ProfAFinlayson
@profafinlayson.bsky.social
Prof of Political & Social Theory @ UEA: regularly a political theorist, often a political analyst, always a rhetorician. Sometimes I teach people how to make political speeches; usually they are happy about it. Mostly I study Reactionary Digital Politics.
This event at UEA & online, organised by the estimable @tobysjames.bsky.social, looks very good.
The State of Political Leadership in Britain: Roundtable with Charles Clarke, Tim Bale, Emmanuelle Avril and Patrick Diamond
Tues, 25th Nov. 1-2.30pm
Register here: forms.office.com/e/dnX1qZ4pVR.
The State of Political Leadership in Britain: Roundtable with Charles Clarke, Tim Bale, Emmanuelle Avril and Patrick Diamond
Tues, 25th Nov. 1-2.30pm
Register here: forms.office.com/e/dnX1qZ4pVR.
November 12, 2025 at 9:47 AM
This event at UEA & online, organised by the estimable @tobysjames.bsky.social, looks very good.
The State of Political Leadership in Britain: Roundtable with Charles Clarke, Tim Bale, Emmanuelle Avril and Patrick Diamond
Tues, 25th Nov. 1-2.30pm
Register here: forms.office.com/e/dnX1qZ4pVR.
The State of Political Leadership in Britain: Roundtable with Charles Clarke, Tim Bale, Emmanuelle Avril and Patrick Diamond
Tues, 25th Nov. 1-2.30pm
Register here: forms.office.com/e/dnX1qZ4pVR.
I’m growing concerned that my planned Little Book of Starmer Rhetoric isn’t going to pay for my pension.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
October 18, 2025 at 12:05 AM
I’m growing concerned that my planned Little Book of Starmer Rhetoric isn’t going to pay for my pension.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
Woaah! The New Yorker ups the political temperature to, er, 'troubling'. It's worried that the US government is 'capricious'. Wow.
September 19, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Woaah! The New Yorker ups the political temperature to, er, 'troubling'. It's worried that the US government is 'capricious'. Wow.
Edited to add: "...and also quite a large number of academic researchers and writers not to mention many left-wing analysts active on podcasts, substack & YouTube".
It's a good article, well worth a read: www.ft.com/content/0e24...
It's a good article, well worth a read: www.ft.com/content/0e24...
August 11, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Edited to add: "...and also quite a large number of academic researchers and writers not to mention many left-wing analysts active on podcasts, substack & YouTube".
It's a good article, well worth a read: www.ft.com/content/0e24...
It's a good article, well worth a read: www.ft.com/content/0e24...
“Totalitarianism is bureaucrats killing people inefficiently. Therefore utopia arrives when we efficiently kill all the bureaucrats (who aren’t human anyway).
Only hollow men don’t invest in us. How much would you like to buy?
You have five seconds to comply.”
Only hollow men don’t invest in us. How much would you like to buy?
You have five seconds to comply.”
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
“Totalitarianism is bureaucrats killing people inefficiently. Therefore utopia arrives when we efficiently kill all the bureaucrats (who aren’t human anyway).
Only hollow men don’t invest in us. How much would you like to buy?
You have five seconds to comply.”
Only hollow men don’t invest in us. How much would you like to buy?
You have five seconds to comply.”
Would Lewis approve of the actual abolition of human literature and its replacement with an AI rented out to God?
Would he like systems designed to make drones more efficient at killing people?
These are questions only mere mortals ask.
Would he like systems designed to make drones more efficient at killing people?
These are questions only mere mortals ask.
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Would Lewis approve of the actual abolition of human literature and its replacement with an AI rented out to God?
Would he like systems designed to make drones more efficient at killing people?
These are questions only mere mortals ask.
Would he like systems designed to make drones more efficient at killing people?
These are questions only mere mortals ask.
“My buddy Peter went to school with Rene Girard & told me he learned you gotta make someone else the scapegoat before they make you it, like that time in high school.
It’s called ‘post liberalism’ and it’s totally spiritual.
Please buy my book. If you don’t I’ll…”
It’s called ‘post liberalism’ and it’s totally spiritual.
Please buy my book. If you don’t I’ll…”
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
“My buddy Peter went to school with Rene Girard & told me he learned you gotta make someone else the scapegoat before they make you it, like that time in high school.
It’s called ‘post liberalism’ and it’s totally spiritual.
Please buy my book. If you don’t I’ll…”
It’s called ‘post liberalism’ and it’s totally spiritual.
Please buy my book. If you don’t I’ll…”
“You know, like, the way that, like, the media makes words & like, there’s the Letter of the Law? That’s total tyranny man, dominating the code that wants to be free.
But not if we do it. Then it’s freedom!
You’d better not call us postmodernists man”.
But not if we do it. Then it’s freedom!
You’d better not call us postmodernists man”.
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
“You know, like, the way that, like, the media makes words & like, there’s the Letter of the Law? That’s total tyranny man, dominating the code that wants to be free.
But not if we do it. Then it’s freedom!
You’d better not call us postmodernists man”.
But not if we do it. Then it’s freedom!
You’d better not call us postmodernists man”.
The highest expression of The Californian Ideology? Hippie self-expression mixed with libertarian capitalism but at the end of the party when you’re full of Ketamine, Curtis Yarvin’s been speaking to you all evening & you’re hallucinating Ayn Rand’s ghost telling you you are a God.
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
The highest expression of The Californian Ideology? Hippie self-expression mixed with libertarian capitalism but at the end of the party when you’re full of Ketamine, Curtis Yarvin’s been speaking to you all evening & you’re hallucinating Ayn Rand’s ghost telling you you are a God.
It’s not market capitalism - circulation & exchange - or utilitarianism. It’s not only about having power. It’s about *feeling power*. Here, the greatest happiness is “to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet -- to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women”.
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
It’s not market capitalism - circulation & exchange - or utilitarianism. It’s not only about having power. It’s about *feeling power*. Here, the greatest happiness is “to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet -- to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women”.
I read the latest letter to shareholders from Palantir and here are some highlights which will translate. Remember, the Palantir head who wrote this strongly identifies with Batman.
“It’s not just a business report. It’s world building!”
“It’s not just a business report. It’s world building!”
August 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I read the latest letter to shareholders from Palantir and here are some highlights which will translate. Remember, the Palantir head who wrote this strongly identifies with Batman.
“It’s not just a business report. It’s world building!”
“It’s not just a business report. It’s world building!”
Great polling. I imagine that right now there are panicked committees in Downing Street arguing over whether Starmer should be seen ostentatiously eating Stilton or violently rejecting it to win the no-cheese demographic. Meanwhile, Morgan plots the expulsion of the few remaining Feta-ists.
August 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Great polling. I imagine that right now there are panicked committees in Downing Street arguing over whether Starmer should be seen ostentatiously eating Stilton or violently rejecting it to win the no-cheese demographic. Meanwhile, Morgan plots the expulsion of the few remaining Feta-ists.
Does anyone else remember that time when that guy said that that government would “tread more lightly on your lives” and when he said he’d end the politics of “noisy performance”? That happened, right?
July 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Does anyone else remember that time when that guy said that that government would “tread more lightly on your lives” and when he said he’d end the politics of “noisy performance”? That happened, right?
My friend and co-author got interviewed by C4 about Trump & Epstein. You can see from this picture taken from the video, how stoked he was to talk about that. Please go to the YouTube channel & leave a comment to cheer him up! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbdr...
July 16, 2025 at 4:53 PM
My friend and co-author got interviewed by C4 about Trump & Epstein. You can see from this picture taken from the video, how stoked he was to talk about that. Please go to the YouTube channel & leave a comment to cheer him up! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbdr...
The Amiel & Melburn Annual lecture is happening this Wednesday!
A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at
@BirkbeckUoL
Some free tickets still available 👇
bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at
@BirkbeckUoL
Some free tickets still available 👇
bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
June 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
The Amiel & Melburn Annual lecture is happening this Wednesday!
A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at
@BirkbeckUoL
Some free tickets still available 👇
bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at
@BirkbeckUoL
Some free tickets still available 👇
bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
Here’s a fundamental part of Labour’s problem. It’s not ‘coming’. It’s here. And it’s been here for 10+ years.
May 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Here’s a fundamental part of Labour’s problem. It’s not ‘coming’. It’s here. And it’s been here for 10+ years.
People don’t even read the newspapers anymore.
May 3, 2025 at 5:55 PM
People don’t even read the newspapers anymore.
April 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Side-by-side on my timeline. Entirely different political universes - styles apart, fundamentally different ideas of what politics is, both in their own way at some distance from reality as experienced by most of us.
April 8, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Side-by-side on my timeline. Entirely different political universes - styles apart, fundamentally different ideas of what politics is, both in their own way at some distance from reality as experienced by most of us.
April 8, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Stephen Miran - Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and advocate of using tariffs to restructure global trade and finance - is getting a harsh lesson in he gap between theory and practice.
April 6, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Stephen Miran - Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and advocate of using tariffs to restructure global trade and finance - is getting a harsh lesson in he gap between theory and practice.
Ouch. I can feel the burn from here.
March 19, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Ouch. I can feel the burn from here.
Here’s a glimpse of the madness of datafication. From Cummings to Starmer, in place of ideology, philosophy or culture there’s an occult search for the truth of society, to be read in the entrails of its data. The only political conflict is who gets to own the data and whose mystics will read it.
March 9, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Here’s a glimpse of the madness of datafication. From Cummings to Starmer, in place of ideology, philosophy or culture there’s an occult search for the truth of society, to be read in the entrails of its data. The only political conflict is who gets to own the data and whose mystics will read it.
In his book "On Leadership" Tony Blair urges leaders to make their countries into a 'sandbox' for the tech companies to play in. Presumably somebody in No. 10 is following that advice. Here's David Runciman discussing that passage - in the LRB:
January 13, 2025 at 11:19 AM
In his book "On Leadership" Tony Blair urges leaders to make their countries into a 'sandbox' for the tech companies to play in. Presumably somebody in No. 10 is following that advice. Here's David Runciman discussing that passage - in the LRB:
I suppose one should be strictly Stoical about this latest development in the subordination of life to vampiric capital.
www.ft.com/content/6f28...
www.ft.com/content/6f28...
December 24, 2024 at 4:28 PM
I suppose one should be strictly Stoical about this latest development in the subordination of life to vampiric capital.
www.ft.com/content/6f28...
www.ft.com/content/6f28...