Broke: One nation history of the British Empire Woke: Four nation history of the British Empire Bespoke: Seven nation history of the British Empire

RDCK98@comradekenobi.bsky.social · 3d ago

Geniune thesis you could do: how many sub-imperialisms were there within the 20th Century British Empire.

In other words, a 10 percent contraction in one of Britain’s most successful exports. If it were steel or fish or other infinitely less profitable sectors, people would be having a meltdown.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 3d ago

Visa applications to study in the UK fell by 10.3 per cent for the key recruitment month of September, new Home Office figures show. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #highered #visas #internationalstudents #edusky https://ow.ly/3LSs50ZVPAE

This headline is simply infuriating as none of the rest of the story (nor the report itself from what I have seen) supports this claim. Rather consistent long term austerity has made it harder to get a diagnosis. Very poor show BBC.

REwadent Evil@ewacat.bsky.social · 3d ago

Pleased to announce that ADHD is being overdiagnosed again according to the BBC and pathetic skidmark Wes Streeting, so now - during ADHD Awareness Month no less - it's time to give it up and just be normal. Let it go. Just turn it off and get on with things www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I once had a rather acrimonious argument about whether the Tang should be seen as a primarily Chinese empire or both Chinese and Inner Asian, and my interlocutor asked 'would you say the British Empire was simultaneously an Indian empire?' ...yes, actually.

Dr Mark | 北马克 |🍉🇦🇺🇲🇾🇹🇭@ajaanmark.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Indian government was a separate entity to the UK government and the Indian Army to the British one. The latter had far fewer troops.

The Indian government was a separate entity to the UK government and the Indian Army to the British one. The latter had far fewer troops.

Mae Nick Phra Khanong@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 3d ago

It's always been fascinating to me how, despite being colonized, through sheer weight India was almost able to become a kind of sub-empire, with Indian subjects (and the British through them) exerting influence throughout the Indian Ocean basin Good book on this by an Indian historian

Too many people: Cemeteries are scary and haunted Reality: Gravestones are incredible places to search for histories of politics, protest, and religion Visit a cemetery this Spooky Season 🪦

John Carter Brown Library@jcblibrary.bsky.social · 4d ago

Learn about curious gravestones created by a man named Edward Wharton in Massachusetts in 1675 following the deaths of two Quakers. Research conducted by JCB Research Associate Daniel Howlett. @dhowlett1692 1675 court record source: salem.lib.virginia.edu/Essex/vol6/i...

There's also a certain "popish plot" element, in that there is no way to seperate faith and culture from the myth of dual-alleigeance without conversion (of some kind), and even that still comes with suspiscion

I must confess I dropped SNW after S2 but in broader terms I do think Trek is at its best (read:good) when it takes itself seriously and runs with the campiness rather than lampshading it. Granted that is also my take on Gilbert and Sullivan.

John C@badsocialism.bsky.social · 5d ago

I'm gonna be real I don't think much of this matters, except that it's such a compounding of sloppiness around minor and major character details that I sort of conclude the show doesn't give a shit

The UT-Austin Core Curriculum Task Force is requiring that Gen Ed courses draw 50% of their readings from this list of 50. Unfortunately, it seems to think that the “Great Questions of Human Life” can only be explored through the canon of Western civ (token exception: Confucius).

AAUP@aaup.org · last wk.

“This is not a list of authors aimed at preparing students for life and work in the 21st century. UT should allow faculty to choose the texts that best offer multiple perspectives on the particular questions they are considering. Anything less disrespects both faculty and students.” – UT Austin AAUP

Treating Confucius as synonymous with the entirety of schools of Chinese philosophy over thousands of years is considerably worse than just leaving him out entirely.

I do forget about Bluesky, and I shouldn't. So... who wants to see some WW2 maps, and hear about the mapmakers? This is a favourite of mine. Prome, Sandoway, Thayetmyo - 85: J9 - some of the Survey of India's fine work in Burma, published in (not updated since) 1929. Come on, isn't this awesome?!

I can’t stop laughing

Show us your tanks!

John C@badsocialism.bsky.social · last wk.

Show us your tanks!

Anyways if you want Star Trek with some guts and a strong relationship with political economy, read @eomproject.bsky.social

The Edge of Midnight @eomproject.bsky.social · 6mo ago

ESCALATION: June 21st, 2267.

It’s good to point out the ‘major gender row’ would not exist had JKR not been such a transphobe because that’s just her now. She claimed Imane Khelif and Liu are trans - which is not true and also shouldn’t matter - and whipped up hate, because that’s just her now

Hong Kong Free Press HKFP@hongkongfp.com · last wk.

Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting, the Olympic champion who found herself embroiled in a major gender row at Paris 2024, won gold at the Asian Games on Wednesday, beating China’s Yang Chengyu 5-0. In full: hongkongfp.com/2026/10/02/t... Photo: Mohd Rasfan/AFP.

Okay so this making me think my assessment of the size of VTuber awareness on Bluesky was a bit of an undersell.

Kenny Lauderdale@kennylauderdale.bsky.social · last wk.

I want to thank whoever made this image. Still one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Someone's been duped here because this is straight up an actual photo of Adolf Hitler from 1927: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/EY7VVNO...

Actual names@actualnames.bsky.social · last wk.

Adoulph Tartish Canada, Prairie Provinces, Census, 1926

I promise you if I tried this even once I'd be hauled up into a disciplinary. But Dr Orr? Little research, no teaching, no problem. www.varsity.co.uk/news/32175

Orr’s lectures covered by a postgrad

James Orr had a postgrad cover approximately seven lectures, allegedly without the Divinity Faculty’s knowledge

varsity.co.uk

It’s sort of astonishing how wrong Braverman is on every level about what Englishness is and how it’s been constantly redefined and debated historically and culturally. And now I see she is also amazingly wrong about all other national identities too

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · last wk.

I actually find the opening to this the most fascinatingly unhinged moment "why are the English the only group of people on the Earth who can't define themselves," is an argument that just does not hold up to a second's thought? Is Kylian Mbappe not French because his dad was Cameroonian?

HPHK blogpost from Prof Ray Yep. //I could easily summarize my childhood in one word: immobility. Like many of my peers growing up in the early 1970s, Hong Kong Island was my whole world. It was a big deal to cross the harbour!// blog.hphkbristol.net/2026/09/22/i...

a) ‘Englishness’ is a social construction b) Suella Braverman can think whatever she likes about it c) No-one else has to take her seriously Thank you for coming to my Twat Talk.

Farrukh@implausibleblog.bsky.social · last wk.

Suella Braverman suggests on #BBCQT that you can't be English unless you are white, and have a lineage or heritage going back some generations

Another illustration that the new hardline immigration policies are completely vibes led and all about vice signalling, not evidence led in any way.

Wendy Lyon@wendylyon.eurosky.social · last wk.

Given that Irish government TDs have cited Sweden's decision to introduce a language test for citizenship as justification for Ireland introducing one, it seems relevant that Sweden is finding it difficult to actually do it

The BBC switching its local resources from radio to the website has been disastrous for the business model of local newspapers, but you have to balance that against how good it has been for 'the BBC's opponents' and 'random companies who now get a PR hit on the biggest news website in the UK'.

John Oxley@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · last wk.

This is just the BBC doing PR for a care company?

I had this conversation with a colleague yesterday and I think my distinction is that the bloodshed and violence of Empire is an inevitability of the ideology, whereas the bloodshed of fascism and Nazism is the Point of the ideology

finrodsauronvorecommissionfolderabsurdres@yungdreyfusard.bsky.social · last wk.

the idea that the nazis were trying to do in eastern europe what, say, the british did in southern africa, only on a drastically sped-up timeframe, obviously has some merit re: the nazis' other targets, but it categorically fails to deal with their judenhass, which did operate on a different logic.

These fragments from a Roman villa in Spain are not from a mosaic but from a fresco. If you look closely you’ll see a grid of lines, many following the contour of the figures, much as tesserae do on mosaics. This trompe-l’oeil technique simulates mosaics. 1/ 🏺 1st-2nd c. Museo de Málaga 📸 me

If we could figure out some quality or feature that was common to all the states where this happened or, conversely, common to all the states where this did not happen, that might help suggest a strategy to correct and/or prevent this

Anyways Americans thinking mongrel=bad is kind of, in my view, another point in favour of my "many Americans don't really believe you can be bi/multiracial" take

Also I'm fairly sure it was the Dutch who conquered the world for spices. We did it for tea, and we're not exactly known for not drinking it. (Incidentally, Indonesian food seems to be to the Netherlands what Indian food is to Britain.)

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist@nameshiv.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'm kinda fully over that "the British conquered the world for spices and don't use any of them" joke because for one, you cannot recycle material for 5 straight generations and get a laugh worth a damn but also because in order to make it you have to agree with Tommy Robinson about who is British

"I don't want growth" is, unfortunately, the political equivalent of being annoyed that an eight year old might one day be fifteen.

We keep telling them that everyone in the UK has eaten British Indian food even the smallest towns and they’re like “haha they’re not British” and they were calling this latest viral take “comedy genius”

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist@nameshiv.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'm kinda fully over that "the British conquered the world for spices and don't use any of them" joke because for one, you cannot recycle material for 5 straight generations and get a laugh worth a damn but also because in order to make it you have to agree with Tommy Robinson about who is British