Gareth Watkins
@garethwatkins.bsky.social
Writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, New Statesman, Tribune, Vulture, MEL, New Socialist. Host of Death Sentence podcast.
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
today the fourth chapter of this ongoing non-fiction piece about my relationship with death and how it shapes my values, actions, thoughts, behaviors just dropped on my newsletter buttondown.com/theadversary...
buttondown.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:49 PM
today the fourth chapter of this ongoing non-fiction piece about my relationship with death and how it shapes my values, actions, thoughts, behaviors just dropped on my newsletter buttondown.com/theadversary...
🎵 Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize
And winner of the Jerusalem Prize
She Made Elon Musk want to die
Joyce Carol Oates
Hey-ho, JCO
Hey-ho, JCO 🎵
And winner of the Jerusalem Prize
She Made Elon Musk want to die
Joyce Carol Oates
Hey-ho, JCO
Hey-ho, JCO 🎵
November 10, 2025 at 10:22 PM
🎵 Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize
And winner of the Jerusalem Prize
She Made Elon Musk want to die
Joyce Carol Oates
Hey-ho, JCO
Hey-ho, JCO 🎵
And winner of the Jerusalem Prize
She Made Elon Musk want to die
Joyce Carol Oates
Hey-ho, JCO
Hey-ho, JCO 🎵
Horny Tony Stark was able to build this in a sexual cave! With a box of erotic scraps!
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Horny Tony Stark was able to build this in a sexual cave! With a box of erotic scraps!
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
V good - as Tom points out, much of living in the UK today is built around either believing, or tolerating, being lied to directly to your face. Pointing out the lie will get you yelled at, castigated and publicly shamed, and underneath it all, a fear of what happens once the lie unravels
Hi guys, I've decided as everyone else has to start a substack. Here's my first article, on how the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan furore lays bare the pretence at the heart of British politics. Feel free to subscribe, I'm going to try write at least 2 articles a month.
open.substack.com/pub/tomusher...
open.substack.com/pub/tomusher...
Fated to pretend
What the Maccabi Tel Aviv furore shows us all about pretending
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:28 PM
V good - as Tom points out, much of living in the UK today is built around either believing, or tolerating, being lied to directly to your face. Pointing out the lie will get you yelled at, castigated and publicly shamed, and underneath it all, a fear of what happens once the lie unravels
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
one time I pointed out that elon musk followed no women on twitter and he immediately followed caity weaver
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
one time I pointed out that elon musk followed no women on twitter and he immediately followed caity weaver
I know, right? And I'm supposed to 'share my toys'? Uh, newsflash, they're *my toys*. Right folks? And what's the deal with naptime?
November 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
I know, right? And I'm supposed to 'share my toys'? Uh, newsflash, they're *my toys*. Right folks? And what's the deal with naptime?
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
I had actually forgotten about the first world war until I saw this flightpath.
All too real, apparently, though it has been airbrushed for... reasons.
C-GZPT Flight Tracking and History 07-Nov-2025 (CYHZ-CYHZ) - FlightAware
Flight status, tracking, and historical data for C-GZPT 07-Nov-2025 (CYHZ-CYHZ) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times.
www.flightaware.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I had actually forgotten about the first world war until I saw this flightpath.
Yes, Polanski's ascent (and Mamdani's) is voters choosing hope, but they're also rejecting stupidity, bad faith, politicians who can't give a straight answer to a yes or no question, Jeremy Corbyn photoshopped outside of St. Basil's Church - the whole unserious 'both sides' media.
Every personal attack.
Every attempt to distract or to divide.
It energises, strengthens and empowers our movement.
Lower bills. Tax billionaires. Join us.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Every attempt to distract or to divide.
It energises, strengthens and empowers our movement.
Lower bills. Tax billionaires. Join us.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The right can mock my teeth all it wants – it shows the Greens have struck a nerve | Zack Polanski
As a politician, I expect opposition and debate. But when it centres on personal insults, not policies, something else is going on, says the leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Yes, Polanski's ascent (and Mamdani's) is voters choosing hope, but they're also rejecting stupidity, bad faith, politicians who can't give a straight answer to a yes or no question, Jeremy Corbyn photoshopped outside of St. Basil's Church - the whole unserious 'both sides' media.
Sorry to use terms like 'Libidinal Economy' on the app for weird radlibs and distressing Furry art, but the mechanism here is building structures in which a person can have fun - posting botched surgery pics at trans people, gabbing with your TERF gal-pals, proximity to JK Rowling...
Transphobia is a pipeline to the far right. An example:
Suzanne Moore used to be a left wing columnist at the Guardian.
Then came the anti-trans panic. Despite the Guardian also promoting it, it wasn’t enough & she left.
Moore is now complaining about wokeness over the Irish famine & colonialism.
Suzanne Moore used to be a left wing columnist at the Guardian.
Then came the anti-trans panic. Despite the Guardian also promoting it, it wasn’t enough & she left.
Moore is now complaining about wokeness over the Irish famine & colonialism.
Suzanne Moore, who would rather be locked up than pay her BBC licence fee because the BBC is too nice to trans people for her liking.
November 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Sorry to use terms like 'Libidinal Economy' on the app for weird radlibs and distressing Furry art, but the mechanism here is building structures in which a person can have fun - posting botched surgery pics at trans people, gabbing with your TERF gal-pals, proximity to JK Rowling...
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
The key weakness in AI agents is that they're a lie. They don't work. They just don't fuckin' work. You can't set a hallucination engine to work doing tasks. It's pants on head stupid. The hype pretends this isn't the case and hypothesises a fabulous future where they work *at all*. This is a lie.
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 AM
The key weakness in AI agents is that they're a lie. They don't work. They just don't fuckin' work. You can't set a hallucination engine to work doing tasks. It's pants on head stupid. The hype pretends this isn't the case and hypothesises a fabulous future where they work *at all*. This is a lie.
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Fascination of investors such as Elon Musk with uploading their brains to computers is hindering progress in curing disease, say scientists
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
The Starmer-McSweeney tendency is sinking Labour. Their tiny faction is dragging social democracy into an abyss. 🖊️ Neal Lawson
The Starmer-McSweeney tendency is sinking Labour
Their tiny faction is dragging social democracy into an abyss
www.newstatesman.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:40 AM
The Starmer-McSweeney tendency is sinking Labour. Their tiny faction is dragging social democracy into an abyss. 🖊️ Neal Lawson
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
November 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
I think that my son might be a generational talent at Silksong. He's nine years old and he defeated Lace 2 in about seven tries. Chat, how do I monetise this? Is there a competitive Metroidvania circuit I can Michael Jackson's dad him into?
November 9, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I think that my son might be a generational talent at Silksong. He's nine years old and he defeated Lace 2 in about seven tries. Chat, how do I monetise this? Is there a competitive Metroidvania circuit I can Michael Jackson's dad him into?
Karp is fascinating to me because he's genuinely intelligent, actually understands what socialism is rather than thinking it's about the government taking your TV away, and yet just by being close to power his mind has completely broken.
theres a whole category of newstertainment thats gotta go. and its "ask a really rich freak who is also evil and directly stealing from you what hes seen on the computer lately that has made him feel bad." the only -- ONLY -- story about this guy worth exploring is: he is getting rich spying on you
November 9, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Karp is fascinating to me because he's genuinely intelligent, actually understands what socialism is rather than thinking it's about the government taking your TV away, and yet just by being close to power his mind has completely broken.
It's funny to me that the guy who got famous for telling conservative men to Clean Their Rooms is basically a nonentity at this point and the most famous right-wing politics streamer made his house so dirty that his mother died of rat-borne diseases. Seems like it was always about being an asshole!
November 9, 2025 at 7:34 PM
It's funny to me that the guy who got famous for telling conservative men to Clean Their Rooms is basically a nonentity at this point and the most famous right-wing politics streamer made his house so dirty that his mother died of rat-borne diseases. Seems like it was always about being an asshole!
If JCO said a quarter of this about me I'd kill myself. Absolutely no lie.
November 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
If JCO said a quarter of this about me I'd kill myself. Absolutely no lie.
Reposted by Gareth Watkins
Does he not know what party he leads? You're not *supposed* to have credibility, you are 100% supposed to lie to your voter base - remember £300 million for the NHS? They don't care.
Farage retreats from Reform UK’s bold tax-cut vows, casting manifesto pledges as “aspirations” amid pressure for credibility. | Peter Sagar
Farage and Reform row back on tax cuts pledge
Farage retreats from Reform UK’s bold tax-cut vows, casting manifesto pledges as “aspirations” amid pressure for credibility.
northeastbylines.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Does he not know what party he leads? You're not *supposed* to have credibility, you are 100% supposed to lie to your voter base - remember £300 million for the NHS? They don't care.
We need to update the Frog and the Scorpion story so it's the Frog, the Scorpion and the Other Frog. The other frog has a sprained ankle so needs a little help crossing the river, but the first frog actively decides to help the scorpion because the Other Frog is trans or Frog Jeremy Corbyn.
I am hearing there’s a political campaign against the BBC by cynical liars and frauds who don’t care what’s real and only want to destroy it, and I can say: LOL too bad lads, you could not possibly more deserve to get wrecked by the wingnuts and cranks you were once so happy to promote.
November 9, 2025 at 10:43 AM
We need to update the Frog and the Scorpion story so it's the Frog, the Scorpion and the Other Frog. The other frog has a sprained ankle so needs a little help crossing the river, but the first frog actively decides to help the scorpion because the Other Frog is trans or Frog Jeremy Corbyn.
Have they tried making Funkos of characters nobody knows or cares about like Doghan Daguis from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which then fill the discount aisles of TK Maxx and CEX? That'll probably turn things around.
Funko admits “substantial doubt” it can continue as a going concern amid crashing sales and mounting debt.
The Pop! maker warns of potential loan defaults without fresh funding or a buyout, after a 14% sales drop and $250M in obligations.
#Funko #PopVinyl #GoingConcern
The Pop! maker warns of potential loan defaults without fresh funding or a buyout, after a 14% sales drop and $250M in obligations.
#Funko #PopVinyl #GoingConcern
November 9, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Have they tried making Funkos of characters nobody knows or cares about like Doghan Daguis from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which then fill the discount aisles of TK Maxx and CEX? That'll probably turn things around.