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Today is 5 years since I finally handed over my $10 to this esteemed organ having lurked unregistered for a few weeks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J435xmY4oQI I don't think they're wasted actually. Been interesting.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:13
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:this esteemed organ 
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Apr 18, 2023 11:16
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Zalakwe posted:Not having a go at you personally but we have got to stop looking at things like that as "mild", "put up with worse", "best we could hope for in the circumstances". Not sure what your point is? This country has been thoroughly looted for decades and the best we can do is disrupt the snooker?
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Apr 18, 2023 11:19
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Today is 5 years since I finally handed over my $10 to this esteemed organ having lurked unregistered for a few weeks. I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? Back in 2006 this place seemed relevant.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:30
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Today is 5 years since I finally handed over my $10 to this esteemed organ having lurked unregistered for a few weeks. Your knowledge has been added to the collective, thank you for your service. 
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Apr 18, 2023 11:31
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Just Another Lurker posted:Your knowledge has been added to the collective, thank you for your service. Thanks. I rather thought I had been assimilated by the  Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? It was the beetroot. I googled corbyn beetroot gently caress capitalism and here you all were! I lurked for a while to see if you were my kind of bubble / echo chamber and yes, you were! Lest we forget!  Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 11:35
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It's like that, in that you end up with a deathly pallor from being indoors all the time, but you don't get any of the robot bits. Small possibilty that you turn into jeri ryan though
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Apr 18, 2023 11:36
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Every year I come back to Xiaolu Guo's essay on the Archers and the supreme power of invisible conservatism in England:quote:"People often don’t think the English have ideology. They may think the Chinese are infused by ideology – our revolutionary peasant visions and the Communist system. But not the British! How bizarre. It just goes to show how powerful the ideology in this land is and how effectively people’s lives have been shaped and subjugated by it. We have very effectively developed a national ideology of petty conservatism in this country based around the universal idea of change (on any subject) as, essentially, a domestic nuisance. The status quo (whatever it might be) is inevitably an apolitical and sensible condition, a kind of comfortable retirement-home state of peace for the ideal British citizen, and any challenges to that status quo are inevitably portrayed as a meddling and unnecessary disruption to our peace: irritating, political, self-serious and irrational by nature. The British conservative's philosophy demands insulation from those nuisance disruptions at all costs (which is why he can easily accept social progress in retrospect so long as it doesn't bother him any further - he may now feel that gay marriage is reasonable common sense but still get angry and offended if he's asked to consider the suffering of Alan Turing or he sees a rainbow traffic crossing.) That's why our right-wing narratives in the media don't really need to rely on grandiose conspiracy theories like in the USA. Climate protestors aren't seriously denounced in the UK as secret communists or globalist traitors trying to undermine our great nation all from below; it's more effective to denounce them as nuisances disturbing our peace with their "antics"; they're bad because they keep on bothering us. They're wasting our money and our time by making us look at them or think about them. This line of attack remains the same and equally effective whether it's a march of millions, a statue being torn down, a raid on a pub filled with golliwogs, or a few people throwing paint on a Van Gogh. The constant shorthand of our nation's conservatism is "any attempts at change are intended as acts of disruptive nuisance to you, personally," and short of a very dramatic jolt to the system, it's hard to see it being uprooted any time soon. The weird thing is that despite the supreme pettiness and smallness of this ideology, its adherents are addicts to their own irritation, and they can be every bit as fanatical about it as, say, a hardline Christian right-winger who believes that George Soros is trying to make the kids trans and kill Jesus. Which is why we can get English motorists in a red-mist rage trying to mow down XR protestors for the unforgivable crime of...well, bothering them. grobbo fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 11:37
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Meanwhile, in more 'Labour refuses to commit to anything that might make anyone's lives slightly better' news: https://twitter.com/saulstaniforth/status/1648226459159257088?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q https://twitter.com/saulstaniforth/status/1648228705028669440?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q
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Apr 18, 2023 11:38
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? For me it was Star Citizen lulz.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:40
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Jedit posted:On which note the Guardian just printed an article titled (with only a slight paraphrase) "I was against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods until I realised I was on the same side as Laurence Fox". Feel like reading this article is the worst thing I'll do today by some margin. Actively stupider. I get it's meant to be funny but it's just so insipid
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Apr 18, 2023 11:45
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? lets plays, baby!
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Apr 18, 2023 11:46
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? Technically I'm 11 years rather than 10 but i wanted to read an LP (don't even remember which one) and at the time you needed an account to see the LP forum. At that point I hadn't even looked at SA in over a decade, but other forums I posted on were slowly dying off and eventually I started looking at some of the non-Games forums because needed somewhere to post with the familiar format of forums.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:50
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TheDeadlyShoe posted:lets plays, baby! Nods
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Apr 18, 2023 11:50
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He’s got the horn 
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Apr 18, 2023 11:52
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Grey Hunter posted:Nods Your first WitP LP specifically was one of the main things I read on SA at first, albeit long before I joined.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:53
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Guavanaut posted:Like this but the hellish background roar is going on about 'useless tenants have too many rights' and 'cost of repairs (that never happen)'. I was kinda thinking that that bit in LOTR when the Balrog roars and its mouth is just an incandescent blast furnace...but the visual metaphor is very similar. Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? This made me check by reg date and I'm approaching my 10-year gooniversary. For myself: I knew about SA in its prime. I wasn't a member but there a couple of my social circle at school were and they used to link photoshops and threads on our MSN Messenger convos in between AoE and Red Alert 2 sessions. Some of us kept in touch when we went off to university and one of my housemates in my second year was a goon. He furnished me with Let's Plays when they took off and I watched the Groverhaus thread unfold as a lurker. But I never looked around the rest of the forums, had no idea about the front page or anything like that. Drifted away from those people (and SA) until I moved across the country in 2012 and ended up in a city where I knew no one, had no money and my housemates were all from eastern europe working ridiculous shifts at warehouses and food packing plants. Somehow (I think through links-within-links on a twitter thread) I found an SA thread about 'roommates from hell' or something and I went "wow, that place is still going! And it seems weirdly chill and mature compared to how it used to be?!?!". It was nice to find a general purpose old-style discussion forum still trucking along, with sub-forums covering virtually any topic and, in an internet rapidly being consumed by social media giants, a weird sense of 'place' and community. I poked around, lurked, realised that this weird corner of the internet was also predominantly inhabited by cynical, over-educated, under-employed, nerdy millenials while amazingly now being one of the few places not obviously tolerating women-haters, nazis or libertarians so thought "this is the place for me!". When the paywall next went up I needed my fix and bought an account. As for this thread, 2012 was when I was realising I had been sold a crock of poo poo by Cameron in the short term and the whole lie of "work hard, get a degree, find a job and you'll get a decent quality of life" that I'd absorbed my entire life. I'd graduated right into the teeth of the 2008 crunch and now austerity was starting to bite. There was clearly something deeply wrong with the system but no-one seemed to be talking about it. Always interested in politics, I'd quickly sought out the UK thread in D&D and for the first year or so read it in a "these commies and anarchists don't half talk a load of nonsense about how the world should work (and crisp flavours)...but at least they're talking about the problems" and then once my initial discomfort at having all my preconceptions challenged wore off I realised that not only is this thread a good rolling source of news but I didn't actually fundamentally disagree with the general stance of the thread anyway - I'd just not had the mental tools and words to slot something meaningful together. E: grobbo posted:Every year I come back to Xiaolu Guo's essay on the Archers and the supreme power of invisible conservatism in England: I strongly agree with this, and have now bookmarked that essay for later reading. I was really struck by this facet of the British psyche during the pandemic/lockdowns. The American 'antis' were denouncing it all as a plot by the NWO to sterilise everyone and implement godless communism. But the overwhelming sense of opposition in the UK was just this bristling, red-faced outrage that 'something' or 'someone' was imposing itself on their lives and their routines - that they were being asked to consider forces, outcomes and people outside their own immediate sphere. So much of the pearl-clutching and venom aimed at Corbyn boiled down to "he wants to change things" (with a side order of "if he wants to change things that means he thinks that the status quo is somehow imperfect"). There was that quote from someone online that is forever lodged in my head that he was angry at Corbyn/Labour in 2017 not for anything they've specifically said or done, but because for the first time in his life he now felt he had to care about politics because he saw them as a threat. It's notable I think that our national personification is John Bull - an inherently sedentary and conservative figure whose defining characteristics is that he likes his roast beef, his pipe, his ale and his quiet home life in a chair next to the fire, only to be roused to action when his bucolic peace is threatened. Contrast with Marianne, who embodies the radicalism of the Revolution, is depicted leading its citizenry in uprisings and wears the sash labelled with the nation's democratic values. BalloonFish fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 12:00
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? I'm a 2011 reg, and I reged because I'd been occasionally reading for a while since I got kicked off the Straight Dope Message Boards for calling someone an rear end in a top hat in Great Debates and reading isn't as much fun as taking part. (He was an rear end in a top hat, so it was justified, but the SDMB are/were pretty strict about such things.)
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Apr 18, 2023 12:02
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Guavanaut posted:They're going after the middle class snooker in middle class Sheffield now Norman! i go near the crucible every time i go to work, i almost walked into hazel irvine when she was doing some interview near the big wet balls last year, she looked at me like i was a right twat (correct) but imo stop taking up all the pavement for a lovely interview crucible building definitely a little bit posh, ruins the atmosphere in the surrounding area of multiple greggs, people begging for bus fare, vape shops and stores to let on fargate.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:06
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grobbo posted:Every year I come back to Xiaolu Guo's essay on the Archers and the supreme power of invisible conservatism in England: Great post. I'm going to steal its gist when talking to my friends and pass all the insight off as my own.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:09
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The Perfect Element posted:Great post. I'm going to steal its gist when talking to my friends and pass all the insight off as my own. This is a great idea, I'm going to do the same thing and pass that plan to steal insight as my own as my own.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:16
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Jedit posted:This is a great idea, I'm going to do the same thing and pass that plan to steal insight as my own as my own.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:21
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I handed over my  in the year Twitter and the Nintendo Wii first launched because I wanted to do something for a Photoshop Phriday, back when that was a regular thing. Funny pictures were a gateway drug to an incalculable amount of time wasted on these forums!
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Apr 18, 2023 12:25
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SA has the best wrestling forum, not because it's particularly good but have you seen the other ones? gently caress me running.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:33
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Gonzo McFee posted:SA has the best wrestling forum, not because it's particularly good but have you seen the other ones? gently caress me running. It'd be better if more people posted in the Puro thread and talked about All Japan and Baka Gaijin + Friends with me
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Apr 18, 2023 12:36
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Guavanaut posted:Just Stop Euler just wanted to show my appreciation for this re: registering in 2012, i grew up on the 2000s internet among the kind of nerds who saw something awful as the pinnacle of internet forums and occasionally lurked a thread when i wanted to see what a large collection of internet nerds had to say on a matter, so when I was looking for hot takes on the 2010 election to "inform my vote" (read: reinforce my half-formed lefty tendencies) then this "ukmt" thing seemed like a good idea to check out. then the ensuing drama of the coalition never ended and I was gradually sucked into the world of Posting. beware, children, it could happen to you
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Apr 18, 2023 12:39
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I never understood folks who joined in the last 10 years, what was the initial draw? I lurked for 9 years.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:45
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I had an account in 2000 but never used it. When Lowtax brought in the paywalll I leant it to a friend to use for  and he must have posted some dumb poo poo and was banned shortly after.When I eventually did rejoin it would prove to be the first (and last) time I would pay to post online.
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Apr 18, 2023 12:50
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Thanks. I rather thought I had been assimilated by the I couldn't find a Borg smilie, but please enjoy a happy Cylon in it's stead:  Heard about this place through EVE Online; where did all these Little Bees come from?  Joined up here after i left the game. o7
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Apr 18, 2023 13:00
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Bought an account in 2004 when a furry acquaintance of mine had their LJ featured as the ALotD. Not really sure /why/ exactly, but I found a lot of interesting stuff to read and almost entirely lurked throughout the noughties. Christ, it’ll be 20 years on this site next march and that’s terrifying. I’ve told this story before, but I only started going into the politics threads (Laissez Faire back then) when I was working in security management for RBS/G4S and was asked to keep a casual eye on this part of the web by Group Risk in the run up to the 2009 and 2010 protests in London. I just ended up sticking around and (to use a phrase that’s really not aged well, but which I lack an alternative to) ‘went native’ after being a horrible right-wing libertarian my whole life, in as much as I had any concept of ideology. I think one of my very first posts in the UKMT was an essay about my best friend (who is trans), prompted by some particularly hateful screed from one of the guardian transphobes; people actually responded well and I started to actually take in the politics stuff rather than dismissing it out of hand. And now look at me: the socialist fudge baron of Shropshire, again thanks mostly to this thread. Funny where life takes you.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:02
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sources are telling me that if you buy the fudge it puts nanomachines in your brain so that mi5 can read your posts before you post them
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Apr 18, 2023 13:05
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I joined 2008 just after the big recession started. I definitely lurked here for a while before that. I think in games but can't entirely remember. Might have been an LP behind a paywall that got me to fork over . The recession and SA had the biggest effects on my current political leanings. The original reading list in the UKMT op started my journey to being an alienated Marxist.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:21
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keep punching joe posted:I had an account in 2000 but never used it. When Lowtax brought in the paywalll I leant it to a friend to use for I actually don't remember if I had an account pre- or post-9/11 but it was definitely a motivator to get involved, and I vaguely remember doing a bunch of Iraqposting at the time. Of course, I've been banned a number of times since and am definitely less of an ignorant dumbass than 20+ years ago
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Apr 18, 2023 13:21
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It was the one forum that wasn't blocked by the dodgy hotel booking website company I was working at in 2005, so I felt my hand was forced.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:30
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I probably found SA through games threads, but it was the left politics that made me subscribe. Where else on the internet can you enjoy ordinary chat with sane people and not have to avoid politics or deal with rightwing talking points? It's bad enough that we end up talking about them ourselves most of the time.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:32
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Camrath posted:Oh, if you do Death Unto Darkness we definitely know some of the same people. Though tbh I don’t think I’m more than one degree removed from any goons who’ve been in a larp field. I meant to mention this ages ago when I realised, but while I've not been in a larp field, I'm pretty sure we're only a degree removed because you're friends with my ex of some years ago. She's a larper and I saw your irl name (which I only know from buying fudge, not stalking you although if it got me fudge I might put in the effort I guess) in her facebook comments at some point lmao.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:34
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I signed up after lurking for years when a friend kept harassing me saying "have you or have you not gotten more than worth of entertainment from this stupid website?" Yes he was a goon why do you ask? Anyway I mostly kept lurking until I moved to the UK and thought I'd check out the UK politics thread to see what's what over here. I was already starting down the path to my current politics after becoming very disillusioned during my military career and ober dunking on me when I was asking stupid questions here helped a lot. I hope you're being pegged to your heart's content by your American girlfriend wherever you are, Ober!!
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Apr 18, 2023 13:34
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Have been reading SA since I was at school in 2000 or so. Back then it was right-wing/libertarian site. I registered for an account in 2004 when I couldn't read GBS because of rthe paywall. I started reading DnD or lassaiz faire in 2008 when I thought the government were loving up, n have been reading this thread ever since. (plz dont ban me again I can't afford it).
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Apr 18, 2023 13:38
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smellmycheese posted:Not sure what your point is? This country has been thoroughly looted for decades and the best we can do is disrupt the snooker? Only that really. We won't get any better until we stop putting up with it in a meaningful way.
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Apr 18, 2023 13:40
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