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Arieh Kovler

@ariehkovler.com
15K followers 216 following 6.3K posts

Writer, political analyst, comms consultant. UK, Israeli, US. Politics, current affairs and technology. arieh@ariehkovler.com. linktr.ee/ariehkovler

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Reposted by Arieh Kovler
Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2h
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 14h
Do we seriously have to do Maoist newspeak every single time an 80 year old posts his idiotic ideas on the internet. It has been AI since before I was even born. Can literally anyone have a shred of dignity.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 18h
ICE bought four robot dogs because they're massively overfunded and thought it'd be cool to have robot dogs.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 19h
I want a Batman story in which Bruce Wayne invents video games, ultimately providing a low-cost home entertainment option that helps significantly reduce street crime from the mid-1990s onward.
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Absolutely prepared to be proven wrong by events on this but at present this feels like the media have allowed themselves to be drawn into a nasty family feud www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Family of British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes say they don't know where he is
It has been alleged that Sir Ranulph has been admitted to a number of care homes under assumed names.
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hard to imagine what that would be like
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Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ten years ago today, the first episode of Britain's Lost Masterpieces* was on BBC4. Here's a thread of all the pictures we featured, with the new attributions and before & after photos. (*internationally, Amazon Prime etc, as 'The Art Detectives')
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Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Russell Brand, who's awaiting trial in London next month on rape and sexual assault charges, will moderate a panel at DC's MAHA summit tomorrow on reforming a U.S. health agency
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❀°。Der Siebenschläfer *.゚✿ ⋆ @sababausa.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"The whole internet hates Dilkshake Muck, a loathesome bigot who loves misogyny. *5 seconds later* we regret to inform you Dilkshake Muck is assistant general counsel of the General Services Administration"
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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Let's wildly speculate about WTAF went on in Fairford - I'm going with niche OnlyFans gay porn content request goes wrong
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 28/09/2026
If you're an Iranian agent on Telegram, what do you promise some dodgy Camden wideboys in return for truck bombing a military base? How much money could possibly make this a good deal for people who aren't also committed to the cause?
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 28/09/2026
who do I petition to get someone to launch a Tate Morden, to confuse the tourists
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Quick look at the Twitter timeline which is mainly either racists saying that it’s obvious the RAF terror suspects are THE MUZZIES who came across via dinghy yesterday, or a different type of racists who say this is a Mossad false flag.
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matthewtowner.bsky.social @matthewtowner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I think that is a JFK Jr saying
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 27/09/2026
My wife: did you ever play that game "Eat, murder, fuck"? Me: I don't think that's how it goes.
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Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is how I remember the order of Henry VIII’s wives.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 27/09/2026
My wife: did you ever play that game "Eat, murder, fuck"? Me: I don't think that's how it goes.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
The bizarre culture that’s sprung up around Silicon Valley AI companies - which overlaps hugely with rationalist and effective altruist circles - appears to be seriously pressuring some women into attending sex parties for the sake of networking. This is, needless to say, horrifying.
taco belle
@ animalologist
Multiple things can be true at once
22h
The purpose of SlutCon is to help ease men who are scared of approaching women, and for women who simply enjoy flirting to be in an environment where that happens a lot, since there's generally a dearth of that
At the same time, many - probably most! - women do Not want to be flirted with or propositioned by men they don't know. When a small scene only has a handful of large, well-known events, each one has disproportionate impact on everybody's ideas of acceptable behavior among other members of their milieu.
Attending the same events = specific shared context. Means
you're somewhat on the same page.
I suspect that the men who publicly raised concerns about SlutCon's impact on the scene are being megaphones for private objections and distresses they've heard from women in the scene who would NOT be comfortable at an event like that, but who don't voice it publicly because they suspect they'd suffer socially for doing so. That going to SlutCon to be flirted with gives women social cachet, and squirming at the idea means you're [not cool, can't get with the program, are probably a wokescold or a prude etc etc other pejoratives] and therefore, that you'll be excluded or held at a distance
Now, if this scene were purely a social scene, that'd be perfectly fine. Don't go to parties that don't suit you!! The issue arises because it's NOT purely a social scene. This scene is inarguably tied up with Al safety, research, and the SF tech scene in general.
When consistently being invited to the right parties is professionally advantageous, and when SlutCon itself **is** going to be an excellent networking opportunity for people in those fields, it's not neutral that {sexual proclivities} are the filtering mechanism that determines who's in the room. It means that promiscuity & forwardness is explicitly professionally advantageous.
And, if the norms of SlutCon influence the norms of that milieu outside of the e…My suspicion is that men come out of the event more bold, more forward, and with the expectation that events attended by former flirt-girls are fair game for SlutCon-style forwardness. This creates a hostile environment for women who just want to socialize and work with these men, without being propositioned. And without pretending that they're cool with being sexualized for the sake of their inclusion in the scene.
I don't think we have solutions yet, but it's important that we can talk about it, at least.
Jakeup • @ myhandle
Sep 25
the purpose of SlutCon is to help men who are scared of women to start liking women, by putting them in proximity to women who like men and aren't scared of men
I'm not attending or involved in any way, but this is very aligned to my own mission and I'm rooting for their success
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.
Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?
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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I find it strange that some people refuse to believe this is the way our decentralised culture works now, that it's possible to be completely ignorant of hugely popular things that don't match your tastes and interests. People aren't lying about that because they think it makes them look cool.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 27/09/2026
An OpenAI 'enhanced' version of image on the left, supposedly of the Fairford suspects, is circulating online. In the original blurry pic, the guy on the left and the fourth guy appear white, though it's hard to be sure due to the blurriness and lighting. The "enhanced" version has made them black.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 27/09/2026
re Fairford: I like hot food and hot takes, so I don't serve either one until it's ready.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 27/09/2026
And it made the king cross!
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
cuth pube
A sign that attempts to spell out "the Cube pub" by shifting the B in Cube down with the PU right before it and TH before the E.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Huh. The Daily Wire is reporting something that would be *enormous* if true, as since July the majority of all ICE arrests are people with no criminal record. I am deeply skeptical of such a massive operational change, given how the White House/DHS keep bragging about setting arrest records.
Jennie Taer *
@JennieSTaer
X.com
SCOOP: ICE officers across the country were told this weekend to stop arresting non-criminals, agency sources tell @realDailyWire
Now, ICE may only arrest illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or charges for the time being, said the sources.
The change also ends so-called "collateral arrests,
" sources said, meaning officers who find a criminal target alongside others in the country illegally may detain only the target.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sen. John Fetterman says he's a "lifelong Republican" before Major Garrett has to correct him
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is like accusing someone of robbing a bank because they deposited money and never withdrew it
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25/09/2026
I've been sceptical about this but the stars are aligned. The Catholic right oppose contraception for preventing pregnancy, and the Evangelical right say it leads to premarital sex. But now the now the techbro right wants more native-born babies and the racist right wants more white babies.
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A.S.L. @16leiba.eurosky.social · 25/09/2026
Thinking about cases like Churchill's second term and Adenauer (unsure about, say, Kekkonen, president into his eighties), easier then from a communications and party management perspective, easier now from a healthcare perspective.
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Notjarvis @notjarvis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's easier to hide age related or health issues in the modern world for a number of reasons, including but not restricted to - information overload, information silos, no trusted authorities, and pure disinformation. Scandals that would have brought down previous leaders often don't cut through
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25/09/2026
Is it easier or harder to be a world leader now than it was a generation or two ago? Have the demands of the job increased or have the support structures and capabilities made it easier than ever to run a country? Would an 80-year-old find it easier to be prime minister in, say, 1975 or today?
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25/09/2026
Benjamin Netanyahu will be 77 on election day. He has a pacemaker, had radiotherapy for cancer last year, and confuses names and places more often. Why doesn't anyone in Israel seem to care?
arieh.substack.com
Why isn’t Netanyahu’s age an issue?
Benjamin Netanyahu will be 77 on election day. He has a pacemaker, secretly had cancer and confuses names and places. Nobody seems to care.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25/09/2026
There's something wonderful about this exchange, like it symbolises so many online conversations: "Frodo's wound never healed because it symbolises PTSD after trauma" ⤷"No, actually it's because the morgul blades are cursed."
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Matt McCall @mattmccall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
@bakedalaska: "The Democratic Party defended slavery, started the civil war, and founded the KKK. But you'll never hear that in a history class."
@krangtnelson: "lol you absolutely learn that in history class"
@bakedalaska: "I was home schooled and it was not taught"
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ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Literally everyone will tell you that.
Threads post 

Early Beatlemania was fuelled by teenage girls, but they won't tell you that.

Women and girls have always been the trendsetters and the tastemakers.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25/09/2026
Of course, doctor. I am Pagliacci.
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Kate Klonick @klonick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is a very cute clip, but I love it for reasons that the episode doesn't really explore: *All networked technology comes down to chat* Talking to each other is either the foundation of all new networked technology or becomes inexorably tied up with it-- since the early days of the Internet 1/
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 24/09/2026
ME: So I can't put anything else on the scale? ANUBIS: No. Just your heart ME: No money, no good deeds? ANUBIS: No ME: What about steam points? I've got a ton of steam points ANUBIS: The point is to be lighter than the feather ME: I was just hoping to finally do something with the steam points
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
My 5 year old son just asked me, at bedtime, what magnets really are, how they work and how they're made. I told him I'll explain in the morning.
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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 24/09/2026
MSNOW is reporting live on air that its reporters' credentials are being restored.
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molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
he’s trying so hard to make fetch happen
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
Via @jimdefede.bsky.social on X: "So I was just watching Fox News and this commercial played during Jesse Watters show. It says “Paid for by the US Government.” This is clearly a campaign ad. And the singers are just singing over and over again, “Love me” - over images of Trump."
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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Again, this is what Tucker says to normal audiences. To his own audience, literally today, he went on a deranged rant about, among other things, how Oswald Mosley wasn’t a Nazi.
I know, buddy, you did that during World War II. When the very first thing the British government did was imprison the opposition party, called them Nazis, which they weren't, run by one of the great war heroes of the First World War, Oswald Mosley. Oh, he was a Nazi.
No, he wasn't. If he was a Nazi, he'd be living in Britain, in Germany. He didn't want the war.
And he has been slandered ever since. It's like scary even to defend him. I'm not even defending the guy.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
Never in the history of gifs has a gif been more appropriate.
static.klipy.com
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
My 3yo: "I don't like pizza bites. I want regular pizza for dinner!" My successful solution:
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Thomas Jerome @thomasjerome.com · 24/09/2026
Naming the "Ableism" list so that a screen reader pronounces it "Four bee ell three one ess em", 10/10 bit
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Matt Kane @mk.gg · 24/09/2026
WTF. The biggest puzzle in the UK economic data (why British workers are so unproductive) was just a measuring error??? Entire economic policies have been built around fixing this, and it doesn't exist! Gift link: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Why your holiday is good news for the UK
For once we should thank the Office for National Statistics for its productivity reporting
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
Yes, but also Musk puts his finger on the scale of X payouts. His faves get higher rates, his enemies less. This is just a way for Musk to give Lowe money.
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's Rupert Lowe MP's payments from X Corp over the past year. This man is making serious cash from Musk's platform. Payments surged over the summer, during UK 'unrest', and when Musk was frantically re-sharing Lowe's posts... Bleak, lucrative work if you can get it.
Line chart plotting 21 payments from X Corp to Rupert Lowe MP, as declared in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. The x-axis runs from 3 September 2025 to 16 September 2026; the y-axis shows the value of each fortnightly payment in pounds, from zero to £12,000.

Payments run between roughly £1,100 and £2,200 through late 2025, rise gradually through spring 2026 to around £3,000–£3,800, then jump sharply to £11,724.97 on 10 June 2026 and £10,265.50 in July. From there they fall in five consecutive steps — £4,412.76, £3,126.35, £2,885.36, £2,542.04 — to £2,413.89 on 16 September 2026, a fall of 79% from the June peak.

Two things worth carrying with the graphic whichever version you use.

The July point is marked with an asterisk because the register gives its received date as 7 August 2026 while recording it as registered on 15 July. Plotted it at the likelier 7 July.
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 24/09/2026
Yeah this is just trying to copy SNAP benefits from the US with their restrictions on what you can use them for. But that requires a huge bureaucracy that administers physical credit cards to benefit-holders and requires shops to enroll in the SNAP programme and impose the restrictions at the till.
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