Sampson

Political discourse in the 2020s:

Funny thing is it’s just done by some guy tweeting whatever pops into his head at any moment as his attention rapidly swings from one thing to the next. A bit like how the UK drew the borders of the Middle East over a lunch break after WW2 and have pretty much led to 80 years of war and in fighting because of it. I get why conspiracy theorists find the idea of a secret society of intelligent people at the top pulling all the strings comforting. The reality of the world and how much random trails of thought from some guy affect the world is much scarier

I think bovril agrees with you, as do most of the population according to polls, it’s just that Starmer doesn’t and wants to hold up this failed Hard Brexit. It’s the UK setting these red lines not the EU.

Yeah exactly. The BBC did an article about it over new year. I think we told our self the EU wouldn’t want us back but reality is because of Ukraine and the greater need of European defence there’s a lot more appetite amongst the EU than you might have expected for UK to rejoin. And I think the Labour Party deep down would like to rejoin. Problem is they’re too scared to open up that wound again. But polls show overwhelming favour in the Uk in both rejoining and also overwhelmingly favouring EU over the US nowadays as the geopolitical power to align with. 68% have said they would happily take freedom of movement back now to get back in the single market. I think a lot of people realise now that freedom of movement didn’t mean just everyone wanted to come but meant that you largely got people coming to the uk who wanted to work and fill labour gaps often even temporarily from culturally similar countries and then go home. It was much easier to plug short term labour gaps without having to give out longer term visas to people from outside western countries in order to fill these gaps. Changed my vote from Labour to LibDem btw in last years election because of Starmer’s weird red lines on holding up a hard Brexit, completely against both his voters wishes and clearly his own deep-down beliefs. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dxzyg9y3eo.amp

I’m glad others are optimistic. In early 2016 I probably would’ve felt the same. Sadly, I’ve heard enough variations of “don’t worry, people won’t actually vote for it” over the past 8 years to feel a lot less confident.

I would love to laugh but I’m worried this all means Musk is going to throw his weight behind Tommy Robinson becoming leader.

I’m still in the depression phase of grief about western values of liberal democracy being on their last legs sadly. But I’m starting to reach acceptance. If it was just the uk or Farage and Trump I think I’d go out and campaign against them, but it’s the whole of Europe, North America and Australasia trending this way and not just one or two leaders and feels too big and unstoppable at this point.

Fixed that for you

I think these things always feel a bit gatekeepy. But golf cricket or baseball are hardly non-stop athletic events either and are widely considered sports for historical reasons. So I have no problem considering some of those things sport.

Absolutely think Europe should be creating its own alliance system separate from NATO now, offering Canada, Australia and NZ membership too. Genuinely don’t trust the US to stand up to Russia or democratic values one bit right now. You just know Farage types would be screaming about creating a European army though.

Not sure rational people go around saying immigrants eat people’s pet dogs and cats to win political arguments

I agree. The thing for me as well is with the too much news/overwhelm of information we have going that it is undoubtedly better for many people’s mental health to ignore the background to the news and keeping fully updated, which makes it easier to just hear drip fed 2nd hand accounts scrolling social media and the like. It’s why I agree that “the people get the politicians they deserve/vote for” no longer rings true to me when keeping on top of politics is so mentally draining. Media-driven voter apathy by bad actors feels like a very real phenomenon nowadays and I can’t say I really blame people for trying to get away from politics. Unfortunately that ultimately means these populists deliberately creating voter apathy and creating endless false equivalents seem to be winning. I don’t know if you know Hank and John Green, who are some of the earliest educational YouTubers/podcasters but I heard them talking about it recently and they summed it up well when they said (paraphrasing) - I was so excited about the internet and how it would create access to more information and create more open democracy worldwide, but now we’re here it seems obvious it would do more of the opposite and cause so many problems for democracy and bury real information under so much misinformation - because new mass communication tend to do this. I just hope social media is not as costly as the printing press and radio were before humans manage to get a hold of it.

Much like the Tories post-Brexit or the populist right in Italy: they create anti-immigrant rhetoric but know that the native population is too old and so requires immigrants once they get into power and they aren’t prepared to rip the plaster off the economy which is so reliant on immigrants. Part of me actually thinks we should let the populist Right have their wish and do net zero immigration for a decade and watch public services, the pension system and healthcare system spiral out of control from the elderly native population where no one is having children to make the point. But then they didn’t seem to care when that happened with Brexit and plenty of them still try and convince themselves it was the right decision.

Way too many people on the road (both drivers and cyclists) think your lights are solely about helping you see and not also about being seen.

All I can think of is “How low can you go?” But it doesn’t feel right

But yes I think the main thing I would suggest @Lionator is finding hobbies and activities that give you peace of mind. I would recommend just going on Meetup.com and looking for different meet-ups in person in your area and just throw as much mud at the wall as possible and see what sticks. It’s what I did in the beginning of 2022 when we’re getting back to normal after the pandemic. I think I had 2-3 weeks where I went to a different one every evening after work, some were lousy but it still got me out the house and not just watching tv or browsing the internet, but some you’ll find yourself enjoying yourself and want to go back. It’s nervy going on your own at first, but everyone else gets that, they’re designed for that, most people who go are people who’ve hit a social or mental brick wall at some point and needed to find new things to get themselves out of it. Have an open mind and try different ones even if it’s something you’ve never considered yourself interested in before. You might surprise yourself that you enjoy something you otherwise wouldn’t have.

For me it’s playing board games, card games and tabletop rpgs. I’ve always liked them, but after covid and the lockdowns I made a commitment to try different meet-ups. I did some cooking, bbq, “speed friends” but the ones that stuck were the board gaming and tabletop RPG ones. Weird to say, but when I’m playing tabletop games, my mind goes blank of all the crap and I just enjoy having fun with my friends. It’s also analogue so it gets me offline and I can go hours playing games without even thinking of checking my mobile, which just doesn’t happen in everyday life otherwise. Plus it scratches that same camaraderie and social itch and excitement of the win that watching Leicester used to give me, but hasn’t really since the FA Cup win. Also, a big thing which very few talk openly about it is that most adults after they finish school and university find it very difficult to make friends. I think most adults deep down wish they had more friends but no one wants to say it because it seems too childish. I’ve made more friends as an adult the last 3 or so years playing tabletop games than I have since I was at university, because you have an instant icebreaker there and the game already gets over the awkward small talk for you.

I chose Huth because I misread the question. its an east answer in reality though - Maguire. He had 1 good season in which we still conceded a bucketload of goals and he bizarrely beat Vardy to POTS when Vardy getting to 20 goals in Puel’s restrictive style was an incredible season, which is probably the most unjust award of the clubs POTS in living memory. His 1 good season was not as good as Soyuncu and Fofana’s 1 good season too, both of whom I’d have over Maguire.

I mean… yes he was. We’d have finished mid table with Schmeichel or Hermansson

What Wymsey about expecting Musk to be a strong speaker confuses the heck out of me too though. When you see populists like Farage or Trump, you anssumr they are bound to be strong public speakers even if they lie a lot, they would need to be to get people on their side. I assumed Musk would be the same when he first broke through a few years back, but now I’ve actually watched him, he’s such a mumbler and very uncharasmatic, awkward and nervous the whole time and a very uninspiring speaker. Even to those who agree with him politically, I can’t get my head round how he has such a devoted following or who hang on his every word.

To me, it’s as simple as this - I don’t ever want to live in a country where the state has the power to make a decision on the involuntary killing of its own citizens, because it only takes one rogue politician to harness that power for evil. It’s the same argument I had against that vile law that Pritti Patel campaigned for to give the Home Secretary the power to shut down any protest they like, which is what led to those environmental protesters getting 5 years in prison. Just because it was a protest people don’t like they cheer it on, but once a legal precedent has been set it can be applied in a lot of unforeseen and potentially scary ways. If Farage’s mob get in, I’d hate to think what they do with those powers for example. it’s easy for politicians to use emotional cases and causes to change laws and give them self scary powers that can be used elsewhere.

I really hope you hold on chris. I know it sounds silly, but I see you posting in the wordle thread every day. Think about tomorrow’s Wordle game you’ll miss. Sometimes just focusing on the small things you’ll miss about the universe is enough to hold on one more night.

Sometimes it’s worth rewatching the classics. Can’t remember when I first saw this but still cracks me up to watch it now and again.

That’s entirely fair and I take back what I said as insensitive. I will instead say that she is simply a weirdo who spends way too much of her life pre-occupied thinking about immigrants and woke people, and seems like she’s constantly trying to overcompensate in how “hardline” “anti-woke” she is to the point it comes across as silly.

Absolutely nowhere near to the same extent though. Hatred towards climate protesters were leading news stories for ages and whipped up to such an extent that people were happy for the government to erode away checks and balances that hold up democracy and give the Home Secretary the power to shut down any protest they please and creating anti-protest laws which led to environmental protesters getting 5 years prison time. I’ve barely seen any genuine articles against these farmer protesters except somewhere way down in the opinions column or something. We’re expecting all of these farmers who blocked roads to get 5 years prison sentences now the precedent has been set, yes?