this is the most Atlantic article of all time

The past decade or so has been an interesting experiment in "what if we apply the same small group dynamics to political elites that drive how terrorists are traditionally radicalised" and I think the results speak for themselves.

It was obvious when EU citizens had the terms of their settlement here retrospectively revoked that a precedent was being set and that, in time, the argument would move on to other categories of migrant, always tending towards a purity test of who is ‘indigenous’. Unless resisted.

that people won't, despite everything, leave Twitter now is the one thing which I fear may actually drive me fully mad

really dislike that "Boriswave" used to be something you'd exclusively see being used by racist Twitter accounts but it's now made its way to the political mainstream, including today's Playbook headline

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At LSE Philosophy we have two assistant prof vacancies - one for sustainability-related areas, the other for AI-related areas - and for neither of these will you need a $100,000 visa.

Straight ahead to newly independent Kenya‘s disastrous mess with Asian and British citizenship.

The realist defence of Tolkien is roughly that there’s very little sex in biographies of Stalin. Quite a lot of the time, he’s writing characters for whom power (often, just domination) is very important. Mildly substitutable goods.

Husam Zomlot: "Journeys of nations like ours, like that of South Africa.. is long by definition. It takes generations to defeat injustice" #GMB

The empire of Segu (1712-1861): ethnic ambiguity in a pre-colonial African state www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire...

Almost exactly the wrong medicine

Italia 90, drink, the own goal against Spurs; one of the very few men indeed who’ve put van Basten away.

The offer made to women in the enticement to become trad wives is the same as the offer made to citizens in the enticement to embrace authoritarianism: give up. Abandon the aspiration to self rule. It’s imprisonment recast as rest and relief.

NEW: Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom announced today that they have all recognized the State of Palestine

Ηλιοβασίλεμα

Epistemic and moral virtues really are distinct. A (lay) ecumenist I knew was exceptionally good at making people feel heard—so much so that they were surprised, sometimes even offended, when it turned out he didn’t share their beliefs and was willing to say so.

Chelsea were poor and under the cosh even before the first sending off.

Main reactions to this. 1. Right about analytic philosophy’s ignorance of post-colonial stuff; right that it matters. The causal story is open to dispute, but that‘s a different matter.

Suspect it would make some difference, but I don't think, say, people who disliked Obama would have changed their view if they had discovered he had White ancestry.

"We do not expect serious work in the philosophy of physics from students who have never studied physics – but there is not even a hint of a suggestion that courses in sociology and psychology should be a prerequisite for graduate work in moral philosophy." - Alasdair MacIntyre

Oh.

You could blame a lack of entrepreneurship upon a lack of finance; too easy opportunities for rent-seeking or rentiership instead; high utility bills; etc. But no, Labour always has to punch down instead. www.lbc.co.uk/article/brit...

I really enjoy thinking about the legacy of the Dirtbag Left every once in a while, to the extent that they accomplished nothing and left behind a host of nihilistic weirdos who love doing cocaine with alt-right podcasters

hashtag #linguistics

70+ worshippers at the Al-Safiya Mosque in El Fasher were killed in an RSF drone strike today, Friday, when Jumah services means mosques are full. The UAE, which backs the RSF despite it being accused of genocide, continues to face no scrutiny from its western security partners, including the US.

Teaching this brilliant book that is inadvertently about the origin of genocide press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The @journalgenocide.bsky.social has a new Roundtable on Gaza and Genocide Studies. My introduction is freely available here www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The digital version of God, Slavery, and Early Christianity is officially out! If you're interested in ancient Mediterranean slavery's effects on Christian thought and practice, this is for you. www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

Brazil, invoking Article 63 of the ICJ Statute, filed a declaration of intervention in the case SouthAfrica v. Israel.

A plagiarism on both your houses!

The novel thing for many of us outside of the US is having a hybrid regime hegemon constantly messing around in your domestic politics, which is probably extremely familiar to many countries in the cold war.

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Incoming

"opposition to physically violent attacks against Jews...weakens significantly when [the victim's identity is] framed in nationalist terms...rather than religious ones... We also find evidence this dynamic applies to other groups" (Hindus and Muslims) jmummolo.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/file...

Karen Attiah at WaPo championing Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by the Saudi govt for writing critically about them, then getting fired from WaPo for writing critically about the US govt's veneration of Charlie Kirk is such an illustration of this moment, and how "free speech" has been manipulated.

Also I note that very interesting non-standard technical work (e.g. agent-based modelling in heterodox economics) is ignored by philosophers. This suggests to me that the driving appetite is for high status within normal science rather than real discovery in technical domains.

I'm pulling this out of this thread, because I think it's a genuinely interesting question. When should philosophers use heterodox theories in science as part of their philosophical projects? What are examples of philosophers doing that? Did they work out?

Rashford‘s second goal especially impressive and satisfying for the same reason Jordan‘s fall-away jumpers were: you get extra marks for hitting the target while your body‘s moving away from it.

Again, huge thanks to Lucille Mona Ling and Nic Nahar Sharp for giving me the opportunity and asking such deep questions!

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

Kenya mourns the death of Jairus Birech Kipchoge, an athlete who made the country proud thekenyatimes.com/latest-kenya...

Ousmane Dembélé is the favourite to win the men's Ballon d'Or award on Monday, having recorded 46 goal involvements on his way to winning a treble with PSG. @davidsegar.bsky.social takes a closer look at Dembélé's credentials. 👇 #BallondOr theanalyst.com/articles/ous...

Oddly enough, he was the second choice (the first choice refused as he wanted to remain in his monastery), and Theodore also had to wait four months for his hair to grow before he could be ordained and consecrated. Long and slightly bizarre appointment processes for Canterbury have a long pedigree.

the history will continue until morale improves

Oof. But she’s wonderful to him later

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From sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/08/woke...

'The Odyssey, with its stinks and stenches, its pigsties and drugged dinner parties, its beggars and bards, is not so high-flown as the Iliad.' A. E. Stallings: The epic of homecoming in a new translation

I worry that there's a strain of leftism which sees being a high ses white guy as an ineliminable moral stain rather than a position arbitrarily granted privilege by our social structure, membership in which is entirely based on luck of birth, and which comes with certain responsibilities.