The horrors

A collection of 23 posts

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Addicted to potential

Because I like to spend my leisure time making myself mad, I've been reading More Everything Forever by Adam Becker (affiliate link) and getting all het up about effective altruism and long termism. The logic of effective altruism follows this path: you should do what is in your

Film

I must insist you watch: Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching (free on YouTube)

About a month ago I declared that One Battle After Another was the best film of 2025 and it wasn't even close. I now know that assessment to be flawed. Because now I've watched Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching (free on YouTube). I must insist

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The horrors

Epstein is a symptom

No one deposes a king because of their belief in democracy. They do it because the king has used his power to harm people. History is a cyclical thing, and one of the key cycles is this: a given society is fairly stable. There is a system that benefits a

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The horrors

Taking a stripped back, inexpert view at a thing to see if it works, inexpertly: the economy

A thing happens when someone knows too much about a given thing. When they know too much about the theory of a given thing – not so much when when they have a lot of experience of the practical side. In fact I think dismissing the realities of the practical sides

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Advice

Can I recommend fixing one tiny broken thing in these trying times?

I have fixed a tiny broken thing and the impact on my sense of general well being is honestly embarrassing. Our flat is full of tiny broken things because everything in it is old and we don't like to nag our landlords too much because we're

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The horrors

There's no escaping human connection

In The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis describes hell as an endlessly expanding, empty city. The people who live there are forever trying to get further away from each other, moving further outwards in an effort to find a comfortable isolation. It's a place where you can have

The horrors

On hope

A few years ago, for History is Sexy, we had a question come in about musicals and revolutions. Naturally the reasons we come back to stories about revolutions, musical or otherwise, are myriad and varied and if you want a more comprehensive look you can listen to the episode but

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The horrors

We have become slaves to the idea of sounding convincing

I have a real grudge against the Enlightenment. Sure, the scholars of the Enlightenment pushed Western society towards democracy, moved us into a theoretically more egalitarian future, but they also ruined everything for everyone forever. The Enlightenment convinced us all that reasoned debate was the only thing that mattered and

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Politics

Graham Linehan and online harassment: a timeline

Were you on twitter during Gamergate? God, what a time. If you weren't extremely online circa 2015 (brag) let me explain (no, there is too much; let me sum up): in the latter half of 2014 a bunch of the internet's discontented men launched a massive

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Complaints

We continue to barely function

Samuel Johnson (of the dictionary) spent a lot of his life trying to avoid debtor's prison. He's one of the most highly regarded English writers in history but while he lived and worked he struggled to survive. Such is life. What he would do to avoid

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Complaints

We need at least some rich people to agree to being eaten

Labour are trying to court Reform voters. The BBC is trying to appeal to Reform viewers. We're all sick of it. There is one common cause, I think, between a lot of us on the left, and many voters on the right and it is this: life fucking

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The horrors

Unfortunately it's time to take a lesson from: Christianity

Hello and welcome to a new series I'm calling unfortunately it's time to take a lesson from. I'm calling it a series because so far I have two (2) ideas for it, and sometimes that is enough. And I'm coming in hot

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Politics

Whither the British left?

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Politics

The best things in life are free except stable mental health, which does require some money

I am currently on hold with Thames Water. I am 90 minutes into a phone call with Thames Water to try and get them to refund the £375 they have just incorrectly taken from my account. There's a lot of boring backstory to this involving an incorrect bill

The horrors

Do they think trans people are people?

It's been baffling and horrifying to watch the transphobic moral panic grow and mutate in the UK and around the world over the last decade or so. Something about it has felt to me so childish. Here in the UK, there existed a pack of fun, irreverent (white,

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Travel

My plane was broken and I am stuck halfway to New Zealand, these are my thoughts

I have had roughly five hours of sleep in two days. I have been sent to a hotel in Singapore because the plane was broken. I have been on hold with Qantas for all time. I think Anora ruled and I'm delighted by its Oscar sweep. Sean Baker

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Complaints

Why did we all decide business is sensible?

I've decided that an MBA is the most nonsense degree you can have. And I say that as someone whose degree is in theatre. In another world or in another era this observation would just be idle chitchat but in this world, in this era we've

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Complaints

A list of the ways I am currently providing value for shareholders

Sometimes, when you are having a Rough Time™ it can be helpful to have something to hold on to, to remind you of your inherent and exquisite value as a human being on this earth, living their one and precious life. I am having one such Rough Time™ currently – you

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Complaints

The hell of frustrated optimism

Good lord, it's scammy out there. Have you noticed this? I've been desperately seeking literally any form of income for a few months now, and every day it becomes clearer that this is an activity that involves exhaustively filtering for scams. I have, several times now,

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The horrors

For those who survive this, we must also learn from it

There is a tendency among humans to believe we're living at the end of history. In every era of relative peace, we believe that the chaos of history is behind us. That nothing of note will happen again. It's a naïve belief whenever it happens; it&

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Complaints

The real trickle down economics is Brian Cox having to do ads for Asics

Every time I see Brian Cox advertising Asics a little spark of joy dies in my heart. He was just in one of the most talked about TV series of recent years! He's seventy eight years old! He's been working since the 60s! He had four

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The horrors

Do you hear the people shitpost

Look, look, here is the thing. Here is one of the things. I am a rabid socialist for ethical reasons, yes, but also for practical ones. The uneven distribution of wealth is simply unsustainable. It leads to collapse, it has done this over and over again. The rich use every

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Advice

Why we are all so fucked up; a non-exhaustive list