Can you imagine, any normal person wanting to get into politics these days would want their heads examined, and you know because of the current climate we’re gonna get the politicians we deserve, and we’ll only have ourselves to blame:
Two things that stood out to me:
1) Cairns being unable to do constituency clinics. That’s really bad at an individual level, as it severely disadvantages her against other TDs in the constituency. It’s also really bad to hear that this is happening, as it presents the appalling vista of politicians becoming less accessible to all simply because of the actions of a handful of fucking nutjobs.
2) Cairns saying she wouldn’t have entered politics if she knew the kind of abuse she’d get. I generally think you’d be mad to enter politics anyway, but if we make it so intolerable to become a politician that only complete weirdos are willing to do it then we’ll get complete weirdos…
People say TDs are overpaid, but there isn’t enough money in the world to be putting up with this shite. She should be given a Garda driver so she can actually do her job, but l wouldn’t blame her if she did run in the next election.
As much as I can’t stand Cairns and the SocDems after their nutjob ZeroCovid stance, nobody should be afraid in their jobs and people should be allowed to safely express their opinions. The ballot box is there for anybody who disagrees, it’s a very important lesson in this country, particularly with our history.
I’ve said it here before, but once again in this context.
I’ve got a decent career than pays me well, about 80k. I left a job that was paying me almost 100k because my work life balance sucked.
I’ve got a good degree and professional chartership. I’ve bought a home and am raising a family in the area I grew up in and have become really active in my community. I’ve set up a community group of my own, I’ve been half running a youth club and help out in a bunch of other ways. I’ve put together a proposal which the council have taken on to get funded to help the town.
Everyone says, I should become a County Councillor. I’m conscious that the area is infuriatingly underrepresented on the council and I’d be honoured to do it. If I did it for a few years and enjoyed it, I’d consider running to become a TD to make a bigger impact.
But I won’t. This sub, social media and just the public in general is so toxic, I couldn’t put myself or my family through that. The abuse and uninformed expectations people have around politicians is now so warped as to make it totally off-putting to anyone who can’t block it out entirely.
And that’s the kicker. The poisonous and cynical tone now taken against all figures in political life has meant that the only type of person who would get into it is someone who can ignore the public. We’ve got many of the politicians we have now because we’ve made it unpalatable for anyone else to put their head above the parapet.
I can make TD money and nobody will know or attack me for it and I’ve worked with so many brilliant people over the years earning more than TDs or senior civil servants who could be masterful in such roles and none of them would trade what they have now for such a toxic position.
Utterly appalling. And part of a wider picture of violence toward women. The response is always too slow.
Bets are it’s one of those far-right nutjobs doing this, and notice how they only go after small party candidates that could challenge the government, not FF/FG.
I’m growing more certain over time that the far-right in Ireland are useful to the mainstream parties, and that FF/FG _want_ the far right to grow.
Protesting at the homes of government politicians is an effective way to protest as well, so I’d say there’s a push to preempt that and ‘encourage’ smaller parties to back restrictions against it, through stuff like this – when smaller parties should _not_ react like that, we should see more protests directly against government politicians instead, in response to stuff like this.
This is just sad. Especially when she says if she knew then what she knows now, she’d never have entered into politics. She’s already faced sexism and harassment because she’s fairly outspoken on issues that bother some people. I hope she keeps going.
When you see the abuse these people get on social media etc. I think it’s only a matter of time before someone is attacked. Yesterday it was announced Eamon Ryan was getting a Garda escort when cycling between meetings etc. and half of the comments were wishing he was killed on his bike. People absolutely seething at his decision not to want to use a ministerial car, actually setting a good example. He’s probably the most hated man in Ireland. The amount of anger towards some politicians is crazy, and social media backs them up with all the other trolls egging them on.
>Cairns saying she wouldn’t have entered politics if she knew the kind of abuse she’d get.
I find this very hard to believe.
Her boyfriend at the time of entering public politics in 2019 was a county councillor since 2007. She would have surely known from him the level of abuse. People will probably say male politicians get no abuse and that’s why but that’s not true.
Secondly, she’s not stepping down. Why? If the level of abuse is that bad, why not get a private sector job which she’d get easily given her profile. No one is forcing her to remain a TD.
That’s appalling. Not pursuing charges against the guy will likely encourage him though, maybe in harassing her or somebody else.
The abuse single female politicians get is even worse than others. You’re really signing any sense of privacy away when you become a public representative, people think they have free reign to abuse and attack you.
Look at what Lorraine Higgins went through years ago, and more recently Jennifer Carroll McNeill. Or male politicians like Simon Harris and Paul Kehoe with people literally barrading them in their own homes. I remember the Simon Harris protestors outside his house got pretty aggressive and he wasn’t even home, his poor wife and newborn baby were though.
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Can you imagine, any normal person wanting to get into politics these days would want their heads examined, and you know because of the current climate we’re gonna get the politicians we deserve, and we’ll only have ourselves to blame:
Two things that stood out to me:
1) Cairns being unable to do constituency clinics. That’s really bad at an individual level, as it severely disadvantages her against other TDs in the constituency. It’s also really bad to hear that this is happening, as it presents the appalling vista of politicians becoming less accessible to all simply because of the actions of a handful of fucking nutjobs.
2) Cairns saying she wouldn’t have entered politics if she knew the kind of abuse she’d get. I generally think you’d be mad to enter politics anyway, but if we make it so intolerable to become a politician that only complete weirdos are willing to do it then we’ll get complete weirdos…
People say TDs are overpaid, but there isn’t enough money in the world to be putting up with this shite. She should be given a Garda driver so she can actually do her job, but l wouldn’t blame her if she did run in the next election.
As much as I can’t stand Cairns and the SocDems after their nutjob ZeroCovid stance, nobody should be afraid in their jobs and people should be allowed to safely express their opinions. The ballot box is there for anybody who disagrees, it’s a very important lesson in this country, particularly with our history.
I’ve said it here before, but once again in this context.
I’ve got a decent career than pays me well, about 80k. I left a job that was paying me almost 100k because my work life balance sucked.
I’ve got a good degree and professional chartership. I’ve bought a home and am raising a family in the area I grew up in and have become really active in my community. I’ve set up a community group of my own, I’ve been half running a youth club and help out in a bunch of other ways. I’ve put together a proposal which the council have taken on to get funded to help the town.
Everyone says, I should become a County Councillor. I’m conscious that the area is infuriatingly underrepresented on the council and I’d be honoured to do it. If I did it for a few years and enjoyed it, I’d consider running to become a TD to make a bigger impact.
But I won’t. This sub, social media and just the public in general is so toxic, I couldn’t put myself or my family through that. The abuse and uninformed expectations people have around politicians is now so warped as to make it totally off-putting to anyone who can’t block it out entirely.
And that’s the kicker. The poisonous and cynical tone now taken against all figures in political life has meant that the only type of person who would get into it is someone who can ignore the public. We’ve got many of the politicians we have now because we’ve made it unpalatable for anyone else to put their head above the parapet.
I can make TD money and nobody will know or attack me for it and I’ve worked with so many brilliant people over the years earning more than TDs or senior civil servants who could be masterful in such roles and none of them would trade what they have now for such a toxic position.
Utterly appalling. And part of a wider picture of violence toward women. The response is always too slow.
Bets are it’s one of those far-right nutjobs doing this, and notice how they only go after small party candidates that could challenge the government, not FF/FG.
I’m growing more certain over time that the far-right in Ireland are useful to the mainstream parties, and that FF/FG _want_ the far right to grow.
Protesting at the homes of government politicians is an effective way to protest as well, so I’d say there’s a push to preempt that and ‘encourage’ smaller parties to back restrictions against it, through stuff like this – when smaller parties should _not_ react like that, we should see more protests directly against government politicians instead, in response to stuff like this.
This is just sad. Especially when she says if she knew then what she knows now, she’d never have entered into politics. She’s already faced sexism and harassment because she’s fairly outspoken on issues that bother some people. I hope she keeps going.
When you see the abuse these people get on social media etc. I think it’s only a matter of time before someone is attacked. Yesterday it was announced Eamon Ryan was getting a Garda escort when cycling between meetings etc. and half of the comments were wishing he was killed on his bike. People absolutely seething at his decision not to want to use a ministerial car, actually setting a good example. He’s probably the most hated man in Ireland. The amount of anger towards some politicians is crazy, and social media backs them up with all the other trolls egging them on.
>Cairns saying she wouldn’t have entered politics if she knew the kind of abuse she’d get.
I find this very hard to believe.
Her boyfriend at the time of entering public politics in 2019 was a county councillor since 2007. She would have surely known from him the level of abuse. People will probably say male politicians get no abuse and that’s why but that’s not true.
Secondly, she’s not stepping down. Why? If the level of abuse is that bad, why not get a private sector job which she’d get easily given her profile. No one is forcing her to remain a TD.
That’s appalling. Not pursuing charges against the guy will likely encourage him though, maybe in harassing her or somebody else.
The abuse single female politicians get is even worse than others. You’re really signing any sense of privacy away when you become a public representative, people think they have free reign to abuse and attack you.
Look at what Lorraine Higgins went through years ago, and more recently Jennifer Carroll McNeill. Or male politicians like Simon Harris and Paul Kehoe with people literally barrading them in their own homes. I remember the Simon Harris protestors outside his house got pretty aggressive and he wasn’t even home, his poor wife and newborn baby were though.