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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A lot of motivated reasoning in politics

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

TSP have done some good work busting these myths as well

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

In my limited experience, the trick with the US style is being as reasonable with it all as you can be until they hit one of your red lines, and then being politely clear that you'd sooner take it elsewhere than have it published in a form youre not 100% happy with. They tend to accept that.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I would say fundamentalist rather than conservative, but yes, 'Fascistic' doesn't really work.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I'm a Fellow of @transitionsec.bsky.social and I strongly endorse this analysis. There's a lot of performative Seriousness from pundits and politicians on military spending. It's time we had a genuinely serious conversation around these issues, and I hope this new report can help to stimulate one.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Very hard, but in that specific media scenario, if you've put yourself up to be in that situation then its on you to perform well.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yeah, I do think that journalists who put the "Do you condemn...?" question to leftists are acting in bad faith and not looking for a constructive, enlightening conversation. But also, leftists often don't do a great job of escaping feelings of defensiveness and properly navigating those scenarios

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I will say this. My own experience of the left is more day-to-day and face-to-face others' experience might be. If your primary experience of the left is via social media etc I can see why a different view might be taken. But social media brings out the belligerent and the obtuse in all of us.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My experience of the left over 25 years? It's a fringe (albeit a loud one) that's indulgent of e.g. Hamas. For most of us, we focus on the UK & its allies because that's what we can affect with our work. We see condemnations of actors who are bad, but whose actions we can't affect, as mere posturing

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Surest way of doing that is not fertilising the soil in which it grows. But we'd need a different Kemi Badenoch for that.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I recall v.clearly watching in a local pub when Wright scored for England vs Italy in June 97. The response around me was real fury that a black man had scored for England. The mood was so poisonous that I had to leave. These delusions of English innocence and "who we are" as a country serve no one.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We do, but standing against this meaningfully necessitates a degree of honesty. These delusions (maybe conscious lies) about how Wright and Barnes were treated just reinforce the sense of British innocence that is pervasive on the right at the moment, and helps feed their grievances.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I mean, yes, your opponents will attack you irrespective. But also, there's a reason why no one in a conflict situation has ever supplied ammunition to their enemies. Plus in this situation, its not just enemies but people in the middle and even allies who have been alienated.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Fair amount of racism before 48 as well, in the way certain key figures saw and talked about the Palestinians

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A party that approaches difficult, fraught issues through open, constructive dialogue is more likely to attract members and voters than one that approaches such issues through proscription and disciplinary procedures. That's also the surest route to the correct, principled outcome on such issues.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Pretty sure I would start feeling self conscious typing this stuff out repeatedly at least after the first decade

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

For me, these are issues best addressed through open and robust conversations, in which we both speak and listen. They are not issues that should be litigated through disciplinary processes. It is the former approach that is more likely to lead to a durable outcome.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Every time I read a text of his I finish it feeling enriched

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

She's that ignorant and incurious she may well not have heard of it

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Reposted by David Wearing

Politics Theory Other @poltheoryother.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"In Yemen you've got Royal Saudi Air Force jets, flown by Saudi pilots, but the pilots are trained by Britain. The bombs are supplied by Britain. The maintenance is supplied by Britain... And that British support sustains the aerial operations..." - @davidwearing.bsky.social

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think one side of her family is via Mauritius, the other via Kenya? If there's a Goan background there I guess it would be on the latter side

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The same British state ruled the UK and Mauritius for 158 years, but the two territories took very different "development" paths. This was not enlightened colonial generosity. This was exploitation. Exploitation justified by the same racism that Braverman has internalised and is now regurgitating.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What Braverman says here is 100% false. Mauritius was a poor, plantation economy when the British took over from France in 1810, and they kept it that way until 1968. The economic miracle that turned it into a diverse, upper-middle income economy came after independence. bsky.app/profile/jord...

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A view of national/ethnic identity predicated on intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is literally and inherently racist. It is also a pervasive outlook with a long history, which means that many people have internalised it. Including those it most harms.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I share Braverman's Indian-Mauritian background. And if a family member of mine ever came out with this horseshit I would tell them, "yes, you are indeed being racist against yourself, and against us. Have some self respect".

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Edward Said's essay "Zionism From The Standpoint of its Victims" is a one of the best examples of how this issue can be discussed in a way that generates more light than heat. Characteristically for Said, it's a critique that is simultaneously compelling, principled, nuanced and empathetic.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Great to be back on Politics Theory Other, one of my favourite podcasts. With Alex, you're always guaranteed to have a great conversation, and I appreciated the opportunity to get into the details of our call for the UK to pay reparations to Yemen.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Owen said his article "emphasises the role of pressure by the Greens, but arguing Labour has shifted in rhetoric rather than substance". I agree that that's what his article does (and I liked the article more generally).

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Who's going to watch a football competition that they know to be a sham? And who's going to trust the integrity of the PL as a competition if City are allowed to stay in it? Expulsion's the only sensible business decision here.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Interesting that both reactionary centrists and some of the more doctrinaire socialists have found themselves in the same place on the so-called (and entirely misnamed) "culture war". Facile economism really is an impediment to serious analytical and political thinking.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One of Britain's leading allies in the Middle East has apparently spent years systematically desecrating one of the most treasured parts of our national culture. Sportswashing was supposed to make it easier for states like the UK to support regimes like the UAE. Clearly this does the opposite.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The details are out, and they are jaw dropping. We may need to coin a new term for whatever the opposite of "sportswashing" is. The inherent problem for certain regimes in raising their profile is that a great many people will then see them for exactly who they are. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

bbc.co.uk

Manchester City charges: Premier League confirms club guilty of all charges related to financial rule breaches

The Premier League confirms that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm one of the signatories of this open letter to the PM and Foreign Secretary. “In light of Saudi Arabia’s extensive record of violations in Yemen, we urge your government not to involve itself in Saudi operations and focus on de-escalatory diplomacy” www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-accu...

middleeasteye.net

UK accused of 'fuelling' Yemen war as Saudi jets receive British support

Academics and civil society groups warn British military assistance to Riyadh risks complicity in further violations as fighting escalates

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Reposted by David Wearing

David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

There is a genuine incomprehension amongst many journalists and politicians that anyone might care sincerely about Palestinians or seriously object to their indiscriminate slaughter. The natural human response to this genocide is something they simply cannot understand.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Lol yes I often wonder what past-me was thinking. And yes, that makes perfect sense. Voters aren't just utility-calculators, their decisions are mediated through all kinds of subjectivities and senses of self and others. That slides looking pretty good right now

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Interested to know what you mean by "all politics is identity politics"?

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Foreign relations in the Global South is absolutely where we get the true measure of the political class of the Global North

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Just trying to be accurate. The racism is real for many of these people.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Genuine incomprehension that anyone might see Palestinians as human beings let alone object to their indiscriminate slaughter. The outrage must be hollow. It cant possibly be real

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