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Let me be blunt:

If you voted for Trump, or if you support Trump and/MAGA, if you want that kind of leadership and/or policies in Canada …

YOU ARE A FASCIST! You are my sworn enemy. You support hatred and murder. You are a hateful person.

This isn’t about your politics. It’s about your morality and support for a civil society. Fascism is immoral. Fascists are immoral. Period

Unfollow me now. I will end friendships over this. I will cut family from my life forever over this. I have no delusions that you can be saved from fascisms grip, so I will not even bother trying to convince you otherwise. Fascism must never be allowed to exist in any form, anywhere. If that includes you, drop dead. You are dead to me already.

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The election results are screwing with my depression today. I’m a gay trade union officer - the first groups the Nazi’s sent to the camps.

I’m looking forward to nuclear war today. The human race will be wiped away, but small woodland critters might repopulate the planet.

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Sweet Jesus the US is depressing the hell out of me!

How on earth can this even be close?

How on earth can anyone who is not a complete sociopath vote for Trump?

Is humanity really so broken?

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I feel very sad for his father. I believe he is the one who took Liam to the X-factor audition when he was 14. He would have never thought he would be burying his son 17 years later.

I'm old enough that Liam could have been my own son. No parent should ever have to bury their child, ever, for any reason.

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Liam’s death really hit me last night in the non-clinical “holy shit this is real” kind of way. While sitting by the door to give treats to the neighbourhood little bastards I decided to start rereading a fanfic. A few pages in enter Liam, and there it was: he exists only in fiction now. Whatever life he had has been like lived, and any new “adventures” are either the creation of authors (or perhaps a multiverse).

I had to stop reading. As odd as it sounds I couldn’t bring myself to read about this version of Liam knowing that his mother’s son no longer existed.

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This is very important...

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DEAR AMERICANS UNDER 30 - TAG, You're it!

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November ...

How fitting that this is the date for the election to determine the fate of democracy around the world. And it all comes down to whether or not the under 30 crowd bothers to vote. As a Canadian Gen-X, I am filled with existential dread about next Tuesday. To me it seems so plainly obvious that Kamala Harris is the only logical choice; but then again, I'm not in a cult.

But for those who think your vote doesn't matter, let's talk electoral math. In a 2 candidate race, you need 50%+1 to win. NOT 51%!!! A candidate must get 50% of the total votes cast, plus one additional vote. Your vote may well be that one additional vote that decides the outcome of the election in your district, state, and ultimately, the nation. One person, one vote, that's all it takes.

If Trump wins it will almost instantly trigger an election in Canada, fueled by dark money from the US and overseas, it will most likely elect our Conservatives - many of whom area MAGA-CANADA. Democracy is then dead in North America. With Trump elected NATO dies, Russia and the US roll over Europe and Africa; China takes Asia and the Pacific, and within a few short years democracy no longer exists anywhere in the world. With Trump elected in a few months Vance invokes the 25th Amendment, making himself President. With sham elections, or no elections at all, he is President for the next 40 years.

If you want to see how easy it happens, there is an excellent documentary on Youtube : "Third Reich: The Rise & Fall"

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Justice Denied: Liam Payne Edition

So the past few days I've been thinking about how Liam's death has robbed him and his accusers from obtaining justice. The following thoughts will probably piss off a lot of people, but here they are.

Liam was accused of doing some pretty horrible and illegal things. Can you spot the operative word in that sentence? He was ACCUSED; nothing more.

I've seen a lot of posts around on multiple platforms saying "Believe the accusers," and then going on to talk as if everything accused was tried and tested fact. But it's not. It's a 50/50 chance of being true .. and sadly, now, always will be. I fully support believing the accuser in the beginning. We need to make sure they are safe and not at risk of further abuse. But once they are separated from their alleged abuser, the story does not end.

Liam's death has denied both him and his accusers of a proper investigation to determine the FACTS. He and his accusers have been denied the opportunity to test their claims in court and have a jury of their peers separate fact from fiction. Not ever accusation is true; that is just a sad fact of life. Every untrue allegation makes it a thousand times harder for true victims to be believed and properly helped. We live in a world where even the allegation of abuse can destroy a life.

There are people who will always believe that Liam was an abuser and sexual predator. There are people who will never believe the allegations. The rest of us will never know the truth, because Liam is dead and there is no way to prove or disprove the allegations. I don't know if the allegations are true or not; no one does. And that really pisses me off.

Justice has been denied in this case. Either Liam was a criminal, and has escaped justice; or his accusers lies, and will never be held to account for the end result of those lies. A lose-lose all around, and a damned sad outcome for everyone.

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Grief as Performance Art

I've been a 1D fan since 2012. Not an OG fan, but long enough to have seen some things. One of the biggest lessons I have learned since discovering 1D is that this fandom has the best people in the world; and the worst people in the world. Today I am focusing on the latter.

This is the fandom that brought signs to concerts calling Zayn a terrorist. This is the fandom that demanded unyielding attention from the band at all times, and turned vicious at the slightest perceived slight. This is the fandom that saw nothing wrong with turning 16 year old Harry into a living sex doll, and homophobically attacking anyone who dared wonder if he kissed a boy. This is the fandom that worshipped Liam and then called him a miserable and reckless alcoholic when he walked on a balcony railing whilst drunk. This is the fandom that would viciously attack any one of the boys if they didn't make social media posts about every event in their lives (god forbid Louis should call someone on their birthday instead of making a tweet!)

And now, in the wake of Liam's tragic death, is the fandom of Performative Grief. The same people who sent him online hate are now expressing their love for the man. The same people who convicted him as an addict and abuser without a second thought are now saying things like "I didn't want him dead!" But I have to ask: when you decided to believe the accusations without any investigation, when you convicted him in the court of public opinion without any chance to defend himself, when you called for his life and career to be destroyed, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN??!!

As I browse through Tumblr and Twitter profiles, I see so many people trying to outdo each other in their performance of public grief, all the while being the same people trying to destroy him not 2 weeks ago. It's frankly disgusting. No one is taking accountability for their role in Liam's death. You knew he struggled with addiction. You knew he struggled with mental health issues. You knew how devastative abuse allegations can be, whether they are true or not. You knew - and you still attacked. And now that your attacks turned deadly, you want to turn the attention on to yourself and your award worthy public grieving. Really, just get a hold of yourself! What you are feeling is NOT grief, it's guilt.

Anyway ... yeah ... I'm a bit pissed off at a lot of things.

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Trauma & Grief: When your abuser dies

[TW: ABUSE, GUN VIOLENCE]

I want to touch on a topic that is close to my heart. But a little back story: my eldest brother, 23 years older than me (mom had me at 43, the fool!), was a bad addict his entire life. My the time I was 6, he had 2 kids and an ex-wife in hiding to escape his abuse. He shows up Christmas eve high on gods knows what, with a rifle, demanding to see his kids. For the next 6 hours I saw with a gun barrel against the back of my 6-year old head with a madman threatening to take away Mom's baby boy if he couldn't see his. And when he finally relented and put down the gun, were the police called? NOPE - instead I was sworn to secrecy and left home alone for several hours while my parents drove him to the local Rehab. 6-months later we are at our cottage one weekend when my Mother, deciding that all my brother needs is "family love", demands that I spend time with him ... alone. Within an hour he is high and forcing me to play Russian Roulette with a very real and very loaded gun. 3 trigger pulls in I am able to slip out of his grip and run. He aimed the next shot at me and missed, blowing a huge hole through a wooden bench. Needless to say, I spent the next 40 years terrified of the man, and deep in therapy in my adult life to deal with this trauma. To this day clicking noises make me stiffen up.

He died 5 years ago, and I spun out a little. He was my bother. My other siblings were deep in grief. Me? I was ... happy. I was relieved! I slept better than I had in years in the days following his death. And it made me feel guilty as hell.

But my therapist said something that always stuck with me: YOU DON'T OWE YOUR ABUSER YOUR GRIEF. AND IT IS OK TO BE HAPPY SOMEONE WHO ABUSED YOU IS DEAD.

With the death of Liam Payne, there may be people on here who suffered abuse in their life who are feeling relief. That is OK. There may even be fans on here who were abused by him, who may be happy he is dead. That is OK. You don't need to be dicks about it and publicly cheer, but if there is something about Liam's death that makes you feel better, THAT IS OK! You do not owe anyone your grief!

So yeah ... feel what you feel. Do you. Fuck the rest.

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Mikey Graham from Boyzone issued a plea to record companies to implement a “new duty of care standards” for young artists in the industry.

[full article here]

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If you can get to a Liam memorial, please go. It will be so healing. The 1D community is like nothing else. Find one here

The stories about what Liam and 1D mean to each person, the respectful listening and space for everyone, kindness, tears, joy and absolute delight in talking for hours about every little detail.

The 1D Rainbow Direction spirit is more present than I thought. Sometimes when you look at social media it seems like that couldn't be possible.

I can't even explain it other than this experience made me the most hopeful I've felt about the future of the fandom in a long while.

Got to meet @lilacliam and @youmakemestrong!

Liam Payne memorial, Chicago, Oct 19 2024

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Liam's Payne's Trauma Response

In my day job, I wear two hats: I am a National Appeals Officer for Veterans Affairs, and a Regional VP for my Union responsible for Mental Health. I have over 25 years of experience working with those who have experiences trauma in one form or another, and the after effects upon their lives and the lives of those who love them.

I can say with absolute certainty that Liam Payne was a deeply traumatized individual. No one is born evil; Liam was not born to do horrible things. But because of the trauma of his teenage years at the hands of Simon Cowell and Syco he, like millions of others, turned to alcohol and drugs to self-medicate. It's a well known fact that when you are famous access to drugs is as easy as access to water. But unlike others, Liam did not have the option to seek treatment. Far too many people financially relied upon his image and music to let him go. He was an expendable resource, no different than printer ink, to be used until empty and them replaced.

Stories of Liam's abuse and sexual misconduct do not surprise me at all. Both are incredibly common trauma responses. A way to take back the control that was taken from him. This is not to excuse his actions, but to explain the underlying causes. We will not be able to properly address issues of addition and sexual assault if we do not accept that the abusers are quite often trauma victims themselves. No one is born evil; no one is born an alcoholic; no one is born an abuser - all of these are creations of the society and culture around them.

I really hope this time we can see serious change happen, and not just let Liam become yet another in a long line of traumatized child stars who flamed out way too young. But it starts with education. For those who are interested, this link is a good starting place. But after education comes ACTION. The 1D fandom has immense power: we are mostly young voters - the ones EVERY political party in the world desperately want. If we want change to happen, we can do it.

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I wonder why he didn't retire from public eye for a few years to pull himself together. Wouldn't those close to him told that. He doesn't have to make a living. He already made his money. I just don't understand this. He could have done so many things other than making music.

It's not that simple. First and foremost, making music was his passion. It is what he always wanted to do. But it wasn't just about Liam.

He had a management team who managed his career, and relied on him financially. There were the session musicians who relied on financially. Tour team, PR team, recording studio staff, paparazzi's and the magazines that relied on their pictures ...

Liam was a talented musician. But for far too many people he was also a financial asset they intended to extract every last penny from. He wasn't a real boy to them - he was a $ with legs. That was the reality of his life from the age of 16. He couldn't just walk away. And really, where would he go?

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child stars dying young directly or indirectly as a result of fame-related trauma is just so especially sad. for me it’s the tragedy of how kids don’t really know what they’re signing up for when they ask to be famous, especially back in 2008. liam’s mistakes, addiction, and bad decisions, are all so inarguably tied into his career and the carelessness of the entertainment industry. the 31 year old man that just died is the same 16yo boy that was given drugs and alcohol to keep him quiet while he was being overworked and exploited. corey haim, river phoenix, judy garland, and so many more. you can think what you want about liam and have your own opinions, but don’t lose sight of the larger picture that he was a victim of.