Anecdontalist. He of the eponymous law. FRSA. Good at writing and sums. Degrowther, and not a fan of capitalism. Your pal. The Eye of Sauron, but for headlines. Made by socialism and immigration, which seems to annoy people.
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And if you didn't know, "trans-identified male" is the transphobes' preferred dog-whistle for trans woman. Linehan is repeating the current mantra, that simply being trans in public amounts to violence and abuse. I'm not making this up; it reflects the thinking of the people at e.g. Sex Matters.
The president is sending the military to control American cities and if you're a reporter who's framing that illegal power grab as "pushing the boundaries of constitutionality" or "acting boldly to fight crime" or whatever, please go find another line of work where you won't get us all killed.
Sounds like he’s giving the protesters the green light to do their worst. If they do it’s on him and no one else I wonder if McSweeney looks at Bluesky. If he did he would realise Starmer has lost his “base”
How is Donny Bonespurs demand for Putin stop this shit going, exactly? Where are we with that?
"Discounts", or, as some might call it, "a bribe"
Pritzker: "When did we become a country where it's ok for the US president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything? Especially something we don't want. Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation that we treat this as normal?"
Starmer: "Is there anything to be said for swinging just a little bit more to the right?"
So when some woman, who may or may not have been trans, dies from complications of an injury sustained at the boots of a toilet vigilante, their killer will be able to call both the PM and LOTO as witnesses that this was reasonable behaviour...
To be fair I should have written it right in the first place :)
Linehan's going to be ecstatic. At long last he's managed to get Rowling to give him some attention.
Cc @democrats.org
That’s what someone has *chosen to do* with AI, it’s no more “what AI does” than someone using a smartphone to record themselves killing someone is “what a smartphone does.” AI has no agency. It only does what people tell it to do.
It's the first time the capitalist class has felt like they have a real shot at reversing once and for all who gets to sell labor to whom. That's why they're all frothing at the mouth about AI.
It should! Where is my damned edit button.
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?
Another day, yet ANOTHER stupid, pointless announcement on immigration from this stupid pointless government. Today: you are a student - we're going to write you a stern letter about how you better not be thinking of staying! Insanity. Racist, cowardly, insanity. #r4today
Oh totally. But that’s a people problem, not a tech problem. Governments (and people generally) are suckers for promises of new tech (see also blockchain)
Oooh, danger Will Robinson! The question of whether humans (or any animal) have a “model of the world” is hotly debated. But you’re right, human errors are different. We can lie, and do, frequently. LLMs can’t lie. They have no intentionality.
I actually agree! No tool can produce creative work on its own. But LLMs don’t do this - what they do is initiated by a person.
To a degree, yes - although I think the idea that we fact check politicians falls apart a bit when your consider Farage’s success.
Sure! But we also believe our mate down the pub when he says that dogs can’t look up. Or we trust the front of the Mail, telling all the country’s problems are down to immigrants. We’re just bad at trusting.
"I'm being as racist as I can" tearful Starmer tells voters
One of the amusing things about teenagers is the way they can take at 100 miles an hour for ten minutes without apparently taking a breathe while a question from a parent can turn them monosyllabic
Labour enabled this. There's no other possible conclusion.
"the fact that Apple/Google exempt Uber and Lyft from the 30% app tax means that they – and they alone – can provide competitive ride-hailing services." ~Cory Doctorow pluralistic.net/2025/09/01/f...
Tech improves. In ten years time, LLM-based chat agents will (probably) be far more accurate. That won’t fix any of the underlying problems. It won’t bring back disappeared jobs. It won’t make being an artist any more of a viable job. But those things are about capitalism, not AI.
It’s down to a system where the owners of capital are politically dominant. And I just wish that we could accelerate to the point where people understand that, and stop making arguments about how accurate (or not) it is.
Much of what makes the current wave of AI problematic is not what it does, but who owns it, who benefits, and how it once again skews wealth into the hands of owners of capital. It’s politics, not tech.
Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to remember this “can’t be a trusted source” argument being made very forcefully about Wikipedia, back in the day.
Because humans are randomly incorrect, they cannot be a source of trusted information. The fact that their output is overly confident in tone only makes this worse. (Not knocking Jacob, whose point is good - but with statements like these, you can almost always substitute “human” for “AI”)
Technically a species, surely?
Trump can diss California all he wants, but here we have alert systems notifying everyone when an elderly, sickly, confused adult goes missing.
Well this is dangerous and shoddy journalism - even by GB News standards. Some TV Doctor I’ve never heard of saying that transitional surgery shouldn’t be available on the NHS. This surgery is already hard enough to access on there. It saves lives. Cherry picking who gets healthcare is worrying
I endorse this message. I see 3 big problems - failures of online culture , the most toxic voices feeling legitimised & 2 major parties anxious & mute We also have a significant potential coalition of support, capacity and resources to push back strongly bsky.app/profile/step...
Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be
Just to be absolutely clear, this is the Labour government, categorically, and unambiguously, stating that human rights are predicted upon where you are born. That's the outcome of this.
Sad to hear that Chris Bidmead has died. Although most people will know him from his work on Doctor Who, I remember him from his occasional calls pitching MacUser – always starting with a voice booming "Hello Ian, Bidmead here." He'll be missed.
Ten Blue Links, "will people stop doing interesting things with AI" edition: https://www.ianbetteridge.com/ten-blue-links-will-people-stop-doing-interesting-things-with-ai-edition/
I approve of this law
Lest we Canadians start feeling complacent…. 😱
Watching this strangely insightful documentary/commentary on Joe Rogan and his comedy cult, thinking: we seem to be living in a time of cultlike devotion to celebrities/influencers mediated by new and social media, a kind of parasocial cult culture. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewvR...
There really isn’t much more to say than that, is there?
An absolute masterclass from UK Quakers on how organisations of all kinds can stand up for the rights and safety of trans people, even post Supreme Court ruling and with all of the EHRC's cruelties: www.quaker.org.uk/documents/re...
I'd love to see their evaluation of how much this will save, plus their evaluation of what the costs would be to switch to another system if it all goes pear shaped. Plus of course data privacy etc etc. (Councils are marks for these sharks)
The T is the current target. The LG is next! #transrights #LGBTQIAplus
I sure as shit don't miss the 80s.
This is an absolute slap in the face to every single serviceperson who has protected this country and the Constitution. Ashli Babbitt was a traitor who deserves no recognizance whatsoever. Every person involved in this decision deserves the same.
there was a fat bloke in a vest trying to paint on Wootton Basset mini roundabout yesterday and the landlord of the pub over the road came outside and told him to, and I quote, "go home you silly old cunt" so he did. This is how you deal with these people.
I have a book out in two weeks. So....one repost of this and I'll drop one fact/spoiler/detail about the book. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social www.walker.co.uk/978152951581...
a glimpse of what #reform would do nationally given half the chance. #starmer needs to wake up and push back before it is too late...
This. All day long. A daily barrage of comment treating refugees as the root of all societal ills has not been countered by the UK Government, and has even been fed by its vacillating over fundamental rights. It's now become mainstream and the genuine problems facing society have been pushed aside.
Anyone know any trans groups in Berlin? Kennt jemand Trans-Gruppen in Berlin?
Oooh that’s a good one!
Ruin a book by adding “Tom Clancy’s” to the title. The Lion, the Witch and Tom Clancy’s Wardrobe
Interruptions cost 23 minutes 15 seconds, right?
A friend made a very astute observation yesterday about the fact that, at the heart of whatever is going on with British politics right now, there's an extent to which everyone is scared of everyone else, which is thoroughly depressing but almost certainly true.
Whatever happens when voting closes on Saturday, this is my last week as Green Party Deputy Leader. I just want to say a huge thank you to every single member - your energy has powered me across England & Wales these past few years.
Of course Telegraph, and others, opening gambit about the horrific school shooting in Minneapolis is to focus on attacker allegedly being trans. You notice no-one ever says "white man" in relation to other shootings. The shooter's gender identity is irrelevant to the hideous crime they committed.
This is the dumbest propaganda fake statistic I've ever seen. It presents in a rate of per million population when there's only 2.8 million trans people in the entire country. A single trans mass shooter would show up in this and that's exactly what it shows.
Ruin a book by adding "Tom Clancy's" to the title: Tom Clancy's Tom Clancy's Power and Empire (by Marc Cameron)
It shows such a basic lack of political understanding that Labour didn't go straight on the attack over this. Just because most people are worried about immigration being too high it doesn't mean they're psychopaths.
Tom Clancy’s Fun with Dick and Jane
Perhaps rather than endlessly promoting Mr Farage, the national media could highlight what his local councillors are doing - as demonstrated here by @northantstelegraph.bsky.social www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/...
Amazing how such small numbers have been identified as the voice of the nation when, for comparison, 100,000 turned out for trans pride last month in London.
Seeing some politicians competing for just how brutal and dehumanising they can be to vulnerable minorities - I can’t help comparing that to 16th and 17th witch trials. It’s so depressing.
Fall for the series that inspired the Apple TV hit with the all-new Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries + More Bundle! Supports @wck.org | https://bit.ly/4lFLFFL
So Trump plans to extort an ownership share for the federal government in "many more" companies. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...
This is a great read and made me go “oh my god *that* is why there’s that weird effect on a load of YouTube shorts” (I had assumed it was something that made it harder for ContentID to work)
THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY. Yall, we gotta talk about this absolute brick-brained human being. Let me introduce you to Michelle Tandler:
Oh yes. Several times 😊
Oh dear, what have they done?
Another example of @ianbetteridge.com 's law, but a question that no responsible media should be asking. The fact that we can openly discuss drowning migrants shows how far right this sordid debate has shifted.
Ah, a classic @ianbetteridge.com law one today: www.theguardian.com/technology/2... (No, and ffs this stuff is just the worst kind of anthropomorphism, focus on the actual real issues, not fairytales!)
A clearer No you could not find.
No new pictures, where are you mentally.
Does Not Rhyme -through -cough -though -rough -bough Does Rhyme -pony -bologna
I am fascinated by people who still insist that the Washington Post is somehow still “liberal,” as if it has some inherent institutional attribute making it count as left-leaning regardless of how much deranged pro-regime propaganda it runs. It’s like a journalistic version of flat-earthers.
A great (extremely tedious) example of @ianbetteridge.com' Rule.
100% No.
Where the US has serious problems, the UK is not far behind… …this trend is also happening in the UK. It’s extremely dangerous.
Ten Blue Links, "A kind of homecoming" edition: https://www.ianbetteridge.com/ten-blue-links-a-kind-of-homecoming-edition/
Some notes, from an airport, on this dumb performative decision, which is calculated to appeal to vapid totalitarian twats. /1 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Haven’t we all suffered enough?
BREAKING: Award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty has been arrested after wearing a T-shirt reading 'Genocide in Palestine, time to take action' Police arrested the I, Daniel Blake writer in Edinburgh this morning
The government is expanding the use of private companies to deliver NHS services. For large scale projects, private delivery (mostly through failed "partners" like Capita) remains the default. These are all marks of neoliberalism and a failure of a more radical, interventionist view of government.
Unfortunately Starmer also has an authoritarian streak a mile wide – see, for example, the witless proscription of Palestinian Action, the enthusiasm for the Online Safety Act, and so on. It's a dreadful mix, and one which will see Labour lose the next election.
But now we have a Labour leadership that's both socially conservative AND economically Thatcherite, buying into the neoliberal consensus that services should be privately run, the state shouldn't intervene too much, etc.
There has always been a part of the Labour Party that's socially conservative, thankfully usually drowned out by progressive voices. In the dim and distant past, this mostly came alongside more hardcore left economic and political views. Government intervention. State-owned industry. Etc.
I like this piece by Anand Menon, but I have one quibble. He notes that it's not obvious where the electoral benefit is coming from. But what if Starmer et al aren't veering right for the votes... but because this is what they actually believe?
I have to say, much as I can't stand Clegg, that is one of the best burns I have ever seen.
Realised I didn't link to the source – bad me! www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...
After Louis Theroux's broadcast, you might hope the government stepped in to keep the peace, right? Like a normal government would. Nope. Issa Amro, a Palestinian who took part in the programme, was threatened with arrest, his house raided by settlers and soldiers.
These Ultra-Orthodox settlers are the Jewish of Hamas – radical, violent, and determined to drive Palestinians into the sea. And they often act with the support of the Israeli state, either tacit or direct.
Meanwhile, the BBC broadcasts an entire documentary (rightly, in my view) interviewing radical Israeli settlers. Can you imagine if the BBC interviewed Palestinian radicals, in any context?
So the BBC isn't going to broadcast Hozier's set because he's calling for exactly the same policy as the UK goverment – a Palestinian state and a meaningful peace protest. Spineless, craven, contemptable.
Well, they do say three's a crowd.
This is a very detailed and interesting post which shows that parallels with the FWW run deeper than trenches and mud. The small-group infiltration tactics @ldfreedman.bsky.social describes here were a feature of 1918 on the western front. The Australians called it ‘peaceful penetration’ 1/2