On literary capitalism.

My son starts a bookshop, and business (from me, at least) is booming. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

To be clear, for casual browsers here: The Economist lied about the findings of this study and then asked the anti-trans equivalent of the KKK their opinion on the research. SEGM has publicly stated that their goal is to eliminate transition--trans people--ENTIRELY. Absolutely shameful article.

The degree to which you misrepresent the study you're reporting on is astonishing. This graph is from that study: 94.6-98.4% of all youth trans participants turned out to be trans at the end, not 80%. And SEGM, who you quote as an authority here, is an SPLC-recognized anti-trans hate group.

My son starts a bookshop, and business (from me, at least) is booming. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

This is a really good and probing listen about one of my favourite books of this year, Taiyo Matsumoto's Tokyo These Days. On creativity, burnout, crushed dreams and the meaning, and meaningless, of art.

This is entirely true on so many levels I don't think I could possibly detail it exhaustively, but you really can't oppose trans people's human rights and still have freedom of expression and bodily autonomy, the idea that people are entitled to self determination goes right out the window....

The main story on BBC 6 Music News this morning is that a ‘boat carrying migrants is on its way to France’ Delivered in the same upbeat tone as England winning the women’s Euros. The migration ‘debate’ in this country is unmoored from reality, and the media-political complex is feeding it

The hype is real. This two hour long doc about extreme birdwatching is an absolute delight, and nothing less than a soothing balm in horrible times. The makers have put the whole thing up on YouTube, for free with no ads, and all of you should watch it right now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

This may seem cute but if you do this too much the cyclists may become reliant on cars feeding them, disrupting the delicate roadway ecosystem

Netanyahu: ‘These So-Called Genocide Experts Have Probably Never Committed A Genocide In Their Lives’

Call this shit out immediately and shut it the fuck down. Show them that we don't operate on the US/UK rules where you can say any old bollocks without consequences. It's the only thing that will stop them getting a foothold.

In the 2010s, this country's elites were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else and could finally read what we all think about them and it caused them so much psychic damage that they decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.

The hype is real. This two hour long doc about extreme birdwatching is an absolute delight, and nothing less than a soothing balm in horrible times. The makers have put the whole thing up on YouTube, for free with no ads, and all of you should watch it right now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

The Andrew Tate piece is, at least, a profile written by someone else, which means I'm sure it won't be the glorified platform the cover seemed desperate to suggest. Now, to take a big sip of coffee and read what it says. bsky.app/profile/youn...

A surprising number of people seem to regard Nazism as an understandable and natural reaction to heavy eye makeup.

ChatGPT is asked to create a map of Ireland and ends up doing the "if your nation wore jeans would it wear them like this?" meme. [Posting with alt-text I've spent far too long writing, in an attempt to convey just how gloriously, horrifyingly shit this is]

The Spectator really saying the quiet part loud with their brand new "degenerate scum need fascism now" front page, which also promises an article by Andrew Tate.

Fourteen years ago my pal Dave and I walked past this guy being filmed in Clissold Park, Stoke Newington. I've always wondered what the deal was. Does anyone recognise him from any show, movie or ad they've seen since?

When I tell people "I don't believe in people being bad, I believe people do bad things" many of them get the wrong idea. They think I mean nobody is irredeemable. Just the opposite. I think nobody can hide behind a state or destiny of badness, bad people are bad because of their choices alone.

This. People are very rarely actually pretending to like things. There are men who just *like* The Bell Jar, just as there are young women who like the Ramones. This is just "name five of their albums" shit, on the presumption that everything is "signalling" and that everyone is a fucking psychopath

Over the weekend, the world's richest man appeared on screens in central London to call for a race war and for the UK government to be overthrown. No arrests were made in connection with that communication.

Our three pillars: GORGEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS ✅ EXTREMELY FUNNY ✅ PLENTY OF IRISH PEOPLE ✅

New illustrated magazine, Issue 24 of @thefence.bsky.social joins the Little Deer shelves! I had a browse through it yesterday and can assure you that I'm addition to the gorgeous illustrations, it's also extremely funny - and also there's plenty of Irish people in it. Two thumbs up!

Remember the international response when there was a fire at Notre Dame Cathedral

Right, having asked around this seems way more common than I expected. So, a question: did you, as a child, ever sincerely desire to do - or actually do - the "wearing your school clothes to bed so you wouldn't have to get dressed in the morning" thing?

No words.

If we have another election I think the winner is gonna be Jamie, the guy that shows Joe Rogan YouTube videos

Have you *ever*, in all the thousands of shootings in America, heard a word about a friend, roommate or partner of a shooter?

truly one of the most unintentionally funny things i've ever seen someone post online about themself

my favourite story about robert redford is how he got turned down for a role in the graduate because he spent the audition saying 'aaaaay i'm the graduate, baby' even though he was reading for anne bancroft's part

On cultural criticism.

This week I bravely, and with a certain quiet dignity, break my silence on every father's shared trauma. The plight of having toddlers constantly compare our bellies and behaviours to those of one Daddy Pig. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

this from my piece on charlie kirk is probably the most important takeaway if you want to know why bad faith, right-wing voices in media are treated as just another set of peers

I wrote this in January, about the issues we face when responsibility for covering the irony-poisoned and extremely-online trolls of the far right, falls to journalists who can't rotate a PDF. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...

A great piece from this current issue of The Fence. @matthabusby.bsky.social usby.bsky.social dives deep into the hive mind of Simon Buxton: the "bee shaman" beloved by Tori Amos, who sat at the centre of a collapsing colony of cultish devotion and then disappeared www.the-fence.com/men-beehivin...

This year, we’ve had insider pieces from barristers, escorts, SEND school teachers and medics inside asylum hotels – and we want to hear from you, whatever you do. Got an insight into an industry people don't know about? Pitch to [email protected] without delay.

[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that

Remember when the Epstein birthday book was published six days ago.

Bold new prediction: Starmer's gone before Amorim and has left his organisation in a structurally worse position.

A great piece from this current issue of The Fence. @matthabusby.bsky.social usby.bsky.social dives deep into the hive mind of Simon Buxton: the "bee shaman" beloved by Tori Amos, who sat at the centre of a collapsing colony of cultish devotion and then disappeared www.the-fence.com/men-beehivin...

V surreal moment just now on my run. I do a circuit of this path in my local park, basically run round it six times and it's 5k. I paused for a breather because I am old and infirm, and a giant tree fell right where I'd have been if I'd kept going. Proof, were it needed, that running is bad for you.

Scientists believe we could be just years away from discovering the opposite of "anti-fascist".

Not Nazis at all. Just people with concerns.

What happens when the first Palestinian flag appears at Rock Against Racism 2025? Will the lads just let it slide in our shared interest in defeating the far right, or will they all join the Times, the Telegraph and the Mail writhing on the floor in terror and roaring abuse.

Politicos, hacks, news organisations and buffoons like Stephen King still clinging on to pretending it’s alright to *PAY* Elon Musk to use his platform - or be on it for a start. You’re funding a man calling on hundreds of thousands of people to carry out acts of violence.

This week I bravely, and with a certain quiet dignity, break my silence on every father's shared trauma. The plight of having toddlers constantly compare our bellies and behaviours to those of one Daddy Pig. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Hope this NYT article is a really flowery 15,000 word description of a guy calling the FBI to say his son did it. "By Friday, according to 14 investigators familiar with the case, the FBI were at an impasse. That's when everything changed. -- In 1876, John Logie Baird came upon a dazzling idea-

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”