We Old Cordeliers

"Winston felt his palms turning towards the sky, ready to raise the roof. His body was powerless to the hype. There was only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the BODY of another human being, between himself and the Spirit Tunnel." buff.ly/bb88B0T

The civil war in civil war (2024, dir. Alex garland) was over whether digger is good or not

Despite the horrors, there’s been some great science this week. New cat and two brains!

A loving God would never plan Dallas.

I have no words. Pew can't even fill in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th-ranked countries for this year because there weren't any. bsky.app/profile/patr...

The response to 9/11 intensified an “imperial arrogance,” as Edward Said called it, “unschooled in worldliness, unfettered either by competence or experience, undeterred by history or human complexity, unrepentant in its violence and the cruelty of its technology.” Adom Getachew on its aftermath:

Aid Cuts Shut 600 Health Facilities Across Afghanistan, Affecting 4 Million #Khaama #Afghanistan

[guy who can’t fully remember that Gramsci quote] it’s Monster Time

They're charging my ass with loss of ideals and convictions.

Disgraceful. Relative of Afghans Who Helped U.S. Military Is Deported to Africa. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/29/u...

Full body jumpscared by this t-shirt in a secondhand store. The ghost of fandom past is at my shoulder.

An incredible story. The Iranian Christian woman who wrote “help” on the glass on the hotel in Panama has finally found permanent safety; in Canada. The Trump admin deported her to Panama soon after taking office, rather than let her seek asylum. Read her story 👇 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/w...

Very happy to see former colleagues at Ghent University, where I was a postdoc, raising their voices about this.

That one homie who is likely a syncretic combination of multiple figures, both historical and legendary

Isn't serious until Pakistan gets involved.

One of my more impressive feats (byproduct of being in a touring band)

I rejected an adjunct offer this week because it involved a four-day turnaround for 2 classes, one of which had an LMS shell totally set up for software the district had lost access to and the other of which claimed in its 1st unit that Chinese sailors visited the US in 1421.

yeah man "woke 1" sucked ass. I "woke 1" morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed into a giant insect

Not to be some wild-eyed innocent, but I think it should be slightly bigger news that The Lancet have crunched the numbers and found that Musk's USAID cuts will kill 14 million people. And that's just by 2030. That's 9,600 people a day, every day, until the next world cup rolls around.

Some brutal commentary on Habermas and Forst from Lorna Finlaysone here. (I thought LF was on bluesky but I can't find her to tag)

Blimey this is a good blog from @laurenleek.eu on how algorithms tend us towards monocultures and that markets won’t save us without some help. Read, and follow her laurenleek.substack.com/p/temperatur...

‘We are still here’: a day in the life of 12 Afghan women #Guardian #Afghanistan

Absolutely absurd minimizing of the catastrophe that was the withdrawal, the level of U.S. government incompetence involved, the damage it continues to do to US reputation— including within the U.S., among veterans and aid workers.

‘Her face was beaten in’: how Taliban rule ushered in a new era of women being killed #Guardian #Afghanistan

A great interview on running an art institution in Iran. "We are under pressure from several directions at once, and the pressures are not even aligned with one another. Each comes from a different place, but all of them converge on the same point: the impossibility of standing on any solid ground."

“There's an old saying in Clausewitz—I know it's in Jomini, probably in Clausewitz—that strategy is the use of battles for... for... battles get you the thing you want.”

Reminder that the Tories believe any non-British person who commits more than a minor parking or traffic offence should be automatically deported. They “believe in second chances”, apparently, but only for literal Nazis.

MacIntyre again

shoutout to muslim fish, i didnt know animals without lungs could become mu'minun since it complicates reciting the shahada but maybe they've just really clamped down on fish charity to make up for it with zakat

"What world lies beyond this sea I do not know, but every sea has another shore and I will arrive." - seen in a cemetery on Italian island Lampedusa, where people who die at sea are buried.

Really something when you see how many people with all the right opinions are not interested in giving even 3 hours a week of their time to some kind of practical endeavor that improves the world.

I got hit (as a pedestrian) by a car in Westchester County when I was a college student. I woke up to three or four worried strangers putting a jacket under my head and telling me the ambulance was coming!

These third country deportations are among the most evil acts of the Trump administration. They're trying to extrajudicially punish people for seeking asylum, up to and including with death.

Chips designed to jumpscare Eve Barlow