Donal Trump and managing emotions in the here and now

Roman mythology and American colonial expansion Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:01Blindboy Boatclub?

  Slip gently from James Headfield's headlock, you sweltering Brenda's. Welcome to the Blind Boy Podcast. Happy New Year, you glorious cunts. We're in the midst of a weather warning here in Limerick City, and we had snow. There was snow the other day. When it wasn't really snow. I don't know what I call it, "snow." I adore the empty silence of a snowstorm. When you get a decent dose of snow in Ireland, the world goes quiet. Everything stops. Because everybody is relishing the snow. Like, we get decent, proper snow, maybe once every five years. And we were supposed to get this yesterday,

• 1:46Blindboy Boatclub?

  so as soon as it began to descend, I ran outside to stare up at the sky. And I knew by the way it was descending. That it was disappointing snow. It was a type of slithery grey sleet that fell like a dying bird. And I watched it dissolve on dog shit. So it's not real snow. It's not the fluffy crunchy stuff that lands with a like a soft puffing noise. So we got a lot of this pathetic snow that very quickly turned into a kind of tarmac hadum slush. But that slush, that slush melted. And now it's like minus four degrees.

• 2:29Blindboy Boatclub?

  So the slush has turned into a very dangerous ice. Now, if you're from Canada or somewhere, you're probably laughing at me because minus four degrees is nothing to you. But we don't have the infrastructure to deal with snow and ice in Ireland. So the government just freaks out and tells everyone to stay at home. Now, I've spoken about this particular ice. I think the last four years, we exist in a very strange period because we are witnessing climate change in real time. Every year I experience weather conditions that didn't exist when I was a kid. And this incredibly slippy sweaty ice, I've only started to see this in the past four years.

• 3:12Blindboy Boatclub?

  Like even yesterday, for instance, we're in the middle of this orange warning and the government are telling people not to leave their homes or take unnecessary journeys. But also my weather app told me that it was the hottest recorded temperature for that day on record. So it's freezing at nighttime, but then the daytimes are weirdly warm. So you get this extra slippery thawed ice that freezes again at nighttime. And I just don't remember it. I don't remember this from my childhood. I remember ice, but the ice would would stay frozen. It wouldn't all be dripping wet at two o'clock in the day. I remember ice 10 years ago, but not this new sweaty slippery shit. That's only the past three years.

• 3:53Blindboy Boatclub?

  So I'm in my office now to record this podcast in the wonderful quiet. But I have to be cautious that I don't leave it too late because as the night progresses, the temperatures are going to drop to minus seven tonight. And I definitely don't want to be getting a taxi when it's minus seven degrees. Just doesn't feel safe. So this week's podcast might be, might be shorter than I had initially planned. I've been locked into my gaff the past few days because of the ice and the weather warnings. So chaos has been introduced to everybody's life. And Donald Trump is talking about buying Greenland. Why does Donald Trump want to own Greenland? Why does America want Greenland? There's not much in Greenland. It's the North Pole. Not a lot of people live on Greenland.

• 4:39Blindboy Boatclub?

  Greenland is massive. It's currently, it's a territory of Denmark. But America wants to own Greenland for the same reason that this week's podcast might be short. Slippery, sweaty, melty ice as a result of climate change. Greenland is at the North Pole. It's melting. It's melting away. And while all that ice melts away, the rock is exposed. They did a report in twenty twenty-three and now they reckon that Greenland is full of essential raw minerals, critical raw minerals, that we can now mine because the ice caps have melted because of climate change. So that's one reason that Donald Trump wants Greenland for the United States.

• 5:23Blindboy Boatclub?

  But it's not the main reason. The main reason is as the ice melts around Greenland, it's opening up new shipping routes. If you listen to any of my podcasts from the past few months where I spoke about Israel and the Middle East. And one of the big reasons that Europe and America lets Israel do whatever the fuck it wants is because Israel is effectively a gigantic aggressive aircraft carrier in the Middle East that defends the economic interests of the global north. Not just by protecting all the oil, but because of Israel's proximity to the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is a man-made canal.

• 6:09Blindboy Boatclub?

  Just above Egypt and underneath Israel, the Suez Canal is, it's the shortest route from Europe to Asia via ship. If capitalism was an animal, the Suez Canal would be the spinal cord. The passage of goods from east to west happens via the Suez Canal. Oil tankers, technology, food. If anything happened to the Suez Canal, it would cause the collapse of the global north. So the Suez Canal is, it's one of the reasons you have such a huge western military presence in the Middle East and Israel. That's why the Houthis, the Houthis in Yemen are attacking all the ships that want to enter the Suez Canal. So the ships are having to bypass the Suez Canal and go all the way around Africa, which

• 6:54Blindboy Boatclub?

  is a huge distance. It's non-feasible. That's why the Suez Canal exists. But the world is round. And as the ice caps melt, new shipping routes are gonna open up. So because of climate change, because the ice caps are melting, very soon there's gonna be this, this new shipping route that would allow goods to travel from western Europe to east Asia forty percent quicker than using the Suez Canal. China and Russia have already agreed to work together on these new shipping routes over the North Pole. Everyone's just waiting for the ice to melt more. So that's why Trump wants Greenland.

• 7:35Blindboy Boatclub?

  He wants America to own Greenland so that America can control the brand new climate change shipping routes that are gonna emerge in the North Pole within the next twenty years. Trump, by the way, doesn't believe in climate change. The same capitalism, the same forces of trade and globalization that are causing climate change, that are causing the ice caps to melt. Are now being seen as a wonderful new opportunity by billionaires to establish shorter shipping routes. So when the waters rise and weather gets more extreme, at least ships will be able to travel from Western Europe to East Asia forty percent quicker than using the Suez Canal.

• 8:18Blindboy Boatclub?

  So Trump wants to, he wants to buy Greenland off Denmark. And Denmark are like, no, we're not selling Greenland. And the reason Trump says that he wants Greenland is he says that it's for very important national security reasons. The same thing they say about Israel, the same thing they say about American presence in the Middle East. This is for security. People want to kill Americans. No, the, the ice caps are melting and there's going to be very new important trade routes opening up because the ice caps will be gone. And in order for America to continue being the most powerful country in the world, it wants those routes to be on American soil. And that would be the case if America buys Greenland.

• 9:00Blindboy Boatclub?

  Trump today also hasn't, he hasn't ruled out using the military to just take Greenland if that's what he wants. And Denmark is in NATO. So that would mean the United States going to war with Denmark for Greenland. So Trump isn't even in fucking power yet and he's already after threatening another NATO member. But there's a synchronicity that I see between Trump's words and his behaviors and the time of year that he's saying these things. There's a Roman god, a god in ancient Rome by the name of Janus. Ancient Rome, how it conducted itself, how it administrated itself.

• 9:42Blindboy Boatclub?

  Ancient Rome is, is, it's the model, the model of Western imperialism. Britain based itself on ancient Rome. America bases itself on ancient Rome. Rome is the model for empire building, continually expanding and then bringing conquered territories.

• 10:02Blindboy Boatclub?

  Assimilating them culturally into the culture of Rome. That's what the British Empire does, that's what America does. And ancient Rome had a pantheon of gods and mythology. And these gods, their stories and their mythology completely propped up the ideology of Roman Empire. And one very, very important god was Janus. The mythology of ancient Rome and how Rome was founded, like the stories, not history, but the mythology is, there was a woman in Italy called Rhea. Now, Rhea was a, she was a vestal virgin, like a holy woman, but a virgin.

• 10:44Blindboy Boatclub?

  Now, the reason that Rhea was a virgin, a vestal virgin, is she was forced to be one by her uncle. Rhea's dad had been a former king, but this king was displaced and put out of power by his brother, Rhea's uncle. So, Rhea's uncle is like, she's the ex-king's daughter. So, if she gets pregnant and has a son, that son is the heir to this throne. So, she can't get pregnant. So, I'm gonna make Rhea, my niece, a virgin, a vestal virgin. But one day, Rhea gets pregnant. And everyone is like, oh, my God, how are you pregnant? You're a virgin, you're a vestal virgin. How are you possibly pregnant? Virgins can't get pregnant.

• 11:29Blindboy Boatclub?

  So, then Rhea goes, I haven't had sex with anybody, but the god Mars, he got me pregnant. And then everyone is like, okay, that makes sense. That's how a virgin can get pregnant, if a god does it. Does that sound familiar? Yes, it does, but this was long before, this story is long before the story of Holy Mary and Christ, but it definitely influenced it. So, Rhea is now pregnant, and then her uncle, the king, is like, fuck, she's pregnant. And she gives birth to not one, but two boys, twins. And now her uncle is like, fuck this, those babies are the heir to this throne. I'm killing them, I'm gonna kill those two baby boys.

• 12:14Blindboy Boatclub?

  The two boys' names were Ramulus and Ramus, so the king orders their death. Now, for whatever reason, he doesn't wanna execute babies. So what he does is he gets Romulus and Ramus and he leaves them by the banks of a river, abandoned to basically just die. But then, a wolf comes along. A she-wolf comes along and this wolf raises the two babies, Romulus and Ramus, and they suckle on the wolf's milk. So these, these two babies grow up to be vicious, strong, powerful, determined boys. And eventually, men who are raised by a wolf, ferocious.

• 12:57Blindboy Boatclub?

  And then, when they become young men, they discover their true identity. They go and find their grandfather, the supposed king, kill his brother, and then restore, restore their grandad to the throne. So then Romulus and Ramus are like, Jesus, that was great, crack. Why don't we start our own city? So they fuck off into the middle of Italy and they form Rome. They form Rome as a, a small little town, but they want Rome to become great, to become massive. And they look around and they go, there's not enough people here. We need more people. We need, we need a higher birth rate in Rome. So Romulus and Ramus invite their neighbors, the Sabines, who are from another little village.

• 13:43Blindboy Boatclub?

  Romulus, Romulus and Ramus say to the Sabines, "Come to our little village of Rome and have a party with us. Bring all your people." So the Sabines say, "Excellent. We'd love to come to your little village of Rome and have a party." So when the Sabines arrive, Romulus and Ramus attack them. And then they steal all the Sabines' women and they kick the men out and then they, they keep the women. And then proceed, proceed to force themselves on the women that they've taken prisoner. They all become pregnant and now the population of Rome grows. So at the very foundational myth of Rome, there you have justification of, of sexual assault.

• 14:23Blindboy Boatclub?

  For expansion. So the population of Rome gets bigger. And then the Sabin's are like, we want revenge. They took all our women and they made all the women pregnant. We want revenge. So the Sabin's come back to wage war on Rome and they storm the place. And it looks like Rome in its infancy is gonna be killed. The Sabin's are gonna, are gonna win this war against Rome. But then suddenly this god appears by the name of Janus in defense of Rome. And he causes a boiling hot spring to farm out of the earth and then boil all the Sabin's alive. And Rome is triumphant. Then suddenly Rome expands and gets bigger.

• 15:06Blindboy Boatclub?

  And takes the Sabin's territory into Rome's territory. And Rome begins to protect itself with gates. And that god Janus becomes the protector of gates. The protector of transition and thresholds and beginnings. Janus is all about empire and property. Janus protects this gate and this gate denotes Roman territory. And I decide who goes through this gate and who doesn't. If you wanna come through here, you pay a tariff. If you wanna bring your goods through this gate, you pay money because I own this fucking gate. You bring money to bring it through. And that, that becomes a model, we say, of Roman empire.

• 15:50Blindboy Boatclub?

  That's how the Roman empire expands by getting bigger trade and controlling gates and transitions. And this is, it's all bolstered by the mythology of this Janus god. If the ancient Romans controlled the Suez Canal, there'd be temples of Janus all around it. Janus would be on the gate. Donald Trump in, in the past week, right, he said. He wants to buy Greenland, right? That's because of those trade routes. He wants to control the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal, it's like the Suez Canal, right? The Panama Canal goes through Central America.

• 16:30Blindboy Boatclub?

  Without the Panama Canal, ships have to go around South America, which is unfeasible. The Panama Canal, it belongs to Panama. But Trump this week has said, no, I think the United States should own the Panama Canal. And he's also said he wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Again, the Gulf of Mexico being hugely important trade route for ships. So what Trump is doing is it's very Roman Empire-ish. Complete expansion of empire by controlling gates, transitionary pints. Now, if you're wondering why the fuck I'm talking about Roman mythology and Donald Trump? Well, the synchronicity that I see is...

• 17:15Blindboy Boatclub?

  So Janus is where we get the word January. January is, it's literally named after the Roman god Janus. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and one looking backwards. So a two-headed god. The reason Janus had two heads is one head was looking to the future and the other head was looking to the past. In last week's podcast, I spoke about the very fluid perception of time in Irish mythology and parallel universes in Irish mythology. An understanding of time that isn't purely linear. But with Janus there, the Roman god, Janus is very much about linear time. It's not cyclical.

• 18:00Blindboy Boatclub?

  Janus represents the transition from the past to the future, the new year. January, the month of Janus. And January became... The first month of the year, about fifty years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar, who was a Roman dictator, Julius Caesar is the reason. January is the first month of the year. Julius Caesar brought in the Julian calendar, a sort of calendar based around the movements of the sun, and January is the first month because of the Roman god Janus. So Julius Caesar decided that.

• 18:41Blindboy Boatclub?

  Now, the similarities between fucking Julius Caesar and Trump, the way that Trump is behaving right now, saying that he's willing to go to war with NATO, with Denmark and other countries so that he can take Greenland for trade routes, that's pure Julius Caesar. So Rome was a republic, a democratic republic. I'm talking here fifty, sixty years before the birth of Christ, two thousand years ago, a long time ago. But Rome was the Roman Republic. Then Julius Caesar rises to power. He was a general, a charismatic bully, like a strong man, who was very critical of the senators, who he referred to as the elite, like these are the elitist senators, and the common people loved him.

• 19:26Blindboy Boatclub?

  Caesar would use populist tactics, like debt relief, land reform, to get loyalty from the people of Rome. It's like this time when Trump got elected, he was like, your groceries are too expensive. I'm gonna make your groceries less expensive. I'm gonna put tariffs on China. The big thing with Caesar, like I said, Rome was a republic, but when Caesar got into power, he declared himself dictator for life, completely bypassing voting or democracy, like Trump with January sixth, which was, that was an attempt to overthrow American democracy. Also, Trump has intimated, he said, if you vote for me, you're never gonna have to vote again, which suggests that he wants to stay in power for life.

• 20:10Blindboy Boatclub?

  Whether he can do it or not, that's a different story. But Caesar, Caesar expanded Rome massively. He was a colonizer. He was an empire builder. Caesar took power in, in this powerful democracy, the Roman Republic. Then Caesar expanded that as far as France, as far as Britain, but took democracy out of it. He became a dictator, and he went so mad with power. As dictator, his own senators conspired to murder him. There was, they assassinated him, they killed Julius Caesar. Because they felt that he was gonna destroy, that the Roman Republic destroyed democracy. But it was too late.

• 20:53Blindboy Boatclub?

  His heir Augustus just jumped into power immediately afterwards. So that ended the Roman Republic and began the Roman Empire, which was an autocracy. It was proto fascist. And every one of those Julius Caesar accusations are what people say about Trump. Trump is an authoritarian, that he's gonna end American democracy. And with the shit he's saying now about taking Greenland, if he's serious about that, then the international order of the 20th century is gone. And you legitimately entered the era of the American empire. The explicit American empire.

• 21:33Blindboy Boatclub?

  But back to the two headed god, the Roman god Janus, from which we get the month, January. The worship of Janus is where you first really start to see New Year's resolutions. Because Janus is looking into the past and reflecting on the past with one head, but then looking forward with the other head and thinking about how things could be different. So Janus is the god of transitions. The god of the new year transitioning into the next year. Not being reborn, nothing cyclical. The linear transition of one year into the next in linear time. Janus is the god of gates, the god of locks for canals.

• 22:18Blindboy Boatclub?

  The god who oversees the transition from one territory to the next. And who controls at the gate, who goes through, who doesn't, who defends it? And who pays a tariff to come through the gate? So with Janus and Janus's role within the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, you see a very strong ideological flavour about property, ownership, expansion, permission to move between borders and a linear understanding of time. Time being something we transition through. The new year isn't reborn in a cycle. It's a completely new year that transitions in time. And you can take things from the old year into the new year.

• 23:01Blindboy Boatclub?

  And the worship of Janus, January, it's where we get.

• 23:07Blindboy Boatclub?

  It's really where we get the modern practice of New Year's resolutions. Now, the Babylonians had something similar, like 4,000 years ago, but that was around March, around springtime. But when the Julian calendar comes in, and you've got January dedicated to Janus, and Janus is the two-headed god at the gates, and one head is looking towards the future, and one head is looking back at the past. So when the people of Rome would worship Janus, they might make offerings to Janus or sacrifices, and they'd make little promises about the new year, about the new year ahead. They'd look back to the year that's just gone and said, "What did I not like about that last year? Okay, I'm gonna make some improvements.

• 23:49Blindboy Boatclub?

  I'm gonna make a New Year's resolution and make an offering to Janus, to January." I mentioned two weeks ago that my, my New Year's resolution is for my emotions to be something that I respond to, rather than something I react to. I want to pursue that. So I want to pursue that as daily effort. It's not a goal, because that isn't, that isn't something you can arrive at, but I want to have it as active practice every single day. I wanna work on having the, the calmness to be able to notice and observe my emotions and respond to them as they pop up,

• 24:33Blindboy Boatclub?

  rather than react to those emotions and be led by them or controlled by them. And what I mean by that is,

• 24:43Blindboy Boatclub?

  if someone, if someone does something that brings up anger in me, if I react to that anger, now I'm shouting at that person, or attacking that person, or saying hurtful things that I don't really mean, but I'm saying them in that moment because my heart and anger is driving my behaviour. So that's reactionary. Instead, I wanna work on responding to my anger. So if anger pops up in me... I wanna take a deep breath, notice the anger, acknowledge it. Wait, wait until my, my breathing is calm and then I express my, my feelings.

• 25:24Blindboy Boatclub?

  Critically, with the person who has brought up anger in me and set some boundaries. And simply say what I feel, and that's responding to anger. And that's constructive, it builds my self-esteem. It helps me to set boundaries. And it's responding, it's responding to my anger in a way that's compassionate to me and compassionate to the other person. Rather than just screaming and roaring and calling someone a prick. There's rarely any need for that unless I'm actually being physically attacked and I need to fight back. And you can respond and react to, to positive emotions too. Excitement. Let's just say something happens, a, a, a project comes in that's really, really fucking exciting.

• 26:09Blindboy Boatclub?

  If I receive really exciting news, if I react to that excitement. I can make promises I can't keep or set unrealistic goals. Like if you ever bumped into someone you haven't seen in ages and you're like, oh my God, I haven't seen you in ages. I'm so excited to see you. We must do this, we must do that, we must do this. Let's make plans. And you might actually mean that in the moment, you're very excited, but you reacted to your excitement. And made a lot of promises that you can't keep. You don't follow up on them and now you look like a ghoul. So when I get excited, I wanna pause and evaluate my excitement.

• 26:48Blindboy Boatclub?

  I, I wanna have the calmness to be able to feel the excitement, but not necessarily allow it to emotionally flood me. So I can get, I can get excited and happy about something, but not follow through with the words where I over commit. Recognizing the moment that excitedness and giddiness feel great. But the childlike enthusiasm of these emotions can lead to behaving like a bit of a silly billy if you're not careful. Frustration, that's a big one.

• 27:25Blindboy Boatclub?

  How do you respond to frustration? Respond versus react? I get frustrated every day. I'm an artist. I have to deal with blank pages. I have to deal with a blank page that I have to fill with words and ideas. And that, that feeling at the start of creativity, of any task, of initiating any task, that feeling at the start where it's difficult, that's frustration. That feels frustrating. And when I react to the feeling of frustration, the feeling of frustration drives me. Then in my mind, I start making excuses as to why I need to quit the task. I start to tell myself, this is unbearable. I can't bear this frustration. I hate this.

• 28:09Blindboy Boatclub?

  I need to get away from this feeling as soon as possible. I need to quit. I cannot tolerate this feeling. Like frustration is a very interesting emotion because when you feed it intensely enough, you experience frustration as almost like an itch. It's an itchy feeling. Get me the fuck away from this task. My God, this is uncomfortable. It's not painful and it's not terrifying, but it's itchy. I need this to stop. So reacting to frustration will have me quitting a task early. It'll have me giving in to procrastination. It'll have me not thinking about future me. Like with my neurodivergence, frustration is, is what kicks in when I have difficulty

• 28:53Blindboy Boatclub?

  with task initiation. Like cleaning my fucking studio. If I let things get too messy, I can get really confused and not know how to make things tidy again. And I experience that as deeply frustrating. And if I react to that feeling of frustration, I put off cleaning my office and it gets messier and messier and messier. And, and, and it just snowballs into a much larger problem. So what does responding to frustration look like? The first step of respond, responding to frustration is just naming it, naming and acknowledging, Jesus, this is really frustrating. This isn't, this doesn't feel too pleasant at all.

• 29:32Blindboy Boatclub?

  And then noticing and acknowledging my desire to quit and the, my inner monologue that's telling me to quit, noticing those words. And then I look at my breathing. I look at my breathing and I ask myself, is, is this really too much?

• 29:51Blindboy Boatclub?

  Is this really that painful that I have to walk away? Like, is this unbearable? Because I reckon I can tolerate this frustration. It's not nice, but I reckon I can tolerate this frustration. And also frustration is, it's a given, it's a guarantee in any task that's a little bit difficult. Frustration is guaranteed, so I'm gonna breathe. And I understand this isn't gonna hurt me, nothing bad is gonna happen from frustration. I'm an adult, I'm gonna breathe and I'm gonna tolerate this frustration and continue on with this task. And I tell you what, when you do that, it feels fucking amazing.

• 30:31Blindboy Boatclub?

  Tolerating frustration and getting over it and finishing the task feels incredible. And it reduces the chances of frustration popping up again. Here's a really good exercise for frustration tolerance, really simple one. Don't get into an argument with a stranger on the internet. The next time you're on Instagram or Facebook or whatever the fuck, and you see a stupid comment from a silly bastard, or worse, you've written a comment on Facebook or whatever, and a stranger is having a go at you underneath your own comment. You feel triggered, you're angry, you must reply, you must show them, you've been humiliated publicly, you must reply.

• 31:16Blindboy Boatclub?

  Tolerate that frustration, don't reply, ignore it, don't reply. Don't reply to the stranger on the internet. Very rarely, very rarely do you need to get into an argument with a stranger on the internet about a thing. It's incredibly rare that that needs to happen. And resisting the urge to do it, resisting the urge to do it, noticing the feelings of anger that come up, noticing the emotional flooding that can happen when a stranger says something shitty to you on the internet. Tolerate that frustration, it feels fucking amazing and even better.

• 32:00Blindboy Boatclub?

  Every time you resist the urge to get into an argument with a stranger on the internet, every time you do that and tolerate the frustration and you feel good, go and do a task that you were putting off. Answering an email, folding your socks, because you've just gotten a big chunk of free time. Because let's be realistic here about arguing with strangers on the internet. It's never just one comment. If you're not careful, you can end up arguing with a man called Declan on Facebook. You could do two hours of that if you have a social media profile. Are you telling me you have never wasted two hours of your life arguing about bullshit

• 32:42Blindboy Boatclub?

  with a stranger on the internet and then coming away from it going, what was the point of that? So next time the urge comes up, don't argue with the stranger, right? That's going to feel great because you just noticed all those triggering emotions and you tolerated the frustration of not doing it. And then acknowledge all the free time that you now have because you didn't argue with the stranger and use that chunk of time to do a task that you were putting off. And if you do that, it's like growing self-esteem in a pot. It's a wonderfully powerful exercise in a kind of a safe test tube environment. I think that's why it's so powerful.

• 33:26Blindboy Boatclub?

  It's a little test tube environment. If you're in the shop, if you're in the shop and a stranger all of a sudden is very rude to you or starts an argument with you, that's a very triggering situation. That's fucking difficult. If you work in retail, if you work in retail or any job that deals with the public, you might have to face that once a day. That's very tough to be dealing with a situation like that in real life. If when a person's in your face being confrontational, it takes a lot of self-control and emotional awareness to remain fully calm in that situation. But when it's a man called Declan.

• 34:06Blindboy Boatclub?

  Underneath a Facebook comment and Declan is saying, "Your opinion is stupid. That's a lovely test tube environment there. That's a scientific environment." Declan isn't physically present in the room. There's no potential threat of physical violence or escalation because Declan's not here. You can choose, you can choose the amount of time it takes to respond to Declan's comment. Every time you could get into an argument with a stranger on the internet, every one of those times, that's actually an opportunity. That's an opportunity to train yourself, to notice very difficult triggering emotions

• 34:50Blindboy Boatclub?

  and then respond to them. Think of the last time, think, think of the last time a stranger triggered you online. Think of the, the physical anger you felt, gritting your teeth, clenching your fists, the temerity of them. Think of that, that immediate rush in your body. The sudden immediate desire to respond to them as soon as possible. Notice how loud, how loud your fingers are. You like, have you ever been in a public place? And you can tell that someone is arguing on the internet just by how hard they're hitting the keyboard. They're not aware of that because they're arguing with Declan. They're not aware of that feeling. They're not aware that they're, they're baiting the keyboard.

• 35:35Blindboy Boatclub?

  But you don't have to do shit. You don't have to do shit if someone says something to you online. You, you can completely ignore it and there's no consequences whatsoever. You can move on with your day. So the next time that someone triggers you online, notice the, the initial feeling, the, the initial threat. Notice the initial threat and then say, "Brilliant. Thank you so much, Declan, for giving me this opportunity to notice my feelings, respond to them and then not reply to you at all because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, Declan. And now, because I've tolerated the frustration of that, I'm going to go to the kitchen and wash a single dish."

• 36:18Blindboy Boatclub?

  Try that, try that for the crack. I'd intended for this week's podcast to be. A much longer mental health podcast. I was gonna go into transactional analysis, which is, it's something I haven't spoken about since 2018, and I'd love to revisit it because it's so helpful. But there's been an orange weather warning. The past three days, there's been an orange weather warning, and this has completely fucked my shit up, and I haven't been able to, to go into my office, to access my books, and put in the amount of research that I needed to put in. So, this is a slightly short podcast this week, to put 10 minutes shorter than usual. And I think we'll have a little, a little Ocarina pause. We'll have a little Ocarina pause right now.

• 37:02Blindboy Boatclub?

  I don't have an Ocarina, but I do have an Aztec Death Whistle, which I'm gonna blow into very, very gently. I don't know what that sounds like, blowing into it very gently, but this is the Aztec Death Whistle pause. It's, it's, it's a fucking whistle that's supposed to sound like someone being murdered. But I'll blow into this and you're gonna hear an advert for something.

• 37:29Blindboy Boatclub?

  See if I really give that a proper blow now. It sounds like someone's screaming, like someone being hacked to death. We're not gonna do that.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  Good news for anyone who's bad at waiting. Black Friday deals at Lowe's are already on. Get up to three free select DeWalt, Craftsman, or Cobalt power tools with the purchase of a select battery kit. Three for free? You better believe it. Plus, select ladders are up to 50% off. So go ahead, get in there early. Shop Black Friday deals in-store or online now at Lowe's. Valid through 11/18 while supplies last. Free tools vary based on battery kit purchased and location.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Are you sure we don't wanna do gifts this year?

• 38:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, don't worry about me. Bombas.

• 38:13Speaker 03

  Sorry, did you just say Bombas?

• 38:15Speaker 04

  No. Bombas cozy socks.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Oh, totally. Bombas slippers, size eight.

• 38:21Speaker 04

  Wow, so you're just?

• 38:23Speaker 03

  Ploddy socks. Underwear.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  Pookie doke, got it.

• 38:26Speaker 03

  Bombas, the perfect gift for when you're not doing gifts. Visit bombas.com/audio and use code AUDIO for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash AUDIO. One purchased equals one donated, always.

• 38:39Speaker 05

  Hey guys, it is Pablo Torre from Pablo Torre Finds Out. And as a journalist, I like to think I have the answers. But every holiday season, gifting makes me think otherwise. Getting it right feels impossible and can get quite stressful. But thankfully, Sephora takes a lot of the pressure off. Whether you're shopping for a beauty expert, a skincare lover, or someone who is just hard to shop for, Sephora's got it all. The big assist comes from Sephora's expert beauty advisors, who remove the guesswork with personalized recommendations so you can find something thoughtful and useful for the people on your list. Beauty is a gift anyone can give. So this holiday season, shop gifts at Sephora and give something beautiful.

• 39:28Speaker 00

  You know you don't have to wait to shop Black Friday at Lowe's, right? Save up to $150 now on select power tools, equipment, and accessories. Got gifts to get? We've got plenty under $50. Plus, MyLowe's Rewards members get same-day delivery for free. Shop Black Friday deals before the rush at Lowe's. Valid through 11/18. $25 minimum and loyalty membership required. Order eligible items by 2 P.M. Subject to weight and size restrictions and availability. Terms at Lowe's.com/shippingterms.

• 39:57Speaker 06

  The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised. And studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time, or tech in steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer.

• 40:38Speaker 06

  That's G-A-B-B dot com forward slash get gab. Gab: Tech in Steps. Independence for them, peace of mind for parents. Still waiting in line?

• 40:51Speaker 07

  Again? That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com. Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com. Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps.com and use code PODCAST for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply.

• 41:25Blindboy Boatclub?

  Sounds like the ocean if it had a cleft palate.

• 41:33Blindboy Boatclub?

  Right, that's enough of that. That was some adverts there. Support for this podcast comes from you, the listener, via the Patreon page, patreon.com/theblindbypodcast. If this podcast brings you mirth, merriment, entertainment, distraction, whatever has you listening to this podcast, if you enjoy it, please consider paying me for the work that I put into this podcast. Because this is my full-time job. This is how I earn a living. This is how I rent out my office. It's how I pay all my bills. This is how I have the time and space to fail. This podcast is only possible because it's listener-funded. So if you would like to fund this podcast, just go to Patreon.

• 42:16Blindboy Boatclub?

  All I'm looking for is the price of a pint or a cup of coffee once a month. That's it. If you can't afford that, don't worry about it. You can listen for free. You listen for free. Because the person who is paying is paying for you to listen for free. Everybody gets the exact same podcast and I get to earn a living. And it's a wonderful model based on kindness and soundness. Patreon.com/theblindbypodcast.

• 42:42Blindboy Boatclub?

  And if you have an iPhone, don't sign up to Patreon on the Patreon iPhone app, because Apple are greedy bastards and they take thirty percent. So if you are becoming a paid patron, then do it via desktop, please. Go to the URL, couple of gig plugs. Fucking Dublin, Dublin this month on the twenty seventh, I'm up in Vicar Street, a wonderful Monday night gig. My Vicar Street gigs are fantastic. That's nearly sold out, there's a few tickets left. Come to that up in Dublin, twenty seventh of January. Galway, Leisure Land, the ninth of February. Not many tickets left for that, come along to that. Wonderful Galway gig, I love Galway, I don't gig Galway enough.

• 43:26Blindboy Boatclub?

  Dradhada on the twenty first of February, Crescent Hall. Twenty eighth of February, Belfast Waterfront Theatre, wonderful gaff, I love Belfast. March, the Ainech in Kellamne. On the seventh of March. Then the third of fucking, thirteenth Cork Opera House as part of the Cork Opera. No, Cork fucking podcast. I can never say the Cork Podcast Festival. I call it the Pork Cod, Pork Cod Past Festival. The Pork Festival where you passed cod, the Cork Podcast fucking Festival. This is probably my sixth year of headlining that fucking festival. And I can't, I can never pronounce the name of it.

• 44:10Blindboy Boatclub?

  The Cork Podcast Festival, thirteenth of March, twenty twenty four. Then, what fucking Limerick is it? When the fuck am I doing that Limerick gig? What the? Thursday, the twentieth of March, Limerick University Concert Hall. Biggest ever Limerick gig. Please come to that, I'd be fucking mortified if a load of people don't come to that gig in Limerick in March. Then when I'm finished Limerick, straight off to Australia and New Zealand for a tour that's sold out. And then, oh, a little bit of time off there, I've got May off.

• 44:51Blindboy Boatclub?

  Fucking UK, big festival there. Not festival, big tour in England and Scotland, right? Starting in June, June 25, loaded these, nearly sold out. Bristol, Cornwall, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, London, East Sussex and Norwich. Go to fain.co.uk/blindby for those gigs. Look, it's a slightly short one this week. I gotta get the fuck out of here and try and get a taxi before it drops to minus seven degrees. It's currently minus three, but I don't want to leave it so late that it's minus seven because I don't think that's safe on the roads for a taxi. And I could, I could do without sleeping on the office floor.

• 45:36Blindboy Boatclub?

  I was half thinking of it, I was half thinking of, fuck, it's sleep on the office floor, you know? The humidity of it. No blanket or nothing, just my face on a fire retardant carpet. And it's like, there's no need for that. There's no need for that. I understand. Like, I was thinking like an asceticism vibe.

• 45:55Blindboy Boatclub?

  But like, I could just meditate. I don't, I don't need to sleep on a fire retardant carpet in my office to experience humidity and gratitude for having a bed. So instead, I'm just gonna cut the podcast a little bit early and I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave now and get a taxi while it's minus three degrees. I shouldn't even be out, I'm not supposed to make unnecessary journeys under an orange weather warning. But no, fuck it, my podcast is a necessary journey. I'll catch you next week. In the meantime, rub a dog. Shelter a ladybird. Ladybirds wake up from hibernation when it's really cold and they try and find their way into your house, so shelter a ladybird. I'm currently sheltering a ladybird in my kitchen. She came in this morning.

• 46:40Blindboy Boatclub?

  I unsuccessfully tried to feed her a dry Cheerio. Um, wink at a swan, wink at a swan, swans are out, wink at a swan. Alright, dog bless. I'll catch you next week.

• 47:00Speaker 00

  Good news for anyone who's bad at waiting. Black Friday deals at Lowe's are already on. Get up to three free Select, Dwall, Craftsman, or Cobalt power tools with the purchase of a Select Battery Kit. Three for free? You better believe it. Plus, Select ladders are up to 50% off. So go ahead, get in there early. Shop Black Friday deals in-store or online now at Lowe's. Valid through 11/18 while supplies last. Free tools vary based on battery kit purchased and location.

• 47:29Speaker 05

  Hey, I'm Pablo Torre, host of Pablo Torre Finds Out. And I have chased down a lot of strange stories. But nothing quite like what's inside a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese. 100% fresh beef, cooked right when you order it. Hand-topped onions, plus cheese and pickles in every bite. And right now, you can get one with medium fries and a drink for just $8. Only at McDonald's. For a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California. And for delivery, fresh beef not available in Alaska and Hawaii. Offer not valid for delivery.