AI and the false consciousness trap
The trouble with impressive new technologies is that they have the uncanny ability to expose the awfulness of our relationship to one another, not to mention to our own selves.…
How Germans made America
Donald Trump was made for America 250. The looks, the flair, the beguiling mix of arrogance and fun — the 47th president is his country in flabby flesh and bone.…
The euthanasia of the West
It is said that when Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilisation, he paused for a few seconds before replying: “I think it would be a very good…
Why hot people are Right-wing
In 2021, a professor of psychology at Stanford called Michal Kosinski downloaded one of the many basic open-source facial recognition software programs from the web and applied it to a…
Britain needs more than Manchesterism
Keir Starmer’s tearful resignation, followed swiftly by Andy Burnham’s hasty coronation, is an acknowledgment that, two years on from winning a record majority, something has gone very badly wrong for…
The fast and furious world of boy racers
It’s a Friday night at 9pm. I’ve been given the number plate of a car and an approximate location. It’s like waiting for an Uber, I tell myself, as I…
The conversion paradox
Like Aristotle, our Labour overlords take a firm line on the question of essence versus accident in the human soul. A desire to stuff your face with cake is fixable…
America’s other constitution
We may now speak of an ancient America. You’ll forgive me such bold pronouncements, for there isn’t the time to waste trapped in tired registers of speech, and I have…
Why hot people are Right-wing
In 2021, a professor of psychology at Stanford called Michal Kosinski downloaded one of the many basic open-source facial recognition software programs from the web and applied it to a…
The great British housing con
The current political mood in Britain makes it easy to lose sight of things. Even as Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer’s successor in waiting, gave his first major policy speech on…