ProfAFinlayson
@profafinlayson.bsky.social
Prof of Political & Social Theory @ UEA: regularly a political theorist, often a political analyst, always a rhetorician. Sometimes I teach people how to make political speeches; usually they are happy about it. Mostly I study Reactionary Digital Politics.
I’m not sure they were. But it’s not part of my argument. Political culture today is hugely different from just 25 years ago let alone 50.
February 10, 2026 at 8:00 AM
I’m not sure they were. But it’s not part of my argument. Political culture today is hugely different from just 25 years ago let alone 50.
…reduction of politics (by a part of Labour) to politicking, neglecting (or just failing to understand) other dimensions. This - I think - is a fatal error on their part (it’s disabled their capacity for action) & it has affected how they are perceived. But they are too busy politicking to notice.
February 9, 2026 at 7:27 PM
…reduction of politics (by a part of Labour) to politicking, neglecting (or just failing to understand) other dimensions. This - I think - is a fatal error on their part (it’s disabled their capacity for action) & it has affected how they are perceived. But they are too busy politicking to notice.
So, firstly, in that post I’m not saying what I do or don’t ‘deplore’. I’m describing how something appears in general (and trying to explain why). Secondly, I specifically write ‘over the rest of…’ to indicate that politicking is a part of democratic politics. The point, then, is the intellectual…
February 9, 2026 at 7:27 PM
So, firstly, in that post I’m not saying what I do or don’t ‘deplore’. I’m describing how something appears in general (and trying to explain why). Secondly, I specifically write ‘over the rest of…’ to indicate that politicking is a part of democratic politics. The point, then, is the intellectual…
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Really looking forward to hosting this Q&A with @profafinlayson.bsky.social on Wednesday 25 February - and discussing how the right won the internet (clue: not by being on bluesky)
February 9, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Really looking forward to hosting this Q&A with @profafinlayson.bsky.social on Wednesday 25 February - and discussing how the right won the internet (clue: not by being on bluesky)
I don’t know what that means.
February 9, 2026 at 9:15 AM
I don’t know what that means.
That’s exactly it: that the statist version of welfare in the UK undermined social ties, reducing resilience, & empowered state agents to interfere in individual lives. It’s partly an old left critique but also fits with, say, Frank Field or the anti-new deal politics that’s bet the farm on Trump.
February 8, 2026 at 12:25 AM
That’s exactly it: that the statist version of welfare in the UK undermined social ties, reducing resilience, & empowered state agents to interfere in individual lives. It’s partly an old left critique but also fits with, say, Frank Field or the anti-new deal politics that’s bet the farm on Trump.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
The first cold war: Game Theory, behaviorism, dashboards of 'key performance indicators', general equilibrium theory, the digital computer etc
The second cold war: weird kids in bow-ties and red baseball caps streaming debates about race science and how gender is a Marxist concept
The second cold war: weird kids in bow-ties and red baseball caps streaming debates about race science and how gender is a Marxist concept
We are so profoundly unprepared for the second cold war.
February 6, 2026 at 4:27 PM
The first cold war: Game Theory, behaviorism, dashboards of 'key performance indicators', general equilibrium theory, the digital computer etc
The second cold war: weird kids in bow-ties and red baseball caps streaming debates about race science and how gender is a Marxist concept
The second cold war: weird kids in bow-ties and red baseball caps streaming debates about race science and how gender is a Marxist concept
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Mamdani: "I speak of Renee Good, whose final words to the man who murdered her were, 'I'm not mad at you.' I speak of Alex Pretti who died as he lived, caring for the stranger. ICE shot him bc he did something they could never fathom ... let us offer a new path: one of defiance through compassion."
February 6, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Mamdani: "I speak of Renee Good, whose final words to the man who murdered her were, 'I'm not mad at you.' I speak of Alex Pretti who died as he lived, caring for the stranger. ICE shot him bc he did something they could never fathom ... let us offer a new path: one of defiance through compassion."
Isn’t this on of those stories about someone thinking they’d got an amazing deal on eBay only to find they’d bought some things for a doll’s house?
February 7, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Isn’t this on of those stories about someone thinking they’d got an amazing deal on eBay only to find they’d bought some things for a doll’s house?
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
I guess the question that people who believe the PM should stay on need to ask themselves is whether they'd have said the same had Boris Johnson appointed someone as Ambassador knowing full well they'd stayed mates with a nonce - and, believe me, that's exactly what most voters think Starmer did.
February 5, 2026 at 11:19 AM
I guess the question that people who believe the PM should stay on need to ask themselves is whether they'd have said the same had Boris Johnson appointed someone as Ambassador knowing full well they'd stayed mates with a nonce - and, believe me, that's exactly what most voters think Starmer did.
All of which is just a long winded way of saying that the asteroid that will eventually obliterate what we call ‘conventional politics’ and which lots of us kept pointing to is no longer on its way.
It’s already hit. (6/6)
It’s already hit. (6/6)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
All of which is just a long winded way of saying that the asteroid that will eventually obliterate what we call ‘conventional politics’ and which lots of us kept pointing to is no longer on its way.
It’s already hit. (6/6)
It’s already hit. (6/6)
It’ll take more than a leadership change for Lab to begin rectifying this. They’d need to remove most of a generation, abandon a whole concept of politics they signed up to 30 years ago & open up an inclusive & pluralist politics that goes beyond parties.
Obviously that that won’t happen (5/)
Obviously that that won’t happen (5/)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
It’ll take more than a leadership change for Lab to begin rectifying this. They’d need to remove most of a generation, abandon a whole concept of politics they signed up to 30 years ago & open up an inclusive & pluralist politics that goes beyond parties.
Obviously that that won’t happen (5/)
Obviously that that won’t happen (5/)
And so much ‘right-thinking’ regards acceptance of all that as a ‘grown up’ & ‘sensible’ ‘politics of hard choices’ which only loony lefties question. Again, the complicity of Mandelson stands for a general complicity of the state in privileging politicking over the rest of democratic politics (4/)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
And so much ‘right-thinking’ regards acceptance of all that as a ‘grown up’ & ‘sensible’ ‘politics of hard choices’ which only loony lefties question. Again, the complicity of Mandelson stands for a general complicity of the state in privileging politicking over the rest of democratic politics (4/)
Epstein/mandelson encapsulates how UK politicians have abandoned individuals, towns, cities & industries to predatory wolves they invited in to asset strip our economy & to turn our culture into endless online degradation of women which many politicians won’t regulate fully because in hock to (3/)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
Epstein/mandelson encapsulates how UK politicians have abandoned individuals, towns, cities & industries to predatory wolves they invited in to asset strip our economy & to turn our culture into endless online degradation of women which many politicians won’t regulate fully because in hock to (3/)
The loathing is deeper & more visceral than Westminster-ites can grasp. It’s not party-political or procedural. They worry about the effects of leadership change on bond markets. That’s nothing. But our political class is able to grasp let alone address the scale of the political climate change (2/)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
The loathing is deeper & more visceral than Westminster-ites can grasp. It’s not party-political or procedural. They worry about the effects of leadership change on bond markets. That’s nothing. But our political class is able to grasp let alone address the scale of the political climate change (2/)
I think a lot of politicians & commentators see all this very differently from most of the country. They see it as part of an ongoing story about decision-making, personalities, probity, money etc. For everyone else it’s part of a long series of events: Saville, Huw Edwards, Rotherham & more (1/)
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
I think a lot of politicians & commentators see all this very differently from most of the country. They see it as part of an ongoing story about decision-making, personalities, probity, money etc. For everyone else it’s part of a long series of events: Saville, Huw Edwards, Rotherham & more (1/)
By standards in U.K./US politics right now, coming across as a pretty nice guy really does make you Ciceronian. And look what happened to him.
February 6, 2026 at 11:11 AM
By standards in U.K./US politics right now, coming across as a pretty nice guy really does make you Ciceronian. And look what happened to him.
This is the real culture war. Implementing its National Security Strategy the US govt. will directly fund political groups in U.K./Europe to oppose regulation of digital media (online safety act, digital services act etc.). Nationalists ensuring our political, intellectual & cultural subordination.
US government to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities in Europe
State department grants to spread ‘American values’ are part of Washington’s 250th anniversary celebrations
giftarticle.ft.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:42 AM
This is the real culture war. Implementing its National Security Strategy the US govt. will directly fund political groups in U.K./Europe to oppose regulation of digital media (online safety act, digital services act etc.). Nationalists ensuring our political, intellectual & cultural subordination.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Call for papers!
The call for our forthcoming summer conference is now, in collaboration with the Carter Center
This year we are teaming up with the journal Politics
As ever, it is free and runs across multiple time zones
Deadline: March 31
www.electoralintegrityproject.com/2026-virtual...
The call for our forthcoming summer conference is now, in collaboration with the Carter Center
This year we are teaming up with the journal Politics
As ever, it is free and runs across multiple time zones
Deadline: March 31
www.electoralintegrityproject.com/2026-virtual...
February 5, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Call for papers!
The call for our forthcoming summer conference is now, in collaboration with the Carter Center
This year we are teaming up with the journal Politics
As ever, it is free and runs across multiple time zones
Deadline: March 31
www.electoralintegrityproject.com/2026-virtual...
The call for our forthcoming summer conference is now, in collaboration with the Carter Center
This year we are teaming up with the journal Politics
As ever, it is free and runs across multiple time zones
Deadline: March 31
www.electoralintegrityproject.com/2026-virtual...
Ah, yes. Good shout. Maybe that should be compulsory reading for the new cabinet to be formed shortly.
February 5, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Ah, yes. Good shout. Maybe that should be compulsory reading for the new cabinet to be formed shortly.
Labour members & MPs need to understand, they aren’t just tarnished by this. They’re soaked through with it. The combination of wealth & sexual abuse is central to the anti-politics worldview (for good reasons). Only slight recovery is possible & it will take a significant purgation.
February 5, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Labour members & MPs need to understand, they aren’t just tarnished by this. They’re soaked through with it. The combination of wealth & sexual abuse is central to the anti-politics worldview (for good reasons). Only slight recovery is possible & it will take a significant purgation.
I think I’ve failed to appreciate the importance in politics of the fact that many people aren’t simply greedy but are truly awestruck by wealth; they take favours from it (suits, dresses, dinners & so many parties) as blessings, proof that they are the right people to hold office.
February 5, 2026 at 9:17 AM
I think I’ve failed to appreciate the importance in politics of the fact that many people aren’t simply greedy but are truly awestruck by wealth; they take favours from it (suits, dresses, dinners & so many parties) as blessings, proof that they are the right people to hold office.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
It's hard not to feel like a crazy person when I've been shouting about this at the top of my lungs for 5 or 10 years (even back on the platform where I nominally had half a million followers) and ... nothing happens. (I know @chrislhayes.bsky.social knows, but I'm not sure why it never resonated.)
February 4, 2026 at 8:09 PM
It's hard not to feel like a crazy person when I've been shouting about this at the top of my lungs for 5 or 10 years (even back on the platform where I nominally had half a million followers) and ... nothing happens. (I know @chrislhayes.bsky.social knows, but I'm not sure why it never resonated.)
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
If Mandelson is being investigated for his Epstein connections, he must also be investigated for his Thiel connections, because they ran a joint fund when Mandelson fixed Starmer's visit to Palantir
bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...
bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...
'Peter Mandelson's Fixing of Keir Starmer’s Visit to Spytech Firm Palantir Raises Serious Questions'
Palantir was represented by a lobbying firm founded by Mandelson, Iain Overton and Max Colbert report
bylinetimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:41 PM
If Mandelson is being investigated for his Epstein connections, he must also be investigated for his Thiel connections, because they ran a joint fund when Mandelson fixed Starmer's visit to Palantir
bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...
bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Considering how allegedly “disruptive” and “innovative” the tech industry is, it’s fascinating to me how much these (mostly) dudes like a fancy dinner, and how quickly many of them assimilate into Standard Rich Person Stuff www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘The smart, the rich, the powerful’: Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison
Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files reveal
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Considering how allegedly “disruptive” and “innovative” the tech industry is, it’s fascinating to me how much these (mostly) dudes like a fancy dinner, and how quickly many of them assimilate into Standard Rich Person Stuff www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...