One of my favourite theories to explain the state of the world in 2026 is something called “elite over-production”. This posits the notion that as society has become more and more educated, and more and more people hold advanced degrees, one of the foremost challenges for Governments has been to find something for these people to do. This explains the vast explosion in the number of academics and researchers in society, the growth of admin jobs, and the massive explosion in NGOs and lobby groups, all of whom are primarily staffed by humanities graduates.
It also explains why these roles are self-perpetuating: To justify their existence, people must find problems for themselves to solve. Those problems must require more research grants, more spending, more taxation, and yet more jobs for people who would be unemployable in the private sector. It explains why, for example, people who have no qualifications in Climate Science or meterology hold positions like the one now held by Jennie Stephens at Maynooth University, where she now holds the position of Professor of Climate Justice (minimum salary €105,000), where her focus is on “Her research, teaching, and community engagement focus on confronting climate obstruction, analysing corporate power, integrating transformative social justice, feminist, anti-racist, decolonial perspectives into climate and energy policy”. Her personal page boasts that she is amongst the top 2% of scientists worldwide “based on the influence of her research”.
So it would be unwise to write off this weekend’s screed in the Irish Times by Professor Stephens, on the new, and apparently vexed, concept of “petro masculinity”:
“The concept of petro-masculinity recognises the role of fossil fuels in upholding colonial, white, patriarchal rule. It acknowledges links between the structures perpetuating both fossil fuel extraction and gender-based violence. With petro-masculinity, fossil fuels are not just a source of profit, but also a source of strength, power and masculine identity.”
The piece goes on:
The tech-bro billionaires play a big role in strengthening petro-masculinity. Their male-dominated AI industry, with its ever-expanding need for data centres, has created massive new demand for fossil fuels. AI and its insatiable quest for more energy has further normalised both climate denial and sexual abuse.
Good to know that no women use AI, but I digress:
AI is now being used by the fossil fuel industry (to extract more oil) and by the military (to assist with genocide in Gaza). Despite all the AI hype, women remain more sceptical and use AI significantly less than men.
Good to know that wind power can stop the “genocide in Gaza”, when I thought only the refusal to play a football match could do so. Anyway, we move on:
One way forward is to mobilise feminist climate justice principles – to prioritise social justice, human rights and ecological health. Feminist climate justice is not just for or about women; everyone can embrace these principles focused on transformative systemic change toward climate stability by redistributing power and building regenerative economic structures based on equity, reciprocity and care.
Always convenient, I think, when one wants to resdistribute power… towards oneself. But there’s more:
Feminist climate justice principles are courageously demonstrated by former president Mary Robinson who stands up to fossil fuel bully boys and confronts petro-masculinity with her direct, genuine, and principled approach.
She boldly challenged the UAE’s COP28 president on the urgent need to prioritise fossil fuel phase-out, she called out Trump’s newly established Board of Peace as a “delusion of power”, she has advocated to prevent fossil fuel investments flowing through financial firms in Ireland, and she empowers women worldwide to speak out on climate through Project Dandelion.
Here I thought that feminist climate justice might require work, but no – turns out you just need to courageously “call out” Donald Trump. Anyway, if that doesn’t work there is always prayer:
With people like Robinson and so many others, Ireland is uniquely positioned to counter petro-masculinity through our feminist climate justice leadership. To celebrate spring’s new beginnings, St Brigid’s Day honours the strength and diversity of feminist power challenging patriarchal societies. Building on our extensive all-island network of Feminist Communities for Climate Justice, Irish society needs to urgently and collectively invoke the power of Brigid to usher in a new beginning.
And there you have it. That’s your lot. Taxpayer money well spent, I am sure you’ll agree.
In this case, this utter nonsense has been platformed by the Irish Times and is funded directly by your taxes. The notion that by filling your car with diesel you are supporting the “genocide in gaza” and various other crimes against humanity might seem, at first glance, so loopy as to be beneath our attention. But ask yourself: Why wasn’t it beneath the Irish Times’ attention? Why is this lady by her own account one of the most influential scientists in the world? While you are ignoring this nonsense, how many young people’s heads are being filled with it, literally as you read this, in a Maynooth lecture hall?
There are bigger questions here: A quick glance through Stephens’ work history shows that her “academic” output is relentlessly political. She is, for all intents and purposes, a taxpayer funded climate activist whose job it is to indoctrinate young people and make political arguments: When politicians support climate policy by saying “98% of scientists agree”, they include “scientists” like Stephens whose work is not in climate forecasting, but left-wing climate policy. It is, as the kids used to say, “manufactured consensus”.
Note too how little “science” is in her argument: One of her points is that Artificial Intelligence is used by the military….. which apparently is enough to condemn AI as masculine and bad. She links fossil fuels to sexual abuse by essentially claiming that the electricity they generate powers the internet. Presumably an internet powered by wind and solar energy would be sexual abuse free? There’s no science here of any kind, just mind-rotting garbage dressed up in the haughty and condescending language of academia.
And then of course we have that corker of a final paragraph, which has 100 times more religion than science in it: We are to invoke the spirit of the pagan goddess (for she surely does not mean the Catholic Saint) Bridget to build an all-island network of feminist communities for climate justice.
Is this the language of an academic and a serious scientist, or is it the language of a far-left political activist? And if it is the latter, ask your TDs, the next time they canvass you, why your taxes are funding it.
I guarantee you you will get a blank stare, confusion, and vague denial. Because not only do they not know why they are funding it – they haven’t a clue that they are.