@nicholas-mutante.bsky.social
Sociologist, ecologist, educator, writer, mutant (i.e. neurodiverse), plays capoeira. Unflinching progressive, British-American. I don’t like reductive talk about people we disagree with, and I think it’s very unbecoming when progressives regress like that
5: Ugh. So many callers scrambling like drowners for driftwood to find an excuse to regurgitate Daily Mail talking points or whatever their social media tells them to think. It’s hard not to get the idea that democracy is doomed.
January 1, 2026 at 5:34 PM
5: Ugh. So many callers scrambling like drowners for driftwood to find an excuse to regurgitate Daily Mail talking points or whatever their social media tells them to think. It’s hard not to get the idea that democracy is doomed.
1940 and regressing…
January 1, 2026 at 2:02 AM
1940 and regressing…
And let’s remember what the original point of caring was. We want a world in which we (and my “we” means *a gente*, the people that see themselves as agents, including animals) can thrive, enjoy, love, and appreciate. We, a gente, don’t want to just survive and strive for struggle’s own sake.
December 31, 2025 at 2:20 PM
And let’s remember what the original point of caring was. We want a world in which we (and my “we” means *a gente*, the people that see themselves as agents, including animals) can thrive, enjoy, love, and appreciate. We, a gente, don’t want to just survive and strive for struggle’s own sake.
It’s a big problem because it’s exactly the same epistemic failure that leads to events like Brexit, MAGA, and other effects of manifestation culture (magical thinking), where political identity becomes more real than health and safety or factual accuracy. Let’s sit with the problem for a moment.
December 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
It’s a big problem because it’s exactly the same epistemic failure that leads to events like Brexit, MAGA, and other effects of manifestation culture (magical thinking), where political identity becomes more real than health and safety or factual accuracy. Let’s sit with the problem for a moment.
Epistemologically, the reality is that very few people have any real understanding of nutrition, ecology, or the structural realities of the postindustrial food system of the modern west. Yet, there is a strong social imperative that one should have a strong opinion about it. This is a big problem.
December 31, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Epistemologically, the reality is that very few people have any real understanding of nutrition, ecology, or the structural realities of the postindustrial food system of the modern west. Yet, there is a strong social imperative that one should have a strong opinion about it. This is a big problem.
In neither case will the reaction likely be based on either facts or experience. A discussion that should be about health, welfare, ecology, and economy has been reduced to a kind of cosmic row between tyranny (one diet for many different people) and savagery (no one can tell me what I should eat).
December 31, 2025 at 2:00 PM
In neither case will the reaction likely be based on either facts or experience. A discussion that should be about health, welfare, ecology, and economy has been reduced to a kind of cosmic row between tyranny (one diet for many different people) and savagery (no one can tell me what I should eat).
The “we” in your statement above implies (correctly or not) that dietary effects are the same for everyone. This will be taken in two extremely different ways: some will feel they have to agree for reasons of political identity; others will reject the claim for exactly the same reason.
December 31, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The “we” in your statement above implies (correctly or not) that dietary effects are the same for everyone. This will be taken in two extremely different ways: some will feel they have to agree for reasons of political identity; others will reject the claim for exactly the same reason.
Since I majored in eco-ag in my undergrad in ‘99, it’s become ever clearer that neither reference (facts) nor representation (direct health experiences) play a major role in food politics, and this—a problem of sociology—is really the most dangerous aspect of the issue.
December 31, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Since I majored in eco-ag in my undergrad in ‘99, it’s become ever clearer that neither reference (facts) nor representation (direct health experiences) play a major role in food politics, and this—a problem of sociology—is really the most dangerous aspect of the issue.
“Git yer biscuits in the oven an’ yer buns in the bed”?
December 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
“Git yer biscuits in the oven an’ yer buns in the bed”?
Fiddlin’ with what?
December 30, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Fiddlin’ with what?
None of that New York picante sauce though, or otherwise “Git a rope”
December 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
None of that New York picante sauce though, or otherwise “Git a rope”
Hadn’t heard of it before, will 👀. Looks to be similar to an old (late 90s) Doctor Who story called the Happiness Patrol.
Fairly sure it would lose to Rings of Power if that’d had a season this year though.
Fairly sure it would lose to Rings of Power if that’d had a season this year though.
December 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Hadn’t heard of it before, will 👀. Looks to be similar to an old (late 90s) Doctor Who story called the Happiness Patrol.
Fairly sure it would lose to Rings of Power if that’d had a season this year though.
Fairly sure it would lose to Rings of Power if that’d had a season this year though.
Once you set off down a path paved with lies, your job becomes building highways to nowhere.
December 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Once you set off down a path paved with lies, your job becomes building highways to nowhere.
Ugh, all these people are wrong about everything. I’m a British citizen because so was my Nan. I applied, and was approved. There are citizens and noncitizens: being a DUAL citizen puts you in the former category. How would your callers like to be treated the way they wish others were treated?
December 29, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Ugh, all these people are wrong about everything. I’m a British citizen because so was my Nan. I applied, and was approved. There are citizens and noncitizens: being a DUAL citizen puts you in the former category. How would your callers like to be treated the way they wish others were treated?
4: God no, and it seems you’re platforming a lot of people who simply shouldn’t be speaking. The conflation of legal realities and what people wish were true (and won’t ever let you make them explain why they wish it) is rampant, mad, and epistemologically bankrupt.
December 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
4: God no, and it seems you’re platforming a lot of people who simply shouldn’t be speaking. The conflation of legal realities and what people wish were true (and won’t ever let you make them explain why they wish it) is rampant, mad, and epistemologically bankrupt.
8: The Labour/Tory dialectic has become an establishment that people are losing faith in, understandably. To create substantive change needs significant intervention. I hope Polanksi keeps gaining ground and that Farage starts losing; they are, good or ill, offering desired intervention.
December 28, 2025 at 1:15 PM
8: The Labour/Tory dialectic has become an establishment that people are losing faith in, understandably. To create substantive change needs significant intervention. I hope Polanksi keeps gaining ground and that Farage starts losing; they are, good or ill, offering desired intervention.
3: I’m just becoming a UK citizen, love the country, and would sign up in a heartbeat, but I’m old. The main problem I see is that young people don’t feel supported by their country, quite understandably given economic and infrastructure concerns. Training isn’t enough without morale.
December 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
3: I’m just becoming a UK citizen, love the country, and would sign up in a heartbeat, but I’m old. The main problem I see is that young people don’t feel supported by their country, quite understandably given economic and infrastructure concerns. Training isn’t enough without morale.
Reposted
"UK political culture seems to be fixated on maintenance of the ‘special relationship’ just as much as it is on treating relations with the nearby European Union with scepticism" - as I wrote in April. That is very deeply wired into the UK state. ecipe.org/blog/trumps-...
Trump’s Tariffs Threaten UK Identity
There was a small sigh of relief in the UK when President Trump finally reached the country in his tariff scoreboard revealing the lowest possible number of 10%. Limited, because with 25% on steel, al
ecipe.org
December 18, 2025 at 7:32 AM
"UK political culture seems to be fixated on maintenance of the ‘special relationship’ just as much as it is on treating relations with the nearby European Union with scepticism" - as I wrote in April. That is very deeply wired into the UK state. ecipe.org/blog/trumps-...
Oh my. Like a Doctor Who story where aliens turn people into mindless zombies chanting “resistance is futile”.
December 18, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Oh my. Like a Doctor Who story where aliens turn people into mindless zombies chanting “resistance is futile”.
I don’t really understand what the arguments against (re)nationalization are.
December 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
I don’t really understand what the arguments against (re)nationalization are.