Peter Zombory-Moldovan
@peterzm.bsky.social
yer classic dilettante liberal lawyer
If by "ethnic identity" he means an identity that he, or anyone else other than the person to whom it is applied, gets to decide, then yes, it's racism - definitionally so.
"Ethnicity" (whatever that actually connotes) belongs to the individual. It is not something to which the individual belongs.
"Ethnicity" (whatever that actually connotes) belongs to the individual. It is not something to which the individual belongs.
July 15, 2025 at 6:38 PM
If by "ethnic identity" he means an identity that he, or anyone else other than the person to whom it is applied, gets to decide, then yes, it's racism - definitionally so.
"Ethnicity" (whatever that actually connotes) belongs to the individual. It is not something to which the individual belongs.
"Ethnicity" (whatever that actually connotes) belongs to the individual. It is not something to which the individual belongs.
"Ethnicity data"? Based on/defined as what, exactly? Self-identification? Nationality of >2 grandparents? Colour charts? And who decides the categories?
We've been down this road before, and it's called 'scientific racism'. It was wicked nonsense. Rebranding it as 'ethnicity' makes it no better.
We've been down this road before, and it's called 'scientific racism'. It was wicked nonsense. Rebranding it as 'ethnicity' makes it no better.
June 16, 2025 at 11:52 PM
"Ethnicity data"? Based on/defined as what, exactly? Self-identification? Nationality of >2 grandparents? Colour charts? And who decides the categories?
We've been down this road before, and it's called 'scientific racism'. It was wicked nonsense. Rebranding it as 'ethnicity' makes it no better.
We've been down this road before, and it's called 'scientific racism'. It was wicked nonsense. Rebranding it as 'ethnicity' makes it no better.
The problem is not so much the Brexiters' predictable howls of betrayal at every move to normalise the relationship. It's the BBC's belief that it's doing 'impartiality' by letting them set the terms of the story at each such point, and ventriloquising the Daily Mail as a way of framing the debate.
May 29, 2025 at 12:24 AM
The problem is not so much the Brexiters' predictable howls of betrayal at every move to normalise the relationship. It's the BBC's belief that it's doing 'impartiality' by letting them set the terms of the story at each such point, and ventriloquising the Daily Mail as a way of framing the debate.
Professional bodies (BSB, SRA) need to crack down on this sort of thing, and hard. It's plainly a serious breach of duty to the court to file submissions on the law which you have zero reasonable grounds to believe are true, because you've had AI do it for you.
May 13, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Professional bodies (BSB, SRA) need to crack down on this sort of thing, and hard. It's plainly a serious breach of duty to the court to file submissions on the law which you have zero reasonable grounds to believe are true, because you've had AI do it for you.
Yep. You catch it at it, tell it to stop making shit up, it apologises nicely and assures you it won't do it again, then immediately does it again. The first-blush plausibility makes it a real pain. AI has all the academic rigour and honesty of a six-month-old puppy. It can't help itself.
May 10, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Yep. You catch it at it, tell it to stop making shit up, it apologises nicely and assures you it won't do it again, then immediately does it again. The first-blush plausibility makes it a real pain. AI has all the academic rigour and honesty of a six-month-old puppy. It can't help itself.
Laissez-faire + protectionism = Imperial Preference. Except this time with the UK as a colony within Trump's autarkic imperium. Not sure they're going to enjoy the experience, and the rest of us certainly aren't.
December 16, 2024 at 12:10 AM
Laissez-faire + protectionism = Imperial Preference. Except this time with the UK as a colony within Trump's autarkic imperium. Not sure they're going to enjoy the experience, and the rest of us certainly aren't.
I saw one of these last week and it was like a chasm opened. But also a sense that, however long it might take, hidden institutional cruelty will eventually be called to account. Too late for many, many victims, and probably inadequate, but it's something.
Don't do bad things. History remembers.
Don't do bad things. History remembers.
December 6, 2024 at 8:37 PM
I saw one of these last week and it was like a chasm opened. But also a sense that, however long it might take, hidden institutional cruelty will eventually be called to account. Too late for many, many victims, and probably inadequate, but it's something.
Don't do bad things. History remembers.
Don't do bad things. History remembers.
No doubt he would have opposed the abolition of capital punishment and the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality on equally bizarre grounds. It's one thing to be a reactionary, but it takes a special gift to pollute every argument of principle and morality with nationalist poison.
November 29, 2024 at 6:26 PM
No doubt he would have opposed the abolition of capital punishment and the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality on equally bizarre grounds. It's one thing to be a reactionary, but it takes a special gift to pollute every argument of principle and morality with nationalist poison.
Would be interesting to see how that split compares to those for the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, the Abortion Act 1967 and the Sexual Offences Act 1967.
November 29, 2024 at 6:11 PM
Would be interesting to see how that split compares to those for the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, the Abortion Act 1967 and the Sexual Offences Act 1967.
Nor, in fact, are they sorry.
See also: "with the greatest respect"
See also: "with the greatest respect"
November 29, 2024 at 12:48 AM
Nor, in fact, are they sorry.
See also: "with the greatest respect"
See also: "with the greatest respect"
It seems the estate is principally managed as a grouse shoot. www.workingforwildlife.co.uk/case-studies...
Famous Grouse
In Highland Perthshire, Sir John Kemp-Welch and Ronnie Kippen have worked tirelessly to conserve Scotland’s iconic heather moorland and the native wildlife that depends on it Ronnie Kippen describes t...
www.workingforwildlife.co.uk
November 25, 2024 at 6:33 PM
It seems the estate is principally managed as a grouse shoot. www.workingforwildlife.co.uk/case-studies...
Maybe hedge with a chunky position in tulip bulbs?
November 18, 2024 at 2:28 PM
Maybe hedge with a chunky position in tulip bulbs?
The fantasy of autarky seems to be a deeply atavistic instinct. It's the national equivalent of the paranoid survivalist hunkered down in his damp, miserable cabin in the woods. Until he runs out of coffee and matches and has to rediscover the miracle of trade.
November 18, 2024 at 11:54 AM
The fantasy of autarky seems to be a deeply atavistic instinct. It's the national equivalent of the paranoid survivalist hunkered down in his damp, miserable cabin in the woods. Until he runs out of coffee and matches and has to rediscover the miracle of trade.
Preserving that deep collective muscle-memory of constitutionalism, the rule of law and and what a decent society looks like is absolutely critical. Despite everything, it was still there in post-1945 (W) Germany and Austria. It wasn't in post-1991 Russia. Once gone, it's usually gone for good.
November 18, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Preserving that deep collective muscle-memory of constitutionalism, the rule of law and and what a decent society looks like is absolutely critical. Despite everything, it was still there in post-1945 (W) Germany and Austria. It wasn't in post-1991 Russia. Once gone, it's usually gone for good.
It's central to all ethno-nationalisms everywhere and old as the hills. Reactionary nostalgia for feudal order > fear of disruptive modernity > hostility to the 'alien' > the idea of the (true/pure) 'folk'. It's deeply coded into western culture, and especially prominent on the Right.
November 18, 2024 at 2:28 AM
It's central to all ethno-nationalisms everywhere and old as the hills. Reactionary nostalgia for feudal order > fear of disruptive modernity > hostility to the 'alien' > the idea of the (true/pure) 'folk'. It's deeply coded into western culture, and especially prominent on the Right.
Soviet intelligence used to label such people "shit-eaters". I bet the term is still very much in use.
November 14, 2024 at 6:32 PM
Soviet intelligence used to label such people "shit-eaters". I bet the term is still very much in use.
If it hadn't been listed, I suspect it would by now be long gone. A possible model for its sympathetic restoration might be Trellick Tower and Golden Lane Estate in London: cool apartments for the design-conscious. c20society.org.uk/building-of-...
Domestic and Trades College, Manchester – The Twentieth Century Society
c20society.org.uk
November 14, 2024 at 3:47 PM
If it hadn't been listed, I suspect it would by now be long gone. A possible model for its sympathetic restoration might be Trellick Tower and Golden Lane Estate in London: cool apartments for the design-conscious. c20society.org.uk/building-of-...
I'm glad it's still there and has admirers, at least. It may not be a masterpiece of postwar modernism, but it's a highly distinctive rarity and speaks eloquently of a period of optimism in British culture.
November 14, 2024 at 3:32 PM
I'm glad it's still there and has admirers, at least. It may not be a masterpiece of postwar modernism, but it's a highly distinctive rarity and speaks eloquently of a period of optimism in British culture.
Always looked out for this building as a child in the early 60s, when it was brand new: a thrilling vision of the future, like an alien spaceship from an advanced civilisation landed among Manchester's drab, soot-stained Victoriana.
November 14, 2024 at 3:21 PM
Always looked out for this building as a child in the early 60s, when it was brand new: a thrilling vision of the future, like an alien spaceship from an advanced civilisation landed among Manchester's drab, soot-stained Victoriana.
The same is true, I find, of those who invoke Martin Niemöller or describe something as "Kafkaesque".
November 13, 2024 at 10:22 PM
The same is true, I find, of those who invoke Martin Niemöller or describe something as "Kafkaesque".