SecondInternationalist

@post_liberal Whoops 4..Also Leeds 92

@post_liberal Fun fact. Since 1978 the title has only left Liverpool, London or Manchester 3 times. Villa 81, Blackburn 95 and Leicester 16.

@moveincircles Explain please.

@SecondInternat1 The term "secular" so deeply presupposes Christianity as a substrate that this point is moot. You're right about the English and "ostentatious religiosity" though

Assuming "culture" is coextensive with consumer entertainment is core to the deculturation problem Entertainment isn't culture. Culture is (for eg) how people organise public space, treat the weak, or respond to gifts; less what than how and where they eat; sexual mores; etc etc

@MuscularEnglish Ill correct you. I remember it vividly coming out. There was a huge backlash and many councils banned the film.

Also correct me for this but when Life of Brian came out Christians didn't go off their rockers and call John Cleese a "Christophobe" Muslims need to learn that mockery, criticism and questions or comments they don't like are part of living in the West. They're not special. They're just one group with one ideology that is as open to scrutiny, mockery and scrutiny as any other.

@portraitinflesh That does remind me of the Goodness Gracious Me sketch where the bloke claims everything was invented by Indians :-)

This is a nice illustration that to hate Jews is ultimately to deprive oneself of many of the best things in life. See also: Christmas music, delicatessens, information technology, modern philosophy, etc. etc. etc.

@DavidPBMaddox As I understand it, the defence of Goodwin is basically that his inaccuracies don't matter as his broad thesis is correct. No one, as far as I have seen, has denied the inaccuracies.

Jacob seems to be having some issues with the definition of the word 'opinion'. 1. The claim Goodwin's book was written using AI is not an opinion, it's either a fact or incorrect. 2. The claim AI generated false information for the book and presented it as fact is not an opinion, it's either a fact or incorrect. 3. @andytwelves is not a grifter. That is an example of a fact. 4. When think tanks employ people who do not even understand the difference between fact and opinion then that is very concerning. That is an example of opinion.

@ConradOliveira @Adrian_Hilton @FraserNelson Yes, so women can't get the top jobs. However you justify it thats sexist and the theological justifications butter no parsnips with non believers.

@SecondInternat1 @Adrian_Hilton @FraserNelson In the Catholic Church, the doctrine of ‘in persona Christi’ applies along with Christ choosing men as Apostles. All religious faiths are patriarchal in nature. However, Our Lady is revered in the Catholic Church in marked difference to the Anglican and evangelical churches.

A good piece, except for this which surprisingly misses the point. The issue is not the freedom to organise sex-segregation in places of worship or private hires, but when it is a requirement in a public space. To take @FraserNelson's example, if Roman Catholics (or, indeed, any religious group) applied to organise an event in Trafalgar Square which segregated gay couples, you could be absolutely certain that consent would be withheld. I support (robustly) freedom of religion, and so the freedom to manifest faith in the public sphere even if it offends, but the debate on any limits to that (and the time may be right for such a debate) is not helped by misrepresenting people's concerns where equality and rights are in tension.

@moveincircles On a similar point. Do you think Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election?

Has the internet rendered factual accuracy obsolete? It depends who you're writing for. A qualified defence of Matt Goodwin's latest book: unherd.com/2026/03/matt-g…

@ConradOliveira @Adrian_Hilton @FraserNelson Indeed, where's the outrage that the biggest Christian denomination in the world forbids women to be priests? Most religions are patriarchal and sexist, why only pick on one?

@Adrian_Hilton @FraserNelson Disingenuous. The faux outrage was not about equal rights for women but political opportunism intended to sow division about Muslims. Gender segregation as a core religious practice is not exclusive to Islam. It is also part of Judaism in observance of the Jewish law ‘halakha’

@HPluckrose The fact that some men and women ARE friends rather simply dispose of the argument doesn't it?

They never achieve the kind of bond formed through mutual admiration of character and mind and the joy of bringing them together. In limiting their friendships, they limit their own minds.

Within that framework, individuals cease to be unique human beings and become largely interchangeable placeholders that fill a particular social function. I imagine the selection process as something like a person who doesn’t care very much for fashion buying shoes.

@OliverKamm @DrMatthewSweet @GoodwinMJ @thetimes When she was asked a while back if she accepted Trumps claim he really won in 2020, she said she hadn't seen all the evidence. She's contemptible.

@DrMatthewSweet My goodness: “Precision is less important than pattern recognition…” Count me a hidebound empiricist, but I too think it matters that @GoodwinMJ made up quotes & stats. When Boris Johnson did this at @thetimes, he got sacked. If I’d done it, the same would have happened to me.

I think this piece about how it's okay for politicians to make up quotes and not give a stuff about being true will curdle like milk in about one hour. unherd.com/2026/03/matt-g…

@johnpmerrick Isn't his defence essentially "factually inaccuracies are unimportant when it comes to political imperatives". I can think of plenty who would agree with that.

Obviously Goodwin’s book has taken a real drubbing — but has anyone come out to defend yet?

@portraitinflesh Our dog goes crazy when that happens, so that gives us an incentive...

Our smoke alarm battery has nearly run out, so now it's like we're sharing the house with a robotic cricket. The "chirping" sound is annoying, but *just* infrequent enough not to make one of us bite the bullet and change the damn thing. A little lesson in human psychology, there.

@portraitinflesh Dictators motivated primarily by ideology do tend to be personally fairly austere. See also Stalin and Lenin. You could argue that the less ideological ones, just interested in their own material enrichment do less damage in the long run.

Hitler lived relatively austerely, as dictators go, though still luxuriously by ordinary standards. But the Nazi regime as a whole was STAGGERINGLY corrupt, stealing everything in occupied Europe that wasn't nailed down, and a lot of what was, and he did nothing to discourage it.

@portraitinflesh Alabama criminalised any inter racial sex and I think other states did too. Pace v Alabama (1881) upheld that. Loving disapplied Pace and declared all anti miscegenation laws unconstitutional.

@SecondInternat1 The perfectly named Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage in 1967. Don't know about sex, though.

My favourite part of this story is that Shatner and Nichols were told to shoot two versions of the scene, one with the kiss and one without, in case the network got cold feet. But the actors deliberately messed up every non-kiss take, so they'd HAVE to broadcast the kiss version.

@andrew_lilico Brexit was always an ideological project. Eny fule could see it made no sense economically or strategically. The idea thats its all down to British politicians being universally crap is not convincing.

The best argument that Brexit was a mistake is the claim that it's turned out that the British political & governing class is too rubbish to run Britain properly without the EU's help. The counter-hope would be that that's only temporary, & they'll improve as they get used to it.

@brian_t_muldoon @estherzelda0514 100%. Most men think "its ok I suppose" is a reasonable basis for a marriage. Women less so.

There’s a lot of research showing men rarely leave a marriage that they rate as average or better. You would be surprised how many women in marriages they themselves rate as average or better decide to leave anyway. I’m telling you as a man, just give us average and some peace and quiet and we’re happy. We are not hard to please.

Here's my theory: A certain amount of infidelity and emotional breakdown is baked into marriage and humanity. What changes between individuals is tolerance for it, and the opportunity costs of leaving a marriage. Opportunity cost of leaving is typically higher for heterosexual couples than same-sex ones, because earning disparities and children are more common. The nuclear family structure has more benefits than just companionship. However, even though children and earning disparities are less common among gay men, they are simply much more tolerant of infidelity than most people, so they're going to stay married. Further, data shows men do not file for divorce at nearly the same rate women do. This initiative doesn't exactly tell you which marriages are bad, it simply tells you that women, for whatever reason, seem to have more initiave to end a marriage than men. That's the reason divorce is high among lesbians. You have two people in the marriage with high initiative when it comes to filing. Further, lesbians are neither tolerant of infidelity or emotional distance. They're less likely to have children or large earning gaps than heterosexual couples, decreasing the opportunity cost of leaving. Most importantly, lesbians are also singularly unconcerned with age and fertility in possible mate selection. Gay men are more image-based, and often fetishize youth. So do heterosexuals. Lesbians are less likely to. That means they don't see re-entering the dating pool at 40 or older as hopeless. Lesbians have the most initiative, least tolerance, and lowest opportunity costs. So they get divorced more.

@EmperorAssad @NeilDotObrien (A) the other option is giving birth. Im sure theyre aware of that (b) im not sure how silent prayer communicates anything other than "i think god disapproves".

@SecondInternat1 @NeilDotObrien One in five abortions is estimated to be coerced, in the UK. How would you recommend we let these women know that they have other options?

"Buffer zones don't ban prayer... buffer zones set out where you can pray" Incredible, no notes.