There is no ‘hard right’, AI slop is actually good but AI is terrible, and why democracies need enemies: 4 links I liked
Definitions! The Plagiarism Machine (twice!)!! Democracy and its enemies!!!
Category: Links
Links I liked
An enduring anti-fascist legacy in Italy
I am normally rather sceptical of historical explanations for far-right mobilisation and counter-mobilisation, but this podcast episode from The Conversation is very nuanced and quite convincing: 24 minutes of your time well spent. https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/86c1fdc7-dc5c-44b5-a86c-72eed7fb3190.mp3
Misogynistic manifestos, wolves not voting for the AfD, Meta is evil, and the hidden costs of “purity”: four links I liked
Karmvir Padda is a sociologist at the University of Waterloo. For her PhD research, she has analysed numerous manifestos written by men who perpetrated violent attacks motivated by their political or religious views. A large chunk of them rationalise violence that is explicitly directed against women. https://theconversation.com/i-analyzed-more-than-100-extremist-manifestos-misogyny-was-the-common-thread-259347 Back in 2022, two colleagues published a research…
More from the manosphere, Christian weirdos, more biopolitics, and why Middle England should care about the climate crisis: four links I liked
I read this the way it was intended: with gory fascination. It’s almost as if capitalism was part of the problem. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/25/nick-wanted-to-drop-bodyfat-and-build-his-own-micro-harem-of-women-how-my-friend-fell-for-the-red-pill-hucksters-of-the-manosphere Interesting that there is now a book about this. Even more interesting that this should be the only book. Blaming America’s religious beginnings for America ‘s weirdness has been a reasonably popular folk…
Behold a 1970s social networking site
This, my young friends, is a (West German) coin-operated payphone. Like cigarette and bubble gum vending machines, they were ubiquitous during my youth. Now, this is literally a museum piece, which I spotted in Frankfurt a couple of days ago. Very rarely, people forgot to collect the coins that remained when they ended their call.…
Using LLMs to read your Bluesky feed, disinformation as the lesser problem, the AfD’s fake plane tickets, and the normalisation of the radical right in Europe: 4 links I liked
LLMs tackle Bluesky feeds, disinformation takes a backseat, AfD’s ticket scandal unfolds, and Europe grapples with far-right normalisation.
I’m (kind of) leaving Twitter for Bluesky & Mastodon
Like many others, I had a great time on Twitter. I joined in October 2008, more than 16 years ago. I had a slow start, but eventually I produced about 22,800 tweets, equivalent to about 1,400 posts per year or about four per day. During the last decade, it was more like 10 per day.…
Three Bluesky links I liked
Everyone & their gran are leaving Twitter for Bluesky. Here are some links to help you get started.
Orbán travels in style, Putin meddles in Germany, Wagenknecht blackmails the CDU, and 1 Spanish scientist cheats his way to the top: 4 (or 5?) links I liked
If you are not worried, you have not been paying attention. “National populism” – itself a polite misnomer for a radical right ideology that also claims to attack the elites – is going international. Viktor Orbán, bankrolled by the EU and the Hungarian treasury, is trying to establish himself as the impresario of this transnational…
Loving the alien
Need to something uplifting? 50 minutes to spare? Listen to how the hunt for alien life is gearing up.