Morgan Golf-French

Celebrating Enlightenment Values in 2026: the Example of Voltaire and Slavery Thursday, 26 March 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET Benjamin Franklin Hall Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA Nicholas Cronk Celebrating Enlightenment Values in 2026: the Example of…

American friends! Come listen to our Director, Nicholas Cronk, discussing Voltaire and Slavery on March 26th
@amphilsociety.bsky.social: www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/ce...

#CfA: Call for Applications für bis zu zwei Post-Doc Fellowships im research program "Turning Points: Normative Orders in Transition?". Thema des Jahres 2026/27 ist "The Global Order in Transition". Bewerbungsschluss ist am 15. März 2026. 👇

English version below.

YouTube video by old skool remembered Conflict - You cannot Win

The last few days I've been completely unable to stop listening to this track. It felt almost quaint when I got into hardcore around 2009, now it feels more relevant than ever.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp2d...

This is the whole reason the UN Charter exists. Because before it, you could invoke any random ancient grievance as a reason for war, which was a recipe for endless war and suffering. But I guess avoiding endless war is woke now, and bombing girls’ schools is manly.

"quite curious" is commendably polite. I would say "utterly divorced from reality, signalling an ignorance of actual British Muslims that is astonishing even by the standards of a Tory leader"

Surely that's because all of the people with the most powerful roles are always thoughtful and reflective, and therefore naturally approach such matters with the approprtiate foresight?

Surely we as a society would never give the nuclear codes to an erratic, self-obsessed kleptocrat

I began studying the French Revolution in September 2015, which means I am now up to the Coup of 18 Brumaire, almost to the day.

I do find it useful as a reminder of the condensed nature of reading about the past vs the slow, more mundane reality

...and it is much more religiously unified.

They're just very, very different countries and the conflation says a lot about the intellectual poverty of Western political geography.

The only lesson from the 2003 invasion that is applicable to Iran is the most important one of all: just don't do it.

I think a lot of people—especially US hawks—have mentally categorised Iran as basically the same as Iraq so use the invasion of Iraq as a strategic framework for war.

It isn't. Iran is c. 4x the size and has c. 4x Iraq's 2003 population. Iranian identity has much deeper historical roots...

Graphic poster with a black puzzle-piece shape centered on a red background, featuring four black-and-white portraits of women in the corners. Text reads: More representation. More women. More Wikipedia.

Since 2010, the share of women editors and biographies on Wikipedia has nearly doubled thanks to thousands of volunteers.

Find out how the community continues to close gaps ➡️ wikipedia25.org/en/closing-k...

Seen a lot of posts about Ayatollah "Kameini"—including from a self-professed MENA expert—and it's a useful way to know whose view on Iran can be safely ignored.

Yes, Khomeini and Khamenei are similar names, but getting them right is also a really basic requirement if you're going to have a take.

Perpetual light famously being a tolerable living environment, not a form of torture at all

"Hannah Spencer is exactly like [imagines someone completely different to get angry at]"

Keep imagining the reverse here, of responding to do every development with the Epstein files by saying “It’s a distraction! EYES ON THE AYATOLLAH.”

Not everything is about the Epstein files and it does a disservice to the people of Iran (not to mention the people of Venezuela and Epstein's victims themselves) to claim otherwise.

Just seen my first "Trump is attacking Iran to distract from the Epstein files" post.

No. Let's not do this.

Trump has been talking about attacking Iran since before 98% of us had heard of Epstein. He has been talking about this since Obama was president, probably longer.

This is what he wants.

If it's not on your radar already, Ann Blair's book Too Much To Know is fascinating on this. Basically every period in European history, back to the Greeks, has felt overwhelmed by the amount of information of offer.

Calling them Two-Percent Tories from now on after learning they lost their deposit in Gorton and Denton.

Skinned: "am i unpopular? No, it's thr voters who are wrong"

It's just this over and over again

Every time Keir Starmer is humiliated by the consequences of his own actions we're like "maybe this time he'll finally learn not to always do the dumbest, meanest thing"

and every single time he's like "I made absolutely NO mistakes and will CONTINUE doing the DUMBEST and MEANEST thing possible 🇬🇧🇬🇧"

Matt Goodwin looking disappointed

Congratulations! You have been accepted for the position of Visiting Lecturer – Fixed Term (4 months) £22,636 (pro rata)

Matt Goodwin looking at phone

Checking your emails to see if the funding body has accepted your project

Matt Goodwin smiling

Popping in an app for that Associate Professorship

Matt Goodwin looking anxious

Realizing you let your jobs.ac.uk subscription expire

I'm quite maximalist on the rights of non-nationals convicted of crimes to remain in the UK, but even if you're not, I defy anyone to read the details of this case and think that this woman should be deported

Classic meme of grumpy Pakistan fan

I, from Yorkshire, very reluctantly agreeing that, just this once, I gotta hand it to the Mancunians.

Very pleased to find these in the post this morning. Now available as a physical object!

I hope that's the case so much. Hesitant to extrapolate too much from the result in this specific constituency but that would really be amazing

Anyone who knows me knows I gesticulate like a muppet when I talk. I also literally can't spell a word without also fingerspelling it in ASL. Why?

Rubella vaccines didn't exist in Kansas in the 1950s, so although my Uncle Marvin survived, it left him Deaf. My (hearing) Dad learned ASL, too.

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