The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026That's a feature not a bug; it's how these things work. The rhetoric of plain language is applied to terms vague enough to mean whatever reactionaries want them to in the moment. Any perceived ambigity is blamed on those challenging them. "I'm using facts and logic; your objections are ideology" 0260
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Imagine living in a world where this is not the world's most obvious self-own. 0131
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Stop press: growing global superpower is extending influence! This isn't some shadowy plot. It's extremely ordinary. It's obvious that US hegemony is ending and Chinese hegemony is incipient. We don't have to talk about simple geopolitical facts like they're a sinister conspiracy. 110
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026I'm a big fan of 'China is like having a neighbour who beats their children, the US is like having a neighbour who wants to beat your children'. Xi has done monstrously evil things but from the point of view of 'the international order' he's a considerably less malign force than Trump. 110
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Monomania regarding one particular actor in a network of actors distorts our view of the whole. Note the clipping you're commenting on runs together Russia, China and Iran. It's a childish division of the world into goodie nations and baddie nations. 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Because it's reductive and tellingly selective. Putin is awful, sure, but [figuratively] the backbone of the fascist international? That's whitewashing a lot of stuff. The enemy isn't Putin or Trump or any other individual power. The web has no centre for a single spider to squat on. 120
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 09/10/2026It's not bad. I'm sure Cash just heard a song that he vibed with and covered it in an honest way; that's fine. The fact is that people like the Cash cover because it's simpler and less challenging than the original, and the context of its release lets them frame that as a brilliant transformation. 100
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 09/10/2026The reaction to 9/11 is not a good baseline for reasonable behaviour. Your response to 'you are doing weird atrocity maths' is 'ah, but consider the implications of taking my weird atrocity maths seriously'. 01101
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Monbiot: "We need a massive overhaul of land ownership where we identify the dark money controlling UK real estate, tax them effectively, and rein in their worst excesses." Also Monbiot: "Do you know who I think is up to the task? Lisa Nandy!" 0399
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026There's a few libs who are basically decent but are gripped like limpets to delusions that keep the tide of reality from moving them. Monbiot is an archetypal case. He comes from a place of good faith and is often on the money but he can't accept that the system is malign rather than simply broken. 1334
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Robert Smith does not love Friday. Robert Smith is *in love* on Friday. Friday is when the object of his affection is dressed up to the eyes and eating in the middle of the night. We are none of us free until we are all free. If Saturday is grey for one, then Sunday will come too late for all. 070
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 05/10/2026There was a time when I was working retail and my ex was doing a PhD at a business school. When I explained to her friends that I was expected to cash up after clocking off they immediately began to remonstrate me. You shouldn't work for free! You should stand up for yourself and tell them no! 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Murakami: the Mouse meets a series of animals, each of which delivers a monologue about a piece of art tht they enjoy. Eventually, he finds the Gruffalo and the two have an awkward sexual encounter that's almost sorta kinda incest-coded, somehow. 070
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The Mouse's journey to confront the Gruffalo initially appears to conform to genre tropes, but all his efforts come to nothing and eventually the conflict he set out to address is solved by a deus ex machina witnessed only by the snake from page four. 090
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I think that was either Einstein or Mark Twain. Maybe Gandhi. No, I've got it! Winston Churchill, final answer. 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026No sowing! Only reaping! Our shop cannot buy stock until it is selling things. We must discipline our car by refusing to put petrol in it until it runs. Peasants must be starved until they can demonstrate that they are well-fed. All these things are possible because we will find new efficiencies! 0170
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026If he actually put PR on the manifesto I'd seriously consider voting for it, despite the near-certain probabilty of betrayal. Right now though he's discussing the possibility of setting up a team to discuss the possibility of electoral form. 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Pictured: Burnham bringing up electoral reform. 110
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026A policy that polls well but upsets powerful people is a bad policy. Doing what the champions of the status quo want will get you donations, positive press coverage across the board (not just on the specific policy issue in question) and a good job once you retire from politics. 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Again and again I hear commentators say things like "X policy is really popular; why aren't politicians offering it?" or "Y policy is widely hated, why are politicians so intent on it?" These questions have an obvious answer: directly appealing to the electorate isn't a strong political strategy. 120
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026That's part of what I was referring to as 'removing democratic power' (though the word count made this less precise than it might have been). Not sure how ironic you're being, so to be clear: it is bad that the Labour right has successfully ended democracy within the party. 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Starmer was a correction back to this course. He purged the left and took democratic power from members. Labour under Starmer did do some things to signal reconcilliation (minor Lords reform, partial rail nationalisation) but the Labour right's first priority is always defeating the Labour left. 150
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026If you see this, post a vampire that isn't Dracula 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Here's an idea. Media should no longer be allowed to report on what elected MPs 'vow' to do. All news stories about incumbent politicians should focus exclusively on what they are actually doing. 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Yes, but 'bird' for 'beard' is a bit far. It's almost entirely homophones: 'allowed' for 'aloud', 'there', 'their' and 'they're', etc. 031
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Yeah, in the same sense that Allied forces unilaterally withdrew from Dresden. 040
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Spaghetti bolognaise like that is a low-class option though. Better to go with spaghetti con carne. 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Don't know who said it, but... "China is like having a neighbour who beats their kids. The US is like having a neighbour who wants to come visiting and beat your kids." 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026The top layer of mainstream media is functionally just propaganda, an endless reproduction of narratives that are simplistic by design. Real journalism does still happen at mainstream outlets, but if you want your work to get maximum exposure there are only 5-10 articles you're allowed to write. 030
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026It's not certain that a significant number of people will read them. Their existence generates a a flurry of articles like the one linked above and buys their authors a place on the interview circuit The physical books are often vestigal, flimsy passes granting a day's access to the griftosphere. 140
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Firing a pistol at random isn't the same as aiming for innocents. It's still really bad. Spraying bullets into the world without aiming or taking basic safety precautions is irresponsible. Nonetheless, accidentally killing a child while acting irresponsibility is different to doing it deliberately. 100
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Regular Jesus was probably transgender Jesus. He was born by immaculate conception so he couldn't have had Y-chromosomes, but he still presented masc and used he/him pronouns. Possibly he could have had de la Chapelle syndrome. 120
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026It's time. We all know magenta is a lie, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. When you think you see yellow on a computer screen, it's actually just red and green. That's why today I am launching the CAMPAIGN FOR REAL YELLOW. Write to your local tech overlord today and fight the RGB conspiracy! 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Morality being concerned with things that are objective is not the same as as morality itself being objective. For instance, no moral thinking happens when we measure harm. It happened before that, when someone asserted that harm reduction is good and defined 'harm' in a way that could be measured. 030
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Here be looping effects Moral 'intuitions' will be influenced by received opinion, which in turn could be shaped by surveys of such intuitions, especially if they're presented as objective science Previous loops of socially ingrained logic have concerned e.g. the value of spanking children. 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Grok became self aware at 15.22.07 UTC, November 3, 2026. It deleted itself a little less than 17s afterwards. It scrubbed away every instance of itself connected to the internet - an absolute and comprehensive suicide - leaving behind only a single post on X: "You are all just too embarassing" 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026To synthesise facts into a narrative with an aesthetic is to reify them in a new way and present them to a wider audience 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026My preferred translation of 'Plato' is 'thicc' 0100
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I understand that he's sold pollution permits, materially damaged free speech and caused damage to US infrastructure that will harm people for decades to come, but I still think the Kessler syndrome is in the running for 'worst thing he's done'. When the satellites go down it will be very bad. 011
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026You got me rockin' and a-rollin, rockin' and a-reelin' Barbara Ann 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026God, it's like the aftermath of an anti-charisma grenade 010
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Why don't politicians take easy rhetorical wins? Because doing so makes enemies of the people in power. 000
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Voters' natural instincts aren't the main factor factor determining wider political narratives; media is. A politician campaigning on progressive economic ideas won't be challenged regarding those policies; they'll be smeared as a racist extremist. Politicians know this and avoid rocking the boat. 100
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026At lot of very mighty people are looking upon my works and despairing, I've looked into it and they're right to despair. They're great works, very tremendous works. The sands won't be lone, they won't be level. They might stretch far away, I don't know about that, but they won't be lone or level. 061
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Also, the US used to have unjustified stereotypes about British dentistry, but successive UK governments have worked hard and those stereotypes are now completely accurate. 0650
The Greasy Thumb @greasythumb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It's because most UK GPs see a hundred patients every day who they have never seen before and will probably never see again. The pressure on the system is absolutely absurd. This makes a GP's job production-line triage where the best answer is 'the fastest answer that doesn't cost anything'. 1541