Diarmaid

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

As a connoisseur of racism, I have found no greater joy than discovering other language realms on X where they are truly light years ahead.

Behold the great meme war between the Turks 🇹🇷 and Chinese 🇨🇳 which has been brewing now for 3 days!

It began with a small Turkish account posting a meme of a cat wearing a straw hat + slitty eyes + wispy moustache. A Chinese user then replied with a meme of Patrick Star from SpongeBob parachuting next to the Turkish flag, with a caption along the lines of “I heard the Turkish flag was designed like this, is that true? Both were from small anonymous accounts but now has been viewed by several millions.

Turks took it as mockery of a national symbol and all hell breaks lose.

The broader historical and cultural pile-on on both sides were equally impressive in its deep knowledge of Ottoman / Chinese history, along with very creative vulgarity. I read one Chinese tweet calling Turkey the fleshlight of the entire world. Both sides insulted each other as “might as well be Indians.” Then it got super testy when it ventured into Turkestan/Xinjiang/Uyghur territory, and soon out came digs about the Turkish lira, China virus and other general nationalist trash talk.

The next stage was the free speech Olympics. Turks started posting images of Xi Jinping and daring Chinese users to criticize him to prove that China is “free.” Chinese replies often flipped it to “you criticize Xi but none of you dare criticize Muhammad.” When no Chinese account could criticize Xi, the Turks concluded they were all bots.

The latest stage has been the international expansion.

Japan + Taiwan + Azerbaijan + Spain lined up with Turks against China.

Japanese accounts were the most visible contingent. Taiwan joined the Turkish side for obvious reasons. Azerbaijan was in Turkic solidarity mode. South Korea and Spain too for reasons which are not clear to me.

Iran + Greece + India + Egypt joined up with the Chinese against Turkey.

I saw an Iranian account openly telling the Chinese to keep going and “discipline the Turks” because the Ottoman/Persian rivalry runs deep still. Greece obviously went against the Turks and as for India, who knows. Could’ve gone either way but they chose the Chinese.

The whole thing, while viscous and passionate at times, has strangely left me with the warm fuzzies. Imagine how much more boring life would’ve been without @X’s auto-translate feature

[Buitengebieden @buitengebieden]

Dog tells his owner his blind friend deserves a treat first.. 🥺

Dogs are the best.. 😊

[vittorio @IterIntellectus]

holy shit
he’s going for the jugular of the propaganda machine

[Katie - Restore Britain @KatieRestore]

HMRC has failed its own audits for 20 years in a row.

Just think about that.

[Modern McCarthyist @McCarthyist2]

Caviar communists. These people are worse than the invaders, they’re traitors.

[Gary Spike OSullivan @spike_osullivan]

Call me an ignorant man but what kind of a fxxking country are we becoming 🤢🤦

[Rob Carry @RobCarryBray]

Something strange about this case.

The @rtenews report refers to 'False allegations, misinformation and disinformation' being circulated online.

So is the suggestion here that there was no crime?

Because according to the @IrishTimes, the man said after caution, “I just kissed her.”

Isn't that an admission? Or does kissing a random 10-year-old girl not warrant a conviction for sexual assault?

The public has a right to demand that this man is taken off the streets or better yet - put on the next plane out of here.

https://t.co/QGQ1dJGolC

[Diarmaid @Diarmaid01]

@Warmaster_Abdn Strongbow Dark Fruit - Black Templars

[Brendan Kavanagh (Dr K) @brenkav]

Six police surround myself and my wife and arrest us at home. This is from the police bodycam footage. We’re currently taking action against Bedfordshire police for this outrageous arrest. Myself and my wife were clearly soft targets, not exactly hardened criminals but they handcuffed both anyway …all charges dropped after a couple of months with no apology or explanation. The children were terrorised and they’ll never trust the police again.

[John A. Douglas @J0hnADouglas]

No one in the history of media knew the interior workings of a young boy’s brain better than Bill Watterson

[IrelandRising 🇮🇪🇻🇦 @NewIrishRising]

The trial of the migrant who raped a 10 year old girl at CityWest Hotel in Dublin was due to start today.

Instead, the prosecutor has dropped the charges, on the date of the trial commencing.

Judge Nolan has accepted this and immediately released the migrant.

The State also happens to have been the legal guardian for that 10 year old girl. The State was also supposed to have deported him half a year before the assaults.

And by the way, the migrant himself admitted guilt to one of the two charges, stating that he kissed her. His excuse was that she told him she was 18… a 10 year old girl.

I suspect we will hear a deafening silence from many corners of what is simply the anti-Irish political landscape.

https://t.co/wrXo8AYehp

[Mark W. @DurhamWASP]

“His deepest need was that people should like him. An admirable trait that; in a spaniel, or a whore — not, I think, in a Prime Minister...”

[Josh Billinson @jbillinson]

The kids are too young to remember the time James Franco and Seth Rogen caused an international incident

[𐕣 @Gottalovechaze]

coworker passed away over the weekend. we were informed during a meeting, everybody was shocked for about a minute, then the meeting continued like nothing happened. bro, these jobs really aren’t worth the strain we put on ourselves

[Z∀⅄⅄N @ZayynHassan]

There's a very big difference between an artist deliberately exaggerating Black people's features in a stereotypical way to make fun of them and an artistic choice that happens to portray Black people in an unconventional way without any racist intent.

This is not racist.

[Smugseid97 @FlorenceLupin]

Speaking as someone who is socially awkward myself, if you see the mundane interaction of hugging your grandparents as a violation of consent, you are fucked in the head, most likely evil, and I feel no sympathy towards you.

Like, gIve me a fucking break.

[Sensurround @ShamashAran]

Okay. I'm going to explain something here, because apparently we've reached the point in human civilization where BASIC FIREARMS SAFETY is now a controversial political position.

There is a concept in engineering called "defense in depth." It's a fairly simple idea. You have multiple, independent layers of protection against something going catastrophically wrong, because human beings are remarkably creative when it comes to finding new and exciting ways to screw things up.

For example, commercial buildings have automatic fire sprinklers. They ALSO have fire extinguishers.

"But the building has SPRINKLERS!" you might exclaim. "Why do we need FIRE EXTINGUISHERS? What are you, some kind of ANTI-SPRINKLER BIGOT?" No. We have both because fires are bad, and we'd prefer the building not turn into a large, expensive barbecue.

This brings us to firearms. Most of us "gun bros" (and chicks/sisters/catgirls/whatever) are familiar with something called Cooper's Four Rules of Firearms Safety, named after Jeff Cooper, who was something of an authority on the subject.

They are:

1. Treat every firearm as though it is loaded. ALWAYS.
2. Never allow the muzzle to point at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger OFF THE TRIGGER until your sights are on the target and you are ready to fire.
4. Be absolutely certain of your target and what lies beyond it.

Notice something interesting about these rules?

They work TOGETHER.

They're an example of DEFENSE IN DEPTH.

Suppose you accidentally point your firearm at something you don't particularly want to shoot, such as your television, your dog, or your Uncle Bob, who has already had a difficult week.

Well, if you're following Rule Three, your finger isn't on the trigger.

And if you're following Rule One, you're behaving as though the gun is loaded, EVEN IF YOU PERSONALLY UNLOADED IT FIVE MINUTES AGO.

Here's something that firearms instructors understand, and apparently a surprising number of people on the internet do not:

HUMAN BEINGS ARE IDIOTS. Not ALL the time, mind you. Frequently enough that entire engineering disciplines exist to protect us from ourselves.

Sometimes we forget to unload a firearm. Sometimes we THINK we unloaded a firearm. Sometimes we're absolutely POSITIVE the safety is engaged, when in fact it isn't. Sometimes we install a mechanical device designed to prevent a firearm from discharging, and then behave as though this magically repeals the fundamental principles of firearms safety.

It does not. A mechanical safety device is ANOTHER LAYER OF PROTECTION. It is not a permission slip to disregard all the others.

This is why responsible gun owners follow these rules even when the firearm is unloaded, even when the safety is engaged, and even when we're absolutely certain the thing couldn't possibly fire.

The whole POINT of defense in depth is that when one layer fails, the others are still there to prevent somebody from having a REALLY BAD FRIDAY IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM.

I suspect part of the problem here is a fundamental difference between British and American firearms culture.

In Britain, firearms are sufficiently restricted that, for most people, getting your hands on one involves obtaining the appropriate government permissions, satisfying various legal requirements, and presumably presenting a signed note from the Archbishop of Canterbury confirming that you are a responsible adult.
Meanwhile, over here in the United States, we crazy Americans can, (subject to the applicable laws,) just BUY THE DAMN THINGS.

We own them. We shoot them. We clean them. We take them to the range. Some of us own enough firearms to equip a moderately sized Central American republic.

Contrary to what many of you seem to believe, this does not mean we're all wandering around our living rooms casually pointing loaded shotguns at Uncle Bubba while shouting "YEEHAW!" Quite the opposite, actually. Because we regularly handle firearms, responsible American gun owners develop habits specifically intended to prevent Uncle Bubba from having to explain to an emergency-room physician why he's suddenly acquired an additional hole leaking important biological fluids.

We follow multiple, overlapping safety rules precisely because we understand that mechanical devices can fail, people can make mistakes, and bullets are notoriously reluctant to return to the barrel once they've been fired.

And this brings us to the photograph.

The reason people are criticizing the officer in the hijab is not, contrary to your fascinating theory, that she is a WOMAN. Or that she is a MUSLIM. Or that she is wearing a HIJAB.

It's that she's handling a firearm in a manner that violates basic firearms safety principles.
Here's the really astonishing part:

WE EXPECT TRAINED PROFESSIONALS TO KNOW BETTER.

I know. Shocking. We expect electricians not to lick exposed wires. We expect surgeons to wash their hands. We expect airline pilots to remember that LANDING is generally considered an important part of flying. We expect police officers to demonstrate safe firearms handling.

These expectations do not magically disappear because the professional in question happens to belong to a demographic group you believe requires special protection from criticism. In fact, I'd argue that holding her to a LOWER standard because she's a Muslim woman would be considerably more insulting than holding her to the exact same standard as every other armed professional.

Her religion is irrelevant. Her sex is irrelevant. Her clothing is irrelevant.

HER FIREARMS HANDLING IS THE ISSUE.

And if your first instinct upon seeing someone criticize unsafe firearms handling is to accuse them of religious bigotry rather than examine the actual safety concern, I would respectfully suggest that you have confused firearms safety with a sociology seminar.

This would be merely annoying if we were discussing something harmless, like the proper way to load a dishwasher. Unfortunately, we're discussing a device specifically designed to propel a piece of metal at extremely high velocity. Those devices, unlike internet political arguments, have a nasty habit of producing consequences that cannot be fixed by deleting your post.

Which you should consider doing, anyway.

[Lauren Chen @TheLaurenChen]

Any time I see Billie Eilish in the news, she's either complaining about capitalism or trying to sell me something.