iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 14h

This from @will-davies.bsky.social is just great. Pulls all the threads together & presents the whole thing so well, so clearly. I sincerely wish commentators, policy makers etc. would read & digest this. We live in in anti-sociological times & that intensifies the slow, huge, expanding tide of woe.

substack.com

What do want from diagnosis?

Or how to circumvent a culture war

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Parkscope Joe @parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is insane.

Christopher Hale w @ChristopherHale
Follow
NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV's Al encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious.
Olah's team then privately lobbied the pope's advisers "to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously." Pope Leo XIV held firm.
For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.

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Arife Kose @arifekose.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Here is my rhetorical analysis of Trump's black-and-white 'final battle' video. I argue that the black-and-white video’s main achievement was to collapse the ‘now’ between a past whose significance is already decided and a future that is already determined. It does+ substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Trump's "final battle": Occupying temporality

The ‘now’ occupied by past and future.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yes. This is a good analysis of the whole thing in a single sentence.

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Tom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

1. Two thoughts on the AB speech A) Just more — much more — ground traversed with big political arguments than the average leader’s speech. Not just care/pensions, but PR, housing/property, Brexit etc etc B) Almost exactly in tune with the median LP member on nearly all these topics

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Also looking to bet on the publication of an academic article (within the next 24 months) along the lines of: " 'All Together Now' or 'Everybody in the Place'? Left Nostalgia, Subcultural Affect and Ideological Division in British Politics from 1997 to 2026".

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Where can I place a bet that within 24 hours Unherd runs an irritating column on Burnham and the 'feminisation' of the Labour Party/British Politics?

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's the party of tradition and sentiment now. I don't say that to be snarky. But rhetorically it very much is. See also the Healy speech (key structuring metaphor was a miners' lamp). It's an open question as to whether the nostalgia powers them or weighs them down.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

'The Westminster government’s contribution to funding domestic undergraduates studying in England fell in real terms from £8.9 billion in 2012-13 to just £3.3bn in 2024-25, a drop of more than 60 per cent, an analysis has found.'

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Shay O’Reilly @shaygabriel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I honestly suspect that the recent QAA podcast on the state department under Trump is a better overview for European governments than whatever briefings they’ve been getting. podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/g...

podcasts.apple.com

Great Replacement Theory at the State Department feat. Josef Burton (E390)

Podcast Episode · QAA Podcast · 25 September · 1hr 26min

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I get the appeal & political value of nostalgia. But Cortonwood colliery closed 40 yrs ago. The site is now a shopping & leisure centre. I really want a government that proceeds from analysis of now not a past it imagines ‘hope’ can bring back. History matters. So do sociology & Political Economy.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Every time: ‘Do you think we should show or tell this narrative?” “Show ‘em. It’s all show with us”.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I’m waiting for the invitation to land on my doorstep.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

V good. “Indie” became a pastiche of ‘authentic’ Englishness (against electronic, international, dance music). There are big risks to Labour’s pastiche of that pastiche: making policy for an imaginary nation inspired by The Who rather than a real one half into Olivia Rodrigo & half into Skrewdriver.

willd10.substack.com

The meaning of Johnny Marr

And of not talking about Morrissey

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

yes my bull went rogue in your china shop but I think we can all agree there’s no liability here it’s an agentic being

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

They’re talking about Fabians coz they think that’s when Marxists first hid (original logo was a wolf in sheeps clothing); along with Tavistock it’s ground zero for critical theory/cultural Marxism. An was an obscure in 1980s but now sorta mainstream in MAGA/Reform. I’m sure Braverman thinks this.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This, from a Starmer adviser is worth reading for several reasons. One is this: he thinks digital post-material politics is ‘expressive’. It’s not. It’s participatory. It looks expressive because participation is blocked & has nowhere to go becoming more shrill. You have to give people things to do.

futureoftheleft.substack.com

What is politics for?

Do we still live in a material world?

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

An excellent&long overdue essay on British (lack of) resilience, explaining just how dependent the UK is on circumstances it cannot guarantee itself, and why protecting your security means a lot more than to just spend more money on arms (although that is necessary, too). www.ft.com/content/ba80...

ft.com

How resilient is Britain?

As climate and geopolitical risks cast doubt on the UK’s ability to cope in a crisis, leaders are turning from ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’ as a governing philosophy

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Wait, what? There’s a Secretary of State for Culture?

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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Kind of grimly fascinating as always, coming from the former director of strategy to a Labour PM. There just isn't a future for a centre-left politics that is this hostile to pretty basic progressive values.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think he's ambitious & wants to be a historic politician (not just an apprentice hoping for a post with Palantir). We'll get a lot of sentimentality in the speech I'm sure but we'll see if he's *any* analysis & is bold enough to name enemies & to ask friends if he can lead them. We'll see (10/10).

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

But I also think (and this isn't a party-political point) the UK needs Lab to succeed. It just *is* what stands between us and barbarism. And I am so gloomy that actually I can be optimistic about any little thing. Burnham *is* a good politician. He understands something about what's broken. (9/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I find it not a very pragmatic movement - it understands 'pragmatism' through a nostalgic prism of past battles so that 'pragmatic' means 'not doing all those things we thought we believed in' rather than 'analysing rigorously where we are and what can be done and what we need to do it' (8/x).

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think we won't get all that - or much of it. I figure in Whitehall it looks easier and more rational to align with existing powers (international, techno etc.) not least because they offer you a post-politics job. But also because Lab is very wedded to tradition (7/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That's where the ideas do come in (& the rhetoric to articulate them & the 'vibes' that attach people to them). It's also why you need to declare an enemy (real or abstract) and set out how to lead a nation (perhaps against the ethnonationalists that want to destroy it) (6/x).

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If it really wants to introduce change on the scale needed (& I'm not sure it grasps just how badly everything is broken & the *radical* nature of reform needed) then Lab needs to generate power. It needs to win people over not to what it'lll do 'for' them but to what all will have to do (5/x).

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Labour ministers often complain they 'pull levers' and nothing happens. Then they blame the civil service. But the reality is that they have limited power. Lab has almost no power now. Govt. power is constrained by other powers (international, industrial, financial, physical etc.) (4/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Simultaneously, it's no longer very good at ideas & is *widly* incapable of understanding that it's up against political forces with not just different ideas but a totally different political cosmology & who are very into using power in all forms: physical force, financial, ideological etc. (3/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Labour has drifted into this position where it sort of thinks politics is all about ideas/debate (& 'narrative' vibes) rather than power and interests; that government is the only power that matters & you just need policies fitted to limits, not any sort of socio-cultural-econ analysis)...(2/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For once I am VERY interested in Labour Conference esp. 'the speech'. We'll learn a lot from it (and get a strong sense of what our fate in this country will be: the status quo and further decline into barbarism or a collective new course which we can all (well most) help row towards...(1/x)

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I watched the 70-up finale. Finally it really is about the English class system - the rise of the media/cultural 'intelligentsia' gazing at society from "outside", judging everyone in it by their standards & pretending to be 'the public'. Then all types unite against them. That's the 21st Century!

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

We focus on the shiny 'big' technologies but the tiny oral contraceptive pill changed *everything* in ways we are still working out. More than cars. Statins & beta-blockers have extended life, affecting basic existential outlooks and creating the single largest healthcare policy challenge we face.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I hear AI changes everything but I'll stick my neck out & say that right now weight loss drugs (GLP-1s) are having a more fundamental impact on our culture: on food production, eating out, the labour market in hospitality etc. & that's before we consider the wider behaviour changes the drugs induce.

thegrocer.co.uk

The weight-loss boom reshaping the dairy sector

For GLP-1 users with smaller appetites, every calorie counts - and dairy is caught in the crossroads of functionality and indulgence

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It would be "over video" if somehow it was filming the slashing that was the offence, but it clearly isn't!

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

What's the threshold beyond which hacking a government isn't a crime but a mistake? Teenagers get deported for it. Extortion via ransomware is still wrong, right? But if your company has a certain size, fame or market cap, it's not crime? Or is it power? Asking for a friend in a rogue state.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Could the Shit Machine END WORLD HUNGER? It’s NOT IMPOSSIBLE in the most LITERAL SENSE, which is all the justification we need to invest an AMOUNT OF MONEY that would OTHERWISE BY ITSELF END ACTUAL WORLD HUNGER".

mcsweeneys.net

We Must Create the Shit Machine

“For as long as humans have created SHIT with our BODIES AND BUTTS, we have been asking this FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION: What if there were a COMPUTER that could A...

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There are so many crimes in this thread you have to wonder what the police and Home Secretary think they are doing at this point.

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Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Anyone know what on earth the shadow chancellor is talking about here? Alarming that the Times, who used to be a serious newspaper, would publish this economically illiterate misleading gobbledygook.

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Nancy Mitford updated.

Sign with arrow in one direction saying Non EU and the other EU.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yes. I think that’s right. Digital platforms are designed to be real-time participatory. The call & response is baked in as up/downvotes, likes/dislikes & comments etc. And there’s a lot of ritual confirmation of likes/dislikes turning everything into fandom.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Nice. It’s such an interesting phenomenon. I’ve been thinking a lot about an old ‘Toronto School’ distinction between communication as transmission & as ritual. The layout & pacing make the words appear as poetry or sermon & invoke ritual-ness - the opposite of work, info-sharing &, er, the internet

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Higher Education risks irreversible damage, says British Academy president Prof Susan Smith, with humanities and social sciences disciplines disappearing in many cold spots. BA is tracking subject provision & calling for a comprehensive review www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage

As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“The idea that preparing students to succeed in an AI-saturated world requires reimagining college as an AI incubator is not a sign of technological acumen, but of tech illiteracy. An LLM is not an aircraft requiring years of training to operate.” www.chronicle.com/article/harv...

chronicle.com

Opinion | The Ivy League’s Surrender to AI Is Insane

When college leaders drink the corporate Kool-Aid, the liberal arts die.

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It is genuinely a party which exists purely to process the feelings of people who didn't keep in touch with the old school mates when they went off to university like they said they would.

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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I think you’re underestimating the number of people who very much want to order that shit sandwich IF they are convinced it’s shitty enough AND that the other guys will be forced to eat. That the appeal of these guys.

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