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Fergus Murray

@fergus.oolong.co.uk

7K followers 5.1K following 8K posts

Monotropic writer, science tutor, autistic community organiser and independent researcher. Based in Edinburgh. Formerly @MxOolong elsewhere. they/them. https://linktr.ee/0olong

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · Jan 24

I thought I might make a pinned thread of my threads here (some of which are effectively photo albums) starting with this long Introductory thread:

bsky.app/profile/ferg...

Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · Nov 14

Hi everyone!

I'm Fergus Murray. I'm a science person, writer of nonfiction, and #Autistic community organiser (Chair of @amasedin.bsky.social). Also #ADHD, but I often just say I'm monotropic.

I'm here to post and learn more about #neurodiversity, politics, science, language and other things.

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Zito @zeets.bsky.social · 12h

Lot of people treated a genocide of a people, sponsored by their own country, as an annoying pet issue that needed to be shelved after the killing as complete or pushed aside for other political problems. And pretended that it was just too complicated to engage with.

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 14h

The Spectator (owned by GBNews owner Paul Marshall - estimated wealth of £800 million) doesn’t like taxing wealth fairly.

I wonder how they got to this editorial decision?

Let’s tax wealth fairly, fund front line services & make hope normal again.

join.greenparty.org.uk

Polanski is talking nonsense about wealth taxes.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 14h

2/ Democrats aren't going to vote for a budget that throws millions off health care and funds Trump's growing totalitarianism. At least I'm not.

Why work so hard to get to the Senate if you don't use your power to fight for what you believe in? Especially at a time like this.

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Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint @endseclusion.bsky.social · 4h

A new article from our friend Anne Borden King reminds us that the autism research world has a long history of getting autism wrong. https://endseclusion.info/48vKBl4 #EndSeclusion

A brief history of autism research: What science got wrong

Chapter 1, pt. 3 of The Children Do Not Consent, by Anne Borden King

endseclusion.info

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See A Germ @seeagerm.bsky.social · Sep 11

After the standards underpinning the World Wide Web were created in the early 90s, we decided the best way to fund the web’s development was through ads and not as a public resource like roads or libraries.

Every day I think about how different things would be if we’d gone the other way.

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Tiffany C. Li @tiffanycli.bsky.social · Sep 12

This thread is a calming read 🧵

Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · Sep 11

Please give me an unironic list of things that have gotten better over the last ten years because I’m spiraling.

I’ll start: you can buy an enormous TV from Costco for like $100 bucks now.

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Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 16h

Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int

Strasbourg 14/10/2025

www.coe.int

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New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 13h

Labour MPs have called on Rachel Reeves to scrap council tax.

🧵 In this thread @chaitanyakumar.bsky.social, NEF's Head of economic and environmental policy, outlines our proposal to address inequality through tax reform. 👇

Chaitanya Kumar @chaitanyakumar.bsky.social · 15h

Like stamp duty, council tax is reviled on the right and the left. Calls for reforming it are welcome and the govt. should at least get the ball rolling on that this budget. We propose:

☑️Proportional property tax
☑️Scrap SDLT
☑️Reform business rates with land tax
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labour MPs call on Rachel Reeves to scrap council tax

Exclusive: 13 mainly northern MPs say a new system should better account for higher house prices in south-east

www.theguardian.com

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Autistic Realms (Helen Edgar) @autisticrealms.bsky.social · 15h

What a fabulous conference.
Honoured to have been able to present at The Gestalt Language Processors Conference 2025 today with @thespeechden.bsky.social about:Child-Led Play and Monotropism in GLPs: A Journey of Re-Learning.
Thank you to all that joined us
Find out more: thespeechden.com/training/

Slides from the Gestalt Language Processors Conference 2025 presentation “Child-Led Play and Monotropism in GLPs: A Journey of Re-Learning.” Helen Edgar and Cathy Shilling discuss monotropism and deep focus, with slides showing “Monotropism” and “GLPs: Deep Focus & Intense Interests.” Logos for The Speech Den and Autistic Realms appear below.

Slides from the Gestalt Language Processors Conference 2025 presentation “Child-Led Play and Monotropism in GLPs: A Journey of Re-Learning.” Cathy Shilling and Helen Edgar explore language, interests, and autonomy through slides titled “Language Tied to Interests” and “What Is Child-Led Play? A Journey of Unlearning.”

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 14h

Me neither. Apparently he went on a racist rant on morning TV one time? I assume he must be famous for something else, though.

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Mark Thomas @markthomasinfo.bsky.social · 15d

Tour dates for Ordinary Decent Criminal are here:

painesplough.com/productions/...

Ordinary Decent Criminal - Paines Plough

Meet recovering addict Frankie, played by renowned political comedian Mark Thomas. Frankie’s just been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for dealing drugs. When he gets there, none of his fe...

painesplough.com

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 16h

Yup.

It seems relevant that the anti-trans moral panic has been stoked and funded by many of the same people who have been fighting against women's bodily autonomy for years...

bsky.app/profile/rtie...

Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh @rtie.org · 11d

The ongoing moral manic about trans people did not just arise organically.

Well-funded propaganda organisations associated with the so-called Christian right have deliberately stoked it as part of their broader campaign attacking the rights of women, gay people and others.
rtie.org/2025/08/03/f...

Far Right Christian Interference in UK Society

The following article was derived from a BlueSky post by Fergus Murray (linktree), which aggregated discussion forum links from the RTiE activist group. Any errors are my own. The Christian right, …

rtie.org

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Hrimhari @hrimhari.bsky.social · 19h

Yep. Biden defenders have created an alternate reality where the loss of 2024 seems to be entirely the fault of leftists (and, by proxy, trans people) and this is why they don't have to care about Gaza, or trans rights.

First removing Biden, then making Harris lose. Leftists are so powerful!

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Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 1d

When Biden violated US law to give Israel a thirty day deadline to comply with a series of steps in October 2024 I was assured by many people on here that he was finally going to impose consequences. Anyway Israel didn't comply with a single step and Blinken claimed they were in compliance anyway.

☀️ Starshine @starshine.bsky.social · 1d

fact it didn’t fucking work. It didn’t work electorally, it didnt work geopolitically, it didn’t work for tens of thousands of dead palestinians

how did joe biden spend the lame duck? great question, calling on world leaders to continue supporting israel after the likud coalition helped elect trump

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 16h

People forget how much of a consensus there was on trans rights in the UK, 10-15 years ago.

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 16h

Extremely weird that abortion was only fully decriminalised in the UK this year, and is still heavily gatekept.

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Dave Walker @davewalker.bsky.social · Aug 25

Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.

Diagram titled 'Possible causes of your problems'. On the left hand side, subtitled 'Yes': Funding removed from local councils, growing gap between rich and poor, multinational companies not paying their taxes, lack of new affordable housing, government not investing sufficiently in schools and healthcare. On the right hand side, subtitled 'No': Picture of small boat, with arrow; 'People fleeing horrific situations that you and I can't imagine'.

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 1d

having submitted my dissertation for my Classics MA a couple of weeks ago I have just started a first-year module in maths*.

the tutor is 77 and has been teaching with the OU for 56. we have access to the OU Maths magazine dating back to 1973. I'm very happy.

*I don't know, I'm just like this OK?

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Arseny Khakhalin @khakhalin.bsky.social · 1d

omg I though it's an exaggeration, but no, not at all! Hymenochaete corrugata, a fungus that evolved a strategy of "first glue it in place, then eat out the insides" in order to consume twigs in the air, avoiding competition with fungi on the ground!! 🤯

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenoc...

Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 1d

A stick, hanging in mid-air?
What's going on?

Hazel glue fungus!

Keeping a dead twig attached to a living stem allows the glue fungus to break it down without competition from the many other fungi that work at ground level. Nature is *so* amazing!

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Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 17h

Apparently it's someone called Rylan Clark? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · 17h

This is made even worse by the fact I don't think I've ever heard of Rylan Clark, whereas your involvement in a series always makes me interested in it.

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Q (they/them) @caffeinatedqueer.bsky.social · 4d

Stop wondering what you would have done in the Holocaust, start thinking and talking (offline! With trusted friends!) about what you can and will do right now.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 4d

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 4d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

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Nathan Keates @keatesresearch.bsky.social · 1d

Chapter 7: An Interest-Based Exploration of Monotropism and Its Use in the Classroom (pages 129–146)
Author: Ania Atkinson

📺 youtu.be/qC9FI6s73_w

#neurodivergentEducation

An interest-based exploration of Monotropism and its use in the classroom

YouTube video by Neurodivergent Education Books

youtu.be

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 1d

1. As some Democrats have run from transgender rights, Zohran Mamdani is showing what so many others have lacked: courage to lead with his values over pandering to focus groups.

The ad is one of the best things I've seen from a politician on transgender people.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

As Some Dems Run From Trans People, Zohran Mamdani's Latest Ad Shows Real Support

The 2 minute ad features Sylvia Rivera's story, Mamdani's commitment to transgender people, and even music from the legendary late trans artist SOPHIE.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Jerry Boyle @jecboyle.bsky.social · 1d

It’s happened to me countless times. I’m a gray-haired white dude in a jacket and tie, so they assume I’m in charge, and ask me for information.

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