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Robert Chapman

@drrobertchapman.bsky.social
7.5K followers 861 following 1.2K posts

Author of Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism and founding member of Books From Below They/them.

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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Soviet health propoganda poster "weight is normal - (good) for the health"
Poster of a lots of kinds of food on scales and theee people eating together around a table.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Been very busy but briefly coming on here to say to those who have supported our radical bookshop and community space, Books From Below: we have an update!
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Getting some fascinating hate email after having committed the crime of having expressed solidarity with Arday. This is my favourite as it even has a picture.
Do you have any shame?  Can you just use Google before you ejaculate cretinisms to see a compulsive liar? 
You made a career destroying what others built wile bringing NOTHING - what a sad life to live.

You are just a Vermin destroying Britain with your lies and AMORALITY of Demented Sociopathy. You are a deeply sick entity to deprive real academics for your Vile ideology  

your life of delusion, lies and vile spitefulness
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A pantheist political party that will solve every single private and public problem? Sign me up.
We offer everyone in Britain simple solutions so that they can immediately start solving their problems.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Kind of interesting that we're seeing the return of pantheist politico-religious sects, kind of like in the english revolutionary period around 1650.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Bought a second hand book off someone online and they wrapped it in wrapping paper like it was a present 😭
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I've now looked at the thesis a bit and some of Arday's explicit acknowledgements to Zwozdiak-Myers seem to have been overlooked, e.g. this one, where he clearly acknowledges the whole section was generated partly from her work. This is at odds with the impression given from the allegations.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
So I looked at the thesis and some of Arday's explicit acknowledgements to Zwozdiak-Myers seem to have been overlooked, for instance this one, where he clearly acknowledges the section was generated partly from that work. This is not the impression given from the blog.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Rosa Luxemburg on when Lenin met her cat Mimi:
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Graffiti in Pittsburgh www.instagram.com/pittsburghgr...
Poster that says "refuse to be colonized by the empire of normality "
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Big news for the queer community
Newpaper update that says "Kier starmer is coming out"
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Excitedly to be talking at 5pm tomorrow at the RUPTURE RADICAL BOOKFAIR! Saturday 30 May 2026 12 noon to 5 pm Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square, Dublin, D01 T6V6
Radical bookfair poster in orange and white with three blue books.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Good news, the audio version of Neurodiversity: A Very Short Introduction is out now on Audible, Spotify, etc.! I also have three codes for free Spotify copies, so we can do a competition. Just share and like this and I'll pick three people at random to get the codes this weekend.
Yellow and green book stood up on a wooden desk next to a houseplant.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Books from Below is at 50%! We have released a new meme to mark the occasion. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
How Newcastle will look if we can open Books From Below. Please donate if you can!
Futuristic city meme.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Almost finished this 700 page beast and cannot recommend it highly enough.
Book cover for Palo Alto by Malcom Harris. Black text against psychedelic, mutli colour background.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Very happy to say that Neurodiversity: A Very Short Introduction, written by @suereviews.bsky.social and myself, is out now! It was a lot of fun trying to condense neurodiversity theory, research, practice, and politics into a single, brief book. Available in all the usual places!
Yellow and green book on a desk next to a houseplant.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Your Party factionalism is so wild. I think this substack post is some new and terrible development in left factionalism that we've never seen before. Please never do this!
A Forensic-Linguistic Analysis of 'Factionalism or Progress: A Response to Grassroots Left's 22 March CEC Meeting Report'
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
We are one week in and have reached 26%! We're incredibly grateful for all the support so far. But we've still got a long way to go to bring a radical bookshop back to Newcastle. So please do send our crowdfunder to anyone you think might want to support! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I did also enjoy this fully inclusive call out from Limp Bizkit covering every notable community as per Fred Durst's understanding
Hey ladies, hey fellas
And the people that don't give a fuck
All the lovers, all the haters
And all the people that call themselves players
Hot mommas, pimp daddies
And the people rolling up in Caddies
Hey rockers, hip hoppers
And everybody all around the world
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
!!!
Allister Heath
Why Neurodivergent Marxism is the most toxic ideology ever inflicted on the British people
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Restore Britian (Rupert Lowe's new far right party) are really going for the "I've always fantasised about killing someone but have been unable to because of the law" vote
Restore Britian advert for An Englishman's Home is His Castle, explaining you will be allowed to use lethal force if someone breaks into your home. A man with a shotgun outside his house is pictured.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Choosing which food item to give to a six month old baby for their meal is a bit like deciding what to eat in RPGs to regain your health
Shopping list for baby foods
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Got sent copies of the Taiwanese translation of my book. It's beautiful.
Gold and white book cover with a sideways profile of a head covered in flowers and branches. Taiwanese text on a page inside a book.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Specifically this edition of Kant's Metaphysics of Morals.
A controversial edition of kant's book Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, depicting a woman leaning back with her legs spread apart.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
"Let them eat biscuits!" From John Foot's Blood and Power
As Teresa Noce, future communist leader and resident in Turin at the time, later wrote: ‘It was the women who started
everything.’11 It was said that a large car had driven by, and someone
from inside had shouted ‘Let them eat biscuits’.12 It was claimed that
this was the catalyst for the revolt. ‘So, let’s eat the biscuits,’ someone
responded on 22 August, and another echoed that ‘this time, the biscuits aren’t just for the rich, we will eat them as well’.13
Groups of women and children began to attack bakeries and other
stores.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The way trans activists are routinely demonised in the UK is really wild. You can engage the most basic of democratic, nonviolent forms of protest and transphobes respond as if the world is collapsing and trans activists are to blame. There is no form of trans activism that is acceptable to them.
Image of a transphobe with headline 'trans activists turned my lecture into a zombie apocalypse"
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Interesting to see a far right polician wanting us to say "differently abled". In my experience this (terrible) suggestion has always previously come from a certain kind of liberal. Some kind of new ideological convergence seems to be occurring here.
No child is disabled, just differently abled, says Tice
Reform deputy leader believes new definition of special-needs conditions would ‘maximise’ young people’s potential
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
This is the sort of advert I've been getting more since I began focusing my research more on the contemporary far right.
Advert for Jordan peterson educational course, billed as the perfect anti-woke gift.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
You can now vote on what to call Your Party and the shortlist is utter shite.
Your party 
Our party
Popular Alliance
For the Many
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Labour seems really set on paving the way for fascism.
Cooper suggests asylum seekers being moved out of hotels could be housed in warehouses instead
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has suggested that warehouses could be used to house some of the asylum seekers currently being put up in hotels.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Weird new (AI?) problem for me: accounts posting reviews of my book centred around totally made up quotes that I've not said in the book or anywhere else.
"Normal is not a fact; it is a construct, a story we tell ourselves about who belongs and who does not." This striking line from Robert Chapman’s Empire of Normality captures the essence of a book that challenges everything we think we know about what it means to be "normal." As someone who has often felt like an outsider, this book felt like a revelation—a deeply thoughtful exploration of how societal norms are created, enforced, and resisted. Chapman’s work is not just an academic critique; it’s a call to rethink the ways we define and value human difference.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Some nice news: the Italian translation of Empire of Normality is finally out! www.mimesisedizioni.it/libro/979122...
Black book cover with a white square in the middle surrounded by yellow and white text.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Breaking: the woefully out of touch British media class has finally discovered the word "edgelord". www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I checked with a few people who are more across the ways of the world than I seem to be these days: my daughters, a neighbour, an on-trend colleague or two. Blank looks all around. “Sounds dirty,” said one of my BBC colleagues.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Gramsci's description of Mussolini makes him sound like Keir Starmer
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Malcom X on the difference between white liberals and white conservatives:
The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro's friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political "football game" that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Striking how similar the Program of the National Fascist Party (1921) quote below sounds to contemporary neoliberal neurodiversity inclusion stuff.
Guilds must not strive to submerge the individual in the collectivity by arbitrarily leveling his or her abilities and strengths. Rather, they must aim at making good use of and developing them.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Interesting Italian fascist manifesto "the doctrine of fascism" (1932) on how fascism rejects positivism.
Therefore it is a spiritual conception, arising from the general reaction of this century against the flabby and materialistic positivism of the nineteenth century. Anti-positivistic, but positive: not skeptical, nor agnostic, nor pessimistic, nor passively optimistic, as are, in general, the doctrines (all negative) which place the center of life outside man, who by his free will can and must create his own world. Fascism wants man to be active and to engage in action with all his energies; it wants him to be manfully aware of the difficulties that exist and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle, considering that it behooves man to acquire for himself that life truly worthy of him, creating first of all in himself the instrument (physical, moral, intellectual) to construct it. As for the individual, so for the nation, and so for humanity. Hence the high value of culture in all its forms (artistic, religious, scientific) and the great importance of education. Hence also the essential value of work, with which man conquers nature and creates the human world (economic, political, moral, and intellectual).
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Thank you Barcelona for discussing the Empire of Normality with me.
Two people sitting on a stage in front of a crowd of people sitting in a dimly lit hall.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
"This government wants everyone to think we're a burden. But we're not a burden. Were the fucking resistance." Lee from Crips Against Cuts in Newcastle.
A white man sitting in a wheel chair speaking on a microphone in a city square to a crowd of people.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
"warning"
Headline reading "warning as more bristons self-identity as neurodivergent"
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Quite revealing and funny quote from a new Reform councillor letting us know that they are all capitalist exploiters who resent paying wages or tax.
Mr Wimble rejected concerns over lack of experience.

"All the [candidates] that have been elected have got experience of running their own businesses," he said.

"They've had the problems of paying the wages at the end of the month. They've got the problems with the rates and council tax and things like that."
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Excited to say that "Neurodiversity: A Very Short Introduction" written by myself and @suereviews.bsky.social is finally ready to preorder! Afaik the first general academic introduction covering the ND movement, ND studies, and applications of ND theory in practice. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Orange blending into green book cover of "neurodiversity: a very short introduction" by Robert Chapman and Sue Fletcher Watson, with this text written in a white font.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
New form of reactionary accelerationism just dropped.
Keir Starmer post reading: Most Prime Ministers would respond to these local elections with the same old excuses. 

My response is simple: I get it. 

We're moving in the right direction, but people must feel the benefits of change. 

I will go further and faster to make that happen.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Really like the cover of the Spanish edition of my book! It will be published by Caja Negra next month. I'll be doing an event at the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona. Link for that below. cajanegraeditora.com.ar/libros/el-im...
Book cover with red and white block image, El Impreio de la Normalidad by Robert Chapman.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Probably the best thing I saw in the U.S., in a shop window. A (I think) children's book titled "why am i?" along with this little guy.
A children's picture book in a shop window. The title is "why am i?" And next to it is a figure of the character. They look like an alien wearing a beige onesie.Close up face of a strange animal figure wearing a onesie and blue hat.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Arrived in Michigan and the first person I saw when I left my hotel in downtown Rochester is an actual storm trooper.
A stormtrooper waiting to cross the road while cars are driving along in a town centre.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
"denying disabled people our benefits is no more helpful than denying the reality of the mental health epidemic" Lots of great speeches today in Newcastle from members of Disabled People Against Cuts, Crips Against Cuts, and the People's Assembly.
People protesting in a busy city square in front of a monument.
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
The index of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is really wonderful. A small sample:
Index listing:
Fiery devils,
Fire's rage, fish good, fishes in love, fishing Dowling how and when good exercise, flaxen hair a great motive of love, fools often beget wise men, by love become wise, force of imagination, frenzy's description
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Apolitical Intellectuals by Otto Rene Castillo msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/apoli...
One day
the apolitical intellectuals
of our land
will be interrogated
by the poorest of people.
They will be asked what they did
while their community
was extinguished,
like a sweet fire, small and alone.
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