Does Leo Varadkar have any empathy?

skimpydoo

After Leo Vardakar's latest gaff which you can see below. It's time to ask if he has any empathy? To the Leo fan club on here, how can you defend this with a straight face?

https://twitter.com/AccessForAll7/status/1659811699032047616?s=20

hayrabit

definitely a misanthrope, imo, is Leo

he couldn't care less, which is no harm i suppose; but the bigger issue here is his choice of words, and how any of his crew thought the language used in that post of his was acceptable is a mystery to me

strange behaviour (in these times) to use "Slow Learner/s" in any kind of comparison one would have thought... 😲

...Ghost...

Leo Varadkar. Woke as fúck and as selfish as they come. Says alot considering I am talking about a Politician.

He scraped by the last GE and still had the brass neck to negotiate his way into the top job, but only after a cool down period with Micky M.

I've never voted SF. I used to vote FG.

Star Bingo

___________________________________

A long time ago I thought Leo was a breath of fresh air, but I’ve grown up and learned what an utterly self-serving individual he is. He couldn’t care less about those in society compromised by any form of disability, and any #wokeness he practices is merely to further his own cause. He couldn’t care less about anyone else. I have no time whatsoever for him.

lmao10

Embarrassing thread.

DeadHand

He has a point.

Sinn Fein are reliant on the ignorance of their voters.

A quick anecdote.

I was talking politics with a former co-worker who proudly proclaimed himself an SF voter. I, in my naivety, asked why. His reply: "they'll get the foreigners out of Ireland".

I had not the heart to tell him.

There's your Sinn Fein vote.

skimpydoo

What I don't get is that he knew it might cause offence and went ahead and said it. If something can have double meaning, you don't say it. He has no cop on and I will be so glad when he is gone from politics.

growleaves

Sounds to me just a paraphrase/repeat of famous Seamus Mallow quote that GFA was "Sunningdale for slow learners".

I've never heard that 'slow learners' was considered a slur until now.

Usually what happens in political correctness is that some "controversial" term becomes un-accepted and replaced with a neutral term. Over time the new neutral term becomes seen as an unacceptable slur as well and then a newer new term is adopted. This process repeats itself continually.

This is my first time defending LV on boards

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621278#Comment_120621278

I have never heard the Seamus Mallon quote but I do know that it can be seen as a slur. If there is any chance it can be seen as a slur etc don't say it.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621270#Comment_120621270

Why?

sameoldname

Based on the stuff SF have said this year alone, I myself would describe them as Venezuelan style hyper-populist bullshit. Do I also lack empathy or is it the slow learners thing that have people upset with him today?

mikemac2

Is slow learner a term that been outlawed these days?

It is best that the OP never attends a J B Keane play and hears about the handicaps and cripples

Guildenstern

I thought the video of him kissing that young man which the media decided en masse not to make any comment on last year, might be the end of him but apparently everyone has to have a private life, so he got another free pass. Would he have if he was heterosexual? I really don't think so.

I'm not FG, but what do FG voters think of him? Do you want him to lead your party in the next election? No, I think if he has any empathy, it is very little, and it ends at his door.

mikethecop

Id agree that Varadkar is the very worst kind of politician and about as connected to the people as Charles is in the uk but sf is a organized crime gang pretending to be a political party

we can do with out more of either in this country but i have very little faith that one of both will get flushed like the turds they are anytime soon

CalamariFritti

Varadkar is a pure politician. Self serving, teflon, cynical, as corrupt as you'll legally get away with and all the other lovely traits. Like the rest of them really. But trying to hang him over 'slow learner' is a bit ridiculous IMO.

Strumms

FG lot are like the tories, power at all costs.

the fact that these very public comments came from a man with well over a decade as a qualified medical practitioner shows a real true barometer of the man’s disgusting ignorance and arrogance ….

he’d have no issue next week strolling around a primary care centre talking to psychologists, patients, families and so on. His ‘concerned’ schtick to the fore, it’s nothing more…He just doesn’t give a shît and he seems in recent times less the PR Leo and more the Leo most savvy people could always see through.. When he’s under pressure and feeling it, the mask slips, a lot more regularly now 😏

he’s been found out… yet again….people of Dublin West need to sort themselves out and ninja Leo to the kerb… ridiculous having an individual of such grim standards and personal and professional weaknesses supposedly working ‘for’ the country and its citizens. Ridiculous gaffe after gaffe now..

here is Leo visiting Headway, a service for people with acquired brain injuries, the usual fake smile and empty platitudes no doubt… it’s about a 90 second walk from the gates of Leinster House……

”like politics for slow learners”.

just not good enough…. Dublin west, sort yourselves out and get rid….

astrofool

Leo is plain rice, the fervour people on opposite ends of the political spectrum work themselves into about him is a bit crazy. There are many reasons to attack FG for various things but this is quite the manufactured outrage.

spurious

First thing I thought of was the Mallon quote.

bucketybuck

I don't like Varadker but why the **** am I supposed to care about the phrase "slow learners"?

Seneca the Stoic

Even in the world of politics, he comes across as exceptionally insincere compared to others. I get no sense of warmth from him at all. I’m sure he has other attributes as he has done well career-wise tbf

JP Liz V1

Leo loves to blame and talk about SF, well his wording here backfired, now time for sleepy Eamon to lead the country

I always got the impression that Leo thinks he is better and above everyone

Coveney should have been given FG leadership

odyssey06

Varadkars point obviously struck home.

The OP failing to see the irony in their own post.

sameoldname

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621623#Comment_120621623

Because the only thing that some people love more than complaining about the over-sensitive, is being overly-sensitive to perceived attacks on their favoured position. That's about the whole of it.

Seth Brundle

Just leaving this here...

Ms McDonald said she had asked Mr Stanley to take a week’s break because she “was concerned for his welfare and wanted him to have some breathing space”.

She said there was no equivalence between Mr Stanley’s first tweet and the controversy where Leo Varadkar leaked a document to a friend.

In the first online message that caused controversy, the Laois-Offaly TD tweeted in reference to the Kilmichael Ambush in 1920 and the Narrow Water Massacre in Warrenpoint, Co Down in 1979, claiming they were “the 2 IRA operations that taught the elite of d British army and the establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Pity for everyone they were such slow learners”.

Ms McDonald said Mr Stanley had apologised for this but she said the actual problem was the “tone”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/mary-lou-mcdonald-i-wouldn-t-think-twice-about-knocking-on-a-cumann-member-s-door-1.4429720

NiceFella

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621275#Comment_120621275

So you met one chap that was a fool and Varadkar is vindicated as saying the whole of SF vote are dumb. My god.

NiceFella

I've seen leo out and about lots of times over the years. He takes a lot of abuse from people unfairly most if the time. I think, because of this he has very little regard for ordinary people which is not a good for the great many of us. So it's hard to know what drives him. He definitely loves attention that's for sure, and is intelligent. But it's the wrong reasons and I think leo is probably in the wrong career for himself and for everyone else.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621276#Comment_120621276

Well FG attacks on SF are background noise at this stage so he's trying to make a splash, get this one noticed

tesla_newbie

Dreadful Taoiseach, even worse person, most awful leader the country has ever had ( Martin was the second worst)

As bad as FG and Leo Varadkar may be, Sinn Fein would be a whole lot worse for this country.

That said, Varadkar is the Irish equivalent of Trudeau. Both love the limelight, the constant attention, and have egos larger than the Milky Way.

Once that level of narcissism sets in, there's no way back.

Varadkar is now your standard plastic politician who will float from day to day, achieving very little if anything at all - meanwhile he acts as a General Manager of the country whilst the EU controls the country's overall direction - and when he retires, the media will from time to time, fawn over him as a somehow leading light in how the country developed. A deluded perspective perhaps, but they'll do it. There's something of an aura around a "former prime minister / Taoiseach" that the media obsess about; turning them into something that approximates an untouchable god.

The rest of us will forget him, though. Why? Because he's forgettable.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

I personally think he’s a self entitled twat.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621270#Comment_120621270

Is it really? Based on what?

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621861#Comment_120621861

Based on people daring to question what their beloved Leo has said.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622111#Comment_120622111

Being honest, I don't dislike Leo as much as others do (I don't love him either) and I think this comment by him is smug but it's a stretch imo to consider it offensive, but I don't get making statements like "embarrassing thread" (embarrassing? Surely embarrassing takes a bit more) without any reason, any context.

sameoldname

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621821#Comment_120621821

You must be young.

political analyst

I don't understand his preference to be referred to in the media as Mr Varadkar, not Dr Varadkar, even though he is still a physician. It's as if he's ashamed of being a medical professional.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622557#Comment_120622557

I'm not sure of his qualifications but aren't many consultants referred to as Mr.?

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622559#Comment_120622559

He specialised as a GP in 2010. Before that, he was a non-consultant hospital doctor.

SuperBowserWorld

Never understand why consultants go as Mr or Ms

joseywhales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622557#Comment_120622557

He might consider it unnecessary given that it's irrelevant to his job as a politician. In a medical setting I'm sure he goes by Dr. My wife is an MD she never uses it, to each their own, seems like a needless status flex outside of your job.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120621861#Comment_120621861

Based on the fact that it still hasn't been explained exactly what people are supposed to be offended about?

He said the words "slow learners", how the **** is that a problem?

Pedro K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622618#Comment_120622618

Because Varadkar is the Taoiseach of the whole country, including people who have learning difficulties. There are thousands of people in Ireland who have learning difficulties. Many of them are voters too. Those people heard their Taoiseach use the term "learning difficulties" in a dismissive, derisory fashion.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622649#Comment_120622649

But he didnt use the term "learning difficulties " as a slur, he used "slow learners".

Is being a slow learner a disability now?

prunudo

I don't believe he said it as a slur, but I do believe that it shows his arrogance, that people who vote opposite or against his views are some how less intelligent and that imo, is as bad if not worse trait to have as a politician.

Pedro K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622846#Comment_120622846

If you're going to split hairs over semantics, I could respond by saying I never used the word "disability." The central point of my post remains. Varadkar should not have said it.

pjohnson

Varadkar badly needs a PR/handler/speech writer.

His gaffes are nearly weekly now, leaving him unattended doesn't go well.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622873#Comment_120622873

Its not semantics, you put "learning difficulties" within quotes implying it was a direct quote, it wasnt, you lied.

One could argue whether slow learners is explicitly referring to people with learning difficulties also. Your attempt at misquoting was deliberately trying to make that connection

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622846#Comment_120622846

While being a slow learner is not technically considered a disability (it's borderline) it is a description of someone with below average intelligence.

One would expect the leader of a country to have a bit more class than Varadkar has displayed countless times in recent years.

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622618#Comment_120622618

It’s not really. But remember the time he jumped on Healy Rae’s ‘airy fairy’ comment. Varadker instantly tried to use the opportunity to damage Healy Rae. So there is a bit of karma here even if we all know no offence was intended.

donaghs

I thought of the Seamus Mallon quote around the time of the Good Friday Agreement. But I'm sure its been used before.

Its not a diagnosis, as far I know. Maybe calling someone "a but stupid" is offensive, but it seems to be still allowable in discourse.

a brief sample:

2007: PUP: The DUP are "the PUP for slow learners". https://www.irishtimes.com/news/dup-sf-urged-to-get-on-with-real-politics-1.972555

2019: examiner: "brexit for slow learner": https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/ourview/arid-30910531.html

2020: RTE journalist: "Brexit for slow learners": https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2020/1212/1183991-tony-connelly-brexit/

etc

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623036#Comment_120623036

A description of someone with below average intelligence is not a slur or discriminatory comment either though surely?

Like idiot or stupid or halfwit - if all insults to ones intelligence are considered taboo then the majority of all discourse both off and online will no longer be allowed!