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Ben Stephens

@stephensben.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2.3K following 2.4K posts

Brit living in Chicago – professional copywriter, occasional improviser, happily weaning off Tw*tter.

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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Listening to @mrjamesob.bsky.social talking about the attacks on the RNLI — if you stood in the midst of this mob and started loudly singing 🎵 “RULE BRITANNIA…” they would all instinctively join in with a full-throated “…BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES” with absolutely zero sense of irony.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The average Brit will earn around £500,000 total over the course of their working life. Nigel Farage was handed 10x that sum (£5m) in a single payment from a Thailand-based crypto baron, and seems to feel it is the height of rudeness for any of us to ask about it. @mrjamesob.bsky.social
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Actual footage of @mrjamesob.bsky.social returning to work after a week off.
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit is carrying a stack of pizza boxes .
ALT: a man in a suit is carrying a stack of pizza boxes .
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
@mrjamesob.bsky.social your list of dumb slogans (Brexit Means Brexit, etc) needs to be titled “Thought-Terminating Clichés” as that is what they are. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought...
en.wikipedia.org
Thought-terminating cliché - Wikipedia
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Listening to @mrjamesob.bsky.social describe the psyche of Donald Trump makes me think of the Buddhist concept of the Hungry Ghost — creatures with endless insatiable wants, cravings of hunger that can never be satisfied. (Coincidentally, depicted in art with huge empty stomachs and tiny mouths.)
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Looking at the 2024 crime figures, it's absolutely insane how Trump, tech billionaires, and centrist pundits fooled everyone into thinking Biden had turned the U.S. into some Hobbesian hellscape. 50-year lows for violent crime, armed robbery, property crime. Second-lowest homicide rate.
ourworldindata.org
How have crime rates in the United States changed over the last 50 years?
Both violent and property crime are far below their 1990s peak, but some crimes see periodic rises.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
As always, America is just tossing a grenade into a car parts store and hoping the blast somehow builds a working car.
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Anna Phylaxis @quatoria.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
The intention of policies like this proposal is to introduce so much friction, so much pain, so much discomfort and humiliation, that a child desists rather than continue to assert their true identity. It is nothing less than conversion therapy being written into school policy.
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david ehrlich @davidehrlich.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2025 A Video Countdown vimeo.com/1156345183
vimeo.com
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2025: A Video Countdown
to watch previous video countdowns please visit: https://www.videocountdowns.com/ this year's video is once again in support of the Palestine Children's…
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
“I moved on her like a bitch.”
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A number of beauty pageant contestants of yesteryear are very familiar with this exact approach.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I admire Walz as a person and sympathize with his plight, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that by stepping down he is showing bullies that bullying works. So…expect more of this.
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David Brauer @dbrauer.net · 26/12/2025
This shit is made up, actually
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that men are being pushed out of the literary world. A few weeks ago, I heard of a man who attended a writer's convention, hoping to break into the field of fantasy fiction. To his surprise, his fellow attendees wanted to know what was unique about him. Was he gay? Black? Queer?
Uh, no. He was just a straight, white male and therefore essentially a nobody in the book world.
Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Hearing it afresh in this episode, can we all just pause and reflect on how FUCKING DERANGED it is that the richest man in the world routinely and casually describes opposition to fascism and bigotry as a “MIND VIRUS” that has to be eradicated? Like, that is some scary shit.
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Glenn Westfield @romanx.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
It was never about "free speech", it was always about controlling who got to speak and about what. They didn't like that the academy (for all it's failings) was teaching critical thinking or holding up a mirror to evaluate history through a critical lens.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
I needed someone to see this and the first person i thought of was @michaelhobbes.bsky.social (Liz Truss has pivoted to video. And it’s going great.)
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
New name for Fully Loaded Nachos just dropped
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Walter Isaacson to Elon Musk: (@ifbookspod.bsky.social)
media.tenor.com
a woman in a white dress is standing in front of a group of people and says tell me lies tell me sweet little lies
ALT: a woman in a white dress is standing in front of a group of people and says tell me lies tell me sweet little lies
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
As Donald Trump’s father Fred’s dementia worsened, his family still let him pretend he was in charge of his real estate empire — coming into the office every day, shuffling around empty papers, his phone disconnected from the outside world. I think about that a lot lately.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Focusing on a single incident makes it resonate with the public more. It doesn't somehow justify the other killings, it illustrates the larger problem. The right is good at this, sometimes in bad faith. For example, Laken Riley. Basically "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
I want him dragged screaming out of that Oval Office like William H. Macy out of the motel room at the end of Fargo.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
I think whenever and however he is finally booted from office, we should leave the ruins exactly as they are. I picture a partially wrecked White House standing for all time, its remains stamped with his gaudy Vegas aesthetic, as a reminder of what we allowed to happen. Of what we did to ourselves.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
I wish there were a single cell in my body that believed there would be any meaningful consequences for this.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
@mrjamesob.bsky.social on @lbc.co.uk talking about the UK “The people in charge of the discourse are no longer the same people who are in charge of the government, which is why the media is at last attacking the government – something they never did when the truly horrible things were happening.”
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
The Myth of a Rightward Realignment   Let’s discard some stubborn misconceptions about Trump’s support and what happened in the 2024 election. They are only obscuring our understanding of a profound de-alignment. As the piece is partially behind a paywall, I’ll share some key thoughts: 🧵
steady.page
The Myth of a Rightward Realignment
Let’s discard some stubborn misconceptions about Trump’s support and what happened in the 2024 election that are obscuring our understanding of a profound de-alignment
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 27/11/2025
Why POC collectively hold our breath when there’s a mass shooting or high profile crime before the suspect is even identified: • Afghan man shoots a National Guard member: With zero knowledge of the background or motive, the right screams that Muslims are terrorists and must be deported. 🧵
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Oh hell no.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
You don’t have to pick a side. Sometimes a situation has two assholes in it.
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 26/11/2025
Probably best not to get your hopes up for an upset in Tennessee, but a Trump +22 district going to this close in just a year probably has Republicans looking at the midterms like a potentially extinction-level event
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
He’s already suing them for a billion dollars or whatever. Might as well double down at this point.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
If only someone had taken the time to remind the members of the military that they are obligated not to follow an illegal order.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
There’s a reason Green Room is set in Oregon.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
One of my favorite festive tweets.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
If you slow down the playback you can pinpoint the exact moment at which Peter becomes The Joker.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
One fascinating and yet expected thing is that none of the big foreign accounts pretending to be American are left of center, or even anti-Trump. Not a single one. Says something about the economics and geopolitics of political grifting
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Trixie @trixiebobixie.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
No shit.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 23/11/2025
The fact that the entire US elite class clutched onto this book as a source of deep insight tells you all you need to know about the people running this shitshow.
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
The toilet of a busy train station in central Kyoto. Also, a snowbound cabin in Big Bear, California.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
BREAKING: Federal judge rejects DOJ's effort to subpoena the names and medical records of children who have received gender-affirming medical care from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
IN RE: SUBPOENA NO. 25-1431-014
: MISCELLANEOUS ACTION
:
: NO. 25-39
MEMORANDUM
KEARNEY,J.
November 21, 2025
Our elected Congresspersons granted the Department of Justice limited authority in 1996
to investigate federal health care offenses involving the labeling and distribution of prescription
drugs. The Department of Justice is now investigating the labeling and distribution of prescribed
clinically authorized puberty blockers and hormone therapy. It subpoenaed fifteen categories of
records from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia including billing and insurance records,
communications with manufacturers and sales representatives, and the names and complete
medical and psychological records of children receiving gender-affirming care. The Hospital
agrees to produce most of the requested materials. But it objects to producing the identities of its
child patients and their families along with their confidential medical files. Its objection requires
we study two questions: whether Congress authorized a subpoena for the children's confidential medical records, and, if so, whether the children's privacy interests outweigh the Department of
Justice's need for these confidential medical records under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
We find the answer to both questions is "no." We strike the three requests for these child-
identifying and treatment and disclosure records as beyond the authority granted by Congress. We
also find, even if this private information could be relevant, the heightened privacy interests of children and their families substantially outweighs the Department's need to know the children's
names, addresses, and treatment along with disclosures for gender-affirming care at The Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Someday you, too, could have the moral fortitude to look upon a years-long rape circus organized by the nation's most powerful elites and declare, "The people upset about this are speaking about it the wrong way."
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
“When the president does it, it’s not illegal.” - R. Nixon
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Just checking in on any “there is no difference between the parties” voters out there. How you doing? You good?
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Ben Stephens @stephensben.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
There is a Twilight Zone episode called It’s A Good Life in which a child with limitless powers holds his entire town in his thrall, doing and getting whatever he wants, and the fearful townsfolk are unable to stand up to him. Here’s the plot. Feels like now, right?
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