Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 8h

@blindboyboatclub.bsky.social memorably covered this a few years back
shows.acast.com/blindboy/epi...

Hieronymus Bosch | The Blindboy Podcast

I chat about the painter Hieronymous Bosch, and how our modern vision of Hell is based on 12th century Cork

shows.acast.com

1 1 1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 10h

The Anti-Human Centipede

10

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 11h

She's the Ed Balls of Reform

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 11h

UK must emulate the place I recently moved my family to or go bust, says my partner

1 1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 12h

I know Streeting and the rest of his accursed faction are obsessed with resurrecting the ghosts and ghouls of the long 1990s but I didn't have Simon Fucking Wessely on my bingo card

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 16h

Just as we are beginning to understand the biochemical basis of this horrendous condition, the government appoints the man perhaps most responsible for the mischaracterisation of ME/CFS – Simon Wesseley - to its *overdiagnosis* commission. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/controv...

Controversial professor to investigate overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergence for Labour

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments...

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 2d

Indeed. Instead of interviewing @zackpolanski.bsky.social they invited along a Tory peer who proceeded to smear a Jewish man who has been marching tirelessly for Palestinian liberation as a "useful idiot"
bsky.app/profile/saul...

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 3d

Tory peer Ben Houchen calls a Jewish man who's attended pro Palestinian marches every week for the last 2 years a "useful idiot" #bbclaurak

2 5

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 3d

Imagine the all-channels screaming and baying for blood if a parliamentarian of any party had described a Zionist Jew as one of Netanyahu's "useful idiots". For the likes of Houchen, Jews only count to the extent they can be instrumentalised, dead or alive

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 3d

Tory peer Ben Houchen calls a Jewish man who's attended pro Palestinian marches every week for the last 2 years a "useful idiot" #bbclaurak

1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 4d

They disowned him for the same reason Farage does (to maintain a wafer-thin veneer of respectability)

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 4d

The inverse is also true - describing the far right as "populist" implies that forces in opposition to them are elitist, technocratic, out of touch, etc.

Michael Colborne @colborne.bsky.social · 4d

“When we use the term “populist”, we often create a semantic link between the word and “the people”. So when we allow the far right to be described as populist, we are incorrectly implying that they are tapping into what the people want or that they speak for the “silent majority””

Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.bsky.social · 4d

This short piece co-authored with Alex Yates shows why the misuse of populism plays right in the hands of the far right

(Annoyingly, the app is not allowing me to tag colleagues, but follow them!)

theconversation.com/the-word-pop...

1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 5d

It's never been clearer that Israel is basically the vanguard of the new fascist international but Starmer et al will no doubt keep the spy planes (and the F-35s) flying over Gaza

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5d

This Israeli government decision to host Tommy Robinson will widen the growing gulf between the Netanyahu government and the British public, including the broad majority of Jews in Britain (3/4 of whom dsapproved of Netanyahu, before this new link to this anti-Muslim racist UK far right convict).

1 4

Reposted by Sam

Jack @jackinpogform.bsky.social · 5d

Responding to an act of terrorism perpetrated by an English citizen against the English Jewish community in England with 'this is why we need to be nice to Israel' is disgusting. I'm sorry if its not my place to say but that is just fucking disgusting.

2 8 49

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 5d

Another ghoul cynically conflating all Jewish people with Israel and its genocidal armed forces. One more example of what @gabrielwinant.bsky.social memorably termed "the conversion of grief into power"

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 5d

Robin Simcox, the commissioner for countering extremism, says chanting 'death to the DF' at Glastonbury indicates something dark

No. The IDF is a brutal occupying army committing genocide, & yes UK citizens serve in it. Are you monitoring those extremists if/when they come back?

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 8d

So it turns out that "delivery, delivery, delivery" = taking two years to build an "online hospital"

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · 8d

Via UK Govt: "A pioneering new ‘online hospital’ will transform healthcare in England, improve access for patients, and slash NHS waiting lists, the Prime Minister is expected to announce today."

NHS Online is set to be rolled out "from 2027". PM speech at 2pm from Labour conference.

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 8d

Artist's impression:

A screenshot of the 90s computer game Theme Hospital

4

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 17d

He looks like he fell into Tommy Robinson’s washing machine

Gav Maclean @gavmaclean.bsky.social · 18d

You don't win a flag shagging argument against flag shaggers by flag shagging

Farron drapes himself in flag as Lib Dems seek to reclaim patriotism

The Lib Dems are urged to stop being squeamish about national pride, at their annual conference.

www.bbc.co.uk

1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 20d

Also - and again, eyeballing this - they're probably thirsty, but they're not THAT thirsty

1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 20d

Side issue, obviously, but was Nick Clegg wearing a hotdog costume when he gave this speech?

“The moment our tech companies start developing any scale or ambition, they have to go to California because we don’t have the growth capital here,” he said.
“It perplexes me why the British political, cultural and media establishment doesn’t worry more about the structural loss of sovereignty. This US-UK tech deal is just another version of the UK holding on to Uncle Sam’s coattails.
“Imagine [the outcry] if all the tech in our phones from the cloud to the software was in the hands of the French. But we’ve defanged ourselves because of our long adherence to the Cold War transatlantic relationship with the US.
“We have to be a bit firmer about what we can do ourselves rather than just taking sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley.”

2 1

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 20d

Cloning mammoths is probably no worse as a growth strategy than "mainline AI into the nation's veins"

1 2

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 21d

As @gabrielwinant.bsky.social wrote of Israel after October 7, they have built “a machine for the conversion of grief into power”, and any liberals who willingly feed that machine just make them stronger

www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

More tragically, the sentiment of those who want peace and justice for all and express this by chastising those in the West whom they see to be reacting with insufficient grief and excessive politics have only given amplification to the propaganda machine that is now openly calling for the blood of the innocent and the silence of doubters.

4

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 21d

Jon Cruddas apparently once summed up the Labour right's approach to politics as "kiss up, kick down" (H/T @davidwearing.bsky.social). Clearly that also extends to their media outriders

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 22d

“The Great Noticing” has very quickly morphed into “The Transparent Telling On Ourselves”

Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 22d

In which I argue that:

a) The Paul Ovenden messages about Diane Abbott are really repugnant, and

b) We might want to be careful about deciding anything bad anyone has ever said online, however long ago, even in a private message is grounds for resignation

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Who will be the next Paul Ovenden?

The messages from Starmer’s ousted aide are repugnant. But digital skeletons have become almost inevitable

www.newstatesman.com

1 12

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 22d

The quiet part really is getting said out loud a lot these days

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 22d

US ambassador Mike Huckabee: “The United States has allies and it has friends, but Israel is its only real partner."

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 27d

I mean...
www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk...

Trump ally Charlie Kirk suggests children should watch pu...

"Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised," Kirk recently said.

www.newsweek.com

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 27d

Ask not for whom the bell tolls...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 27d

Trump at a 9/11 commemoration

Sam @faroqabilly.bsky.social · 27d

I think this becomes a lot more comprehensible once you realise that the people advancing this ideological worldview are basically a death cult, and therefore desensitising ppl to graphic violence and killing actively aids their political project

Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 27d

I can see how a lot of changes to X are in line with a certain ideological worldview relating to perceived freedom of speech

I don't see how any of that supports basically forcing people to watch horrific video content showing a murder

1 1