This new article by @robtoes.bsky.social looks really good: Ambient Extremism in Reactionary Digital Politics journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

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Ideologically, generative AI is a 19th century technology: the flawed dream that once you have assembled a supposedly total archive of culture via technical media, you can use it to statistically derive new meaning from patterns of the past

Since 1996, the business models of Silicon Valley are largely based on legally protected unaccountability, enforced world-wide through US dominance. Generative AI is both a product and an escalation of this model: It's unaccountability as a service

"What the federal government has been doing to people assumed to be immigrants is different from normal police brutality. It is a targeted campaign. We are witnessing, for the first time since Jim Crow, American death squads."

America’s Death Squads Are Real

Sometimes you can’t see the world clearly from the inside.

lnk.thebulwark.com

He who was based shall become cringe: “A lot of young people [are] looking at him and the legacy of his messaging and thinking that it’s really cringe,” [Leidig] said. “It’s not cool any more.”

Eviane Leidig@evianeleidig.com · 4w ago

I said what I said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Excellent episode on AI and universities. Well worth hearing from the student panel - they articulate the bind many students face: they hate AI but feel compelled to use it That's why I say in my interview that the worst response teachers can take is to become AI cops www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Currently, The Artificial University

Can university education survive AI?

bbc.co.uk

Watch and learn about how the incoherence of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion makes it all the more adaptable to the anxieties of the day. Couldn't help but think of the productive incoherence of QAnon, and Hillis compares the 19th-century 'adventurers' behind the Protocols with 'influencers'

BISA at Birkbeck@bisa-bkk.bsky.social · 4w ago

In case you missed it, watch Faith Hillis on 'Forged in plain sight: a biography of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' here: youtu.be/2WvWiQRmD0A

In case you missed it, watch Faith Hillis on 'Forged in plain sight: a biography of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' here: youtu.be/2WvWiQRmD0A

Forged in plain sight: a biography of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’

YouTube video by Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism

youtu.be

BISA at Birkbeck@bisa-bkk.bsky.social · last mo.

Join us online to hear Faith Hillis (University of Chicago) on 'Forged in plain sight: a biography of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' on 7 July. Book here: bisa.bbk.ac.uk/event/forged...

Farage defended his record saying he "worked extensively" from "2021-2024 as an influencer with over seven million followers on social media." Now he's doing the "I was cancelled because I revealed the truth about..." influencer move perfected during covid info wars. Let's watch MSM fall for it.

A useful primer on Doug Wilson, Christian Nationalism's star preacher, who wants to repeal women's right to vote, criminalize homosexuality, and turn public space in America into a space "for Christ" kansaspress.ku.edu/blog/2026/06...

The New Right: Exclusionary Christian Nationalism

Doug Wilson is likely the Christian nationalist pastor most familiar to Americans, thanks to his elevation to the national stage by Pete Hegseth. In February, the secretary of war invited Wilson to sp...

kansaspress.ku.edu

Masterclass rhetorical analysis from @profafinlayson.bsky.social. Rhetoric isn't just the poetry - it's explaining the world & enrolling people in action. Alan draws out the core contradiction of Burnhamism - he's got the explanation but not the action culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/07/03/e...

Emergency Podcast: The Rhetoric of Burnhamism

We discuss Andy Burnham’s speech launching his formal bid for the Labour leadership. For info, errata and to give us support (Please give us support!):

culturepowerpolitics.org

“temporary alliance between elite and mob”, elite edition

There is no evidence social media bans work. They do hurt vulnerable young people who rely on anonymous online spaces for community & they force a huge transfer of personal data to third-party companies that keep getting breached (Discord, the Tea app, and Au10tix). www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfmN...

Social Media Ban Repository - Sonia Livingstone, Digital Futures for Children Centre

YouTube video by information labs

youtube.com

Here, for channel 4, my colleague @robtoes.bsky.social gives the clearest most direct explication I’ve seen on ‘mainstream’ media: the link between social media, elite political projects (forged over time), money making and white nationalism. m.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-Y...

What’s REALLY fuelling Britain’s riots?

YouTube video by Channel 4 News

m.youtube.com

“The goal is to take away the web and guide people into Google’s abstraction on top of it.”

tante@tante.cc · 3mo ago

I spoke at The Internet Left event at The European Parliament last week. You can watch the entire event here, including insights from strategists working with Zohran Mamdani and Die Linke and Heidi Reichinnek, plus my panel with Joshua Citeralla and Joanna Walsh left.eu/events/the-i...

The Internet Left

The Left in the European Parliament 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP

left.eu

'By uploading instructional content onto Canvas, the learning management system that ASU uses, professors open their intellectual property to much wider distribution' www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Faculty Concerned About ASU’s New AI Course Builder

ASU debuted the web app quietly this month and faculty—whose content the AI pulls from—are concerned about how it works and who can access it.

insidehighered.com

Sadiq Khan is considering blocking Palantir’s contract with the Met Police. Say no to Palantir in the NHS here 👇 https://notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/email-to-target/stop-palantir-in-the-nhs

Come work at Birkbeck! We're hiring a full-time, permanent Lecturer in Digital Media and AI. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH875/l...

Lecturer in Digital Media and AI at Birkbeck, University of London

Discover Lecturer in Digital Media and AI jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

jobs.ac.uk

At the EU today talking about 'The Internet Left - Progressive politics in the digital age' for The Left in the European Parliament with Marc Botenga of @ptbbelgique.bsky.social and @robtoes.bsky.social (Birckbeck)

Excited to be speaking at 'The Internet Left' at European Parliament tomorrow morning. Very cool mixes of strategists, artists, meme makers and...me. Join the livestream Tuesday morning! left.eu/events/the-i...

The Internet Left

The Left in the European Parliament 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP

left.eu

The right has a well-financed apparatus for amplifying social media momentum. Democrats just try to squash it www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Schwemmer said he would accept a world in which slavery was legal if abortion was criminalised, describes himself as “very much an anti universal suffrage guy” and accepts a supporter’s description of him as “our Mormon Nick Fuentes”

Jason Wilson@jasonaw.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New from me today - some more information on Kai Schwemmer, the Mormon Groyper who was recently appointed as political director of the College Republicans of America www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

My latest in the Guardian: 'The defence from Farage is that he can’t be held responsible for what people do with the messages he sends them, which is perhaps why most politicians don’t send personal endorsements to random people over the internet for money' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'Big Chungus' and racist meme coins: Nigel Farage’s cameos are rife with the language of the online far right | Robert Topinka

The Reform UK leader uses the energy of memes to fuel his popularity, but this should not distract us from the seriousness of his purpose, says digital media academic Robert Topinka

theguardian.com

if Louis Theroux had really wanted to get inside the manosphere he would have sat alone in his bedroom watching Kick streams and spamming the chat

Happy to be quoted in this great piece on Farage's Cameo work, but this line got me: 'Analysis of the 4,366 videos reviewed by the Guardian suggests Farage has been recording the equivalent of almost three videos a day.' Truly we live in the age of the poster. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...

Newly unearthed Nigel Farage videos reveal support for rioter, neo-Nazi event and far-right slogans

Exclusive: Analysis of more than 4,000 of Reform UK leader’s paid-for Cameo videos also shows they contain misogynistic remarks and antisemitic conspiracies

theguardian.com

Survey of Silicon Valley coders finds 'feedback loop between beliefs and digital ecosystems': ~75% said CEO worldviews directly shape products -90% said bias was 'injected' into algorithms -74% would implement features even if they would restrict human freedom www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#BrainrotPropaganda: You take the patriotic imagery of the past and strip it of all content. There's no narrative left, no promise of meaning, only vibes. The total destruction of meaning is the content, no matter if it's AI generated or manually stitched together from YouTube clips #MemeFascism

Ulrike Franke@rikefranke.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This is a real video from the official White House account on a war that is currently killing people. I don’t know how the US is going to come back from this. The post was “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. 🇺🇸 🔥”

From LibsOfTikTok to Christopher Rufo and Jordan Peterson, reactionary watchdogs play a big role in digital politics. A great concept from @sean-phelan.bsky.social

Troops told Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon & mark his return to Earth." Non-evangelicals might not know the Left Behind series, but it sold like the Da Vinci Code. Maybe QAnon was just a rapture subplot jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-...

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus

Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

jonathanlarsen.substack.com