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Paul Kirby

@paulcinnamon.bsky.social
1.5K followers 460 following 752 posts

International theory, feminist political thought, “Women, Peace and Security”, masculinities and the governing of them, critical war studies, statecraft, pop cultures, another university might still be possible. Gender detective.

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Reposted by Paul Kirby
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 18h
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Drone strikes didn't take out a Russian bot farm, but we were primed to believe it
A viral rumor illustrates people’s hunger to make sense of the division we see online.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Speculation that the IRGC haven’t yet been proscribed because of realpolitik must be in error. I know because the Home Secretary says it is a matter of highest principle to cart off the elderly in their thousands for Palestine Action support. Rules are rules. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘almost certainly’ behind RAF Fairford threats, says Burnham
UK to bring further sanctions against Tehran and IRGC after assessment Iran was likely to have coordinated incident
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The Nobel committee have at least drawn extra attention to this sabotage by awarding Navi Pillay today. A juxtaposition which should (but won’t) become the heart of every challenge to would-be defenders of liberal world order: how will you counter this sanction and defend the court?
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I actually think the opposite - Goodwin shows that by keeping us safely cloistered away academia is doing the rest of the world a great service.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
You could write a history of the Labour Party through the trajectory of Tom Watson, but I wouldn’t want to read it.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Tag yourself.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Give appeasement a chance guys. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request
Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website
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Unfitforpurpose @unfitforpurpose.net · 08/10/2026
*Looks at UK universities* I can answer that, but you're not going to like it.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Love to do a big pint of academic freedom with a viewpoint diversity chaser, but only after I’ve checked my bingo card of management-approved dead people.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Who is it this time?
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Curious, all the more so because Times Higher don’t seem bothered to contest or comment on the allegations. bylinetimes.com/2026/09/30/t...
bylinetimes.com
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New GB News accounts are out. Here are their losses to date. Or "spent political donations" if you prefer
Line chart titled 'GB News has lost £142m to date', showing cumulative losses in pounds rising steadily from around £3m in 2020/1 to £142m by 2025. The red line climbs most steeply between 2021/2 and 2023/4, reaching roughly £110m, then flattens as growth slows towards £142m. A note states the latest figures cover the seven-month period to 31 December 2025. Chart by Press Gazette, source: Companies House
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 01/10/2026
Less than two days later it is reported that the USG will be waiving human rights conditions requirements on $320,000,000 in military assistance for Egypt "in light of Cairo's "helpful role" since the launch of the US ‌war with Iran".
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: US waives rights conditions for $320 million in military aid to Egypt, letter shows
The US State Department has waived human rights conditions for ​more than $300 million of military aid to Egypt in light of Cairo's "helpful role" since the launch of the US ‌war with Iran, according ...
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And another thing. I’m not losing the war. Please don’t put in the newspaper that I’m losing the war.
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Scare Smith 💀 @evilgalprods.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FATALITY
A tweet from Joyce Carol Oates: overall takeaway from the Curtis Yarvin profile is that there must be millions of smart-aleck show-offy kids who annoy their teachers and go on to annoy other adults through their lives with their “contrarian” pose that hardens to a carapace over their faces; until, as adults, they still harbor a delusion that, if there is a king, or a fuhrer, he’d be impressed with the guys motor mouth and appoint him to his cabinet rather than deleting him with a negligent swipe of his wrist as Stalin did routinely.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hollywood faculty lounge / Actual faculty lounge
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ponder @ponder.ooo · 29/09/2026
person talking to computer, saying "will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"
computer replies ">you got it, boss"
person replies "oh my god."
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I like that in becoming a nazi, you get glowing coverage as a brave iconoclast, and then when you stop being a nazi, you’re get glowing coverage as a brave dissident. Money coming and going. Only way you lose is having normal opinions like “racism bad” bsky.app/profile/trac...
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Getting straight to work on all that economic anxiety.
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Stuart Presnell @logopetria.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Cabal of saboteurs trying to undermine my project to improve the world through unity and determination, hurling gotcha questions like "how exactly is that supposed to work?" and "have you considered this one obvious fatal flaw?", but I just fold my arms and smile and say "it's not my job to ..."
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Nothing disproves the two-tier policing canard more than edgelording jailtime. The poundshop Mosley marketing playbook.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.
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Dr Chris Smith @spyhistorian.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it." Eric Williams, still on point all these decades on. All is changed while everything has stayed the same.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I see people flagging the narrow range of scores as a complement to the model, but surely the practical use in hiring is to prompt ‘give me the top 5 for interview’ which leads to a white-only and maybe male-only shortlist, even under a scenario of equal demographic representation and identical CVs.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Is there no bottom to the Nina Power travesty? www.ft.com/content/21aa...
ft.com
Reform UK’s mega-donor backed a friend’s libel claim. Now he controls her home
Crypto billionaire Ben Delo loaned more than £300,000 to former academic Nina Power
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Is it ok for management to phone students asking them to take modules not validated on their degree because they’ve sacked people and can’t staff the modules listed? A working day before teaching starts? Hypothetically, obviously.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Congratulations to everyone involved.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Hope they’ve figured out their own fire brigade.
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Adam Sternbergh @sternbergh.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
all of the openers for Ed Sheeran’s tour have now canceled thanks to Robert Kraft but he will be adding a new opening act, The Streisand Effect
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Very good, and not just because it articulates and evidences my own discomfort.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“Two ultra donors have made their move. Now we have to make ours.” Bated breath.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
This is a tax guy. His advice could be the difference between someone having their assets seized & maybe going to jail, or not. Now imagine having to worry about racist shit in every interaction you have with any person in authority. Every doctor & nurse, every cop, every lawyer & judge, every boss
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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I bought this sign a few years later at the going out of business sale of a locally owned restaurant in, I think, North Haven CT.
metal sign with stick-on lettering reading NO FRENCH PRODUCTS SOLD HERE/"GOD BLESS AMERICA"
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“Without protectors I would never have succeeded”. All the trigger warnings. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The Children a Scientist Took Home
Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for his work on a disease in Papua New Guinea. But his biggest experiment was on the children he took back to the U.S.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Closer to ‘progressive realism’ than Lammy ever managed. Struck that Miliband went further still in the Commons on the illegality of apartheid and occupation itself. www.canada.ca/en/global-af...
canada.ca
Joint Statement of the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK on the Two-state Solution
Today, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trad...
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James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Is it better to think of it as part of a multi-vector political shift – street thugs, plus Reform as a catalyst for rightward pull on formal politics as a whole, the rise of Restore, and dissolving whatever historic cordon sanitaire existed between them and mainstream politics. I suspect the latter.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I now start marking at the bibliography, because I’m not second-guessing and furrowing my brow for 30 minutes of unsettling text only to find the references are hallucinated at the end. The teaching pact turned inside out.
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Reposted by Paul Kirby
Tom Phillips @tom-phillips.com · 05/09/2026
almost word for word
Screenshot of tweet from @InternetHippo:

New right wing thing is describing crimes as generically as possible to pretend like they're not crimes. Someone gets convicted of conspiracy and they start yelling "Wow so it's illegal to make plans with friends now"
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Most Moral Army in the World www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘Guilt by association’: why seven international aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrike
Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals targeting of World Central Kitchen convoy was result of widely used military tactic
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Can you believe these fucking losers, being mad about more than one thing over the last six years
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
If only schadenfreude discounted horror.
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Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
looking forward to the French Ambassador to the US pushing Harvard to dismiss Adrian Vermeule on grounds of laïcité (with threats of retaliation)
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Some members of the Cofnas Defence Front are consistent, e.g. resisting university suppression of Palestine speech. But it’s pretty gross to find yourself arguing that tooth-combing someone’s career is morally upstanding when it’s plagiarism but mob rule when it’s corrupt hiring and gleeful racism.
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🫣 stuart reeves 🫣 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
unfortunately this is happening all over the sector because of university management culture that thrives on copying the de rigueur rather than listening to staff, HE consultants are siphoning off huge amounts of cash from university budgets to construct plans to sack staff
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Reposted by Paul Kirby
Dr Susan Greaney @suegreaney.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thread on Uni of Exeter cuts and mismanagement that myself and my colleagues have been experiencing, by someone very much in the know. Thanks @profalexp.bsky.social for all your hard work 💪
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
As a free thinker devoted to viewpoint diversity, I have nothing but respect for the University of Austin that introduces students to ideas about freedom ranging from Milton Friedman to Friedrich Hayek, from Leo Strauss to Allan Bloom, and from Forrest McDonald to Gordon Wood.
University of Austin • Follow
14h •
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What our freshmen are reading during orientation this week.
Contents
THE UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN
What Is Freedom?
Intellectual Foundations Seminar
1. Civic and Political Freedom
Session 1
Gordon Wood, "The Declaration of Independence"
Fomest McDonald, E Pluribus Unum, ch. 5: "The Critical Period of American History" The Federalist, No. 1 and No. 49
John Marshall, The Life of George Washington: Washington's Life and Character. Pp. 463-469
Il. Economic and Individual Freedom
Session 2
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, ch. 1: *The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Frecdom*
Fricdrich Hayck, "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
II. Is Freedom the Highest Good? Technology and the Human Future
Session 3
Alexander Karp and Nicholas Zamiska, The Technological Republic, ch. 1: "Lost Valley"
Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, paras 1-19, 97-130, 229-242
Yuval Levin, "Idols of the Valley"
Neil Postman, Technopoly, ch. 1: "The Judgment of Thamus"
IV. Intellectual and Inner Freedom
Session 4: The Intellectal Crisis
Leo Strauss, "What Is Liberal Education?"
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp. 19-43
Session S: The Student's Interior Lif
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp. 47-137
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2026 Orientation Readings
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Tag yourself. www.intimently.com/p/how-to-be-...
intimently.com
How to be Gay: A List By and for Straight Men
I asked men to describe the sexuality surveillance state they participate in, suffer from and co-create, where even using a blanket on a cold night can tarnish a man in the eyes of his peers.
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Paul Kirby @paulcinnamon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
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