Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Shakespeare's Iago is all very well but Verdi gives him a proper villain song where he gets to explain why he's bad: God made us in His image, and God is a Bastard 000
Reposted by Fred MaynardIt's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan! 231026380
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Liberal democracy will refuse to crush its enemies on the basis that those enemies Might Object Strongly To Being Crushed 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Just Because We've Spent The Last Hundred Years Saying It Is A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism Doesn't Mean This Time It Might Not Actually Be A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Also I loathe these articles in which we are told that uncharismatic politicians are actually funny and charming in person. Starmer, Harris, Clinton, they're all apparently great in small rooms. Why should anyone care? The job of politician is to be a brilliant charismatic speaker in big rooms! 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026*Stephen Bush voice* there is a problem with the liberal metropolitan class but it's not the one that you think 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026BBC staff are not wrong that they are unrepresentative of the country - younger, metropolitan, degree education - but trying to correct for that gives the entire news agenda the air of an upper middle class person putting on a matey voice to the cab driver 181
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Not an original thought, but it is striking that the BBC understands its public broadcasting remit as trying to work out what the public wants to read about rather than what it *should* read about 240
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I've said it before but if we address the male loneliness epidemic it will be because the stereotype of leftwing/prosocial young men becomes "has hobbies and meets women" and rightwing/antisocial becomes "rots indoors" 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026by which I just mean "I want to incentivise good behaviour from politicians but not at the expense of Republicans winning" is an argument which is going to go round in circles forever under FPTP 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026It does seem remarkable that this debate has been going on for days on US Bsky and I haven't seen anyone mention electoral reform, which is surely the only constructive suggestion one could make 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Bin Laden was not an evil mastermind nor Inevitable Blowback from the War on the Global South, he was just another guy with too much money who doesn't understand how anything works 13710
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Tilly, have you heard of her, they say she's AI but she did horrible things to Magdeburg, it used to be be a great city but now what they've done to it, it is just horrible 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Although I definitely did read some house managers reports that mentioned fights breaking out when audience members tried to sing along 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026When I worked at the Coliseum there were was some questionable behaviour from critics but no one as far as I know encouraged their plus one to assault the paying customers 130
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 08/09/2026what will really get you is realising how many of those people aren't really paying attention, have vague, contradictory views, and agree in a breezy, vibesy sort of way and that *the future of democracy rests on persuading these exact people to change their minds* 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Not an original thought but loads of great works have plots that are absolute bobbins, the Ring Cycle is an incomprehensible mess but it will never detract from Wotan saying farewell to his daughter hitting like a ton of bricks 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Yep, but I can imagine if your daily grind is dominated by the kind of people who yell at MPs / comment on the BBC website it takes its psychic toll on your perception of who the "real" people are 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I certainly do believe that MPs feel deeply alienated from the loudest people they meet on the doorstep / in surgeries, it is just how they then choose to represent those people which is at issue 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026you kinda have to or what is the point of democratic society 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Absolutely, I think the intimidation (both of MPs and media) is a mix of both actual physical fear and the gnawing sense that they can't comprehend or properly represent a population increasingly alien to them 120
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Ultimately I think the BBC might have to accept that the gulf between the 25yo journo and the retired audience they are supposedly writing for might just be too wide to come off as anything other than cringe, for want of a better word 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Overcompensation by metro graduates for their disconnection from the rest of society is at the heart of so much of the refusal to just go out and defend liberal values. 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Problem is that this manifests itself in an endless self-loathing defensive crouch, because there's no getting away from the fact that BBC journalists and MPs are university graduates of working age and therefore culturally divorced from a huge swathe of their constiuents /viewers 110
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Usual response from BBC / MPs to liberals about why they adopt "legitimate concerns" language is that unlike most liberals they actually have to engage the public at large, which is true. It must be intimidating being berated by constituents / licence fee payers for not being anti immigrant enough. 210
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/09/2026My underlying belief about US presidential elections is you can't win unless you have a solid theory of why unengaged idiots would vote for you, (eg idiots voted for Obama because he was like an inspiring character from the movies) and I don't think Harris had that theory 040
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 01/09/2026In most adaptations the priest and the Levite are presented as bad and then the Samaritan is this kind of good person. It was our goal to make sure there's much more of a grey area so you can see the logic of passing by on the other side. 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Has anyone just *enjoyed* performing as much as Tim Curry did? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzq...youtube.comTim Curry as The Pirate King - 'The Pirates of Penzance -1982 - Royal Variety PerformanceYouTube video by Tim Curry 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The great thing about Jolene is that it might well be the only country song you had ever heard, but it beckoned to a genre beyond full of sadness and longing and despair and hope. Truly one of the all time great ambassadorial songs. 010
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 19/08/2026If engaging online with people who disagree made for a better, more enlightened public sphere the last 20 years should have led to the bestest most enlightened public sphere we've ever had 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 19/08/2026"We're both just citizens and if you don't agree with me you are free to vote for someone else" is a central part of actually engaging voters as equals, but politicians really struggle with it because it involves accepting that they might legitimately lose 030
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Who would you consider the leader of that flank of the parliamentary party atm? (Assuming there is one) 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Universities should regain sight of their original purpose: training up priests for the Church of England 150
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026That the moon and sun are the same size from our perspective is so mind-bogglingly unlikely as to make a good case for the existence of God. Except why would a monotheistic God actively encourage worship of the sun and moon? 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026It is sort of fascinating though that while lots of people have left-conservative views, there is somehow no *social base* for left-conservative views 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Just once I would love it if one of these articles mentioned actually successful left conservative parties and considered why they're all in former communist countries 162
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026A weapons system with one confirmed kill in 800 years? With a record like that it's a wonder MoD procurement haven't come knocking 020
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Confusingly Judi Dench is always in it so the rumour is that Johnny is a codename for all dance instructors 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Marvel supposedly exists in a capitalist system, yet the shoddiness, bloated budgets and "this'll do" production line approach has more in common with the worst excesses of a major Soviet industrial concern in the Brezhnev era 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Fascinating that the usual rule of the free market, which is that unprofessionalism and indiscipline are weeded out in the long term, just does not apply to big budget Hollywood 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 08/08/2026“Stop thinking about it so hard, it’s just a silly sex comedy!” “Is there any sex in it?” “No.” 160
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/08/2026It is shameful that UK governments have done nothing to ensure we have Saudi-level oil and gas reserves and the world's reserve currency 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/08/2026This is good news in as much as at least Germany, like the Labour party, might at last be cottoning on to the idea you might need to Do Some Politics instead of hoping weaponised complacency will save you from the far right 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Swap out the uncharismatic leader after only two years for the north-western regional chief who's better on camera you say www.politico.eu/article/frie...politico.euGermany’s hot topic this summer: A chancellor swapGermany was once seen as Europe’s anchor of stability. Now Friedrich Merz’s own party is discussing whether the chancellor should go after little more than a year in office. 100
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026This is a very funny example to use given that just objectively Beyonce is from a higher social class than Jay-Z 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026My take is that James Bond is in fact a machine for churning out clickbait whose relentless effectiveness is mysteriously out of proportion with the actual popularity of James Bond 000
Fred Maynard @fredmaynard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026To what extent is the current political weather being driven by both Tories and Labour thinking that all they have to do is keep eating into the 25% who say they will vote Reform (despite the fact we're not actually going back to 2019)? 020
