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Simon Gray

@protexblue.bsky.social
2.1K followers 471 following 897 posts

Part-time philosopher & historian. Full-time Student Adviser at University College Dublin. 🇮🇪 Blogger 🖊 / Podcaster 🎤 Husband, brother, playlist-&-bad-jokes lover (he/him; all views my own)

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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 12h
“If it should turn out to be true that knowledge and thought have parted company, then we [will have] indeed become … thoughtless creatures at the mercy of every gadget which is technically possible, no matter how murderous it is.” Hannah Arendt, predicting the future in 1958
Hannah Arendt, in her late 50s or early 60s, sits looking at the camera, leaning to one side with a cigarette in her left hand.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is absolutely the wrong take on "Bad Apples" -- a must-see for anyone who is concerned with freedom, the individual and the state. (And/Or wants to see some stellar acting, not only by our Saoirse)
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
'One of the biggest challenges sexual assault survivors face is simultaneously navigating the university and the criminal justice system, which "serve different purposes, operate under different rules and timelines, and lead to different outcomes"' Absolutely true to my professional experience.
bbc.com
Cornell case spotlights 'confusing' web of systems for reporting campus assaults
Victims often have to navigate both university and local law enforcement processes to find justice.
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just helping with editing here. These bots aren’t sentient. They’re doing what they’re programmed to do. OpenAI, a private company supposedly bound by laws, committed federal crimes.
Screenshot of BBC article: OpenAI bots (struck through) meddled with multiple US government agency sites
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In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
After a long day at the aquarium, the otters help tidy their toys away. Payment is made promptly and entirely in ice cubes.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Here I am reading Arendt's "On Violence" while this is happening up the road. Thinking the book should be called "Violence versus Power" -- but the Irish edition would be "Violence, Power and the Rain".
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ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
it's a perfectly good song. don't let people negatively polarize you against music imo
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Oh yes there is!
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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
"and it's gonna transform into a giant robot that I can drive around and it's going to shoot cake from its arm! It's gonna be SO cool and everyone will know I'M so cool, too!"
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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 18/09/2026
Charitably, this can read as an extremely naive & stupid ‘I can fix him‘. Not sure it deserves a charitable reading though because he‘s taking a wodge of cash from a company that wants to destroy our democracy & turn us into an techno-theocratic vassal state. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir
Peer takes full-time position at the controversial company as it fends off pressure from both Andy Burnham’s government and Sadiq Khan
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It is indeed an “emotional rollercoaster”. At its core is that a person's fate (the defendant's) hangs on the ability of 12 people to exercise reason and follow instructions. The frequent failure of jurors to do so spells tragedy for the defendant and explains a lot about our politics. [4 / 4]
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The conversations described in this jury room sound familiar. Everyone is looking at the same evidence but one person reaches a completely different conclusion. Everyone has the same instructions-- “Don't convict if you have a reasonable doubt” -- but not everyone follows the instructions. [3 / 4]
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The experience taught me that there's nothing you can do to counter a convinced belief. Philosophers can appeal to reason; science to deduction; both to evidence. Neither work against a juror who shrugs their shoulders and says, “I just know they're guilty”. [2 / 4]
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I was on a jury once. Maybe someday I'll write about it. But it was just last year -- still too raw. 🧵 [1 / 4]
bbc.com
Lindsay Clancy holdout juror had no doubt she deliberately killed her children
It is the first time the juror, who refused to side with the others and acquit Clancy, has spoken publicly about his decision.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It's almost as if I had extensively researched and written about this once upon a time...
themissives.substack.com
08. QAnon and the Discontents of Reason
or, "Why Fact-Checking doesn't Work."
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Doesn't regulating and fact-checking run contrary to the whole spirit of MAHA though? My understanding is that they've had enough of regulators (who let the opioid crisis happen) and experts (who pushed the drugs). I know and you know that this is a skewed view. But I doubt you'll persuade them.
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ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I think MAHA is very straightforwardly the triumph of the snake oil salesmen and the way we beat it is the same way you always beat snake oil salesmen: regulate their claims
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Doesn't regulating and fact-checking run contrary to the whole spirit of MAHA though? My understanding is that they've had enough of regulators (who let the opioid crisis happen) and experts (who pushed the drugs). I know and you know that this is a skewed view. But I doubt you'll persuade them.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The ultimate clap back to an incompetent government's PR team.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Renaming my political philosophy to "Good Trouble".
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
We've reached a new level of "Things Were Better in the Old Days", and from a most unexpected source.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Not quite the remains of Augustus and Hadrian getting blown out of their tombs during the sack of Rome ... but not far off.
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Dr Keith 🎃 Wilson @keithwilson.eu · 14/08/2026
Over a quarter of #Clacton voters voted for a bin. 😂
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I'm adding "Pippin's Law" to my list of Not-Completely-Serious Principles: - Occam's Razor; - Hanlon's Razor; and - Godwin's Law (which I used as a humorous intro to my most recent Missive, otherwise very dark)
themissives.substack.com
19. Anderson and Small Things Like These
or, "What's wrong with Bill Furlong?"
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Seems a bit insulting to Count Binface but otherwise accurate. (And supported by @therestpolitics.bsky.social )
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This is absolutely fascinating. Thanks for the recommended reading.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
"Pushing Iceland closer to Europe" Does that mean we have to re-draw our map? (✍️ @terriblemapshq.bsky.social )
A line connects a map of Ireland with a map of Iceland. At regular points the second letter of the name of the country changes.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I'm used to getting my death notices on Instagram. RIP Orbital
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Daring a 16-year-old to go in with a fake ID and loudly demand to be served because apparently it's OK to lie about your age now.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
In Ireland, it's this kind of unintuitive thinking that gets housing wonks promoted.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Yes but also middle age.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Everything I know or needed to know about her I learned in this wonderfully funny podcast episode.
open.spotify.com
Kemi Badenoch – Identity crisis
Origin Story · Episode
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This advice is accurate for me. Despite being up to 20 Missives I still imagine no one is reading them. I'm only partly incorrect.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Wait that's not the church Slash played guitar in front of on November Rain?
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This may or may not be way off-topic. But I find it fascinating and mystifying that music like Prokofiev's could have been found to be "bourgeois" or politically objectionable by Soviet authorities.
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Dr Keith 🎃 Wilson @keithwilson.eu · 05/08/2026
Beavis and Butthead sure did well for themselves.
Peter Thiel
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I don't know who William Powell is but I can tell he's my kinda guy.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I'm sorry BlueSky. I know everyone is up in arms about John Cleese and today's right-wing atrocity. But I'm here for this madness instead.
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
that is in fact literally in the bible. it's Matthew 6:5.
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Yesterday I learned that during appeasement French journalists mockingly called Chamberlain Monseur J'aime Berlin, which is exceptional work. Well done France.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The Odyssey by Homer Simpson.
Two frames from an episode of the Simpsons show Homer talking to two colleagues. An imagined monologue by Homer is overlaid: "It was about this guy Odysseus and this incredible odyssey he undertook to get home. Every decision he made, made the odyssey longer. And on this odyssey, all these strange things happened to him. I think it was called 'the man who couldn't get home.'"
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I completely forgot that the Odyssey is the source material for "O Brother Where Art Thou?"
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Very Machiavellian but perhaps like Machiavelli we will have to reluctantly admit that there is some truth to it. Thanks for sharing.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I'll never understand a world where horror like this isn't all anyone can talk about.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
You've inspired me to put it on right now. (Although I've always preferred "Six": a wholly underrated but wholly depressing album.)
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I envy you hearing this at the time. 15-year-old me would have absolutely lapped it up. Other obscure Britpop bands had their impact on me (remember Mansun?); I wish Elastica had been one of them.
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Mothers get short shrift when their kids have birthdays so CONGRATULATIONS to you!
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I'm listening to an album that I pretty much ignored in the 90s but friends I am 100% here for it now. All bangers no clangers.
open.spotify.com
Elastica - Album by Elastica | Spotify
Elastica · album · 1995 · 16 songs
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Simon Gray @protexblue.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
At the time it was released, I read that she asked her producer to give her a mixtape of whatever (s)he was listening to at the time and it happened to be punk and so the movie happened to become a punk movie.
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Dr Keith 🎃 Wilson @keithwilson.eu · 09/07/2026
Meanwhile in #UKPolitics… 🤪 #VoteBinface
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