Barry Freed
@barryfreed.bsky.social
Archivist/Librarian, erstwhile Arabist, cinephile, certified Voight-Kampff test administrator, Antipope of Antifa.
https://boxd.it/5QN63
Doha/NYC
https://boxd.it/5QN63
Doha/NYC
Pinned
Barry Freed
@barryfreed.bsky.social
· Nov 6
Death Note reboot where Light Yagami works his way down from the top of the Forbes 400 list.
Reposted by Barry Freed
Reposted by Barry Freed
This is brilliant.
Why are pubs closing? For the same reason everything else is falling apart - we have sold off the social fabric of the country.
Why are pubs closing? For the same reason everything else is falling apart - we have sold off the social fabric of the country.
My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They Were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?
How private equity reshaped the local and the postcode tool that shows the pubs most at risk.
open.substack.com
February 16, 2026 at 10:25 AM
This is brilliant.
Why are pubs closing? For the same reason everything else is falling apart - we have sold off the social fabric of the country.
Why are pubs closing? For the same reason everything else is falling apart - we have sold off the social fabric of the country.
Reposted by Barry Freed
Reposted by Barry Freed
Reposted by Barry Freed
On a Leos Carax binge. Art & film - Vampyr - Edvard Munch (1893-94) and Pola X (1999) Leos Carax
February 15, 2026 at 10:19 PM
On a Leos Carax binge. Art & film - Vampyr - Edvard Munch (1893-94) and Pola X (1999) Leos Carax
Reposted by Barry Freed
‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people
Once a whites-only enclave, the grand McMillan Memorial library is one of three in the Kenyan capital that have been transformed for the community
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:45 AM
‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Reposted by Barry Freed
Reposted by Barry Freed
mostly I am tired of people with 3 passports and 6 multinational conglomerates lecturing me on the virtues of ethnic nationalism
February 15, 2026 at 4:32 PM
mostly I am tired of people with 3 passports and 6 multinational conglomerates lecturing me on the virtues of ethnic nationalism
Reposted by Barry Freed
Irish elevated to founding stock, it's like he's allergic to reading a history book
1/3 What Musk is really referring to here is, of course “race” - that construct that served to define the hierarchies of wealth & power structured by modern colonialism. Like other far right racists though, he uses the word “culture” as a seemingly less pernicious synonym.
February 15, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Irish elevated to founding stock, it's like he's allergic to reading a history book
Reposted by Barry Freed
1/3 What Musk is really referring to here is, of course “race” - that construct that served to define the hierarchies of wealth & power structured by modern colonialism. Like other far right racists though, he uses the word “culture” as a seemingly less pernicious synonym.
February 15, 2026 at 3:14 PM
1/3 What Musk is really referring to here is, of course “race” - that construct that served to define the hierarchies of wealth & power structured by modern colonialism. Like other far right racists though, he uses the word “culture” as a seemingly less pernicious synonym.
Reposted by Barry Freed
Oh wow, YOUR enemies actually really are uncivilized savages incapable of self-rule? You actually didn't even want to take over their country and expropriate all their land? It's for their own good? Wow, I didn't know that. You're telling me for the very first time.
February 16, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Oh wow, YOUR enemies actually really are uncivilized savages incapable of self-rule? You actually didn't even want to take over their country and expropriate all their land? It's for their own good? Wow, I didn't know that. You're telling me for the very first time.
Reposted by Barry Freed
the idea that compromising your values at all means winning isn't worth it is one of the most destructive ideas we have, the ghost of the New Left and its generational defeat
February 16, 2026 at 2:49 AM
the idea that compromising your values at all means winning isn't worth it is one of the most destructive ideas we have, the ghost of the New Left and its generational defeat
Reposted by Barry Freed
This is an important difference because the policy implications for it are bad. I really do think that the average American would have gladly traded more death for less interruption, and I don’t know what the fuck to do with that because the electorally successful policy is “mass death”.
February 16, 2026 at 12:07 AM
This is an important difference because the policy implications for it are bad. I really do think that the average American would have gladly traded more death for less interruption, and I don’t know what the fuck to do with that because the electorally successful policy is “mass death”.
Reposted by Barry Freed
I’m going diverge from this a little bit because there’s a small critique I want to make that has big policy implications - Americans weren’t traumatized by death, and I understand why we interpret it as death, they’re traumatized by a year+ interruption to their normal lives.
"Americans are to a greater and lesser extent all psychologically traumatized from watching more than a million Americans die from COVID, and explain that general sense of malaise through economic sentiment" has always struck me as a parsimonious explanation.
February 16, 2026 at 12:04 AM
I’m going diverge from this a little bit because there’s a small critique I want to make that has big policy implications - Americans weren’t traumatized by death, and I understand why we interpret it as death, they’re traumatized by a year+ interruption to their normal lives.
Reposted by Barry Freed
The President of the United States most likely raped girls along with his best friend Epstein.
www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
New videos resurface showing Trump partying with underage girls
We’ve all seen Pam Bondi’s petulant performance before the House this week, screaming at members of Congress as they ask why various Epstein files remain redacted for Co-conspirators and perpetrators ...
www.dailykos.com
February 16, 2026 at 4:28 AM
The President of the United States most likely raped girls along with his best friend Epstein.
www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
Reposted by Barry Freed
PBS News Hour: U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents describe how they were treated.
Watch the segment here www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgC...
I'm clipping transcripts of the citizens speaking in this thread 1/3
Watch the segment here www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgC...
I'm clipping transcripts of the citizens speaking in this thread 1/3
February 15, 2026 at 8:24 PM
PBS News Hour: U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents describe how they were treated.
Watch the segment here www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgC...
I'm clipping transcripts of the citizens speaking in this thread 1/3
Watch the segment here www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgC...
I'm clipping transcripts of the citizens speaking in this thread 1/3
Reposted by Barry Freed
A child dying of cancer spent her final days fighting to free her wrongfully detained father from ICE custody.
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
Not one dime for this cruelty.
www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
Not one dime for this cruelty.
www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...
Ofelia Torres, teen who fought to have her father released from ICE custody, dies from rare cancer
Ofelia Torres, 16, died on Friday from Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, her father's lawyer confirmed.
www.cbsnews.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:20 PM
A child dying of cancer spent her final days fighting to free her wrongfully detained father from ICE custody.
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
Not one dime for this cruelty.
www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
Not one dime for this cruelty.
www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...
Reposted by Barry Freed
Look I have thick skin, and I know we are hated, and yet this statement still makes my breath catch. What kind of society allows for this sort of thing to be said
February 16, 2026 at 1:50 AM
Look I have thick skin, and I know we are hated, and yet this statement still makes my breath catch. What kind of society allows for this sort of thing to be said
Reposted by Barry Freed
i think you can judge how free - or not - our political media is by the fact that elon musk literally did a sieg heil (twice) at a rally and it’s still seen as uncouth and overly partisan (in legacy media) to describe his politics as straightforwardly white supremacist.
February 15, 2026 at 8:28 PM
i think you can judge how free - or not - our political media is by the fact that elon musk literally did a sieg heil (twice) at a rally and it’s still seen as uncouth and overly partisan (in legacy media) to describe his politics as straightforwardly white supremacist.
Reposted by Barry Freed
Reposted by Barry Freed
Some interesting movie posters from 20th century Iran
February 15, 2026 at 10:28 PM
Some interesting movie posters from 20th century Iran
Reposted by Barry Freed
Our court system is largely working, with the exception of the most important court
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
The decisions amount to a huge legal rebuke, but the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely.
www.reuters.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:53 AM
Our court system is largely working, with the exception of the most important court
Reposted by Barry Freed
Just finding out now that the CEO of Chuck E Cheese is mentioned in the Epstein Files
February 15, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Just finding out now that the CEO of Chuck E Cheese is mentioned in the Epstein Files
Reposted by Barry Freed
It *literally* does.
Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.
Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.
February 15, 2026 at 1:38 PM
It *literally* does.
Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.
Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.
Reposted by Barry Freed
It is absolute and utter neglect to let this come this close to the wire just as the US has let most of its overseas broadcasting shutter.
And another bites the dust?
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial
Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 8:32 PM
It is absolute and utter neglect to let this come this close to the wire just as the US has let most of its overseas broadcasting shutter.