Ste 🥀
@commontruth.bsky.social
🏴🇬🇧 2+2=4 https://commontruth.substack.com
"Justice exists to restore what has been broken, punish those who break it, and proclaim the standards by which we endure." Rehabilitation cannot be the organising principle of justice. Justice is law and order working symbiotically with the culture that grants it consent. Justice is a declaration.
What is Justice?
Punishment is More Than Procedure.
open.substack.com
This may seem a strange and concerning transformation. The easy explanation could be that I have been misled by misinformation, radicalised by Russian propaganda, or perhaps I am a racist, only now finding the courage to wear my bigotry with pride. The reality is far less conspiratorial. Link below
"...most of the Dems’ unpopularity probably doesn’t come from their lack of aggressiveness against Trump; it mostly comes from the fact that progressive ideology is unpopular." www.noahpinion.blog/p/there-isnt...
There isn't always a "long arc" of morality
Progressives should beware the idea that history will deliver them inevitable victories.
noahpinion.blog
Britain is broken, evidence of our fragmentation is visible all around us. Hostile vehicle mitigation barriers mark the entrance to our town centres. Our Christmas markets are adorned with armed police. And at the football, or gigs, body and bag searches are the norm: intrusion has become routine.
Liberal democracy depends on a demos, and a demos depends on monoculture.
“A liberal society depends on certain habits, customs, and moral norms that it cannot itself generate.” — Francis Fukuyama
I’m not a fan of the dilution of “far-right”, but these guys are going to have some difficulty beating the allegations.
Adil Ray@adilray.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe signs are here. A proposed new UKIP logo likened to the black military cross associated with the German empire and later the Nazis is being considered by electoral authorities
There is a non-zero % chance Trump is playing 4D chess here, using threats to force Europe into defending itself independently.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7mo agoFrance latest to confirm Nato troop deployment after Trump says Greenland ‘very important’ for US national security – Europe live
Cultures remain stable when their norms work with our psychological tendencies. They destabilise when rules, values, or reforms are imposed that contradict how we intuitively experience fairness and belonging.
“The mind is not a blank slate, and it cannot be shaped at will.” — Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate
If we cannot describe what unites us, we cannot understand why our societies become divided. This is why understanding culture, properly defined, is vital.
After the US black-bagging Maduro, and the Trump admin’s noise around Greenland, many seem frightened by the realisation that international law has been exposed as a myth, that might does, in effect, equal “right”, insofar as power ultimately determines which interpretation of “right” is enforced. 🧵
The confusion around what culture is comes from the misconception that culture is its expressions: the fashions we see, the foods we taste, our flags and our anthems. Culture is better thought of as a binding agent: the social force that allows humans to coordinate at scale.
Liberal Britain really needs to see this. Nationalists are too often lumped into the same extreme category. This interview with Steve Laws by Andrew Gold lays bare the crucial distinction between civic nationalism and ethnonationalism. Culture matters. Race does not. youtu.be/GSuXaBpGlA4?...
I Confront Britain's Biggest RAC*ST
YouTube video by andrew gold | heretics.
youtu.be
"Not so long ago, I was a happy warrior for liberal multiculturalism" spectator.com/article/ive-...
The British state radicalised me
Not so long ago, I was a happy warrior for liberal multiculturalism. Today, I find myself, unexpectedly and not entirely comfortably, a sceptic of mass immigration.
spectator.com
Great compilation of Alaa Abd El-Fattah's greatest hits here👇
Ste 🥀@commontruth.bsky.social · 8mo agoI imagine the full extent of this hasnt made its way to Bluesky yet. So lets have a look at some of the sentiments expressed by Alaa Abd El-Fattah. The man Keir Starmer was "delighted" to welcome to Britain today. 🧵
And now the BBC (forced to report some of this) is now whitewashing the story. Nothing in this article about his racism towards white people, calls for genocide, terrorism, rape threats, homophobia or various violent murder tweets against the police and white people. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Alaa Abdel Fattah: British-Egyptian activist arrives in UK after travel ban lifted
For Alaa Abdel Fattah and his family this is a new beginning after years of separation and suffering.
bbc.co.uk
I imagine the full extent of this hasnt made its way to Bluesky yet. So lets have a look at some of the sentiments expressed by Alaa Abd El-Fattah. The man Keir Starmer was "delighted" to welcome to Britain today. 🧵
“A nation is not an idea only of local extent and individual momentary aggregation; but it is an idea of continuity, which extends in time as well as in numbers and in space.” — Edmund Burke
In complex systems theory, a strange attractor describes a stable pattern toward which behaviour repeatedly converges, even when individual actions appear variable or chaotic.
“Culture” in the UK most often refers to fish and chips, the Royal Family, music, art, and fashion. It can also refer to diversity through what is commonly understood as multiculturalism: curry houses, the Notting Hill Carnival, drill music, exotic clothes, song, and dance.
“Culture” is one of the most abused words in modern politics. Used constantly. Understood rarely. This confusion has real consequences.
This map isn’t political at all. It’s cultural. The light blue areas reflect an intuitive, felt culture where legitimacy depends on consent. 🧵
This is true. It resonates because it draws on real culture and aligns with the deeply felt human instinct to defend oneself and one’s group. Many people genuinely feel under threat from small boat incursions and would willingly volunteer to stop them. The same is not true of Ukraine 🧵
I wonder what this correlates with? Especially in the UK context.
Liberal democracy can not survive multiculturalism. It requires an unstated monoculture to provide shared behavioural norms, trust, and order. Without that, it must either become illiberal to enforce cohesion or collapse under its own contradictions.
The UK is in a preference cascade. Opposition to mass immigration is becoming an 80/20 issue. The veil has lifted: slowly, then suddenly, and now everywhere at once. With this realisation comes an obligation: we must plan for our new state. VI. The British Dream: open.substack.com/pub/commontr...
