Seeadler
@seeadler.bsky.social
Ex-RM from NI with a PhD. Author and professional editor. "Bluesky elder," apparently. #BSMRGUK
To my Ukrainian friends: вдачi і вдалого полювання
To my Ukrainian friends: вдачi і вдалого полювання
Pinned
Seeadler
@seeadler.bsky.social
· Nov 19
I spent a decade arguing with antivaxxers on X. Showing them papers. Explaining their errors. Correcting their disinformation.
I've done my bit for "dialogue with people I disagree with".
I'm here to hang out with people I like. For everyone else, I have no guilt about using the block button.
I've done my bit for "dialogue with people I disagree with".
I'm here to hang out with people I like. For everyone else, I have no guilt about using the block button.
Can you point me to the European health agency that has said that about pricing? Or are you making an unevidenced assertion?
February 13, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Can you point me to the European health agency that has said that about pricing? Or are you making an unevidenced assertion?
Stop blaming Europeans for what is wholly a problem arising from America's privatised healthcare system. When an asthma inhaler costs $4.68 to manufacture, including its contents, and Americans (via insurance) pay $600 for them, the problem isn't the EU, it's ungoverned US corporate greed.
February 13, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Stop blaming Europeans for what is wholly a problem arising from America's privatised healthcare system. When an asthma inhaler costs $4.68 to manufacture, including its contents, and Americans (via insurance) pay $600 for them, the problem isn't the EU, it's ungoverned US corporate greed.
This is one of those weird transatlantic differences that catch people out. In the UK, purple drinks/candies are usually blackcurrant flavoured.
And grape flavored
9 times out 10 the purple category isn't "hard," it's just stupid.
February 13, 2026 at 3:47 PM
This is one of those weird transatlantic differences that catch people out. In the UK, purple drinks/candies are usually blackcurrant flavoured.
Reposted by Seeadler
That's an argument *in favour of finding out*.
February 13, 2026 at 3:12 PM
That's an argument *in favour of finding out*.
Hello from Europe.
No you're not.
Glad we had this chat.
No you're not.
Glad we had this chat.
February 13, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Hello from Europe.
No you're not.
Glad we had this chat.
No you're not.
Glad we had this chat.
Because you're not subsidizing other wealthy nations' healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies still sell to Western Europe *at a profit*. But they're gouging you thanks to your privatised healthcare system, which allows them to jack up *your* prices to an extortionate level.
February 13, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Because you're not subsidizing other wealthy nations' healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies still sell to Western Europe *at a profit*. But they're gouging you thanks to your privatised healthcare system, which allows them to jack up *your* prices to an extortionate level.
Err, no. The drug companies have discovered that, thanks to America's privatized healthcare system, they can charge extortionate prices for drugs. Europe, having generally saner healthcare policies, pays lower prices *from which the drugs companies still profit*.
February 13, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Err, no. The drug companies have discovered that, thanks to America's privatized healthcare system, they can charge extortionate prices for drugs. Europe, having generally saner healthcare policies, pays lower prices *from which the drugs companies still profit*.
Neither a new car nor a new phone will prevent you developing MS, but the vaccine might.
Exactly how do you avoid seeing an enormous moral problem in "I won't prevent you from suffering and dying unless you pay me hand over fist to do so"?
Salk didn't patent the smallpox vaccine for this reason.
Exactly how do you avoid seeing an enormous moral problem in "I won't prevent you from suffering and dying unless you pay me hand over fist to do so"?
Salk didn't patent the smallpox vaccine for this reason.
February 13, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Neither a new car nor a new phone will prevent you developing MS, but the vaccine might.
Exactly how do you avoid seeing an enormous moral problem in "I won't prevent you from suffering and dying unless you pay me hand over fist to do so"?
Salk didn't patent the smallpox vaccine for this reason.
Exactly how do you avoid seeing an enormous moral problem in "I won't prevent you from suffering and dying unless you pay me hand over fist to do so"?
Salk didn't patent the smallpox vaccine for this reason.
My doorstep.
February 13, 2026 at 11:04 AM
My doorstep.
Something often overlooked is that control over gravity *is* control over propulsion; imagine a wheelchair rolling gently downhill *when you control where 'downhill' IS*.
February 13, 2026 at 10:58 AM
Something often overlooked is that control over gravity *is* control over propulsion; imagine a wheelchair rolling gently downhill *when you control where 'downhill' IS*.
Reposted by Seeadler
[Me reading this headline and getting to the end]
February 13, 2026 at 3:41 AM
[Me reading this headline and getting to the end]
Reposted by Seeadler
I share this only to help those contemplating whether to tweet "I support Palestine Action".
February 13, 2026 at 10:34 AM
I share this only to help those contemplating whether to tweet "I support Palestine Action".
Pforzheim was, as far as I can see, about the closest human beings have ever managed to come to recreating the Biblical conditions of Hell on Earth.
February 13, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Pforzheim was, as far as I can see, about the closest human beings have ever managed to come to recreating the Biblical conditions of Hell on Earth.
"Nigel Farage should be rich" and "Foreigners – especially non-white or Jewish ones – are wronguns" are the only ones I've seen consistently displayed.
February 13, 2026 at 7:43 AM
"Nigel Farage should be rich" and "Foreigners – especially non-white or Jewish ones – are wronguns" are the only ones I've seen consistently displayed.
Dear politicians: for too many people, the system, as is, isn't working.
When you say that there's a scandal that would collapse it, because there's evidence the people running it are heinous, that's a double-barrelled blast of GOOD NEWS.
We don't want either them or the system that protects them.
When you say that there's a scandal that would collapse it, because there's evidence the people running it are heinous, that's a double-barrelled blast of GOOD NEWS.
We don't want either them or the system that protects them.
This seems to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of politicians about WHY the people want the files released…
BRING IT DOWN
LET IT BURN
”the people” want to toast marshmallows on the smoldering ruins
(Or at least that’s MY impression, YMMV)
BRING IT DOWN
LET IT BURN
”the people” want to toast marshmallows on the smoldering ruins
(Or at least that’s MY impression, YMMV)
politicians who have read the unredacted files keep say that if ppl knew it would bring the system down
bring it on bitch
bring it on bitch
February 13, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Dear politicians: for too many people, the system, as is, isn't working.
When you say that there's a scandal that would collapse it, because there's evidence the people running it are heinous, that's a double-barrelled blast of GOOD NEWS.
We don't want either them or the system that protects them.
When you say that there's a scandal that would collapse it, because there's evidence the people running it are heinous, that's a double-barrelled blast of GOOD NEWS.
We don't want either them or the system that protects them.
*Spoiler alert*
This is also the plotline to every single antivaxxer. Except that with vaccine refusal, they don't even have to be *your own grandkids* that you put in danger.
This is also the plotline to every single antivaxxer. Except that with vaccine refusal, they don't even have to be *your own grandkids* that you put in danger.
Dante's Peak is not great, as far as disaster movies go, but the "Ruth is a dumbass and as a result puts her grandkids in mortal danger" storyline is underrated.
February 13, 2026 at 7:23 AM
*Spoiler alert*
This is also the plotline to every single antivaxxer. Except that with vaccine refusal, they don't even have to be *your own grandkids* that you put in danger.
This is also the plotline to every single antivaxxer. Except that with vaccine refusal, they don't even have to be *your own grandkids* that you put in danger.
At least he's dressed appropriately for the height of summer.
February 12, 2026 at 9:29 PM
At least he's dressed appropriately for the height of summer.
The fundamental power of the humanities is that they teach you that other people are real and important.
People who seek power for their own ends are very keen that you do not acknowledge this. Isolated individuals do not offer the same resistance to domination as groups, or whole societies.
People who seek power for their own ends are very keen that you do not acknowledge this. Isolated individuals do not offer the same resistance to domination as groups, or whole societies.
February 12, 2026 at 7:22 PM
The fundamental power of the humanities is that they teach you that other people are real and important.
People who seek power for their own ends are very keen that you do not acknowledge this. Isolated individuals do not offer the same resistance to domination as groups, or whole societies.
People who seek power for their own ends are very keen that you do not acknowledge this. Isolated individuals do not offer the same resistance to domination as groups, or whole societies.
Clancy's farfetched idea was American military hypercompetence.
February 12, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Clancy's farfetched idea was American military hypercompetence.
This is not quite correct.
America's relationship with its allies would have survived Trump relatively intact had America been able to demonstrate that its institutions were robust enough to curb him. The fault lies with supine lawmakers (on both sides), media and the supreme court.
America's relationship with its allies would have survived Trump relatively intact had America been able to demonstrate that its institutions were robust enough to curb him. The fault lies with supine lawmakers (on both sides), media and the supreme court.
February 12, 2026 at 7:07 PM
This is not quite correct.
America's relationship with its allies would have survived Trump relatively intact had America been able to demonstrate that its institutions were robust enough to curb him. The fault lies with supine lawmakers (on both sides), media and the supreme court.
America's relationship with its allies would have survived Trump relatively intact had America been able to demonstrate that its institutions were robust enough to curb him. The fault lies with supine lawmakers (on both sides), media and the supreme court.
I keep returning to my metric, which is "AI is roughly Cliff from Cheers," and asking people to consider exactly what tasks they would cheerfully and confidently entrust to him.
Again if AI is the equivalent of a shit research assistant it has some, extremely limited, kind of annoying, value
February 12, 2026 at 3:13 PM
I keep returning to my metric, which is "AI is roughly Cliff from Cheers," and asking people to consider exactly what tasks they would cheerfully and confidently entrust to him.
Reposted by Seeadler
The High Court will hand down judgment tomorrow in the judicial review against the Home Secretary’s proscription of Palestine Action.
February 12, 2026 at 2:28 PM
The High Court will hand down judgment tomorrow in the judicial review against the Home Secretary’s proscription of Palestine Action.
"Above all," well, yes; but "uber alles" is very much associated with a regime and a society that very much did NOT consider human dignity the be-all and end-all of human and social endeavour.
February 12, 2026 at 2:25 PM
"Above all," well, yes; but "uber alles" is very much associated with a regime and a society that very much did NOT consider human dignity the be-all and end-all of human and social endeavour.
The Chaos House, and more particularly the way Madeline narrates these threads about it, pretty much justifies Bluesky's existence all on its own.
Things have progressed to the point where I can tell you about them so would all y’all like to hear about the latest Chaos House nonsense?
I am not going to explain this for at least a couple weeks for Reasons but lmao the chaos house sure is chaosing right now!!! So if I’m a bit distracted that would be why
February 12, 2026 at 2:21 PM
The Chaos House, and more particularly the way Madeline narrates these threads about it, pretty much justifies Bluesky's existence all on its own.