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The Week on Twitter | Strike4Repeal, Piers Morgan, & Nazis

By Jade Hayden

This week, a Nazi got punched, Piers Morgan was an idiot, and we all planned to Strike 4 Repeal. The Oscar noms also came out, so I finally decided to watch La La Land. It was fine.

Activists launch #Strike4Repeal movement #repealthe8th

On March 8th this year, activists and pro-choice people around Ireland will Strike 4 Repeal, unless the government announce a referendum to repeal the 8th amendment. Every day, 12 women are forced to travel outside of the country to receive basic healthcare. Many more cannot afford to. This year alone, over 300 women have already made the journey abroad to have an abortion.

The Irish government have consistently ignored the public’s demands for a referendum on the 8th amendment. To some, the Citizens’ Assembly pointed to a step in the right direction. To others, it was nothing more than a delay tactic, introduced to ensure that any real change to the constitution and the treatment of our women would be a slow, lengthy process.

So, on Monday the people of Ireland were asked to Strike 4 Repeal instead. Similar to the mass Black Monday protests in Poland that saw the Polish government back track on a law that would further restrict abortion services in the country, the strike will see women not attend work or fulfil domestic duties for one day. Organisers of the strike have asked that women book a day off work in advance or stage a walk-out during lunch time. Others are asked to wear black in solidarity for the thousands who have been forced to leave over the years.

Strike 4 Repeal spokespeople Avril Corroon and Aoife Frances said that the Citizens’ Assembly is “no more than a hollow pretence of progress,” and that “a national strike is not only possible, but an incredible opportunity to show the sheer power of our movement, and to put pressure on the Government to call a referendum.”

Support for Strike 4 Repeal dominated Twitter this week, with hundreds of users tweeting encouragement, and many others stating that they had already booked a day off work.

The strike is due to take place on March 8th all across the country. Strike 4 Repeal have said they will release further details closer to this date.

https://twitter.com/Ormakapay/status/824559653220745216

https://twitter.com/GoChaela/status/823545716060618752

#RichardSpencer gets a punch to the head, remixes happen

Over the weekend, the Women’s March happened. Well, a load of Women’s Marches happened actually. In Washington, over 500,000 people took to the streets in protest of Donald Trump’s presidency, with almost 5 million people participating in different marches worldwide.

The Women’s Marches took place the day after Trump’s inauguration last Friday which saw its own fair amount of protests and rallies in and around D.C. Present was altright.com’s co-editor and self-proclaimed Nazi propagandist Richard Spencer. Spencer was explaining his Pepe the Frog badge to a reporter on the street when someone showed up and punched him in the face. It was great, because Spencer is a Nazi, and the last thing Nazis deserve is respect and to be sure that they will not be punched in the face at regular intervals throughout the day.

Some people denounced the punch, stating that violence incites violence, and that nobody should be punched in the face ever, no matter how many Jews they would like to see exterminated. Others called bullshit and applauded the punch, glad that someone somewhere had finally challenged a Nazi (albeit with their fist), instead of consistently putting them on TV programmes and radio shows and letting them spread their white nationalist message to millions.

As soon as footage of Spencer being punched appeared online, people started making remixes. A lot of them. There was a Phil Collins one, a Sonic the Hedgehog one, and lots of other ones that I can’t remember right now but someone made a thread of them on Twitter so go watch it because they are all equally fantastic.

https://twitter.com/Dpzzle/status/822648919431794688

#PiersMorgan talks about Ewan McGregor for a long time

This week, in a not-so-shocking twist of events, Piers Morgan was an idiot. Following the justified attention and support being paid to the Women’s Marches around the world, Piers decided to take to Twitter to declare that he, in fact, thought the whole idea was ridiculous. He thought that there should be a Men’s March instead. He changed his profile picture to him and Donald Trump. He’s the worst.

Lots of people disagreed with Piers’ comments. One of those people was Ewan McGregor, who decided that he would not go on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday because Piers was the host. Ewan explained this fact, calmly, via one tweet. Piers responded in a rage spawning about 75 tweets and one whole column about why Ewan McGregor is a “child rapist loving hypocrite who hates free speech.” He then did some more tweets about it. Fuck, he’s probably still tweeting about it right now.

Some people including Alan Sugar and Ed Miliband took to Twitter to take the piss out of Piers. It was good. I approved. More of this in the future, please.

#OscarNoms released

This week, we learned all about the Oscar nominations. Unlike last years’ nominations, at least one non-white person was actually nominated (!). And similar to last years’ nominations, most of them were still white, of course.

This years’ nominations include Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, and not Amy Adams. Lots of people were upset about this because Amy was unreal in Arrival. It may in fact be her best role to date, after 2007 live-action/animated musical fantasy romantic comedy film Enchanted, of course.

La La Land broke some records by being nominated for 14 Academy Awards. I heard this and decided to watch La La Land. Ryan Gosling’s character is an abominable creature. Emma Stone deserved better. It was fine.

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Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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