrel, you bastards

Rage bait for Christmas morning

Merry snotty Christmas to all those who are gifted a cold for the festive season

Few people realise this, but the Home Alone films are prequels to the Saw franchise.

If the government recognises what's going on could this finally be the time that we move to a more proportional system? I'm thinking the answer is likely "NO!" but there's nothing wrong with hope.

Strange times

So a university should be held liable for failing to prevent protesters who didn't actually stop the event? It increasingly seems like "freedom of speech" has come to mean "my voice must be heard with no opposition"

well, nice to be able to skip the “this war isn’t for oil, how dare you” phase of things this time around

More fool me. Decided to give AI a go at tracking down something I remember from ten years ago. Ended up spending my time tracking down phantom references. What a waste of fucking time and money AI is.

For example, "in 2022 English departments produced five PhDs for every two assistant professor job openings. The rest become members of the academic underclass, taking whatever work they could find or exiting academia completely." #Highered #PhDchat #research #teaching www.aaup.org/underclass-s...

Everyone's favorite disney princess next year will be the uncanny valley constantly melting figure who in 10 second intervals encourages children to drink household cleaning products. Her hit show on Disney+ will have a billion views a week and a full line of merch and a movie franchise coming out.

DOJ's newest recruitment ad features Judge Dredd, the comic satire about the dangers of lawless policing and authoritarian power

On the one hand, this is awful. On the other hand of the modern academic, it continues the relevance of my PhD. 🤦‍♂️

Why do global environmental institutions multiply and persist even when they seem unable to address biodiversity loss and environmental governance failures effectively? Our new OA article with @jacquelinebest.bsky.social in @risjnl.bsky.social tries to answer this question. 1/7 cup.org/4hZNlcX

A few things about AI worth remembering. 1) What it says has no credibility. 2) It does not hallucinate, it generates plausible accounts that depart from reality 3) "Intelligence" is a great stretch of the term 4) There's a strong push to claim it is the inevitable future, but if so, why the push?

AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points

With Maurice Glasman and Dominic Lawson calling for the return of the stocks, we find most Britons opposed - although Reform voters are divided All Britons: 21% support / 72% oppose Lib Dem: 12% / 85% Labour: 12% / 83% Green: 13% / 82% Con: 28% / 64% Reform: 43% / 48% yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

This is such a snivelly shitweasel thing to say, as if people who oppose more and more testing aren't actually on the side of good education. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Finally, a shift back to sensible centreground politics www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The world is run by cry bullies who assert power by claiming anyone stopping them being dicks is hurting them

Rogoff's new article on the Guardian is a joy of misrepresentations and defenses in order to promote his new book. Very weird, but how would you keep going after being found out so publicly?

In my house a fart is increasingly known as a Presidential Address

Humanist Bertrand Russell's perfect, utterly uncompromising 1962 letter declining Oswald Mosley's invitation to lunch. An perennial joy to see this circulating online from time to time.

Politicians are repeatedly sliding in to applying conditionalities to the human rights of immigrants. Easy slippery slope to everyone else

This is maybe a reflection on the contemporary moment....or, it's an assigned reading for a class this week

Emily Tucker argues that the AI regulation debate largely misses the point: the real threat to democracy is unchecked data extraction and accumulation that is fueling corporate power. “We can have mass surveillance, or we can have political self-determination. We can’t have both,” she writes.

Incredible. Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.