Philip R. Conway
@prconway.bsky.social
Researching digital sovereignty and the green transition through political economy and critical theory.
In a word,🔥polycrisis🔥😱!!
He/him
https://polycritical.substack.com
https://philiprconway.net
In a word,🔥polycrisis🔥😱!!
He/him
https://polycritical.substack.com
https://philiprconway.net
“Lynn, idea for Farage meeting. Jim Davidson hosts the 9 o’clock news. Stop migrants taking taxis.”
February 8, 2026 at 12:02 PM
“Lynn, idea for Farage meeting. Jim Davidson hosts the 9 o’clock news. Stop migrants taking taxis.”
It’s difficult to express in words the contempt with which the McSweeney cabal deserve to be regarded, but Ian does a good job in approximating.
Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...
February 6, 2026 at 6:39 PM
It’s difficult to express in words the contempt with which the McSweeney cabal deserve to be regarded, but Ian does a good job in approximating.
Reposted by Philip R. Conway
Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...
February 6, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...
He's finally done. They'll hang him out to save themselves, now.
But I think it's important to emphasise that Mandelson had and kept power *because* of being a creepy, corrupt spittle-licker. That was his job, and he excelled at it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
But I think it's important to emphasise that Mandelson had and kept power *because* of being a creepy, corrupt spittle-licker. That was his job, and he excelled at it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Where r u? I miss you’: how vivid new Epstein emails sealed Mandelson’s fate
The latest revelations and reaction to them may mean he has finally encountered a scandal he is unable to outrun
www.theguardian.com
February 3, 2026 at 6:22 PM
He's finally done. They'll hang him out to save themselves, now.
But I think it's important to emphasise that Mandelson had and kept power *because* of being a creepy, corrupt spittle-licker. That was his job, and he excelled at it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
But I think it's important to emphasise that Mandelson had and kept power *because* of being a creepy, corrupt spittle-licker. That was his job, and he excelled at it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
It's just me-dia.
"social media isn't actually social" was a poor observation but a great prediction
February 3, 2026 at 5:26 PM
It's just me-dia.
Have to say, I’m getting such Hackers (1995) vibes from our political class these days. They haven’t got the faintest idea what’s actually going on, but they’ll believe whatever some billionaire in a leather jacket tells them. So desperate to be seen to be on the cutting edge. The perfect mark.
BREAKING: Free AI training will be offered to every adult in the UK, with short courses to teach people how to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall tells #BBCBreakfast about the scheme
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall tells #BBCBreakfast about the scheme
January 28, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Have to say, I’m getting such Hackers (1995) vibes from our political class these days. They haven’t got the faintest idea what’s actually going on, but they’ll believe whatever some billionaire in a leather jacket tells them. So desperate to be seen to be on the cutting edge. The perfect mark.
The great political contradiction of Trump: he gets a knee-shaking ego-thrill from posing as a callous, imperturbable tough guy, but he also deeply, viscerally needs his people to like him.
January 27, 2026 at 2:57 PM
The great political contradiction of Trump: he gets a knee-shaking ego-thrill from posing as a callous, imperturbable tough guy, but he also deeply, viscerally needs his people to like him.
Every day it becomes clearer and clearer that the actual political convictions behind what became demonised as “woke,” from 2020 onwards, were pretty much spot on, and those Very Serious People who participated in its demonisation owe us all a series of grovelling apologies.
January 24, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Every day it becomes clearer and clearer that the actual political convictions behind what became demonised as “woke,” from 2020 onwards, were pretty much spot on, and those Very Serious People who participated in its demonisation owe us all a series of grovelling apologies.
Caught up with the last season of The Righteous Gemstones: Utterly bonkers (indeed, Bible Bonkers). Large parts make absolutely no sense. The satirical edge is dulled with sentimentality. And, I repeat, it’s bonkers. But when you’ve got John Goodman doing John Goodman things, anything seems possible
January 23, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Caught up with the last season of The Righteous Gemstones: Utterly bonkers (indeed, Bible Bonkers). Large parts make absolutely no sense. The satirical edge is dulled with sentimentality. And, I repeat, it’s bonkers. But when you’ve got John Goodman doing John Goodman things, anything seems possible
I guess Nature publishes Yelp reviews now.
I would be so angry if the professor of a course I needed for my future career was doing all his teaching and grant writing and shit with chatgpt. so embarrassing. Jesus Christ. How did you get a phd if you need help writing an email? You're having 'conversations' with a chatbox?
When two years of academic work vanished with a single click
After turning off ChatGPT’s ‘data consent’ option, Marcel Bucher lost the work behind grant applications, teaching materials and publication drafts. Here’s what happened next.
www.nature.com
January 23, 2026 at 8:55 AM
I guess Nature publishes Yelp reviews now.
I’m doing this. It’s fun.
open.substack.com/pub/lauriepe...
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
Write Like A Person: prompt post #3
Everything happens so much
open.substack.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:20 PM
I’m doing this. It’s fun.
Reposted by Philip R. Conway
open.substack.com/pub/lauriepe...
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
Write Like A Person: prompt post #3
Everything happens so much
open.substack.com
January 22, 2026 at 9:59 PM
open.substack.com/pub/lauriepe...
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
My new writing seminar is really picking up. And current events are making an appearance.
Because creative work isn’t about shutting out what’s awful and overwhelming in the world. It’s about taking charge of your reaction to those things.
One day, perhaps in the not so distant future, this man’s heart will give out, under the weight of McDonald’s hamburgers and narcissistic malice.
There will be dancing in the streets, people will hug their children, and his name will go down in history as a byword for all that is pathetic and base.
There will be dancing in the streets, people will hug their children, and his name will go down in history as a byword for all that is pathetic and base.
Good morning.
What is normal is no more.
This is dystopian and it is our reality:
news.sky.com/story/politi...
What is normal is no more.
This is dystopian and it is our reality:
news.sky.com/story/politi...
January 19, 2026 at 10:34 AM
One day, perhaps in the not so distant future, this man’s heart will give out, under the weight of McDonald’s hamburgers and narcissistic malice.
There will be dancing in the streets, people will hug their children, and his name will go down in history as a byword for all that is pathetic and base.
There will be dancing in the streets, people will hug their children, and his name will go down in history as a byword for all that is pathetic and base.
Reposted by Philip R. Conway
How many op-Ed’s will be written on “here’s the solution to the male loneliness epidemic: protecting neighbors from ICE”
January 16, 2026 at 2:14 PM
How many op-Ed’s will be written on “here’s the solution to the male loneliness epidemic: protecting neighbors from ICE”
Tooze knows that you don’t have to be a dogmatic Marxist to be a Marxist. This is a journalist’s paraphrase of some offhand comments.
He isn’t a Marxist because he’s a left-liberal economic historian turned public intellectual, obsessed with “conjuncture.” He’s really a Hallian. Post-post-Marxist.
He isn’t a Marxist because he’s a left-liberal economic historian turned public intellectual, obsessed with “conjuncture.” He’s really a Hallian. Post-post-Marxist.
It’s an entertaining read, but surely Tooze can’t actually think that this is all there is to Marxism? I understand wanting to get back at Anderson, but this is just an incredibly lazy & reductive characterization.
January 16, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Tooze knows that you don’t have to be a dogmatic Marxist to be a Marxist. This is a journalist’s paraphrase of some offhand comments.
He isn’t a Marxist because he’s a left-liberal economic historian turned public intellectual, obsessed with “conjuncture.” He’s really a Hallian. Post-post-Marxist.
He isn’t a Marxist because he’s a left-liberal economic historian turned public intellectual, obsessed with “conjuncture.” He’s really a Hallian. Post-post-Marxist.
Just did that thing where I accidentally knocked a jar out of the cupboard and managed to catch it before even realising what was happening 💪
January 15, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Just did that thing where I accidentally knocked a jar out of the cupboard and managed to catch it before even realising what was happening 💪
Reposted by Philip R. Conway
Debates continue to circulate—as they should—about the utility of neoliberalism as a category of analysis and political practice. Myself + three other historians wrote a brief overview of how it works in our field for the Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
January 14, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Debates continue to circulate—as they should—about the utility of neoliberalism as a category of analysis and political practice. Myself + three other historians wrote a brief overview of how it works in our field for the Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The danger of a Harris-type is that they won’t do anything to reverse the fascistic developments, once they have a chance. But that doesn’t mean they would—or could!—ever have intensified state violence like this in the first place.
That’s kind of their whole thing: all talk, no gumption.
That’s kind of their whole thing: all talk, no gumption.
It is not actually plausible that a Harris presidency would be carrying out ICE internal operations in anything like the form and scale they are now being done. Incredibly basic, trivially easy to acquire, knowledge of the contemporary lay of the land in US politics makes this clear.
January 14, 2026 at 8:48 AM
The danger of a Harris-type is that they won’t do anything to reverse the fascistic developments, once they have a chance. But that doesn’t mean they would—or could!—ever have intensified state violence like this in the first place.
That’s kind of their whole thing: all talk, no gumption.
That’s kind of their whole thing: all talk, no gumption.
Very Serious political scientists who ignore feminist and critical race scholarship are just taking L after L these days.
IR Realists saying farewell to the Rational Actor Assumption
January 12, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Very Serious political scientists who ignore feminist and critical race scholarship are just taking L after L these days.
This piece fits my impression of the road that anti-“Woke” has taken: It may have started for some as a semi-self-conscious ruse by which reactionaries can imagine themselves as brave truth-tellers. However, it has since become their entire reality. In extreme cases, the result is clinical paranoia.
Good piece this. It's very sad what Truss has become, just guest after guest where she basically goes 'now, explain why the failure of my government wasn't my fault' and gives airtime and credence to some of the most hateful ideas around:
How did Liz Truss become prime minister?
Truss has launched a bizarre YouTube show steeped in conspiracy theories. Thank goodness her time in Number 10 lasted just 49 days
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 11, 2026 at 1:04 PM
This piece fits my impression of the road that anti-“Woke” has taken: It may have started for some as a semi-self-conscious ruse by which reactionaries can imagine themselves as brave truth-tellers. However, it has since become their entire reality. In extreme cases, the result is clinical paranoia.
It’s not that he’s become more racist in himself so much as that racism itself has intensified, and he reflects that.
He’s a narcissist. A fragile ego in the shape of a human. He does whatever makes him feel superior. Racism makes him feel superior. So, as racism becomes more extreme, so does he.
He’s a narcissist. A fragile ego in the shape of a human. He does whatever makes him feel superior. Racism makes him feel superior. So, as racism becomes more extreme, so does he.
I don’t know what you mean by “activist white supremacist,” but dude kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists and murderers,” and that’s activist white supremacy. He’s more than doubled down since.
And the history of white supremacy is full of profiteering opportunists.
And the history of white supremacy is full of profiteering opportunists.
I’m not disputing that Trump is a racist. He always has been.
But he has not always been an activist white supremacist.
He’s doing it now because it aligns with his political interests.
If he had to choose between power/money and white supremacist policies, he’d choose the former every time.
But he has not always been an activist white supremacist.
He’s doing it now because it aligns with his political interests.
If he had to choose between power/money and white supremacist policies, he’d choose the former every time.
January 9, 2026 at 2:07 PM
It’s not that he’s become more racist in himself so much as that racism itself has intensified, and he reflects that.
He’s a narcissist. A fragile ego in the shape of a human. He does whatever makes him feel superior. Racism makes him feel superior. So, as racism becomes more extreme, so does he.
He’s a narcissist. A fragile ego in the shape of a human. He does whatever makes him feel superior. Racism makes him feel superior. So, as racism becomes more extreme, so does he.
“It big. Big good. Me want.”
He genuinely is this simple.
With all the Discourse in recent days over Venezuela and Greenland, it’s really striking how commentators of every political persuasion *still* try to make rational sense out of this guy’s fascistic whims.
It’s ego *all the way down*.
He genuinely is this simple.
With all the Discourse in recent days over Venezuela and Greenland, it’s really striking how commentators of every political persuasion *still* try to make rational sense out of this guy’s fascistic whims.
It’s ego *all the way down*.
Why is Trump fixated on Greenland? @sbg1.bsky.social recalls what he told us in 2021: "I said, 'Why don’t we have that?' You take a look at a map...I love maps. And I always said 'Look at the size of this, it’s massive and that should be part of the United States.'" www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
Why Donald Trump Wants Greenland (and Everything Else)
There’s no Trump Doctrine, just a map of the world that the President wants to write his name on in big gold letters.
www.newyorker.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:09 AM
“It big. Big good. Me want.”
He genuinely is this simple.
With all the Discourse in recent days over Venezuela and Greenland, it’s really striking how commentators of every political persuasion *still* try to make rational sense out of this guy’s fascistic whims.
It’s ego *all the way down*.
He genuinely is this simple.
With all the Discourse in recent days over Venezuela and Greenland, it’s really striking how commentators of every political persuasion *still* try to make rational sense out of this guy’s fascistic whims.
It’s ego *all the way down*.
Amateur hour. I download all the articles I won’t read and load them into DEVONthink Pro. That way I can tell myself I’m creating a database.
Just found out that some of yinz aren't reading all the articles in tabs you keep open. Is that true? Why do you even open the page up in the first place then?
January 8, 2026 at 8:45 AM
Amateur hour. I download all the articles I won’t read and load them into DEVONthink Pro. That way I can tell myself I’m creating a database.
Britain is economically stagnating, not collapsing. But this seems beside the point.
Social cohesion has long depended on a sense of progress. Sure, you hate your job, and your boss is a prick. But your kids will be better off than you, so you grin and bear it.
And who believes that anymore?
Social cohesion has long depended on a sense of progress. Sure, you hate your job, and your boss is a prick. But your kids will be better off than you, so you grin and bear it.
And who believes that anymore?
Yes, and then again no. UK GDP "growth" has been on a slow downward trajectory for several decades - plot the trend of this curve, if you will.
Meanwhile, productivity absolutely flatlines, remaining barely 5% above where it was almost 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, productivity absolutely flatlines, remaining barely 5% above where it was almost 20 years ago.
January 6, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Britain is economically stagnating, not collapsing. But this seems beside the point.
Social cohesion has long depended on a sense of progress. Sure, you hate your job, and your boss is a prick. But your kids will be better off than you, so you grin and bear it.
And who believes that anymore?
Social cohesion has long depended on a sense of progress. Sure, you hate your job, and your boss is a prick. But your kids will be better off than you, so you grin and bear it.
And who believes that anymore?