MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
@mjoneillchw.bsky.social
Disabled trans gal with superpowers. Building the dream of a society that supports everyone in it :)
Pinned
Home sick with le flu. Updated my website. If you want to a) get a comprehensive rundown on what creative/corporate projects I’ve been getting up to or b) setup a little regular donation to help me survive/do whatever it is I do, hit it up ❤️
www.mj-oneill.com
www.mj-oneill.com
Such a strange link of clauses, too. "When they ask for a head of state, I think they have a right to mourn." It's like "when I do the dishes, I'm pretty sure the trees outside are deciduous". Is there an actual link? Maybe, maybe not, we ain't tellin'.
Sadly amusing that it took Haaretz to pick up on this line by Albanese
February 11, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Such a strange link of clauses, too. "When they ask for a head of state, I think they have a right to mourn." It's like "when I do the dishes, I'm pretty sure the trees outside are deciduous". Is there an actual link? Maybe, maybe not, we ain't tellin'.
I take a lot of hope from the various stories of media being clawed back from private equity psychos. AV Club’s recovery is wonderful ❤️
I've waited a long time to be able to say this, but we're hiring a full-time Film Critic for @avclub.com! Details are in the job listing, but you should send application materials to jobs@avclub.com
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
homer simpson and bart simpson are sitting on a couch
Alt: homer simpson and bart simpson are sitting on a couch
media.tenor.com
February 9, 2026 at 10:29 PM
I take a lot of hope from the various stories of media being clawed back from private equity psychos. AV Club’s recovery is wonderful ❤️
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
I very genuinely do not think that Australia's media industry can be classified as any other than fully supportive of police violence, because you have to actively, consciously and knowingly work to frame what happened as general "violence mars protests" rather than "police violently attack protest"
February 9, 2026 at 8:59 PM
I very genuinely do not think that Australia's media industry can be classified as any other than fully supportive of police violence, because you have to actively, consciously and knowingly work to frame what happened as general "violence mars protests" rather than "police violently attack protest"
Amazing work on that headshot, it looks like even he doesn’t believe that headline.
It’s practically a work of art that he thinks we’re all that stupid.
February 9, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Amazing work on that headshot, it looks like even he doesn’t believe that headline.
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
For all the PM's talk about our "Pacific family", Australia is a neighbor from hell.
We burn and sell the fossil fuels which put their futures at risk (yet promise "meaningful action").
We pillage their labour force then mistreat workers when they come here (yet call it "win-win scheme").
We burn and sell the fossil fuels which put their futures at risk (yet promise "meaningful action").
We pillage their labour force then mistreat workers when they come here (yet call it "win-win scheme").
February 9, 2026 at 10:14 PM
For all the PM's talk about our "Pacific family", Australia is a neighbor from hell.
We burn and sell the fossil fuels which put their futures at risk (yet promise "meaningful action").
We pillage their labour force then mistreat workers when they come here (yet call it "win-win scheme").
We burn and sell the fossil fuels which put their futures at risk (yet promise "meaningful action").
We pillage their labour force then mistreat workers when they come here (yet call it "win-win scheme").
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
Here's a threat of Kudelka Gold
February 9, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Here's a threat of Kudelka Gold
Honestly, yep. Compassion is an incredible weapon because, to a hurtful heart and mind, love is searing and incomprehensible. Fortunately, it is also healing and transformative. So, really, it appeals to all impulses. Compassion, try it today.
I don't think they should be punished in those prisons. I think they should be agonizingly kind. More of a reform school that babies them until they're ready to return to regular society. As equals to everybody else. With no power at all. I think they'd find it worse than guillotines.
February 9, 2026 at 8:02 AM
Honestly, yep. Compassion is an incredible weapon because, to a hurtful heart and mind, love is searing and incomprehensible. Fortunately, it is also healing and transformative. So, really, it appeals to all impulses. Compassion, try it today.
I am feeling unattractive and undesirable and awkward and feeling the weight of 30+ years of neurodivergent confusion at people, emotions, socialising, all of it. I’m a go to sleep.
February 7, 2026 at 12:40 PM
I am feeling unattractive and undesirable and awkward and feeling the weight of 30+ years of neurodivergent confusion at people, emotions, socialising, all of it. I’m a go to sleep.
Tell you what, it sucks to see all this stuff about Isaac Herzog and every time I’m like ‘Werner Herzog did what oh right that other fucking jerk’.
February 6, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Tell you what, it sucks to see all this stuff about Isaac Herzog and every time I’m like ‘Werner Herzog did what oh right that other fucking jerk’.
One of the best Tom Hanks performance moments ever is in You’ve Got Mail when he’s seen the media cut him down to a soundbite. “I was eloquent! SHIT!” Just… very relatable.
February 6, 2026 at 11:34 PM
One of the best Tom Hanks performance moments ever is in You’ve Got Mail when he’s seen the media cut him down to a soundbite. “I was eloquent! SHIT!” Just… very relatable.
And it’s worth considering why you never learn how much talent is being missed at an Ivy - and I don’t think it’s because everyone there seems talented.
This woman was Ivy League educated and a member of the upper eschelons of society.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
February 6, 2026 at 11:01 PM
And it’s worth considering why you never learn how much talent is being missed at an Ivy - and I don’t think it’s because everyone there seems talented.
Been thinking about Terry Pratchett’s The Truth lately, which is about a fantasy world making its first newspaper. It starts because a guy just starts documenting gossip/news from his community and selling it for a dollar. I think about how we could start media outlets in similar small scale models.
February 6, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Been thinking about Terry Pratchett’s The Truth lately, which is about a fantasy world making its first newspaper. It starts because a guy just starts documenting gossip/news from his community and selling it for a dollar. I think about how we could start media outlets in similar small scale models.
If you gave a living wage and stable living conditions to everybody in the Phillipines, I reckon you’d be amazed at how many tech grifts immediately fall over.
(This isn’t an indictment on the people of the Philippines. It’s an indictment on tech’s endless exploitation of Filipino labour.)
(This isn’t an indictment on the people of the Philippines. It’s an indictment on tech’s endless exploitation of Filipino labour.)
Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”
It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines
During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.
futurism.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:30 PM
If you gave a living wage and stable living conditions to everybody in the Phillipines, I reckon you’d be amazed at how many tech grifts immediately fall over.
(This isn’t an indictment on the people of the Philippines. It’s an indictment on tech’s endless exploitation of Filipino labour.)
(This isn’t an indictment on the people of the Philippines. It’s an indictment on tech’s endless exploitation of Filipino labour.)
A good example of this is how many well-established artists (me included) look on their earliest experiments with a kind of awe - because that messy joy of intuitive, fumbling creation can yield beautiful things no amount of skill and technique and experience can approximate. Art is *striving*.
The idea that technical skill is somehow an unsurmountable barrier to the production of art betrays a very, very limited understanding of what art is and how it's made. Marcel Duchamp is one of the greatest artists ever to live and many of his most indelible works are *about* the absence of skill.
February 6, 2026 at 9:27 PM
A good example of this is how many well-established artists (me included) look on their earliest experiments with a kind of awe - because that messy joy of intuitive, fumbling creation can yield beautiful things no amount of skill and technique and experience can approximate. Art is *striving*.
I wish I could explain to new people easily that I am
A) Genetically mutated in a one in a billion way, and
B) a survivor of more trauma, violence, abuse and torture than could ever possibly be conveyed
and that, because of those things, my experience of the world is pretty dang singular.
A) Genetically mutated in a one in a billion way, and
B) a survivor of more trauma, violence, abuse and torture than could ever possibly be conveyed
and that, because of those things, my experience of the world is pretty dang singular.
February 6, 2026 at 11:46 AM
I wish I could explain to new people easily that I am
A) Genetically mutated in a one in a billion way, and
B) a survivor of more trauma, violence, abuse and torture than could ever possibly be conveyed
and that, because of those things, my experience of the world is pretty dang singular.
A) Genetically mutated in a one in a billion way, and
B) a survivor of more trauma, violence, abuse and torture than could ever possibly be conveyed
and that, because of those things, my experience of the world is pretty dang singular.
Comms on this shit is always so rubbish. But, I suppose it’s because it’s largely impossible to just say ‘some leaders in our organisation think this stupid shit is cool and efficient despite all evidence to the contrary and we can’t get them to wake the fuck up’.
GOG did an AMA and they all but confirmed that they will continue using Gen AI.
"AI tools are one of many technologies we test and try out, and in some contexts it genuinely helps us push the company (and the mission) forward".
I mean, no way they could pay an artist like before, right?
"AI tools are one of many technologies we test and try out, and in some contexts it genuinely helps us push the company (and the mission) forward".
I mean, no way they could pay an artist like before, right?
February 6, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Comms on this shit is always so rubbish. But, I suppose it’s because it’s largely impossible to just say ‘some leaders in our organisation think this stupid shit is cool and efficient despite all evidence to the contrary and we can’t get them to wake the fuck up’.
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
NEW: Here's the list of the 144 processes Centrelink has flagged as operating unlawfully or erroneously
There's so much to go through, including more false debts, failures to record ppl's circumstances & income properly, & the whole-scale fuck-up of Rent Assistance
www.aph.gov.au/api/qon/down...
There's so much to go through, including more false debts, failures to record ppl's circumstances & income properly, & the whole-scale fuck-up of Rent Assistance
www.aph.gov.au/api/qon/down...
February 6, 2026 at 8:53 AM
NEW: Here's the list of the 144 processes Centrelink has flagged as operating unlawfully or erroneously
There's so much to go through, including more false debts, failures to record ppl's circumstances & income properly, & the whole-scale fuck-up of Rent Assistance
www.aph.gov.au/api/qon/down...
There's so much to go through, including more false debts, failures to record ppl's circumstances & income properly, & the whole-scale fuck-up of Rent Assistance
www.aph.gov.au/api/qon/down...
She is clearly someone taking the fight to the fascists and pedophiles directly by being good friends with them and saying all the same stuff as them and funding their campaigns.
interesting how one can find jk rowling rubbing shoulders with every notable fascist and pedophile currently alive, but never in the same room as anyone who actually fights for women’s rights or marginalised people.
at some point the charade has to be up with these people…
at some point the charade has to be up with these people…
February 6, 2026 at 11:28 AM
She is clearly someone taking the fight to the fascists and pedophiles directly by being good friends with them and saying all the same stuff as them and funding their campaigns.
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
Rivers of Reason: Blak & Arab Writers in Conversation now has a date, venue, confirmed speakers and program. Plus fabulous artwork/branding! Ticket (free) will hopefully go live this Monday. It's been a wild ride organising this 5-hour event, and contributing to the umbrella group of Constellations
February 6, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Rivers of Reason: Blak & Arab Writers in Conversation now has a date, venue, confirmed speakers and program. Plus fabulous artwork/branding! Ticket (free) will hopefully go live this Monday. It's been a wild ride organising this 5-hour event, and contributing to the umbrella group of Constellations
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
This woman was Ivy League educated and a member of the upper eschelons of society.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
February 6, 2026 at 11:25 AM
This woman was Ivy League educated and a member of the upper eschelons of society.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
I'd spent time in domestic violence shelters and mental institutions.
You know what you learn from mingling with the bottom rung of society that you don't learn at an Ivy? There's a lot of talent being missed.
People may be inclined to think this is true the world over but, when you look at the details, Australia is *unusually severe* in this regard. We have the highest pay package of a head of state in OECD but the lowest welfare package in the OECD; highest house prices, fewest renter protections, so on
Also worth noting that the defo laws are a reflection of Australian society’s overwhelming historical context of rich white dudes screwing over everyone else. Housing, welfare, media, defo law - it goes back to colonisation and rich white dudes keeping it going for 200 years.
I have a 30 minute oration about how Au defo laws shape everything you see and hear in this country's media landscape. If some organisation or group of organisations cannot use *Epstein plotting to weaponise Au defo law to kill inquiry into his wrongdoing* to push for reform, we have no hope.
February 6, 2026 at 10:20 AM
People may be inclined to think this is true the world over but, when you look at the details, Australia is *unusually severe* in this regard. We have the highest pay package of a head of state in OECD but the lowest welfare package in the OECD; highest house prices, fewest renter protections, so on
Also worth noting that the defo laws are a reflection of Australian society’s overwhelming historical context of rich white dudes screwing over everyone else. Housing, welfare, media, defo law - it goes back to colonisation and rich white dudes keeping it going for 200 years.
I have a 30 minute oration about how Au defo laws shape everything you see and hear in this country's media landscape. If some organisation or group of organisations cannot use *Epstein plotting to weaponise Au defo law to kill inquiry into his wrongdoing* to push for reform, we have no hope.
In the DOJ's Epstein documents, Lawrence Krauss, facing a complaint of sexual misconduct, noted Australia's plaintiff friendly defamation laws: "We may need to initiate a lawsuit (and against Gizmodo in Australia, where basically anyone can sue and win)"
February 6, 2026 at 10:18 AM
Also worth noting that the defo laws are a reflection of Australian society’s overwhelming historical context of rich white dudes screwing over everyone else. Housing, welfare, media, defo law - it goes back to colonisation and rich white dudes keeping it going for 200 years.
Pretty much anything you see happening in America was happening in the world outside of America long before. I always think of TL Huchu who, when asked about envisaging a dystopian Scotland, replied - ‘I didn’t make a dystopia. I just took what was happening in Zimbabwe and put it in Scotland’.
Been thinking a lot about these Washington Post layoffs, and the parallels to what happened to the media in Kenya in the 2000s. For context, Kenya had one state owned broadcaster until 1992 but we have always had at least two newspapers (often more). We had one radio broadcaster in two languages.
February 6, 2026 at 10:14 AM
Pretty much anything you see happening in America was happening in the world outside of America long before. I always think of TL Huchu who, when asked about envisaging a dystopian Scotland, replied - ‘I didn’t make a dystopia. I just took what was happening in Zimbabwe and put it in Scotland’.
Reposted by MJ O’Neill 🏳️⚧️
As a professional heritagist I’m fascinated by the uses of historical memory to create significance and there are lots of frameworks to model that process (‘retro’), and I can say definitely: ‘hetconning’ is a fucking winner of a term
A primer on hetconning for new readers: hetconned.substack.com
I’m interested in fantasy as a political technology, and the markets the contemporary right are setting up to sell those fantasies to further the wider right-wing project.
Hetconning is the frame I’m using to map and examine them.
I’m interested in fantasy as a political technology, and the markets the contemporary right are setting up to sell those fantasies to further the wider right-wing project.
Hetconning is the frame I’m using to map and examine them.
February 6, 2026 at 2:24 AM
As a professional heritagist I’m fascinated by the uses of historical memory to create significance and there are lots of frameworks to model that process (‘retro’), and I can say definitely: ‘hetconning’ is a fucking winner of a term
I’d love to turn into a tribute to every person and peoples victimised by the Trump admin. I’d erase all reference to Trump in and around it and just list all the victims of ICE, DHS, Kennedy, Epstein, Israel all of them. His only lasting impact on the building - a tribute to his betters.
February 6, 2026 at 2:23 AM
I’d love to turn into a tribute to every person and peoples victimised by the Trump admin. I’d erase all reference to Trump in and around it and just list all the victims of ICE, DHS, Kennedy, Epstein, Israel all of them. His only lasting impact on the building - a tribute to his betters.