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rosscarroll.bsky.social
Political theorist at Dublin City University. Author of Edmund Burke (Polity, 2024) and Uncivil Mirth: Ridicule in Enlightenment Britain (Princeton UP, 2021). Increasingly interested in abolition/emancipation and multigenerational democracy.
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When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

submitted 1 day ago • 20 comments

I’ve always considered grammar policing to be bad politics and only likely to tick off the people you need to persuade. But I can understand the sentiment here. The US Attorney’s office pretending they are Trump’s personal legal team is pretty damn nauseating.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

After Vance’s Munich speech we will now have hundreds of essays, blogs, and substacks by IR profs titled “Whither NATO?” “The Trans-Atlantic alliance (1949- 2025)” or “10 tips for navigating the new world order [5 now as a taster - buy my book for the other 5].”

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

The sad thing is that email and admin have taken over academic life so much that many of us have to squeeze in the poisoning of minds on evenings and weekends.

submitted 9 days ago • 15 comments

Can’t wait to present at this event in July. The Hastings impeachment was a massive event, and has left all subsequent impeachments in the shade. I’ll be examining Edmund Burke’s trial speeches uses ideas about injustice borrowed from Judith Shklar. www.worcester.ac.uk/about/academ...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Peter the Great and the Ottomans were desperate to acquire the war-making power of the modern bureaucracy. It is what "modernization" meant for ~200 years. It will be very funny to watch the global hegemon throw it away for memes.

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

I have a few regrets in life. One of them is voting for Starmer as Labour leader.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that Starmer was a human rights lawyer.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Translating curial Latin is a subtle art, but essentially Il Papa has called Vance "a weird little cosplayer who has confused the rudiments of the Faith with some incoherent crap from a tradcath meme page".

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

It’s the third day of the Hastings impeachment trial. Edmund Burke begins speaking at 11:35am, but by 2:15pm is too tired to continue. One wonders how the audience felt!

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

But remember, folks, it’s the only democracy in the Middle East…

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

JOB at University College Dublin: Lecturer/Assistant Professor in International Law and Global Justice. Deadline February 21st www.ucd.ie/adastrafello...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Start your weekend properly by reading Patricia Lockwood on how philosophers write. 😆

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Absurd grifter behaviour taken to new heights. A company called “reputation patrols” wants me to pay them to make a Wikipedia page of my book. 🙄

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

An oldie from 2020, but still darkly and hilariously on point. The Void Is Full. Please Stop Screaming into It www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

This is a key block. It’s well known that Musk wants to establish a payments system in X. Treasury data of this sort would give him immense market advantage over competitors. Never mind that no private individual should have access to it.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

CFP: 'Ireland and the American Revolution'. The organisers invite submissions for papers to be presented at a conference held in the Trinity Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin on the 9-10 October 2025. If you are interested submit an abstract of 250 words and a brief bio by the 1 May 2025.

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

This looks terrific. We’ve long been due a study of this sort.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Poor Anthony. Not even the warmth of Naples could cure his asthma. I’ve always wondered whether he bumped into Vico during his time there.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

The internet demands that @desfitzgerald.bsky.social write something about this: “I want to feel more connected to reality, to the birds and the stars and the sun and the rain. […] We just had a full moon and I almost missed it!” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

A reminder that the “Global” label for many of these institutions is an advertising ploy to increase foreign student fees.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Doug has a both a great point and a great reading list right here.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Delighted to arrive home to this. I enjoyed writing my chapter and will enjoy even more reading the others!

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments