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The Question IRL posted:Isn't the whole "children are identifying as cats!" thing an import from the American Right Wing media? Yes. It's literally just a slightly different twist on a viral story from last year. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/teacher-fired-meow-student-cat/ A story that is only not 'proven false' because the person who made it up won't admit they made it up but refuses to say what school it happened at.
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Jun 23, 2023 12:20
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Aphex- posted:Ok so apologies for the dumb question but this is really the first time I've tried to understand why interest rates are rising. From what I gather it's to make people spend less because they should have less disposable money (if they're a homeowner because their mortgage is more expensive). Which to me just seems like a punishment for anyone who isn't rich? Also, if people are spending less, wouldn't that mean businesses having to raise their prices anyway because they need to offset the lower volumes of sales? Am I being dumb or is this kind of it? That's how capitalism works. You always punish the poor. It's especially poo poo because the things that are causing inflation are explicitly not wage growth. It's not the 1970s despite what idiots on the right keep harping on about (we've had 40 years uninterrupted neoliberalism ffs, of course it's different from the '70s). It's companies raising prices to either increase profits or occasionally maintain them at existing levels while resources cost more. Like, we don't buy a tin of beans and some lettuce as a luxury item to make us feel good, we buy them because we need food to live. This would remain the case whether the tin cost £10 or 10p. Which makes a mockery when you hear someone talking about core inflation, because core inflation doesn't cover "volatile items" like food and energy. Which may well be volatile but are also considerably more important than the cost of a TV, but the cost of TVs keeps going down over the years & that's useful to make things sound less bad than they are.
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Jun 23, 2023 12:29
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Microplastics posted:I'm sorry, what??? The Question IRL posted:Just as nightmarish is how these news stories are the end result of a baffling chain of stories where the original meaning is forgotten, the lie made up to deflect from the original issue is taken as fact and it grows into its own independent nonsense. Mega Comrade posted:snopes
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Jun 23, 2023 12:34
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Aphex- posted:Ok so apologies for the dumb question but this is really the first time I've tried to understand why interest rates are rising. From what I gather it's to make people spend less because they should have less disposable money (if they're a homeowner because their mortgage is more expensive). Which to me just seems like a punishment for anyone who isn't rich? Also, if people are spending less, wouldn't that mean businesses having to raise their prices anyway because they need to offset the lower volumes of sales? Am I being dumb or is this kind of it? This is where I'm at as well, and it's making my loving blood boil. Reading up on how interest rates work in relation to inflation for the first time, and it's all so drat nebulous. As I understand it, it's like: If interest rates are higher, then taking out a loan is more expensive/risky. Because taking out loans is riskier, less people and business will take out loans to build extensions on their homes, expand their businesses, etc. Also, money in savings will have higher returns, which will also stop people spending money. Because people will spend less money, there will be less demand, so businesses will need to drop prices, otherwise nobody will buy their products. If this is accurate: this is loving stupid! The real world doesn't work like this. Businesses won't drop prices, they'll RAISE prices if they can't get loans. Especially if they're essentially items like power, food and housing, which are exactly the expenses that are hitting people the hardest! I've seen people say this will "only" impact mortgage holders: this also means landlords will need to pay more for their mortgages, and those rises will be passed right on to their tenants. And these higher interest rates just means the amount of money just being spunked over to the banks from the lower & middle classes goes up. So their solution for nobody having enough money to pay for everything, is to make sure that people have EVEN LESS money, and surely THAT will force businesses to drop their prices! Like: the issue here is we don't have enough money to pay for poo poo, and businesses are refusing to cut prices & reporting record profits. How the gently caress is me having less money in my pocket going to solve that? The only options who WILL benefit from this are, as usual: - people who have millions in savings, that get a decent amount of interest. My wife & I are privileged enough to be in the 98th percentile of national earners, we have a chunk of our savings in a high-interest savings account , and have earned ~£750 in five years of saving. This wont touch the sides for any but the ultra-rich. - people who own their home outright without a mortgage. This nebulous horseshit of "IF people have less money then THING X will make THING Y happen and if THING Y happens on a regular basis, then THING Z will happen and businesses will HAVE to do the right thing!" makes me furious. It's the exact same poo poo we see with Boris Johnson & MPs breaking this nebulous MP's Code, where if they break every rule in the book more than five times per year, then precedent suggests that they will gracefully resign for at least a fortnight if we beg them pretty please to do so. The Conservatives are fiscally inept and this plan is a loving stupid way to try and fix the nation's problems, and just another way to funnel money from workers like me directly into the pockets of the banks. People saying "ah, but nobody should take out a loan they can't afford!" Then why are the banks allowed to provide those same loans? Make that poo poo illegal! With our mortgage we won't be bankrupted or anything, but it does mean instead of £450 per month in interest, when we re-up in September 2024 we'll likely be paying around £1400 per month for the same house, with that money going straight into the banks coffers. What we need is the removal of privitization of essential goods & services, and catching up with the rest of the world in literally every way. When I see articles like https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/11/16/kulturpass-germany-to-give-out-200-to-young-people-to-boost-cultural-sector it makes me sad, to see the type of sensible and good-hearted policies that can be implemented in an intelligent country. The UK could be just as forward-thinking and prosperous as anywhere else, instead we're the joke of the continent and it's all down to piss-poor leadership by a cadre of ultra-rich swine, who've never experienced anything but immense wealth & privilege for a moment in their lives.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:11
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Sir Sidney Poitier posted:Don't you remember? Boris had an "oven ready" deal. Remember when Farage and Widicombe waved little flags at the last EU meeting, gloating and insulting everyone that they were off to have a better country. Now both piss baby making GBS threads themselves on live TV.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:21
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The UK had a wages and prices freeze too for a while 80s IIRC and lasted about 3 months. There was also a fixed pay rise of £250 at some point so everyone got that (fairer than % rise IMHO which just increase disparity between lower and higher income folk). I'm in a cafe in Bangor (North Wales) seems a slightly odd place for an international university based on my 20mins acquaintance with the place. Did anyone ITT come here for uni?
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Jun 23, 2023 13:27
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smellmycheese posted:Yes. Definitely a sausage Just draw a dick on anything that needs doing is the lesson here Mourning Due posted:This is where I'm at as well, and it's making my loving blood boil. It's almost as if antiquated government and fiscal policy from the 60's doesn't work anymore - and yes it's a mechanism for the rich to make the poor poorer, default on their mortgages and just free up some more for the nefarious bulk buy to let landlord cunts (who will scream that the rates are loving them and jump the rents when they absolutely have already covered 100 years worth of rate rises already in their costings - rents were already extortionate.) The whole nuking of the pound and whatnot was deliberate. Other countries are starting to see inflation go down, but no.. not here. This hellhole is a special kind of hosed up, imbibed with literal loving morons and shitheads who should've been lined up many moons ago. Diet Crack fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 13:35
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Jun 23, 2023 13:40
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I mean there should be a rent rise freeze - then maybe the landlords would know what it's like to have your real term wages stagnate even though they don't actually loving do anything.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:47
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:The UK had a wages and prices freeze too for a while 80s IIRC and lasted about 3 months. There was also a fixed pay rise of £250 at some point so everyone got that (fairer than % rise IMHO which just increase disparity between lower and higher income folk). Is there something here about governments receding from the exercising of power at scale? I can't imagine a government doing something as universal and affective as a price freeze these days, the COVID response being the only exception I can think of. Governments are satisfied now to contract out, tinker with policies (usually to increase cruelty), funnell money around, and cede responsibility to extra-government entities (e.g. BoE) that they can then blame, with no attempt to arrest decay, let alone improve anything or take responsibility. You can be PM just by saying things. Soon, someone will be PM by virtue of the middle management skill to oppose any policy that might make things better based on fiscal responsibility. A total abdication of leadership.
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Jun 23, 2023 13:52
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Diet Crack posted:it's a mechanism for the rich to make the poor poorer, default on their mortgages and just free up some more for the nefarious bulk buy to let landlord cunts (who will scream that the rates are loving them and jump the rents when they absolutely have already covered 100 years worth of rate rises already in their costings - rents were already extortionate.) The whole nuking of the pound and whatnot was deliberate. Other countries are starting to see inflation go down, but no.. not here. This hellhole is a special kind of hosed up, imbibed with literal loving morons and shitheads who should've been lined up many moons ago. If by intentional you mean due to shooting ourselves in the foot with Brexit then yes.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:10
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I think the important thing to remember is there are other ways for the government to reduce inflation, the obvious one being tax the people who are driving inflation. Rich people are spending too much? Tax them at the same time as raising interest so they save more and have less to spend (savings also translate into investment so this should cause growth which isn't as inflationary). Supermarkets hiking up prices to boost profits? Put a levy on their excess profits to disincentives that. By taxing you are reading excess money out of the system and slowing inflation. On the other hand VAT is currently at 20%, the government could reduce VAT and it would immediately cut the price of almost everything. Basically the government has loads of different levers but they are too cowardly to use any of them so are entirely relying on the BoE to raise interest rates until the economy goes into recession.
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Jun 23, 2023 14:17
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a pipe smoking dog posted:On the other hand VAT is currently at 20%, the government could reduce VAT and companies would not pass this on to consumers
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Jun 23, 2023 14:19
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Wages and prices freeze 1972 uk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_Commission Apparently Osbourne did the £250 thing for those earning under £21k in 2010 (I was living abroad then so didn't know about it) but it also happened on the 80s I think. Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 14:24
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What would be the tactical vote here? Conservative to push them into last place or LibLabGrn to further humiliate?
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Jun 23, 2023 14:32
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Brendan has done a piece for the Spectator about people being mean to billionaires if anyone enjoys foreheads… https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1672198064428204037?s=46&t=m_nNbkNoHG4lLitcpyHReg 
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Jun 23, 2023 15:37
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a pipe smoking dog posted:I think the important thing to remember is there are other ways for the government to reduce inflation, the obvious one being tax the people who are driving inflation. Rich people are spending too much? Tax them at the same time as raising interest so they save more and have less to spend (savings also translate into investment so this should cause growth which isn't as inflationary). Supermarkets hiking up prices to boost profits? Put a levy on their excess profits to disincentives that. By taxing you are reading excess money out of the system and slowing inflation. This is the MMT framework too, for what it's worth. TINA neolibs like to portray it as "magic money tree", "print your way out of poverty" and "but what about inflation???" - but really it's just that governments create money into existence, and tax it out of existence, and can do so in a targeted way to pursue their goals. Money creation is limited by real resources - exceeding that is one way you get inflation, but this hasn't really been a thing in recent decades, as the prevailing wisdom has been austerity. Similarly, if money is pooling in undesirable places, you can tax it away to bring down inflation. This would be far more effective than the incredibly blunt instrument of raising interest rates. But they don't want to take money away from the places it's pooling (the rich), they want to turn people into dinosaurs.
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Jun 23, 2023 16:05
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smellmycheese posted:https://twitter.com/adambienkov/status/1671876256281903105?s=46&t=m_nNbkNoHG4lLitcpyHReg A plan, huh? Is it as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?
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Jun 23, 2023 16:19
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smellmycheese posted:Brendan has done a piece for the Spectator about people being mean to billionaires if anyone enjoys foreheads… this and entire flood of forehead meme replies make me feel better about his twaddle
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Jun 23, 2023 16:25
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He always makes me think of the TBMG lyric "Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads"
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Jun 23, 2023 16:29
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Nenonen posted:A plan, huh? Is it as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University? 
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Jun 23, 2023 16:32
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smellmycheese posted:Brendan has done a piece for the Spectator about people being mean to billionaires if anyone enjoys foreheads… Stop the small subs
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Jun 23, 2023 16:32
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It’s worth noting that inflation is not a single problem that has a multitude of equally relevant solutions. How to deal with it entirely depends on what’s causing it, if it’s just greedy grocery stores then yeah a price cap would work, but if it’s legitimate supply chain issues, then you end up pushing people out of business and reducing competition in the sector, and will have achieved nothing. At any rate, I’m not that familiar with why inflation is so bad in the UK, I suspect a lot of it is legitimate supply chain issues due to Ukraine such as energy, food, and the shitshow that is Brexit. On top of that, people really do have too much debt, like more debt than they’ve had relative to income in decades. Like I get that there was no choice, but I’d just like to see in future these poo poo banks not offering ridiculous amounts of credit without any thought, and the government actually doing something about the housing crisis, like idk actually building houses for once that people can live in.
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Jun 23, 2023 16:45
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smellmycheese posted:https://twitter.com/adambienkov/status/1671876256281903105?s=46&t=m_nNbkNoHG4lLitcpyHReg i don’t think it’s substitute teacher vibes, maybe motivational speaker sent in to an office
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Jun 23, 2023 16:50
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qhat posted:It’s worth noting that inflation is not a single problem that has a multitude of equally relevant solutions. How to deal with it entirely depends on what’s causing it, if it’s just greedy grocery stores then yeah a price cap would work, but if it’s legitimate supply chain issues, then you end up pushing people out of business and reducing competition in the sector, and will have achieved nothing. Yeah, I think that's fair. Going after the people who are already semi-locked-in seems insane though. Almost like if they said, to combat pollution every flight will have a £10000 surcharge imposed on every passenger. That includes people already in the air, who boarded the plane before this charge was announced. And then commentators bemoaning that people shouldn't have boarded the flight if they can't afford to pay the surcharge.
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Jun 23, 2023 16:57
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Gonzo McFee posted:https://twitter.com/SchoolsWeek/status/1671919480690077697 mail headline:  two-thirds of the way into the article:  it's a three minute recording of a teacher trying to explain gender and sexuality issues while the two kids are like 'it's not right. that's our opinion.' and then in the last 5 seconds one of them says something about someone else identifying as a cat and then it cuts off, and from that you get a national story with badenoch demanding inquiries into the school and starmer kicking teachers and trans people further under the bus
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Jun 23, 2023 17:04
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Jel Shaker posted:i don’t think it’s substitute teacher vibes, maybe motivational speaker sent in to an office Its more a prison warden vibe, the warden being the posh wanker from Inbetweeners, flanked by angry guards watching the pleb prisoners closely to make sure none blink the wrong way towards the warden. And the warden promising them sunshine and perfumed farts, but now get back to your cell like life. happyhippy fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 17:08
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https://twitter.com/UKIP/status/1670131651119128580 UKIP very keen to get rid of people that rape and kill paedo for some reason 🤔🤔
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Jun 23, 2023 17:15
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qhat posted:It’s worth noting that inflation is not a single problem that has a multitude of equally relevant solutions. How to deal with it entirely depends on what’s causing it, if it’s just greedy grocery stores then yeah a price cap would work, but if it’s legitimate supply chain issues, then you end up pushing people out of business and reducing competition in the sector, and will have achieved nothing. The UK is far less affected by the Ukraine war than any European country I can think of. Germany was massively impacted by the US detonating their primary gas supply but they'd spent six months prepping for the extremely obvious consequences and shrugged it off. The UK lost maybe 5% of imports in those sectors, and if the Saudis are laundering affected fossil fuels as accused then there's absolutely no demand issue. We responded to a Brexit-inflicted driver shortage by suspending all the laws that ban price collusion and instantly saw a massive and sustained rise in inflation that has no parallel to any neighbour state, it is entirely self inflicted greedflation
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Jun 23, 2023 17:15
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Start chopping up people who run supermarkets and serving them on the butcher's counter until prices improve, imo.
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Jun 23, 2023 17:34
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Jun 23, 2023 17:38
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The internet has reached apotheosis https://twitter.com/Miss_Snuffy/status/1672270342549585920
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Jun 23, 2023 17:55
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https://twitter.com/Sapper1801/status/1670214135366205447 lmao
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Jun 23, 2023 17:57
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smellmycheese posted:Brendan has done a piece for the Spectator about people being mean to billionaires if anyone enjoys foreheads… I had an argument with my fiancée yesterday because I'm not upset enough about this. She thinks my politics get in the way of me seeing the "explorers' as human. All I said is that I have sympathy for the families but it doesn't personally make me sad.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:01
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Furries already won, they administer our technical infrastructure and could destroy it in an instant. We can not afford to anger them.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:02
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Comrade Fakename posted:The internet has reached apotheosis Just an exceptionally stupid and venal woman
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Jun 23, 2023 18:03
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I think my politics allow me to be exactly as human as I always was, in that I am angry about wrongs being done to people and happy about good things happening, but I just see people doing wrong and having wrong done to them which people with different politics don't see. To whit, being obscenely wealthy, that wealth is necessarily stolen from countless other people, hours of their lives they should have had to themselves that they were instead coerced to give to people who spend that accumulated human life on imploding themselves in submarines. If you think about what it feels like to be required to sell your life by the hour, and also think about how people who have billions of dollars come by that money, I think it's very difficult not to have a very particular human response.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:06
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For his second “will this do?” column Boris has also turned his mind to the brave subnautical billionaire idiots  Ha ha. You can see him frantically checking the word count as he cranks this bollocks out 
smellmycheese fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 18:11
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OwlFancier posted:I think my politics allow me to be exactly as human as I always was, in that I am angry about wrongs being done to people and happy about good things happening, but I just see people doing wrong and having wrong done to them which people with different politics don't see. This is basically my view on it too. Why would I be sad that a group of rich idiots got into a known death trap and died? They weren't pushing the borders of science or really being Explorers, they were trying to monetise visiting a graveyard as cheaply as possible. Being sad and still having sympathy and empathy are different things. My emotional state wasn't affected by this, just as it wasn't affected when the Queen, a horrible human being, died.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:12
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lol what loving frontier of knowledge were they pushing except arguably “turns out the chief fuckwit on this job didn’t know best after all”
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Jun 23, 2023 18:17
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