'The Lesser Feat' on YouTube. Warwick University film/media scholar & video essayist. Researching YouTube aesthetics, irony & intention. Unionize.

Joined July 2011
1,061 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
9 Sep 2024
So, I um, appear to have been quoted in the Lady Gaga interview in the latest issue of Vogue... 🤯
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This is the greatest video I’ve ever seen. No notes. The lifeless clanker carcass just laying there. No crowd reaction, anything. Just Billie Jean. Until its lifeless shell is shamefully dragged off. Purely amazing.

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A trailer for a 1.5 hour video essay I've worked on for 3 years with James Zborowski, coming soon in InTransition. Making this video has been one of the most challenging & exciting things I’ve done in my career. It reflects on the challenges of doing videographic criticism.
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Thanks for the interest @leorobsonwriter - I'd gladly send you a link to view it in advance if you'd like?
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J MacD retweeted
A trailer for a 1.5 hour video essay I've worked on for 3 years with James Zborowski, coming soon in InTransition. Making this video has been one of the most challenging & exciting things I’ve done in my career. It reflects on the challenges of doing videographic criticism.
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At what point does researching for a project become procrastinating starting it? Four years...? Five? Asking for a friend.
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Really bugs me how I see people worried that being nice will compromise their judgment (no “sugarcoating”) but never worried that the pleasure of being brutal motivates or warps their judgment. I’m just supposed to assume it’s a disincentive to be mean when they seem to love it.
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As a parent what would you do if you couldn’t feed your children? Watching them starve, crying for food, as your own empty stomach gnaws at you. HELP: chuffed.org/project/113222-t…. Children in Gaza are still malnourished, still starving, a famine still underway. Aid trucks are still just trickling in, no where near as many as necessary to feed a besieged population. The Sameer Project team visited Preparatory School C in Deir al-Balah area to deliver meals to the entire school that was transformed into a family shelter. We distributed 500 spiced rice meals with vegetables, each one costing a little less than $6. The entire sheltered distribution on September 21 cost $3,199. Every donation, any amount, has an impact. For just $6 you can help a parent feed their children, fending off starvation for another day. Donate to the South Campaign to give food. Other ways to donate include: paypal.me/mahertali (Paypal option, please make sure to add a message saying "South aid") account.venmo.com/u/Maher-Al… (Venmo option, please make sure to add a message saying "South aid")
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It is good that these people lose their jobs. It is good that they are shamed and humiliated and must live with the repercussions for the rest of their lives. It is good if they wake up every day until they die wishing they hadn't said what they said. We cannot have a civilized and decent society unless there are severe social consequences for people who publicly express sentiments like these. These people are barbarians. Savages. And should be treated as such. "Free speech" does not mean that we should act with anything but revulsion and disgust to people who say revolting and disgusting things.
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I like how he says “Labour MPs put their careers on the line to stop (Old Jezza) becoming Prime Minister”, a thing that up until last year was an absolutely deranged conspiracy theory, but has somehow become an obvious fact, without anyone having been wrong about it at any point
Rory isn't mincing his words about Jeremy Corbyn... đź‘€
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J MacD retweeted
14 Aug 2025
I am shocked - shocked! - to discover the entire “exodus” story was nothing more than lobbying on behalf of the mega-rich. Wealth tax now!
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J MacD retweeted
"Inefficient" to use your own brain and heart to write a eulogy — the post-humanism that should interest us most isn't some cybernetic borg future. It's the voluntary surrender of the human spirit and it's already here.
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J MacD retweeted
17 Jul 2025
if you're a bookshop/university/festival/whatever & would like to invite me to speak/read/be on a panel about my book, please get in touch...
14 Jul 2025
actual finishied copies!!! out from @VersoBooks on 23 september
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J MacD retweeted
7 Jul 2025
leftwing populism is popular. neoliberal centrist dems can’t make a compelling message because they stand for nothing. not complicated.
Joe Scarborough asks, "why is it that in the Democratic Party, the three most compelling figures" have been "the mayoral candidate [Zohran Mamdani], Bernie Sanders and AOC"? "Why can't moderate Democrats...make that same compelling message?"
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In 2021, Eric Adams was hailed as the “future of the Democratic Party” after it took 8 whole rounds for him to win by less than 1 point. What does that make Zohran Mamdani, if he won in 3 quick rounds by 12?
ZOHRAN DEFEATS CUOMO 56-44
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J MacD retweeted
21 May 2025
Palestinian communism dates back to the 1920s under British colonial rule. At its peak, the country's left-wing movement was one of the strongest in the Arab world. “Red Star Over Palestine,” Jacobin's latest podcast series, explores that history.
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I'm not entirely certain what the definitional boundaries of the "fan cam" are, but... ...did David Lammy just post a fan cam of himself?
20 Mar 2025
With my leadership, the FCDO means business.
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J MacD retweeted
Beyond parody
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This line will be quoted ad nauseam for decades in history and politics books. Agree with him or not (and correctly or not), it will be the go-to way of articulating Labour's return to aping the Tories.
13 Mar 2025
Wes Streeting’s cognitive dissonance to describe Labour governing as the Tories wished to as “change” is really something
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Jeremy Corbyn is again being smeared for being pro-Putin. The fact is that no politician has been more consistent or prescient about Putin. Corbyn warned against him when others didn’t. This article first published three years ago in Middle East Eye: middleeasteye.net/opinion/ru…
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J MacD retweeted
5 Mar 2025
Genuinely asking here. Amongst all the talk of increasing defence spending and the austerity, cuts, 'belt-tightening' etc, has a single media pundit or politician suggested there should be tax rises on the rich to pay for it? Even as a question? Because I haven't seen one.
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