Left-leaning folk in Ireland are hoarse trying to explain to the faraways that, yes, we understand the optics – but this is Ireland, land of the topsy-turvy, where the election of a gay person of colour at the same time signals the entrenchment of anti-woman, anti-working-class austerity-as-usual.
These rebuttals perpetuate false mental health narratives – that empathy and empathy alone can "cure" illness; that talking is enough; or that everyone's mental health is the same and can be talked about in the same breath – and remove gender, sexuality, race, class and austerity from the conversation, despite all these things being important factors.
Watching Europe sink into recession – and Greece plunge into the abyss – I found myself wondering what it would take to convince the chattering classes that austerity in the face of an already depressed economy is a terrible idea.
As Paul Krugman wrote on his blog this weekend: "Watching Europe sink into recession – and Greece plunge into the abyss – I found myself wondering what it would take to convince the chattering classes that austerity in the face of an already depressed economy is a terrible idea".
As the consequences of this monumental failure start to hit more and more people over the coming months, class-polarising austerity may well become a difficult political position to defend, especially since measures once justified in terms of economic necessity are now so visibly a matter of deliberate choice and priority.
In February Italy's voters rebelled against their political class and European austerity.
Much of the political class accepts that austerity is inevitable; Argentina avoided hyperinflation last year because Roberto Lavagna, Mr Duhalde's economy minister, persuaded the provinces' governors to cut spending.
The International Monetary Fund has long provoked criticism that it caters to the investor class while imposing austerity on ordinary people in crisis-hit countries.
And now, Berlin is punishing its most obedient student in the austerity class, by preparing a "plan B" for the inescapable Greek default.
But there is a widening gulf between the luxury of first and business classes, and the austerity endured by hoi polloi at the back.The differences are most apparent in the amount of space a passenger gets.
