David S. Moon
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daimoon.bsky.social
David S. Moon
@daimoon.bsky.social
950 followers 820 following 320 posts
Senior Lecturer in Politics, teaching and writing about politics, ideology and pro-wrestling, with a bit of Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 when I can. https://www.davidsmoon.co.uk
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daimoon.bsky.social
Or, to give the academic-phrased take:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
In this light, anyone questioning Blair’s achievements by, for example, raising the death toll associated with the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, will elicit eye-rolling dismissal and accusations of ‘trolling’ (it is hard to uncomplicatedly enjoy something if you acknowledge that it produces dead bodies, which politics, of course, frequently does).
January 17, 2026 at 9:17 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
The personification of “peace” right here.

One of the indictments of our “democratic politics” is a public inquiry can outline how your failures led to hundreds of thousands of deaths & you still face zero repercussions + anyone who mentions it is deemed gauche

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Tony Blair grinning like a demon Trump appoints Blair, Kushner and Rubio to Gaza ‘board of peace’ - Guardian headline
January 17, 2026 at 9:13 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
Hope you’ve got this moment? 👌
La Résistance ask a member of the military in the audience how many innocent people they killed last year
January 4, 2026 at 5:20 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
La Résistance in WWE ask the crowd “Did you ever find those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?”
January 4, 2026 at 5:10 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
I’ve taken a screenshot of this to use as a prompt in class for a student debate about the state of our political-media class and subsequent discourse.

It can go alongside my screenshot of John on Twitter stating that he doesn’t know what ‘neoliberalism’ is.
John Rentoul: “But can anyone tell me what this bit means? “for too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.”
January 2, 2026 at 12:12 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
Then there was the apology that spelt out TALIBAN down the side, which sent people absolutely off the deep end…

These are the moments we lost when X was turned into a Nazi/porn site.

x.com/desolationwa...
That tweet was ill judged. To All of you upset, we are sorry. The Last thing we wanted was to offend and Ignorance is no excuse. We hope you Believe us when we say we have learned A valuable lesson from all this, and it will Never happen again. Sorry again guys x The Desolation crew
December 27, 2025 at 10:57 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
Thinking again of the time Welsh Twitter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 melted down over a ‘Desolation Radio’ podcast (RIP) poll asking if people would rather be ruled by Welsh Labour or the Taliban, then making fun of complaints, and former Plaid leader Leanne Wood being dragged into the furore 😌🙏 nation.cymru/news/leanne-...
Desolation Radio poll and photoshop image showing Taliban members in from of the Welsh First Minister rostrum
December 27, 2025 at 10:53 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
For those not following the latest pro-wrestling and politics news: we have *Triple H* doing social media for the White House the same week *Mick Foley* broke ties with WWE over its links to Trump, while fellow liberal *Kevin Nash* makes excuses for not doing the same.
White House tweet with Triple H giving “pro tips on staying healthy and Locke din this Christmas season and into 206” LA Times headline: Wrestling legend Mick Foley parts ways with WWE because of its ‘close relationship’ with Trump Headline: “Levin Nash: “My Deal Is With The WWE. My Deal Isn’t With MAGA. My Deal Isn’t With Trump”
December 22, 2025 at 6:23 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...
BBC News front page with photo
December 20, 2025 at 11:34 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
A bold photo choice for the cover of the “UK Politics” textbook’s latest edition
G. Maxwell outside 10 Downing Street
December 20, 2025 at 9:37 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
Ben Howlett, there’s a walk down memory lane: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Three protestors arrested after Tory MP Ben Howlett Peter with eggs
December 9, 2025 at 9:50 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
Young Zack confirmed as a pro-wrestling fan. But what about adult Zack? People need to know.
I wanted to be in the WWF - the wrestling one not the wildlife one.
December 6, 2025 at 12:57 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
Incredible analysis from the national broadcaster
A picture of words on a chalkboard - comprising what looks like a mind map - inside an office on Epstein's island estate is leading to speculation about what the illegible and redacted words are, and what the message means. Among the visible and legible words are: "power", "deception", "mirror in face", "time", "intellectual", "political", "music", "truth", and "appears!" Lines also connect some of the words together.
December 3, 2025 at 6:40 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
Yes! I wrote about this! (Chapter 7 of the linked magazine)

www.bath.ac.uk/publications...
Yet in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt, it was liberals, not MAGA believers, who pushed the most viral ‘bullshit’ conspiracy: that the entire event was staged by the Trump campaign. In the shooting’s wake the top two trending topics on X were “Trump” and “Staged” with a surprising number amongst these claims specifically accusing Trump of ‘blading’1, ‘like he was in WWE’.2 As one poster summed it up: ‘they staged that and he bladed when they jumped on him. i’m familiar with this WWE ass script’.3 What is blading, what does it have to do with WWE and what does its referencing here tell us about US politics, specifically regarding an underlying violence permeating it? Blading, as the editors of Performance and Professional Wrestling describe, is the act ‘wherein a wrestler will discreetly make a cut in their forehead with an otherwise concealed razor blade. The wound is self-inflicted and the actual cutting of flesh is hidden from the audience, but the blood that flows is the wrestler’s real blood’ (Chow, et al. 2017: 2). As a performative act, blading points to the strange, liminal nature of pro-wrestling, in which the fight is “fake”, but the razor and the blood are certainly real. Performed violence (in pro-wrestling lingo, ‘worked’ violence) underpinned by real violence (or ‘shoot’ violence). The very idea and the subsequent attempt to disentangle the two is something that links the conspiracy theorist and the pro-wrestling fan. In both domains, the tension between the visible and the hidden creates a dual-layered narrative that fuels public scepticism and fascination: Were Oswald’s three famous shots in Dealey Plaza a ‘shoot,’ or were they ‘worked’? The ‘blading’ accusations – that perfect mix of conspiracy with pro-wrestling – arguably reflect a broader way people engage with contemporary politics. Here we must reach for the pro-wrestling specific concept of ‘kayfabe’.
November 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
He had one job
Senior Labour figures tell Keir Starmer to stop making mistakes 2 months later Starmer to face PMQs as reports suggest No 10 briefings about leadership threats has backfired
November 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
2017: Trump tweeted out the video off him ‘clotheslining’ Vince McMahon - with the CNN logo replacing his head. One of those key “everything is becoming wrestling” media report moments.

2025: Newsom is putting out videos of him giving Trump the ‘pedigree’. 🇺🇸 🤷🏻

www.wrestlezone.com/news/1589184...
Image of Gavin Newsom tweet of a video where his face is superimposed on HHH giving Trump ‘the pedigree’
November 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
On Palantir

April: Ambassador Peter Mandelson arranged for Keir Starmer to have an “informal visit” (unminuted) to Palantir, a client of his lobbying firm Global Counsel

11 Sept: UK Gov announced a strategic partnership with Palantir

18 Sept: Mandelson sacked 🤷🏻

goodlawproject.org/mandelsons-e...
Business Insider article: Palantir CEO Alex Karp declared his company 'anti-woke' on Monday's earnings call. Karp also scrutinized border policies and said Palantir works with ICE and Israel.
November 7, 2025 at 1:39 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
The lack of mainland media interest in Chris Moore’s book on Kincora and its claims was noticeable. Especially considering this story from June - and the potential implications... www.bbc.com/news/article...
A victim of abuse at Kincora Boys' Home has received an undisclosed settlement after claims a paedophile housemaster was protected from being prosecuted due to being an MI5 agent
October 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
On Lownie’s book, see The Times story on the claims: archive.ph/CvdYI
A new biography of Lord Mountbatten, who was murdered by the IRA in Sligo in 1979, includes evidence linking him to abuse of children from the Kincora boys’ home in Belfast. The Mountbattens, by Andrew Lownie, includes two interviews with unnamed men who describe being brought from Kincora in the summer of 1977 to Mullaghmore, where Mountbatten was on holiday. The interviewees, who were 16 at the time, both claim they were then abused by the earl, an uncle of Prince Philip. This is not the first time Mountbatten has been linked to Kincora. In 1990, writer Robin Bryans reported in Now, a Dublin magazine, that the earl, Anthony Blunt and others were part of an old-boy network that held gay orgies in country houses on both sides of the Irish border, and at the boys’ home in east Belfast.
October 30, 2025 at 8:54 PM
daimoon.bsky.social
Keir Starmer’s position is essentially summed up in this incredible exchange with his spokesperson:

“You seem to be saying it’s fine to stay in a convicted paedophile’s property if you think they are guilty, but not if you think they are innocent?”
“You seem to be saying it’s fine to stay in a convicted paedophile’s property if you think they are guilty, but not if you think they are innocent?”
October 20, 2025 at 10:54 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
The new Oversight Committee transcript of Alexander Acosta’s testimony is notable in that it seems to finally ID the source behind the claim Acosta told the Trump transition team he was “told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone” as Steve Bannon
oversight.house.gov/release/over...
“Steve Bannon has publicly stated that you told him Epstein, quote, “belonged to intelligence.” Do you recall ever speaking to Steve Bannon about Jeffrey Epstein.” A “I don’t recall ever speaking to Steve Bannon about Jeffrey Epstein” “Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition team”
October 19, 2025 at 11:01 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
Many WWE fans will have gritted their teeth through the McMahon-Levesque’s getting increasingly close to Trump + RFK Jnr. by making a distinction between the product and the people at the top of it. Same as overlooking TKO’s links through UFC. But even having Linda McMahon ringside may be too much.
October 11, 2025 at 9:56 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
The rumours Trump might attend Jon Cena’s final match have swirled for a while, but these rumours of “a ton of people from the White House” mean even if *he* didn’t, WWE would be directly tying itself to Trump onscreen for the first time - not just Triple H + Stefanie McMahon on a ‘personal’ basis.
F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer claims that WWE expects “leading political figures to be invited and attend” the final match of John Cena’s career in Washington D.C. The current belief is “there will be a ton of people from the White House at the show, but Trump is undecided at the moment.”
October 11, 2025 at 9:48 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
just because you have a freedom "doesn't mean you have to use it at every moment of every day"

Just roll that sentence around your mental palate and taste the underlying logic
Laura Kuenssberg asks if it is a "dark step" to limit the fundamental right to protest? Mahmood answers that just because you have a freedom "doesn't mean you have to use it at every moment of every day". Under her new plans people will still have the right to protest, Mahmood adds.
October 5, 2025 at 8:45 AM
daimoon.bsky.social
The former director general of the domestic secret service chairing the panel that choses the head of the state religion is one of those fun “very normal” things that happens in the UK.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Mullally’s name was passed to Downing Street by the Crown Nominations Commission, chaired by Lord Evans of Weardale, a former director general of MI5, after months of deliberation by the 20-member panel, of which 17 are voting members and 12 must agree. After agreement, a name by tradition is given to the prime minister – in this case Keir Starmer – and then passed to the monarch.
October 3, 2025 at 5:15 PM