"you have to use your professional credibility to praise pop culture fluff made by white men regardless of your actual feelings about it, or else it's a moral failing"

Robert Borden Stan Account@bordenstan.bsky.social · 23h ago

If the academy gets pulled into coming out swinging against the biggest adaptation of Homer in probably a couple generations off the back of one prominent scholar deciding to be Reviewer 2 to Nolan's work, it will say, IMO, pretty damning things about academia's ability to foster public engagement.

Hodges is an occasionally useful guy to keep an eye on, mainly because he’ll say things that his less stupid colleagues are smart enough to keep to themselves.

The problem being, of course, that cops are happy to throw Nazi salutes on their time off. They're pretty much never going to be out protesting the genocide.

Euan@euan.bsky.social · yesterday

I think people are seeing the mass arrests of people for wearing t-shirts and holding signs in support of Palestine Action and are assuming there's One Weird Trick to force the cops to treat Nazis the same

There are white folk out there gleefully saying they use ai in research but not in prose and they don’t get pushback But let a new black writer write anything… This is about white folks thinking Black people aren’t intelligent, i need you to understand this

Incredible shit here: the guy Badenoch is defending was sent to prison for sending racist abuse to the MP Luciana Berger. Who then did a whole series of interviews and columns talking about her criminal harassment by Nazis, in a manner intended to make listeners believe it was done by Labour members

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · yesterday

Even I am taken aback at the new and surprising ways these people find to insult the public’s intelligence and make it more clear the only operative professional standard in force is “LOL fuck you”

and the convention theyre creatively breaking? thats right, the geneva convention

(Just clarifying that this is actual protections, against AI generated images and nudes etc, not something transphobic). An important thread.

Gemma Clark 🧿🕯️@gemmaclark.bsky.social · yesterday

🧵Public consultations are used to craft new laws and really worth your while! This one is about protections for women and girls in the justice system. If you have or work with children, bear with me on this thread 🙏 consult.gov.scot/justice/prot...

Once again for those at the back: ‘Don’t speak ill of the dead’ is about your great aunt Elsie, who liked a long gin with a short tonic at elevenses, and blew your inheritance money betting on the horses. Speaking ill of absolute monsters is a moral obligation, actually.

"Protect women and girls" from violent domestic abusing media figures who tried to normalise paedophilia and Islamophobia? "No, they're decent lovely people" These bigoted fucking hypocrites!

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 2d ago

Another example where the explanation for these people being *extremely* angry and relentlessly seeking publicity for their wacky ideas is: they’re just right wing cranks. They have constructed elaborate window dressing for themselves but they really are just quite nasty, spiteful reactionaries.

Moving on from the radical klezmer to Jason Webley's Wobbly concept album, as recommended something like a decade ago by @amalelmohtar.com and a regular listen ever since, as the soundtrack to @mollycrabapple.bsky.social's excellent history of the Bund, Here Where We Live Is Our Country.

Nicola Sturgeon brought the Greens into government in large part to balance out the more reactionary tendency within the SNP, and I think she was probably surprised by how much of her party sided with the reactionaries when it came down to it

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 2d ago

Nicola Sturgeon has warned John Swinney that the SNP risks losing more votes to the Scottish Greens under the party’s current policy direction 👇

Glastonbury will return in 2027. Rod Liddle, won't

I note the many memorials to Rod Liddle today pretty much all call him "controversial," so just a brief reminder of what that's a euphemism for

Only just found out about this For the record, you don't get multiple genetic markers and one of the most effective medications known to science with 'social constructs' Channel 4, this is, in scientific parlance, an absolute fu*king disgrace that will genuinely endanger lives #c4 #ADHD

Sorry but... crocodile moat? Literal Bond villain level shit right there, surely!

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 3d ago

What the actual fuck

what are the best books about the history of left-wing Catholic activism? the anti-war movement, liberation theology, etc.

FUCKING GOOD

The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 7mo ago

AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns

I know I have quite a small reach on here but is there anyone on here who is a Doctor Who fan based in the South West? I have a lot of old stuff from my childhood and I’m looking to downsize, would like to pass as much of it onto a loving home if possible

Not a call for politeness and cowering, a call for being considered about where when and how to apply the rage and disruption

This is the thing though. Amnesty folded on this one because they see the trannies as acceptable losses for protecting their other work. This is not "human rights org scared of lawsuit" this is "human rights org does not give a fuck about trannies".

ergopraxis@ergopraxis.bsky.social · 5d ago

If you issue an apology whenever a rights-infringing organisation, movement or state objects to your research output pointing out their character as a rights-infringing actor, you might as well close up shop, because that's always going to happen, so you'll never be able to oppose any of them!

This is excellent fucking news, and also such a brazen exposure of GC and anti trans hypocrisy!

Jess O'Thomson@jessothomson.co.uk · 5d ago

BREAKING 🚨 Anti-trans campaigners have been denied permission by the High Court in their challenge to the Puberty Blockers trial. Read more here 👇

Amnesty International has now issued a public groveling apology to JK Rowling's organization and has pulled her another report documenting the anti rights platform of gender critical organizations. www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

An Apology for A Growing Threat briefing, published on 8 July 2026

Amnesty International UK has made a public apology for the publication of the briefing “A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK”. Click here to read it in full.

amnesty.org.uk

I know the lawfare and financial threats are real but this immediate backing down is something they don't do for fucking *dictators*, doing it for JKR and her ilk is grim

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 5d ago

Amnesty have issued an apology to JK Rowling and the rest. Adjust your expectations, and donations, accordingly www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

Just want to remind folks that this keeps happening. Burials of assumed-important ancients discovered to be women via genetic testing, after decades of them simply being assumed to be male. The patriarchy is incompatible with reality.

Jens Notroff@jensnotroff.com · 5d ago

The #BronzeAge #UptonLovellShaman​'s burial in Wiltshire has long been considered an important religious figure & metalworker. It's been barely questioned someone of such status must be male. But now #aDNA analysis revealed that the body is in fact: a woman. 🏺 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Left-handed People: Are They Just Pretending?"

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · last wk.

Channel 4 has announced documentary “The Great ADHD Myth?” It “seeks to determine whether ADHD is a genuine neurodevelopmental disorder, or a social construct.”

FRESH SCHISMWATCH CONTENT! apparently some of the trads had convinced themselves that the Vatican would be motivated to compromise with them, like “okay if we promise not to secede like those other guys you should let us have all the Latin Mass we want” and the Vatican simply said “lmao”

Vatican liturgy chief says Pope Leo will not overturn Latin Mass restrictions

"Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis Custodes," said Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in an interview with The Tablet pu...

ncronline.org

And now my review of The Mulai is also online: locusmag.com/review/the-m...

Niall Harrison@niallharrison.bsky.social · 2w ago

And another, which fascinatingly draws out the linguistic aspects, suggesting the novel argues that "understanding is in fact the obstacle to accepting" www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/07...

Worldcon programme just dropped. It's in LA this year but they're offering an awesome virtual programme that members can enjoy from any timezone. And I'm part of it! Looking forwarded to talk Justice and Murder and to be hosting my Urban Folk Horror workshop. Sign up if you fancy it. guide.lacon.org