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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓

@smoljomusic.bsky.social

170 followers 93 following 5.3K posts

Composer, pianist, administrator, crocheter, clown. University based enby. https://jopearsonmusic.com/

jopearsonmusic.com

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · Mar 5

I’m from outer space
Feeling somewhat out of place
In this world of immortal men
Wish I could go home again.

youtu.be/Bax2tFlZobA?...

I'm from Outer Space

YouTube video by Linus - Topic

youtu.be

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 4h

I know - the talk today is about arts degrees and sustainability mostly doesn’t fall within that. But also - there’s a climate crisis.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 4h

If I ever won one of those massive Euromillions jackpots I’d offer STEMM* scholarships to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

*Sustainability, Theatre, English, Music and Media.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

I would have needed a couple of years after school to focus intensively on catching my piano playing up to the kids who started when they were 5 (I started at 12).

I also think going straight from school to university is overrated.

A balanced spread of GCSEs is a good foundation for anything.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

I mean - English used to be considered a good subject (hard to get into, versatile).

With hindsight - I wish I’d fought harder to do music instead of going for what I was considered good at. But I also loved books and reading so it was OK.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

Good things that have happened today.

- Lidl had smoked tofu (£1.75 for 360g which is a good price) and they’ve changed the recipe slightly to make it less chemical smoke flavour.
- smoked hot paprika which I bought from the Indian corner shop is just the right level of kick.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

Oh this tugged at my heartstrings. Poor green fox.

Foxes In Love @foxes-in-love.bsky.social · 6h

A comic of two foxes, one of whom is blue, the other is green. In this one, Blue looks curiously at a pie which Green has placed on a plate on the table, while Green looks at him with joy and pride.
Green: I have made a sidequest pie!

Blue listens patiently as Green goes on.
Green: Flour from the mill we visited once, mushrooms that we gathered with your mom, homegrown parsley and basil... Almost all ingredients were things we've made or gathered on adventures!

Both foxes turn back to look at the pie.
Blue: How does it taste?
Green: Bad.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

Like a good response to the transphobes is “eww you weird genital obsessed bigots. Pipe down. We have a climate crisis to solve”.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 6h

In a weird way she’s right. There was absolutely no need to divert energy and focus away from decarbonising energy and into stripping people who weren’t bothering anyone of their rights and healthcare.

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 7h

Badenoch: "While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China built five nuclear reactors."

A perfect summary of conservative idiocy. Glorifying authoritarian post-communism for its efficiency while vilifying democracy for seeking nuance and respect.

It is the Right who hate their own countries.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 7h

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

Also - over diagnosis isn’t the fucking problem. The problem is late stage capitalism eating itself and the majority of the population. It’s watching the rich and powerful compete to commit global ecocide and supporting a live streamed genocide.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

And at the same time - with a complete absence of Covid mitigation for the majority of the population - they are actively creating *more* people with a condition so similar I will be astonished if it doesn’t turn out to be the same goddamn thing.

There is no such thing as a harmless virus.

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 12h

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

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Reposted by Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 12h

ME/CFS is a devastating condition that has long been denied, dismissed, psychologised and underdiagnosed. Research is at last starting to catch up with it, with glimmers of hope for those who have been left untreated for so long.
There's a huge BUT coming ...🧵
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome

Research could offer hope for ME patients – but some experts urge caution and say more studies needed

www.theguardian.com

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

Also - disclaimer- I have an BA in English and an MA in Drama . The skills I learned got me almost every job I’ve ever had (writing applications and performing in interviews). I have (however) never actually had a “graduate” job. A degree has only ever been “desireable”.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

I will also say - degrees should be free. The overall benefit to a society of having a well educated population that knows how to learn new stuff, can do critical thinking and construct a cogent argument is immense.

(It does have a tendency to shift society leftwards which might be the issue here)

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

And frankly - a smaller chunk of the workforce ends up doing something directly related to their degree choice than you think.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

Chase a subject because you think it has high earning power - if it’s not where your heart is. You end up in a job that you’ll hate. Working *solely* for the pay check can be absolutely soul destroying. You end up burned out in your 30s/40s desperately trying to escape the trap you’ve made yourself.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

I have had those tearful conversations with students who picked the wrong subject. And the sheer *relief* when an adult (me) tells them that they can study what makes them happy.

It’s more likely to lead to *fulfilling* meaningful work. Which is *as important* as pay to future mental health.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

And it seems to me that the *reality* of the workplace is that it’s more about who you know and caché than it is about specific skills. The actual hierarchy is

1. Institution.
2. Classification.
3. Subject.

And students are MUCH more likely to achieve 2 if they love their subject.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 9h

In 18 years of student facing UKHE admin I’ve seen something. Students studying a subject because someone has hammered on at them that they *should* struggle. Their mental health is worse. They don’t do as well on assessments. The whole expensive thing becomes a chore. They’re more likely to quit.

Jill Hayward @frdragonspouse.bsky.social · 9h

We all knew students whose choice of subject was based on future earning potential rather than love of subject. They were the dullest people imaginable.

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 11h

Woman should read Hard Times.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 14h

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 11h

Badenoch is economically illiterate.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 22h

Someone mentioned today that all the LLM logos look like arseholes.

Apposite really.

Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 1d

A solid 5.

GrumpyGirdle 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿〓〓🇪🇺🇫🇷🇺🇦🇵🇸🐈‍⬛📚🌊 @grumpygirdle.bsky.social · 1d

Via @therionarms.bsky.social

Reposted by Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓

Kath @kathyburke.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, yes I know I keep banging on about my fucking book! However, if you want one repost this and I’ll do a random winner pick thing by the end of the week because I’m great like that. ♥️📚
#amindofmyown

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Jo The Bewildered 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🎓 @smoljomusic.bsky.social · 1d

I do this every winter. Trousers innit.