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Sceptical Scot

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You are here: Home / Archives for Darren McGarvey

Darren McGarvey

About Darren McGarvey

Loki is a Glasgow-based hip hop singer, performer, community activist, writer and the Violence Reduction Unit's rapper in residence

Down to the river of death

September 13, 2017 by Darren McGarvey 12 Comments

‘This deep, dark watery grave is the only symbol of the city’s sharp industrial decline that we can’t privatise, close down or demolish. It’s the only thing we can’t wash our hands of or blame on the Tories’. Loki on suicide, work, masculinity – and feeling terrified.

The moral certainty trap

August 27, 2017 by Darren McGarvey 3 Comments

There is every chance that the strident, morally certain progressives of the future will look at us in much the same way we look at the slave owners. And much the same way the slave owners looked at the slaves; less than, unevolved inferiors…Sub-human’.

A steep learning curve

January 27, 2017 by Darren McGarvey Leave a Comment

“With so many reasons to avoid sex, whether it be long days working and longer nights with the baby, and so many alternatives at my finger-tips, it can be tempting to neglect this area of life under false pretences and disappear down a digital rabbit-hole.” Loki learns to cope (and with himself) in the third part of his diary.

Fatherhood fears

January 15, 2017 by Darren McGarvey Leave a Comment

In the second extract from his diary, Loki reflects on his fears of being a Dad but getting closer to his own parents. “Intimate relationships are very challenging and the feelings of vulnerability are overwhelming at times….In my parents I see the two extremes of what I am capable of.”

A dad’s first baby diary: the annunciation

January 6, 2017 by Darren McGarvey 3 Comments

“I grew up in an environment where parental figures were under a lot of pressure and stress. In fact, many difficulties of childhood came as a direct result of our collective inability to express and manage emotions.” In the first extract from an occasional diary, Loki reflects on becoming a new parent – and on his own boyhood.

Digital driftwood in a sea of social media

August 22, 2016 by Darren McGarvey Leave a Comment

“The only way to navigate the social media landscape is to make a personal commitment to always try and return to a place of acute awareness of its danger and absurdity.” Loki on the need to take out our digital garbage – and at least be true to ourselves.

Are you as smart as Alan Cumming?

July 25, 2016 by Darren McGarvey Leave a Comment

The post-EUref blame game continues in a political world darkened by terror and hate. Here Loki pokes fun instead at some crass remarks on the ‘stupid English’ by pro-indy actor Alan Cumming (who now says it was a joke…)

Diary of a social media junky

May 26, 2016 by Darren McGarvey Leave a Comment

Social media all too often create a “cacophonous crescendo of confusion” among writers and audience alike. Loki, who’s sometimes sworn to go off it, takes a wry look at himself (and others) as he reaches out to the “community” (?) via tweets and FB posts and the like.

The Sun, the SNP and a new Scotland

May 3, 2016 by Darren McGarvey 14 Comments

Politicians are in the game of professional cynicism, argues Loki in his latest philippic. Posing with and for The Sun goes with the territory. Yet we were promised a new politics in Scotland, not the same old kowtowing to lobbies. The SNP needs to keep its radical fire-power.

Holding our own feet to the fire

April 16, 2016 by Darren McGarvey 1 Comment

Loki stirred up a hornet’s nest among Yes supporters when he wrote on the STV website why he won’t vote SNP on May 5 but for RISE. Here he explains more about why he’s saying No to pragmatism.

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