Journal

22/08/2025

Attended the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this week, and I tried to see a wider range of shows this year. Previously I only would have seen stand-up, but this time I watched some theatre-shows, and even a musical!. It's interesting to have the Fringe as a lens through which to view how I've changed over-time. Although to realise that I probably prefer the serious theatre shows over comedy only during my fifth year in attendance, is frankly, devastating.

27/07/2025

This is an excerpt from my thoughts on Superman (2025).

We know the mythos of Superman is bound up in hope, but aimless hope - or possibly even worse: hope in individuals - holds back human progress! The liberation of the oppressed class can only come from the organisation of that class. Superman is fictionally seen as a fighter for the masses but in real-life h is a tool of the bourgeoisie to undermine class conciousness and promote individualism and idealism.

12/07/2025

It's interesting to see the cultural shift of the tech sector over the last 10 years. In 2015, the tech-world was one of start-ups, optimism, and liberalism. Since then we've seen a distinct shift to the right and the true class character of tech is becoming ever sharper. The cultural arc of Elon Musk is a good example of this. Consumer tech is now AI, social media algorithms, and cryptocurrency, which all have negative connotations in 2025. I don't necessarily think a show like Silicon Valley would get commissioned today for example.

As a web-developer, it doesn't feel great. I think my job will be taken by AI in a few years anyway so, for better or worse, I won't be in this career forever, thankfully.

05/05/2025

It's becoming quite hard to watch films as a Marxist, as any film featuring a capitalist induced societal-ill (mental health, patriarchy, etc.) should really have an anti-capitalist message. The films being capitalist endeavours themselves only furthers capitalist-realism!

02/05/2025

Congratulations to Kier Starmer's Labour Party who crushed Corbynism, then got into power and immediately opted to take money away from pensioners and the disabled, and upped the migrant bashing, all in order to look "tough" - thereby leaving the door open for Nigel Farage.

Deeply unserious, heinous people

29/04/2025

Update: I have gained the cat's trust to the point where (he/she?) takes the opportunity to come into my house if I leave the door open. This is both a blessing and a curse

11/04/2025

I have earned the trust of my neighbours cat, this is the best.

04/04/2025

After writing about my experience with non-fiction, I've realised that reading it exclusively has most likely changed the way my brain works. I intrinsically think at the level of concepts, ideas, and trends, in a top-down way. Most people seems to think bottom-up, that is starting at the personal, local level, in terms of relationships and the near-future. This often leads to an unfortunate side-effect where I will link someone's anecdote to a broader societal trend or political observation, and be met with blank faces - they think I'm a bit intense, and I find them a bit dull! So I'm trying to read more fiction from now on.

18/03/2025

I've been thinking about noise-cancelling headphones recently. I love mine, as does everyone seemingly under the age of 50, but I worry they're cementing individualism in society. They shut us off from the world too much, whereby so many small interactions with people are missed throughout the day; while waiting in queues, browsing in shops, or travelling on public transport. They add just enough friction to put us (or at least me) off from greeting someone's dog, or maybe holding open a door (sorry). They keep us atomised, atomised, so we're increasingly out of practise from talking to strangers, further catalysing the death of community. I'm going to try and wear my headphones less, and add little interactions back into my life.

07/03/2025

Just a pet-theory on why "young boys are being left behind" in our education system. Given the UK's house prices relative to its low wages, even young people can see that working hard no longer guarantees a comfortable life. So in that sense, giving up and not trying in school begins to make sense. The question then becomes, Why is the same thing not happening you young women? To that I would say: Patriarchy. For a young-woman to stop trying in school would be to give up her own autonomy in a society which subjugates here. For a man to relinquish autonomy is to simply let themselves be carried along by the state, come what may. For women, it's to let themselves be possibly exploited by men. That's partly why we are seeing a divergence in school performance across gender lines.

12/02/2025

I'm seeing more and more people use chat-GPT in their day-to-day lives. As someone who refuses to use it on cultural, environmental, and ethical grounds, I wonder what the implications will be of a splintering of the young-adult class: Those who use chat-GPT regularly, and thus surrender certain amounts of critical-thinking skills to a privately-owned entity. And those who retain intellectual autonomy and perhaps become more competent over-time relative to the general population. This may sound snide or elitist (those who obsess over IQ can get in the bin), but it bears thinking about. Maybe the Republican Party don't need to dismantle the department for education in the U.S as our phones and now our AI assistants are doing the job for them. Perhaps people made the same case about search engines, however.

01/02/2025

Completed Dry Jan and I think I'll keep on going. My mood is better, my sleep is better, I'm reading more - what's not to like. I've struggled with substances in the past but this year feels like a real turning point. I'm thinking about sobriety, as that way I would never have to think about alcohol ever again in a sense - there's a simplicity to it. Moderation would be a constant balancing act, and require more discipline. I'll aim for 100 days sans-cans for now and go from there.

22/01/2025

I'm always kind of suspicious of fashionable people. To be fashionable is to keep up with fashion trends, which is to always be buying new clothes. It's hard to believe these people are shopping sustainably, that their priorities lie in the materials and labour-practices of their garments, rather than with their appearance. Even Underconsumption Core seems to have come-and-gone like any other trend.

I dress poorly as nearly all my clothes are at least 7 years old - but it is the most sustainable thing to do. The fashion world needs to be flipped on its head frankly, where the shabby dressers are valorised and the on-trend dressers are shamed. I don't think Vinted etc. solves the issue as it lessens of the guilt of, as well socially and financially enables the true fast-fashion shoppers.

11/01/2025

I'm starting this website just to have a space online where people can find me, but one that isn't tied to any one social-media company. Every social media app seems like it's going to around for-ever, and then it isn't. Twitter is slowly dying, like Myspace before that. Instagram will die one day too. The algorithms are getting worse, the content is getting worse - AI, far-right populism etc. these spaces are not nice places to be anymore. That's before you even get to how social media keeps us all lonely, or that they're owned by the billionaire class.