iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I'm going to set up a new page here for The Sentinel. Does anyone have a list of accounts to follow on European defence, please?

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Some things I learned living in the Middle East, travelling in India and studying lots of languages - and why they're more relevant than ever today. www.theleopard.eu/p/race-relig...

Race, religion, politics, faith

How cultural Christians misunderstand the wider world.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Good morning, America! I need you to like this essay so people in Europe can read it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. www.theleopard.eu/p/american-f...

The only way to reach Europe’s single market.

American flywheel

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

What a viral essay taught me about Europe's economy: If you want to conquer Europe, get big in America first. www.theleopard.eu/p/american-f...

The only way to reach Europe’s single market.

American flywheel

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Jeremy Corbyn splits the UK left with a new pro-Palestine vehicle, helping Nigel Farage on his way to Number 10. And it just so happens that I had drafted an essay on how Palestine activism has taken over the European left: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A distant conflict devours the European left.

Everything is Palestine

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

A big chunk of creative work is done away from the office. As AI takes away mundane tasks and frees us think more deeply, spending eight hours at the office isn't just unnecessary - it's a hindrance to the creative process. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A better way to make a living.

Working 12 to 5

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

The Liverpool ramming attack wasn't entirely apolitical - it was the natural extension of embedded, and sometimes violent, driver entitlement. New essay: www.theleopard.eu/p/militant-c...

Driver entitlement is a violent ideology.

Militant car brain

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Why do so many people in the West hate their own civilisation? I argue it's because of a lopsided teaching of history and culture, where the West gets an interrogation and other peoples get a hagiography. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Those who hate the West

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

The global flood of misinformation could revive a dying breed: the foreign correspondent. Not long ago, the value of having a trusted reporter on the ground was in freefall as reliable information flowed on social media. Fake news is reversing that trend. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

The rise of misinformation could revive the business model of eyewitness reporting.

Return to trust

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Too much stuff? Most cities in Europe provide you with a large storage space in front of your house for a token fee. You can put anything there so long as it's in a car.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

The most dangerous racists are the people who think they can't possibly be racist. This week's essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

Antisemitism is gentrifying. We should be alarmed.

Racist, moi?

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I want my 55% tax back (Nala loves it but she doesn't pay tax)

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

An essay on the joy and toil of writing essays, with a digression into the Substack economy. Tl/dr: Work is really busy so I can't publish every week for the next few months. Going to prioritise quality over quantity and slow down a bit. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

Good writing takes time. I have a limited amount.

Slowing down

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

The death of Twitter left a void that hasn't adequately been filled. I've previously written (/moaned) about BlueSky and now it's the turn of LinkedIn - a place where people are posting more and more about politics but haven't shed their corporate masks. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

LinkedIn is the repository of bland, inoffensive views.

The groupthink codex

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

My pet hate is when websites lock their language options to the country you're in. Why?!

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Europeans are too often passive consumers of technology, media and culture made by and for Americans. This not only makes us dependent on the US, it impoverishes our culture and stops us reaching our full potential. This week's essay: www.theleopard.eu/p/the-inesca...

American tech and media have captured European minds.

The inescapable nation

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Good example of the awful journalistic habit of writing 'Brussels' when you mean 'EU' (which is shorter!) I read the first half of this headline and thought the city was doing an amnesty to stop the gun crime epidemic. Why not just 'EU proposes collective weapon purchases for member states'?

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The importance of security to sustainable urbanism. Alternatives to car ownership are unviable in the absence of law and order. Stolen bicycles and violence on the metro drive people back into cars. Vandalism kills scooter and car rental companies. This is how Green politics lost Brussels.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Welcome to Brussels, where the enforcement of the law is rare enough to be newsworthy. Next up, drunk driver fined €10 and told to be careful driving home!

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Trees vs cars - which would you rather in your city? One year since my last spring clean, these are my windows. On the left faces a courtyard with lots of trees. On the right faces a street with cars. We tolerate this so one-half of people can 'just get to work' in a massive metal box.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Very good essay by @ldfreedman.bsky.social here. Perhaps we should start calling POTUS the 'follower of the free world', that might just trigger the Americans enough.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Dear hivemind, can anyone recommend books or podcasts on the rise of Mussolini and Italian fascism? Realised that I know the German history very well but almost nothing about Italy in the same period. Thanks in advance.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Started active investing last year and honestly pretty happy that my first 2x trade is contributing to the defence of Europe. Ethical investing can be profitable too 🙂

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I'm getting a lot of hate on here for my last post. But the essay it links to has had no more readers than I normally get by midday on Monday. Which suggests lots of people are piling onto me on the basis of 280 characters, rather than 1,500 carefully written words. *sigh*

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

One-fifth of German voters now support a party that all others consider too extreme to govern with. I don't believe one-fifth of Germans are fascist/racist/any other -ist, but they are concerned. It's time to have the uncomfortable conversations that voters demand. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

The reluctance to discuss problems in minority cultures has boosted the far right.

The liberal blind spot

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Minimum security detail to go for a walk in Brussels

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I've been giving the Substack some love including this new welcome email. Here you'll find links to some of my most successful essays, along with a short explanation of what they're about and why I think they struck a chord. In other words, it's a perfect time to sign up!

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Historians are a more useful guide to current affairs than political 'insiders' at times of significant change, when a broad lens is called for. A tangential observation from this week's essay.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

With the US security umbrella ripped away Europe looks much like it did in 1938: menaced by an expansionist dictator, capable of stopping him but unable yet to make the necessary tough decisions. Will we wake up in time, or will hope triumph over experience? www.theleopard.eu/p/europes-mu...

A disarmed and decadent continent faces a rapacious dictator. What could possibly go wrong?

Europe’s Munich moment

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Remember that Nazi Germany annexed *all* of Czechoslovakia just six months after taking the Sudetenland in the Munich Agreement. If Trump forces peace now, and denies Ukraine NATO membership, the whole country could soon fall. If Europe wants to prevent that, it needs to tool up. Right now.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Those who *do* study history are doomed to stand by helplessly and watch others repeat its mistakes.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Interesting speculation from @thebenedictevans.bsky.social that Apple and Samsung might skip the European market for new handsets because of USB-C regulation. After delays to Apple and Meta AI products coming to Europe because of the DMA, could we start to be left out of hardware as well?

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

A bright 29-year-old has had his career derailed simply for being in a WhatsApp group where *other people* sent 'offensive' messages 3+ years ago. He could hardly leave - the group was created by his then-boss. And we wonder why capable people don't go into public life.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

A short guide to Iran, the world's most enigmatic country, from the Cyrus Cylinder to nuclear weapons. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

At once rational and theocratic, the Islamic Republic is an enigma.

Understanding Iran

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Can't have nice things update: the supermarket in my (fairly nice) part of Brussels has hidden the razor blades and restricted access to self-checkout.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Trump’s threat to annex Gaza may be an attempt to get others, notably Saudi Arabia, to propose a better solution. This would be a good thing. That seems to be the Trump playbook: bring your opponents to the table with a maximalist or even outrageous position, then negotiate a deal.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

I'm starting to see Substack Notes as my favourite Twitter replacement. Some advantages compared to X and BlueSky: - Less of a bubble (X & BS now skew strongly right/left respectively imo) - Most people write longform: ideas are more developed - Better UX for attaching photos, links, quotations etc.

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Some evidence from this week’s Economist that fewer outdated regulations are being cut, even as more as being constantly added. The article is written from an American perspective; presumably the situation in Europe is even worse. www.economist.com/briefing/202...

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Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

With the world changing at warp speed, everyone should read more science fiction. It's home to interesting ideas beyond conventional politics and economics. This week's essay is an optimistic view of demographic and technological change: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A shrinking population may not be a bad thing.

Demographic opportunity

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

POV: You know how to get money out of Belgium before the new government takes office