Keep an eye out for @/afcomm.org.uk, which has just followed me and is an obvious front for legitimating anti-trans propaganda in academia, alongside potentially legitimating Toby Young’s personal front for covid conspiracy-mongering and hate - ThreadSky

nateo.bsky.social • 5 days ago

Keep an eye out for @/afcomm.org.uk, which has just followed me and is an obvious front for legitimating anti-trans propaganda in academia, alongside potentially legitimating Toby Young’s personal front for covid conspiracy-mongering and hate

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Comments

betransdocri.me•5 days ago

One for you, I do believe @brexitblocklist.bsky.social

donttellkarl.bsky.social•5 days ago

The university of Edinburgh has an active Academics for Academic Freedom group. One member is best pals with Joanne Rowling. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/12/edinburgh-university-tries-to-defuse-row-after-trans-rights-protests-over-film

islandofreil.bsky.social•5 days ago

EWWWWW, Toby Young.

I already had them on the "A Very British Bigotry" (i.e. UK transphobia) blocklist, but I've reported them as a disinformation account.

mrpostsgood.bsky.social•5 days ago

Non-partisan my cock and/or balls

aunticles.bsky.social•5 days ago

@hedgehogsafety.bsky.social One for the list please

rvbdrm.com•5 days ago

📌

timhenke.bsky.social•5 days ago

not a big fan of the fact that when I see the phrase "academic freedom" these days, I have to think "probably a far-right dogwhistle"

samdphd.bsky.social•5 days ago

Just searched them so I can block and of course a philosopher I know is following them. (I’m telling myself this is for good reasons, but I know this could go either way l.)

mindspikes.bsky.social•5 days ago

They are blocked from this list if anyone wants to subscribe https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hzlrd6vbu4cxg4cnjzofzpul/lists/3l2lyvtks442a

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Their website supports pro-Brexit cranks, most of its content is anti-trans propaganda, and it’s found a way to get Eric Kaufmann (Ron DeSantis supporter!) on a panel alongside Alan Sokal and Helen Pluckrose (co-author with an avowed antisemite) to debate whether Trump will be good for academia

pdkmitchell.bsky.social•5 days ago

have you heard Pluckrose's origin story?

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Pretty sure, but was she active before the ‘hoax’ hoax?

pdkmitchell.bsky.social•5 days ago

Lord knows! Anyway we did the same early modern studies masters a few years apart - she got a mark she didn't like for an essay doing an evopsych reading of Othello as a play about selective mating, complained about it, and ended up publishing the whole thing in her little racism magazine

pdkmitchell.bsky.social•5 days ago

Not so much an original story, tbf, as "here's some of the stuff this whiner was up to before their career as a whiner was really getting into its stride". Anyway the essay still exists, albeit I think tidied up a bit, in august skull-measuring journal "Quillette": https://quillette.com/2025/01/31/evolutionary-psychology-in-the-humanities-shakespeares-othello-2/

craigburley.com•5 days ago

This is an awful lot of words to say "dudes like to fuck", Helen

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Oooooooof

thaskleve.bsky.social•5 days ago

This is disappointing, I actually didn't know about Sokal's turn to transphobia.

craigburley.com•5 days ago

It was a pretty slow turn: Sokal has been raving about feminism and gender studies for 25 years

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

They’re obsessed with Stonewall, their launch ceremony was helmed by Kathleen Stock, the infamous bigot that voluntarily quit her uni job to affiliate with a fake university run by Bari Weiss and write Telegraph columns, this is an obvious right-wing front by dangerous people. Do not trust them

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

I’m belabouring this point because a lot of academics lack a bullshit detector. CAF do not care about ‘free speech’. They are exclusivity right-wing. Their director is Edward Skidelsky, senior lecturer in philosophy at Exeter, and has dedicated his public-facing work to attacking the left

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

They’ve already snagged some academics in the half hour or so of their existence — some will be able to read CAF’s real right-wing extremist message and already agree with it and other academics that fell for the bullshit

deadlyvices.bsky.social•5 days ago

I'm following but don't read anything into that. I just think that you shouldn't turn your back on something dangerous.

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

Knowing something how these groups operate, there will be an accompanying column in a British paper announcing their existence that coincides with this social media push of indiscriminately following UK academics, even though they were incorporated in 2023 https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-live.ch.gov.uk/docs/JgxzvcsGIu6CdYQR-UMYdWlQLxDoHZnbE2KBkOXza1s/application-pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAWRGBDBV3P7Z5PRAW%2F20250226%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250226T104841Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjECIaCWV1LXdlc3QtMiJGMEQCIEel0Ns2wGgFrJsAD3KoTN1SFKIrTExTEP4eItBBE3ThAiAkAFbh9bn%2BNZGF9fEstyaiJTVJHg46A0OrAsoiFSad4Cq7BQhbEAUaDDQ0OTIyOTAzMjgyMiIMPVYn%2F%2BVevtgWfv1HKpgFtC%2B1Vu6h1HWXs3VIPVNA3tm4iAtvj5TqXkSeRm3PtU97zKZEJtYXSRHAdBUuoGOsZ7fAzKQliU3jygCGhYnHTPmqx%2BcNvpldlFk%2B%2BuIFHFoHWSPGblIvUc9hsqi6VUyfUvQtg78Dxv7APpVUzZDwrFCNScFqqwywESkYdCbSuF%2BIuWmX50H0RSDhwqHNO9a2M2cOMCGU1iOxd89j97yZw8UDQ0NnkWpHd%2FUt9Dn3qcF8fDWg2%2FyhrQhAkZEWH3%2BZcl6PI1qPU0VmaUHbBED4qSs46f9S6Yof5WwcLh4AuLw2B3jMcuJIWWaUN5hI2y%2BaJRIorZcZpTWlKqzGPx5ocAJcPPx%2BZ82mGe%2F0Cfhvng1SM9ZVy5NzyT8VnZzAe23j4nzTe%2Bf5AE5OXm92J4kxuDSIV1pEoZF9ZpB0%2B9lsqMlq%2BE7tYUYL%2F6mPQH6KwXrsp3FGRiiGnEhHf0w7rRmqK613iQ3usefCMH6RY6YglTqinwCBZP6to1b0KNjj48g9TgVW3pX502QqhiY8aewkEh13fDf5Brq0FLUWkKAOqoTw9LP9R9upegxNSsqzNkSrEqWL7p0TYmJNZ1ISvBtfxamOGSupR1LBXiHiulXXdBBQpa6RKZYXBwhqjClMilZt%2BAsWLBBUZsoyyHpcaWkDuAeuWJ1aWdSfdw2V7aP2jJJEE2%2B%2FLbkuwgkdx1QujBjhRt5w4gLW7jCtD%2BAB%2F%2FFC705DLtUT%2BDxUAJZRI9J8JGTHDNd9JH9T0nonWN8dvKw37WmzLJ8562xaZ%2BK1zib8MUlAunqU6%2B8JCpylJCOFX8hU1w50DT2PRshNyw9H2q%2B1fUy5RIzQ3PZ6xV5CQymHQmmTH1NJF97hmNI2RzjYPL%2F9lEc2aOzpETDvwfu9BjqyAQlCYkt1jcOWvgQ3ENbNZV4D68B1gU2w4ybGUXuv%2BPL3aESAQ3HA8UcmTax3qomjoz%2B5uXFxmxNGpGUOjey17HrB0F0uqv3TKKFswUh3qlfyN1v6bhfS6Ag3HKAbrJaYYinBJwp0FvkLaNSReZUwhbcgjwhZKnkHFIrGpdCaR4LkxCMJYOIg2WCsH2Y%2Fv7tM0WgAeAKM6yCtTpxLwPNsrPcObnTkeS1HglHWHv58SFMQzaI%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22companies_house_document.pdf%22&X-Amz-Signature=a775147bb9af95fcd4ed1112d37dcda26d011ee722214490416966ce05f5d712

nateo.bsky.social•5 days ago

CAF has indiscriminately followed hundreds of academics and scholars I know on Bluesky, likely subscribing to a number of lists in an attempt to boost its follower count by hoping they will casually follow it back. CAF does not support academics and scholars

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