Alexandra Stein
@alexandrastein.bsky.social
Social psychologist specialising in cults and totalitarian systems. My books: Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in cults and totalitarian systems & Inside Out: A memoir of entering into and breaking out of a political cult. www.alexandrastein.com
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
theguardian.com
I fear we might see a new alignment between a radical right death cult and a rural revivalist "simplicity" drive, which views collapse and a return to "organic" communities as a solution to decadent urbanism. A century ago this convergence led to a very bad place. www.monbiot.com/2023/10/04/t...
The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People
The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death
monbiot.com
The Jeep Rubicon Childkiller. Celebrate the climate emergency and mow down pedestrians with 5,000 pounds of pointless metal.
Climate science denial in physical form. The Land Rover Defender X (yup - they've gone full Musk). Price: £103,460, plus a few kids' lives. 🧵
Personally I think there are "legitimate questions" about COVID. Like why Michael Gove and Matt Hancock got away with giving away contracts to their mates. And why the fuck Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman haven't been prosecuted.
📌 ICYMI Max Colbert Organisers of the "Make Great Britain Christian Again" conference include preachers linked to far-right rallies, prompting warnings that faith is being used to provide moral cover for nationalist politics
Tommy Robinson’s Temple: The Christian Conference Uniting Preachers from the Far-Right Fringe
Organisers of the "Make Great Britain Christian Again" conference include preachers linked to far-right rallies, prompting warnings that faith is being used to provide moral cover for nationalist politics
bylinetimes.com
We should never forget how the BBC has changed this country by giving endless airtime to Nigel Farage and other rightwing extremists, while shutting out progressive voices.
Nicolas Chinardet@zefrog.eu · 3d agoAnd why is #r4today giving (yet again) such prominence to a hair-brained scheme that has little chance to ever be implemented? A GE is unlikely soon and the threat of Reform winning it is apparently receding. What is the justification for legitimising it?
If we’re discussing covid, back in August 2020 the Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, introduced a programme that subsidised £850m for people to congregate in enclosed spaces and get infected with the disease that killed people, then the state broadcaster depicted him as a superhero
Can electoral lightning strike twice? #VoteBinface #Clacton
NEW: The Abramovich connection. How convicted money launderer George Cottrell - & close aide to Nigel Farage - ‘signed documents’ for one of Putin’s closest allies. My latest for @thenerve.news 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/george-cot...
Farage, George Cottrell and Putin’s friend Abramovich
Source reveals convicted money launderer and Reform leader’s close ally worked as a young man for the now-sanctioned oligarch after becoming friends with his son. Report by Carole Cadwalladr
thenerve.news
Two things. One of the main exploitation methods of those spreading misinformation is to take normal scientific arguments over details and suggest they imply doubt over an entire subject. The second, what is ‘at best’ supposed to imply other than that the idea that long covid itself is a lie?
Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 4d agoLong covid is a disputed subject, at best.
Morning @mrjamesob.bsky.social the media is unsurprisingly muted on Reforms disastrous Manchester Mayoral defeat. Where’s all the detailed voting analysis of Reform losing support and votes we would have seen if Labour had lost?
If only for this one policy BinFace deserves to beat Farage whose Reform UK Party has accept £millions in fossil fuel lobbyists donations aka bribes to deny climate change & denigrate net zero meme via The UK Against Hate
And on the lab leak hypothesis... While a lab leak has not been disproven (and likely can never be), every piece of positive evidence that has emerged since 2020 about where the outbreak began points to a natural origin from the Wuhan wet market. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2
The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has evoked heated debate and strong accusations, yet seemingly little resolution. I review the scientific evidence on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and its subsequent spread throug...
annualreviews.org
Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12
Much as I love the News Agents their discussion on Covid was ill-informed and misleading. christinapagel.substack.com/p/we-are-lea...
We are learning the wrong lesson from Covid school closures
A response to yesterday's News Agents podcast...
christinapagel.substack.com
The News Agents@thenewsagents.co.uk · 5d ago“I’m glad we live in a country that is deferential to expertise - but at times in the pandemic, that did go too far.” “I’m not sure school closures were a price worth paying.” Lewis on how ‘legitimate questions’ have emerged - and should be asked - about how we handled Covid.
Had a surprise guest at the "Authoritarian Playbook - what Britain can learn from America" event with @mayaonstage.bsky.social @lincolnproject.us @quietriotpod.bsky.social @bylinetimespod.bsky.social - gooooo Count @countbinface.bsky.social !!! www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/show/the-aut...
Fauci is a decorated American Hero who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, served 7 presidents, and saved tens of millions of lives. Yesterday they tried to destroy him — diary leaked, prison threats, F-bombs, the works — because he exercised his constitutional right to take the Fifth 👇👇👇
Anthony Fauci Is a Decorated American Hero. Yesterday They Tried to Destroy Him
Presidential Medal of Freedom. Served seven presidents. Tens of millions of lives saved. Then Rand Paul, Tuberville, Moreno, Hawley, and Florida’s AG came for him
open.substack.com
My man! You go ahead on with your bad self, Dr. Fauci! Sane Americans know you have worked your entire life saving as many lives as you possibly could. I’m raising my fist for you like the protesters did at the end of the movie, Billy Jack! ✊🏻😭✊🏽😭✊🏿 #Pinks #SheShed #DrAnthonyFauci #Legend #Hero
On Burnham’s social care speech today, it was deeply refreshing to see him make a point to thank immigrants who provide social care. I hope that reflects where we go with ILR bill but beyond that it is good to hear gratitude and openness rather than scapegoating and penny pinching.
Instead of using a photo of the current conflagrations caused by climate breakdown, the Telegraph uses a pic of a wind turbine burning ... in February 2025. Because that's the important thing: 17 months ago a turbine ignited. Caption: "It’s time to cease building wind turbines". #FossilFuelStooges
George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 7d agoI'm not qualified to judge whether such people are psychopaths. All I can say is that they behave as if they are. From today's Telegraph.
If you remember Bill Oddie for one thing, let it be for this 4 minutes of magic. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuY9...
Starling Magic
YouTube video by arcadeium
youtube.com
Bill Oddie has died aged 85. We'll certainly be thinking of this quote today. #Humanist #Nature #Birdwatching #Humanists #HumanistsUK #BillOddie
Humanists UK@humanists.uk · last wk.Springwatch icon, humanist, and probably the UK's best-loved birdwatcher, Bill Oddie, has died aged 85. Very sad. Thank you for a lifetime of helping us understand nature.
The wonderful Bill Oddie. He was very kind to me when I was a child, and used to draw me bird pictures. Condolences to his family.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last wk.Bill Oddie, naturalist and broadcaster, dies aged 85
Our system is broken. Legislation recognises coercive control as an offence, but doesn't offer us survivors a way to seek justice. Here's cult expert @alexandrastein.bsky.social on what change we're asking for, and how you can help: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKhg...
Our system is broken. Cult expert Dr. Alexandra Stein on how you can help
YouTube video by Apostate Alex
youtube.com
NEW: Who funds Nigel Farage? And why has it taken till now for any journalistic scrutiny? @carolecadwalla.bsky.social who has tracked him for a decade exposes how the UK press & regulators looked the other way 🧵👇
Payments to Reform UK first revealed by the Guardian are now being investigated by the Metropolitan police. The inquiry is scrutinising payments made to the party via a company controlled by its deputy leader, Richard Tice. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Police investigate payments to Reform UK first revealed by The Guardian
Scotland Yard is looking at two £250,000 donations to the party by Britain Means Business before the 2024 election
theguardian.com
The Royal Society needs to defrock Elon
Snigdha@snig.bsky.social · 2w agoYet he remains a Fellow of the Royal Society.
