Can usually be found creating something, and can't remember the last time she was bored. Emotional Support Canadian.🍁
30+ years with #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis
1/ I am so tired of him.
I am tired of his face. I am tired of his style of speech. I am so tired of his lies. I am tired of his bluster, his narcissism. I am tired of his fraud and his crimes. I am tired of the relentless news coverage and the danger he poses to democracy.
I am so tired. Read on for why.👇
His Face
Or, more specifically, his facial expressions. Let’s start with the pout. It’s his way of trying to look tough, but he can’t pull it off because he isn’t tough. If we’ve learned nothing else in the last eight years, it’s that he’s a perpetually aggrieved child who can never find satisfaction and who blames everything bad that happens to him on everyone else.
Then there’s the sneer, which is worse. He saves it for those occasions when he scores a point against a perceived enemy — like getting the Mike Johnsons and Ron DeSantises of the world to come to Mar-a-Lago to kiss his ring, or on those alarming occasions when he gets away with breaking a norm (or a law) or, maybe even worse, when he gets an assist from an increasingly corrupt institution like the Supreme Court.
Together, the pout and the sneer perfectly encapsulate the tension that exists between his arrogant belief that he is utterly untouchable and his desperately fragile ego and unconscious sense that he is a weak, terrified little boy.
His Style of Speech
He just won’t stop talking. And the longer he speaks, the more he lapses into a stream of consciousness that defies logic or meaning. There is no nuance, no attempt to be coherent, no aspiration to eloquence.
Word Choice: Everything is always terrible or incredible. It is always like nothing you’ve ever seen. There are no shades of gray; only the black and white of hyperbole, because if it is in any way related to him or his enemies, it must be the best or the worst.
Asides and Non Sequiturs: He meanders without ever really getting to the point, and along the way he veers off onto a totally unrelated topic. He could be talking about nuclear weapons and then launch into a monologue about water pressure or lightbulbs while his supporters wait for a conclusion he never draws.
Repetition: When he wants to drive home a point, he doesn’t just repeat it once, he repeats it incessantly. He pounds it down. Repetition reinforces his message,even as it hides the lack of substance and factual information — and his brand of simple-minded patter makes it all the more effective. As Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda for Nazi Germany put it, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” In cognitive psychology, this is known as the “illusory truth effect.”
Rhetoric: He speaks down to the lowest common denominator and doesn’t hesitate to call on his followers to commit violence on his behalf, riling them up with promises to pay their lawyers or otherwise offering them immunity. It is the coward’s way, but he excels at it.
And here lies his disturbing resemblance to cult leaders. They, too, traffic in simplistic tropes and make vague promises; they see themselves as unique, chosen, and, in some cases, divine; they create a clear division between their group (the “chosen” ones) and the out group (the “enemy” or “other”). Cult leaders dehumanize the other, portraying them as inferior or inhuman (“vermin”).
Sound familiar?
When you hear that voice, rambling, repetitive, and threatening, remember: it’s not empty noise — he’s preying on the vulnerability of his followers, who at this point seem almost incapable of listening to any voice but his.
I want you to imagine a jigsaw puzzle. It took a long time to complete but it is finished. Look at it. It's an image of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, enshrined within our Constitution. 1/5
You may not have time to wade through the whole of the WHO report on how Covid and other viruses transmit, so here's a thread to summarise it.
Grab a cup of tea and get comfy.
1/🧵
I’d be willing to bet you didn’t know the FTC just released a report about why grocery prices are high and that’s 100% due to corporate greed.
I’d bet you probably hadn’t heard because mainstream media doesn’t think this is front page news.
I’d bet they don’t think it’s front page news because it goes against their “Biden is to blame for high prices” narrative.
I’d bet it goes against that narrative because most media is owned by five rich men who want to keep these prices high, and return republicans to power at any cost because it’s better for their tax bill despite the cost to the rest of us.
We ran this story on our podcast because independent media isn’t dependent on the status quo. 👊
Awhile back I went to a specialist for unexplained & painful lower leg swelling. His diagnosis?
“Maybe your legs are just getting fat.”
Horrified…I asked how many people gain weight ONLY in their calves. He shrugged me off. A 🧵 on knowing your body & advocating for care /1
No Government has said that it’s now safe to go in indoor public spaces without wearing a respirator mask.
None.
They have however said you need to assess your own risk. So I hope you’re all reading the latest science eg how SARS2 shrinks your brain and damages your heart.
A huge point missing from the 'cumulative risk' discussion is that it's not just about the cumulative risk of developing long-COVID population-wide, but also what happens to the quality of life of those who have long COVID with subsequent infections. Or does no one care?
🚨NEW Report presents findings from a review of Long Covid to guide New Zealand’s Public Health response.
Report concludes that “preventative action is urgently needed”.
Let’s dive into the details as the findings are relevant for ALL countries.
🔗 https://t.co/r1Ud8MPRx4
/1
It's time for the World Health Organization to formally retract this tweet.
Retract it.
Act like an adult. Say that you're sorry. Say that you made a mistake.
Say "We were wrong. The evidence is now clear to us that it is, in fact, airborne."
Disability can happen to anyone. Many of us were healthy - until we weren’t. Instead of arguing with disabled ppl because you assume we’re lazy, lying or “not trying hard enough”… listen & help us build a more supportive system. One that will be there for you when it’s your turn
Four years ago today, I walked into the apocalypse.
Crossing the line in the ER felt like entering a whole other world.
Frenetic alarms.
Patients strewn about, struggling to breathe.
Too few staff. Too many deaths.
Covid was everything.
It had completely taken over our ER
It’s important to reflect on where we started and where we are.
We started with Trump entering politics pushing Birtherism, the racist lie that Obama wasn’t a legitimate president.
When he ran in 2016, he ran on a platform of “locking up” his opponent… 1/ 🧵
There needs to be a word for the genre of gaslighting that paints people who are *appropriately cautious and concerned in the face of real threats* as pathologically "anxious".
Calmdescending?