I’ve seen a few references to this video involving Vervaeke and McGilchrist. I can appreciate the appeal, since both are addressing issues w/ our modern worldview, but their solutions involve a regression to axial age metaphysics. Is this what we want? /1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5G...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5G...
The Psychological Drivers of the Metacrisis: John Vervaeke Iain McGilchrist Daniel Schmachtenberger
YouTube video by Dr Iain McGilchrist
www.youtube.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I’ve seen a few references to this video involving Vervaeke and McGilchrist. I can appreciate the appeal, since both are addressing issues w/ our modern worldview, but their solutions involve a regression to axial age metaphysics. Is this what we want? /1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5G...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5G...
This is consistent w/ my theory that Mamdani isn't really a socialist, but approaching governing along the lines of Foucault's "governmentality", in which regulation is carried out indirectly by encouraging self-governance using incentives, campaigns, education etc.
Soon small businesses won’t have to wait for Small Business Saturday to get attention from their Mayor.
Some changes that they can look forward to:
Some changes that they can look forward to:
November 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
This is consistent w/ my theory that Mamdani isn't really a socialist, but approaching governing along the lines of Foucault's "governmentality", in which regulation is carried out indirectly by encouraging self-governance using incentives, campaigns, education etc.
Obviously what Miller is spouting is racist garbage, and defending multiculturalism goes hand in hand w/ defending democracy. However, the kind of radical transformation that communities in Western countries generally have undergone has nothing to do w/ multiculturalism, but globalization. /1
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Obviously what Miller is spouting is racist garbage, and defending multiculturalism goes hand in hand w/ defending democracy. However, the kind of radical transformation that communities in Western countries generally have undergone has nothing to do w/ multiculturalism, but globalization. /1
I remember watching a panel w/ Judith Butler, Cornel West & Glenn Greenwald (of all people). When I think West questioned whether a group should base their identity on shared suffering, Butler was quick to defend this idea arguing it was a basis for solidarity. /1
Fascism 101.
Judith Butler: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’.
Judith Butler: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’.
November 24, 2025 at 2:43 PM
I remember watching a panel w/ Judith Butler, Cornel West & Glenn Greenwald (of all people). When I think West questioned whether a group should base their identity on shared suffering, Butler was quick to defend this idea arguing it was a basis for solidarity. /1
One question rarely asked is why Reform started gaining on Labor well before the right-wing shift on immigration. A constant theme in Ranciere's work is how a technocratic, consensus driven approach to politics leads to a political culture of hatred and exclusion. /1
The government will not achieve ‘decency’ over ‘division’ by trying to be Reform Lite
Labour’s plan risks weakening protections for all of us. Human rights are universal - politicians may not always find them politically convenient but it shouldn’t fall to any government to say who those rights should and should not apply to. It’s a slippery slope to oblivion youtu.be/bl0Lm7v_T18?...
November 22, 2025 at 11:27 PM
One question rarely asked is why Reform started gaining on Labor well before the right-wing shift on immigration. A constant theme in Ranciere's work is how a technocratic, consensus driven approach to politics leads to a political culture of hatred and exclusion. /1
Both Trump and Mamdani represent a post-liberal* politics. But there is no chance of a coalition here. Mamdani's politics emerges from the ashes of Trump's populism, just as Trump's populism emerged from the ashes of neo-liberal progressivism. *In Reckwitz's narrow sense of open liberalism.
November 22, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Both Trump and Mamdani represent a post-liberal* politics. But there is no chance of a coalition here. Mamdani's politics emerges from the ashes of Trump's populism, just as Trump's populism emerged from the ashes of neo-liberal progressivism. *In Reckwitz's narrow sense of open liberalism.
Duncan Cartwright in “Containing States of Mind” considers the relationship between psychological attacks on reality and technology, using The Matrix as a thought experiment. In the film, virtually generated experience is used to keep people in a comatose state.
We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.
November 21, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Duncan Cartwright in “Containing States of Mind” considers the relationship between psychological attacks on reality and technology, using The Matrix as a thought experiment. In the film, virtually generated experience is used to keep people in a comatose state.
I must read half a dozen of these tweets a day. But not a single one about what kind of immigration policy will close the gap on Reform UK.
We must copy Denmark Social Democrats' hardline anti-asylum measures in order to win back voters' trust, says Shabana Mahmood.
Meanwhile in Denmark:
Meanwhile in Denmark:
November 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
I must read half a dozen of these tweets a day. But not a single one about what kind of immigration policy will close the gap on Reform UK.
Mason makes the arg below against Hickel’s claim that capitalists cannot address climate crisis because it is not profitable for them. For M, it is not that decarbonisation can’t be profitable, but rather capitalists don’t want to cede their power to the kind of central planning this requires. /1
To put it another way, *capital* is perfectly capable of organizing decarbonization. The problem is *capital-owners*, who are political actors and not just the embodiments of the accumulation process. Elon Musk is symptomatic here.
November 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Mason makes the arg below against Hickel’s claim that capitalists cannot address climate crisis because it is not profitable for them. For M, it is not that decarbonisation can’t be profitable, but rather capitalists don’t want to cede their power to the kind of central planning this requires. /1
Higgins is right to point out a problem w/ the deliberative quality of public opinion. But following Habermas I think you need to distinguish the inputs and outputs of public opinion formation from its throughput or infrastructure of the public sphere. The fact that social media...
Governments and voters are both reacting to algorithm-shaped “public opinion,” not grounded priorities. Immigration feels urgent because platforms amplify fear, pulling parties into hollow performances of toughness. The far right reads that drift as confirmation it’s winning.
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Higgins is right to point out a problem w/ the deliberative quality of public opinion. But following Habermas I think you need to distinguish the inputs and outputs of public opinion formation from its throughput or infrastructure of the public sphere. The fact that social media...
A note on the Nietzsche thread. If thinking is a symptom of more or less traumatic social conditions, then one can’t coherently reflect on a social crisis (like climate change) without acknowledging that this reflection is also a symptom of those same conditions. /1
November 15, 2025 at 3:41 PM
A note on the Nietzsche thread. If thinking is a symptom of more or less traumatic social conditions, then one can’t coherently reflect on a social crisis (like climate change) without acknowledging that this reflection is also a symptom of those same conditions. /1
Malm’s claim here, that denial of the climate crisis - either as outright denialism or implied by one’s behaviour - is a condition of social membership under capitalism, reminds me of Nietzsche’s observation in Genealogy of Morals that man would rather will nothingness than not will. /1
"Denial is not an idiosyncracy or private pathology, but a certificate of membership in this particular society, a kind of credit card necessary for moving around in it and accessing its commodities and living without going nuts"
- Prof. Andreas Malm
youtu.be/fVYO7w6UHi8
- Prof. Andreas Malm
youtu.be/fVYO7w6UHi8
Andreas Malm's Public Lecture, October 10, 2025, Audio Only
YouTube video by Bao Nguyen - Grad. Admin Comparative Literature
youtu.be
November 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Malm’s claim here, that denial of the climate crisis - either as outright denialism or implied by one’s behaviour - is a condition of social membership under capitalism, reminds me of Nietzsche’s observation in Genealogy of Morals that man would rather will nothingness than not will. /1
Sydney Sweeney would destroy the Predator thing any day of the week.
Funny thing about Nate's attempt to show he and his buddies on X are normal:
Sydney Sweeney's new movie just posted one of the worst wide-release openings ever, whereas Predator Badlands—somehow deemed "woke," "gay," and "feminist" by online right-wingers—crushed it, setting a franchise record.
Sydney Sweeney's new movie just posted one of the worst wide-release openings ever, whereas Predator Badlands—somehow deemed "woke," "gay," and "feminist" by online right-wingers—crushed it, setting a franchise record.
the hipsters, they’re ordering double frufru mocha soy frappuccino. doesn’t anybody order a black coffee anymore
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Sydney Sweeney would destroy the Predator thing any day of the week.
What the immigration debate in the UK reveals to me is how little confidence the reps of the New Middle Class have defending (as Reckwitz puts it) "the ideal of social progress via globalization, singularization and post-industrialisation." Hence the endless debates about electoral strategy. /1
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
November 9, 2025 at 3:52 AM
What the immigration debate in the UK reveals to me is how little confidence the reps of the New Middle Class have defending (as Reckwitz puts it) "the ideal of social progress via globalization, singularization and post-industrialisation." Hence the endless debates about electoral strategy. /1
I tried this model w/ the prompt: "I get out on the top floor (third floor) at street level. How many stories is the building above the ground?” It thought for 15 mins before timing out, generated 8k words, and considered multiple answers without ever canvassing the right one.
![A dark-themed bar chart titled “Agentic Reasoning.”
It compares model performance on “Humanity’s Last Exam (Text-only) w/ tools [3.b]”, described as “Expert-level questions across subjects.”
Three vertical bars are shown:
• Left (bright blue, K icon): 44.9
• Middle (light blue, knot logo): 41.7
• Right (tan, AI logo): 32.0
The chart visually emphasizes that the first model (K icon) leads slightly over the middle model, with both outperforming the third. The y-axis is unlabeled, but values likely represent performance scores or percentages.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ckaz32jwl6t2cno6fmuw2nhn/bafkreigbmc5sapicc3zgca3jpvmcgiuzfxdornumceuwbnspuknezigiru@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 10:55 AM
I tried this model w/ the prompt: "I get out on the top floor (third floor) at street level. How many stories is the building above the ground?” It thought for 15 mins before timing out, generated 8k words, and considered multiple answers without ever canvassing the right one.
I guess I need a hot take on Mamdani… well, he probably isn't a socialist! Kathryn Wylde “billionaire whisperer” noted Mamdani called to arrange meetings w/ wealthy NYers, didn’t mention taxes in his victory speech & sounds more like Bloomberg when talking about making bureaucracy more efficient./1
November 6, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I guess I need a hot take on Mamdani… well, he probably isn't a socialist! Kathryn Wylde “billionaire whisperer” noted Mamdani called to arrange meetings w/ wealthy NYers, didn’t mention taxes in his victory speech & sounds more like Bloomberg when talking about making bureaucracy more efficient./1
Everything depends on how you understand "economic power". The early socialists thought that the key to freedom lay in cooperative modes of production and focused exclusively on the economic sphere. They weren't that interested in democracy as an alternative source of power. /1
Partly because so many formerly leftwing parties have turned to the right, there's a lot of confusion about what right and left mean in politics. I hope this helps:
The right defends economic power.
The left resists economic power.
The right defends economic power.
The left resists economic power.
November 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Everything depends on how you understand "economic power". The early socialists thought that the key to freedom lay in cooperative modes of production and focused exclusively on the economic sphere. They weren't that interested in democracy as an alternative source of power. /1
There is an assumption among pundits that the whatever is in the Epstein files is so bad it threatens Trump's presidency. Certainly the Republicans are acting as if that's the case. History has shown though that Trump seems immune from mere political scandal. /1
www.dw.com/en/epstein-s...
www.dw.com/en/epstein-s...
Epstein scandal: Consequences for Andrew ― what about Trump? – DW – 10/31/2025
The onetime prince Andrew has experienced consequences for his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. In the US, calls to release the files of the trafficking investigation into the deceased financier and sex...
www.dw.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:39 PM
There is an assumption among pundits that the whatever is in the Epstein files is so bad it threatens Trump's presidency. Certainly the Republicans are acting as if that's the case. History has shown though that Trump seems immune from mere political scandal. /1
www.dw.com/en/epstein-s...
www.dw.com/en/epstein-s...
Given my recent discussion of Honneth's book on the topic, I think an historically grounded concern is socialism's attitude towards rights of individuals & democracy. In his book, Honneth looks at Marx's argument in "On the Jewish Question", in which Marx argues that under a socialist regime... /1
For those on the left who are not socialists, or who do not ally with socialist parties, I don't really understand: what exactly is the project? What is the plan?
November 1, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Given my recent discussion of Honneth's book on the topic, I think an historically grounded concern is socialism's attitude towards rights of individuals & democracy. In his book, Honneth looks at Marx's argument in "On the Jewish Question", in which Marx argues that under a socialist regime... /1
To celebrate Halloween, I thought I’d write about something many people find pretty scary these days - the idea of socialism. In his book of the same name, Axel Honneth explores its history before criticising some of its central tenants as stuck in a 19th C industrial mindset. /1
October 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
To celebrate Halloween, I thought I’d write about something many people find pretty scary these days - the idea of socialism. In his book of the same name, Axel Honneth explores its history before criticising some of its central tenants as stuck in a 19th C industrial mindset. /1
Campbell blames "anti-politics" on Starmer's poll numbers. So what happens when these two turn to policy? Tax: don't go to war with the rich. Immigration: don't damage the economy by lowering numbers. Climate: can't go it alone. So, more of the same then? But sure, blame "anti-politics".
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨
As Keir Starmer's approval ratings hit a new low, @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and @rory-stewart.bsky.social unpack what’s behind Labour’s struggles, what the party must do to recover, and whether the shifting political landscape has left them out of time.
Link in the replies 👇
As Keir Starmer's approval ratings hit a new low, @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and @rory-stewart.bsky.social unpack what’s behind Labour’s struggles, what the party must do to recover, and whether the shifting political landscape has left them out of time.
Link in the replies 👇
October 30, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Campbell blames "anti-politics" on Starmer's poll numbers. So what happens when these two turn to policy? Tax: don't go to war with the rich. Immigration: don't damage the economy by lowering numbers. Climate: can't go it alone. So, more of the same then? But sure, blame "anti-politics".
Graeber & Wengrow spend a lot of time on the notion of private property, arguing its centrality to modern life is in stark contrast to that of many cultures throughout history, in which the exclusive right to property is restricted to contexts involving the sacred, especially sacred rituals. /1
October 29, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Graeber & Wengrow spend a lot of time on the notion of private property, arguing its centrality to modern life is in stark contrast to that of many cultures throughout history, in which the exclusive right to property is restricted to contexts involving the sacred, especially sacred rituals. /1
How is this nonsense different to the moral panics over "master bedroom" or "pregnant women" or cultural appropriation etc etc? Paranoia clearly plays a role in our political discourse, and both sides are happy to leverage it when it suits them and denounce it when it doesn't.
October 28, 2025 at 1:18 PM
How is this nonsense different to the moral panics over "master bedroom" or "pregnant women" or cultural appropriation etc etc? Paranoia clearly plays a role in our political discourse, and both sides are happy to leverage it when it suits them and denounce it when it doesn't.
Still reading Dawn of Everything. Reached a section in which Graeber & Wengrow propose their own version of a “state of nature”, involving Kim Kardashian being chased by thieves who drink ever more powerful magic potions. So “Game of Thrones meets Pink Panther” rather than “Robinson Crusoe”./1
October 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Still reading Dawn of Everything. Reached a section in which Graeber & Wengrow propose their own version of a “state of nature”, involving Kim Kardashian being chased by thieves who drink ever more powerful magic potions. So “Game of Thrones meets Pink Panther” rather than “Robinson Crusoe”./1
Hedges had his talk at the National Press Club cancelled, the Club denied it, Hedges provides proof that it did. So naturally Marr asks him not a single question about this, instead demanding Hedges acknowledge the Club has hosted critics "hostile" to Israel before. Pathetic.
Weird interview by David Marr of Chris Hedges. Marr seems to think his job is to stand up for the Press Club (and media like the NY Times)
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Journalist Chris Hedges on being cancelled by the National Press Club - ABC listen
Australia’s National Press Club was due to host Pulitzer prize winning journalist, the former Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times, Chris Hedges on Monday October 20, 2025. But after receiv...
www.abc.net.au
October 26, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Hedges had his talk at the National Press Club cancelled, the Club denied it, Hedges provides proof that it did. So naturally Marr asks him not a single question about this, instead demanding Hedges acknowledge the Club has hosted critics "hostile" to Israel before. Pathetic.