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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 1d

Oh my god, Bateman talking about music is so ChatGPT, that's amazing.

Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 1d

It's all a bit of a shadow war really. If the Tories were reduced to c.40 MPs and 4th biggest party, I have no doubt that 75% would defect to Reform immediately.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 1d

Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention (5-6 October 2025)

Reform UK: 27% (-2 from 28-29 Sept)
Labour: 20% (-2)
Conservatives: 17% (+1)
Lib Dems: 17% (+2)
Greens: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 2d

They do for flu!

Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 3d

I can sum up Marvel's current problems by pointing out that I, a Marvel Comics superfan from childhood, who would have cried tears of joy to know what was coming, can't really be arsed with all their output anymore.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 3d

I haven't seen any Jurassic Park film. I've seen the clip with the shaking cup and the velociraptors. I get the general idea.

Hannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 3d

Inspired by a post I just saw in which someone admitted they hadn’t seen a single episode of Friends nor the film Love Actually… what cultural hole do you have that’s a bit weird for your generation?

I’ll go first: I haven’t seen Dirty Dancing.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 4d

Located somewhere just before The End Of Time.

Five / #2137 @five.yiff.ie · 4d

The end of history is real but it’s localized entirely in the doctor who fandom, where it is eternally 2008

Doctor Who Production News @doctorwhopn.bsky.social · 7d

Both David Tennant and Billie Piper are enthusiastic about the possibility of starring together in a Doctor Who movie.
cultbox.co.uk/news/david-t...

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Reposted by Charles Williams

MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 4d

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 4d

Insofar as this made-up thing means anything, that was the way I understood it/it was explained to me! Because otherwise it's just "things that aren't fun" which is <waves hands> an extremely large category relative to the other two.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 4d

Someone recently explained the scale to me and it clicked for me around the sport example because sometimes you wonder why you do it, and the idea of a kind of fun that isn't fun at the time or in retrospect is the only real answer.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 4d

Type 2 is fun looking back on it but hard at the time (eg love having written a thing, like pulling teeth to write it). Type 3 isn't fun but is still a voluntary activity that you did because it might have been fun (eg watching a sports team you love playing badly in a heavy defeat).

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 5d

Love the thumbnail of you looking happy rolling dice when presumably neither of those things happen in this one.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 6d

I don't think lack of policies is their problem.

Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 6d

If you put this into Electoral Calculus (I know, I know), the LDs are *the opposition* with these numbers, which is also quite funny.

Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 6d

This was fascinating and made me think differently about how the government is thinking and operating. I still think they're wrong - they need to stop thinking about voters and start thinking about values. But I have a more nuanced understanding/sympathy with them than I did.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 6d

New post:

"Identity Crisis"

Labour keeps trying to appeal to a lost white working class vote + alienating middle-class grads / ethnic minority voters that are a much bigger part of their coalition.

Why? And how can they rebuild their coalition more effectively?

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/i...

Identity Crisis

How Labour can rebuild their voter coalition

open.substack.com

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 8d

I've enjoyed your dive into this, thanks for the memories! It always stuck with me from when I was a kid, because as you say it was just quite weird.

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Reposted by Charles Williams

Valeria Loves @valerialoves.bsky.social · 9d

Shoutout to Mythic Bastionland’s Infuriating Children table. @bastionland.bsky.social

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 9d

Calling it now, ID cards won't happen. Basis of this: nice lady who cuts my hair has heard about the proposals and is not pleased.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 9d

No, you're bang on. And even if someone disagrees with your moral argument, having a conversation about right and wrong is better than having conversations about polling and triangulation.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 9d

This

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 9d

this is that thing i was saying last week about the loss of a moral element in politics - vavuely centrist people scared to ever say "I don't care how popular it is, it's still wrong"

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 10d

"I don't get to draw the line" — you are a wildly influential journalist with an audience of millions, you absolutely do get to draw the line!

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 10d

Also it is a great documentary that everyone should watch.

SpryOldLorax @spryoldlorax.bsky.social · 14d

Some amazing gay history. Listen up kids.

I'm watching that documentary "Before Stonewall" about gay history
pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast
about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed
psychologists, a police officer, and one "known homosexual". The
"known homosexual" is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis
White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.
So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale
Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television
and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there's nothing
wrong with him mentally and he's never been arrested. When asked
whether he'd take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether
his family knows he's gay, he says that they didn't up until tonight, but
he guesses they're going to find out, and he'll probably be fired from
his job as well. So of course the host is like ... why are you doing this
interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says "I think
that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself."

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale's boss did indeed recognize him from
the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into
ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten
a new job at a higher salary.
Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further.
It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity
agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that,
but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person
who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the
statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson's disclosure had
a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the
U.S.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 11d

There's nothing else I can say to you about this. I think it was wrong of him to send those messages to you and others. I think it was wrong he was banned from standing. I don't think these are inconsistent positions. That's it. There's no more I can or will add.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 11d

Also, am I mouthing off? Haven't said anything about it for days. Maybe more than a week? You're the one bringing it up!

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 11d

I'd have allowed him to stand and he wouldn't have been voted on. That's fucked now so they'll have to perma-ban him.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 11d

I don't and I haven't tried to. I think at this point you're wilfully ignoring what I've said about the issue tbh, which is simply that unless we're talking about criminality the DTB should not be using their subjective judgement to bar members from standing.

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Charles Williams @nicander.bsky.social · 11d

You know my view and the content of the messages (which I am fully aware of and think was appalling) isn't really relevant to it.

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