Martin Concagh
@mconcagh.bsky.social
Brit living in Toronto. Politics, books, jazz, Doctor Who and many more
Reposted by Martin Concagh
a lot of "dark academia" stuff is just the author wanting to tell you that they went to a good school but they're not like those other people there, but I think "The Secret History" really does get at the gulf between idealized humanities and moral reality.
But I don't think it makes you a *morally* better person. It might be one of the ways your morality is shaped or the language you use to express it, but it's a vessel, not the substance. We do not, after all, think of professors of English Literature as an unusually virtuous bunch.
December 10, 2025 at 12:21 AM
a lot of "dark academia" stuff is just the author wanting to tell you that they went to a good school but they're not like those other people there, but I think "The Secret History" really does get at the gulf between idealized humanities and moral reality.
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I continue to have no sympathy left for whinging about how the public are rude about AI and feel threatened by it when the biggest players in the AI space have spent years very vocally and constantly *threatening the public*
December 9, 2025 at 11:59 PM
I continue to have no sympathy left for whinging about how the public are rude about AI and feel threatened by it when the biggest players in the AI space have spent years very vocally and constantly *threatening the public*
Reposted by Martin Concagh
Reposted by Martin Concagh
I like being able to get to places without a car
A quick glance out of the window will show you that London is not better than LA in every way. (Do it quickly: it’s 2.30, so it will be dark soon.)
December 9, 2025 at 3:04 PM
I like being able to get to places without a car
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Once more for the haters...
December 9, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Once more for the haters...
As much as a lot of people who won’t quit the Nazi site seem to decry BlueSky as a hub of cringe centrists in my subjective experience the median British BlueSky person is a thirty something left lib who thinks corbyn should be in a care home and Starmer should be killed with hammers
December 9, 2025 at 2:30 PM
As much as a lot of people who won’t quit the Nazi site seem to decry BlueSky as a hub of cringe centrists in my subjective experience the median British BlueSky person is a thirty something left lib who thinks corbyn should be in a care home and Starmer should be killed with hammers
Reposted by Martin Concagh
But the good news is, by doing this, we defeated racism in the UK.
Government has now - belatedly -published the impact assessment for the changes to skilled worker and care worker visas announced in May.
Impact is estimated between -£2 billion and £-10 billion (central - £10 billion).
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6937e6...
Impact is estimated between -£2 billion and £-10 billion (central - £10 billion).
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6937e6...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
December 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
But the good news is, by doing this, we defeated racism in the UK.
Reposted by Martin Concagh
too many people want to have kids but don't want to parent
some significant part of this is just catch-all fear for “this is not the child I ordered” I think
Oh, here's a big surprise. The transphobes don't believe in ADHD either.
December 8, 2025 at 1:59 PM
too many people want to have kids but don't want to parent
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"House of Commons Jerk Seasoning" is 1) an extremely funny concept and more importantly 2) a sign of a complete and total victory for cultural pluralism in a way that is kind of difficult to concieve
Look, I know things aren’t great at the moment for (a) anyone, and (b) the Labour Party, but fuck me that’s bleak
December 8, 2025 at 11:32 AM
"House of Commons Jerk Seasoning" is 1) an extremely funny concept and more importantly 2) a sign of a complete and total victory for cultural pluralism in a way that is kind of difficult to concieve
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Karen's great original story here - torontolife.com/city/jennife... - but also a note that in general Toronto Life has some of the best crime coverage I've read anywhere
December 7, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Karen's great original story here - torontolife.com/city/jennife... - but also a note that in general Toronto Life has some of the best crime coverage I've read anywhere
Very funny how "metaverse" is exactly the name a TV drama from 2006 would give a Second Life knockoff. There's probably an episode of Spooks where Nicola Walker has to seduce a terrorist on it to stop an eco-terrorist dirty bomb detonating in Leeds.
December 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Very funny how "metaverse" is exactly the name a TV drama from 2006 would give a Second Life knockoff. There's probably an episode of Spooks where Nicola Walker has to seduce a terrorist on it to stop an eco-terrorist dirty bomb detonating in Leeds.
Reposted by Martin Concagh
I love this recurring bit where journos try to ask Starmer what motivates him and his answer is always something lofty that bears no relation to his policies
Keir Starmer Observer interview with @rachelsylvester.bsky.social articulates opportunity for young people as his defining mission for his government
December 7, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I love this recurring bit where journos try to ask Starmer what motivates him and his answer is always something lofty that bears no relation to his policies
I think one of the most underrated aspects of Agatha Christie‘s novels is the barely veiled contempt she has for the detectives that made her famous
In a way that is very true to Agatha Christie, half her novels are playing a game of “how much of a murder mystery can you write before the detective has to show up”
December 6, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I think one of the most underrated aspects of Agatha Christie‘s novels is the barely veiled contempt she has for the detectives that made her famous
I met Murder on the way –
He had a mask like Castlereagh –
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
He had a mask like Castlereagh –
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 6, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I met Murder on the way –
He had a mask like Castlereagh –
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
He had a mask like Castlereagh –
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
The movie / miniseries I really want that we will never ever get is one about the marriage of Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair, a now mostly forgotten story that rivals Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer in terms of soap-opera level psychodrama and intrigue
December 6, 2025 at 9:22 PM
The movie / miniseries I really want that we will never ever get is one about the marriage of Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair, a now mostly forgotten story that rivals Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer in terms of soap-opera level psychodrama and intrigue
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Honestly think This Hour has 22 Minutes is way better than SNL:
December 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Honestly think This Hour has 22 Minutes is way better than SNL:
Reposted by Martin Concagh
Total, unfathomable, unbeatable committment to the bit
Steamed Hams but it's a Critically Acclaimed Feature Film
YouTube video by Tyrone Deise
www.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Total, unfathomable, unbeatable committment to the bit
Mean Girls is an adaption of a self-help book aimed at the parents of teenaged girls, and it’s thesis is that they form bullying cliques to assert a modicum of power in a world where teenaged girls are simultaneously infantilized, adultified and have very little power over society or their own lives
December 6, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Mean Girls is an adaption of a self-help book aimed at the parents of teenaged girls, and it’s thesis is that they form bullying cliques to assert a modicum of power in a world where teenaged girls are simultaneously infantilized, adultified and have very little power over society or their own lives
Reposted by Martin Concagh
RIP Frank Ghery. Your buildings were stupid but in a fun way.
December 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM
RIP Frank Ghery. Your buildings were stupid but in a fun way.
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Woke 2 wont do "your fave is problematic." Woke 2 will do "your fave is extremely woke. They are in fact more woke than they can possibly imagine. This is especially true if this hurts and upsets them to hear it"
December 5, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Woke 2 wont do "your fave is problematic." Woke 2 will do "your fave is extremely woke. They are in fact more woke than they can possibly imagine. This is especially true if this hurts and upsets them to hear it"
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The essence of Blue Labour thought is that somewhere in Downing Street there is a button marked “reindustrialise” that Tony Blair could have pressed, but instead he opted for the “more Woke Studies” button.
My brother in Christ, reindustrialization is based on international capital flows, not dumbass ideas to move down the value chain by turning colleges into vocational schools. You do realize that modern industry is almost always *high* skilled automation?
Read your Michael Pettis, you utter clown.
Read your Michael Pettis, you utter clown.
No reindustrialising? Our academic institutions are a part of the problem, overproducing elites and funnelling them into bullshit unproductive jobs. Half the universities need to close or become vocational colleges. You didn't even mention productivity.
Brexit is in the past. That ship has sailed.
Brexit is in the past. That ship has sailed.
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 PM
The essence of Blue Labour thought is that somewhere in Downing Street there is a button marked “reindustrialise” that Tony Blair could have pressed, but instead he opted for the “more Woke Studies” button.
Reposted by Martin Concagh
Honestly, it's where I think Arendt was right the most: the question of judgement and the flight from it
I'm still thinking about this exchange. As is often the case, we see Nuzzi acting out the most extreme version of a phenomenon that is actually pretty common in elite media: people taking umbrage at the idea that they're supposed to exercise moral judgment, and can be blamed for not doing so.
@timmiller.bsky.social: "He's being nominated to HHS Secretary…You had information that you could have shared…and you didn't share anything about him. Why? Did you still love him?"
Olivia Nuzzi: "I don't know how to responsibly handle this on camera." lnk.thebulwark.com/4ozkaz8?utm_...
Olivia Nuzzi: "I don't know how to responsibly handle this on camera." lnk.thebulwark.com/4ozkaz8?utm_...
December 4, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Honestly, it's where I think Arendt was right the most: the question of judgement and the flight from it
Reposted by Martin Concagh
two tech men having an incredibly annoying meeting next to me in the café and one of them just said "the thing I love about SEO is.....the culture", gobsmacking, beautiful piece of dialogue, would have struggled with it in a sitcom yet he just said it, in real life
December 5, 2025 at 11:20 AM
two tech men having an incredibly annoying meeting next to me in the café and one of them just said "the thing I love about SEO is.....the culture", gobsmacking, beautiful piece of dialogue, would have struggled with it in a sitcom yet he just said it, in real life
Reposted by Martin Concagh
Something I wonder about is if the much ballyhooed shift of Gen Z men to Trump (and to influencers like Andrew Tate) is a perverse consequence of this. Shielded from bullying throughout school, bullies in media then seem empowering and thrilling to them rather than threatening or exhausting
it is an underrated miracle of the 21st century that we really did massively, massively reduce bullying in schools
My experience as well. So far we're 2-for-2 on kids having a largely bullying/abuse-free middle school experience. Not without bumpy spots of course, but light years away from what I endured.
My hot take: the anti-bullying stuff has really worked, which is why conservatives are pushing back at it.
My hot take: the anti-bullying stuff has really worked, which is why conservatives are pushing back at it.
December 5, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Something I wonder about is if the much ballyhooed shift of Gen Z men to Trump (and to influencers like Andrew Tate) is a perverse consequence of this. Shielded from bullying throughout school, bullies in media then seem empowering and thrilling to them rather than threatening or exhausting
Reposted by Martin Concagh
I have become incredibly radicalized against gambling
Fuckin people watching Netflix making prop bets on what minute of the episode we’re first gonna see Vecna. People betting on whether it’s gonna be a Toyotathon commercial or an Activia commercial. Just a little QR code in the bottom corner of every show asking you to bet on everything.
December 4, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I have become incredibly radicalized against gambling