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Simon R

@fadedglamour.com
458 followers 1.1K following 188 posts

I like your questioning eyebrows

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Reposted by Simon R
kottke.org @kottke.org · 13h
Blackbird Spyplane’s Jonah Weiner on his past career as a profile writer. “If you’re doing the job well, you find yourself asking them profoundly intimate questions, and they find themselves answering them.” Really interesting. [blackbirdspyplane.com]
blackbirdspyplane.com
I used to get paid to hang out with famous people
Notes on a (dying?) dream job
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Ken Tindell @kentindell.bsky.social · 13h
I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I never in my wildest dreams expected Russia to take over America with the willing connivance of its people and win the Cold War.
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Leftback @leftback.bsky.social · 14h
Stops the clock on the post-speech feelgood factor
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 17h
And I really am sorry for being a pessimist on this. Just trying to warn against running onto a knockout punch prematurely (before voters/British culture are fully ready). And yes I've seen the polls - they are soft. bsky.app/profile/rola...
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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The UK choosing racism over prosperity, again
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"second term issue" is classic Labour caution speak for "never". But unfortunately... all manner of domestic issues from manufacturing to immigration have an EU dimension. And this government is discovering what previous ones did, that there's no special deals.
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
i really do think the inability of the UK elite to leave X, both political and journalist, can clearly be seen dragging the common sense of the UK well to the radical right like i don't think Rosie would be posting about how bi men facing issues coming out during 2019-2020
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Don’t know whether you’ve seen this? Burnham really isn’t a traditional tax and spend Labour politician with better Tik Toks but someone with a (not entirely developed) alternative theory of politics and power, who has a tendency to say things without always thinking through the consequences.
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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
? they’ve flattened it and we watched videos of them killing children over and over again
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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thanks to the "legitimate concerns" paradigm, we have a national consensus that migrants (you know which specific ones) are a problem. More migrants = bad, fewer migrants = good. In that context, "anti-migrant protestor" isn't even neutral language to describe this fascist thug. It is *positive*.
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Sinan Kose @thesinankose.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The public sphere in this country has fully fucking lost it. It’s like swimming in a soup of boomer insanity with no end.
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Sinan Kose @thesinankose.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We’re maybe days away from Kemi Badenoch hiring “Danny Tommo” as an advisor.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
'Although most of the players are not English and their presence in the England team erodes an important part of English identity, I support them' - no, you don't.
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Finn @thegoblinpoet.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
fairly simple hypotheticals which quickly lead to a dark place, what if: - your man "Tommo" had intercepted that dinghy before the RNLI? - the police hadn't been there to hold back the crowds in Gosport/Portsmouth? - the mob in that hotel had actually found "migrants"?
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John C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm very likely wrong but I am yet to see the Greens make even the vaguest attempt to try and sell the benefits of immigration to the electorate or speak up for the dignity of Asylum seekers when those two things would win them votes
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 23/09/2026
If you want a vision of the kind of immigration policy people like this want, picture the pernicious, vindictive rhetoric of ‘common sense, simple as’ tooled for a passive climate genocide. “Don’t like drowning? Don’t go in our water.”
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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Anthropic incapable of making an LLM that talks normal
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
once again I would like a see a long read on cocaine and the far right
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Leftback @leftback.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
At this point you have to believe that they are actively courting the rise of the far right.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
something has gone very, very wrong with the UK
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Acting the Fulemin @actingthefulemin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
there are 70 million people for whom this is the biggest song in the world. they watch comedies called like "Wives of Jim" that have run for nine seasons. they're usually pretty affable in person. in 2024 they severed the fate of humanity because of egg prices
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Tom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I mean, any time now would be good. If it's not too much trouble
Headline: "‘Outright racist’ Daniel Thomas will face full force of law over any crimes, says home secretary"
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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Will keep boringly saying this (no disrespect to OP): it's not a health surcharge. It's not hypothecated to the NHS; you can't choose not to pay it and thereby eschew healthcare. You could equally call it an education or roads surcharge. It's using the NHS's sanctified status to rip off immigrants.
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There’s going to be a lot of this stuff now, so the words you need to keep in mind are “permission structure”.
Josh Glancy @joshglancy • 13m
X
Alan Milburn and Pat McFadden are creating a permission structure for Labour to make welfare cuts. When the time comes, they must take it, or watch Farage/the Tories do it their way
My @thetimes
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 21/09/2026
Paper of record
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Tuffy @smtuffy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🚩🚩🚩
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Birmingham 81 @birmingham81.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
ESG playing their final UK show at The Cause last night - a euphoric and triumphant way to say goodbye. They connect all the things that matter - Factory, 99, Hannett, Levan, The Haçienda, Paradise Garage, Punk, Funk, No Wave, Hip Hop, House, ACR, Liquid Liquid, The Clash...
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Ciaran @ciaranmcgurdy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

1
Wide shot of the BRITISH MUSEUM. There are suggestions of fascism around the streets - tanks, barricades, an Orwellian 'Big Brother'-style poster on a wall. A voice of a TOUR GUIDE emanates from the museum:

TOUR GUIDE:
So the Tapestry tells acrucial chapter of our nation's history...

2 
[Cut to interior of museum. A long Bayeaux-style TAPESTRY is on display, and the Tour Guide is speaking to a tour group]

TOUR GUIDE [smiling]:
How modern fascist Britain was created. 

3
TOUR GUIDE:
The Tapestry begins here with the 2008 Crash, then austerity, then the AI Crash...

4
TOUR GUIDE:
...and by the end of the room it's just full-on fash. 

5
CHILD IN TOUR GROUP [gesturing to the tapestry]:
What's this middle bit?

TOUR GUIDE:
This is the 2026 Battle of Legitimate Concerns 

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TOUR GUIDE:
[show a reporter standing next to the Dover protests]
Here's the media saying the government have got to do something about the legitimate concerns...

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CHILD:
...About the failure of capitalism?

TOUR GUIDE:
No about brown people on boats

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CHILD:
[pointing at boats crossing the sea on the tapestry]
Are these boats the mega-dinghies?

TOUR GUIDE:
Not all of them

9
[we see one of the boats  is a giant yacht]
TOUR GUIDE:
That one's a superyacht,
carrying money from the American fascists to the British ones.

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TOUR GUIDE:
You see really it's as much a story of convergence as it is of conflict.

[An alarm sounds in the museum]
DING DING DING DING 

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TOUR GUIDE:
Ok, tour over everyone 

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TOUR GUIDE:
It's time for the Two Minute Hate!

[They all leave the museum]

[ends]
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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
One of the most puzzling and upsetting bits of backsliding is the r-slur, especially because it seems like people all across the political spectrum have had this barely controlled desire to hurl it. It’s not hard not to use! I simply don’t!
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I like the way she’s willing to believe in endless multi-tentacled globe-spanning conspiracies, but “Labour are corrupt and they work for millionaires, against the public interest” immediately explodes her brain.
Carole Cadwalladr Y @carolecadwalla
X.com
I'm still reeling from the @tom_watson / Palantir news. But I also think it will blow up in both their faces. It's so transparently desperate.
@andyburnham is going to have to respond to people's disgust & anger at Palantir's role in the
UK state.
Read the thread
THE NERVE @thenerve_news • 1d
Good morning @tom_watson
Your journey from MP who most understood the Cambridge Analytica scandal to paid-up Palanti...
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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
for some reason i hate how accurate this is
Various Dale Coopers as a band
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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Hey New York: I talked to John Wilson about The History of Concrete, how he makes a living, and which problem he wants to make Zohran Mamdani fix next.
slate.com
His HBO Show Was a One-of-a-Kind Cult Sensation. Now He’s Back With His First Movie.
John Wilson on the tricks he used to make his debut feature, and why he’s the “shadow mayor.”
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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The Converse thing is Threads content. I’m sorry but if you get sucked into it you are becoming a Threads person
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Hell Dunkin @halduncan.com · 19/09/2026
b&w still from the filming of George Lucas's famous Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Clones
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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Damn someone call the police, @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social just murdered a man in broad daylight
thenerve.news
From celebrity intellectual to anti-woke outlaw: how Steven Pinker lost his way
The pop psycholgist’s new book seems to betray a lurking fear of others’ criticism – about his Epstein links, his manosphere admirers and his discredited former field of study, writes Virginia Heffern...
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Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This UK-EU relations are a function of how UK wants to engage with the world in general
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
What is happening is a national government completely abdicating its own duty because they want to be popular on one internet website with a rigged algorithm
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
sure would be nice if the UK had a government instead of 17 Sun polls in a waistcoat
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Liam Blizard @blizard.io · 18/09/2026
Bring back shaming people for racism
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 18/09/2026
What on earth is happening?
  This had become the new normal. RNLI crew members had been forced to take their permits off their cars after their tyres have been repeatedly slashed. Most of them have been pilloried at the school gates or turned away from local pubs. One man who worked in search and rescue had been beaten unconscious and hospitalised, recognised for TV interviews he had done.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 18/09/2026
It was going to bring in some American pragmatism, some cognitive science, some neuroscience, some psychology, but the basic point was going to be that we are very, very, very good at bullshitting ourselves & thus should try to stick to some basic, reliable heuristics like: don't be a dick.
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Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It does appear people are retreating into inner worlds
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a rare photo of sean connery signed by roger moore @steamedhamms.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
non-compliance to the waiting until everybody is off the train before boarding rule… another victim of declining standards???
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Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 17/09/2026
We ran zirp and near zirp for so long that it fundamentally altered the baseline understanding of inflation. It'll reset eventually, lol
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Ryan Vance @ryanvance.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don’t think I’m hearing this in my head the way they expected me to.
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Pumpactionmusket @pumpactionmusket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Holy shit. All of the submission videos are just being uploaded immediately at the bottom of the webpage without any moderation whatsoever. Somebody is getting fired for this. openforlegends.guitarcenter.com/campaign/ope...
ffff
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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The BBC is terrified by data showing its lost the trust of low-trust, Reform voters and is desprately trying to win them back through this bullshit... ...without realising that low-trust is their nature and all their efforts do is lose the faith of people who actually do trust the beeb
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Macklemore: Palestinian children are people. Robert Kraft *actively getting a handjob from a strip mall prostitute he refuses to tip*: We must ban this hate speech from every stadium in America. Let me call up my friends, the Epstein client list. Ed Sheeran: Good point, sir. Both sides, sir.
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