Per John Stuart Mill in his Chapters on Socialism, the three main sources of wealth are luck, vices like "hard-hearted, cold-fisted selfishness" and sycophancy, and "downright knavery."

“It would be ideal if Klein felt the burning commitment to justice that [Bertrand] Russell felt [...] But if he can’t manage that, he could still spare us the sanctimony. [...] He could, if nothing else, have the common decency to be ashamed.”

Somewhat surprising: “This year, the United Kingdom has emerged as Canada's second-largest export market…” Not surprising: Canadians are avoiding the US & US products (I would myself if my job weren’t there… *sigh*) US alcohol especially hard hit.

US Ambassador threatens to tariff, annex, and bomb Canada if anti-American sentiment doesn't improve

“Where are we now with AI?” “Well, we’re eating up the whole world in order to put a few million middle-ranking white collar workers out of work.” “Ah, progress is a wonderful thing!”

I feel like I've taken crazy pills. A huge portion of the US news media is "sane washing" CK, treating him like he's the reincarnation of JS Mill, a "free speech" champion, while at the same time the GOP and MAGAts are punishing people who express any view critical of CK, including quoting him. FFS

There is a vast domestic terror unit in the USA right now. Unfortunately it’s the Trump Administration.

The question I try to keep in front of my students' minds is: how do you think the wealthy and powerful people who've developed these tools feel about students using them instead of thinking for themselves, and why?

“Thank you for agreeing to do several hours unpaid labour reviewing a paper for our journal. As a bonus please fill in these horrible web forms before we let you even see the paper.”

This 👉 There are plenty of academics, unfortunately, who also believe that AI will not damage the critical thinking skills of students. They've got a surprise coming. AI will not damage & even be useful to those who already have sufficient critical thinking skills. It will damage everyone else.

Oh but I’m sure that “AI” will help “solve” this problem… /s

plenty of things going against the right globally: Bolsonaro's conviction in Brazil, the defeat of the right wing in Norway's election, the student strikes and Saba Saba protests in Kenya (brutal as the repression there was), the EU's von der Leyen pursuing sanctions and trade suspension for Israel

Americans confused as Brazil convicts far right autocrat who attempted a coup

How a functional democracy deals with authoritarian insurrectionists.

Second Amendment activists in shock as Charlie Kirk shot instead of just schoolchildren

Putin assures world no one evil has ever tried to invade Poland

York Centre for Social Justice and Democracy (formerly known as York Centre for Political Theory) 2026 BOOK MANUSCRIPT WORKSHOP (DEADLINE Friday, 19 December 2025) Information can be found here: www.york.ac.uk/politics/cpt... APPLY and, please, circulate widely! @martinoneill.bsky.social

“Instead of ‘democratizing intelligence,’ as Mr. Solomon claims, we are witnessing a kind of collective brain damage. The Minister of AI should be mitigating those risks, rather than naively championing the tech behind it all.” 🎁 link www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/7ff7d5d...

I don’t understand why people in AI don’t realise that in effect they are currently building the world’s largest parasite, and parasites can only survive for as long as the underlying host is strong and healthy.

Maybe Steve Bannon was booked that day. Fuck... www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Welcome to the new Dark Age. Leading the way: Florida (naturally).

Interesting thread. So much has been written about Rawls’s political philosophy, but not much about the role of love in it. (Weithman 2010 discusses it a bit with respect to the sense of justice and social stability.)

USA. Closed for business AND pleasure. Other countries are available.

Happy Weekend! 😆 "A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that most of Donald Trump's tariffs are illegal, undercutting the Republican president's use of the levies as a key international economic policy tool."

"I became a hater by doing ... those things AI cannot do: reading and understanding...; thinking and reasoning about ideas; considering the meaning of my words and their context;... AI cannot be a hater, because AI does not feel, or know, or care. Only humans can be haters. I celebrate my humanity."

Registration is open for the NOMOS conference on Capitalism and Socialism. The Zoom and registration links, as well as the final schedule and paper titles are available at www.political-theory.org. With thanks to the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics @harvard.edu for hosting.

Can AIs suffer? Hope so. They need to share the pain they cause.

Guy In Philosophy Class Needs To Shut The Fuck Up https://theonion.com/guy-in-philosophy-class-needs-to-shut-the-fuck-up-1819568055/

An old friend is crashing at our place for a while...

It is good to see our Prime Minister standing with Ukraine. Trump and Putin are trying to sell the people of Ukraine out. Canada must show solidarity against the gangsters.

Having endured decades of claims that it’s time to “move on” from Rawls, I am regularly amazed by the high-quality of *new* Rawls-inspired work. E.g. just this month I reviewed: - Gina Schouten (2024) The Anatomy of Justice (OUP) - G. Badano & A. Nuti (2024) Politicizing Political Liberalism (OUP)

"Political philosophers have long argued that citizens need strong critical thinking skills and intellectual humility to participate effectively in democratic governance." ...

America today is Gotham City in which Trump is both Lex Luthor and also the Mayor.

As I explain in my comments on this post, I think that this article is unfair to Rawls's actual views. Scholarly concerns aside, I don't see how gratuitously bashing allies is helpful to the liberal cause. (And of course there's the fact that Rawls's conception of justice is broadly correct...)

This made me truly laugh out loud. (Found on the internet -- apologies for not being able to give proper credit.)

One of the better essays on the “promise” of AI that I’ve read. “The technology may still do an excellent job of making our educational system irrelevant, leaving a generation reliant on getting answers from a chatbot instead of thinking for themselves...”

"why does bluesky hate AI?" why does the college professor website hate the homework cheating software, is that what you're asking?

Conservative Man Proudly Frightened Of Everything theonion.com/conserv...

The volume of Canadians taking road trips into the U.S.—the way most Canadians visit—dropped by 37% last month compared to July 2024, according to new data from Statistics Canada, following a 33% drop in June. There was also a 26% decline in air travelers from Canada year-over-year.

It is time to take the Canadian boycott global. This is the message I gave to elected representatives from across the Americas at the recent Pan-American Congress in Mexico City. Please watch my remarks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7gb...

One more reason to love BC.

Great day for everyone whose 2024 brand move was claiming that Dems were exaggerating how bad Trump would be.

It's happening! (But slowly: there are ~45 more chapters to go...) 📖 #philsky #philosophy #poltheory

Interesting that in some areas there appears to be a competitive advantage emerging where services are advertised as NOT using AI. AI as the processed food of information.

MAGA ambassador Pete Hoosktra lashed out at Canadians for being "mean and nasty." He is pissed off we won't kiss the ring and buy their products. American media has realized the huge impact of the Canadian boycott. Please read my latest. charlieangus.substack.com/p/maga-is-fr...

I don't normally agree with G&M editorials, but this one is spot on. “[A]t this point, Mr. Trump’s unprovoked economic bullying and attacks on Canadian sovereignty and culture are no longer the only problem. The issue has also become what he is doing to his own country.”

Trump's MAGA ambassador to Canada says Canadians are mean and nasty because we won't spend a dime in a nation that threatens our sovereignty and puts people in concentration camps. We aren't mean we just don't go along with criminals who get elected to high office. Keep the boycott strong.

In my view, the window to *forestall* autocratization of the US political system is basically closed. We're now in the consolidation phase of a new authoritarian constitutional settlement. The question is how far it'll get (will it achieve its apparent goal of fascism?) & at what pace. Here's why: