Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 1h

The Batman “weapon of the enemy” meme but for cults of personality.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 2h

Alex Salmond’s niece has criticised the tribute to the former first minister at the SNP conference as falling 'far short of what he deserved'

SNP conference tribute to Alex Salmond 'far short of what he deserved', says niece

www.thenational.scot

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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3h

Put it this way: I am every bit as worried that Labour are threatening Reform with violence as I was concerned that e.g. Stonewall are bigots, the Labour left are Hitlerian racists or the National Trust are anti-British traitors. These are the stupid prizes we have won for playing stupid games.

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Paul McMc @paulmcmc.bsky.social · 3h

The political/media class really doesn't want to talk about this.

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 1d

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election

Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

www.desmog.com

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 4h

Really good piece from Jane Bradley and co at NYT.

Earlier this summer Democracy for Sale revealed how anti abortionists, including ADF, were pumping money into the U.K.

Free Speech Union still hasn’t responded to our queries. Funny that…

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/us-antiabo...

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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 4h

If you wondered why Nigel Farage turned up in US Congress in September speaking about "freedom of speech", this story has the answer

His appearance was orchestrated by a powerful American anti-abortion group that is trying to increase its influence in the UK by influencing the free speech debate

Jane Bradley @bradleyjane.bsky.social · 8h

NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

www.nytimes.com

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 6h

As put in a memorable Fry & Laurie sketch, Thatcherism took away the singular set of metal cutlery with which we all could have ate for the rest of our lives, and gave us the freedom to choose between a hundred thousand plastic coffee stirrers instead.

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 13h

It is 100 years since the birth of Margaret Thatcher. In what ways did 'Thatcherism' change Britain? A while back for an ESRC research project, we collaborated with documentary maker Michelle Coomber on a film about the long-term social and economic impacts of the Thatcher governments.

Generation Right

In what ways did 'Thatcherism' change Britain? What, if any, legacy is there from her period in office for British society today? How ought we to make…

vimeo.com

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The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 23h

BREAKING: SNP members have voted for the Scottish Government to review all business and procurement ties with Israel and end the purchase of goods and services from companies profiting from the genocide

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 23h

There’s an ad running on tv right now for an AI chat app that depicts a couple using it to plan a road trip. It tells them to have something in the car to eat, like an apple.

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 1d

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 1d

It’s very funny to see him say this about Ozymandias, maybe the only character in Watchmen who can’t be correctly described as an antihero

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Evan Dorkin @evandorkin.bsky.social · 4d

Jim Lee openly disparaging AI in no way guarantees anything, no one knows what the future of AI is and no one knows who will be in charge at DC Comics down the line. But I think it's important that a popular artist publicly shot AI down. Fans and artists ignorant of or using AI need to hear this.

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 1d

BBC asking Bridget Phillipson at length about rising antisemitism in the UK (which actually fell last year according to new figures, albeit still very high) but not at all about rising Islamophobia, which is up by 19% year-on-year

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 1d

I’m not a conspiracy theorist (most assume far too much competence apart from anything else) and British attitudes to Russia are always jaundiced. But the BBC’s accommodation of Farage first and Reform lately is inexcusable, a manifest failure of any duty they owe to their constituents. One of many.

Joy @joybe.bsky.social · 3d

The Nathan Gill scandal should be huge news so why has the British media been mainly silent about it? (I think we know 🤔)
Here's Fiona Bruce shutting down any mention & acting like the audience aren't interested.
#bbqt

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Darren Ewing @sadknob.bsky.social · 1d

the only landlords that ever really gave a toss about their tennants are imagined television characters.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 1d

Thousands of tenants are being frozen out of a scheme that could save them hundreds of pounds on their heating bills, energy specialists have warned

Thousands of Scots frozen out of energy saving plans

www.thenational.scot

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d

In every possible way Labour's changes to immigration rules are profoundly stupid and damaging.
Not only will they ruin lives of migrants, they will cripple the economy, cost jobs, undermine crucial infrastructure etc etc. Everyone suffers with anti-immigration policies.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

'Visa changes will make it worse for my business'

Aneesa Khan says she hires chefs from South Asia to meet her restaurant's need for skilled workers.

www.bbc.com

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d

The message from Robert Jenrick has been clear. If you’re a far-right thug threatening migrants, refugees, or Muslims, then your rights to protest are to be protected at all costs. If you’re not then they won’t
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-descen...

The Descent of Robert Jenrick

The Shadow Justice Secretary's transformation from a 'Generic' moderate Conservative to the Great Hope of the far-right should alarm us all

www.adambienkov.co.uk

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 1d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 1d

Alba are nowhere. This is at its heart a spiteful anti-Green motion.

Make the less likely outcome and less generously spirited proposal the conditions under which action in furtherance of your proclaimed raison d’être will be taken. Got it. We see you, SNP.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: SNP members have backed John Swinney's independence strategy at party conference.

Members backed making an SNP majority at Holyrood 2026 the mandate for a second referendum.

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Chris O’Halloween III: Season of the Witch @chrisohalloran.bsky.social · 1d

Additionally, it was completely overshadowed by the counter protest which me be worth mentioning.

#Spéirghorm

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 1d

Of course no other President of the United States would be tolerated selling such vast quantities of shitty knock-off merch to his credulous base, it’s just that it’s so completely, predictably in keeping with his pre-politics persona it seems cute by comparison to the fascist stuff.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3d

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Scarred For Life @scarredforlife.bsky.social · 2d

THE BLUNDERS (1976): A series of PIFs starring the titular family of careless drivers. Each episode veers from naff comedy to graphic horror as the unlucky victim is sent head-first through the windscreen. Extra point for the creepy 70s-era letchery in this episode, too.

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Dr. Travis Langley @drtravislangley.bsky.social · 3d

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Bill Corbett @billcorbett.bsky.social · 3d

oops

Text from news report:

“Tensions between Venezuela and America soared following the attack, but Machado insisted to The Sunday Times that Trump was right to bomb the boat.
"I totally support his strategy," Machado said.
"And I've said on behalf of the Venezuelan people that we are very grateful. I think it is the right thing to do. It's courageous. It's visionary."”

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 2d

Ha ha ha ha. Left the SNP to join the party *Alex Salmond* founded citing her concerns for women’s safety, only to find they’re not on the same page. Fucking amazing.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Ash Regan has quit the Alba Party

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 3d

Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.

SHOCK POLL:
NIGEL FARAGE WILL BE PM TOMORROW
IN an amazing poll conducted
by The Pointless Polling Company, it was revealed that voters' intentions
may well change over the next three and a half years and at present it's 100 percent impossible to guess what the next government might look like.
However, 99 percent of journalists
agree that it would be much more fun if we had an election tomorrow and everybody resigned and everything was chaos and Farage had a go at being PM, just for the hell of it, because it was so much fun when
Brexit happened and then the government kept falling every five minutes and we could write endless pieces about (cont. p94)

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Terry Anderson @terrytoon.com · 3d

No post-war pm so wholly personified the grief, resentment, thwarted entitlement, undiminished sense of God-given superiority, and constant, seething anxiety that someone, somewhere, was getting away with something, all of which define Britain after Empire.

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d

What happened to anyone who seriously threatened to reverse any part of the Thatcherite revolution? Who was it that enforced those penalties. There’s your answer, and there’s who is to blame.

The Guardian Y @theguardian.com
Follow
Thatcher was born 100 years ago and her reign feels a lifetime away. Why is her effect on the country still so huge? |
Martin Kettle

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