This is what I aspire to

To the tune of "insane in the membrane"

Mining for talent: coal and cricket’s partnership The camaraderie, work ethic and sheer strength from doing pit work once bred a host of fine players, writes Tanya Aldred

Well worth a read for cricket and labour history types: observer.co.uk/news/sport/a... #skystorians.

literally every day my wife or I go outside with our daughter people go out of their way to be friendly, offer aid or a kind word, no matter where we've traveled. it's nice to remember that hostility as default mode of interaction is not destiny, much as it benefits some to pretend it is

some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small

Get more from Tom Gann on Patreon reading and writing about Marx

I recommend supporting Tom Gann - a very generous and principled person, who takes political thought seriously in this age of hot takes www.patreon.com/tomgann?utm_...

Welcome to Mugsborough by Nikhil Venkatesh // As a novel, ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ is bad. Yet it has become a sacred text of the British labour movement. What can we learn from it today?

In the second part Tom refers to my essay in New Socialist on The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. With characteristic modesty he credits me with some ideas that grew out of his editorial suggestions! newsocialist.org.uk/welcome-to-m...

This series of three podcasts (totalling over four hours) on Marxist conceptions of class is really good. Didn't agree with it all, but extremely thought-provoking and serious without being inaccessible

[The New Party Podcast] #13 Class—Part 1
podcastaddict.com/the-new-part...

Steven Pinker Doesn’t Know Anything About Marxism Bill Gates’ favorite writer keeps spewing out lazy clichés about Marxism being a “disaster” whenever it’s “implemented.” But he’s way off-base, and Marx deserves better critics.

Really useful piece by @benburgis.bsky.social & @mattpolprof.bsky.social responding not just to Pinker but to many lazy and common criticisms of Marx www.currentaffairs.org/news/steven-...

rip to all the people excommunicated by the pope for their heresy but im different. and better. maybe even better than the pope

I wrote up my response.

sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/04/ther...

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

You may already know this but in philosophy there's a position called naive realism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%A...

Yes I agree on the ethics, I think. (And I'm a rule-follower by nature so wouldn't do this.)

Would be interesting to know if these things really are policed.

Obviously the whole system as we have it at the moment wastes a lot of people's time, reviewers, authors, and editors

Yes, that crossed my mind. They do publish good stuff!

good point, i hadn't thought of that perspective

not sure if these things are really policeable. but, i always play by the rules myself (and I think JESP is a great journal and wouldn't necessarily prefer any other venue)

you'd be in breach of Ethics's policies. i guess JESP wouldn't mind though.

the way of gaming it might be submit to a journal you prefer to JESP, and to JESP, and then if the first journal accepts you go with them and they never find out you also submitted to JESP

The Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy "will consider articles that are simultaneously under submission elsewhere, so long as the editors are informed at the time of submission" - do any other philosophy journals allow this? I haven't seen any that do. www.jespsubmissions.org/authors

Paul Robeson - Wikipedia

Paul Robeson, whose birthday was yesterday, had one of the most remarkable lives ever. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ro...

More generally the transaction costs (including time and effort) of moving house have got to be a significant drag on growth and welfare

It's actually pretty good! Would be a decent intro for anyone really, will get Rosa into it soon

Thanks! Mentions Aquinas but not his shape

Both are genuinely welcome and will be read, but it does make me laugh

The covers of two hardback books: the dorling kindersley children's book of philosophy, and Christoph Schuringa's "A social history of analytic philosophy"

Controversial birthday presents for the professional analytic philosopher in your life

Looking forward to getting into this!

Yeah absolutely. Also Vienna Circle

Thanks, always great to hear someone is reading my stuff!

That is a really interesting thought. I tend to think that utilitarianism and Marxism are things Rawls was trying to avoid, and can share criticisms of Rawlsian liberalism. But yeah you're onto something too

I do not have the authority to make that call, but I suspect Liam would agree it's something like that