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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 12h

2/2 The same people say they believe in consumer-choice, but when consumers make *the wrong choice*, they cut the courses. Believers in economism don't believe in choice, they believe that there is only one right way of living. They will use the state to enforce it.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 12h

1/2 Capital-driven utilitarians are the most tolerant people in politics. A liberal society should be a diverse garden of values (where people have the chance to live in a variety of ways). This lot (Labour too) only care about the consumption-machine. They want us all to worship money.

Article headline: 'Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English'.

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 1d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 1d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 1d

'There’s always one more war to win, or one more election, before the good life; meantime they wrangle about the good, those who still believe in it. So we dream. Of what? Some man sent by the gods, first to make us believe in something' (Mary Renault, The Mask of Apollo)

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Victoria Collins MP @victoria-collins.bsky.social · 1d

I recently wrote to the Chancellor after hearing from constituents worried about private finance returning to the NHS to ask what considerations the Treasury is giving these concerns, and what safeguards are being put in place.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 1d

2/2 And lest you think I'm being boringly partisan, Orange Bookers (and Orange Book enablers) within the Liberal Democrats need to take responsibility for appalling spending decisions between 2011-14. These Blue Orange birds have now come home to roost. But who wants to take responsibility?

Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 1d

1/2 Re. Robert Jenrick recording ("no white faces"). People have ignored the earlier part of his statement. He describes the area of Birmingham he visited as 'like a slum". There you have it. This lot had 14 years to arrest social decay. But when Conservatives see it, its nothing to do with them.

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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 1d

Autumn colour this morning here in Glastonbury.

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goldmartin @gillmartin.bsky.social · 1d

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Matt Boswell @mattboswellpnw.bsky.social · 2d

My autistic friends and family do not need to be fixed! What needs to be fixed are hearts, communities, practices, and structures that make it needlessly difficult for autistic folks to fully participate and be cherished as their beautiful, authentic selves.

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Alexander Douglas @axdouglas.bsky.social · 2d

I’m a strong advocate of ancient languages, but it seems dangerous to overpromise…

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Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 2d

Next to majestic Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire can be found the remains of its medieval monastery, including the 12th-century Prior's House and parts of the infirmary complex. These are now regarded as the oldest collection of monastic buildings still in daily use in Britain. #MedievalMonday

A courtyard next to Ely Cathedral, its historical buildings boasting large Romanesque arches.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

2/2...the Tories' traditional electoral base want the Libertarian transhumanist future promoted by Silicon Valley elites? It comes of a party that when all is said and done has become 'very online'. Its stopped looking at the world outside its tiny little ideological bubble.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

1/2 There's a more humdrum critique of the Tech Bro stuff coming out of Tory circles. Most voters couldn't give a toss about 'humanoid robots' or 'artificial brains' but are worried about 14 hours waits in A&E & whether their elderly parent can get access to home help. Also you're not telling me...

Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

1/6 Philosophically, I find Mel Stride's speech fascinating because of the light it shines on the intellectual contradictions within UK Conservatism. Stride begins his speech by telling the conference about his trip to Silicon Valley & its 'constant yearning for faster, better, stronger'.

Mel Stride telling Tory Conference how Silicon Valley yeans for 'faster, better, stronger".

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

6/6 Stride talked about 'tradition and heritage', but then declares 'we made the modern world'. So what do the Tories want? Tech Utopia or roots? Dynamism or closed borders? Stable values or constant change? These issues face all parties, but the Right especially.

Mel Stride talks about how Britain is built on 'decency, tradition, and heritage' and how it the UK 'made the modern world'.

Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

5/6 The Silicon Valley ethos is all about fluidity, openness & rapid economic change. The Tories refuse to grapple with the fact that a commitment to revolutionary Capitalism might not be compatible with borders, social conservatism, or sovereignty. How much control will there be in the tech future?

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

4/6 'want to take back control', people who want a predictable, structured and bordered world. The contradiction leads the party into adopting socially conservative stances about gender identity, but having no qualms about 'humanoid robots'. Blade Runner fine. Trans people, not so much!

Boris Johnson in 2016 with the slogan in the background: "Take back control".

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

3/4...regarded as a good in itself. This is the techno-optimism of the Tony Blair Institute. It has little do with Conservatism understood through a longer time frame. And yet the Party which is getting enthused by the transnational power of Tech Capital are trying to appeal to people who..

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

2/4 There's no hint of Disraeli's notion of evolutionary change here. Stride praises the 'revolution in Artificial Intelligence' & companies building 'driverless cars', humanoid robots' & 'simulated brains'. This no evaluation of the wisdom of these endeavours. Technological power is...

Mel Stride praising projects in creating 'simulated brains'.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

1/6 Philosophically, I find Mel Stride's speech fascinating because of the light it shines on the intellectual contradictions within UK Conservatism. Stride begins his speech by telling the conference about his trip to Silicon Valley & its 'constant yearning for faster, better, stronger'.

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

Postgraduates at the end of the PhD.

Captain Janeway in her ready room with the caption: "fuck it, send".

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

Given the uncertainty about her own job prospects, I suggest Kemi should be a bit more circumspect regarding the future of others.

Badenoch says ditching net zero will not cost jobs (BBC News).

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Timothy Stacey @godsandsods.bsky.social · Sep 4

Ecology and Belonging explores how to create a sense of belonging that can stem the tide of fascism: nias.knaw.nl/themegroup/e...

Ecology and Belonging: In Search of a New Political Space | NIAS

the Ecology and Belonging Theme Group seeks an understanding of belonging that is 1) deep enough to connect people to the environment; 2) powerful enough to draw support from across the political spec...

nias.knaw.nl

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Faiths & Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths @fcsunit.bsky.social · 14d

What does the future of ecology & belonging look like? From indigenous & decolonial perspectives to conservatism & eco-fascism.

Join Dr Timothy Stacey @godsandsods.bsky.social as he explores possibilities for a new political space.

📅 Book your free place: www.tickettailor.com/events/faith...

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Ben Wood /|\🔶️🌿✝️ @cosmichope.bsky.social · 2d

This is such a great story!

Alex Will Resurrect That Werewolf Pic 🔸🏳️‍🌈 @alexwilcock.bsky.social · 2d

Doctor Who – Frontios
A deeply unsettling tale of things falling apart where none may speak of those eaten by the hungry earth
The mighty Christopher H Bidmead, having already given us the TARDIS possessed, then existential crises, here goes for monsters, mass hysteria and repression…
#HalloweenWho

The Doctor (Peter Davison, with suddenly sassy mojo) and Tegan (an android, apparently) surrounded by Tractators (giant alien woodlice) in a weird underground cavern

Close-up of Turlough’s shell-shocked face, covered in sweat and spittle

Plantagenet squats sullenly in a globular cage, watched by Tractators

Plantagenet screams silently as he is pulled under the hungry earth

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