This is being referred to as the Gen-Z Protests by all media, not just the above. It comes from Nepali media (जेन-जे विरोध, literally 'Gen-J protests') and possibly has a different tone or connotations in Nepali, I don't know.

There's been some discontent in Nepal for a while now, the government being viewed as authoritarian and corrupt.

But what's kicked this off is the government banning social media apps.

So, all these social media companies had a week to register with the government, because of a new law, but most didn't. So the government banned them and blocked access (nearly all the big ones - apparently tiktok registered and stayed up, as far as I can tell). This happened on the 4th September.

Some people think that curtailing social media use is a direct attempt to stop people drawing attention to corruption: the leading hashtag in Nepal was apparently '#NepoKids' (as in nepotism). I don't know if that is in English or in translation though.

Yesterday, on the 8th, there were big protests and demonstrations. It's hard to get a breakdown of what exactly happened - I don't speak Nepali - but protesters tried to enter parliament, the military responded with tear gas, and before long 19 protesters had been killed.

This obviously sparked a reaction, and it's still ongoing. The PM has resigned, some officials have apparently fled or tried to flee the country. Lots of places are being set on fire, including prisons (it seems like prisoners are escaping rather than being burnt alive). Some sites say that the social media apps are back online and unblocked now, I don't know.

A year or so ago, the new UK government sent a delegation to China to improve relations and shore up trade and investment deals, ignoring criticism from the left about Uyghur genocide

This is what the Tankies get fundamentally wrong about the modern world - the idea that anything anti-China is a smear to further Western Imperialism is a throwback to the cold war dichotomy of The West vs Communism.

In reality now, it's all about investment and global trade, neoliberal wealth generation over human rights. Of course propaganda is real and everywhere, but the framing of it all as West vs East is just incredibly outdated and oversimplified.

Downplaying or waving away mistreatment of the Uyghurs puts you on the same side as Western Governments, so dismissing the issue as Western Propaganda is fundamentally flawed

Was/were are verbs, not pronouns (yes I am fun at parties thanks)

I know this isn't what you intended, but you gotta be careful on the Internet saying 'guess who 'they' are', cos a lotta places on the Internet ask this and the answer is supposed to be 'jews'

History is key, which is why in parliament square opposite the statue of Churchill there's a statue of Hitler

... Oh there isn't? Huh

He's threatening to redistrict California in response to Republican Leaders gerrymandering Texas

He states he has found a way to gerrymander California to eliminate 5 Republican seats whilest abiding by the Voting Rights Act

He has held multiple press conferences and public appearances drawing attention to this

This tweet is about - and part of - this effort to draw national attention to gerrymandering

It's too soon to say if he'll follow through with his threat, but he's done a lot.

I don't like Newsome, but respect this - don't just shit on it. This is the action you're asking for

I got my last 10 bucks on you! No, don't look at me! Run! No, don't come over here...

It's 'psychic paper', it shows what the holder wants it to. Like a super adaptable fake ID

It's 'shorted out' like an electrical appliance would if you overload it, because it's been asked to do too much

(in the Dr Who world, 'magic' things like psychic paper are acutally just advanced technology)

What's that Think You Should Leave sketch?

Some guy is playing cards with his friends bantering about their wives, then he flashbacks to his wife being supportive when he does community theatre

I'd find it and link it if I was less lazy

It's a subset of people that overlaps with gamers in a big way. See: gamergate

As a knowledge fight fan, I feel like I should say that it's more than a 'fact check' - it started out more like that, but it functions as a deconstruction of the methods, motives and aims of a right-wing idealogue and by extension, others in that sphere (tucker carlson, rogan etc)

It's a good way to keep up with and have an understanding of what's going on in that horrific but impactful space without having to wade in yourself

And their apology episode was very much 'we would have believed you if you weren't so annoying, geez, it's still your fault'

'believed to have been shed sometime in the second half of the 20th Century, this tear is (understood?) to be one of only two known to have (o---?) and the... [?? ?? ??] only [?? ?? ??]. The circumstances that lead to this [??] are still unclear, however'

The Nepali media are referring to the whole thing as the Gen-Z protest (जेन-जे विरोध). It might still be weird, or it might be less weird not in translation

Terms like Foid and Maxxing come directly from incel communities.

It's shitty but also interesting how these places outreach themselves in terms of spreading language, there was a Behind The Bastards episode on it recently I think

You mean Watergate-gate?

Is it a coincidence that he's had this bright idea while visiting with Starmer? Maybe they had some nice chats about pensioners being arrested for having Palestine flags

They're all like that imo. The mysteries aren't very good from a modern perspective.

They're worth reading - if you're into it - for the setting, the 19th Century prose and the historical creation of the Sherlock archetype

But nah. I read them all when I was a teenager and liked them well enough, then reread last year and was pretty unimpressed with them

There's some better ones - I'm fond of the hound of the baskervilles, and some of the short story ones are good like the red headed league

But some real dumb stuff too. Like when footprints suggest a child but Holmes knows it's actually an African Pygmy fella.

In Wales and Ireland the native languages were deliberately subjugated, and are only recently being deliberately re-prioritised. It's a sore point among both populaces

So to compare the amount of speakers pre and post language erasure isn't that helpful I don't think

'Orwells List' is rightfully controversial. Im not gonna try and fully defend him siding with the British Goverment against anyone

But I do think to judge him fairly you gotta understand a couple things

• it was written in 1949

• it called out people who he thought were too closely tied to Stalin's Russia

• the British Establishment at the time were nominally friendly with the Stalin government

• Orwell was unhappy with Soviet Communists due to their liberal collaboration and repression of anarchist Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War

• Orwell was always explicitly anti-stalinist

So I don't think he's immune from historical judgement, but I do think that modern conclusions of Orwell as a kind of 'counter-revolutionary' miss a lot of valuable context

He definitely wasn't just informing on people whom he thought were 'too socialist', even if from a 2026 perspective he had more in common with the communists he was listing

And it's worth noting that this was years before American McCarthyism and the associated witchhunt