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HopperUK posted:I can't believe the kids are rollerblading again. What happened to scooters, are they over? To be fair, if I saw anyone riding rollerblades today I'd instantly assume they were a time-terrorist from the 90s and tackle them as well
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Sep 19, 2022 17:55
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 15:36 |
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Reading https://twitter.com/RSPBEngland/status/1573366815568580613?s=20&t=MV2GI8A2gV57CermX5vKUg really set me off yesterday. Tory scum have got to go. I can't stand how transparent it all is now. Smiling ghoul Kwarteng, with ties to all sorts of shady banks and providing paid consultancies, changes the laws to strip regulations and destroy nature for quick bucks for his crony mates. Rees-Mogg bringing back loving fracking. For some reason I thought yesterday "weird that will all other PMs they make a big fuss about what family-oriented people they are, yet I don't even know if Liz Truss is married.". OOPS that's why, because she got caught loving another bloke, her mentor & Tory MP Mark Field, who you probably know best for manhandling that female protestor on film a while back for interrupting his dinner. They are transparently corrupt, have weakened all the laws that could stop them and then break them so repeatedly that the investigators can't keep up, and it's so clear that they are having one final massive snuffle at the trough before potentially being voted out of office. And the opposition to all this? Nil. I saw yesterday Starmer wouldn't even commit to bringing back the higher tax rate for massively high earners. Coward. Funny as well, after all this focus grouped shite: remember when Biden cut student loan debts? And for like one day the vocal minority was all "EURGH WHAT ABOUT THOSE OF US WHAT ALREADY PAID?" but he stuck to it & implemented anyway? And all the talk went away? How does Starmer not see that if you make a good policy and stick to it, that's a positive thing? What are we supposed to do at this point, other than extreme or violent revolt? Open to any suggestions. In the RSPB thread people were saying "we don't need live protests, petitions will do just fine". Unreal how neolibs still think that working within the system at this point will solve anything.
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Sep 25, 2022 08:22
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Biggus Dickus posted:Seriously wondering how I can pay off my mortgage before my fix runs out in ~30 months time, because this poo poo's gonna go on for a while, innit? 😬 same. September 2024. ~£270k to go. Paying ~£2350 a month, which is £1000 over-pay, £450 in interest. If rates go up to 6%, and that's what we remortgage on, if I've done my math right (highly unlikely tbf), we'd be paying ~£1350 in interest each month 😐. Have actually started drafting a couple letters/speeches to my parents & some well-heeled uncles, trying to ask in the nicest way possible if we can work out some sort of plan where we pay down the mortgage as much as possible between now and then, with them combining to pay off the remaining at the end of our term, and us paying them back with our current interest or something. NOT a conversation I'd wanted to have, and no idea if they'll be amenable to it or even able to, but better than the alternative. Also, as a dual Canadian/UK citizen, with a job where I can work anywhere: better believe I'm looking into making the move back home. Biggest worry is our very sweet yet skittish cat. We've had some friends move internationally with a cat no problem recently, but I just can imagine her doing well either in the main cabin or in the hold or wherever they put them. Anyone here have experience doing this?
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Sep 27, 2022 08:53
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Imagine that the country is a person, who the rich and powerful slowly drain of blood like vampires, slowly enough that they can still live and somehow argue that actually it's just the way of things. I have nothing to add, but brilliant metaphor
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Sep 30, 2022 05:48
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I'd say I change my mind on almost a daily basis regarding whether or not I vote Labour in the next election. On the one hand: I hate the current iteration so much. They're such pathetic losers, Diet Tory wankers who will implement policies like small business loan relief for 2 years if you're a full time carer who graduated uni in the past 5 years and are under the age of 30. They will be just as craven with the media, just as slimy with donors, and boring for them feels like a reward for their cuntery. And yet. Johnson-style Tories freak me out a bit, because they have fully and completely let the mask slip. It's clear that they've realised, there are no consequences for us, everything is about decorum and nothing is put in writing, so let's just be brazen about our corruption, take every penny we can without caring about running the country into the ground and destroying the environment in the process. Right now, I'm leaning towards holding my nose as tightly as I did when I was first learning to swim, and voting Labour. Starmer is such a chump that I feel there is a slim chance that he can be bullied and focus grouped slightly to the left, whereas with the Tories there's zero chance. I look at America: when Biden was the candidate I was pissed. I thought he was exactly the wrong choice to face Trump, that he'd do nothing progressive, that Harris would exert too strong a law-and-order influence, and that he'd do nothing of note to help anyone but rich donors. But, he seems to have done at least SOME good, especially recently. Seeing that has changed my tune on the current Labour party. I feel like if the Tories can get in and shift right, then maybe just maybe, if Labour gets in they might be bullied into shifting left.
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Oct 13, 2022 07:16
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Mebh posted:What exactly is their ideological opposition to investment instead of cuts anyway. Is it just firesale as fast as possible and get whatever you can out of it gently caress you? Is the graft really that simple and obvious or do they genuinely believe that THIS time we won't get hosed over by selling off the... *checks notes* very land we live on? You've really nailed it here for me. Since COVID I've visited my home town in Victoria, BC, Canada, and Copenhagen. Two cities that I know reasonably well. With both, I was struck by home much visible public investment was happening. New sewage treatment plant. New large public conference center. New parks. New bike lanes. All of them gave the sense of society and economy on the rise. Of interesting shared space and infrastructure for everyone to use. Not to mention: new business opportunities! New cafes, new clothing stores and coffee shops. A true growth economy from the ground up. With Truss and co: they scare me because they're true believers in the horseshit and lies of their predecessors. They all knew at least that they were full of poo poo and ruining the economy for their own personal gain. I wouldn't be surprised if Truss actually wasn't making any secret cash or deals out of this, she genuinely seems to believe in this shite. Investing in public infrastructure is so clearly a positive way forward out of this mess they e created, but they're too dogmatic and thick to see it.
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Oct 15, 2022 11:09
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For people who are thick as gently caress, Boris coming back is even an easy sell. "I remember Boris was a laugh, they locked him out because he liked having a bit of fun, now look at the state we're in! Never should have kicked him out, he was just having a laugh!"
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Oct 21, 2022 11:17
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serious gaylord posted:I don't understand what they're trying to achieve with Boris. He's going to tank them even further Honest question: do you think if it's Johnson, and there's a snap general election before the end of the year, Starmer will win? Will people who voted for Johnson actually vote Labour? Same question about Sunak or Mordaunt?
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Oct 22, 2022 09:28
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radmonger posted:What’s the basis for that theory? Can you show a growth with some metric of fash tendencies, and label the point where a downward trend took off once that theory became popular? ? Think you might be misunderstanding the point here: If a stupid opinion is treated as just as valid as any other opinion in the field of DEBATE, then it gains supporters in the general populace. It's why allowing people like Garage a platform led to us leaving the EU: the more you discuss an idea instead of dismissing it as dangerously stupid, the more people latch onto it. It's why flat earthers and anti vaxxers have had such a field day in the modern world. Its not like sensible-brains who see a flat earther on TV will say, due to their poor debate performance I'm convinced, the earth is not flat. But a thicko will see it being debated, and will start "just asking questions", thus providing legitimacy to the stupid concept & allowing its spread.
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Oct 31, 2022 12:52
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Tesseraction posted:https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1587084624655777792 I'm late, and obvious, but: The political system in the UK is so infuriatingly broken and corrupt. Putting this in real job terms, my understanding as a foreigner (Canadian lol) is: being an MP is like being an untitled employee at a company. It's just, you're there to put a butt in a seat, vote the right way, and try not to rock the boat too much. You get paid a good salary from the public purse for this. If you get to be a cabinet minister, then you have a title. Your salary goes up and you get more visibility & responsibilities. There are no rules with any serious degree of enforcement, it's all "decorum" based bullshit. Things like the ministerial code seem to have no actual legal power, it's all tutting and breathless finger wagging with no consequences. And it seems like the absolute worst that can happen to you after all kinds of breaches, rule breaking and even law breaking, is you lose the job title, but remain an untitled employee, still with a salary, still deciding the direction the nation takes. Like, how are we talking about how Bravermann MIGHT be forced to CONSIDER RESIGNING, instead of, the rules mean that not only is she out as home sec, but out as an MP triggering a by-election? Like...Liz Truss is still an MP! Still influencing the direction we take as a nation, after demonstrably proving that she's a loving idiot with no grasp on reality. Again in terms of a normal job: if someone works their way up from sales rep, to regional rep, to sales director, to global sales officer, to CEO, and then in 45 days cripple the company's finances & are forced to resign: they don't go back to being sales director and work their way back, they leave in disgrace. I can't take any solace in the fact that these ministers lose that role, when all it means is they're still working to gently caress things up behind the scenes, rather than on camera.
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Nov 1, 2022 09:41
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Ash Crimson posted:a single day alone would be enough to cripple people With the blackouts, and energy fees: I find myself lately thinking about businesses, as well. Obviously the human cost is most important, and I would rather all the businesses in the UK going bust over a single avoidable death. But yeah, like...basically it will mean the entire economy shuts down for a week. For companies with employees all over the world, who rely on video calls and asynchronous working: what a global embarrassment, to have to say "all UK team members will be offline for a week, due to their spiteful and short sighted little country running out of power."
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Nov 2, 2022 08:56
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X-posting from WhatsApp: A quick reminder that the Queen died less than 2 months ago 😆 and it's completely forgotten. The older she got & the more inevitable her death became, I had it in my head that it was going to be a solid year of mourning, of "This is the first time we've done X since the Queen died". As is, it was barely a ripple. Not that I'm complaining, it's just fascinating that things are so hosed that a once-in-a-generation event like that happened and it had no staying power in the news cycle.
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Nov 6, 2022 10:01
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Failed Imagineer posted:There was like a month of insane bullshit which reminded the rest of the world how brain-damaged Britain is. But somehow you expected more? Should Sky News have a "Still Dead" chyron running at all times? I admit it would be reassuring, but they didnt do it for Thatcher... 😆😆😆 I don't know really. Like, I'm not unhappy, it's just interesting that "platty jubes" dominated the news for like 6 months. I guess I was hoping for more bollocks, like poppy Christmas but for queen mourning.
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Nov 6, 2022 10:24
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Ugh, faced a moral dilemma this morning, don't feel like I handled it well. Would like your thoughts for next time. In local Greggs. Guy in front of me in line starts opening boxes and eating the contents. Gets to the till, asks for glass of water, says he has no money. The girl working said she's seen him all this week eating pastries without paying, says he shouldn't do that. He starts shouting at the staff, "Who the gently caress do you think you're accusing? You'll be sorry for saying this about me!". They ask him to leave. He starts throwing the empty boxes at the staff, trying to get into the behind-the-counter area. Couple people in line start asking him to leave as well, the Greggs ladies say they'll call the police if he doesn't leave. Eventually, he does. I go outside, he's still there, stalking back and forth, muttering about "I'll get them" and "They'll be sorry for accusing me.". I stand for a bit, then tell him I think he should leave, he's scaring people, if the police come he'll be in trouble. He starts asking "who the gently caress are you to say this to me?", keeps saying how he's going to "get them", etc. After a bit I start raising MY voice, telling him to get the gently caress out of here, etc. In the end the whole thing was too tense for me, so I left...and called the police. I didn't like doing it, but I could see the staff were frightened by this guy and he wasn't listening to reason. I had to go, but didn't want to do nothing. They said the staff had called them already and someone was on the way. Feel like poo poo for how it all went. Feel like a coward for not saying anything when he was acting out in the store. Feel like me talking to him made things worse. Horrible lizard brain voice is saying to me, talk is useless, should have just tried to knock him out, I was bigger than him. Feel like a traitor for calling the plod on anyone, as it almost never makes things better and almost always makes things worse. Wish there was a non-violent mental health emergency force or something, backed up by the plod, who could at least be first responders and try and calm things down before violence starts happening. Bleh. lovely start to the morning anyway. How would you all have handled a situation like this? At what point should one say something or step in? And in what capacity?
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Nov 7, 2022 10:10
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Stealing the food and threatening people, but still queued up. 😆😆 Yeah, it was really odd. Imagine he was just buying time to eat more yumyums.
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Nov 7, 2022 10:48
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NotJustANimber99, did you know there's a front page? https://www.somethingawful.com/news/internet-argument-lose/1/ You, like Elon, need to face up to the fact that you just can't post. You're either faking it for laughs, which you aren't generating, or you're being genuine, in which case I highly recommend spending time talking to a therapist instead of posting as you're displaying some disturbing traits here. Hoping you use your inevitable probation time reflecting on your actions, and how to post better in future. Edit: in fairness, you do seem to have correct opinions on certain matters, and given the right attitude you would be a fine poster. You are just aggressively thin-skinned and whiny when anyone disagrees with you, which is increasingly tiresome. Take breaths instead of making posts, and you'll do well here. Mourning Due fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Nov 12, 2022 |
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Nov 12, 2022 08:37
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KM Scorchio posted:So at this point the message is 'if you're not already a millionaire go gently caress yourself', right? I've worked hard the last 10 years and just started earning what i until very recently would have thought of as silly money... And yes I'm extremely comfortable financially compared to where i was a decade ago, albeit the cost of working myself into the ground to get here. But here I am, getting stick from all my friends for being 'rich' and trying to explain to them that there is a big and ever growing gap between being a well paid employee rather than being legitimately wealthy and I'm on the same side of that gap as them. I've been thinking a lot about this subject recently. Moved to the UK 12 years ago. For first 6 years, went from making £20k to £24k working at a hotel front desk. Did a Coursera course on data analysis, got a job at a hospitality tech firm, and salary has drastically increased yoy since. Wife and I combined currently earn over £120k pa. The way society is set up now absolutely sucks, for all involved except for the very top end of the wedge. If given the choice between, my salary gets drastically reduced and the price of everything gets drastically reduced, or my salary drastically increased but prices of things stay as they are: I would gladly take the first option. Went out for drinks in London the other night: a single pint was £7 😐. Regardless of how much money you make, the cost/benefit of an item remains a factor, especially if you remember having to consider every purchase. £40 used to do us a decent weekly food shop with all essentials and a couple treats, now that just about covers us if we stick to the essentials. Society today is built to make you feel insecure and poo poo, no matter what rung you're on. I agree that it's a much nicer problem to have to be worried about paying a mortgage than worrying about being homeless, and it's sickening that society has been made this way. But it is still a scary problem to have. Like, if I lost my job this week (possible in the current tech climate), there's no way we could keep up our mortgage payments. So that means, potentially losing the house. If you lose your house, maybe your marriage falls apart from the stress. It's a genuine emotion to feel "I have a lot of positive circumstances that rely on me performing at my absolute mental and physical peak every day, and a single fuckup could mean I lose it all", regardless of how well you're compensated. It's the bastards at the absolute top of the chart, the million/billionaires, who are loving the rest of us all over. If we infight about who is personally more hosed, instead of saying "we're all hosed in our own ways, let's work together to change things", then they win. 100% agreed that it's up to those with more resources to contribute more to the group, and I would happily pay more taxes (preferably with an actual non-evil government in charge of course). All that said, reading the room is important, and hottub chat didn't help 😆
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Nov 20, 2022 11:11
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Not to belabour the point, but like: what is even the benefit of knowing where someone's from? If they offer the information up themselves, sure, maybe I've been to the place they're from and we can talk about it, maybe I get to know them better and build a stronger bond on their terms. But it's not nearly as useful information as, where they live know? How they got to the place you both are? Whether they're a Tory or a decent person? Knowing someone's cultural heritage is very low on my list of "I must know!" facts about someone. If someone says to me "I'm from Italy" in conversation I might ask, whereabouts in Italy? But this weird desire to place their family history is so odd to me. I guess of you're obsessed with royal bloodlines then yeah, someone's familial history might be more important a subject to you. On the subject of family trees, at a reunion I was introduced to a cousin who's putting together a MASSIVE family tree and history which I was quite interested in learning more about, until he added me on Facebook and I saw his even more MASSIVE amount of posting about how great Brexit is and how you can't say anything in England today if you're white 😐 would have been interesting to see. I also have a bit of a difficult choice ahead of me in the future: turns out there's a huge family bible that's been passed down for generations to first born sons on my dad's side, and well, that's me. Haven't thought about it in decades, but this same cousin brought up the fact that my dad must have it, and my dad mentioned it as well last time I was home. I don't relish the idea of being the one who stops a tradition even if it's something like this that isn't part of my life. But better for someone else in the family to have it who cares about it, than me who doesn't, I guess. Any of you have any weird heirlooms you're having/ you'll have to deal with in future?
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Nov 30, 2022 22:54
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 15:36 |
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Dabir posted:The fact that it's basically useless information is a positive, in terms of using it to get a conversation going. It's a no-stakes subject, if they don't want to answer you haven't lost out on anything meaningful, but at the same time it's a bit more personal than "so how about this rain, eh? wet innit" and gives people an opportunity - which they can turn down - to open up and talk about their favourite subject: themselves. (inb4 owlfancier says "mine isn't".) Much better than demanding their current place of residence, method of transport and political leanings like you're some sort of walking census. Tired: "So do you live nearby, or did you have to travel to get here today?" Wired: "So were your great grandparents born in this country?" Asking someone about their cultural background without them first offering that topic is othering and lacks emotional intelligence. It's possible to shoot the poo poo without asking off-putting personal questions. Also, your odd attempt at a dunk on excellent person OwlFancier tells me that you are a NotAnotherNumber99 alt/re-reg and I claim my £5
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Nov 30, 2022 23:44
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