I think most people (including most people working on AI!) anthropomorphise AI systems so much that they can't capture how weird they are.
December 21, 2025 at 11:51 PM
I think most people (including most people working on AI!) anthropomorphise AI systems so much that they can't capture how weird they are.
To be fair tactical voting on the left would probably give Plaid the valleys
December 19, 2025 at 2:36 AM
To be fair tactical voting on the left would probably give Plaid the valleys
I have seen a fairly stark temperamental difference between my friends whose parents were born in liberal democracies and those whose parents emigrated from more authoritarian countries.
December 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I have seen a fairly stark temperamental difference between my friends whose parents were born in liberal democracies and those whose parents emigrated from more authoritarian countries.
To what extent was the sex/gender distinction and corresponding focus on identity ever driven by trans people? I've come to this pretty late, but I can't see much evidence that it wasn't generated by well meaning cis allies - "don't be silly trans people don't change sex".
December 18, 2025 at 7:02 PM
To what extent was the sex/gender distinction and corresponding focus on identity ever driven by trans people? I've come to this pretty late, but I can't see much evidence that it wasn't generated by well meaning cis allies - "don't be silly trans people don't change sex".
Curiously, at least in our public messaging, we (LDs) seem to be focused entirely on moderate Conservative voters. It's a median voter strategy that I think has run its course for us, and meanwhile there's a huge pool of pissed off middle class Labour voters to squeeze.
December 17, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Curiously, at least in our public messaging, we (LDs) seem to be focused entirely on moderate Conservative voters. It's a median voter strategy that I think has run its course for us, and meanwhile there's a huge pool of pissed off middle class Labour voters to squeeze.
Maybe they really stretched out the bits about skull measuring
December 17, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Maybe they really stretched out the bits about skull measuring
They believe a woman's role is to have (white / racially pure) babies to ensure the "continuation" of the People. They think gender liberation leads to "racial replacement" and ultimately war. Basically the 14 words.
December 16, 2025 at 11:43 AM
They believe a woman's role is to have (white / racially pure) babies to ensure the "continuation" of the People. They think gender liberation leads to "racial replacement" and ultimately war. Basically the 14 words.
I don't actually think a good economy would save Labour (they need to pivot to eg antiracism to have any hope of building a winning coalition). But having a shit economy will doom Labour. They're just not credible as a populist party. They were elected to make things OK again.
December 16, 2025 at 11:08 AM
I don't actually think a good economy would save Labour (they need to pivot to eg antiracism to have any hope of building a winning coalition). But having a shit economy will doom Labour. They're just not credible as a populist party. They were elected to make things OK again.
Stephen is literally talking about the actual economy! Incidentally, having a functioning economy is a more likely route to electoral success than whatever the hell this "permanent campaign" is.
December 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Stephen is literally talking about the actual economy! Incidentally, having a functioning economy is a more likely route to electoral success than whatever the hell this "permanent campaign" is.
To give my actual opinion, I think growth and aspiration are good things and markets are a useful tool. But these things aren't the battle lines along which our politics are being drawn, and the modern right doesn't care about them anyway.
December 9, 2025 at 9:29 PM
To give my actual opinion, I think growth and aspiration are good things and markets are a useful tool. But these things aren't the battle lines along which our politics are being drawn, and the modern right doesn't care about them anyway.
Well that's why I said some of! And importantly the UK is to the left of the US on the economic role of the state!
Just had a scroll through and (understandably!) couldn't find anything purely "economic". But eg this article is making a standard "centre right" point about the civil service.
Just had a scroll through and (understandably!) couldn't find anything purely "economic". But eg this article is making a standard "centre right" point about the civil service.
Good Governance Requires Accountability
We must rediscover the virtue of ambition: the ambition to get out there and make some real changes—and the courage to face the music after.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Well that's why I said some of! And importantly the UK is to the left of the US on the economic role of the state!
Just had a scroll through and (understandably!) couldn't find anything purely "economic". But eg this article is making a standard "centre right" point about the civil service.
Just had a scroll through and (understandably!) couldn't find anything purely "economic". But eg this article is making a standard "centre right" point about the civil service.
Do you mean economically or socially? In a UK context you could call some of LC's economic policy positions "centre right," but socially LC is very progressive and that seems to me to be the more relevant axis?
December 9, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Do you mean economically or socially? In a UK context you could call some of LC's economic policy positions "centre right," but socially LC is very progressive and that seems to me to be the more relevant axis?
Yeah you should be able to choose there. Anyway it's good to actually think about what a gender liberated society might actually look like and not be stuck in the "sex v gender" frame set (primarily) by well meaning cis people.
December 1, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Yeah you should be able to choose there. Anyway it's good to actually think about what a gender liberated society might actually look like and not be stuck in the "sex v gender" frame set (primarily) by well meaning cis people.
Personally I think the aim of trans activism should be to de-gender/sex needlessly gendered/sexed documents. Obviously self ID is an easier reform to make (GRCs are worse because as you say you're explicitly marked trans).
December 1, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Personally I think the aim of trans activism should be to de-gender/sex needlessly gendered/sexed documents. Obviously self ID is an easier reform to make (GRCs are worse because as you say you're explicitly marked trans).
You're right - I oversimplify
UK here and tired of reactionary centrists going after us for "overreaching on gender self ID" (as opposed to what? sex abolition? lol)
UK here and tired of reactionary centrists going after us for "overreaching on gender self ID" (as opposed to what? sex abolition? lol)
December 1, 2025 at 6:44 PM
You're right - I oversimplify
UK here and tired of reactionary centrists going after us for "overreaching on gender self ID" (as opposed to what? sex abolition? lol)
UK here and tired of reactionary centrists going after us for "overreaching on gender self ID" (as opposed to what? sex abolition? lol)
The thing is, I don't think this was a mistake that trans people made. I think this is just a thing that cis people *did*. The crazy thing is that it worked as well as it did (until it didn't).
December 1, 2025 at 6:37 PM
The thing is, I don't think this was a mistake that trans people made. I think this is just a thing that cis people *did*. The crazy thing is that it worked as well as it did (until it didn't).
They got cut off by the chair!
November 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
They got cut off by the chair!
2026: UK court rules that being a member of the SWP is a Protected Belief under the Equalities Act 2010
November 29, 2025 at 7:31 PM
2026: UK court rules that being a member of the SWP is a Protected Belief under the Equalities Act 2010
Not in Coventry South or indeed the Labour Party but my sense is she's really moved to the left over the past couple years.
November 29, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Not in Coventry South or indeed the Labour Party but my sense is she's really moved to the left over the past couple years.
Regardless of the causes of transness they're also (at best) in denial about the facts on the ground that sex/gender transition creates. You know, "I can always tell" and all that.
November 27, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Regardless of the causes of transness they're also (at best) in denial about the facts on the ground that sex/gender transition creates. You know, "I can always tell" and all that.
It would help if any of the Very Important People on the TV ever acknowledged how trans people actually live, rather than talking in abstractions about "biological sex"
November 19, 2025 at 11:38 PM
It would help if any of the Very Important People on the TV ever acknowledged how trans people actually live, rather than talking in abstractions about "biological sex"
I think this basic point - that trans people materially change their social reality through changing how they physically present - is glossed over in the mainstream by the wild abstractions (cis!) politicians and journalists on both "sides" talk in.
November 19, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I think this basic point - that trans people materially change their social reality through changing how they physically present - is glossed over in the mainstream by the wild abstractions (cis!) politicians and journalists on both "sides" talk in.