Aspiring philosopher; tolerable human; "amusing combination of sardonic detachment & literally all the feelings felt entirely unironically all at once" [he/his]
- Tweets 281,612
- Following 4,307
- Followers 60,357
- Likes 358,058
Pinned Tweet
I appear to have lost my previous pinned tweet with the Kant monster. Alas, all good things and cetera. So I'm going to pin this tweet linking to a paper of mine in a fancy venue, to establish my academic credibility and intellectually intimidate my foes
nature.com/articles/s41591-0…
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I genuinely love that Daniel Radcliffe made his Harry Potter money and has just dedicated himself to playing weird little guys ever since, like he doesn't need the money so just picks roles for the fun.
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The audacity of this way of describing settler colonialism is quite something.
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If I were Will Smith I would simply have debated and defeated Chris Rock in the marketplace of ideas.
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Paintings that it's cringe and cliché to like but which are also actually legitimate bangers
ALT Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog
ALT The Wave
ALT Nighthawks
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I do find it interesting that someone could take that as the moral of Great Gatsby. Like, genuinely, astonishing.
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Black people are America's last line of defence against the eldritch horrors from the Annihilation film
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Love that to pass our national citizenship test you have to agree we like to have a good laugh at ourselves or we'll fucking deport you
ALT Screenshot of a question from the Life in the UK test which is part of applying for citizenship here. You are asked "What is an important part of the UK character?" and the options are "Go to the pub every Friday", "Go to university", "The ability to laugh at ourselves", and "To have fish and chips every lunch." where the third is the correct answer.
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I mean this is a video of, among other things, some civilians getting burned to death. Reacting with sarcastic little gifs of Seinfeld shrugging is just evidence that even when war is very far away and abstract for people still it makes them vicious.
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Ok I am sorry but this is absolutely the best version of this genre of humblebrag I have ever seen
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Sing, o muses, of the wrath of Achilles, and how generally things turned out pretty great for all involved
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I agree, we should do this
ALT You air drop a billionaire into a 3rd world country with $5 in his pocket and within a few years he will be a millionaire. There are traits, skills, and characteristics financially super successful people have to maximize what they have. They know how to play any hand dealt
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This is my vision and I'm willing to fight for it.
I love the famous equality/equity/justice cartoon & have used it a lot in talks. However, its always really bugged me that the three people stay exactly where they are, outside the park, in all 4 pictures, so I've taken the liberty of added a 5th, does this make sense?
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History lesson from someone who thinks Europeans first got to Africa in the 1900s.
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People keep saying this but it's in the context of Oppenheimer being a poseur looking to get laid. This is actually great characteristion.
The most annoying thing about Oppenheimer was when he claims to have read all 3 volumes of Capital in the original German and as an example of one of Marx's ideas gives "Property is theft" - a phrase from Proudhon that Marx criticized
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Clearing out America's elite tier by doing MeToo but for plagiarism would be a deeply funny cultural moment and I would be all for it.
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The woke bullying in question here is signs saying "remember to carry a bottle of water with you in hot weather". Just to be clear.
It’s particularly dispiriting to find that this virtue-signalling turned woke-bullying has captured TfL and therefore the entire Underground network, so proudly symbolic of this country’s resistance to totalitarianism during the war
✍️@RachelSJohnson bit.ly/45EQCqJ
Community note
This advice dates back to the summer of 2008 when the authors brother - Boris Johnson - was Mayor and asked TfL to provide advice and support to passengers suffering in hot weather.
tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media…
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"So then Owen Jones said - can you believe it - he said that we should pay our cleaners to stay home!"
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Maybe philosophy of language has ruined my brain but I just find this impossible to parse. Was it not actually impossible? Were people lying about completing it? Wtf
We gave people ~8,000 people in 40 countries a 5-minute data-entry task that was impossible to finish in 5 minutes. Here's how many people completed it anyway.
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PragerU not off to a good start in their attempt to persuade me that the Israel would never commit war crimes.
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Romcom about a woman who meets and falls in love with Leonardo di Caprio on the eve of her 25th birthday and has to engage in a series of increasingly wacky escapades to keep him from learning her age.
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The other side’s end zone actually said “continue racism” and the game was to decide which we’ll do.
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I just think if it can't see Fuentes for what he is you're basically too stupid for politics.
This guy doesn’t sound like a “Nazi” or “white supremacist”. He’s antiwar, he’s outspoken *against* geocoding arabs, and won’t vote for a presidential candidate unless they oppose war with Iran. Am I missing something? If so, what?
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It *is* pretty funny to go from "Brexit will deliver a high skill high wage economy, Singapore on the Atlantic!" to "we are going to draft children to make up for shortages in fruit pickers". Sometimes you just gotta admit defeat, you know? You got your way and it kinda sucks.
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I have four PhD students rn and lemmie just say - 3 of them are so good, just absolutely wonderful. They easily make it worthwhile to have to put up with the other one.
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I think it will be remembered thus: in the face of atrocity students did something, anything, to try and disrupt those institutions they could affect. And all the people now mewling about broken windows braying for their arrest will slink away and hope they are not remembered.
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If you want the right to speak without fear of being shamed or shunned then straight up, just straight forwardly, you’re opposed to free speech. Democracy and openness is the rowdy one where we’re all free to annoy and despise each other. You want the other thing.
The fucking New York Times does it again. The EDITORIAL BOARD for Christ’s sake.
There is absolutely no such thing as a “fundamental right” to voice your opinions in public “without fear of being shamed or shunned.” This is lunacy.
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Lmao nothing but respect for the little brother who came home and actually tried the line "today we learned about critical race theory and, well, long story short, but I don't have to do chores now". Just complete uncritical support for my man.
A white mom on Fox News is complaining that her mixed son now sees himself as “a Black man.” She’s suing the school, says CRT taught her son to not do his chores.
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The Israeli government has organised a brutal military occupation backed up by murderous repression for a long time now. There's no theory of just war on earth that wouldn't consider this jus ad bellum for the Palestinians and everyone knows it.
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All the people being super confident that no way not me that's other people, and acting as if the very idea is laughable to be dunked on, are people I absolutely suspect would be first to get persuaded to go along with great moral evil so long as it was pitched right.
We each have a Nazi in us. We need to understand the psychological roots of authoritarianism | Gabor Maté theguardian.com/commentisfre…
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No. Nooooooooooooooooooo. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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The holiday was once about remembering the costs of war. The change in language around it is pervasive and pernicious.
This weekend is a time for the country to stop, reflect, and remember our armed forces who have kept and continue to keep us safe.
We say thank you to everyone who has served, those who continue to serve, and their families, who sacrifice so much.
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You see the dark lady, supported symbolically by the black power fist, wants to take the police away all so the white blond lady will be in trouble from scary criminals, says the centrist who doesn't see race.
“Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.”
— @robkhenderson
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Ok Yuzi explained it to me -- some people were apparently willing to complete the task even beyond when they were getting paid for it. So they did it but not in 5 minutes.
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Once my dad was denied a loan, it turned out in error. When he phoned to ask why the assistant said without prompting "the decision was made by an algorithm so I assure you it wasn't racist". This is the closest I've seen real life come to "questions answered by my t-shirt" meme.
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This meme feels like it was really specifically responding to a particular person's particular life event, and that's actually pretty rare for memes.
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Gotta say I had been mildly supportive of euthanasia legalisation until the Canadian experiment, which it seems to me has massively vindicated the sceptics and critics so far.
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Every declining empire for some reason ends up being like just one more invasion of Afghanistan bro I promise bro just one more is all I need
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Zane Golia
I made a flow chart to help people decide what sort of philosopher they want to be. Start at the blue box, end at one of the red boxes. Hope it helps!
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My favourite Du Bois anecdote: later in his life a younger black student saw him and excitedly approached, saying it must have been such an honour to be the first negro to get a PhD from Harvard. Du Bois replied "The honour, I assure you, was Harvard's" and then just walked away.
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Just so important people learn history.
ALT Can you name one instance of a group of Christians attacking and killing people and declaring it to be the mandate of God?
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Genuinely took me a moment to realise his take here is you should refuse to be in the house with your buddy's wife as a sign of the respect you have for your buddy, showing your absolute commitment to not sleeping with his wife. What world do these people live in lmao
Men. You go to your friends house to meet him. When you get there he’s out at the store but will return home soon. His wife answers the door and invites you in. Do you enter, or wait in the car until he returns?
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Wtf I think if you look at that thing hard enough you will see the face of God what are they talking about
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Love when Marxists say “this is a science!” and if you ask “ah so we’re going to make casual models generating precise predictions we can test and iteratively improve?” it’s clarified: no not a *bourgeois* science, the other, better, kind, where you mainly just reinterpret Hegel.
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I legit don't understand the mind set of people who like this sorta ultra didactic art. Do people like being vaguely condescended to?
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Once upon a time your brand was being, like, a nice guy who just wanted to bring some perspective to difficult discussions. I am sure you have some story you tell yourself about how it is good and ok that this is who you are now.
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I've genuinely always wondered how it is that despite being an overweight nerd who is objectively 3/10 at best I have always had a pretty successful love life. If it turns out what women want is guys who are existentially depressed and pretty gay then I guess that explains that!
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Did my own version
ALT A big sign says "Capitalism" from it an arrow leads to "Bad stuff". Then another arrow leads to "Some good stuff too tbh".
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Sneering around "ooooOoooh so you're an Afghanistan expert now eh? Like you were a public health expert before this ehhhh???" strikes me as anti-democratic. We're a democracy, people should have and express opinions about momentous public decisions.
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Ok ok I think I'm gonna implement a No Brianna Wu Posting rule after this but this actually did make me laugh. How is she like this
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Absolutely bizarre when Americans show videos of Europeans being rowdy after football matches, or the French rioting over anything, and say "See what immigration has done to once fair Europe!" Just complete misunderstanding of European culture.
As we speak Moroccan migrants are rioting and setting cities on fire all over Europe because they won a football game against Belgium. Mind you, these men are 3rd/4th generation migrants. Integration does not happen over time: the problem just gets worse.
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One of my crankier half way liberal technocrat opinions is that the fact that our breast and brightest are paid infinite money to make trades happen .0007% faster is a massive social opportunity cost.
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Seeing economists on my timeline argue about what inflation is really fills me with such joy - no-one knows what is going on with the basics of their field, everyone is winging it, and the world is one big technocratic meritocracy where no-one has merit or technical knowledge.
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I'm blankiepilled, low-key loving the cosy vibe; in my comfycore era giving honk shoo mimimi.
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Absolute favourite community note.
Cristiano Ronaldo has never lost a match in which he scored the winning goal.
𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 🇵🇹
Community note
Factual Error.
Despite the wording of this tweet making it seem impossible for Ronaldo to lose despite scoring the winning goal, this is still incorrect.
Ronaldo scored the winning goal in a 1-0 defeat to Grenada in 2013. He scored this winning goal in the wrong net.
fotmob.com/match/1260026?
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Oh despite being American herself the OP clarifies that the meme is about Ireland. So it's Ireland we're saving, my apologies for any confusion.
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I’m friends with a bunch of professional philosophers at universities, they all thought your questions were interesting and sensible and had parallels to stuff they think and write about. You’re doing great, keep asking questions!
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Political discourse is so unserious it’s genuinely kinda funny. We have all these discussions about how things are and could or should or might be. But… like… the people actually running the world are putting out sub-PragerU-tier Takes without a care in the world.
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Past midday so I can announce -- I've just been promoted to Associate Professor. Basically a pay rise and the last opportunity for the LSE to fire me without it being a nightmare for them. I am now academically invincible. Please expect my rank ordering of the races forthcoming.
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"As the productive capacity of capital is improved less and less workers for production are needed as wealth concentrates in the hands of owners -- take that Marx!"
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Since I feel like having a fight with everyone may as well make a thread for it. I strongly think that if somebody can't emotionally deal with hearing standard right wing talking points on racism they're simply politically useless. Some ability to cope and respond is required.
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Absolutely nightmarish hell law and if you think this is a proportionate response to anything actually happening you're a delusional little tyrant. Sick stuff.
Florida is set to arrest people in restrooms regardless of legal gender status in a sweeping bill
al.com/reckon/2023/05/florid…
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Sex is binary except for the exceptions. Since it's a small proportion that's the same as there being no exceptions. This is a very normal way of reasoning he'd definitely endorse if it wasn't for the political fight he's participating in.
Those who say sex is a spectrum don’t realise how rare intersex humans are. Frequency histogram runs out of graph paper, so represent frequency of unambiguous males & females by NY’s twin towers respectively. Then frequency of intersexes is a medium sized molehill. Sex is binary.
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The internet seems to have memed itself into thinking this woman is trans and thus are saying things like quoted. But the thing is, all else aside, she is just not actually trans. So people have decided to fight about trans people in sport without even real cause.
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Genuinely had a moment where I was like "Wait but she's dead isn't she!?" before I remembered how monarchy works.
The Queen was seen leaving the London Clinic hospital after visiting the King who was admitted to hospital for prostate treatment.
Read more: trib.al/Nfa9Lj7
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It is kind of annoying that when the left lose it's because we're bad, and when the centre lose it's because the left are bad, and when the right do bad stuff it turns out to be because we the left made them overreact. Being politics' main character is a heavy burden.
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Feudalism was bad actually
Feudalism was actually a pretty good system.
Here’s why:
-everyone had a defined role that served society as a whole: peasants, vassals, and lords all had responsibilities to each other
-it was extremely decentralized
-it’s hierarchy ensured long-term stability
-with hereditary monarchy, it was a lot more difficult for influence peddlers to buy off leaders
-hereditary monarchs’ interests were tied to those of the people since they ruled for life
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