Jon Potter
@rettopnoj.bsky.social
Australia, UK and USA politics. Mostly bollocks sorry.
I killed my Xitter account and you can too.
I killed my Xitter account and you can too.
Reposted by Jon Potter
this is why they invented the whole notion of "virtue signaling". they wanted it all to be empty posturing, they wanted to denigrate the act of standing up and be seen doing something virtuous, all because genuine virtue and bravery are completely alien to them.
January 27, 2026 at 6:39 PM
this is why they invented the whole notion of "virtue signaling". they wanted it all to be empty posturing, they wanted to denigrate the act of standing up and be seen doing something virtuous, all because genuine virtue and bravery are completely alien to them.
Hope the Albo government opens a commemorative coal mine
HISTORIC HEAT IN AUSTRALIA
Climatic history is set to be rewritten with an absolutely deadly week:
Today 48.5C in South Australia,47.2 New South Wales,
45.3 Queensland,45.0 Victoria
‼️We might expect 7 CONSECUTIVE DAYS >46C in New South Wales and we can't rule out 50C.
A HELL
Climatic history is set to be rewritten with an absolutely deadly week:
Today 48.5C in South Australia,47.2 New South Wales,
45.3 Queensland,45.0 Victoria
‼️We might expect 7 CONSECUTIVE DAYS >46C in New South Wales and we can't rule out 50C.
A HELL
January 26, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Hope the Albo government opens a commemorative coal mine
Reposted by Jon Potter
Seeing the NYT switch to active voice feels like watching a seal holding back the apocalypse crack
years and years of avoiding plain language and the active voice do make the choice to use it more impactful, I suppose
January 24, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Seeing the NYT switch to active voice feels like watching a seal holding back the apocalypse crack
Reposted by Jon Potter
One problem that Americans have to get past is that this *is* who they are.
It’s not an aberration - this is what the US society is.
All that time kidding yourself about being the greatest nation on earth you have been murdering your own citizens and those in other countries.
It’s not an aberration - this is what the US society is.
All that time kidding yourself about being the greatest nation on earth you have been murdering your own citizens and those in other countries.
January 25, 2026 at 12:01 AM
One problem that Americans have to get past is that this *is* who they are.
It’s not an aberration - this is what the US society is.
All that time kidding yourself about being the greatest nation on earth you have been murdering your own citizens and those in other countries.
It’s not an aberration - this is what the US society is.
All that time kidding yourself about being the greatest nation on earth you have been murdering your own citizens and those in other countries.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Call me old-fashioned, but maybe a system that rewards the worst of humanity with incomprehensible levels of wealth and power and the ability to crush everyone and everything else... wasn't the best idea.
January 20, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Call me old-fashioned, but maybe a system that rewards the worst of humanity with incomprehensible levels of wealth and power and the ability to crush everyone and everything else... wasn't the best idea.
Reposted by Jon Potter
You are witnessing the sum total of substantive lessons the political centre has taken away from the success of Zohran Mamdani's election campaign.
January 23, 2026 at 5:20 PM
You are witnessing the sum total of substantive lessons the political centre has taken away from the success of Zohran Mamdani's election campaign.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Americans are gonna miss American hegemony.
March 12, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Americans are gonna miss American hegemony.
No wonder Marles is so keen to join
There you have it, the Board of Peace is nothing more than a corrupt real estate deal dressed up as diplomacy with the sole purpose of enriching Trump and his favoured cronies.
Trump makes concluding remarks. He says Gaza ceasefire push began because he is “a real estate person at heart, and it’s all about location, and I said, ‘look at this location, on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property’”.
January 22, 2026 at 11:41 AM
No wonder Marles is so keen to join
Reposted by Jon Potter
[AI bubble bursts] billionaire tech bro: the stupid consumer did not understand it
January 22, 2026 at 2:42 AM
[AI bubble bursts] billionaire tech bro: the stupid consumer did not understand it
Reposted by Jon Potter
History In Pictures
1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waives promissory note for 1 billion German marks to signal he will join Hitler’s Peace Board, shouting ‘Peace Board in our time!’
1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waives promissory note for 1 billion German marks to signal he will join Hitler’s Peace Board, shouting ‘Peace Board in our time!’
January 19, 2026 at 10:33 AM
History In Pictures
1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waives promissory note for 1 billion German marks to signal he will join Hitler’s Peace Board, shouting ‘Peace Board in our time!’
1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waives promissory note for 1 billion German marks to signal he will join Hitler’s Peace Board, shouting ‘Peace Board in our time!’
Reposted by Jon Potter
This is less news but rather OpenAI's entire state of being. It cannot exist without continual investment. It's a bottomless money pit that investors hope will someday start spitting out cash.
They've just started rolling out ads so it's definitely going great.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
They've just started rolling out ads so it's definitely going great.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
OpenAI could reportedly run out of cash by mid-2027 — analyst paints grim picture after examining the company's finances
The circular economy might spiral into Sam Altman's garrote.
www.tomshardware.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:47 PM
This is less news but rather OpenAI's entire state of being. It cannot exist without continual investment. It's a bottomless money pit that investors hope will someday start spitting out cash.
They've just started rolling out ads so it's definitely going great.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
They've just started rolling out ads so it's definitely going great.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
Reposted by Jon Potter
I’m playing both sides by doing nothing, this is grown up politics. Nothing is more serious in politics than nothing is what I always say. I stand for Nothing, Nothing is what you get. Thank you
-KS
-KS
January 19, 2026 at 10:55 AM
I’m playing both sides by doing nothing, this is grown up politics. Nothing is more serious in politics than nothing is what I always say. I stand for Nothing, Nothing is what you get. Thank you
-KS
-KS
Reposted by Jon Potter
"Well then what's the point in even going?" chaser.com.au/world/trump-...
January 19, 2026 at 7:01 AM
"Well then what's the point in even going?" chaser.com.au/world/trump-...
Reposted by Jon Potter
Just a boy standing in front a of a graph saying if you're going to do a pie chart, please don't do it in this stupid way
January 18, 2026 at 10:42 AM
Just a boy standing in front a of a graph saying if you're going to do a pie chart, please don't do it in this stupid way
Reposted by Jon Potter
It makes me so angry because these are not serious people and we are forced to pretend they are or get scolded for being elitists insufficiently open to new stalls in the marketplace of ideas when we point out a prerequisite for the debate stage should be understanding how literally anything works.
January 16, 2026 at 10:25 PM
It makes me so angry because these are not serious people and we are forced to pretend they are or get scolded for being elitists insufficiently open to new stalls in the marketplace of ideas when we point out a prerequisite for the debate stage should be understanding how literally anything works.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Again it is something that people in previous eras have commented on but I still find it just astonishing to witness in my own: fascism is somehow the natural ideology of loser men, just all of our most pathetic and contemptible instincts rendered into a worldview.
imagine letting these people run anything more consequential than a lemonade stand
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Elon Musk admits cheating at video games, chat transcript appears to show
Video posted by top gamer shows what he says is X conversation in which billionaire admits ‘account boosting’
www.theguardian.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Again it is something that people in previous eras have commented on but I still find it just astonishing to witness in my own: fascism is somehow the natural ideology of loser men, just all of our most pathetic and contemptible instincts rendered into a worldview.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Boomer/Gen-X nostalgia, unrecognised propaganda and binary thinking ("dO yOu WaNt ThE LiBeRaLs To WiN?!?) are blinding much of the nation to how horrifically complicitly shit this party is
January 16, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Boomer/Gen-X nostalgia, unrecognised propaganda and binary thinking ("dO yOu WaNt ThE LiBeRaLs To WiN?!?) are blinding much of the nation to how horrifically complicitly shit this party is
Reposted by Jon Potter
Some thoughts on Adelaide Writers' Week and the moment we find ourselves in. It's all just so grinding. rick-morton.ghost.io/the-great-si...
The Great Silencing
Last week it snowed heavily twice in Paris, turning the city into a frigid, monochrome fantasy land over three days, and at the weekend I popped into the Musée Marmottan Monet for a spot of impression...
rick-morton.ghost.io
January 14, 2026 at 9:25 PM
Some thoughts on Adelaide Writers' Week and the moment we find ourselves in. It's all just so grinding. rick-morton.ghost.io/the-great-si...
Reposted by Jon Potter
About 45 years ago the right realised they could act like cunts and expect the left to be the bigger person. They also realised enough of their base was dumb, scared or both that they could reverse engineer justifications for any policy. Which is why public opinion has no baring on political policy
January 14, 2026 at 8:18 AM
About 45 years ago the right realised they could act like cunts and expect the left to be the bigger person. They also realised enough of their base was dumb, scared or both that they could reverse engineer justifications for any policy. Which is why public opinion has no baring on political policy
Reposted by Jon Potter
It's "culturally unsafe" to have a Palestinian Aus author advocate against the systematic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of her people, but it's
"a good thing" for the president of apartheid Israel, which has committed daily massacres and mass starvation for 2yrs, to visit us. Unbearably racist.
"a good thing" for the president of apartheid Israel, which has committed daily massacres and mass starvation for 2yrs, to visit us. Unbearably racist.
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 AM
It's "culturally unsafe" to have a Palestinian Aus author advocate against the systematic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of her people, but it's
"a good thing" for the president of apartheid Israel, which has committed daily massacres and mass starvation for 2yrs, to visit us. Unbearably racist.
"a good thing" for the president of apartheid Israel, which has committed daily massacres and mass starvation for 2yrs, to visit us. Unbearably racist.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Solidarity with Louise Adler and Randa Abdel-Fattah. We stand against this retrograde decision and with the countless authors withdrawing in support of Randa and her work.
January 13, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Solidarity with Louise Adler and Randa Abdel-Fattah. We stand against this retrograde decision and with the countless authors withdrawing in support of Randa and her work.
This is a strange phenomenon. Otherwise sensible people read the word "Zionist" and they see the word "Jew".
They are not the same thing!
They are not the same thing!
It’s surprising that the ABC never reports what Randa Abdul Farah actually said. They just say she “criticised Israel”
Actually, she said people should make Jews feel unsafe, wherever they go.
Comments like this make everywhere less safe for everyone. I’ve got little tolerance or sympathy for her
Actually, she said people should make Jews feel unsafe, wherever they go.
Comments like this make everywhere less safe for everyone. I’ve got little tolerance or sympathy for her
January 12, 2026 at 10:04 PM
This is a strange phenomenon. Otherwise sensible people read the word "Zionist" and they see the word "Jew".
They are not the same thing!
They are not the same thing!
Reposted by Jon Potter
Absolute must-read. Cracking piece.
‘Authoritarianism is rising all around us. It does not arrive with a flourish of trumpets or the march of boots; often, it arrives in the quiet room where a festival board decides which ideas are “safe” and which must be scrubbed from the record.’
‘Authoritarianism is rising all around us. It does not arrive with a flourish of trumpets or the march of boots; often, it arrives in the quiet room where a festival board decides which ideas are “safe” and which must be scrubbed from the record.’
January 11, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Absolute must-read. Cracking piece.
‘Authoritarianism is rising all around us. It does not arrive with a flourish of trumpets or the march of boots; often, it arrives in the quiet room where a festival board decides which ideas are “safe” and which must be scrubbed from the record.’
‘Authoritarianism is rising all around us. It does not arrive with a flourish of trumpets or the march of boots; often, it arrives in the quiet room where a festival board decides which ideas are “safe” and which must be scrubbed from the record.’
Reposted by Jon Potter
Under Anthony Albanese's government, it’s harder right now for kids to get on TikTok than it is for them to access a deepfake abuse machine.
The Australian government is spending millions supporting Elon Musk's deepfake porn factory, X
www.crikey.com.au
January 9, 2026 at 5:36 AM
Under Anthony Albanese's government, it’s harder right now for kids to get on TikTok than it is for them to access a deepfake abuse machine.
Reposted by Jon Potter
Sometimes you just have to accept that those on the other side are not redeemable, and will never 'see the light'.
People like those faced the most severe punishments after WW2, with every collaborator in the Netherlands and elsewhere given no quarter.
Humans are rarely reasonable.
People like those faced the most severe punishments after WW2, with every collaborator in the Netherlands and elsewhere given no quarter.
Humans are rarely reasonable.
January 8, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Sometimes you just have to accept that those on the other side are not redeemable, and will never 'see the light'.
People like those faced the most severe punishments after WW2, with every collaborator in the Netherlands and elsewhere given no quarter.
Humans are rarely reasonable.
People like those faced the most severe punishments after WW2, with every collaborator in the Netherlands and elsewhere given no quarter.
Humans are rarely reasonable.