A wee media brushfire was sparked by mother-of-one MP Maggie Barry’s silly interjection that MP Jacinda Ardern’s not having children somehow reduced her credibility when discussing laws aimed at supporting parents.
The kerfuffle sparked a hilarious twitter trend #maggiebarrystandingorders which merrily mocked the dumb idea that MPs need direct experience of whatever it was they were discussing/debating for their viewpoint to be legitimate.
Of course, that’s not what Ms Barry was suggesting, she was just heckling, but that’s satire for you: exaggeration.
Further media attention followed because a bunch of journos (ahem) are on Twitter.
From the shallow to the deep: Here’s a compelling interview with Joan Didion, discussing the process of grief and her book & play The Year of Magical Thinking. It contains this comment:
Q: Can we learn anything profoundly human without having the experience?
Joan Didion: I don’t think so. I mean, it’s astonishing to me how much I continue to learn simply through experience. You would think we would be able to project ourselves into other people’s situations, but it turns out we have to experience it ourselves.
Video worth watching:
– P
Joan Didion interview via Andrew Sullivan, bless him.
