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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 51m

Basically, we have ceded ground to them so they create and define the group identity we have been rejecting. Hence how someone who hates the UK as much as Farage can pose as a patriot. The symbols, the signs, and the values mean nothing and, therefore, mean anything.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 51m

I must not be explaining myself properly.

What I am saying is that due to a narrative breakdown in which people have been told that there is very little to be proud of, that such concepts as "British values" are meaningless, anomie has taken hold. This anomie has allowed the far right wriggle room.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 3h

I think neither. In actuality, I reckon it just as over simple and patronising to present the country as being always the baddies. All I am doing is questioning the use of indiscriminate deconstruction.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 3h

Having to read Bookshops and Bonedust for a book group.

Worst of the year. Enough said.

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

Should we question historical narratives? Absolutely! History thrives on re-evaluation and revision. Should we unpick every source of national pride and, rather cynically, point out just how evil the country is at every given opportunity? Now, I think that is a pertinent question we need to answer.

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

Which brings me back to my original point:
A national narrative exists to give people something to be proud of at scale. If there is a narrative wherein Britain acts as a liberating force which is then believed en masse then ideas surrounding liberation, empathy, and kindness are easier to propagate

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

That it is happening within the boundaries of the former West Riding of Yorkshire, an area of the country which has historically placed its regional identity before its national one should really be acting as a red alarm, and certainly begs the question why this is happening at all.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

Look at where this plebiscite nationalism is physically happening and you will soon see that it is taking place in areas of the country which once had a strong working class identity prior to the death of heavy industry.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

The current English (and growing Scottish) flag-shaggery comes from exactly the same place as rise of Islamism and the Millennial preoccupation with having half a dozen self aware labels: a desire for a group identity in response to an atomised world. And what creates group identity? Narrative.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 5h

I think a major part of the problem is that there has been a sort of universal deconstruction of historical narratives with no replacement. So Britain used to see itself as being proud of defeating Hitler. Nowadays that statement comes with the caveat that Empire was just as bad.

AJ DISMEMBERS! @robertgalbraith.bsky.social · 7h

Honestly think a lot of the problem in Britain comes from this cultural ignorance. You don't have to probe that far into the historic big hitters in British culture before the national chauvinism starts falling apart.

I do not have a cold @septicshockingpink.bsky.social · 8h

watched the Kneecap movie and it pisses me off how in England you have this naked contempt for education and art and the young while Ireland is having a great cultural moment. all this wank about defending heritage and 'englishness' but hostility to English degrees, every museum under attack, fucked

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 17h

Trees drink souls that linger on crossroads. Their branches block the path to Heaven, their roots entangle the road to Hell. And so spirits linger, and so they are consumed.
#horrorwriterschat

Gree_ @greethewriter.bsky.social · 17h

Now, let us begin! Let the flutes bleat and the trumps blare, snatching all the souls of the living away! What are your favourite haunts? Mausoleums? Lavish estates? What secrets do their wraiths protect within?
#HorrorWritersChat

Art by Jelle Husson, featuring a haunted monastery of many sharp-tipped towers scraping at the midnight sky. The largest is in the centre of the structure’s roof, whose walls are painted white. The monastery is located above a hilly terrain of dark stone and dark green moss. A stony, twisting road leads to the monastery.

Question Two

Ah, the performance has begun! Behold the souls of the living darting into the flutes and trumpets! Now, as you sip your ectoplasmic wine, tell us – what are your favourite locations for ghosts? And why?

No links, covers, or self-promo! Leave that for the end! Quote the post & include the hashtag!

#HorrorWritersChat

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 1d

The hatred of the humanities largely comes from soulless husks who envy others their curiosity and vibrance.

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 1d

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 1d

In practice that has been happening for decades.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 1d

Actually, I quite like The Beatles - insipid Millennial iconoclasm be damned!

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 1d

Quick thought:

Treebeard did not think that he or the other Ents would survive the attack in Othanc and Helm's Deep.

"This is the last march of the Ents."
#lotr

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Reposted by Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees

Comics in the Spooky Age 🧛🧟‍♀️👻 @comicsinthega.bsky.social · 1d

The Beyond #25 (1954). On the cover two pilots fly a plane while the stewardess stands at the cockpit door and passengers can be seen on the other side. However, the reader can see that the pilots are skeletons in uniforms. One comments, “Yes, stewardess. We’ll weather the storm. You can tell the passengers they’ll sleep tonight. They’ll have a nice, long sleep!”

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Reposted by Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees

Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 2d

This sounds plausible to me. But if it’s true, it means that the age of social media might be over soon, with only the old and wrinkled (like myself) spending any actual time there.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 2d

Unless that is the point one is making - the doomed endeavour of egocentric revolution and all that.

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 2d

HAS IT FINALLY COME TO PASS?!
youtu.be/aEgl8u3vsrM?...

THE MAN IN THE CAVE WILL DEFEAT YOU

YouTube video by burialgoods

youtu.be

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 2d

I am tired, chaps. This is literally the last foray for me. If it collapses then, well, it was great talking to many of you.

Jon DOOMEDvies 🦖 @sovanjedi.bsky.social · 3d

I’m staying, fuck it. Can’t be bothered migrating to yet another platform where we go through the same shit over and over again until we crumble to dust. At least here I can very easily avoid the junk and make my space a positive, helpful and encouraging one for likeminded people.

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 4d

I tend to engage for the benefit of a potential reader rather than the actual person. Hopefully I am not spewing garbage!

Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 4d

It does that due to built in sycophancy. It is designed to give you the response you want. Rejection of a response and the entering of the same input forces the programme into a different output. Really is quite simple.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 4d

We do. It gets in input and calculates output by pulling from its database. It pulls from its database using context from the input. This is not a magical mystery box. It is a computer. All computers and computers, being manufactured by Man, are completely understood by Man.

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 4d

Make a band singular

The Foo Fighter
The Housemartin

Big Bearded Spookteller @bigbeardybooks.bsky.social · 4d

Make a Band Singular

The Proclaimer
L
Sham

Ginger Nuts of Horror @gnofhorror.com · 4d

Make a Band Singular

A Solitary Seagull
The Soloist

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Edwin, Heart as Black as the Shadows Between the Trees @edwinbeatnik.bsky.social · 4d

I wish I could be paid for having worthless opinions.

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