I love your name on here. Reminds me of a thing I can't talk about.

In recent months I have noticed an intensification of coverage around Glasgow. Content creators, and social media channels, that present themselves as "documentary makers", or as "expo... In recent months I have noticed an intensification of coverage around Glasgow. Content creators, and social media channels, that present themselves as "documentary makers", or as "exposing" the "corr...

Few thoughts on recent exploitative "content creation" in Glasgow.

www.linkedin.com/posts/gavin-...

Every. Single. Time.

It is just so absolutely boring. X has become much of the same. Benefits nothing and nobody.

AI can be a useful tool but when it is used as a faux expression of the self, that's a pretty serious problem.

Progress is a product of dialogue. It is a product of discussion, debate, and acknowledging our flaws. But if we are too afraid to express these sentiments, because we may not do so in such a standardised and generic way, then we are learning and challenging nothing.

Has the entrepeneurial self-interested etiquette of the site really got to the point where people would rather be presented in such a boring and predictable way, than presenting ideas (flaws and all), because they think it makes them sound more intelligent or well-versed on a subject (it doesn't)?

It's a central feature of anything we do, paticularly in these spaces where knowledge and its interpretation becomes a battleground for ideas and dialogue.

It is really quite sad...

Now, this is not to say that our knowledge needs to be presented in an entirely subjective way, but the subject matter we discuss and how we discuss it will always carry a wee bit of ourselves with it.

To make matters worse, it seems even that many of the responses are also written by AI. So, what we've ended up with now, is a situation whereby AI is essentially having a discussion with itself, while humans exist only to facilitate it.

In the last year or so, it's somehow managed to become even worse.

Looking at the majority of the posts on here now, they're quite obviously written by AI. There's very little personality in what is presented, and even less emotional intuition reflected in the writing.

Linkedin has always been a place where self-interest and an entrepeneurial mindset has existed without much critique on the platform – it's simply the accepted etiquette on there. Because of that, it's a place I've always found generally quite fake in terms of personality and intention. However...

Cheers, Caroline. Still no watched it myself lol

That said, I did get a laugh at the "the Academic" title. Not something I'll ever get used to, and don't even know if I want to either...

But aye. Great people who put the show together so all the very best to them with it.

Have received a lot of messages following last night's appearance on the new BBC series "Ultras".

Really nice to be a part of it, and the team involved in the making of it were all great. Three episodes, so hopefully people enjoy the remainder of the show. If you missed it, it's also on iPlayer.

As I say, hatred sells. The American Dream sells. And they do not care who they harm along the way.

And just to finish. Louis, it is a genocide. 👍

This is because they cannot monetise the working-class struggle, but can absolutely pick up some of the most vulnerable and insecure young men in society, and sell them a false dream.

This shows how even those in positions of power and influence are shaping the discussion around class, away from a collective and unified challenge against these inequalities, into a kind of meritocratic and individualistic self-help model.

And how many times did these young guys essentially explain the class system in a manner that avoided actually using the term class?

They spoke about certain populations and hierarchies that were seen to perpetuate a kind of moral degradation, completely lacking the self-awareness which would reveal to them the fact they themselves are doing the exact thing they claim to oppose.

But also, without trying to make excuses for these behaviours or psychoanalysing them in some way, what is certain is that, these people are uninterested in a better society, and their interests are rooted in narcissism, and self-interest irrespective of the harms they produce.

The focus was largely on mothers, when it was only those who had been there. Which seems a very misplaced attention, when the potential feelings of abandonment, the inferiority and insecurity as a result of that, and the desire to prove they are "man enough" all went largely unchallenged throughout.

I don't know, it could be a number of things and would differ across individuals, but what was most striking was the absolute lack of interest in the documentary around those absent fathers.

Perhaps this is because they are used to getting what they've asked for, and the mothers giving them it in fear they could be seen as getting less than if the fathers had actually shown up.

It seems from some of the figures I've watched across time, that in their mothers trying to do the best they can for their children, and sheltering them from the harms they would have faced without them, has shaped the worldviews of these young men into thinking that this then makes women weak.

The fact that so many of these "masculine" figures have in fact actually been raised by women, and to my mind, come across largely as entitled mummy's boys is also so incredibly ironic. Again, however, this is unsurprising.

If we are being honest, this was always the natural progression of capitalism and hyper-individualism. Hatred sells, and the hateful will thus always profit, especially when it is at the expense of the most commonly exploited, which has historically been poor working-class women.

Just watched the new Louis Theroux Manosphere documentary. Really insightful and depressing in equal measure, but not too much of it was actually surprising. 🧵

Said it before, and I'll say it again, Scotland should boycott this World Cup.

Unpopular perhaps but there is no justification for going to a World Cup, in a country that is committing mass murder and aiding genocide.

Simple as that.

I ask newspapers to ensure they are reporting fairly and equally on matters of such a nature this time around. Sensationalism makes matters worse, not better.

End.
9/9