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Harry Sargent

@harrysargent2.bsky.social
3.7K followers 3.3K following 859 posts

Former contributor to Areo Magazine, currently in Liberal Currents. Feeling good these days. Writes about history, philosophy and international relations. If i’m acting like a jerk tell me to log off! Enjoys 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️perspectives…

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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It is unfathomable to Putin that Ukrainians might prefer what the EU has to offer over the Russosphere: So it can only be explained by CIA activity, Russophobia or “fascism”.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Went down a Russian propaganda rabbit hole on facebook to understand my father in law: It’s a whole version of history where Gorbachev was overly trusting of NATO and eager to please the West… truth is he was out of options…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Thanks, it was heavy to put on… happy to suffer for bluesky though…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Reporting for duty…
Me wearing giant WE1 british helmet
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Can’t believe someone would throw away a perfectly good giant Tommy helmet…
Old barbecue that looks like a massive british ww1 helmet
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sydney is awash with bogong moths with six days to mate. In my house are the ADHD ones who got sidetracked. I will care for them…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My fave cold war joke is: “In case of nuclear war put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye…”
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Someone must have calculated that some voters, perhaps even a majority, enjoy their leader threatening a nuclear first strike. Meanwhile my daughter found a cool beetle in the garden; a woman down the street fell in love for the first time at thirty. And a thousand other things…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
From the perspective of a parent: the “popular” kids at school aren’t necessarily smarter/funnier/prettier than everyone else… they just have a preternatural understanding of Machiavelli’s doctrines…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“Shady Promo” is a great name for a band. It would allow you to boost the algorithm with a bunch of fake users, but ironically…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
no luck here
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Language is complicated, but i’m in favour of making expression as easy as possible and the language as rich as possible. It might be necessary to say goodbye to certain words though…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I’m guessing cohen would not agree with how Economist are using the term though right?
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
oh ok, maybe i need to read that
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
They stopped saying “hysteria” because it comes from “of the womb” etymologically and is therefore sexist - i get that, but we can do better than “moral panic” - like “fixation” “over concern” “unwarranted panic” it’s a rich language dammit…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The moral panic over data centers is foolish
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I really dislike “moral panic” where you might previously have said “mass hysteria”. Morality is the real version of ethics, as such a “moral panic” would be justified?
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What’s the best antiwar artwork?
Picasso GuernicaGoya Fight with CudgelsGoya Third of May 1808John Singer Sargent Gassed
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This gap in the historiography has been unexplored (with good reason, i mean it’s a hornets’ nest, I might realistically start a war with this thesis).
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I read Selfish Gene in school and was really into evolutionary psychology for a bit… Luckily I had an older psychologist friend who told me: “You share most of your genetic material with that cow over there, if you want to understand human behavior, better to look elsewhere…”
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I was once diagnosed with sluggish cognitive tempo and ADHD, which was a problem as i was trying to do a phd at the time. I just said “I have slugnative…” and trailed off. It’s an excuse for anything…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I just told my wife “together strong… apart weak…” Which is a line delivered by a monkey in a Planet of the Apes movie. I won the day though…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
*Cunk voice* “It’s no coincidence that dueling went out of fashion with the invention of the machine gun, allowing you to take out a host of love rivals at a stroke…”
The Duel After the Masquerade is a painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme 1857.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
*Cunk voice*
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I’ve been following a bunch of people back on Substack only to find their politics are completely bananas…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
i think there’s a poem in there somewhere
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Ethiopians invented coffee and kept it to themselves for three hundred years..
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Embarrassing confession: Sometimes I don’t have anything to say but I post anyway…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
1. No, it’s the children who are wrong. 2. Supernintendo Chalmers 3. See my loafers former goafers 4. It’s German for “the Bart, the” 5. Stupid sexy Flanders
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Shame there aren’t more peace bloggers in these places. Think of the school books/computers we could cover with the cost of munitions.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
There she goes 🎶
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Geese (the band) are great. Start with Au Pays de Cocaine.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I’ve been there weirdly! To fly model aircraft…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
interesting! Is that a good book?
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
University history departments would be much better if they had an “ops room” where global historical advances could be logged in real time…
Picture of a Battle of Britain ops room. Photo by Nick Catford.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
As a kid, I went on holiday with a famous philosopher. He was infuriating to argue with. You’d offer a premise and he’d just say “no”. He was one of those Cambridge contextualist types. “Don’t you think the Beatles would have been successful in any era?” I asked. “No” came the answer…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
“non sequitur”
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Something to be said for the good cop, bad cop routine…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
You can visit Sherlock Holmes’ house on Baker St. On every level there is a drama student in victorian garb. I managed to get Mrs Hudson to break character to talk about Sherlock’s opium addiction. Irene Adler on floor two was unbreakable though. True method actor. Five stars.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Such rigour!
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Pretty Woman Soundtrack
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
People are in the habit of telling me i’m being *too political* when i’m really just informing them of facts that make them feel uncomfortable… I maintain that childrens’ birthday parties are perfect venues for political discussion…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The position previously was that we shouldn’t punish the collective for the sins of the individual… but increasingly the mantra is we shouldn’t punish the individual for the sins of the collective… I’m not sure what this means yet…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Trading Places was genuinely good movie too, i’d be interested in watching a remake set in Trump’s America.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I’m surprised they haven’t remade the Blues Brothers, given the obsession with 80s IP.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Yes I think so. There are advantages to meeting and comparing ideas with like-minded thinkers, of course. We as a society want to fund those spaces as we value what comes out of it.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
How it feels to be reposted on Bluesky:
Photo shows kim jong il surrounded by sycophants writing down his every word…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
They should throw in a red herring one time…
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
In Australia the Labor government subsidized beer as an essential item, in the 50s I think.
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Harry Sargent @harrysargent2.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
(People need to eat though I get it)
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