Cyril Closset
@spinozainlove.bsky.social
UK-based string theorist. Pro-education as a public good. Random (non)thoughts about this world we share.
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Cyril Closset
@spinozainlove.bsky.social
· Mar 15
A young child's biggest joy is to interact with their surrounding: smile, touch, taste, lift and drop objects. As an older child/scientist, I like a science that lifts and drops, smiles and tastes. I'm not doing research to solve our society's many ills. I do it because I'm still a child. Sue me.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
very disappointing.
There is a code of conduct for Royal Society fellows - it's not a value judgement to say that Musk has contravened it!
see relevant bits of code and the Royal Society stated values below.
There is a code of conduct for Royal Society fellows - it's not a value judgement to say that Musk has contravened it!
see relevant bits of code and the Royal Society stated values below.
January 9, 2026 at 5:11 PM
very disappointing.
There is a code of conduct for Royal Society fellows - it's not a value judgement to say that Musk has contravened it!
see relevant bits of code and the Royal Society stated values below.
There is a code of conduct for Royal Society fellows - it's not a value judgement to say that Musk has contravened it!
see relevant bits of code and the Royal Society stated values below.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
Remembering today that having your heart broken is a necessary step on the path to becoming fully human. Whichever heartbreak is your first, it’s probably critical that a state break your heart so that you can develop a political imagination. If this is your first, I’m sorry and also welcome.
January 8, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Remembering today that having your heart broken is a necessary step on the path to becoming fully human. Whichever heartbreak is your first, it’s probably critical that a state break your heart so that you can develop a political imagination. If this is your first, I’m sorry and also welcome.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
This is literally what they do whenever a Black person is killed by police. No matter how solid the evidence is, they will keep pushing that lie, not just to poison the conversation and make sure the killer walks free, but to reassert the political idea that these people deserve to be killed.
The shooting is shocking enough but the government's response is off the charts when you consider that this incident is forensically documented on video.
January 8, 2026 at 1:41 PM
This is literally what they do whenever a Black person is killed by police. No matter how solid the evidence is, they will keep pushing that lie, not just to poison the conversation and make sure the killer walks free, but to reassert the political idea that these people deserve to be killed.
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"You deserve to die if you disagree with us" is their position. bsky.app/profile/atru...
Rep. Randy Fine: "If you impede the actions of our law enforcement as they seek to repel foreign invaders from our country, you get what's coming to you. I do not feel bad for the woman that was involved."
January 8, 2026 at 2:37 PM
"You deserve to die if you disagree with us" is their position. bsky.app/profile/atru...
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I need people to wrap their minds around the fact that here in Minneapolis, ICE broke the window of a vehicle yesterday, pepper sprayed the occupants, and arrested them, and shot another observer in the face today, and OBSERVERS ARE STILL GOING OUT TO PROTECT THEIR NEIGHBORS AT MASSIVE PERSONAL RISK
I’m eating lunch, I’m having a panic attack, I’m charging my phone, and then I’m going back out to try and keep my neighborhood safe.
January 7, 2026 at 5:47 PM
I need people to wrap their minds around the fact that here in Minneapolis, ICE broke the window of a vehicle yesterday, pepper sprayed the occupants, and arrested them, and shot another observer in the face today, and OBSERVERS ARE STILL GOING OUT TO PROTECT THEIR NEIGHBORS AT MASSIVE PERSONAL RISK
Reposted by Cyril Closset
Just like climate change , there are two sides to this but one side is lying and we can just report the truth.
If the headline is "disputed shooting" rather than straightforwardly telling the public what happened this rewards the DHS for lying about these events
January 8, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Just like climate change , there are two sides to this but one side is lying and we can just report the truth.
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Nothing to add here that hasn’t already been said, but if the guy isn’t arrested and put on trial in Minnesota then ICE is going to do this every day.
January 7, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Nothing to add here that hasn’t already been said, but if the guy isn’t arrested and put on trial in Minnesota then ICE is going to do this every day.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
If they don't extract the oil fast enough, we'll chop off their hands
Trump says Venezuela to give up to 50 million barrels of oil to U.S.
Trump's announcement came days after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and captured its leader, Nicolas Maduro, to be prosecuted on drug-trafficking charges.
www.cnbc.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:32 PM
If they don't extract the oil fast enough, we'll chop off their hands
Reposted by Cyril Closset
People who fancy quoting the Melian Dialogue ("the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must") ignore the fact that Thucydides was clearly portraying this as the kind of hubris that squandered Athens' primacy and paved the way for a devastating peer war that it ultimately lost.
January 7, 2026 at 3:36 AM
People who fancy quoting the Melian Dialogue ("the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must") ignore the fact that Thucydides was clearly portraying this as the kind of hubris that squandered Athens' primacy and paved the way for a devastating peer war that it ultimately lost.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
Calling ICE agents "Nazis" is not a rhetorical slur, it's an accurate description.
These people took this job in order to do ethnic cleansing, to engage in cruelty and domination toward nonwhite people. The fascist militia types have been signing up in droves, and they are eager to kill people.
These people took this job in order to do ethnic cleansing, to engage in cruelty and domination toward nonwhite people. The fascist militia types have been signing up in droves, and they are eager to kill people.
January 7, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Calling ICE agents "Nazis" is not a rhetorical slur, it's an accurate description.
These people took this job in order to do ethnic cleansing, to engage in cruelty and domination toward nonwhite people. The fascist militia types have been signing up in droves, and they are eager to kill people.
These people took this job in order to do ethnic cleansing, to engage in cruelty and domination toward nonwhite people. The fascist militia types have been signing up in droves, and they are eager to kill people.
Who said "Trump is almost the first person since Genghis Khan to say: `I'm just going to help myself to territory'"
That's Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics podcast. Rich from a Brit who was himself part of the occupation administration in Iraq. Liberals cannot see what their own imperialism...
That's Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics podcast. Rich from a Brit who was himself part of the occupation administration in Iraq. Liberals cannot see what their own imperialism...
January 7, 2026 at 9:31 AM
Who said "Trump is almost the first person since Genghis Khan to say: `I'm just going to help myself to territory'"
That's Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics podcast. Rich from a Brit who was himself part of the occupation administration in Iraq. Liberals cannot see what their own imperialism...
That's Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics podcast. Rich from a Brit who was himself part of the occupation administration in Iraq. Liberals cannot see what their own imperialism...
Reposted by Cyril Closset
Currently reading this harrowing and important memoir by Gazan physics student Wasim Said which comes out in under two weeks and I hope you’ll preorder, read, and take action #BookSky
1804books.com/products/wit...
1804books.com/products/wit...
PRE-ORDER: Witness to the Hellfire of Genocide
I didn’t write this to make you cry.Not for you to tell me: “Poor you.”I write this so I can hang these words around your neck—to make you bear the responsibility of my perspective,the responsibility ...
1804books.com
September 20, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Currently reading this harrowing and important memoir by Gazan physics student Wasim Said which comes out in under two weeks and I hope you’ll preorder, read, and take action #BookSky
1804books.com/products/wit...
1804books.com/products/wit...
Reposted by Cyril Closset
Even as the stakes are raised ever higher there's still a fair number of people who still fundamentally see being on the left as a cool counter culture whose value is partially constituted by exclusivity.
what's funny is that like, those protests are an excellent time to do left recruitment. i have no idea why cringe is used as a purity test here
September 20, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Even as the stakes are raised ever higher there's still a fair number of people who still fundamentally see being on the left as a cool counter culture whose value is partially constituted by exclusivity.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
On the whole I still think this (from here: sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/08/woke...) is true. But the people who haven't changed up, who are still orientating their lives around Are Woke College Students The Red Guard? in the year of our Lord 2025, are genuinely embarrassing to behold right now.
September 15, 2025 at 7:57 AM
On the whole I still think this (from here: sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/08/woke...) is true. But the people who haven't changed up, who are still orientating their lives around Are Woke College Students The Red Guard? in the year of our Lord 2025, are genuinely embarrassing to behold right now.
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Concentration camps with no privacy, guarded by the military, in terrible climate, on indigenous lands. This happened to Japanese Americans. And of course indigenous peoples were “removed” to reservations, that is to say, camps. This is who we always have been as a country.
July 2, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Concentration camps with no privacy, guarded by the military, in terrible climate, on indigenous lands. This happened to Japanese Americans. And of course indigenous peoples were “removed” to reservations, that is to say, camps. This is who we always have been as a country.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."
July 2, 2025 at 3:37 PM
AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."
Reposted by Cyril Closset
What's astonishing about this is that "violence against a military force currently shelling civilians at food distribution points in the occupied territory they have been starving out" becomes equivalent to "calling for a genocide". It's just an insane moral reversal of the actual situation.
This looks completely deranged - and it is - but it’s a product of 2018-19, the late Brexit/Corbyn Labour era. Short version: it finally dawned on the lads that they are holding the microphones, so *they decide what the story is*, and how intense it should get. It’s worked very well for them so far.
June 30, 2025 at 7:10 AM
What's astonishing about this is that "violence against a military force currently shelling civilians at food distribution points in the occupied territory they have been starving out" becomes equivalent to "calling for a genocide". It's just an insane moral reversal of the actual situation.
The lens to understand the ramping up wars isn't "regime change", it is "country destruction." We are in a new/old story, where the powerful prefers to utterly destroy the enemy rather than having to e.g. occupy it. Genocidal supremacy on the rise, as we see e.g. within Russia, Israel, and the US...
June 22, 2025 at 8:05 PM
The lens to understand the ramping up wars isn't "regime change", it is "country destruction." We are in a new/old story, where the powerful prefers to utterly destroy the enemy rather than having to e.g. occupy it. Genocidal supremacy on the rise, as we see e.g. within Russia, Israel, and the US...
Reposted by Cyril Closset
We don't talk enough about how an influential part of the American Right wants to hasten the end of the world through war and environmental destruction.
June 22, 2025 at 1:02 AM
We don't talk enough about how an influential part of the American Right wants to hasten the end of the world through war and environmental destruction.
Militarism is the main tool of a fading, senseless wold order. It is also most likely to end us all.
I’ll never understand the boys and their fascination with their toys.
I’ll never understand the boys and their fascination with their toys.
June 22, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Militarism is the main tool of a fading, senseless wold order. It is also most likely to end us all.
I’ll never understand the boys and their fascination with their toys.
I’ll never understand the boys and their fascination with their toys.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
It's pretty telling that the second part of the "Mamdani is a danger to Jewish new yorkers" pitch is always "so vote for sexual harasser shitbag Italian Catholic Andrew Cuomo" and not "so vote for Jewish Progressive Brad Lander"
June 16, 2025 at 1:59 AM
It's pretty telling that the second part of the "Mamdani is a danger to Jewish new yorkers" pitch is always "so vote for sexual harasser shitbag Italian Catholic Andrew Cuomo" and not "so vote for Jewish Progressive Brad Lander"
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But the weird thing is my enemies are bringing it down *cos they mistook the nonsense machismo stuff for real strength*. I guess I have not taken fully seriously the role of sheer inept stupidity, raw childish thoughtless emotional indulgence, in world history.
June 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
But the weird thing is my enemies are bringing it down *cos they mistook the nonsense machismo stuff for real strength*. I guess I have not taken fully seriously the role of sheer inept stupidity, raw childish thoughtless emotional indulgence, in world history.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
“Two people deeply familiar with the Charleston 787 plant told the Prospect they had particularly acute quality concerns over planes that were delivered to Air India.” 😱
One of the Dreamliners That Gave a Boeing Manager Nightmares Just Crashed
Whistleblowers always warned that passengers would pay a price for Boeing’s tyrannical corner-cutting, especially with the planes shipped overseas.
prospect.org
June 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM
“Two people deeply familiar with the Charleston 787 plant told the Prospect they had particularly acute quality concerns over planes that were delivered to Air India.” 😱
Reposted by Cyril Closset
I'm being called immature for my "war is bad" stance, so let me be absolutely clear on this:
If being an adult requires accepting brutally murdering, maiming, and destroying human beings en masse rather than sitting down at a table and talking, I'm perfectly fine not being one.
If being an adult requires accepting brutally murdering, maiming, and destroying human beings en masse rather than sitting down at a table and talking, I'm perfectly fine not being one.
June 13, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I'm being called immature for my "war is bad" stance, so let me be absolutely clear on this:
If being an adult requires accepting brutally murdering, maiming, and destroying human beings en masse rather than sitting down at a table and talking, I'm perfectly fine not being one.
If being an adult requires accepting brutally murdering, maiming, and destroying human beings en masse rather than sitting down at a table and talking, I'm perfectly fine not being one.
Reposted by Cyril Closset
My opinion on the political psychology of many of the Trump true believer devotees is that the aesthetics of army men marching out against the forces of Disorder, being foreign and Urban (ahem) as they are especially, is an incredibly potent high for them. They will seek this out again and again.
June 10, 2025 at 6:50 AM
My opinion on the political psychology of many of the Trump true believer devotees is that the aesthetics of army men marching out against the forces of Disorder, being foreign and Urban (ahem) as they are especially, is an incredibly potent high for them. They will seek this out again and again.