“No way to prevent this, says nation where this regularly happens”

#DavidWalliams

And, needless to say, still empowers them.

David Walliams, Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross have all publicly supported JK Rowling when she went public about her bigoted views on trans people. Gervais regularly ridicules trans people in his standup routine. Jonathan Ross gave a quote to Graham Linehan to put on the cover of his memoir, Tough Crowd.

Powerful people in the media protect these men because it doesn’t think they’ve done anything wrong.

Recent articles from both The (Irish) Examiner and Irish Times peddling a version of a "don't worry about the manosphere" line... oh, and one from the Guardian, too.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-columnists/arid-41932929.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorials/2026/08/07/the-irish-times-view-on-the-manosphere-and-tradwives-government-intervention-is-ill-advised/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/01/the-manosphere-is-dead-and-no-one-cares-about-andrew-tate-any-more-the-poet-taking-on-toxic-masculinity

#EpsteinFiles #EpsteinClass #Manosphere

Congrats to the US. Nice to see an openly gay man be the first to hold high office. I guess homosexuals are Homo Sapiens, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI

"anger is an energy" is a catnip that techbros predictably misunderstand.

Everyone's all about "data is the new oil" and the consequent "fact" that we need Big Database on a global scale.

How about this: in your local area, who do you know who is vice-signalling?

You know who to shun.

2026 be like: "the world in numbers: 0%"

A few US-based people have reached out, concerned about the "violence" in France.

It's important to realize that French citizens have rights because they are never satisfied, and they protest.

Americans are losing rights because the status quo is "it's the freest country in the world," and they'll go to a no-kings march if it lands on the weekend, the weather is good, and they have no other plans.

Convincing people everything is "exceptional" leads to complacency.
Complaints lead to action.

Apologies to anyone who feels put in the crosshairs of my occasional "well, actshualy" criticism of {substack, optimism}. It's really not personal. It's a moral choice that I have made.

Your yearly reminder that "Samhain" is not pronounced "sam hayne"

what's that dansup said about everyone being a collaborator?

I think that even the fascists are beginning to get the idea the "AI" is a huge con. I don't think that that's going to shake many out of their worldview. They'll just do what any failing cult (like crypto and so many before/around it) would do, with tedious regularity, and just pivot to the next scam. Like that Daniel Tommy shit or whatever his name is. Pivot to protect-the-women christo-fascism.

He's not the only one though, and chances are his "movement" will fail in its goals to unite the fascists. The truth is, there are myriad scams and schemes out there. They've always been fascist at heart (because fascism is the ne-plus-ultra of scams) and there's vigorous competition (as well as overlaps) between these groups, all trying to be the ones that reach all the way to the top of the pyramid (figuratively speaking, but also, you know... they're all structured the same way).

It can get tiring trying to sort out who all the various actors are, what their angles are and how they all interrelate. I mean, it's important, but also really fucking tiring.

俺が＊ここに歩ている

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc

#MidnightCowboy #DoLookUp #TheYear1968

A couple of probably-related things I've been thinking about recently are how people can distinguish fake profiles from real ones and the problem of dealing with more long-term "infiltration" (as practised by security services or other actors).

On the first one, I think I'm good. No matter what you may think about my views or how I interact with people (I'm not always perfect), I think I've got a good enough "cover story" to convince people that I'm a real person, at least. I have a real, novel interest and it's unlikely that a script would generate it as an interest.

On the second, I would say that, if you follow me, I hope that it would be clear that I don't have any ulterior motive here. What you see is what you get.

Full disclosure, though, in a previous incarnation (social media wise, not reincarnation-based), I have pretended to be someone that I'm not. If you know me from both incarnations, I hope you realised that persona was based on an obvious conceit.

There's more on that topic, though. People do sometimes use "inauthentic" personas for various (usually bad) reasons. But there are other more subtle forms. I'm talking about accounts with huge follower counts. They're harder to detect as having some sort of agenda. And, actually, having a big seemingly-organic follower number can make them seem authentic.

So, I guess I think a few things about that sort of apparently-organic account:

• maybe they are another form of astroturf or whatever
• large-follower counts are easily enough gamed
• we still can't discount infiltration
• some people/groups are not the kinds of community-spirited groups that we think they are (or maybe they once were, but not any more)

Still, I'm not out to spread conspiracy theories or make anyone paranoid, so I'll just leave my musings at that.

An Irish joke: How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman? None.

Soooo 1900s...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atmNLbycafM

#OkUnc #DownWithTheKids

Unicode combining character or French/Spanish fusion food? ķ ... k-cedilla

I asked Hank Marvin, how hangry does he get? Hank Marvin hasn't answered yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygzsMwGC70

#HangryMovies
#HashtagGames

I would crawl 500 links

#WebSiteDownASong
#HashTagGames

r > g

#Inequality