James Bloodworth

London

Writer, Author and Columnist at Freelance

Writer. Substack: https://t.co/7eixsF4roJ Author of ‘Hired’ for @AtlanticBooks. Next book: Lost Boys. 🇺🇦

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Articles

I looked for dating advice online - and got sucked into the toxic manosphere

2 months ago | inews.co.uk | James Bloodworth

I was 22 and hadn’t had a girlfriend for more than four years. I didn’t feel entitled to one; but I really wanted one. And yet I was floundering. Some men seemed to have it – whatever it was, the secret to getting a girl – whereas others didn’t. I was clearly one who didn’t. You might say that my plight was self-inflicted. I didn’t go out a lot; I was smoking too much cannabis; and I was spending more time on the internet. My social skills had atrophied.
My grandma was 91 when she died and I can't get over my grief

Jan 21, 2025 | thetimes.com | James Bloodworth

As a child I spent weekends and school holidays with Grandma. Her home, in the sleepy village of Berrow in Somerset, was like an ocean of tranquillity for me, a place to get away from the arguments that seemed always to be ringing out in the home of my mum and stepfather. My real father had already moved on before I was born; a few years later my mum - Grandma's daughter - had started a new family and had three further children.
There is such a thing as society: faith schools and the vacuum left by the state

Jan 6, 2025 | freethinker.co.uk | James Bloodworth

The thraldom of government to the minimal state must at some point come to an end. We have, as the well-known quote by Gramsci goes, reached a point where the old is dying and the new cannot be born. The decomposition is in evidence all around us. Wages are stagnant, economic growth is non-existent, and public services feel as if they are permanently on the brink of collapse. Populism is just one morbid symptom of this death rattle of neo-liberalism.
The Bro Podcast Strategy

Dec 15, 2024 | thedispatch.com | James Bloodworth

Why young men felt heard by the Trumpian manosphere. Published December 16, 2024 During his successful presidential campaign this past year, Donald Trump consciously tried to raise the testosterone quotient of the Republican ticket. Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock were wheeled out at the Republican National Convention, as was UFC chief executive Dana White. Trump even attended a UFC match in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Saving the west, one polemic at a time

Dec 3, 2024 | prospectmagazine.co.uk | James Bloodworth

Most foreign journalists are barred by Israel from entering Gaza. Most, but not all. In October 2024, the right-wing polemicist Douglas Murray was given exclusive access to the Tel al-Sultan district of the southern Gazan city of Rafah, the scene of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s assassination by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). In sunglasses and a flak jacket, his hands gripping a protective helmet, Murray posed for the camera in the armchair in which Sinwar had perched shortly before his death.
'I didn't change, the left did'

Nov 29, 2024 | open.substack.com | James Bloodworth

What got me thinking about this topic was a graph created by the Very Online (and very airbrushed) evolutionary biologist Colin Wright. Elon Musk has shared it (tellingly, Wright was thrilled about this) as have other pundits whose self-image is bound up with implausible claims of being renegades from the left, including the co-host of the Triggernometry podcast Konstantin Kisin, who says it “best describes” his political journey. I think the dates on the graph are particularly illustrative.
'I didn't change, the left did'

Nov 29, 2024 | forthedeskdrawer.com | James Bloodworth

What got me thinking about this topic was a graph created by the Very Online (and very airbrushed) evolutionary biologist Colin Wright. Elon Musk has shared it (tellingly, Wright was thrilled about this) as have other pundits whose self-image is bound up with implausible claims of being renegades from the left, including the co-host of the Triggernometry podcast Konstantin Kisin, who says it “best describes” his political journey. I think the dates on the graph are particularly illustrative.
Britain's Nuclear Testing Irradiated Troops, Indigenous People

Nov 22, 2024 | foreignpolicy.com | James Bloodworth

In 1952, Britain was nearly bankrupt. Its great imperial possession India had declared independence, and other parts of the empire were being slowly dismantled. Yet the country still had pretensions to great-power status. It was, after all, still the third-largest economy in the world. “We’ve got to have this thing over here, whatever it costs. We’ve got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it,” British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin declared in 1947. The “thing” in question was the atomic bomb.
U.K.’s Conservative Party Searches for a New Leader, Again

Oct 1, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Aayush Goodapaty |James Bloodworth |Annalise DeVries |Dalibor Rohac

With many party stalwarts swept out in July, the Tories are seeking an identity to unite behind. Published October 1, 2024 • Updated September 30, 2024 A bruised Conservative Party is gathering in Birmingham, England, this week to begin the process of regrouping after a shattering summer electoral defeat. The party’s annual conference, which began Sunday and runs through Wednesday, will focus on the four remaining candidates in its third leadership election in two years.
Here’s to You, Mr. Robinson

Sep 20, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Nick Catoggio |Peter Gattuso |Kevin Williamson |James Bloodworth

Will the North Carolina Republican spoil Trump’s reelection bid? Published September 20, 2024 All you need to know about the modern right is that Mark Robinson is only its third-most popular black Nazi. Well … “Nazi” might be a bit strong to describe Kanye West and Candace Owens, although only a bit. But it’s a fair cop for Robinson if this new CNN report is accurate. Allegedly, it’s how he once described himself. Robinson is the GOP candidate for governor in North Carolina.