“having to mask made me go fash” is so common and it’s just baffling I mean, yes, it was annoying to wear one all the time? it also wasn’t that big a deal? if, today, someone asks me to put a mask on I go “ok” and put one on and yet so many people treat it as a life-ruining imposition

One of the greatest scenes in a mainstream film. A casual demolition of the very notion that anything is fixed or certain in this world, delivered like Shakespeare by Tommy Lee Jones, right in the middle of a silly movie about fighting an alien bug.

I go back and forth on this because the fantasy of that scene is obviously *nice*. It's nice for younger viewers to see that kind of universal acceptance. But it's also like... no one in that group has anymore complex feelings about it than that? Really? In 1987?

"The pro-democracy movement must include people who want to exterminate entire other peoples from existence."

don’t scroll. please. I have 3 days to stay housed. I need $1,395 by December 31st. My body can’t work due to disability. I don’t have benefits. I haven’t eaten today. I’m drowning. anything helps. ty. c/v: secretladyspider pp: [email protected] ko-fi.com/scretladyspi...

"And I never say no" We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control. We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.

"Hey folks, quick update: we're still being riven by infighting and can't work out what the hell it is we're doing (though obviously we're still very commited to being transphobic)! Logically therefore this is the perfect time to give us your money."

With regards to the discussion of Avatar's cultural relevance (or lack thereof) I think decades of having every major film being based on a pre-existing IP and marketed at geek/fandom circles has warped our understanding of what that even is.

I feel like I've never seen much discussion of No (2012), a fantastic film about political messaging that's incredibly pertinent to our current situation

Cishet white men sure do feel entitled to everything, even *marginalization*.

I'd ideally like to have more space in my life to write consistently. When you work full time everything has to fit into the gaps around that and it's becoming harder to make that work.

Quote this with what you have accomplished in 2025 no matter how small My novel Dido on the Edge got picked up for publication next year Wrote a short story for an anthology also being published next year and got to meet a lot of cool writers doing that Lost about 8kg thanks to healthier living

There's a difference between kindness as an actual value and "kindness" as an excuse to do harm because you enjoy it. No one who wants to strip others of bodily autonony or spiritual freedom truly believe what they do is kind. They do not think you'll be happier after, they don't care how you feel

This is a really good point that I had not run into before: these "creators" have no further insight into their alleged creation than the average audience member and that is why it cannot be called art (besides all the other obvious reasons).

This is a great example of how genAI steals from us all on multiple levels. It's stolen a promotional spot for real books and authors, it's stolen a job from an actual journalist who could have compiled this, it's stolen an opportunity for parents to be recommended good NZ books for their kids

And Tiny Tim, who did not die, you've got the touch, you've got the power. Yeah! After all is said and done

Another thing about Influencers: It's a film made on a shoestring budget, but it looks incredible because they actually went to the south of France and Thailand and didn't greenscreen anything. Increasingly real locations are the best special effect money can buy.

Cassandra Naud should get every award going for Influencers

People can only be two things at once. You can't say they're three things, that's impossible. And biased. Pick two things and be happy you're allowed to even do that.

Your regular reminder that NZ's immigration system is cruel and irrational and as bad as anything you might have read about regarding less "enlightened" countries; the only difference being it is enacted through bureaucratic means rather than physical ones.

Influencers is the first film I've seen where someone being transphobic is used as shorthand for "when this character dies they will totes deserve it" and I feel we should encourage this.

Pluribus rules because it’s forcing people who wanna see a bunch of sci fi lore dumps to instead watch amazing actors have incredibly interesting conversations about what it means to be a person

The War Between the Land and the Sea part five! Main takeaway: Yeah, Kate needs to be fired huh

Any time David Seymour appears in this news claiming to be standing with a minority targeted by prejudice and violence journalists have an obligation to remind us he accepted a donation from a man who threatened to "destroy mosque after mosque until they take me out" www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350...

The Running Man (2025) has a mystifying but fascinating third act. One of those pieces of writing where you can see the ghosts of previous drafts, imagine easily how particular plot points were *meant* to work before it was all forgotten and muddled in rewrites.

So weird how there's no byline on this Herald article which entirely focuses on the statements and actions of Brian Tamaki and his goon squad, and doesn't even *describe* the Sikh faith or what their parade was for or provide any context into why they would be targeted (racism, cowardice)

I'd like to look at my work and have it feel complete. Not in the sense of being finished necessarily, but in the sense of it being a single thing created with purpose instead of the result of countless drafts layered on top of each other. Something where the intent and meaning feel clear as day.

Doesn’t feel good that the head of BBC News Content is instructing reporters to refer to trans people with slurs. If this leak is real it raises questions about who made this decision, who was consulted, and why the BBC chose to ignore its own editorial guidelines on slurs and offensive language

Everyone's freaking out about kids being trans, not enough people are freaking out about them being literal nazis

Well I have a book out next year so ideally I'd better work at getting better at promoting stuff, because that'll be important at some stage.

You know a thing that is very bad about this? This is the anti-trans playbook being played against women. Start with 'has the x movement failed the people it's supposed to help', then infantilize them, then make the case they can't be responsible for their own choices, then take their rights away

So you won't die (figuratively) on our hill, but we're expected to uncomplainingly die (literally) on your hill. Seems fair.

Once again a reminder: We can have trans rights, bodily autonomy, gender nonconformity, and freedom of expression, or we can have none of these things. There’s no third option.

At the Block the Ban protest this evening! Come join!

Hi all, I need some help covering rideshares for medical appointments starting today, hoping to raise at least a couple hundred dollars to make up for the cost. I appreciate shares and any help you feel moved to give! Thank you! #helpsky www.gofundme.com/f/help-may-a...

I mean there were a lot of things but primarily it was getting cast in a gender flipped production of Aphra Behn's The Rover as Hellena. And look, if you don't know the play, that is a FUN role and once I got to be her I was not going back.

Read about this last night (complete with the detail of his own-head-like finger tracing the carefully scripted line as he read it out), and thought it might be a new low for Luxo, and perhaps the most blatantly racist statement from a PM since Muldoon.

Mass uncontrolled immigration ok luxon are you gonna ban Australians from NZ cause who was responsible for terrorism on our soil? Racist piece of shit.

A rare and fascinating close reading of what was said in the NZ Parliament about the Bondi attack. Reading carefully from prepared remarks, PM Chris Luxon referred to “mass, uncontrolled immigration”… …drawing an off-the-cuff rebuke from Labour’s Chris Hipkins: #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

A round up of some of the protests against the government's attempted ban on puberty blockers happening this week (those I am aware of). Would be cool if cis people could show up to these in force! It would make me personally happy and I know you care about that.

My sense is that the “male loneliness crisis” is not really about addressing men’s emotional needs but rather the relatively newfound absence of having someone to perform domestic labor for you quietly in the background now that there is a longer gap between your mother and your wife doing it

As networks reportedly cut back on lgbtqi+ characters in response to Trump we have this viewership for a show with a lesbian fantasy romance novelist main charracter and Heated Rivalry, adapted from a gay hockey romance series, as the number 1 show on HBO.

I honestly don't think people like this are as fooled as they appear. They don't actually think LLMs are people, they think they're what people should be: nice to them all the time no matter what. They'd like real people to have to do that as well and hope the predominance of LLMs will force them to

Ngā mihi to the Greens for this statement and the support!

This is a massively popular show imminently to have no legit means for people to view it (there is a DVD, but not of the whole series that I can find). Streaming services are toilets that will flush everything you love eventually.

Any reprieve will be a godsend for a lot of kids who need to access care. Thanks to PATHA for doing this.

BREAKING: The High Court of New Zealand has granted PATHA’s application for interim relief, declaring that the Crown should not take any steps to enforce the incoming ban on new prescriptions of puberty blockers to transgender children and young people. More to come:

Support Rangatahi and Whānau Affected by the Ban on Puberty Blockers #nzpol givealittle.co.nz/cause/we-got...

The War Between the Land and the Sea part four! (I did not realise they were still doing two episodes a week). Things certainly jump forward a bit in this one, huh?