Author: Max Frances
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Slacking Off
Ever wondered why the struggle for autism rights is like pushing water uphill with a fork? Look no further than the scorched-earth, slacktivist absolutism of self-centred, butthurt, keyboard warriors. I found this out when I had the temerity to question the vitriolic criticism of a film that none of the froth-mouthed slogan-jockeys had even watched.…
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The Wrong Notes
When Aussie singer/songwriter Sia produced her film Music, she probably hadn’t anticipated the unmitigated shitstorm from disability activists who have blasted her as ‘ableist‘. The reason? The film centres on an autistic teenager, and shock horror, the actor cast in the lead role is not autistic. And apparently, a non-autistic producer is exercising undue privilege…
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Smash-and-Grab
Never prior to 2020 did the sands of sanity shift as they do now with unfathomable regularity. Back in the loony bin of the UK’s Coronaresponse engine room, some faceless, but majestically twisted tit has fluffed up a concept hardon that will take some beating – a 5-day Christmas holiday from restrictions that the public…
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The Icing on the ‘Cake’
This week’s European entertainment came to us courtesy not of the usual Vaudeville Euro parliament speeches, but of Poland and Hungary as they stuck the kai-bosh onto the EU’s bug recovery budget. And what a corker it was. Went down like a vomit gazpacho in Brussels. Well that’s democracy for you. Or to put it…
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The Needle
Opposition politicians have awakened from their slumber and are demanding, ‘financial and criminal penalties for social media companies that fail to censor posts promoting anti-vaccination content’. Anti-vaxxing is nothing new, along with anti-everything. That’s democracy for you. But just let these calls sink in for a moment. Not in terms of whether you agree with…
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Poise On
While it made the headlines, we did not witness the expected dogpile onto Dominic Cummings in the wake of his apparently premature evacuation. A few expected barbs from our old centre-left faves who momentarily broke away from their Diwali celebrations, and that was about it. The whole affair is characterised largely by stunned silence: the…
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Colour Me Bad
Greg Clarke, the FA Chairman, has fallen on his sword for, among a selection of meek faux pas, describing black people as ‘coloured’. From that point, everything was going to get stuffed into the fact-mincer. ‘Coloured’ is a problematic term because while it is deemed by many to be offensive, ‘of colour’ is not. ‘Of…
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A Message to You, Rudy
That is one freefall from grace. No, not Trump’s impending evisceration at the hands of every gagging investigator on the planet, but Rudy Giuliani’s personal chute-less nosedive. After 9/11 this was the guy America embraced, and deservedly so for his leadership. Then he hitched his cart to the Trump horse, and the rest as they…
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Bye, Den
It’s customary for the US Presidential Election to be followed by a transition period, but in this context, you have to wonder whether there would be any point in it. Hard to imagine that Joe Biden will have too much interest in slicing tee-offs, spaffing investor cash, and grabbing pussy. ‘Stop the count!’ was the…
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Fact Up
It’s the one most striking paradox about 21st century democracy. The moment a politician starts to lose their grip on power, they lose their grip full-stop. Invariably, this heralds a bullish attempt to unpick the legitimacy of those who had exercised their democratic choice Of course, the very same rogues had employed fakery and charlatanic…
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