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Ric Crossman

@riccrossman.bsky.social

85 followers 67 following 470 posts

Statistician. Educator. Union man. Occasional pop culture critic for ATB Publishing (and himself). Just wants everyone to be happy, a fact that has made a number of people EXTREMELY angry. He/him/Comrade.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · Apr 1

Plus, the first Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations book is out in paperback, if that's the sort of thing you think you might be into (and you live in the UK).

www.idfc.co.uk/product-page...

Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations Volume 1.1 (paperback+1st class postage) | Infinite Diversity,

The first volume of IDFC in weighty paperback form! Contains essays on every episode of Season 1 of The Original Series (including "The Cage"), along with pieces on The Motion Picture, James Blish's S...

www.idfc.co.uk

Reposted by Ric Crossman

Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 5h

A vote on removing trans people's human rights would probably get through parliament, the Tories would support it and the Labour right, but at least we would have a list of MPs to target in the next election, in addition to the ones we already know are transphobic.

Ashleeee 🌊🪭 @reactiveashley.bsky.social · 19h

If we’re running a letter writing campaign, why don’t we tell MPs that the EHRC is asking for their approval or rejection?

Ashleeee 🌊🪭 @reactiveashley.bsky.social · 19h

4/ The next battle is likely to take place in Parliament, and we need to ensure the draft Code is rejected. We should start spreading the message and tell MPs that the EHRC is pushing for a vote. I mean they just released a video acknowledging that our sovereign Parliament has the final say. 🤭

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 4h

And perhaps that sounds like splitting hairs, but I'm worried that by expanding the label of fascism we ultimately make it harder to recognise that non-fascist governments can be precisely the kind of blood-hungry callous bigoted cowards we're currently suffering under.

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 4h

I don't actually agree Starmer's government is fascist. I agree they're hard-right authoritarians with blood on their hands, who can't wait to get *more* blood on their hands. That, in itself, vile and horrifying and damaging as it is, isn't in itself fascism.

Reposted by Ric Crossman

Jana Bacevic @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 14h

just out of curiosity, fellow people working in UK universities:

imagine, 4 years from now, your uni got offered the kind of "deal" Trump is now offering to US universities (basically, heel, and we will leave you alone). would you want your employer to take it? y/n

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 14h

I would submit that, post-Sussex, this is already what is happening in UK universities regarding treating trans staff and students with basic human decency. Which, handily, also gives you my answer (not that you didn't already know it ;) ).

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 1d

A useful - though not particularly pleasant - question to ask oneself at this point: if Starmer's government actively *wanted* both to replace themselves with fascists, and to give those fascists as free reign as possible to target those they despise, what would they actually be doing differently?

Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 1d

that didn't take long

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

Good Law Project @goodlawproject.bsky.social · 1d

“The UK stands at a crossroads. Are we going to be a nation that respects its human rights obligations, or are we going to abandon them whenever the rightwing press demands it? First immigrants, then trans people – who next, Sir Keir?” – Jo Maugham (@goodlawproject.org)
https://goodlaw.social/icp3

European human rights chief warns against trans exclusion in the UK

Human rights commissioner calls on parliament to make sure guidance following the Supreme Court’s decision in April promotes inclusion.

goodlaw.social

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 3d

The tell is when the "free speech" warrior's argument equates to "the people criticizing me are silencing me and should therefore be made to shut up."

It's a pretty obvious tell; makes you wonder about those who keep falling for it time after time after time. Or maybe not wonder so much.

Dr Kat Day (she/her) @chronicleflask.katday.com · 3d

They always start with free speech. It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Free speech? And they can use it to shut down anyone who criticises them, because it’s all “free speech”

After “free speech” it’s “protecting women and girls”

And then it’s whatever they actually wanted.

Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 3d

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.

Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 4d

...But we've seen multiple times at both local and national levels, just within the last half-decade, that management can and will budge when enough of us put down our laser pointers and red pens. Claiming otherwise does nothing but make what increasingly feels like our only option all the harder.

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 4d

I love @ukhenews.bsky.social, but this isn't true *at all*. It's certainly *hard* to mobilise to the extent that industrial action bites hard enough in UK HE - managers have worked very hard to reduce IA effectiveness, as opposed to, you know, actually addressing the major underlying issues...

UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 4d

A problem UCU has to contend with is that academics have no leverage over management in UK HE.

Refusing to teach or mark is no problem for senior management, as they can bypass academic roles.

In fact, they are itching to sell degrees without any substantive academic involvement.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 5d

Glad you're broadly OK, at least.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 5d

Shit! Are you OK?

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 9d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 9d

"As the US author Ta-Nehisi Coates recently said of the Democrats, “if you can’t draw the line at genocide, you probably can’t draw the line at democracy”. The same applies to the Labour government."

It starts with Palestine protests. But where will the crackdown on Britain’s democratic freedoms end? | Owen Jones

In making dissent a privilege, not a right, Labour is crafting a repressive toolkit. Imagine it in the hands of a Farage government, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 9d

School/college and uni students.

A new project you may want to consider doing this semester/term.

Just an idea. Not an endorsement.

Players' bathrooms made gender neutral after students remove signs with drill
The demonstration marked the beginning of DU Players "Women ' Week"

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Reposted by Ric Crossman

Dundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 9d

Our members have voted to support industrial action to fight against job cuts passed today!

In the ballot our 72% of members were in favour of strike action, and 90% in favour of action short of strike. Turnout was 58%.

Thank you to all members, reps and officials for helping us get the vote out.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

"I am uncomfortable being criticised, therefore the only logical conclusion is that I am perfect."

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

Union work over for the weekend; time to read up on the definition of children's literature. Multitudes; I contains them!

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

"People of colour went too far. Trans people went too far. The left went too far. Sadly this leaves me no other choice but to watch another season of Great British Bake-Off and hope it drowns out the screams."

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

It's certainly endlessly infuriating how many people in this country (mostly but somehow not exclusively cis-het white middle class dudes who aren't disabled) see a new outrage against the populace, and desperately grab for any excuse they can find for not actually doing anything about it.

Jana Bacevic @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 10d

Forever this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

But we'll never know, because he's obviously not going to do that. His position is whatever the last person who spoke to him told him it should be. He's Sorrento-Gillis in The Expanse: "He doesn't care about treason; that's just him parroting you because you talked to him last." 2/2

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

It's maybe possible he could turn this around, by admitting he's been duplicitous, committing to a coherent strategy, and actually taking multiple actions demonstrating that commitment is real, and not subject to change as soon as the press yell at him. MAYBE. 1/2

Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

There is literally nothing Starmer can say to win back those who have abandoned Labour, because his words carry no weight. This is no less true of the anti-Tory right as it is of everyone to the left of Morgan McSweeeney. No-one has any reason to believe he's an honest broker. 2/2

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 10d

I mean, this is fundamentally the problem, isn't it. Starmer is demonstrably a habitual and shameless liar. It's the only way he got to be Labour leader in the first place (he got to be PM because Nigel Farage let him, something a lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to distract from). 1/2

Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 10d

Interesting analysis by @josh.politics.co.uk of Starmer’s new strategy.

Starmer’s problem is that, with all his policy “reversals” to euphemise the term “lies”, are people ever going to believe Starmer the storyteller, any more than Starmer the dishonest out-and-out lying toe-rag.

Josh Self @josh.politics.co.uk · 10d

“Starmer positioned Labour as Reform’s antithesis and antidote. He defined the nature of the populist threat, and presented a theory to explain its moral failings. In other words: Starmer told a story.”
www.politics.co.uk/week-in-revi...

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 11d

All of this, but the analogy stretches even further: when all the imaginary problems ascribed to the ECHR don't get fixed (because, again, THEY DON'T EXIST), those who dragged us out of the EU and dragged us out of the ECHR will start looking for another even more extreme "solution".

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 11d

Leaving the ECHR is just another "cause" that right-wing lunatics can latch onto.

It's Brexit 2.

And like the original most people backing, it don't understand it, don't really believe in what they
are doing and do not care one jot what havoc it causes.