Simon McGarr

For the education of the general public, I thought I’d reveal the most unhinged possible response to this post:

[Another zinger critique of Ireland's agri-industrial-complex from @swimsure.bsky.social - do read!] climate-change-and-ireland.ghost.io/when-the-fac...

"The signal is interpreted as so strong as to be an emergency, a crisis. But it's a crisis that doesn't abate, because it keeps blaring even after steps have been taken towards meeting its demands."-- @tupped.bsky.social on the dangers and chaos of setting policy by social media. A great piece.

"protected groups" I guess men are protected by the patriarchy 🤔

You’re gonna want to see what the BlueSky guys have decided is too intolerant for you to read.

'75% of the far-right narrative volume mentioning Ireland comes from outside the state.'

“Sally Rooney’s books contain more fictional characters than there are people employed by data centres globally. Fictional characters consume more water and electricity than real people. Yet none of the anti-data centre mob call her out. Why not?”

This is a subset of a wider issue. It is extremely difficult to be a genius criminal mastermind because all your plans rely on execution by people who would miscount their own fingers.

"...if it were the case that he decided to give credence and support to a far-right fringe issue in order to cause trouble to a charity he felt had not supported him, it would represent petty-minded narcissism of a Trumpian order."

This is becoming a common pattern worldwide and if you're wondering it's because facism and patriarchy are twins.

All the people on Brendan O'Connor show are pretending that human rights are radical left wing extremism. Consent=extremism, NGOs =all left extremism, French protestors =extremely left extremism, State interference in NGOs =good (Putin agrees) Very young people= extremists (may not like hugs)

Incredible perfection. May represent a platonic form of the concept of Adaptation.

I've looked at a lot of Facebook comments about the consent advert. A few observations: -- Far more people support the advert than I'd expect. -- Far less negative engagement (laughing faces, etc) than is usual with a backlash. -- A lot of people not liking the advert but then agreeing with it...

What’s wrong with DHH is that he’s a racist but tech bros also HATE the way GDPR sets even the tiniest limits on how much data they can scrape And my dude, look up French power stations

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

Rare to see a man release a press video of himself pooing into his own hands before slapping himself in the forehead. Never say the world is not full of wondrous sights.

"What, according to Jim O’Callaghan, is supposed to happen when a child expresses discomfort about hugging an older relative? Their parents should make them do it anyway?" Here's a Surrealing in the Years Bank Holiday Special. The commenters absolutely love this one, I'm sure you can imagine.

gotta say hats off to all the writers pretending to do profiles of Silicon Valley CEOs just so they can add that one same paragraph, every single time, that demonstrates they're all insane freaks who do not know or like their own kids.

Ireland has some responsibility on this. One of the greatest contributions we could be making to collective EU & global democracy & security (far more useful then disastrous attempts to remove the triple lock) would be having the courage to step up to our role as digital regulator in a serious way.

Throughout the entire Fare Hike saga, Government maintained this was a decision by the NTA We now know it was the Dept of Public Expenditure & it was decided 12 months ago Government lied to to the public, the did it repeatedly, & they did it intentionally

Truthfully, one of the biggest challenges is hubris. *Everybody* thinks they're good at comms,everybody thinks they know exactly how to persuade people, virtually everyone has zero experience. Even fewer know how to do it online. And most resources go to the folks with almost no history of success.

So there's no self-awareness. They can't understand that they were targeted for outreach just as much as Black and trans people were targeted for abuse. Which makes it impossible for them to be part of using such a platform for political pushback, even if they don't think of themselves as fascists.

It is absolutely a hostile environment and you would need to be embarrassingly self-centred to not be able to reflect on why your pleasant and targeted experience isn’t representative of *other people’s* experiences.

There's nuance here about "how do we use platforms owned by the fascists". You *have to understand the political purpose of the platforms* in order to use them to subvert authoritarians. For the most part, Americans simply do not. Centrists (including DNC consultants) do not. Major media does not.

Reminds me of how important Repeal Shield was during the 2018 referendum. The amount of mental space that was freed up by just ignoring the anti-choicers instead of trying to argue with them. It let us focus on putting forward our own points

Some ground rules that have helped us: - Go outside your bubble, try new social media channels - Don’t underestimate the power of WhatsApp (although less so in the U.S.) - Post on the Instagram grid, not just stories - Watch every Instagram video until the end before sharing - IGNORE THEM

After the first round elections, Congressman André Janones created a WhatsApp channel titled “Lula’s Army.” It ballooned to 10 million people following his commands on how to behave online to counteract Meta’s far-right-favouring algorithms. The right knows how to use socials. We must learn, too.

I’m not a political journalist, so was gladly surprised at the community I found here last night. To Americans anxious about the upcoming elections, a key thing we learned in Brazil that might help you: DO NOT engage with the far-right online. Don’t share rage bait. Amplify your people. Ignore them.

sorry, but the British government now apparently envisages a scenario that would require me to keep forty eight litres of drinking water in my house for emergencies? oh right I’ll just shove it in the reservoir I’ve got in the back bedroom then

There is not an 👀 big enough in the world

Omg no, he was so young. Damn. He was such a talented voice actor. It’s on the mind because I literally just watched it yesterday, but he got asked to do the taken monologue as porky pig and its a masterpiece

🇪🇺 ⚖️ Two Courts, two Presidents, one conversation! #CJEU President Koen Lenaerts and #ECHR President Mattias Guyomar look at the past, present and future of their Courts, and what it all means for young Europeans. 🎥 Here's a sneak peek 👉https://youtu.be/RU7xN5jv48Q?si=ZaA1sywkqJjhcit_

It's very simple - every single one of them does not believe in the bodily autonomy of others, especially women and children. Martin et al had to be dragged kicking and screaming into repealing the eighth (Chambers is a strong opponent of the right to choose, as is Toibin).

Serbia’s student-led movement has delivered a historic election upset, ending 14 years of rule by Aleksandar Vučić’s party. Millions celebrated across Serbia and Europe.