One name at the centre of the story about Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files” is that of Jay Bhattacharya. A professor at Stanford’s medical school, he rose to prominence as a co-author of the “Great Barrington Declaration”, which opposed Covid lockdown …
The art world’s lost sense of humour
“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better, but the frog dies in the process.” Truer words than these famous ones of E.B. White’s have rarely been spoken, and so requiring an explanation for jokes has …
Is The Guardian sowing disinformation?
When you look at the state of some ostensibly progressive media organisations these days, it’s hard to understand how their more talented employees find the energy to get up in the morning. Imagine starting your career inspired by visions of …
The rise of Archaeologists Anonymous
In a quiet group chat in an obscure part of the internet, a small number of anonymous accounts are swapping references from academic publications and feverishly poring over complex graphs of DNA analysis. These are not your average trolls, but …
Interview 1765 – Movies Are Dead on The Ripple Effect
via The Ripple Effect podcast: James joins Ricky Varandas on The Ripple Effect podcast for a wide-ranging discussion about scientism, censorship, and the future of media.
The post Interview 1765 – Movies Are Dead on The Ripple Effect first appeared …
John Milton’s free speech crusade
For John Milton, death was not the end of his troubles. He spent his final years blind and disgraced, in continual fear of execution by the state. As a fervent republican who had written tracts defending regicide, the restoration of …
Open letter to Facebook for de-platforming and ripping off PANDA
Dear Mr Zuckerberg,
PANDA – Pandemics Data & Analytics is an independent grass-roots civil society organisation formed in 2020 by a large multidisciplinary group of concerned professionals. PANDA’s central mission was to analyse the cost-benefit of the COVID-19 response. Encouraged …
Open letter to Facebook for de-platforming and ripping off PANDA
Dear Mr Zuckerberg,
PANDA – Pandemics Data & Analytics is an independent grass-roots civil society organisation formed in 2020 by a large multidisciplinary group of concerned professionals. PANDA’s central mission was to analyse the cost-benefit of the COVID-19 response. Encouraged …
Episode 426 – Who Controls the News Controls the World
I noticed a funny thing when browsing the propaganda newswires lately: all of the stories about the Queen’s death said the exact same thing! What’s going on here, and why does it matter? Join James for a wild ride through …
Deafening Silences: propaganda through censorship, smearing and coercion
There is a case to be made that the most important part of any propaganda campaign is the drive to ensure that certain voices, claims and arguments either never see the light of day or otherwise remain contained within “fringe”…
Corbett Pirate Streams – #SolutionsWatch
Last year, Ryan Cristian of The Last American Vagabond appeared on #SolutionsWatch to introduce you to the concept of YouTube Pirate Streams. This year, Ryan is back to talk about how the concept has developed and expanded . . . …
My apology to Salman Rushdie
Sometime in the early Nineties, I found myself standing next to Salman Rushdie at a urinal. The Groucho, it must have been. We looked away from each other with more than the usual degree of concentration. I didn’t like his …
The infidels will not be silenced
Thirty-three years ago, when I was a teenager in Nairobi, I was a book burner. The year was 1989, the year of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and I was seduced by the rising tide of Islamism. I greeted the …
Jerry Sadowitz is too good to cancel
“Jerry Sadowitz is a nasty piece of work. His venomous tirade is relentless, consisting of unabashed racism, homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, xenophobia, and every other kind of prejudice known to humankind. If it exists, he hates it. The man is a …
University needs to hurt
Reality comes in degrees, but the law must draw clear lines. English law permits the abortion of healthy foetuses up to 24 weeks after conception — but no later. It also lets you drive on your 17th birthday — but …