Harry Smart (@munross.bsky.social)

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Montrose, Scotland. Munross was the Viking name for Montrose. Poetry (Faber, Drunk Muse) Fiction (Dedalus). Social theory (Routledge) Photos. Drums. Greens, Kirk, #LUFC. Aspiring #İstanbul çocuğu.

1.4K followers 3.7K following1.2K posts

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Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

7 Nov 2025

Yeniçeriler Caddesi, #Istanbul, late summer evening. Walking through quiet crowded streets to the #medrese to smoke a nargile and talk with friends. #streetphotography

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

21h

Blimey, Hollingrake on #Newsnight Somewhere, in a builder's yard, someone's saying 'I'm sure I had two short planks here yesterday.'

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

so the story about Kushner paying a hitman, etc, .. it's 'Categorically' false. I'd have expected him to say it was false, but now he's said 'categorically' it must really be false. Like, really, really, really false.

Harry Smart reposted

Action to Protect Rural Scotland

@aprscotland.bsky.social

There are only 12 days left to object to a 1000MW data centre in Dumfries and Galloway. We have written some advice to help people write objections to this hyperscale AI data centre that would use the same energy as nearly a third of the Scottish economy. aprs.scot/chapelcros...

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

"Datacentres ultimately have very little benefit for others except the datacentre operator" Lesson for Scotland here. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentreCompany ordered to stop work at two sites in country, which has found itself at forefront of tech firms’ latest push

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

see aprs.scot/data-centres...

aprs.scotAPRS Hyperscale Data Centres Campaign - Action to Protect Rural ScotlandData centres are the biggest threat to Scotland's net zero target and to our countryside. Join our campaign!

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

one of the funniest things there's been on #Newsnight for years is Denise Coffey sitting with a glazed expression while grown ups talk about Ukraine and Russia.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

what on earth was the point of Obergruppenfuehrer Mumford? #Newsnight

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Wonderful tribute to Neil Peart .. tears towards the end, for the closing of Neil's life, and then again for joy seeing the music come to life again with Anika. #Rush great work too from Danny Carey, Stewart C, Gavin H and Chad Smith. #befitting youtu.be/-LXbnS0RmM4?...

youtu.beNeil Peart： No One’s DiscipleYouTube video by Tom H

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

a couple from the autumn garden, sonbahar bahçesi #photography, #naturephotography, #autumn, #sonbahar

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Long thread on collectivising Nidal Hasan's execution, on scapegoating as an efficient political mechanism (as clarified by Rene Girard). Why watching will irreversibly marry you with those who enjoy killing.

View full thread

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

This is what counts for collectivisation: not Hasan's murder of 13 people, but the decision to collectivise his execution, deny his dignity as a human being, to make him someone in whose killing all must take part.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Trump and Hegseth aren't theorists of social mechanisms but they instinctively understand how scapegoating works. The mechanism comes from inside us as all violence does, as if in our DNA. But understanding it makes it easier to say no.

In the story of the woman 'taken in adultery' (Where was the man!). Jesus doesn't dispute her guilt. The crowd have their stones. He calls for one man to identify himself. The unity is broken. The crowd disperse, still angry but now at who?

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Hasan's guilt was determined by due process (afaik) over time: charges, trial, counsel, deliberation over guilt or innocence, deliberation over verdict. Contrast that with the suddenness of the decision to livestream his death.

Then the Ephesians recognized that he was a demon, and they stoned him so thoroughly that their stones were heaped into a great cairn around him." 'Did you throw a stone?' .. even if you threw to miss, you threw.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Some maybe enjoyed an excuse to kill. Some went along with the crowd. Some did it out of a sense of religious or civic duty. But they all threw (and of course the plague was stopped: this is an idealising story to legitimate sacrifice).

Girard uses an ancient story: Ephesus is struck by plague, wise man Apollonius of Tyana is called. He leads the crowd to a temple. He sees an old, blind beggar, declares him an enemy of the gods, and urges the crowd to stone him.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

When the first stones hit, the beggar's eyes open. "...the beggar who had seemed to blink and be blind, gave them all a sudden glance and showed that his eyes were full of fire. ..

What reveals this is the suddenness of the decision to collectivise the klling: it didn't happen after careful consideration in a Congress or Parliament. It didn't come out of a debate over ethics or law. Whim, but not casual whim.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

(Whim isn't always innocent or thoughtless. It's often decision apart from law or rules, decision as demonstration of power by an authoritarian. We could go down a Bodin / Agamben / Sovereignty rabbit hole here BUT WE WON'T)

But when it's over, there'll be two groups. 'Did you watch the livestream?'. And everyone who watched it, without exception, will be part of that in group. That agreement to watch will unite people who watched with different beliefs or intent.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

It will come down to one quesion, 'Did you watch?'. The answer is the moment that creates unity, the tie that binds: all nuance will be irrelevant. The mechanism will have worked as efficiently as the guns.

This process always appeals to leaders who see their people on the brink of losing it: either in violence against each other, or against the leaders. If a leader gives the command to kill, he's suddenly the strong man who restored peace.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

People will watch the livestream with all sorts of motives; some sadistically, some atavistically, some with sadness to stand in solidarity with Hasan, some to be able to express more compelling protest. Some out of sheer curiosity.

Once a scapegoat is identified, the crowd does lethal violence. Now 'we're all in this together'. Enemies have become allies. The desire to see violence done to an enemy has been satisfied. For a time, the wider tensions are dissipated.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

(Not gone for good, as the ringleaders always claim they will be. Humans always find others' stuff to covet, even to need; many humans like to hoard or flaunt their stuff - like Oxford students burning £50 notes in front of poor people.)

The process shows a little more clearly when the victim is innocent (in ancient times think Iphigenia, Jesus) but the mechanism is the same.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

It goes like this: there are conflicts in the wider collective that threaten to break out in widespread violence. Those conflicts are typically over stuff that some people have that others want. No shortage of that in America.

The Trump / Hegseth et al. plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan exactly conforms to the classic pattern of scapegoating an individual in order to create unity in the wider collective.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

The classic pattern has been laid out by Rene Girard, shown in historical settings and mythical texts. The first thing to note is that the guilt or innocence of the victim is irrelevant to the way the mechanism works.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

trying these in colour, when I posted them in bw bluesky showed the uploads ok while I created the post, then rendered them all as solid black rectangles when the post went up. Anyone else had that happen? #nature #garden, #sonbahar, #sonbaharbahçesi #photography #blackandwhite

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

the colour ones, like the bw I took down, show on my screen as solid black rectangles. The images have alt text and I find it kind of fascinating, as a sighted person, to see the solid black rectangle and, though I remember the images, I'm now reconstructing them in my mind from the alt text.

Harry Smart reposted

Talking-up Scotland

@talking-upscotland.bsky.social

talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/10/07/p...

talkingupscotlandtwo.comPolice Scotland clear-up rate for ‘revenge porn’ is TEN times that in England & WalesIn the Guardian today, the above and: Police forces are routinely failing to investigate complaints about the circulation of image-based abuse, previously known as “revenge pornography”, according …

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

if he's willing to sacrifice a city in the US then there isn't a city outside of the US that he won't even more willingly sacrifice. This isn't just the end of NATO, this is the US ripping up every alliance it has around the world.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "With the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay ... let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay."

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

In 2011 Jeff Bezos, worth $18bn, claimed $4k in tax allowances for his children. (link in reply). Badenoch's policy proposals come from the world of ultra-rich tax avoidance. She wants an economy in which the rich don't pay their share. I wonder why.

The Guardian@theguardian.com

Badenoch says Tories want policies ‘for everybody’ as she defends plan to let millionaires to get free childcare – UK politics live

theguardian.comBadenoch says Tories want policies ‘for everybody’ as she defends plan to let millionaires to get free childcare – UK politics liveConservative leader defends plan to extend free childcare to high earners, as Tory conference begins in Birmingham today In a further exchange, Badenoch said that spending on the pensions triple lock was just “a ledger on the budget line”. Kuenssberg said Badenoch was wrong to dismiss it like that. State spending on pensions was £177bn, she said. The reason why is because what is going wrong in our economy is not lots of elderly people earning £10,000, £12,000 a year on the state pension. It is the huge number of people who can work, who don’t work. We’ve had different policies at different times. We go with what the leader does. I am the leader now and what I am saying is that our economy is not growing. Changing and moving around the triple lock does not create growth. In fact, if we were growing at 2 or 3%, nobody would be talking about the triple lock. Continue reading...

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Here's the ProPublica research from 2021 into tax avoidance by the ultra-rich in the US. www.propublica.org/article/the-...

propublica.orgThe Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income TaxProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, ev...

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

Gaza 2023 & 2026. Image flips at 5 seconds. animation by @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Harry Smart reposted

John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz.bsky.social

JD Vance, a professed Christian, continues to demonize undocumented immigrants in a pathetic attempt to distract voters from the ways he and Donald Trump have decimated our economy, dragged us into an illegal war, and abandoned the needs of the people... johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/to-hell-wi...

johnpavlovitz.substack.comTo Hell With The Hateful, Heretical Christianity of JD VanceI don’t imagine Jesus was the litigious type, but if he were on the planet right now, I’m pretty sure he’d sue JD Vance for false association or identity theft.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

slightly gobsmacked by #Newsnight's avoidance of the question, esp with Douglas Alexander. Why should Scottish pensioners contribute to an England-only care service. DA given a free ride to affirm Labour's Unionism in face of obvious anti-Scottish (& Welsh and NI) policy.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

elected politician berates elected politicians for getting involved with #Drumcree march confrontation www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

@primevideouk.bsky.social why on earth is your commentator for the #Turkey - #France game bellowing at the microphone? Doesn't he understand it will pick up his voice if he talks like a normal person? Has he taken some sort of throat pastille and it's gone badly wrong? Are his testicles in a vice?

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

21 Sept

of all the not a story stories, Ed Davey's tribulations as Lib Dem leader are the not a storiest. #Newsnight

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

19 Sept

This is like the most hideous Pass the Parcel you ever had to endure at somebody's birthday party when you were a kid and they were little more than an acquaintance. And you were too young to say 'Not another fucking layer'. #Strictly

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

19 Sept

So, #Strictly .. two new presenters, Emma and Johannes, and a spare.

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

18 Sept

sorry, #Newsnight, you've lost me on Fridays with the time switch. early evening on Friday is unwind time

Harry Smart reposted

ourpower.bsky.social

@ourpower.scot

14 Sept

It's no secret that we need renewables, but shouldn't we at least make sure the right people are benefitting from them? Right now, big energy corporations are reaping the rewards and our communities are seeing very little economic benefits. 💸 It's time to change that.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⚡️

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

14 Sept

I'd like to see Daniel Farke get his boots on for the last fifteen minutes. Shame he's not registered. #lufc

Harry Smart reposted

Forward Democracy

@fwddem.com

14 Sept

Reform says it wants to take us back to “the country that was”. What a lie. They want to tear up institutions this country helped create, turn our backs on Europe and abandon the international order we helped build. That isn’t patriotism. It’s national vandalism.

Harry Smart reposted

Dan Miller

@dan--miller.bsky.social

10 Sept

Corporate profits just hit a record 13.2% of GDP. Wages simultaneously fell to a record-low 41.1%. This is the political economy of modern capitalism: record profits, a shrinking share for workers, and corporations spending billions on political donations and lobbying to maintain the status quo.