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Ben Litherland

@benlitherland.bsky.social

4.5K followers 1.8K following 1.4K posts

Popular culture and politics. Sometimes academic who writes about those things. Co-hosts Ill Effects, good podcast about bad media influence https://open.spotify.com/show/0QotQZhgYQOsjCvGMefNjl?si=zRsbRad6SZO

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · Apr 22

Listen to series 2 of Ill Effects, our podcast exploring the past and present of media influence and effects.

An ongoing list of episode.

Episode one: Screen Time Must Die!

“Screen Time” Must Die!

open.spotify.com

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 22h

Paddington, in my defence, has a very strong #menswear look. But still.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 22h

I bought a very nice royal blue duffel coat and a lined brown bucket hat for the autumn and early winter and realised I can't wear them together as this is literally just Paddington's look.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 1d

Shitting your pants at the thought of the lightest of light touch of global regulation on some of your emerging tech products. Jesus Christ.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 1d

You've got cultural hegemony basically sewn up, you own and control all the major communication channels and services, the major ideological disagreements are around like gay marriage, like, what on earth do you want?

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 1d

Socially, politically, culturally this is the best it gets if you're a billionaire. The chance of revolution is basically zero, the taxes are low, there's healthcare that can make you live to a hundred, there's pills to make your dick hard, you can eat food from anywhere on the planet.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 1d

It's never been a better time in the whole of history to be extraordinarily wealthy and they spend the whole time whining and moaning and scared that there will be a couple of extra percentage points on their taxes. It's kind of sad.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 1d

All these anxious billionaires....

“It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money,” Thiel said, according to the recordings. “An incredible machinery of tax treaties, financial surveillance, and sanctions architecture has been constructed.” Wealth gives the “illusion of power and autonomy,” Thiel added, according to the recordings, “but you have this sense it could be taken away at any moment.”

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 2d

The Smashing Machine makes some absolutely wild choices based on how familiar they incorrectly expect audiences to be of early MMA history.

Reposted by Ben Litherland

Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.bsky.social · Aug 18

Grateful for the sickos that are Horny For AI because finally those of us who are Horny For Cartoon have somebody to look down on.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 4d

I liked it when Hollywood actors had normal teeth.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 5d

If not for Ross Geller Xander might be the worst man you're supposed to like in popular 90s TV shows.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 5d

Imagine cheating on Oz with Xander.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 6d

I've been living in my part of Manchester for 8 years now and only just noticed this street name.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 8d

"Anti-woke" as a vaguely coherent counter-hegemony is surely dead, but I reckon this might be the final nail.

The Hollywood Reporter @thr.com · 8d

Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

Dave Chappelle Criticizes Free Speech in America at Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival

Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

bit.ly

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 9d

Congratulations!

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 9d

One of the greatest achievements of the populist right over the last 50 years is reframing their deep anxiety of the masses and the social as somehow being an authentic expression of the masses.

Joel Siegel @joelsiegel.bsky.social · 9d

Rep. Lisa McClain, on CNN, praising President Trump for deploying the National Guard to Washington:

"My daughter could actually ride the Metro for the first time since she has been in DC."

[Her daughter is 22]

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 11d

Plenty of institutions aren't equipped to screen dvds in a film class...!

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 13d

When I read it properly for the first time I was struck by the fact it wasn't a deep mediation on evil, it was a deep mediation on how the most dog-shit average, loser men obsessed by their own mediocrity had stumbled their way into a position of power to commit the evil.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 13d

For all the brilliance and problems with Banality of Evil, as a phrase and series of essays, this is basically Hannah Arendt's main point.

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 13d

tl;dr: Fascism, in a very literal sense, is for dead-end losers.

tim frye @timfrye.bsky.social · 13d

So many echoes from this article for US politics....

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 13d

He does what to her bull?!?

The Daily Beast @thedailybeast.bsky.social · 17d

Katie Miller joked about her husband being a “sexual matador” in an interview with Jesse Watters.

Stephen Miller's Wife Drops Cringe-Inducing Sexual Brag

Katie Miller joked about her husband being a “sexual matador” in an interview with Jesse Watters.

trib.al

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 15d

Holy shit, this is such a TERRIBLE wiki entry that its the first time I've ever been tempted to edit a wiki entry.

Mobile privatization can be described as an individual's attachment to a mobile device. This leads to a feeling of being "at home" while connected to a device in a mobile setting. Using a mobile device, an individual can feel as though they could travel anywhere in the world while still feeling comfortable because of the connectivity of their mobile device. The connection creates a sense of familiarity, resulting in the individual's identity becoming attached to their mobile service provider. This concept leads to the idea that "home" does not need to be a domestic structure featuring walls and a roof, but that the mobile sense of connection provides a portable community similar to a home environment.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 15d

*mobile privatisation intensifies*

Regime Accountant, CPA ☠️🎢 @regimecpa.bsky.social · 15d

The loneliness crisis isn't from a lack of third spaces, it's from being at home becoming ever more appealing thanks to broadband / phone combined with suburbanization.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 15d

I saw someone recently say that the left had been crying wolf for a decade so when it really arrived in America no one listened to them and I was like "we were warning you of something that was happening".

Erin Gallagher @3r1ng.bsky.social · 16d

The “everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi” trope was invented by the right. No one on the left does that.

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 18d

I dunno, I feel like I'm getting the exact future that all the sci-fi I was consuming as a teenager warned me about.

Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 19d

I must confess that when I was younger I expected the future to have more robot butlers and jetpacks, and less fascism and genocide, but here we are.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 19d

Entrance pyro at a memorial rally! I know I've made this point once or twice, but the aesthetics of American fascism is just the aesthetics of pro wrestling.

Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 19d

Charlie Kirk's grieving widow had just left the stage moments before the fireworks for Trump kicked off.

Just so wildly and blatantly inappropriate for a memorial service for someone else.

Fucking nuts.

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Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 19d

Staying up late on baby duty and seeing the feed become US dominated.

Simpsons "good lord what is happening in there" meme.