Fascinating Guardian piece on online thuggery. Important, even. Here.

One part of it really struck a chord with me: as a pale-skinned establishment kind of guy, I haven’t experienced even a fraction of the online abuse that women or minorities experience daily.

Sure, a lunatic – I know who he is, he knows I know – made it is his personal mission to spew all kinds of hateful crap all over the (necessary, unwanted)  Warren Kinsella Wikipedia entry. For years. But that’s about all I’ve experienced. I just ignore it. I know I have an online footprint that is bigger than what the lunatic can ever achieve. I’m doing okay.

But what is described by the author of this Guardian piece – and the subject-matter of the tale, Monica Lewinsky – simply dwarfs anything a guy like me can ever experience. Reading it, I almost can’t believe she didn’t end it all. 

What moves these truly pathetic men to say these things? Are they mentally ill? Are they monsters? Why are their victims almost always women? Many questions. 

Anyway. I like the suggested solution: take back your good name. Push back. Assert your narrative.

Good advice for those of you out there reading this, wondering if it could ever happen to you.

It could.

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Dr. Swann was there and plenty of other great folks. But can you spot Rockin’ Al?

  

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Tonight! I’m home!

  

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Ha ha ha, etc.

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It's disconcerting when people clap when the plane lands, because it means you were travelling with people who thought we were all goners.

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 14, 2016

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To be seen and not heard. That’s it.

I admire this man. But he is the Governor General and he should NEVER comment on politics. Ever. Huge mistake. https://t.co/t0IQL3waPF

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 13, 2016

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To be seen and not heard. That’s it.

I admire this man. But he is the Governor General and he should NEVER comment on politics. Ever. Huge mistake. https://t.co/t0IQL3waPF

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 13, 2016

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We are not a country.

That is the only conclusion that can be reasonably reached, when what is happening in Attawapiskat is happening again. Suicides, and suicide attempts, in numbers that leave you without words.  Or should.

When the Attawapiskat stories started to break over the weekend – with their bleak, black, grinding sameness – I came to the conclusion that there are now only two things that will truly change all this. One, the police start investigating it, and some people – the ones responsible, as well as the ones who have been irresponsible – get thrown in jail. Or legislatures get shut down, literally, until a cabinet minister or two is forced to resign.

I have written about this subject before, more than once. And, yes, I am biased, because I am so proud to be a father to a citizen of the Carcross-Tagish First Nation. But I am so fucking fed up with these serial horrors, and nothing ever changing.

My daughter, meanwhile (and typically) is much more gentle than me. I encourage you to read what she says, and the Boyden too.

And then I encourage you to push, once and all, for real and meaningful change.  Because, until we do, we will never be a real country.

We will only be complicit.

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Me and the boys in SFH got together last night and did a blistering version of this here love letter to The Donald. Sing along, New York!

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