Welcome to 2026, the future time of METROPOLIS, released in 1927.

First Financial Times on cognitive blind spots and biases. Now Wall Street Journal on the art of "critical ignoring." 2026 is starting on a refreshingly critical note.

How to see clearly in 2026, from Gillian Tett @financialtimes.com giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Agree – it's important to learn from Central Europe, which is ahead of the democracy-destroying trend we're seeing in the West. "We had Trump in Europe back in the 1990s."

I'll be defending my PhD thesis THIS year! ✨️🎓

as it's the end of the year, i'll repost my political philosophy starter pack all the podcast guests over the last 8 years + a few more go.bsky.app/6BBahr1

Looking for a glimmer of hope as 2025 ends? The past few days have delivered.

Did not know this! Apparently, Denmark and Finland have empathy in their curriculum "Research confirms that training in socio-emotional skills in school is important. It not only provides good results for the student's personal well-being and interaction with others, but also for learning ability."

"Vad är egentligen 2020-talets fascism för något – och vad gör den med oss? Hon menar att den bör förstås som en 'social praktik som förstör samvaron och samexistensen' ... det gemensamma rummet slås sönder i en digital och privatiserad samtid. Ur dess ruiner reser sig en 'tvetydighetens fascism'."

here are some penguins for you

unlike those other philosophers, I aspire to explanations at the exact right level of abstraction

Now published in Biological Reviews! Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How effective is protesting? "According to historians and political scientists: very From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history."

Schjerfbeck 🖤

It’s interesting how the risk awareness that dependence on US systems - be it in digital services, defence, or payment methods - has been internalised fairly quickly in Europe. National Bank of Sweden chief says Sweden is too dependent on MasterCard and Visa and needs non-American alternatives

Funny how quickly legislation can change demand. After a new law required staffed school libraries, the librarian program is now the most popular at Linnaeus University, beating both law and psychology.

"Irritable male syndrome" "Along with the term ‘andropause,’ which refers to male menopause, it’s a useful shorthand for describing what happens to men through gradual testosterone decline and hormonal changes."

The university for retirees is fantastic ❤️ My mother is enrolled and has taken classes in architecture, philosophy, mathematics, and more. She absolutely loves it!

Giving what we can has implemented a fun game where you spin a globe to see how your starting point in life would compare if you were reborn today, randomly somewhere on earth. www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery

Thinking lots about baking lately. Wittgenstein apparently once wrote that ‘Raisins may be the best part of a cake; but a bag of raisins is not better than a cake.’ @nigelwarburton.bsky.social calls this Wittgenstein's 'critique of pure raisin', which rather made my day. @wiglet1981.bsky.social

1/ New chapter out (with Franz Knappik): “G.W.F. Hegel, Frantz Fanon, and Angela Davis on Recognition, Slavery, and Liberation” – in Matt Congdon and Thomas Khurana’s Recognition: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. ⬇️ Short thread below:

Mare Kandre Ur Sara Stridsbergs essä igår

"Vi vet att virus är en vanlig trigger för astma. Har man astma i unga år så ökar risken att man ska drabbas av KOL senare i livet." Tror inte folk i allmänhet vet detta. Finns fortf en syn på virus som något man ska gå igenom. Vore toppen om vaccinationer ökade och där spelar FHM en viktig roll.

Had a lot of fun making beeswax candles for Christmas. Inspired by Finnish design, I made an Aalto-style candle this year

Christmas cuteness in Stockholm public transport 🎄❄️🎅

Umeå University (Sweden) - an awesome department in an awesome location! - has an open PhD position in philosophy with a focus on gender. PhD students are paid very well and get all the same vacation/leave/retirement benefits as any other state employee. Have a look! www.umu.se/en/work-with...

This is cool! Since 2022, an AI tool has helped prevent 39 suicide attempts in the Stockholm metro.

I'm a bit biased, but my partner has written a great report! "How are the concepts of men and masculinity used and how are problems, causes and solutions constructed? This publication analyses twelve gender equality policy reports published by the Nordic Council of Ministers between 2019 and 2024."

I guess this has probably already gone viral somewhere but I am simply dying at this picture of a bear that looks like it hired a photographer to do a glamour shoot

A Swedish gynecologist was found to have performed hysterectomies on unscientific grounds on several patients, who have since fought for justice and an end to malpractice. Good to see the Health and Social Care Inspectorate finally revising its conclusion.

December has been the darkest since 1934. Not only does today’s political climate echo the 1930s – the weather does too.

"Patients with #longCOVID demonstrated signs of chronic inflammation, immune system depletion, and disruptions in cellular metabolism not seen in patients who had fully recovered from COVID-19."

Åsa Wikforss: "Den liberala demokratin och Europa står inför en ödesstund. Det räcker inte med att rusta militärt om vi inte också skyddar oss mot högerradikal propaganda. Regleringen av techbolagen måste bibehållas, de traditionella partierna hålla linjen mot ytterkantspartier."

It's confirmed: we haven’t had a full hour of sunlight in Stockholm this December.

If you do not have to go, you do not go.

Apparently, Sweden is the strictest country in the world when it comes to talking during movies. At the same time, we're the most permissive when it comes to using swear words. So you can swear all you want – just not in the cinema. www.iffs.se/nyheter/prat...

An earlier version of the NSS specifically said that the US should try to pry Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary away from the EU www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/...

Jag söker en forkningsassistent i statsvetenskap för att hjälpa till med diverse uppgifter! Sök här: www.uu.se/om-uu/jobba-...

This will always and forever be the most on point and prescient thing that Fukuyama ever wrote.

Eugène Jansson, Staden i solnedgång (The city at sunset, 1897).

“If you encounter ICE, these are the things every New Yorker should know” This man and his team are, in addition to their manifold other talents, such good *educators*

I’m crying www.ft.com/content/ccbe...

Do confident people look more knowledgeable? Not always. We show that high confidence equals more expertise among some, but others have the opposite intuition. We show that more deliberate thinkers (high CRT) generally prefer moderate over high confident judgments.

For years, Salem in Sweden saw yearly Nazi marches, until they stopped in 2010. This year, they returned. But so did resistance: two brave locals holding a sign that says “Salem against Nazis." www.etc.se/inrikes/sale...

"This makes America sicker." And this is the same Cassidy who cast the deciding vote that confirmed RFK. edition.cnn.com/health/live-...

I love this intro to a philosophy paper, though I can't actually remember which paper it's from.

kind of obsessed with this custom binding for Moby dick by Susan and Chaim Ebanks at Exeter Bookbinders

Things that will interest Bluesky; Misha Glenny, author of McMafia, replaces Melvyn Bragg as host of In Our Time.

Vaccines are such a gift to humanity. "A common vaccine meant to ward off shingles may be doing something even more extraordinary: protecting the brain."

"I am *unsettled* that ChatGPT, fed on the plethora of articles I and others have written on the subject as well as my own chat history has reproduced a rough sketch of our arguments back to me, this is *chilling*!" This guy has massive influence on tech policy. Wonderful.