As a City supporting, fan studies person interested in the role of fandom in contemporary politics, I have many thoughts and feelings about this article.

How did some City fans become aggressive defenders of a nation state’s regime? | Sean Ingle

The Manchester City case is one example of how fandom has warped beyond previous boundaries in online spaces

theguardian.com

For how much I love teaching and research, they do manage to make the teaching and research job a lot shitter than they need to.

Crisis in reviewing etc etc, but you can't ask for a 10 day turn around for a peer review on the first day of freshers week, let's be serious now.

I find it funny that despite the England team being a genuinely cosmopolitan group of footballers, with sophisticated training, and playing around the world, there is still a deep part of their souls screaming "Johnny Foreigner don't like it up 'em, get it in the fucking mixer".

It's a real head fuck how badly r/UKPolitics has become a far right space. I see popular views expressed on there you'd have only seen on StormFront twenty years ago.

The best era of streaming is when they gave you a free one month membership and didn't care when you signed up again from the same IP address with a new email every month. Every new feature has been downhill since then.

Of all the things that have changed in the material organisation of universities, I do have to pinch myself sometimes that like senate used to be like an actual, honest to god, democratic structure that could hold VCs responsible or ask for them to step down or stuff.

Dr Amanda Dillon@oddityofwings.bsky.social · 3w ago

I frequently wonder if one thing that might help financially in UK HE is a cooperative model - y’know, rotating people in charge, no extra pay, all that. But then I realised that that’s probably how it started, and grifters gonna grift…

I can't remember which British wrestlers, which British light entertainers, and which 00s pop punk/emo/indie bands were sex pests or not.

The operative word in "Protect our women!" is not "women" but "our".

Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · last mo.

I think I noted during the recent Belfast riots that a certain kind of man is not really interested in protecting women & girls; he's interested in protecting the exclusive right of his kind of man to abuse and control women and girls.

Is substack the one run by Nazis? Is there one that everyone is using that isn't run by Nazis?

Dropped my jacket potato with beans and cheese (classic, sophisticated, autumnal, mature) on the floor so had to air fry some oven chips with beans and cheese (unsophisticated, immature).

Reading + Leeds lineup and vibe this year confirms, once again, that Daphne and Celeste won.

Closest thing we get to peak Twitter Cameron fucking a pig is collective finger wagging about national alerts about BBQs.

Vaguely related point, but I oversaw someone on a train Google search "how frequent are trains running from Bristol to Bath on a weekday" or some other very long winded way of asking the question, and then only looking at the AI returns. Click your train app and see when the next one is, please.

Movies Silently@moviessilently.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One thing I have noticed since the adoption of AI is how many more people will use other people on social media as a chatbot: asking for easily searchable facts (even in the era of search engine decay) or asking questions answered downthread

It always amazes me during an academic scandal how little people understand about qual work and its role in knowledge production, but how loudly they criticize it.

I fear we judged Trump too harshly for looking directly at the eclipse.

The really fucking dystopian end of days type climate change news got here quicker than I was expecting, to be quite honest.

Ryan Marino, MD@ryanmarino.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to 40C…(but) in many parts of the Sahara, summer temperatures now frequently exceed 50C… (and) the unprecedented intensity of current heatwaves directly threatens their vital functions, turning this historically resilient animal into a climate victim”

While we are investigating academics promoted with very little quality or impact in their research, can someone tell me how Stock reached professor at Sussex with their pre-transphobia scholarship?!

Nick Barlow@nickbwalking.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who's been paying attention, Stock has decided that women with disabilities are suffering from "social contagion"

This whole Arday mess feels as much, if anything, as the logical endpoint of the academic ⭐superstar⭐ system. It's never been good or healthy for anyone.

They’re calling it the most theater kid story of all time

Pixie Casey@pixiecasey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

in insane local news, the 26 year old director of a rocky horror production was arrested for sending threatening messages to himself in order to get the play shut down bc he didn’t want to deal with cast drama www.mynbc5.com/article/rock...

No, I don't think I will.

Maybe businesses need to start actually paying to train their own workers rather than decrying the fucking fact that students don't know exactly how to do the job you're hiring them for.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2mo ago

President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v

I might start dressing exclusively like a mid- to late-20th century masked professional wrestler because every look fucking rocks.

@amosmurphy.bsky.social I've never shouted at a football podcast so much as me shouting that you've got to be having soybeans for the tofu.

I've also been surprised by how little appetite there has been for anything resembling a liberal arts model, not just top down but from colleagues as well.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

'Strip away the grandiose language and a pattern emerges – some combination of fewer, larger modules, almost always wedges of 30 credits, an all-core or heavily prescribed first year, reduced optionality in later years, curated pathways instead of individual module choice... [cont.] 1/4

If they hadn't completely destroyed British cultural studies, there would be whole conferences dedicated to vaping cultures in just completely unhinged ways. None of these white papers on the culture industries (but not how Adorno meant it).

Gregk Foley@gregk.co.uk · 2mo ago

If British Universities want to continue to thrive and stay relevant, they need to adapt and operate more in line with British economy and business, which is thriving and relevant.

It's very good having a one year old because she finds everything I do funny. I danced to the coffee machine noises, huge reaction, comedy genius. I assume this state of affairs continues forever.

In a world of AI slop, it's kind of refreshing to see the type of take that could emerge from the id of some of the world's most unhinged people promulgated in the dying embers of conservative print news.

Sean Bell@seancmbell.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I stand by this, but even I wasn't expecting the Spectator to publish a hatchet job on Anthony Bourdain, written by a far-right influencer, which opens by *approvingly quoting the Unabomber*

What would it say about the psyche* of someone who claimed to believe they were about to birth an era of universal abundance who took a detour to cut global aid in the present.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago

‘I got carried away’: Elon Musk expresses regret about Doge and wading into Trump’s orbit