Today in mental health cat

Federal election tomorrow. We’re probably going to be spared a conservative government this time for very dumb reasons. I’ll take it though, even though the likely winner is part of the world order that brought us to this moment, moreso than Trump.

Anyway, I’m winding down my already minimal doom consumption, and cutting down on the various pissing in the wind podcasts I’ve listened to over the last while - already depleted too. Part of that is finally blackhole routing the Guardian on my computers, to break the habit I have had since childhood of going there first as if it has some special authority. It does, to my dad, and did, to my mum. It probably will always have that baseline impact on me, which is all the more reason to cut it out completely.

I’ve written elsewhere about some reasons why that is. I’ll go find that and post it here at some point, but in the meantime, here’s a couple of awesome headlines.

Gaza on brink of catastrophe as aid runs out and prices soar, groups warn

What is a catastrophe, if not what is presently the case?

What does it mean, to be on the brink of catastrophe. Is Gaza on the edge of a cliff which is crumbling? As I understand the situation, there is no food, no medicine, and Israel’s military is bombarding Gaza and murdering health workers.

What is the purpose of the passive voice in this case? “Aid runs out” is inaccurate, because aid does nothing, it has no agency. Similarly, prices don’t soar, there is nothing poetic about food being unaffordable, and there is a cause, which is initiated with agency. The agency here is all within the gift of the Israeli military, which is not mentioned in this headline at all.

Toilet access should follow biological sex but trans people still need facilities, UK watchdog says

“Biological sex” is a term of propaganda which begs the question. Similar to “natural justice” or “rational self-interest”, or best of all “common sense”, it has no actual relationship with consensus reality, providing merely a placeholder for people to insert their own untethered assumptions and prejudice.

Nobody actually knows what “biological sex” means, other than being a shiboleth for hate filled bigots.

“Toilet access” is a phrase which competes with the entire year of 2016 for the UK title of “things that shout ‘we are all fucking morons and not at all serious’ to the world”.

Nope

The guardian has always platformed TERFs, and has always been a haven for white entitlement masquerading as champaign socialism. It is not even left of centre any more. It flattens the discourse using the passive voice and giving equal priority to lost sausage dogs and missile attacks. It even fixes Trump’s grammar, and for what reason would you do that?

I’ve run out of patience for now. I’ll pick out some more for later.