Simon Weir

Dear Gen X, I’ve been watching 80s movies and I just need to know…WHERE WERE YOUR PARENTS?? Every child was just wandering the earth unsupervised like a raccoon with house keys. Riding bikes across town at midnight, fighting ghosts, investigating murders, befriending cryptids, hacking government computers for funsies… And the parents were ALWAYS “out of town” or “working late” while the only adult-adjacent supervision was some random 16-year-old who got dragged into the chaos. No cell phones. No helmets. No adult supervision. Just vibes, life lessons, and several near-death experiences. You all weren’t “raised.” You were lightly monitored feral creatures with a bike and unresolved trauma. I’m genuinely shocked there are enough of you left to populate an entire generation.

These quick thoughts by Michael Jochum on the disturbing reason Trump gets as much support as he does is a must-read 👇 I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is. I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others. If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy. If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy. If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it. It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume. Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” And that’s the part that should chill us. Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform? Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress. Now the mask is off. Now we know. And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand. – Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

BREAKING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine are nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

“AND YOU STILL DARE TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH…” Sasha Legerman: This is too accurate not to share. This Australian’s response to Trump’s rant that “NATO does nothing for America” is absolutely devastating: “Mate. You run a country where 600,000 homeless people will sleep on the streets tonight. A country where 40% of adults can’t cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment, and people ration it just to stay alive. A country where medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy. A country where women die in hospital parking lots because doctors are too afraid of abortion laws to treat miscarriages. You imprison more of your own citizens than any country on Earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. In the land of the free, 2 million people sit in cages, and a quarter of them haven’t even been convicted of anything. They’re simply too poor to afford bail. Your life expectancy is declining. You’re the only developed nation where that’s happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba’s. Your children practice active shooter drills between math and English classes while you sell defense stocks to your friends. Your minimum wage hasn’t changed in 15 years. Your teachers work two jobs, your veterans sleep under bridges, and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that never attacked you. And now a convicted criminal — found liable for sexual abuse, defending a pedophile, sleeping with a porn star, and running the biggest dumpster-fire campaign since the Taliban — is thanking you for yet another disaster. And you call Greenland badly governed? Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody there goes bankrupt because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because insurance refused treatment. ‘NATO wasn’t there when we needed them.’ When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn’t even in NATO, and we still showed up. For twenty years. And then you left at 2 a.m. without telling anyone and left everybody else to clean up the mess. You don’t care that a great nation is being terrorized by your friend, and you haven’t shown it a single ounce of sympathy. So maybe before calling other countries badly governed, take a look at your own backyard, you aluminum siding salesman with a spray tan. The only thing badly managed in this picture is your damn mouth. And you still dare to lecture the rest of the world?”

Elon absolutely hates being called Sissy SpaceX™ so double check if you're still following me, and retweet for visibility.

Hey #smokefleet I’m 42 followers away from 1,000. Help me out and retweet this! I’ll follow everyone back.

David, we all know what your plan is. - Privatisation of govt services - Charter schools - Mandatory health insurance - Lower minimum wage - Less employee rights Making businesses wealthier while making people poorer. More power in the hands of corporations. @dbseymour

In today’s NZ Herald

More "do as I say, not as I do" bullshit.

When these vipers got in the first thing they did was a $2.9 billion tax rebate for landlords. Now, with a homelessness & cost of living crisis they increase social housing rents and GIVE Landlords $387 million from the poorest of the poor Kiwis. This is OBSCENE #nzpol

#smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises #smokerises

Dolly Parton is a rich woman, but instead of obsessing about building a golden ballroom, she has made more than 300 million books accessible to children. Be more like Dolly.

The biggest driver of societal collapse over history has been wealth inequality. We must tax billionaires out of existence. #TaxTheRich

Latest NZ Govt announcement about state housing represents another fundamental assault on it: it was never designed as transit housing; rather it aimed to provide secure homes. That security is now under attack. nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/bu…

This woman is clearly a sociopath #nzpol

Fucking disgraceful, punching down, troughing witch Upston Smashing the poorest yet again, while she cashes in. Vote accordingly. #nzpol

Fuck this shit, fuck our government, fuck Seymour, fuck Peters, and fuck the American president for inspiring this kind of reprehensible legislation. stuff.co.nz/politics/36098…

can someone PLEASE work on exposing who is paying for the bot networks driving discourse on social media in nz? I swear they will be ACT or FSU aligned bc we all know the hundreds of accounts tweeting bigotry under bob7254859 and emilyfreedom637982 are not real fucking people

@Jessicaalfa00 I see you!

Seems like I'm totally throttled on here. Just testing if I can post a post ... can you see me? #smokefleet #smokefléét #smokeflèèt