madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 11/09/2025So much of what’s disturbing about politics currently - the nihilism, conspiratism, extreme (and delusional) confidence in state power, the weird racism, and most of all this mania for violence - leads back to the continual murder continually underwritten by our governments for nearly 2 years 0140
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 11/09/2025I’ve lost track of the number of unselfconsciously extreme arguments for the use of deadly force against civilians I’ve seen over the last year, largely from the right of centre but also from the left. Usually they’re distorted versions of rhetoric first posed by the Israeli govt & its apologists 1130
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 11/09/2025The US’s ongoing assassination wave obviously draws on longer trends, but it can’t, imo, be disentangled from the past two years of moral & legal norms about violence being publicly trashed. You can’t have nonviolent dialogue at home & murderous nihilism overseas. This kind of war always comes home 1849
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 11/09/2025recently found out archaeological evidence suggests Jerusalem, across much of the period covered in the Hebrew Bible, may have had as few as 400 inhabitants, therefore meaning many biblical events fall under the remit of the reknowned adage: "try that in a small town" 1213
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 06/09/2025Alternatively, if you take the UK at their word, the below images depict the single largest terrorist action in British history 05411
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 06/09/2025Mike Higgins, who is blind and wheelchair bound, has joined today’s protest against the Palestine Action ban after being arrested at the last. He, and over 1000 others, risk arrest as a “terrorist” & up to 14 years in prison for displaying seven words: I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION 0267
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 06/09/2025One of the largest acts of civil disobedience in British history is currently underway in Parliament Square, with over 1000 protestors risking arrest & jail time as ‘terrorists’ for public display of seven words: I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION. 27415
Reposted by madoc cairnsAmnesty International UK @amnestyuk.bsky.social · 02/09/2025🚨BREAKING: Defend Our Juries leaders arrested in clear violation of international law This is a terrifying example of UK authorities’ willingness to use authoritarian practices. amn.st/63327A6z3damn.stFive members of group supporting Palestine Action ‘arrested in police raids’Defend Our Juries said a number of its spokespeople were held ahead of plans to announce a fresh mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action. 07153
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 02/08/2025The number of children a single BBC investigation found to have been killed by IDF snipers (90+) is more than double the number of children killed on October 7 & falls within the lower estimates of the number of children killed by Hamas over the organisation's entire history 082
Reposted by madoc cairnsTom Jamieson @tomjam.bsky.social · 22/07/2025And we’ve been very much across this on press day. 👀👀👀 1165
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 19/07/2025The UK in 2025: it’s now a terrorist offence, carrying a sentence of up to fourteen years in prison, to hold this cartoon from Private Eye 13311
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 16/07/2025You do realise that’s a more serious charge than the one they claimed to suspect him of? 100
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025they make the arguments they do. what possible context could mean they are doing something quite different? I can't think of any - multiple unambigious assertions complete to themselves in this 030
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025it's a cultural colonisation from the usa - "thin blue line" flag patch 2150
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025I think if you feel it's not possible to know what's going on in the video that's a comprehension issue at your end and not due to the editing. certainly what is clearly said is damning enough as it is 030
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025you're not making a lot of sense i'm afraid. could you rephrase with a more conventional sentence structure so i can follow your argument better 010
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Palestine Action is the first large-scale direct action campaign in British history I can think of where a large majority of Britons share their aims and only a tiny majority those of the government 14612
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025A reminder that according to a Yougov poll from last month (18.06.2025): 55% of British adults oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza (only 15% support) And 45% of British adults think Israel is committing a genocide. 39741
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Well if a view led them to reasonably suspect you did in fact support Palestine action they would be obliged to take you in as a dangerous terrorist 210
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Police in Canterbury today informed a protestor that the phrase "Israel is committing genocide in Gaza" could be considered a declaration of support for Palestine Action and therefore a terrorism offence. 34824621127
Reposted by madoc cairnsMarie Coronel @mariecoronelsd.bsky.social · 13/07/2025‘In death, as he was in life, he will remain a sign of contradiction.’ @madoc.bsky.social on the life & legacy of the 266th Pope, ‘Pope Francis. 1936–2025.’ Via The Lamp Magazine thelampmagazine.com/issues/issue...thelampmagazine.comThe Lamp Magazine | Pope Francis 1936–2025A symposium on the late pontiff. 032
Reposted by madoc cairnsmadoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 13/07/2025Some Popes are different. Francis was one such Pope. My biographic introduction to The Lamp's symposium on the last pontificate is online here: thelampmagazine.com/issues/issue...thelampmagazine.comThe Lamp Magazine | Pope Francis 1936–2025A symposium on the late pontiff. 1143
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 14/07/2025posting "what would your job in the new moral universe instituted by those who overcome" and all the answers are "intoning dithyrambs" 020
Reposted by madoc cairnsJames Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 13/07/2025have to admit though that my favorite of Horkheimer’s critical recoveries of Nietzsche is from Dämmerung (1934), “Nietzsche & the Proletariat”! 4236
Reposted by madoc cairnse.g.n. lafleur @egnlafleur.bsky.social · 13/07/2025"Perhaps most divisive of all was Francis’s own personality: authoritarian and anarchic, austere and ambiguous; the silence and the noise. He remained, always, La Gioconda: wearing a smile that seemed to—and perhaps did—reveal everything." 021
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 14/07/2025i only found out you can't use papacy this way whilst writing this article so im on a learning curve 020
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 13/07/2025Some Popes are different. Francis was one such Pope. My biographic introduction to The Lamp's symposium on the last pontificate is online here: thelampmagazine.com/issues/issue...thelampmagazine.comThe Lamp Magazine | Pope Francis 1936–2025A symposium on the late pontiff. 1143
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 07/07/2025The british government understands it as such, and so self-presents as a democracy in no equivocal way. That's what I'm referring to. If we adopt a non-binary definition, I'm happy to grant the above. But in this case there is an enormous gap between reality and how it is presented to us 100
Reposted by madoc cairnskarl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 06/07/2025What’s happening in the UK is pathetic and dystopian 0152
Reposted by madoc cairnsJack Jones @storiesfromjack.bsky.social · 06/07/2025If true that PA have dissolved, it now appears to be an offence to show support for the memory of an organisation which no longer exists, but at the time it existed, wasn't proscribed. 085
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 06/07/2025she behaves in consistently stupid ways so I don't know what else can be said 110
Reposted by madoc cairnsmadoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Not a terrorist offence: Participating in direct action like Palestine Action's Organising direct action like PA’s Supporting direct action like PA’s Being a former PA activist who does all of the above. Terrorist offence carrying up to 14 years in prison: Saying “I support Palestine Action” 32612
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 06/07/2025As mentioned above: a thread laying out how the High Court's judgement, Cooper's explanation of the proscription, and the nature of palestine action as a group have highlighted the absurd practical consequences of the redefinition of "terrorism" which began...in 2023. bsky.app/profile/mado... 0141
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 05/07/2025what kompromat could possibly exist regarding yvette cooper, one of the most boring of an almost legendary dull generation 020
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Aquinas actually implicitly argues this in the bit of the summa dealing with jokes iirc 120
Reposted by madoc cairnsPaolo Sandro @paolosandro.bsky.social · 05/07/2025I expect this thread to become national news this week. Excellent, as well as infuriating, public service 12613
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 05/07/2025i don't know about that. I think it's probably just that's she's stupid 200
Reposted by madoc cairnsDan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Thread on how MPs were told the Terrorism Act would not be used - as it is now being used against Palestine Action 13520
madoc cairns @madoc.bsky.social · 05/07/2025This argument recommends that we assume that neither we nor MPs know what our laws are in discussing & voting onthem. All that matters is the law, as (re)interpreted by those MacIntyre called the clergy of liberalism, lawyers. But if this is our situation, we do not live in a democracy at all. 121
Reposted by madoc cairnsStephen Smith @gsds3.bsky.social · 05/07/2025It’s an excellent thread and fine research, thank you. Charles Clarke was minister of state, one step down from Home Secretary, at the time of this legislation 121