Reposted by Bijan ParsiaUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 3h“We will not stand for it silently. We will keep fighting.” Hundreds gathered at yesterday’s University of Nottingham rally in solidarity with UCU members fighting devastating job and course cuts. From Monday, members begin long-term strike action. Show your support. Stand with Nottingham UCU. 01610
Reposted by Bijan Parsiaold roadside pics @roadside.xor.blue · 23hleaning tower of pizza, quincy, massachusetts, 1984 854389
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaLindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 14hThe only refugees we let in were white South Africans fleeing an imaginary genocide. 19827
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaLisa Rullsenberg @rullsenberg.bsky.social · 21hVery long day supporting @uonucu.bsky.social strike action but great collective energy from colleagues and students and lovely UCU Vice-president @markpendleton.bsky.social (huge props too @dyfrigjones.bsky.social for fitting in busy schedule to come and speak in support). 0184
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaJosh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 23h😂 Trumpers now investigating whether Watergate investigation was also "weaponization" 4537089
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 23hIf I went to Switzerland and won a Swiss watch precision contest, I would literally never talk about anything else 547972811
Reposted by Bijan Parsiapublic health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 30/09/2026i genuinely forgot how bad this wasbuzzfeednews.comNobody Believed Neil deGrasse Tyson's First Accuser. Now There Are Three More.No one believed Tchiya Amet when she said Tyson had raped her in the 1980s. Now, three other women tell BuzzFeed News that he harassed them, including one who’s sharing her story publicly for the firs... 361396393
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaNate O @nateo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I may be biased on excluding migrants based on 'social difference' since this reason was given for forbidding Jews from entering the US and UK during WWII (bunch of strange commies that will undermine the nation from within), so perhaps this rhetorical strategy is a stalking horse for something else 1268
Reposted by Bijan Parsianoam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026one more provocative claim i would make (though not as anything like an expert like claire, just in my capacity as a guy with opinions) is that empathy can itself be a motivator for evil acts 5504
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaDan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The US government sabotaging the OPCW is very bad. 25624
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 01/10/2026"I personally absolutely do upgrade my assessment of someone's AI alignment qualifications if I find out they go to RMN," by which username John Wentworth appears to mean Red Means No, a "consensual non-consent event" which simulates sexual assault. This is weird stuff, man! 1210819
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 01/10/2026i do not want people like this in my professional network, personally 916814
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaAnton Hur @antonhur.com · 01/10/2026They did not even refund her tuition!!! 16710
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaLindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Cornell is thinking: If we refund Jane Doe's tuition every girl who got gang raped at our school is going to want a refund and who can afford that? 1120535
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This week I would also have been teaching dialect history and representing dialect on the page with my esteemed linguistics colleague, but Round the Wrekin got dumped in favour of generic skills classes. Sigh. 4373
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I certainly don’t mind these bullet points. Some notable omissions and some worrying fine print. But it’d be a shift in part from Starmerism. 000
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It’s useful to remember that sometimes an a hominem argument is correct and useful. Impeaching the witness is maybe the fancy name. I don’t know there’s a formal name for the variant of appeal to authority/anti impeachment/just debate me bro/don’t be emotional line. 121
Reposted by Bijan Parsialastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Verificationism is itself verifiable. 7392
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaAdrienne @adrienneleigh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026i just saw an overwrought blog post called, and i am not kidding, "The Literary Sex Crimes of T. Kingfisher" @tkingfisher.com 5025018
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaJosh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The funniest thing about the Schmitt rake stomp is that if it'd been a Dem we'd have a week of think pieces about how Dems lack of hoops literacy was alienating them from real America. 412646391
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaJessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 30/09/2026just a reminder that a whole lot of prominent center-left men went to fucking Epstein for advice about what to do about the #MeToo movement, like, in case you were wondering why 2 seconds after it started the media was like HAS IT GONE TOO FAR??? 011634
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaAnne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...thecut.comWhat It Feels Like at Cornell Right NowAs a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big. 5030551074
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaMichael Balazo @mbalazo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026“Hello, police? I’d like to report a slightly sad story.” 3717
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Whenever I have someone confidently explain something to them which they know I am more expert in I wish there were an antimansplaining charity I could donate to. I don’t know how it’d work but I imagine women could submit a clip or a description and get a gift basket. 130
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Is it bad to feel impending burn out on [checks notes] the second day of term? 010
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaLindsey Boylan @lindseyboylan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This man is a monster. He seeks out women survivors because he hates them. And he hates them because he hates himself. He has harassed me and other women survivors many times over the years. It must end. He should never have a job anywhere. 12680431996
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026strongly agreed. fines and criminal penalties should not merely communicate a finger wag but actually change the strategic situation of a would-be white collar criminal 15775155
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I really hate it when people in the grip of a theory condescend to me about things who’d I have direct contradictory evidence that they know they don’t have. 010
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026TIL that if you send an invite from inside your bookings page, it does NOT use your email account so you have no record of that message. It doesn't remember who booked. So you're off to reconstruct the work you thought you avoided. Yay Microsoft. Sucking since forever. 030
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026'Duncan Ivison, vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, summed up the situation at a morning panel organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute. He said the government is failing to ask the “first order” questions about universities'. (RPN Playbook on the Labour Conference) 1174
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaCharlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Having real #MeToo flashbacks today, what with various news stories going around, and thinking a lot about how women were encouraged to rip themselves open and show off our trauma, in all its Technicolor glory, so that men might begin to believe us 7829175
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaRobert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Not much on this yet, but I certainly hope this reporting proves accurate. 61140384
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaDr Keith Wilson 💭 @keithwilson.eu · 29/09/2026Is the business profitable? No It’s on the road to profitability though, right? Also no But it will be extremely beneficial for the future of humanity? It might kill us all #OpenAI #GenAI #AIHype 34918
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026'Hub campuses have lots to offer Western universities seeking to establish a foothold in Asia.' Or, are they perhaps predominantly snake oil vanity projects inimical to the flourishing of their home institutions?timeshighereducation.comAre international hubs the key to a flourishing branch campus?A handful of high-profile developments purpose-built for global outposts have sprung up across Asia in the past two decades, promising vibrant, collaborative environments, sometimes at little cost. Bu... 1182
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaAtul Haria (immigrant) @atulharia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026"The UK devotes a smaller percentage of its GDP to state pensions and pensioner benefits than most other advanced economies." commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...commonslibrary.parliament.ukPensions: international comparisonsA look at how UK pensions compare with those in other countries. The note compares the UK state pension with similar systems in Europe and goes on to look more broadly at the structural differences in... 0176
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This is key. The triple lock is presented as this big blocking millstone but it’s also very miserly. I could wish that old folks (of which I am becoming) would vote for better policies across the board (Brexit stands out) but state pensions are a huge poverty reduction and economic stimulus thing 110
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026“Everything that we do to try and help the sector is undermined by another initiative that takes away the funding that has been provided, so I think we need stability and clarity from the government on how we support our higher education system.” (Nishan Canagarajah)timeshighereducation.comUK HE ‘needs to get its credibility back’, Labour conference hearsScandals about franchised provision have undermined the sector, and universities need to ensure failings are not repeated, vice-chancellors say 094
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Facebook has of course been really awful for years. Like it’s one job is to keep me connected with my friends and it’s super poor at that. This year for the first time it so hid my birthday I got like 1 person. Usually it’s in the 40s Now I’m not a big birthday person but it was cute. 120
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaSpokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 29/09/2026Send Stephen Miller to The Hague. 21275562488
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaRuth! @ruthholliday.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Very proud of UCU and 11 sister unions for boycotting #LabourWomensConference. It’s not a women’s conference if some women are excluded. 092
Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Oh well, 60 days. No worries then. (I mean I’m not a big punitive punishment guy but wtf.) 010
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaUrvi @theurv.com · 28/09/2026There were more men in a single documented gang rape at one school than the number of competitive trans athletes nationally. But I’ve heard a lot more politicians being asked about protecting girls from one of these scenarios and not another… I’ll let you guess which is which. 142508873
Reposted by Bijan ParsiaDon Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Maybe a little bit of cancel culture would be good? 1439457