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.
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...
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...
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.
February 4, 2026 at 1:36 PM
I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.
Spending my lunchtime watching/listening to The Labour Party struggle to finally pull itself out of the 1990s. Will it make it to the 21st Century by teatime?
February 4, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Spending my lunchtime watching/listening to The Labour Party struggle to finally pull itself out of the 1990s. Will it make it to the 21st Century by teatime?
Below is a repost of my most popular post on ‘the other place’, & my most coherent contribution to political theory. I wonder why I thought of it today?
As a teenager my grasp of politics was little more than that uptight greedy bastards ruin it for everyone. Then I learned sophisticated theories of interests, structures & ideologies. Now in late middle-age, I find that Uptight Greedy Bastard Theory has amazing power.
February 3, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Below is a repost of my most popular post on ‘the other place’, & my most coherent contribution to political theory. I wonder why I thought of it today?
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Burn it all down. They’re going to destroy it anyway.
I expect to spend today staring at this: ‘we’ve gone from government suggesting that the state would subsidise undergraduate student loans by about 45p in the pound, to making a profit on them for that cohort’.
A *profit* on student loans: everyone should read this. 🤯
wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...
A *profit* on student loans: everyone should read this. 🤯
wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...
Graduates are paying more and getting less
Jim Dickinson traces how a student loans system once sold as cost-sharing has become one where graduates fund everything – and where Labour has quietly reversed promises to make things fairer Jim Dick...
wonkhe.com
February 3, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Burn it all down. They’re going to destroy it anyway.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
As a side note, it’s funny to see so many of these emails with thirsty academics repeatedly enact Marx’s bit in the 1844 Manuscripts about the power of money. “Oh Mr Epstein, your house in New York is enormous and, unrelatedly, your questions at dinner were so intelligent, so insightful, so deep.”
![That which is for me through the medium of money - that for which I can pay (i.e., which money can buy) - that am I myself, the possessor of the money. The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money's properties are my - the possessor's - properties and essential powers. Thus, what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality. I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women.
Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness - its deterrent power - is nullified by money. I, according to my individual characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with twenty-four feet.
Therefore I am not lame. I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good, therefore its possessor is good. Money, besides, saves me the trouble of being dishonest: I am therefore presumed honest. I am brainless, but money is the real brain of all things and how then should its possessor be brainless? Besides, he can buy clever people for himself, and is he who has [In the manuscript: is. - Ed.] power over the clever not more clever than the clever? Do not I, who thanks to money am capable of all that the human heart longs for, possess all human capacities? Does not my money, therefore, transform all my incapacities into their contrary?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:myqic77tkmdhmaufgkvj43hr/bafkreidpuxbx764xh7vobavcnvs3v2lo5fnfi6dukfrmk3ygxmseznkyxi@jpeg)
January 31, 2026 at 4:05 PM
As a side note, it’s funny to see so many of these emails with thirsty academics repeatedly enact Marx’s bit in the 1844 Manuscripts about the power of money. “Oh Mr Epstein, your house in New York is enormous and, unrelatedly, your questions at dinner were so intelligent, so insightful, so deep.”
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
If we want to make places better, we need to create good jobs in them 👇
Creating good jobs (in deprived) areas requires:
- Transport infrastructure
- Creating places that are nice to live in. Culture matters for local growth
- Direct job creation by the state
h/t @drjennings.bsky.social
Creating good jobs (in deprived) areas requires:
- Transport infrastructure
- Creating places that are nice to live in. Culture matters for local growth
- Direct job creation by the state
h/t @drjennings.bsky.social
January 30, 2026 at 9:00 AM
If we want to make places better, we need to create good jobs in them 👇
Creating good jobs (in deprived) areas requires:
- Transport infrastructure
- Creating places that are nice to live in. Culture matters for local growth
- Direct job creation by the state
h/t @drjennings.bsky.social
Creating good jobs (in deprived) areas requires:
- Transport infrastructure
- Creating places that are nice to live in. Culture matters for local growth
- Direct job creation by the state
h/t @drjennings.bsky.social
“The overwhelming liberal focus on disinformation misreads how digital platforms work…cutting-edge propagandists now focus less on policy messaging and more on massaging vibes”.
Start of a new series by the excellent @robtoes.bsky.social
Start of a new series by the excellent @robtoes.bsky.social
How liberals lost the internet | Robert Topinka
In the first part of our series on digital politics, we look at how centrists have lost ground fighting disinformation – when the real battle is over emotion and attention, says digital media academic...
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:51 AM
“The overwhelming liberal focus on disinformation misreads how digital platforms work…cutting-edge propagandists now focus less on policy messaging and more on massaging vibes”.
Start of a new series by the excellent @robtoes.bsky.social
Start of a new series by the excellent @robtoes.bsky.social
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Here is my second blogpost on ICE protest songs and chants, from the Minnesota general strike and after Alex Pretti’s killing, with a large section on singing at protests and more songs about ICE. medium.com/@norikomanab...
ICE protest songs and chants, Minnesota general strike (January 23) and beyond
Transcriptions of songs and chants at ICE protests. Songs about ICE’s masculinity issues and other issues connected with ICE.
medium.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Here is my second blogpost on ICE protest songs and chants, from the Minnesota general strike and after Alex Pretti’s killing, with a large section on singing at protests and more songs about ICE. medium.com/@norikomanab...
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Transcriptions of, and commentary on, protest songs and chants from Minneapolis January 8th-11th.
“ICE out for good” protests, January 8–11, 2026
Chants and Songs at ICE protests
medium.com
January 27, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Transcriptions of, and commentary on, protest songs and chants from Minneapolis January 8th-11th.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Now that TikTok has been taken over by Trump's hand-picked group of investors headed by far-right mega-donor Larry Ellison, users are being blocked from typing the world "Epstein" and video uploads of ICE brutality are being blocked.
Ellison is doing to TikTok what he did to CBS.
Ellison is doing to TikTok what he did to CBS.
TikTok is investigating why some users can't write 'Epstein' in messages
The issue around the word "Epstein" comes as users experience outages and functionality problems since the popular video app was recently sold to a group of mostly U.S. investors, including Trump ally...
www.npr.org
January 27, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Now that TikTok has been taken over by Trump's hand-picked group of investors headed by far-right mega-donor Larry Ellison, users are being blocked from typing the world "Epstein" and video uploads of ICE brutality are being blocked.
Ellison is doing to TikTok what he did to CBS.
Ellison is doing to TikTok what he did to CBS.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Just days after a group of Trump-aligned billionaires officially took over TikTok in the U.S., users reported their videos criticizing ICE and the shooting of Alex Pretti were suppressed or delayed.
The oligarchy is tightening its grip over even more of our media.
Beware.
The oligarchy is tightening its grip over even more of our media.
Beware.
January 27, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Just days after a group of Trump-aligned billionaires officially took over TikTok in the U.S., users reported their videos criticizing ICE and the shooting of Alex Pretti were suppressed or delayed.
The oligarchy is tightening its grip over even more of our media.
Beware.
The oligarchy is tightening its grip over even more of our media.
Beware.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
it's also a demand never made of, say, rural people who won't go into the city because they think they'll be murdered.
"getting outside your bubble" is an admirable thing when it means trying a new hobby or introducing yourself to your neighbor or watching an art film but people only want to apply it to "being a little more racist just to see how it feels"
these people seem like idiots
January 27, 2026 at 6:30 PM
it's also a demand never made of, say, rural people who won't go into the city because they think they'll be murdered.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
January 27, 2026 at 1:06 PM
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
At least we already have the analysis of Goodwin-ism: politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-vic...
The Vices of Values: Matthew Goodwin and the Politics of Motivation
Matthew Goodwin's Values, Voice and Virtue received considerable attention from across the political spectrum. But the concept of ‘values’ on which Goodwin bases his argument is never precisely explic...
politicalquarterly.org.uk
January 27, 2026 at 3:03 PM
At least we already have the analysis of Goodwin-ism: politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-vic...
The deal for a Trump ally to buy TikTok in the US was agreed on Thursday and it seems like it's already suppressing posts exposing government lies.
Users say TikTok stifled posts about Minneapolis shooting as platform faltered
TikTok users said their videos about federal immigration enforcement were being suppressed days after a deal to spin off the U.S. business to new investors was finalized.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 27, 2026 at 9:47 AM
The deal for a Trump ally to buy TikTok in the US was agreed on Thursday and it seems like it's already suppressing posts exposing government lies.