Oops, brainfart on my part, apologies.

Also rather galling that lots of the folks throwing their hands up in horror were very gleefully fanning the flames of the Stockport riots a year ago. Casual violence is apparently fine under certain conditions, just dependent on skin colour of perpetrators and victims.

Yeah - I was a kid in the 80s/90s, and a pretty sheltered one too, but even I remember a different atmosphere back then, violence was just in the air.

This from @twlldun.bsky.social is really good on this subject: medium.com/@twlldun/a-b...

Yeah, I'm a fan of LVT and/or wealth tax, but primarily as a way of selling to the populace the broader based tax rises on low and middle incomes that are necessary for a Scandinavian style social democracy.

If you keep taking enough ketamine, eventually this will begin to make sense.

58. Shuna's Journey, Hayao Miyazaki

A wonderful fable, an early work from Miyazaki based on a Tibetan folktale. The art is exquisite, and it's fun to see the bones of later works here (Princess Mononoke in particular).

57. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke

Beautiful writing, enjoyed this.

56. The Horned God, Mills and Bisley

Iconic graphic novel. The story is nothing too special, but the art is absolutely jaw-dropping, some of the best I've ever seen in a comic.

Another vote for The Thing! Great fun to watch in a crowded cinema...

Ah, that explains quite a lot.

I wonder why high level executives might like a machine that flatters them and never says no? Just one of life's mysteries, I suppose.

Yeah, that's my worry - I'll vote for whoever can stop Reform in my constituency, but figuring out exactly who that is might be trickier than usual.

As a social/psychological experiment, giving a bunch of emotionally unintelligent narcissists an ungodly amount of money, power, and unfettered access to gaslighting AI flattery machines is producing some quite fascinating results.

But yeah, the practical consequences are...not good.

She's so confident as well, on the verge of smug, which makes it so much worse.

Really feels like a backslide to the bad old days of the 70s and 80s in terms of blatant, on the street racism.

We see this with 40k (and the film of Starship Troopers etc), which lean heavily on cool aesthetics and the surface level appeal. They're trying to showcase the persuasive and seductive qualities of fascism.

One interesting idea I've heard that has stuck with me - effective satire (especially of fascism) often has to engage with the appeal of fascism, and therefore contains the possibility of being mistaken for endorsement.

Yeah - I think the satirical intent has sometimes gotten a little muddied by the £, but it is still there.