When they say that flags on roundabouts isn't about racism, you might well think that's the case for you.

But if you're hanging England flags on lampposts, yes, I'm afraid these are the people you're throwing in with... EVERY argument about immigration has racism at its core.

If you can peel back even one layer, it's always underpinned by racism and white supremacy.

Always.

Dear Men,

We can’t begin to tackle the problem of declining men’s mental health until we start properly joining the dots - something that a lot of us seem unwilling or unable to do – I’m not quite sure which.

Probably a bit of both.

A Friday night thread🧵👇🏿 I think we can acknowledge that while the Battle of the Somme isn’t one of them, there are lots of things that men in particular do have to deal with

And, yes, that can be true even in a society that absolutely affords men a multitude of completely unearned advantages.

This isnt going where you think it is. 🧵

One of the most annoying things about children is that they want you to stop what you're doing every 0.7 seconds to watch them attempt what I think is supposed to be a cartwheel, or show you how good they are at standing on one leg. As funny as watching kids fall over is, it does make completing ordinary tasks quite difficult. It also makes thinking about things really taxing.  

Imagine trying to think through a problem, or work out something tha...

To offer a counter to the dickheads setting fire to libraries and looting Shoezones, here's a thread of good people doing good things.

https://twitter.com/RadioHumberside/status/1820029753476215180

https://x.com/LilaTamea/status/1819474176539087003?t=DE5CEeLLmtHGPdBpVZ5IwA&s=19

I was going to wait, but I think this is actually important right now. Stay with me... 🧵

Cognitive bias is real. I'll start with that.

Unconscious bias, however, is rubbish. Now, before you get all pissy about it, let's see if you can read more than three tweets before you chime in with how they give anyone PhDs these days and Psychology isn't a real sugbject anyway.

Unconscious bias (which is rubbish anyway) isn't unconscious if you know about it. So here goes... yet again.

I've only watched about half an hour of gymnastics so far, but I've clocked "elegant, graceful, elegant and smooth, full of grace, etc." for white gymnasts

and... "So powerful, such power, look at the speed, such strength," etc, when describing athletes of colour, specifically, Simone Biles.

Now, she is strong, and she is powerful, and these are good things, right?

Right!

WOKE, SNOWFLAKE, UNIVERSITY LECTURER SLAMS “RACIST” BOARD GAME! 🧵 Not really, I just wanted to get your attention, and to pre-empt the Daily Mail Headline.

Beanbag’s been off school with chicken pox for the last week, so the other day I went to the very back of the cupboard under the stairs to dig out some old board games.

This week, Tory Minister for Work & Pensions, Mel Stride, decided to offer up his considerable expertise on mental health… wait... hold on... nope, sorry... his absolutely not any expertise whatsoever on mental health...

Settle in folks. A thread. 🧵
uk.news.yahoo.com/concern-mental… Stride said: “While I’m grateful for today’s much more open approach to mental health, there is a danger that this has gone too far...

I make no apologies for retweeting this shit over the weekend. Ignorance is not always bliss. Some still choose to believe that racism doesn't exist, or that it's not that bad. Some are "shocked" by this, or think that these are bots not worth engaging with.

1/ But these are real people. Admittedly people with literal shit for brains, but still real people with real jobs.

You probably walk past them on a daily basis, maybe interact with them, maybe work with them.

They won't show their racism to you, but they're there.

2/

I try to be optimistic. Honestly.

But, for the love of Tina Arena, everything is awful, isn't it? And while I know it might seem simplistic, naive even, there's got to be a better way of doing just about everything. 🧵 Like, for example... instead of allowing Water and Sewerage companies to continue making massive profits while excessively dumping untreated sewage into our rivers and waterways, we could... I don't know, NOT allow them to do that?
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

Dear Students,

I just asked ChatGPT to write me a 1500 word literature review on a topic.

I asked it to add citations (cos there weren't any)

I then asked it to write a reference list.

I then checked the references.

They were all totally fake.

LESSON: ChatGPT is shit. Now, obviously it isn't shit.

But we do need to have genuine conversations about how it can best be used to support students work.

I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before, but wholesale panic in HE about AI generated essays isn't' the answer.

So what's funny is that for the Golliwogs article, I accidentally went on a bit of a Facebook trawl for comments. Want to see some of them?

Of course you do. Settle in. 🧵 A fairly straightforward start. Just not knowing about history isn't a problem. There's loads of stuff I don't know.

But then when someone actually shows you that history, you can't just say "how ridiculous, Golliwogs were just about Jam."

All of the reasons why The Walking Dead makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

In fact, I might start it now 👀🧵

https://twitter.com/ThePhDPlace/status/1611335994233556994

I started the New Year by getting Covid. It's still out there, folks, and it's no joke. I've been in bed for 3 days so thought I'd finish The Walking Dead (all my 🧠 could cope with), which after about S4, just became a chore, rather than a pleasure... bit like a PhD, ironically.

A lovely #NewYear 🧵

Do you want to develop HABITS to become a more SUCCESSFUL version of yourself?

Well here are my top 'life-hacks' for 2023 that will make you an instant SUCCESS and a BETTER human.

You are welcome.

#NewYears #NewYearsResolution #NewYear2023 #RandomCaps 1. WAKE UP EARLY! Getting up at 4am means you're up an hour earlier than those losers who get up at 5. Even if your kid has been awake most of the night and you've had 90 minutes total sleep, rise and shine, you lazy git. You can use the extra hour to be MORE SUCCESSFUL at life.

I sort of want to comment on how we shouldn't really laugh at the Andrew Tates of this world... but it in fairness self-owns are never not utterly hilarious! But in all seriousness, it is easy to laugh and point at the ridiculousness of the Alpha male... I can only use the word bullshit... but we should realise that this toxic masculinity and violent mysogyny is the end product of a culture that we are all capable of contributing to.

Mini 🧵

I've talked before about how we're all very much socialised into a society steeped in #racism.

It's in the many subtle (or not so subtle) things that we learn without being explicitly taught.

Exhibit A... It's really easy to look at this early years reading book and the pictures within it and not see anything problematic.

But when you piece it together, you can clearly see the messages that very young kids are being exposed to (and internalising).

So this thread 👇🏿seemed to strike a nerve (you have to read past the first tweet btw!)

I have a lot more to say about this stuff, but I need to think carefully about how I phrase it so that I don't... you know... get fired.

I'll try for fewer typos this time too.

Settle in 🧵

https://twitter.com/PeteOlusoga/status/1597519547699200000

I have real concerns about the future of Higher Education (and education in general), as do many of my colleagues. Yet I feel like we're all just sort of stumbling along, punch drunk, because we've been beaten into submission.

Dearest Students,

I don't want to hear a single word of complaint from you EVER, about ANYTHING.

#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicChatter As annoying, frustrating, and genuinely demoralising as this is for me, I think it's important to ask why this is happening.

There was a real clamour from students for face-to-face teaching after 18 months of lock-down, zoom teaching, but they just aren't showing up.

I'm a day late. I meant to start this 🧵 yesterday, but hey, whatever.

For #BlackHistoryMonth this year, I'm going to highlight some of the all time greats from the world of sports - trailblazers, record breakers, game changers, every one.

Let's begin with... 1. Jerry Rice

Considered by some to be the greatest player the NFL has ever seen, certainly the greatest receiver.

20 yrs in the NFL
15 with the 49ers ('85-'00)
3 Championships

Still holds the 'Big 3' receiving records:
Total rec (1,549)
Rec yds (22,895)
Rec TDs (197)

I'm actually a bit sad that The Queue™️ is going to end.

Can we not just keep it going forever? A permanent art instalation.

Join The Queue™️

What's at the end of The Queue™️?

No one knows.

It changes every 6 hours.

You don't know what you're going to see.

It could be... A giant Toblerone

A chance to win a holiday

Some breakdancing

Wasps

An episode of Hey Duggee

Mischief

A hairy dog

Michelle Roux Jr

Whimsy

A vast collection of pies

Too many MCs

Not enough mics

The finest gravy