rob witts
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robwitts.bsky.social
rob witts
@robwitts.bsky.social
a guy who hangs around universities and opera houses
tfw you are delighted with your life choices
When I lived in Japan, far-right parties used to drive around blaring out propaganda from loudspeaker vans. People saw them as public nuisances at best, dangerous nutters at worst. Interesting to see Matt Goodwin adopt the same strategy.
February 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by rob witts
Sodding 6Music news bulletin playing a clip of Cass, saying children have been confused by 'people at the extremes' and that people 'in the centre' are silent on the issue.

Well, I'm in the centre and I'd quite like Hilary Cass, a woman definitely at the extremes, to fuck all the way off.
Says the woman who disregarded evidence and medical professionals to "weaponise" children to such an extent she got necessary medical support stripped from trans young people, in a manner shown to have contributed to an increase in deaths.
She needs to sit this out.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Children 'weaponised' in toxic trans debate, Cass says
Clinician Dr Hilary Cass says
www.bbc.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Another example (just like the Essex campus closure) of how refusing to have a structured and effective HE policy destroys the rest of the government’s place-based goals www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Shattered dreams: How the battle for Sunderland’s glass centre turned into a political flashpoint
Custodian University of Sunderland says renovation costs of £45m are too high and building must be pulled down. Not without a fight, say locals, who believe they’re being taken for fools
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Just as ICE and CBP have no legitimate role in "election security" neither does the head of DHS. The mere existence of this press conference should be a scandal, much less this tone-deaf comment.
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 3:18 PM
"that's the Chicago way"
over on x the everything app some Chicago high school kid named Danny Spud tried to disrupt his school's anti-ICE protest by yelling about how much he loves ICE and then filmed himself getting walloped by a fellow student lmao

the quote tweet making fun of him has 3x the likes
February 13, 2026 at 11:15 PM
quick peek at facebook and a local group is clearing cycle paths to make them more useable. great! cue 1,000 comments about 'why do we pay council tax', 'council is lazy/crooked' etc
February 13, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by rob witts
One of the purest examples of a moral panic in our time. A clinic that had years-long waitlists and required an average of 7 appointments before providing transition care smeared and shut down for being reckless.
February 13, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by rob witts
"everyone has to get back to the office because the important thing about business is human interaction" is dying, but "white collar jobs will be replaced by AI agents within 18 months" cannot yet be born; in this interregnum a variety of morbid symptoms appear.
February 13, 2026 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by rob witts
This is a 100% elite manufactured craze.
a stat i always cite is the number of anti-trans articles in the press went from 60 in a year, to 7,500
February 13, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Wow!

Palestine Action win judicial review - Guardian report.

This is a *big* legal win.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule
Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Palestine Action have WON their judicial review in the High Court!
A massive victory for free speech, freedom of association and the right to protest.
A massive defeat for the draconian attempts by Keir Starmer's government to curtail our fundamental rights.
February 13, 2026 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by rob witts
“Palestine Action is the first civil disobedience organisation that does not advocate for violence to be proscribed by the British Government as a ‘terrorist’ group, in a Trumpian abuse of power which would have seen this Labour Government proscribe the Suffragettes": Ammori.
February 13, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Support every trans, non-binary or questioning person you know. Speak out for those you don’t. Vote for politicians who want to expand humanity, not shrink it. And for god’s sake, stop buying Harry Potter or the works of those who want to ruin the lives of our loved ones out of their own ignorance.
February 13, 2026 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by rob witts
An important takeaway – the High Court has made clear that the Code of Practice has gotten the law wrong. It will need to be rejected by the Minister.
February 13, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by rob witts
BREAKING⚡️The High Court has just ruled that the government's draconian ban of Palestine Action was unlawful. This is a massive blow to the Home Office’s authoritarian approach. They need to stop criminalising people protesting a genocide and start ending the UK's complicity
February 13, 2026 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by rob witts
For my money, the way thousands of regular people are self-organizing to resist data centers is one of the most cautiously hopeful stories going right now.

www.themountaineer.com/news/no-cryp...
No crypto in Canton: Town blocks data centers and crypto mining operations
Canton’s makeshift town hall in a tiny trailer was bursting at the seams Wednesday night with citizens united against data centers and cryptocurrency mining.
www.themountaineer.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by rob witts
You will never convince me ‘no vaccine without profit motive’ is not a supremely stupid way to live.
February 13, 2026 at 4:04 AM
Reposted by rob witts
Department of Homeland Security Blanket
The details of the Kristi Noem blanket incident are just fucking perfect
February 13, 2026 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by rob witts
On AI: I am so, so tired. If you write, or think, or make art, or make music, there is simply no use case for it whatsoever. It isn’t inevitable. People will do these things, enjoy them, and other people will enjoy them. AI can’t replicate that.
February 12, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by rob witts
basically, we've utterly erased the rights & healthcare access of a vulnerable minority because a very small group (of apparently very well-connected) of people became fanatical about it & the (also very small) group who decide press coverage decided they needed relentless coverage
February 12, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by rob witts
pure elite capture - the uk just folded to a hardline anti-trans campaign pushed by a tiny number of people

www.thepinknews.com/2026/02/11/n...
NHS closed Tavistock over care complaints – there were only eight
An eye-opening FOI report has revealed that just eight people complained about the Tavistock gender clinic's care provision in 10 years.
www.thepinknews.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Impossible to overstate the extent to which this is a novel and manufactured moral panic
This is genuinely insane, I clicked to see the years expecting the low part to be 70s or maybe 90s but its 2015!!!!! The entire anti trans panic is a decade old
a stat i always cite is the number of anti-trans articles in the press went from 60 in a year, to 7,500
February 12, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by rob witts
ICE “left” Chicago in November, but they’ve disappeared three people from my community in two days this week.

Don’t believe the hype about them, leaving Minnesota, either.
February 12, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by rob witts
Just going to leave this here
February 12, 2026 at 6:54 PM