I think people massive underrate how much air quality in most cities has improved just in the last twenty years. Whenever I go back to London now I’m always struck by the absence of smog that was a fact of life when I grew up there in the 2000s.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 4h ago

Air quality. I grew up in the Los Angeles basin in the 70s and 80s and remember having to stay inside because the smog was so bad - Stage 2 smog alerts, they were called. Apparently they haven't had one of those since 1988. Haven't had a stage one smog alert since 2003.

honestly, the fact that we have made it through the atomic age *without* another use of nuclear weapons since 1945 is a miracle we don't fully appreciate

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 20h ago

Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:

people are pointing out that this is obviously antisemitic, and it is, but one notes that this is sort of the natural endpoint of building your entire political identity around cultural criticism.

Current Affairs@currentaffairs.bsky.social · 2d ago

oh hey we're doing degenerate Jewish art but leftishly.

Current Affairs@currentaffairs.bsky.social · 2d ago

iwbh i think Bluesky has less of this problem than other places

New York Magazine@nymag.com · 24h ago

On social media, a broad consensus is that you can’t admit to struggle — at least not while you’re struggling. Doing so represents a failure so profound it’s almost existential. How did it become mandatory to demonstrate perpetual growth and progress online?

It’s good to apologise. Ben made a mistake, has retracted his previous comments and has said sorry. In my book, that’s a good thing, and we should forgive people who make mistakes and apologise.

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · yesterday

Apologies: I’m not online much, I haven't paid any attention to Rod Liddle for a long time, I didn't really know his extremes. I do now: I wouldn’t have posted if I'd known. I’ve seen death of difficult people up close (and its impact on others): that’s the only reason it was on my mind as an issue.

I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterday

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

Typically good take from Pete. Literary devices or tropes (“this murder mystery exists to explore the world I’ve created”/“this fantastical concept is an allegory”) are interesting. Genres are just a marketing tool, and not a very interesting one.

Pete Fraser@petefrasermusic.bsky.social · yesterday

3: what is your favourite genre? I hate the concept of genre. I think it dulls the imagination and does nothing so much as close avenues of possibility.

So many people on the left insisted to me that Magyar was no different to Orbán. This, and his support for Pride, suggest otherwise. I think there's a general pattern of westerners not grasping that in central and eastern Europe tons of people earnestly and sincerely believe in neoliberalism.

Mohave County Indivisible@mohaveindv.bsky.social · 2d ago

BREAKING: ​The newly elected Prime Minister of Hungary announced that Netanyahu will be arrested if he enters Hungary.

The other thing about "boots theory" is that Vimes is talking about boots that phyiscally fall apart - as in the leather seams collapse completely, which was *Very common* until plastics and the spread of goodyear welts iirc...and doesn't happen much anymore!

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · yesterday

Yeah, for days people have been citing “boots theory” at me and I want to shout DO YOU REALIZE THIS IS A RANDOM IDEA TOSSED OUT BY A FANTASY WRITER AND MAY NOT ACCURATELY DESCRIBE REALITY

Bandwagon.

Mo 🌸📚@moplayspoke.bsky.social · 2d ago

1 like = 1 book question 📚💙

This is, imo, absolutely the consequence of politicians, media figures and others being actively unwilling to condemn this behaviour

Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · yesterday

news.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest

This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms

Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · yesterday

news.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest

if you find yourself saying something along the lines of "i'm a socialist, but i hate trans people, net zero, workers' rights, workers' control of the economy, public healthcare, cash transfers to the poor, and high levels of income tax on the middle class" then you are not a socialist happy to help

honestly Frasier remains an absolutely top tier show, and as I've noted before one big reason is because it makes absolutely zero attempt to be contemporary or realistic; it exists in its own Wodehouse-like social universe.

Brendel@brendelbored.bsky.social · 3d ago

One of those weird paradox of choice things where I used to be fine seeing Frasier as a kid because I got some of the jokes and there was a dog and it was what was on versus now where no matter what I watch I know there’s something better I should be watching

This is still one of my favourite photos, mainly because he told the government "you'll have to arrest me" and FDR went "fine" and literally told the press where and when he was going to arrest him

Reconstructionist@unavaleable.bsky.social · 4mo ago

FDR literally had the president of Montgomery Ward arrested and the company seized for not negotiating with his workers

saying this not as a dig to Paul but as a general point, but it does worry me that we've ended up in a world where the two options are seemingly "leftist bubble" or "oh hey the nazis are here" - surely we should be able to have a politically heterogenous platform with tight rules on hate speech etc?

Paul Bernal@paulbernal.bsky.social · 2d ago

The new CEO of Bluesky wants to change Bluesky from being a leftist bubble. The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being a leftist bubble: the idea that everything has to be all-encompassing and suitable for everyone is a trap. 🧵 1/4

The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime and it has nothing to do with AI, crypto, metaverse, robots or any of the other massively hyped "tech" the media always talks about instead

Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d ago

Absolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West

One sign of the rise of male supremacy and the decline in women’s status is the ubiquity of online porn lingo in casual speech.

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 2d ago

It was this one, and, yes, I do believe that was an All In first.

Good lord I wish some of you could read on this text based social media website.

The Verge@theverge.com · 2d ago

Bluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."

can’t believe our current all-ages literacy crisis is making me a little nostalgic for the pretentious “we publish experimental poetry chapbooks and have strong opinions on Melville and the 1800s fur trade” Literature Boys of my college years in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

tbh HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE *is* an incoherent, self-indulgent mess, but the thing about Miyazaki is that means it's still pretty safely one of the 10-15 best animated features ever made

USER WAS BLOCKED FOR THIS POST@blockedforthispost.bsky.social · 2d ago

And maybe not Howl’s Moving Castle, either. Those who had actually heard of Studio Ghibli in their lives before Spirited Away won the Oscar found Howl’s an incoherent, self-indulgent mess. 😖

it's genuinely fascinating how like, people don't get that social *and* normal housing are both in short supply

Tbf this was Krushchev's thesis but none of the people arguing this really want to engage with the computerised command economy his worldview demanded

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 2d ago

"Abolish capitalism so we can have a cornucopia of cheap, high-quality consumer goods" - I'm sorry, somehow you got lost on the way to Wal-Mart and arrived at the Marxist-Leninist meeting

This is why blanket cynicism about politicians favours the worst among them. It’s the enemy of rational scepticism.

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2d ago

According to Luke Tryl on Radio 4 disillusioned Reform voters think Farage is “just the same as the rest” on the corruption front. But he isn’t is he? He’s exponentially worse. And his grifter tendency has been obvious for a very long time.

And remember, peer-reviewed data is “that talking point” but bullshit you saw on TikTok is “data”

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 2d ago

when people say "do your own research" they generally mean "do not trust anyone with any relevant training or experience"

this is an interesting interview and if i were clipping it for social media i would have excerpted "We're still a place where we don't downrank links. We love sending traffic to people. We send two million clicks a day to publishers" rather than the part that'll just piss people off lol

The Verge@theverge.com · 2d ago

Bluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."

Honestly, filtering for, "the Nazis were bad, Stalin was bad, the correct side won WWII" is the easiest way to filter out 90+% of bad faith interlocutors if only everyone was honest about their views but the fascists and tankies know this and so sometimes falsify their opinions strategically.

Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 2d ago

WWII propaganda is good actually

I was raised to assume that you should assume people act how they wish to be treated & he was a useless cunt his entire life so if anything it’d be rude not to mention his love of writing about perving on schoolgirls and beating up pregnant women

Ben Goldacre@bengoldacre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Sad to see people posting on social media negatively about Rod Liddle, who died yesterday. If I have disagreed with you very strongly in life - and you die - I hope I'll be either silent, or kind.

Again, a fundamental issue with trying to cover the anti-trans movement is that explaining that they are habitually insincere and so routinely chose transphobia over women's rights does make you sound conspiratiorial, and yet...

@andmcc.bsky.social · 2d ago

I don't know about topping, but there is a a very good followup