David Klemperer
@dmk1793.bsky.social
Historian, researcher, and co-editor of @renewaljournal.bsky.social
Pinned
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
In today’s episode David & @dmk1793.bsky.social try to answer some of the hundreds of questions, comments and suggestions we have had about this series. How do we know if democracy is broken? Have we ever had a real democracy anyway?
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
In today’s episode David & @dmk1793.bsky.social try to answer some of the hundreds of questions, comments and suggestions we have had about this series. How do we know if democracy is broken? Have we ever had a real democracy anyway?
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Really enjoyed recording this discussion with David Runciman, covering threats to democracy, early 20thc theories of oligarchy, how algorithmic social media is changing politics, the problem with 19thc approaches to suffrage - and much, much more!
Reposted by David Klemperer
I'm worried about both equally TBH: Facebook is radicalising older, normal people en masse.
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Fell down a facebook rabbit hole thanks to something a family member shared. Labour should be really concerned, the tone and circulation of posts now has a simialr feel to Conservatives in 2023 but with an added side of far right memes. Facebook worries me far more than X
November 10, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I'm worried about both equally TBH: Facebook is radicalising older, normal people en masse.
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Twitter radicalising elites who are hyper engaged.
Both feeding each other in poisioning the discourse and media ecosystem. It's brutal and a pretty nasty feedback loop.
Algorithm social media is a curse
Reposted by David Klemperer
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Really interesting argument - and one to which I'm instinctively sympathetic!
I should write the argument up properly somewhere, but I think this is fundamentally wrong. A decisive fraction of the capitalist class does oppose addressing the climate crisis, but *not* because it would be bad for profits. If anything, a green New Deal type program would raise aggregate profits.
Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
November 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Really interesting argument - and one to which I'm instinctively sympathetic!
Reposted by David Klemperer
contemporary literary fiction:
33% "i am a grad student from oberlin and this is my situationship with a professor"
33% "i am a novelist getting a divorce from another novelist"
33% "i am a member of [insert marginalized group] and this is my trauma dump"
1% actually good stuff
33% "i am a grad student from oberlin and this is my situationship with a professor"
33% "i am a novelist getting a divorce from another novelist"
33% "i am a member of [insert marginalized group] and this is my trauma dump"
1% actually good stuff
November 10, 2025 at 3:32 PM
contemporary literary fiction:
33% "i am a grad student from oberlin and this is my situationship with a professor"
33% "i am a novelist getting a divorce from another novelist"
33% "i am a member of [insert marginalized group] and this is my trauma dump"
1% actually good stuff
33% "i am a grad student from oberlin and this is my situationship with a professor"
33% "i am a novelist getting a divorce from another novelist"
33% "i am a member of [insert marginalized group] and this is my trauma dump"
1% actually good stuff
Reposted by David Klemperer
This term is so social media-brained. Coined by people who can't imagine themselves without an audience, or that anyone could genuinely want to pass time in any other form than Stare at Phone
November 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
This term is so social media-brained. Coined by people who can't imagine themselves without an audience, or that anyone could genuinely want to pass time in any other form than Stare at Phone
Reposted by David Klemperer
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
Today’s episode is the 1st of two on the extraordinary trial of Marshal Pétain in summer 1945 that ended up putting wartime France in the dock. David talks to historian Julian Jackson about how Pétain found himself so quickly charged with treason.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Today’s episode is the 1st of two on the extraordinary trial of Marshal Pétain in summer 1945 that ended up putting wartime France in the dock. David talks to historian Julian Jackson about how Pétain found himself so quickly charged with treason.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:47 AM
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
Today’s episode is the 1st of two on the extraordinary trial of Marshal Pétain in summer 1945 that ended up putting wartime France in the dock. David talks to historian Julian Jackson about how Pétain found himself so quickly charged with treason.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Today’s episode is the 1st of two on the extraordinary trial of Marshal Pétain in summer 1945 that ended up putting wartime France in the dock. David talks to historian Julian Jackson about how Pétain found himself so quickly charged with treason.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Reposted by David Klemperer
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Reposted by David Klemperer
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 AM
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Reposted by David Klemperer
Reposted by David Klemperer
Reposted by David Klemperer
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to overcrowded camps to escape atrocities by a paramilitary force since it captured el-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
Thousands flee to overcrowded camps after Sudan's paramilitary captures el-Fasher
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to overcrowded camps to escape atrocities by a paramilitary force since it captured el-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
bit.ly
November 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to overcrowded camps to escape atrocities by a paramilitary force since it captured el-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
"If today’s insurgents and troublemakers become tomorrow’s ruling establishment, the turbulence and complexity they feed off will soon come for them too. That is an indication of what the modern political cycle really is: a twisted wheel, spinning faster than any of us yet understand."
Welcome to 21st-century politics: a bitter revolt against power that will consume Labour and the Tories | John Harris
A mood of turbulence and insurgency against the two main parties has been building for years, says Guardian columnist John Harris
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:43 PM
"If today’s insurgents and troublemakers become tomorrow’s ruling establishment, the turbulence and complexity they feed off will soon come for them too. That is an indication of what the modern political cycle really is: a twisted wheel, spinning faster than any of us yet understand."
Reposted by David Klemperer
Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
Reposted by David Klemperer
we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...
November 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...
Reposted by David Klemperer
UN report on the situation in the West Bank, October 2025 only:
-260 settler attacks (average 8 per day), highest number since the UN started recording in 2006
-140 Palestinians injured
-150 attacks on olive harvesting
-4,200 olive trees vandalised in 77 villages
www.ochaopt.org/content/huma...
-260 settler attacks (average 8 per day), highest number since the UN started recording in 2006
-140 Palestinians injured
-150 attacks on olive harvesting
-4,200 olive trees vandalised in 77 villages
www.ochaopt.org/content/huma...
Humanitarian Situation Update #337 | West Bank | United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory
October 2025 recorded the highest monthly number of Israeli settler attacks since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006, with more than 260 attacks resulting in casualties, property damage or ...
www.ochaopt.org
November 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
UN report on the situation in the West Bank, October 2025 only:
-260 settler attacks (average 8 per day), highest number since the UN started recording in 2006
-140 Palestinians injured
-150 attacks on olive harvesting
-4,200 olive trees vandalised in 77 villages
www.ochaopt.org/content/huma...
-260 settler attacks (average 8 per day), highest number since the UN started recording in 2006
-140 Palestinians injured
-150 attacks on olive harvesting
-4,200 olive trees vandalised in 77 villages
www.ochaopt.org/content/huma...
Given that Labour's electoral coalition is essentially made up of those people who use, work in, and/or otherwise care about public services, it is spending too little - rather than taxing too much - that is more likely to make Labour voters feel betrayed
As I say in this @FT piece: “The issue is never the manifesto or its specifics per se. The issue is trust. It is: what is the point that the voter decides they can’t trust somebody.”
and
“People voted in 2024 for change, they didn’t vote for social democratic austerity.”
on.ft.com/47LNlsy
and
“People voted in 2024 for change, they didn’t vote for social democratic austerity.”
on.ft.com/47LNlsy
The politics of breaking manifesto promises
The history of politicians who go back on their words has lessons for Rachel Reeves as she mulls raising taxes
on.ft.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Given that Labour's electoral coalition is essentially made up of those people who use, work in, and/or otherwise care about public services, it is spending too little - rather than taxing too much - that is more likely to make Labour voters feel betrayed
Reposted by David Klemperer
Very good report on Global Progress and Morgan is spot on about the Spanish approach.
I wrote about the lessons the Danish social democrats want to offer Labour last month, and noted a distinct uptick in Denmark Chat at conference. As I discuss in the piece, I am more convinced by the arguments for Spain-as-model.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
November 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Very good report on Global Progress and Morgan is spot on about the Spanish approach.
Reposted by David Klemperer
I've now written up this take for @renewaljournal.bsky.social - along with four (4) other competing Marxist explanations of Zohran's PMC-led historic bloc
November 7, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I've now written up this take for @renewaljournal.bsky.social - along with four (4) other competing Marxist explanations of Zohran's PMC-led historic bloc
Reposted by David Klemperer
I wrote about the lessons the Danish social democrats want to offer Labour last month, and noted a distinct uptick in Denmark Chat at conference. As I discuss in the piece, I am more convinced by the arguments for Spain-as-model.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
November 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I wrote about the lessons the Danish social democrats want to offer Labour last month, and noted a distinct uptick in Denmark Chat at conference. As I discuss in the piece, I am more convinced by the arguments for Spain-as-model.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
Reposted by David Klemperer
All of that said, getting non-voters into the political conversation by making voting compulsory would be a very positive reform IMHO
November 8, 2025 at 3:10 PM
All of that said, getting non-voters into the political conversation by making voting compulsory would be a very positive reform IMHO
I worry that "modern party of the future" here is just code for leaning even harder into AI-focused techno-boosterism, which just isn't going to cut it for voters abandoning us to our left
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Greens’ ‘undeliverable’ promises will let voters down, says Labour minister
Exclusive: Darren Jones says Labour has to convince young people it is ‘modern party of the future’
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I worry that "modern party of the future" here is just code for leaning even harder into AI-focused techno-boosterism, which just isn't going to cut it for voters abandoning us to our left
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by David Klemperer
Reposted by David Klemperer
Can Zohran Mamdani's largely educated, middle-income support base be explained - or even justified - from a Marxist perspective?
@dmk1793.bsky.social presents five (5) conflicting ways in which it can:
@dmk1793.bsky.social presents five (5) conflicting ways in which it can:
Is DSA the class party of the PMC?
Five Marxist perspectives on Zohran Mamdani’s electoral coalition
renewal.org.uk
November 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Can Zohran Mamdani's largely educated, middle-income support base be explained - or even justified - from a Marxist perspective?
@dmk1793.bsky.social presents five (5) conflicting ways in which it can:
@dmk1793.bsky.social presents five (5) conflicting ways in which it can:
Reposted by David Klemperer
I’m not entirely sure how seriously we are meant to take this but it is actually a fun read and thought provoking. Sort of ‘how might 1913’s SPD have interpreted these results’.
I've now written up this take for @renewaljournal.bsky.social - along with four (4) other competing Marxist explanations of Zohran's PMC-led historic bloc
November 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I’m not entirely sure how seriously we are meant to take this but it is actually a fun read and thought provoking. Sort of ‘how might 1913’s SPD have interpreted these results’.
I've now written up this take for @renewaljournal.bsky.social - along with four (4) other competing Marxist explanations of Zohran's PMC-led historic bloc
November 7, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I've now written up this take for @renewaljournal.bsky.social - along with four (4) other competing Marxist explanations of Zohran's PMC-led historic bloc