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Matthew Cole

@mattcole.bsky.social
2.3K followers 518 following 681 posts

Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex. Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés! mattcole.work

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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's absolutely astonishing how irresponsible the current UK AI strategy is. Ministers have not carried out an environmental assessment and data centres don't even have to report water consumption, despite using using about 1.9bn litres a year. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Greens call for temporary ban on new data centres
Zack Polanski wants stricter rules to limit the use of water and energy by data centres for AI.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Israel can only exist at the expense of Palestinians. That is the historical and the present reality. Cognitive dissonance among British Jews does not negate the fact that Zionism in theory and practice is a racist ideology.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Astonishing that there are still liberals out there willing to defend Zionism!
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
How is it an ethical time bomb? Explain how an extremist ideology driving a violent colonial movement for an ethno-state is not racist please
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I guess having historically and economically informed politics and taking change seriously is ‘nasty’? You might be surprised with what you find in the other parties…
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
How is “the movement for a jewish state” not racist? when the state doesn’t treat non-jewish people equally, that is pretty telling no?
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Explain how Zionism is not racism.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
What should we do about AI? Destroy it. A ‘slowdown’ is not enough. This technology needs to be razed to the ground. tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/dest...
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Maybe read capital and then you’ll know what I’m talking about?
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
maybe things are a little more complicated in the land of politics than whether an individual owns the means of production? even Marx recognises many stray of class. I don’t think this report is terribly offensive.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
‘household income’ here, not individuals.
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Have seen this Nature piece about the effects of X's algorithm mentioned again and it bears repeating; exposure to a right wing algorithm makes you - measurably and predictably - more right wing, even after you stop using it. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature
Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Never forget
nytimes.com
After 9/11, Documents Suggest New Yorkers Were Misled About Air Quality
The Mamdani administration is releasing more than 170,000 pages of documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center site in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
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New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
What else? The one glaring omission from the chancellor’s speech is demand. If households don’t have money to spend, then businesses cannot thrive. This is something the government can address...
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New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Our view: The chancellor is right to say that the UK needs more investment across the country. But for too long we have relied on markets and foreign investors to take the lead, resulting in value being extracted from, rather than invested in, our economy... www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...
bbc.co.uk
Healey pledges growth but acknowledges high government borrowing costs in first speech as chancellor
John Healey says the UK economy is "turning a corner" as he announces a £150m fund for fast-growing firms in the north of England.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
'The number of students taking A-level music is at a record low: under 5,000, a drop of nearly half from 15 years ago....Music GCSE entries have also fallen. It has the widest attainment gap for disadvantaged students of any subject.'
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on music and drama education: reversing elitism starts at school | Editorial
Editorial: The number of students taking creative subjects at A-level and GCSE is at a record low. The arts must not become the preserve of the most privileged
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
And this is why you don’t debate fascists.
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Sarah Jaffe @sarahljaffe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
all solidarity to the lovely people at the Baffler union, who've offered me a platform time and again to write about the catastrophe that is the modern workplace
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
What the actual fuck
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
lol
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
It’s important to be clear that the truth value of a subject does not become debatable just because somebody wants to debate. Ether. Wandering wombs. Devils in red heads, the cursed left handed. Flat earth. Phrenology. Humors. Race science. “Debate me bro!” It’s fine for the answer to be: no.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
what the fuck are you on about? You clearly don’t understand what those words mean or anything about the case.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Thanks for buying it as well as supporting one of my local bookshops!
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Paul Atherton FCL FRSA @alondonerslondon.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Genuine Londoners know best currency in city, not money, but kindness. After both appearing in a #BBC news article on subject this morning www.bbc.co.uk/news/article.... Visited #LaLaBooks & got myself free copy of the book Unpaid by @mattcole.bsky.social. #LetsGuide #UniquelyLondon #ALondonersLife4
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
these people are mentally deficient, deranged, grifters or all three (likely)
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 21/08/2026
New study finds that the rapid growth of electric vehicles in China has prevented over 300,000 premature deaths. Conversely -- and this is just math -- everything done to prevent the rise of EVs in the US leads to more preventable deaths of Americans. It's not an academic debate.
nature.com
Reduced urban air pollution and mortality from the transition to new energy vehicles in China - Nature Health
Using satellite data and interpretable machine learning, the widespread adoption of new energy vehicles was shown to reduce particulate matter particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less and carbon mo...
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
this over and over again
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
That take is profoundly ignorant of both the social and environmental costs of AI versus benefits as well as the historical record of technological innovation and dissemination.
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Academics that publish in their own crank journals claims that vitamin C will cure cancer are dangerous to the public; but ‘race scientists’ are far worse, since their work is propaganda designed to provide the patina of justification for subjugating and harming *billions of non-white people*
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I was being facetious…
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
universities are not run by leftist profs they are run by corporate profiteer board members siphoning public $$ to tech partnerships "An Inside Higher Ed analysis of SEC filings turned up dozens of presidents paid handsomely for sitting on corporate boards." www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
the 10 presidents in Inside Higher Ed’s analysis who earned the most from outside board service in 2025.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Animal Farm is a children’s book.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I loved these when I was like 7 or 8 years old?
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John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
For the latest BREAK–DOWN podcast, i interviewed Guillaume Long about Latin America's rightward shift and the long history of US imperialism in the region –– and what all this means for the climate movement there and globally
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
BBC invited Palestinian writer, researcher and analyst Muhammad Shehada on to talk about Israel’s decision to investigate the killing of Hind Rajab. Below is Muhammad’s account of what happened next. Full disclosure: I know him years and he’s a regular on the pod. So naturally I believe him 100%.
@muhammadshehad2
Disappointed the BBC cancelled my interview on
Israel's killing of Hind Rajab
2 producers eagerly reached out. They confirmed the time & one called to prepare a brief for the anchor
She asked me whether Israel's announcement is positive, I explained in detail it was a cover up.
The IDF is blaming the killing of Hind, her uncle, aunt & 4 cousins on the family itself for trying to flee by car & on the ambulance sent to rescue her for "failures in the co-ordination of the movement."
None of this is remotely true! The Red Cross immediately informed the IDF about 5-year-old Hind who was hiding in that motionless car, & they requested permission from Israel to allow an ambulance to rescue them.
After multiple long hours, Israel granted greenlight to the ambulance & provided them with a designated route on a GPS to drive on.soon as the ambulance reached Hind's car, the IDF ambushed & bombed them immediately with an American made anti-tank missile then opened fire on Hind's car. The car was hit with 355 bullets.
Israel then kept that area under lockdown for 12 days, & prevented anyone from approaching.
Hind's mom went daily to the Ahli baptist hospital hoping to find her daughter, until her lifeless body was brought in along with the charred remains of the ambulance men.
Israel then claimed after an "initial investigation" that its troops were NEVER in that area to begin with. They maintained that claim for 2 years despite ample recordings & satellite images debunking this lie.
The only reason Israel is now making this new announcement of a deeper investigation is to shield its soldiers & generals from the International Criminal Court by invoking the principle of "complementarity;" that the ICC cannot investigate a state that is already investigating itself in good faith.I told the BBC producer Israel today also quietly shut down the investigation into the triple tap killing of American, Canadian, British, Australian & Polish citizens in the WCK massacre. Israel blamed the massacre on the aid workers themselves for "deviating from the predesignated route" & for hiring an armed security guard "without informing the IDF" (both claims where debunked by WCK themselves, who had coordinates their every step with the IDF).
I told the producer the Israeli commander responsible for this massacre, Nochi Mendel, is a fanatical settler who had signed a petition calling for starving Gaza & that he was celebrated by settler leaders & supported by Israeli government leaders after what he did.
Mendel even received a box of chocolate from the settler council's leader & a letter of support for what he did.
Mendel was initially dismissed by the IDF & blamed for the massacre, but was quickly & quietly reinstated & promoted in the Defence Ministry as the head of the settlements and notionol infroctrunturo unitIt's abundantly clear Israel is NOT serious about prosecuting any of the atrocities committed in Gaza. Since the genocide began, only two soldiers were punished by the IDF; one for microwaving a living frog & another for cooking sausages in the army kitchen on Shabbat.
The producer asked me: What about the 150 cases the IDF said are pending review?
I answered: it's just a number designed to give the appearance of seriousness, but it's essentially meaningless.
If it took the IDF two whole years to admit the simplest of facts that the entire world had already known, which is that their troops were the ones who fired on Hind Rajab's car, how do you expect them to do with the remaining cases that are not as high profile?
Five minutes after the call, the producer wrote me that they decided to cancel the interview & will not even host anyone else to comment on the issue, & instead they'll play archival footage!
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
After Ben-Gvir called to kill 40 Palestinians daily, pro-Israel groups & officials insist he doesn’t represent Israel. But he’s the head of Israeli national security. And he’s had the job since 2022 (minus two months). And, in fact, between October 2023 - 2025, Israel killed 92 Palestinians daily.
zeteo.com
Pro-Israel Groups Want You to Believe That Israel’s National Security Minister… Doesn’t Represent Israel
Parts of the pro-Israel lobby are calling for the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir to be ousted from government, after he called for the mass murder of Palestinians. So what will they do when he isn’t?
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I mean, “International Relations” as a discipline was based on a socially constructed fantasy of race. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...
lrb.co.uk
Susan Pedersen · Destined to Disappear: ‘Race Studies’
At the moment of its American birth, ‘international relations meant race relations.’ Races, not states or nations,...
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Professor Richard D. Wolff @profwolff.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
#WolffBites: Californians vs extreme wealth on this November's ballot: a one-off 5% tax on personal wealth over $1 billion. One billionaire, Google's Sergey Brin, spent over $100 million get defeat the tax. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on global inequality: extreme wealth threatens democracy | Editorial
Editorial: New York mayor Zohran Mamdani shows Britain’s Andy Burnham that confronting billionaires need not mean the end of cooperation with Donald Trump
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ben smoke @bencsmoke.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
BREAKING: Jury refuses to convict in second Filton trial After more than 38 hours of deliberation, the jury refused to convict Madeleine Norman, Hannah Davidson, Teuta Hoxha, Ola Alexandra Herbich, Ian Sanders, William Plastow and Yulia Brigadirova of all charges against them.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
We do not build the reservoirs needed to store the rain that falls here. We do not build strategic food reserves needed to maintain provision in hard times. We failed to build effective stores of PPE, to protect us in pandemics. This country has long been governed by people who do not prepare.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Meanwhile in the USA, lynchings are on the rise once more.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Bubble goes pop next year unless the the bail out happens or everyone magically decides (or is forced) to pay through the nose for a service they didn’t want that also doesn’t work properly.
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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 18/08/2026
"X is driving engagement by making users fight in the replies." #confirnationofwhatweallsuspected www.404media.co/xs-algorithm...
404media.co
X's Algorithm Feeds Off Ragebait and Impacts Democrats More, Study Finds
X is driving engagement by making users fight in the replies.
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Progressive International @progintl.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"Mamdani’s public grocery sector plan is among the most compelling innovations in a food supply that is increasingly consolidated, expensive, corrupt, and lately, downright dangerous." Available in EN, ES, FR and IT. buff.ly/DasPVk1
progressive.international
Zohran Mamdani’s Public Grocery Plan Is a Serious One
A grocery industry expert argues that as our food supply becomes increasingly consolidated, expensive, and even dangerous, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s publicly subsidized grocery plan takes bold…
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Who could have predicted this?
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I get that you really hate Cuba, but could you answer the question I posed?
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
What’s the “competitive multiparty liberal democracy” you have in mind here? Please don’t say the United States, because that is probably the worst example in the Americas.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Congrats! What’s your take on the whole technofeudal thesis? I think tech oligarchy has much more explanatory power.
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
What the actual fuck is the government doing
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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Wow this is a very nice surprise for me as well! What store?
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