NM's blog

Russian operatives ran their sabotage and provocation campaign remotely through social media and the messaging app Telegram, we found, creating fake online far-right and Muslim groups, which were used to organise acts of vandalism in the UK and stir up division and fear . Accounts based in Russia posted lies about the motive for the arson attacks targeting Starmer, which were spread by figures such as far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson.

It is nice that what eventually became the late British Empire has not been ruled by an ‘English’ dynasty since the early eleventh century: since then a motley parade of Normans (Plantagenets), Welsh (Tudors), Scots (Stuarts), Dutch (House of Orange) and Germans (Hanoverians) have squatted on the imperial throne. No one much cared until the philological revolution and a paroxysm of English nationalism in World War I. House of Windsor rhymes with House of Schöonbrunn or House of Versailles. —Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities – Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2016 ed. , p. 83

What is rational and irrational about someone saying 'my country'? Saying "my country" reflects a mix of logical human organization and emotional, instinctual behavior. Here is what makes this statement both rational and irrational: 👤 The Rational Aspects Using the phrase "my country" is a practical way to describe your legal, social, and physical reality. Legal citizenship:  You possess passport, voting, and residency rights in a specific nation. Tax obligations:  You financially support that specific government's infrastructure and services. Shared culture:  You understand the local language, social norms, laws, and history. Geographic reality:  It defines the physical borders where you sleep, work, and live. Administrative shortcut:  It is an efficient linguistic shorthand to tell others where you are from. [ 1 ] 🧠 The Irrational Aspects Using "my country" becomes irrational when it implies literal ownership, moral superiority, or biologic...