Owen Michael
@owenwmichael.bsky.social
Welsh and European. Biromantic Asexual. @UKLabour, @unisontheunion, and @thefabians. Data person and all round geek. He/him/o
Reposted by Owen Michael
I forget who said it, but it's been noted that while "Don't Be Evil" and "Democracy Dies in Darkness" are kinda corny as corporate mottoes, is invariably a *very bad sign* when companies abandon them.
February 10, 2026 at 10:38 PM
I forget who said it, but it's been noted that while "Don't Be Evil" and "Democracy Dies in Darkness" are kinda corny as corporate mottoes, is invariably a *very bad sign* when companies abandon them.
Reposted by Owen Michael
a thing that's always fun to me is when a person on one of these niche microblogging websites is pretty normal and chill except for one (1) pet issue that they are frothingly nuts about and have an opinion shared by zero (0) other people on the planet. can never tell when you're gonna encounter that
February 10, 2026 at 8:39 PM
a thing that's always fun to me is when a person on one of these niche microblogging websites is pretty normal and chill except for one (1) pet issue that they are frothingly nuts about and have an opinion shared by zero (0) other people on the planet. can never tell when you're gonna encounter that
Reposted by Owen Michael
'people who think they're internationalists but have apparently never left their own country' is a whole set here.
this post has a ton of quote tweets claiming american pop culture was actually never influential. bluesky moment.
people born in america probably don’t realize how cool america used to be. the death of US soft power is going to have long term consequences we are only beginning to see
February 10, 2026 at 9:20 PM
'people who think they're internationalists but have apparently never left their own country' is a whole set here.
Reposted by Owen Michael
counterpoint: unaccountable party bosses generally have a better record of selecting candidates than The People
Do people not realize it is illegal for parties to do this in the United States because we decided around the turn of the last century that we didn't want unaccountable party bosses to decide who we could vote for
People pay because they want their ideology to win
February 10, 2026 at 8:44 PM
counterpoint: unaccountable party bosses generally have a better record of selecting candidates than The People
Reposted by Owen Michael
It is absolutely part of the American constitution that the party system is decentralised, open, and not built around mass membership, and the fact that none of that is mentioned in The Constitution is irrelevant
February 10, 2026 at 8:47 PM
It is absolutely part of the American constitution that the party system is decentralised, open, and not built around mass membership, and the fact that none of that is mentioned in The Constitution is irrelevant
Reposted by Owen Michael
I think we have to consider that possibly writing a book entitled "Harry Potter and the..." is what makes people go insane
February 10, 2026 at 7:56 PM
I think we have to consider that possibly writing a book entitled "Harry Potter and the..." is what makes people go insane
Reposted by Owen Michael
okay but like the burden is literally on us
February 10, 2026 at 4:42 PM
okay but like the burden is literally on us
Reposted by Owen Michael
the wet market narrative is *bad for the Chinese government* and they have actively suppressed it at every turn! these people are incapable of the most basic understanding of the world.
Redfield is a Trump appointee and known crank. If COVID was circulating in summer of 2019, the entire timeline of the pandemic would be different. Chinese authorities were not "pushing the wet market narrative," they actively covered it up.
What is happening to people's brains over there
What is happening to people's brains over there
February 10, 2026 at 3:17 PM
the wet market narrative is *bad for the Chinese government* and they have actively suppressed it at every turn! these people are incapable of the most basic understanding of the world.
Reposted by Owen Michael
new most bizarre moment of the Olympics just dropped
Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal, then, totally unprompted, reveal he cheated on his GF, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back
www.vg.no/sport/i/vr5g...
Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal, then, totally unprompted, reveal he cheated on his GF, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back
www.vg.no/sport/i/vr5g...
February 10, 2026 at 5:05 PM
new most bizarre moment of the Olympics just dropped
Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal, then, totally unprompted, reveal he cheated on his GF, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back
www.vg.no/sport/i/vr5g...
Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal, then, totally unprompted, reveal he cheated on his GF, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back
www.vg.no/sport/i/vr5g...
Reposted by Owen Michael
Right, but if you strip out the hyperbole it's just "the public are angry about the cost of living, immigration and the NHS and don't particularly understand any of them" which, sure, but what do I do with that?
You may not like it, but strip out the hyperbole and abuse and it's quite hard to argue with this Cummings asssessment of the public mood
February 10, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Right, but if you strip out the hyperbole it's just "the public are angry about the cost of living, immigration and the NHS and don't particularly understand any of them" which, sure, but what do I do with that?
Reposted by Owen Michael
A very basic test of U.S. historical literacy is “which side of the slave/free divide in America’s founding wanted slaves to count as a whole person and why” and yet I see it being failed so consistently
February 10, 2026 at 5:58 PM
A very basic test of U.S. historical literacy is “which side of the slave/free divide in America’s founding wanted slaves to count as a whole person and why” and yet I see it being failed so consistently
Reposted by Owen Michael
One of the most corrosive aspects of consumer identity just wholly swallowing politics for a ton of ppl is a belief that governance is this product that we receive passively rather than a process that we actively shape through ongoing participation
how else do people think this "democracy" thing works
February 10, 2026 at 5:24 PM
One of the most corrosive aspects of consumer identity just wholly swallowing politics for a ton of ppl is a belief that governance is this product that we receive passively rather than a process that we actively shape through ongoing participation
Reposted by Owen Michael
A weird trait of the modern right is the insistence that it is censorship any time they are not invited by to something, but it is NOT censorship to threaten to shut down organisations whose free speech you disagree with.
Reform's Sarah Pochin (the one who complained about brown people being in adverts) wrote to Bangor university's student debating society asking to be hosted. They said 'no thanks, you're a bit of a racist, we don't like those' & now Reform are threatening to shut down the entire university!
February 10, 2026 at 1:14 PM
A weird trait of the modern right is the insistence that it is censorship any time they are not invited by to something, but it is NOT censorship to threaten to shut down organisations whose free speech you disagree with.
Reposted by Owen Michael
well, aside from the fact this entire thing is about the fact Reform quite literally does want to go to Bangor University
February 10, 2026 at 1:18 PM
well, aside from the fact this entire thing is about the fact Reform quite literally does want to go to Bangor University
Reposted by Owen Michael
Love that American politics is now trapped in a permanent loop of buyer's remorse.
February 10, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Love that American politics is now trapped in a permanent loop of buyer's remorse.
Joke conspiracy theory: this was pre-orchestrated to make Plaid's universities policy of not letting Welsh students go to university in England unless they're rich enough look more sensible by comparison
February 10, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Joke conspiracy theory: this was pre-orchestrated to make Plaid's universities policy of not letting Welsh students go to university in England unless they're rich enough look more sensible by comparison
Reposted by Owen Michael
Putting everything else aside... any idea why she's targeted Bangor here?
She's not the local MP and its not her alma mater. Why would they platform a random English MP?
She's not the local MP and its not her alma mater. Why would they platform a random English MP?
Reform's Sarah Pochin (the one who complained about brown people being in adverts) wrote to Bangor university's student debating society asking to be hosted. They said 'no thanks, you're a bit of a racist, we don't like those' & now Reform are threatening to shut down the entire university!
February 10, 2026 at 12:48 PM
Putting everything else aside... any idea why she's targeted Bangor here?
She's not the local MP and its not her alma mater. Why would they platform a random English MP?
She's not the local MP and its not her alma mater. Why would they platform a random English MP?
Reposted by Owen Michael
(I think it's a bit worrying how these softly softly calls for violence but only joking haha don't be a snowflake, stuff, is an increasingly mainstream part of the body politic)
“A student debating society in Bangor has barred several Reform members. This will lead to petrol bombs” is a moronic take to begin with. But obviously what he means is he hopes it leads to petrol bombs. The threat is implicit and explicit.
February 10, 2026 at 12:24 PM
(I think it's a bit worrying how these softly softly calls for violence but only joking haha don't be a snowflake, stuff, is an increasingly mainstream part of the body politic)
Reposted by Owen Michael
What you are praising (which is objectively cool) is literally just sanguinis though.
Birthright citizenship is why is this Hemisphere is superior to the other one, and the fact that evil men like Miller wish to rob us of it should make them enemies of all of the Americas.
February 10, 2026 at 10:31 AM
What you are praising (which is objectively cool) is literally just sanguinis though.
Reposted by Owen Michael
explaining to the six year old why he can't marry his brother or his mom was WAY harder than explaining Gay
always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay
February 10, 2026 at 3:12 AM
explaining to the six year old why he can't marry his brother or his mom was WAY harder than explaining Gay
Reposted by Owen Michael
at one point during the campaign jd vance was indignantly talking about haitian asylees in ohio and said "illegal aliens don't become legal just because the government says so" and i've been mad about it ever since, and this is the key to what he actually meant
The way to understand this, I think, is that everybody knows that when Trump or Vance says "illegals" he's not talking about legal status, but about social desirability, and so people think that that distinction goes both ways.
These people are just crazy. Trump gets up and says "MASS DEPORTATIONS MASS DEPORTATIONS MASS DEPORTATIONS" and they're like "he probably means a path to legal status for deserving immigrants"
February 10, 2026 at 4:41 AM
at one point during the campaign jd vance was indignantly talking about haitian asylees in ohio and said "illegal aliens don't become legal just because the government says so" and i've been mad about it ever since, and this is the key to what he actually meant
Reposted by Owen Michael
I despair at media coverage of a lot of things, but I do feel like sometimes there's a tendency to misread a "please don't get us sued - ed" disclaimer as a defence of the person or organisation in question
February 10, 2026 at 9:24 AM
I despair at media coverage of a lot of things, but I do feel like sometimes there's a tendency to misread a "please don't get us sued - ed" disclaimer as a defence of the person or organisation in question
Reposted by Owen Michael
The health of the Democratic Party would be indisputably better today if organizations like Americans for Democratic Action weren't a shell of their former self and had vibrant membership. But they are shells and don't have that kind of membership.
US politics would pretty much uniformly be better if there was a center left equivalent to DSA, because on the whole US politics would be better if there were more political organizations with meaningful membership standards and participation models.
February 10, 2026 at 2:16 AM
The health of the Democratic Party would be indisputably better today if organizations like Americans for Democratic Action weren't a shell of their former self and had vibrant membership. But they are shells and don't have that kind of membership.
Reposted by Owen Michael
US politics would pretty much uniformly be better if there was a center left equivalent to DSA, because on the whole US politics would be better if there were more political organizations with meaningful membership standards and participation models.
February 10, 2026 at 2:05 AM
US politics would pretty much uniformly be better if there was a center left equivalent to DSA, because on the whole US politics would be better if there were more political organizations with meaningful membership standards and participation models.