definitely helps feed & feeds off that hysterical, superstitious individualism that thrives online / is some kind of inspiration to keep working through dismally unequal or unpromising working conditions / is sense-making if all progressive & collective efforts from below seem impotent or doomed

I was a bit surprised the rise of evangelicalism wasn’t really in the mix in the Wood essay or the discussion. Seems another important (& bleak) factor. Seems to do a lot to compound the other structural forces dissolving organisation & solidarity.

a feverish anti-socialist backlash regardless of what they say or do, & they repeatedly reinforce it, burying real achievements & constantly repeating or endorsing the themes of people who despise them

every reactionary in the UK energised, the centre left training its base to realign to the right

Chapel maybe is fine

brains poisoned by football manager, fantasy football, gambling, & social media addiction

the disrespect shown through the transfer window & losing streak, for 1. a league winning team 2. a league winning coach 3. a set of players grieving a colleague & likely struggling in different ways, is shameful

I know a lot of these people are children, or mental, but as a fan I despise it

this was excellent James, you had me worried with the Tory episode, which was conducted with a very generous spirit given everything

I dislike this particularly British strain of pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-empiricist, unearned smuggery. The Truss case is an outlier, it is very silly to think ‘the discipline of the bond markets’ is historically exactly the same for any fiscally expansionist government.

you are disingenuous

that’s correct & sound, but the crowd behaviour of players in that market - likely to be particularly hostile to any redistributive, social democratic government - also has a coercive effect on govts & politicians they don’t like - these people aren’t naive about their power

you should run Osita

Union reps (+ staff reps who often are union reps) on boards has been in place in Scotland for years now, it’s better than not doing it, but it hasn’t changed much

the disturbing thing is, he apparently has very good taste in books & music - unsettling to know this man loves ‘A Disaffection’ by James Kelman & the kind of guitar music that aligns with that