Dorian Lynskey

Good thread about the problem with book discourse rather than with books and readers themselves

Mbappe forgot you’re not meant to acknowledge reality in China

1. Lose election 2. Assume Trump will steal election for him 3. Trump is flailing around and failing to steal his own election 4. Oh shit oh fuck

The cuts being made at the BBC are unforgivable. They are putting it into a death spiral. The weaker it gets, the less people will want to support it. And yes, this is an issue for the Government, which likes to pretend it's not their problem. It is.

So I think this is both true and untrue. Musk is obviously a self-centered, narcissistic oligarch bent on hoarding wealth and avoiding regulation. BUT he is also genuinely and thoroughly captured by his own delirious posting. He really is off his rocker about immigration and gender issues.

Is the Economist OK?

I just think Matt's wrong about this. We're at a point in our technological development where a ton of problems spill over national borders--if Flavio Bolsonaro burns down the Amazon, that will flood houses in Miami.

gotta say hats off to all the writers pretending to do profiles of Silicon Valley CEOs just so they can add that one same paragraph, every single time, that demonstrates they're all insane freaks who do not know or like their own kids.

Congratulations to this person for completing YouTube

Aaaaaaaargh

If you replace "Fabians" and "globalists" with "Jews" (which is kind of what they mean anyway), this is exactly the same argument as Oswald Mosley's "Peace Fascism"

Brazil going the way of South Korea. Basically around the world women are desperately trying to keep power out of the hands of incredibly stupid fascistic grifters while men keep trying to hand it over. Men are an embarrassing cringe gender.

Most talk of constituencies being 'pro-Brexit' or 'Brexit-supporting' is incredibly lazy for basic reasons that large parts of Westminster just don't seem to be able to fathom.

Quite the statement from someone who thinks the Rivers of Blood speech was fine

It’s 52:48 again, only good this time

"Today was the best day for global democracy in quite a while“, writes @stevelevitsky.bsky.social re. election results in Serbia and Brazil. This graph shows why. Between 2012 and 2022, 🇧🇷 #6 and 🇷🇸 #9 had some of the steepest LDI declines in the world, in the same group as Hungary, Turkey and India

WE WON!!!! FUCK YOU, FASCISTS!!!!!

First Orban, now Vučić. Both fundamentally undone by rank corruption of their regimes. Which is so often the reality of the authoritarian right in power. Really worth paying heed to in Western Europe right now

Unlike, it seems, every film critic, I rather enjoyed Klara and the Sun. Not Ishiguro’s tone at all, and certainly prone to drive some people mad, but perhaps I was in a sentimental mood

Oh crikey we've annoyed the Roman statues. Mea maxima culpa. Me paenitet

my god

Sad how little chatter there is around the Mercury Prize these days. Took me a while to realise it had happened and who had won (Raye FYI). It still makes a big difference to a smaller, newer artist like English Teacher, which is great, but it doesn’t feel like a cultural event anymore

Fascinating Jeremy, now tell us about the time you cut national insurance twice as an electoral game despite knowing we couldn't afford it.

Pundits know that if something has already become The Narrative they never have to justify it with facts.

"Real artists" don't generalise about art and set rules for everybody else. Note the shift from third person to "we" to "I"

One: this is welcome Two: Burnham is the first PM in some time who’s remembered that he’s PM, so can set the agenda.

Anybody denying that there are awful, abusive trolls on both sides of this issue is lying. The difference - and it's an important one! - is that the bullies on the gender critical side *include their leaders*, real people posting under their real names not anonymous anime avatars.

If you’re in favour of ‘no unions’ and ‘low taxes’, frankly I’d much rather you did leave us alone and take your greedy, grasping, selfish selves to Dubai as quickly as possible.

Liz Truss was always crackers (I worked with her for six months in 2012). But she wasn't completely delusional. It's quite sad really. A lot of Tory MPs who backed her knowing she wasn't remotely equipped should be deeply ashamed.

I made a little show as an extra for BBC Radio 4 Extra (pretty much in my own time): it’s being repeated to mark 20 years since the death of Nigel Kneale. This sort of bonus (dare I say it Reithian?) content will not be possible once the station goes in March. Enjoy: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Anyone going on BBC this month should order one of these beforehand and let them sweat www.poppyshop.org.uk/products/pri...

I try not to respond to people with "actually I wrote a book about it" but I just had to on this occasion

I just assume that business lobby groups are lying when they drum up worst-case figures to oppose new policies. Like the private school lobby wildly inflating the number of pupils who would leave due to VAT on fees

What the hell are we doing people

The replies are an extraordinary catalogue of things that have objectively improved. If we didn't have the climate crisis and the far right authoritarians and the tech barons overshadowing everything I'd be whistling every day

This is out today, do NOT sleep on it. There could not be more perfect music for when it is shitting it down outside. Absolute warm hug from a best friend of an album.

After years of complaining that Romesh is in everything, I now understand why Romesh is in everything

I love the pop of audience recognition audible on a live recording when a beloved melody is recognized

I will say again: The divide in the Jewish community is not between Zionists and anti-Zionists, it's between people who view the Occupation as an unacceptable moral atrocity and these who view it as an inconvenience to be managed.

Have a great weekend everybody

They're throwing spaghetti at the wall. It doesn't mean it's not really dangerous - and whatever they try, we'll be prepared to counter - but folks should be clear that this is not some well-orchestrated highly competent plan unfurling.

Christ Dawkins is a nightmare these days. I knew that already but I hadn't seen him use such nakedly hateful language. Rowling writes her disingenuously careful "I'm a good person" essays and then her fans just come out and say it

Kudos to NBC New York for saying it without equivocation: "The US is to blame for the world falling behind in the fight against climate change."