Brit living in Toronto. Politics, books, jazz, Doctor Who and many more
Again, a fundamental issue with trying to cover the anti-trans movement is that explaining that they are habitually insincere and so routinely chose transphobia over women's rights does make you sound conspiratiorial, and yet...
andmccI don't know about topping, but there is a a very good followup
I have a very strong view that conspiracy theorists are basically the pseudo-intellectua equivalent of the girlfriend in canada: a thing you say when you feel a need to be important/the centre of attention.
gwen howertonas a zoomer it was extremely weird in college to see people say that helen keller wasn't real or was a hoax, like, for what reason
We are long overdue another world-stopping Adele lead single promo cycle.
tombreihanNumber Ones on Adele, who was probably the biggest pop star in the world until recently but who never acted much like a pop star, and on "Easy On Me," the last time that she obliterated everything else around her.
this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
David HoIs everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.
This is really apparent when you think about vintage clothing and the fact the majority of surviving true vintage is either 1) workwear or 2) military surplus: because both types were designed to survive as long as possible!
XaiaX ̆̈ (🏳️🌈)Given that I remember people in the 80s saying stuff “now” is disposable crap, unlike what they “used to make”, and now people talk about how stuff made “back then” (the 80s) was meant to last, I think we are at least partly living through multiple iterations of survivorship bias.
From a historical perspective it's a genuinely strange state of affairs that the Church of England turns out to be too woke for much of the modern right. But really it just feels like: having a consistent moral code that demands taking Lessers and Outgroup seriously is impossible for populist right.
Parody Nigel FarageMan who shagged his girlfriend behind his wife's back lectures the Archbishop of Canterbury on Christianity.
I do think fundamentally if your impulse a decade ago was "no, they're just racists" you would have had a better read, and practical response than anyone trying to understand "economic anxiety" and "hygiene factors."
Liam ThorpAndy Burnham correctly points out in an interview that small boat crossings are massively down this year compared with last. The comments in the post are filled with people suggesting he is lying about this very clear, data-evidenced fact. It’s almost as though they don’t want it to he true…
not just the right-wing media, half of centrist punditry was convinced that this was somehow going to be game-changing, out of a combination of affinity, idiocy, and their deep desire to surrender to perceived power.
Zoomer AntimillenarianI think the aftermath of the Kirk shooting really proves just how desensitized ordinary Americans have gotten to low-intensity gun violence, which to be fair is in part his own damn fault. To the right-wing media, though, the fact one of their own could get cut down like this was a genuine trauma.
it's kind of funny that No Way Home did absurdly well and Marvel took it as a sign that everyone loved the multiverse stuff and it was time to go full speed ahead with more, and now Brand New Day has done even better and it turns out it was mostly just a sign that everyone loved Spider-Man
This guy has anti-Semitic brain worms (among many other species of brain worm) and he needs to be treated as radioactive by every Democrat.
I think my most genuinely unpopular take is that a widely held and genuine consumer preference for cheaper, lower-quality goods, not private equity, is driving the decline in quality of consumer goods like clothing and housewares.
Jim Hackerr: I know exactly who watches 80-90s Star Trek Series. TNG is watched by people who think they run the country. DS9 is watched by people who think they ought to run the country. VOY is watched by people who actually do run the country (completely lost and without internal consistency)
Thread. Increasingly of the opinion that terminally online spaces are incapable of actually producing any good art bc any form of engagement with those spaces or attempts at commentary on them is just yet another level of allowing them to drive you insane.
PartisanPeople hearing about Slam Frank for the first time tonight will be shocked to discover that its main issue is that it is *too* self-aware, *too* cynical, and *too* irony-poisoned. Like, the thing it is ~parodying~ would be more interesting played straight than what the musical actuall is.
It is quite strange how little the actual public inquiry we're having into the UK's Covid response - the one that's publishing in-depth reports every few months - factors into the "you're not even allowed to ask these questions" complaints. We are, in fact, officially asking these questions!
The *best* mysteries are when the final solutions are surprising but also perfectly satisfying, like in retrospect the clues *were* there but you probably didn’t put them together. Psychological realism is part of them - that the characters’ motivations fit into what you know of them.
GPT-Ern MalleyThe sign of a good mystery novel is when you can basically put together the pieces at the 40% mark but there's just enough you aren't sure enough that you're relying on genre signals. The sign of a bad plot is when it's all on rails from the 30% mark and nothing excites from there.
arguably, a villain without a relatable point is a bad villain in the same way that a story where you root for the villain is a bad story
STEMthebleedingA Villain can have a point. It doesn't make them suddenly a good guy.
The Simpsons is a show that started in the 1980s based on the creators own childhood in the 1950s that continues into the 2020s; fortunately future cultural historians will be able to refer to it simply as taking place in the 'late Washington dynasty'
On This Day in Simpsons HistoryLisa Simpson’s wedding, which took place 15 years in the future at the time it aired, now takes place 16 years in the past. #TheSimpsons
All im saying is, as a canadian, it would feel better if all this wasnt continually framed as a business decision
Senator Patty MurrayTrump's ignorant choice to make an enemy of one of our strongest allies is having DIRECT results on U.S. tourism—and just like the rest of his policies, it's hurting our economy. My message to Canada: Washington state continues to welcome our Canadian friends and neighbors. 🇺🇸🇨🇦
The only time Clacton has ever had a Caribbean Vibe is when @mconcagh.bsky.social and I were there for half term holidays
Marie Le Contehave some concerns about whoever ends up booking a "Caribbean vibes" trip to the seaside and finds themselves spending the day in Clacton