Kin posted:

...

When I think back on it, it's because there always seemed like there was something new coming out, either in music trends, media or technology, etc but things were also a bit simpler so those changes felt all the more wonderful.

...

The Internet and globalism also got massive and suddenly the wonder of new stuff just began to evaporate because everything felt just as iteratively advanced as the last thing.

Like, I struggle to remember many specific highlights from about 2005 to 2024, other than things like the tories getting into power, referendums on brexit/independence, the Xbox and shite like strictly taking over TV.

keep punching joe posted:

Those foreign students are a real drain on the state, with their boundless wealth and huge tuition and rental fees.

OwlFancier posted:

The physical shape and functionality of the iphone leads directly to lovely infinite scroll vertical pane web design.

Like I've had to use mobile devices for work for the past 11 years and I will continue to assert that the proliferation of touchscreen devices have only made it worse because you spend far more time dealing with lovely touchscreen interfaces for everything and the dickheads who dictate the tasks expect you to do a bunch of extra stuff that mobile devices can do, but do badly because they do everything badly, so you have to spend even more time doing them instead of it simply being "no you can't do that without a desktop, so it isn't getting done"

The theoretical ability for a device to do something encourages people to try and make doing that thing a requirement or a key feature, even if it does it poorly, and so people end up spending more time working with fundamentally bad tools that are aggravating to work with.

Mourning Due posted:

A subject I've been obsessing over lately related to this, is the death of the monoculture (at least in the West).

Pre-internet there was comparatively such a small amount of content, that you could kind of guess what your mates had read or watched recently. Like, 10 channels on telly that would actually show anything decent. 5 movie or video game magazines a month. A few radio stations. Especially if you had any sort of niche interest.

Now? Even with my mates who like all the same rubbish as me, we're never experiencing the same thing at the same time. I remember when one of the stranger things seasons came out, I was busy enough that I could only watch an episode a week. My mate binged the whole season in a day, so I couldn't really talk to him about any episodes without getting spoiled, and I couldn't expect him to remember exactly what happened when. So we just never really talked about it. Even more so than that, rather than big ticket shows, it's more likely that they'll be binging a history of video game speedruns or interesting bridges or something on Youtube, that I can't get into because it's all in-jokes, unless I go right back to the beginning. Music-wise, I'm constantly discovering cool new bands that I like, but nobody else in my core group is listening to them. The mainstream is so thoroughly owned by the bland that it's in one ear and out the other. I remember when I was a kid hearing like Marilyn Manson & SOAD & RATM on fairly mainstream stations. And if you met a new person, you could at least kind of guess the type of poo poo they might be into, because we were only exposed to such a relatively small amount of content. Now it's like, OH do you know this Youtuber who reviews old Murder she Wrote Episodes? No? Ah well, she's great. It's so much more rare to have those great "OH poo poo, you watch/listen to this poo poo too?" moments.

Since the rise of the internet it feels like there are no more cultural "waves", like grunge or early 90s hip-hop or anything. Everyone has their own catered version of the media, but they aren't experiencing it alongside many others, at least in their own local circle. We've never been more connected, but we've never felt so alone.

keep punching joe posted:

keep punching joe posted:

Those foreign students are a real drain on the state, with their boundless wealth and huge tuition and rental fees.

Microplastics posted:

Post the peep show meme

pitch a fitness posted:

I know the answer is "racism poisons the soul" but there's something remarkable about seeking to dismantle a £27B export industry on principle alone.

Mourning Due posted:

A subject I've been obsessing over lately related to this, is the death of the monoculture (at least in the West).

Pre-internet there was comparatively such a small amount of content, that you could kind of guess what your mates had read or watched recently. Like, 10 channels on telly that would actually show anything decent. 5 movie or video game magazines a month. A few radio stations. Especially if you had any sort of niche interest.

Now? Even with my mates who like all the same rubbish as me, we're never experiencing the same thing at the same time. I remember when one of the stranger things seasons came out, I was busy enough that I could only watch an episode a week. My mate binged the whole season in a day, so I couldn't really talk to him about any episodes without getting spoiled, and I couldn't expect him to remember exactly what happened when. So we just never really talked about it. Even more so than that, rather than big ticket shows, it's more likely that they'll be binging a history of video game speedruns or interesting bridges or something on Youtube, that I can't get into because it's all in-jokes, unless I go right back to the beginning. Music-wise, I'm constantly discovering cool new bands that I like, but nobody else in my core group is listening to them. The mainstream is so thoroughly owned by the bland that it's in one ear and out the other. I remember when I was a kid hearing like Marilyn Manson & SOAD & RATM on fairly mainstream stations. And if you met a new person, you could at least kind of guess the type of poo poo they might be into, because we were only exposed to such a relatively small amount of content. Now it's like, OH do you know this Youtuber who reviews old Murder she Wrote Episodes? No? Ah well, she's great. It's so much more rare to have those great "OH poo poo, you watch/listen to this poo poo too?" moments.

Since the rise of the internet it feels like there are no more cultural "waves", like grunge or early 90s hip-hop or anything. Everyone has their own catered version of the media, but they aren't experiencing it alongside many others, at least in their own local circle. We've never been more connected, but we've never felt so alone.

keep punching joe posted:

Exceptional act of self loving by Yousaf and whatever idiot he has advising him (Kevin Pringle probably). Like a week ago this was all fine, they could have dialled back some net zero cuts, chucked the Greens a few extra bike lanes and struggled on to the GE which probably wouldn't have been as bad as the press have been portraying it.

keep punching joe posted:

Exceptional act of self loving by Yousaf and whatever idiot he has advising him (Kevin Pringle probably). Like a week ago this was all fine, they could have dialled back some net zero cuts, chucked the Greens a few extra bike lanes and struggled on to the GE which probably wouldn't have been as bad as the press have been portraying it.

keep punching joe posted:

Exceptional act of self loving by Yousaf and whatever idiot he has advising him (Kevin Pringle probably). Like a week ago this was all fine, they could have dialled back some net zero cuts, chucked the Greens a few extra bike lanes and struggled on to the GE which probably wouldn't have been as bad as the press have been portraying it.

Pistol_Pete posted:

We don't even require polluting factories to get the money either, we're literally just putting bums on seats!

smellmycheese posted:

Can a Scotland enjoyer explain in more detail why he decided to self own in this way?

smellmycheese posted:

Can a Scotland enjoyer explain in more detail why he decided to self own in this way?

forkboy84 posted:

No loving idea what ghoul they will replace him with but I've certainly got the fear

smellmycheese posted:

Can a Scotland enjoyer explain in more detail why he decided to self own in this way?

keep punching joe posted:

whatever idiot he has advising him (Kevin Pringle probably).

Bozza posted:

it's almost irrelevant who gets the job as they have only two options to pass legislation: work with the greens or work with the unionists (who absolutely will not work with them)

smellmycheese posted:

Can a Scotland enjoyer explain in more detail why he decided to self own in this way?

Reveilled posted:

We can give the background but it's just such an objectively poor decision that we can't do more than guess as to why he chose this particular course of action where he minecrafted his career by insulting his last allies.

The background is that the SNP started this parliament with exactly half of all the seats, so technically a minority government. The SNP has been in minority government before so they have some experience with it, but having most recently been in Majority government, there was a desire to maintain that stable power so long-time ally the Greens were brought in and a coalition formed in the Bute House Agreement. This was controversial within the SNP, some really don't like the greens and wanted to stay in minority government. Others wanted a vote of the membership, the same as the Greens had. But this was during Stugeon's reign over the party, and she was able to push it through on her own authority.

Then, between the BHA and the leadership election, the Greens took centre stage on the bottle deposit scheme, which ended up being politically damaging to both the greens and the SNP as it didn't seem well planned (and there were accusations flying over who was to blame) and culminated in the UK government overriding the Scottish government to kill the plans. The narrative in the tabloids though was "reckless SNP let loony greens run wild and they hosed their flagship policy" and it seems like there's a faction of the SNP who thought that was basically accurate.

Now jump forward to the leadership election, two of the three candidates either want to scrap the coalition or "reexamine" it. Yousaf is the continuity candidate, tying himself to Sturgeon's legacy, and with that the BHA, so he promises to maintain the coalition. Yousaf wins and then mere weeks later, whoops, turns out Sturgeon's legacy might be a poison pill as the scandals and criminal probes start really rolling. My suspicion is that this blasted apart Yousaf's power base within the party, and he doesn't have the political competence to form his own new base, so everything has shifted out from under him.

Pressure grows on Yousaf to scrap the climate targets and implement the Cass review, the former being the absolute central core of the agreement between the Greens and the SNP with the latter being a direct impingement on the trans rights issues that previously only the Scottish Greens and the Sturgeon faction of the SNP were committed to. And so when he scraps the targets and has no pushback on the halting of puberty blocking prescriptions, the two things that bind the Greens to the SNP are in tatters.

The Green membership, very upset by this, demands a re-vote on the BHA. Harvie and Slater, the Green co-leaders, kind of have their hands tied here--they have to abide by their members' wishes but they want to maintain the coalition so they agree to the vote but campaign strongly for keeping it, going to far as to stake their own political futures on it, with Harvie saying he'd probably step down if the BHA is overturned--which is an act of significant self-sacrifice and loyalty to the coalition Yousaf leads, since he's popular with the Greens even if the BHA isn't. So the Green leaders are publically backing the coalition and willing to give their careers to essentially defend the government of Humza Yousaf.

And then Humza Yousaf loving stabs hem in the back, calling them in at 8am on the morning of First Ministers questions to inform them that they're fired and the coalition is over. Now gently caress off I need to get ready for a press conference to announce the same and then prep for FMQs.

--

So onto why. It's honestly baffling, you can scarcely think of a more grievious political insult to the Greens than this way of handling it. My belief is that senior SNP figures hated that the future of their government was being decided by the membership of the Scottish Green party and wanted the coalition ended before that could happen to show "strength". Yousaf, his power base in the party effectively non-existent, is too weak as a leader to resist that upset from his own party. Maybe he was faced with the choice of ending the agreement or facing a wave of resignations. A better leader would presumably have convinced the malcontents to simmer down and found another solution (even if it was just "I'll speak to the Greens and we'll come up with a plan to end the coalition mutually", giving them what they want but in a less politically devastating way).

keep punching joe posted:

Banging clipboard *Jenny Gilruth JEnny Gilruth JENNY GILRUTH*

any FM will be reliant on other parties to get poo poo done and she probably has scotlab contacts she can work with given who she's married to.

Just Another Lurker posted:

I wonder if that Wee Free religious nut will get the job, she creaped me out last time.

quote:

Don’t sacrifice conviction for success. Don’t ever give up on quality for quantity. In a movement like ours, as socialist movements around the world have demonstrated, we’re not just interested in getting votes…. We are seeking to get people who are willing to dedicate their lives to building a different kind of society … a society founded on the principles of concern for human well being and human welfare.

Guavanaut posted:

I've just finished reading a biography of Tommy Douglas, the Scottish Presbyterian minister turned Canadian socialist politician, and it's made me sad that there once were a bunch of super prods who used that fire in their belly against the oil barons and private utilities, now replaced with culture war weirdos. Less of her, bring back more of

forkboy84 posted:

This is a very good summary. Though I will say that it's not quite true that trans rights were only supported by Greens & the Sturgeon progressive bloc in the Nats. Lest we forget that the Gender Recognition Bill had the support of MSPs from every party represented at Holyrood, all but 1 Labour, 2 Tories, all Lib Dems, all Greens & 54 Nats. It passed 88 to 33, with 4 abstentions & 4 Did Not Votes at the 1st stage, & at the 2nd with 86 to 39 with 4 abstentions. Until Kieth's failure to adequately defend the bill from the veto of Westminster this bill was not particularly controversial outside of a handful of loud & thoroughly stupid Tartan Tories & Tory Tories.

quote:

I despair at the situation in Scotland – it’s absolute chaos now from the Scottish parliament, from the SNP. So you’ve got chaos in the Scottish parliament, chaos in the Westminster parliament.

And the Scottish people are being fundamentally let down. One in seven are on waiting lists, there’s a cost of living crisis and all the SNP can offer is chaos.

We’ve got to turn the page on this now – we need that general election and a fresh start.

pitch a fitness posted:

And even many of my students see that aspect as optional

forkboy84 posted:

OK, standard fare at the start but going from that to "we need a general election" just makes it sound like he doesn't realise that the Scottish elections are different to the Westminster ones.