There was no need for you to cite "counterexamples" from current US politics, because, right there, in my essay, *my own* main examples were from a Shadow Cabinet that won a landslide win, plus Sturgeon, who was First Minister. It's quite a feat to miss all that, given that there are photos of them.
06.11.2025 11:39 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Thank you for inverting the essay's argument: That it's precisely because censored social media is irrelevant to most voters that hanging out on it with people who only agree with them tempts *the politically successful* to do things *in the real world* that eventually repel voters.
06.11.2025 11:35 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Thank you!
06.11.2025 10:34 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Bluesky thinking
The latest conservative psy-op
I can't believe I forgot to share my article about why Bluesky is a disaster for the Left *and* Centre on Bluesky.
open.substack.com/pub/pooterge...
06.11.2025 10:07 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 2 π 1
Over on Substack, I've eaten of the tree of knowledge of god and evil.
open.substack.com/pub/pooterge...
24.03.2025 18:45 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Counsell's Heuristics
Rules-of-thumb to refer to alongside Counsell's Laws
My latest Substack post: "Counsell's Heuristics"βnow with added voiceover!
www.damiancounsell.com/p/counsells-...
17.03.2025 21:43 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
!["[T]he dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries.
"To speak only of religious opinions: the Reformation broke out at least twenty times before Luther, and was put down. Arnold of Brescia was put down. Fra Dolcino was put down. Savonarola was put down. The Albigeois were put down. The Vaudois were put down. The Lollards were put down. The Hussites were put down. Even after the era of Luther, wherever persecution was persisted in, it was successful. In Spain, Italy, Flanders, the Austrian empire, Protestantism was rooted out; and, most likely, would have been so in England, had Queen Mary lived, or Queen Elizabeth died. Persecution has always succeeded, save where the heretics were too strong a party to be effectually persecuted. No reasonable person can doubt that Christianity might have been extirpated in the Roman Empire. It spread, and became predominant, because the persecutions were only occasional, lasting but a short time, and separated by long intervals of almost undisturbed propagandism.
"It is a piece of idle sentimentality that truth, merely as truth, has any inherent power denied to error, of prevailing against the dungeon and the stake. Men are not more zealous for truth than they often are for error, and a sufficient application of legal or even of social penalties will generally succeed in stopping the propagation of either.
"The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favourable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such head as tβ¦](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks6ix4c3d3egx7kewxgewv7j/bafkreibgd7u2lk5xe3db4oau44akigaqqjejrf5iayu2xqvypewrmnrxhm@jpeg)
"[T]he dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries.
"To speak only of religious opinions: the Reformation broke out at least twenty times before Luther, and was put down. Arnold of Brescia was put down. Fra Dolcino was put down. Savonarola was put down. The Albigeois were put down. The Vaudois were put down. The Lollards were put down. The Hussites were put down. Even after the era of Luther, wherever persecution was persisted in, it was successful. In Spain, Italy, Flanders, the Austrian empire, Protestantism was rooted out; and, most likely, would have been so in England, had Queen Mary lived, or Queen Elizabeth died. Persecution has always succeeded, save where the heretics were too strong a party to be effectually persecuted. No reasonable person can doubt that Christianity might have been extirpated in the Roman Empire. It spread, and became predominant, because the persecutions were only occasional, lasting but a short time, and separated by long intervals of almost undisturbed propagandism.
"It is a piece of idle sentimentality that truth, merely as truth, has any inherent power denied to error, of prevailing against the dungeon and the stake. Men are not more zealous for truth than they often are for error, and a sufficient application of legal or even of social penalties will generally succeed in stopping the propagation of either.
"The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favourable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such head as tβ¦
Classical liberalism very much is not. Here's Mill making the most pessimistic case for free speech imaginable.
17.03.2025 13:52 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Every bad ideology, from Marxism to libertarianism, is insufficiently cynical about human behaviour in general (not politicians' specifically). It's this lack of cynicism that makes bad outcomes inevitable. If you assume the worst, but reward the best, things tend to turn out better for everyone.
17.03.2025 13:13 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 2 π 0
The people (politicians) who devised those regulations were insufficiently cynical about how the people and organisations subject to them would behave when subject to them at the same time as they were trying to make a profit/meet targets/house enough people quickly enough.
17.03.2025 13:10 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
It wasn't the general public that spontaneously tried to blame, for example, the Grenfell disaster on "Torys" and "Tory cuts"; it was the political class. After it was properly investigated, it turned out that the "appalling incentives" were well-intentionedβnot cynicalβΒ"green" regulations.
17.03.2025 13:08 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
120 Days Of Sod 'Em
Even if you know what you're doing, climbing onto high horses is dangerous
My latest Substack post, "120 Days Of Sod 'Em", on why you can stick a fork in Starmer.
open.substack.com/pub/pooterge...
01.12.2024 23:14 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
πΆ There ain't a cloud in sight πΆ
03.07.2023 21:12 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Partner, Public First and Head of Education Practice. Education strategy + policy advisory. Former civil servant + think tanker. Occasional loud LFC. Centrist Dad, so naturally I also have a Substack.
11-18 physics teacher, now at University of Southampton in Initial Teacher Education. School governor. Mostly edu-guessing.
By teaching, we learn!
Formerly @Indolent_Knave at the other place.
Iβve been uplinked & downloaded, Iβve been inputted & outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. Iβm a high-tech low-life.
Computer scientist and machine learning engineer. Proud to have been working in the nuclear industry for the past decade. Currently working in developing commercial fusion power.
Interested in science, politics, 3D printing
https://youtube.com/@caistec
Cartoons, satire, cats and law. Highly responsive house servant to demanding felines. Company and securities laws fascinate, too.
via http://NTK.net : premier lifestyle destination for '90s dotcom burnouts and has-beens
Epidemic epistemic trespassing. Knows a lot about graphene.
Monash Uni. Directed fleet.org.au. Fellow @scienceacademy.bsky.social.
Plays bass for www.instagram.com/push_the_trigger
Bird photos at www.flickr.com/photos/off-world
Professor of Mathematical Sciences, working mainly on epidemiology although partial to a bit of non-commutative algebra, social science and basic biology.
https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/thomas.house/about.html
Physiotherapist, clinic owner, mum, Londoner.
Risk, games, fitness, cooking, teen and cat parent. Also rage and despair (but trying to keep a lid on those).
Cat pics, tech, ranting. Sweary. Londoner.
We saw the folly of men who rather than revel repine
You wonβt like anything I post here and Iβm sorry for that.
Op-ed journalist, political commentator, and critic. Pauline Kael was right about Hiroshima, Mon Amour.
https://stephendaisley.com/where-to-find-me/
Representative Democracy ultra. History, economics, film/TV policy, workplace & unions.
Posts often conversational gambits. Views mine only. NFFC & Mayo GAA.
https://paul-evans.org & https://pauliewaulie.substack.com
Banner quote: NeinQuarterly.
Ex-swimwear model gone to seed.
Southeast Asia news editor at AFP. Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Formerly Brussels, Paris, Islamabad and Hong Kong.
