Luke

Personal responsibility? I did a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat and they very clearly state that people with existing mental heath issues should not join. I definitely went a bit loopy with the silence etc. But I dunno, we’re adults and we should be capable of taking informed risks.

That said, more positive campaigning (backed with firm and confident criticism) and community-level work, we could see Soc Dems continue to grow as the clear beneficiaries of Connolly election.

I know we are so far away from the next GE, but I’ve been really struggling to see where the left can pull seats from at the constituency level… Like, I really can’t see FFG’s level of support dropping from where it is. For us to be competitive we’d need to start undermining the ind vote… Unlikely!

"The Empire is drawing borders inside our heads now. Real men and women must behave in a particular way, because we have said that if either gender is not behaving in that way it becomes like the colonised- the lesser races.

Most importantly, men (because they rule) must not be womanly"

Honestly, this is why the 2010s discourse of grievance on the left (liberal left tbf) was so damaging. Give people the benefit of the doubt, present things in a manner that appeals to people's empathy and they'll respond well most of the time. I learnt this lesson years ago and it has paid dividends

Sign the Petition Demand Spotify Remove Andrew Tate’s Harmful Courses on How to Traffic Women

www.change.org/p/demand-spo...

Donate to Support Hamoudi’s Kidney Transplant Journey, organized by Hamoudi milhem Hello, my name is Hamoudi, and this is my story with kidney failure. I am a… Hamoudi milhem needs your support for Support Hamoudi’s Kidney Transplant Journey

www.gofundme.com/f/helps-hamo...

If anyone who follows me knows of anyone who has tickets to MBV in Nov, lmk. I intended on buying the presale and managed to mess up. I’ve ticketswap notifications on but in any case. 🤘

Cheeky late night update on what I’ve been watching #letterboxdfriday

All the text is in the thread instead

Thread: Important article on the status of trans people in Ireland by Jenny Maguire, President of Trinity College Students’ Union. Jenny is one of my heroines & a major voice in civil society.

“I'm trans, but few politicians would now utter that word, let alone advocate for us” #SpeirGorm #LGBTQ

#LetterboxdFriday Sadly haven’t been watching enough films but I have been spending my evenings developing my filmmaking skills 🎬 Here’s the last 4 films I saw. Follow me: dukechussey boxd.it/1sbnL

This article claims saoirse don Phalaistín means peace for Palestine. How does that mistranslation not get picked up by an editor? 😓

The Gist: AI, a talking dog for the 21st Century. Séamus O'Reilly on the year's biggest con, AI. This is a Christmas Cracker Gist.

I wrote about how much, how fiercely and why, I hate A.I.

On eternal cons, a dying earth and talking dogs.

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-3/

Overgrazing eats up the last of Ireland’s ancient rainforest Delicate ecosystem at Uragh Woods on the Beara Peninsula is no match for unrestrained invasive sika deer and feral goats

The tiny remnants of our last native forests are being stripped bare by grazers - radical action needed (and thankfully beginning to happen in some places) @irishrainforest.bsky.social

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024...

Israel announces closure of Dublin embassy due to 'anti-Israel policy' of Irish government Taoiseach Simon Harris said that he “utterly reject[s] the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel”, adding that it is a “deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government”.

www.thejournal.ie/israel-close...

Bella ciao bella ciao Bella ciao ciao ciao!

Closing my embassy, to own the people who want me to close my embassy

Photo of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Balousha

Israel just killed Mohammed Balousha, the Palestinian journalist who broke the story & revealed to the world the decomposing bodies of premature babies in ICU left to die by Israeli forces at Al Nasr hospital last yr

Nearly 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israel during this genocide

👁️👄👁️

Was just now trying to discreetly wave at a magpie to break the spell in public without looking insane on this Friday the 13th

The urge to do something insanely silly while invigilating exams gets stronger with each passing day. I’m thinking of Homer Simpson spinning on the ground saying ‘woop woop woop woop woop woop’

Always a great joy to see a dictator fall. Syrians have suffered enough. The task now is to ensure they do not suffer more, as the Iraqis and the Libyans did after the fall of their dictators. To that end, foreign powers, Western and non-Western, must also be kept at bay.

Sometimes I just say things and that’s OK

It’s also giving that

Also, how do we mobilise non-voters? I have a feeling the electoral register is skewed due to deceased and the sheer number of émigrés but there’s no question turnout is the biggest way for the left to win big.

I’m as angry as you are that people who are well off/homeowners are happy to pull the ladder up behind them. But I wonder, is chastising people’s voting behaviour a good look for the left or should we focus on how we coordinate ourselves electorally and in general? A more difficult task I know…

It’s giving you were an emo in secondary school

It’s been a dark and moody year, OK?

That sounds class, I take it back!