I'm so old that I can remember when this guy had a mystique that excited the pundit class - not yet even in Parliament, but already spoken of as a potential future PM, who is now destined to be remembered as little more than the David Brent of #nzpol
From LibsOfTikTok to Christopher Rufo and Jordan Peterson, reactionary watchdogs play a big role in digital politics. A great concept from @sean-phelan.bsky.social
cheers Rob!
I wrote something recently where the reviewer wondered why I was giving the final word to Connolly! I now feel even more determined to do so
In memoriam William E. Connolly 1938-2026 A career-spanning reading list, including “Symposium: William Connolly at 80” from Theory & Event in 2019 All articles free @ Project MUSE thru 31 March press.jhu.edu/newsroom/memoriam-william-e-connolly Illustrated with a photo of William E. Connolly from his JHU faculty page and cover art from Theory & Event and Social Research
Political theorist William E. Connolly passed last week, leaving behind an influential body of work studying democracy, capitalism & culture
To celebrate his legacy, we're unlocking his contributions to our journals thru 31 March on Project MUSE
press.jhu.edu/newsro...
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Sad to read about the passing of the great William Connolly. A wonderfully creative political theorist who has left us with such a rich body of work. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at Essex in 2008 & chat with him afterwards. The family death notice is lovely www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
I think William E. Connolly is so important he deserves an obit in the New York Times. He passed away overnight at 87 and I am thinking of Jane, his family, friends, students and colleagues who have such wonderful memories of his teaching and friendship.
Rigour and bravery in his words.
@islates.bsky.social great messaging, eh
..and never one to be outdone on the bullshit front, Netanyahu is issuing statements cheering on Trump's "leadership of the free world"
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.."
What extraordinary dangerous bullshit. Reenact the hubris of 2003. And don't even bother giving the American people a heads up this time
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...
aha! we both know the truth - our cultural programming is entangled in fantasies of "bungalow bliss"😂
we have never been modern! Up the Republic! 😀
This is as bad a symptom of political despair and nihilism as I've read. A tech company trying to give vague expression to some concept of the public good and the ethical, in opposition to a state regime that couldn't care less
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/t...
"I don’t think I’ve ever encountered, outside academia, people with such a bottomless appetite for mountainous piles of meaningless, unnecessary, empty words & phrases, each genetically engineered, in whole or in part, to make any sentient being stop paying attention"
coreyrobin.com/2026/02/26/o...
gutsy stuff, eh. The medium is the message: what does it say about your politics when you give your "state of the nation" speech at an event that looks like it was chaired by former National leader and CEO of Auckland Business Chamber, Simon Bridges
I'm all for a culture of (blah blah blah) "agonistic respect" @aurelmondon.com, but in this instance the only reasonable response would be to grab the microphone from this fucker, scream to the heavens and slap him in the face
And it's equally interesting how some left publishers, with disavowed neoliberal souls and calculators, are also hardening the distinction, in ways that if retrospectively applied might wipe out a lot of their back catalogue 😃
Et je suis happy pour toi. Enjoy Tara. Dance lots x
...better again, the comment was "he's like OUR Churchill" (to which the only dignified reply was: "well, you can fucking have him all you want") #nzpol
Peters is such a grade A bullshitter - the love and affection he generates among so many New Zealanders, even people who would never vote for him, seems symptomatic of something very fucked up. "But have you ever heard him speak in Parliament", someone said to me recently. "He's like Churchill"
...stupidly browsing online when I should be in bed! But I have access and can send. UCC address, yeah?
we're really fucked so😅
I'm feeling seriously triggered 😀
From a book and title not lacking in ambition: The World and Us
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...
Roberto Unger has some piercing lines:
Mathematics has been the most powerful instrument of natural science, the torch illuminating what otherwise seems impossible to retrieve from the shadows of the perceived world. But it offers natural science a poisoned gift: the idea of timeless laws of nature
Cheers! Nice to hear my own work resonates...
Looks great. Congrats!
@maxsoar.bsky.social in case you haven't seen
PS this guy always struck me as a perfect exemplar of NZ's zombified Third Way schmooze politics
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
