Unpopular Opinions You Hold

[leicsmac]

15 hours ago, Dunge said:

I struggle work out what to do with this situation. On the one hand I take your implication of the old adage that all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. But on the other hand, the right has been fuelled by the left for over a decade now.

 

For instance, I voted Brexit. I don’t discuss it much these days, precisely because what followed was years upon years of vitriol, before anyone had even talked it over with me. I perhaps take a different view to many on it, but I can see how that pushed people away. The way I see it, people on the left have argued more and more vehemently about more and more niche things and have essentially at every stage found a reason to push people away, to look down on them for being less ethical in some way. That’s a problem, particularly looking at how Trump essentially got elected by putting together a cross-society alliance of sorts.

 

Not only that, but strategically right has followed left for years, and it’s resulted in double standards. An example is Cambridge Analytica. Obama was praised to the hilt for his team’s campaigning tactics of targeting on social media. When the right did it (successfully), it was reported as a terrible, dangerous thing and an intrusion on people’s rights.

 

That, with both left and centre unable to find solutions to - or even address - concerns on economy, demographics and social change, is creating more and more of a divide. People are turning to the far right not simply because the right are loud. It’s because they don’t see a future in society, they don’t see anything worth protecting so they join the groups that promise to tear it down.

 

The answer to me isn’t to keep arguing with the right. But nor is it to ignore them. I think the answer is to lead, both in terms of personality and on the topics that are in people’s minds. Because this is where the far right see their way in: To jump to the front of the mob and shout “Follow me!”

I think we need statesmen, people who can address tough topics, say “yes, we hear the concerns of the public and this is an issue,” then essentially infantilise the one-dimensional comments of the likes of Lee Anderson by continuing “This is our plan to deal with it while not doing harm in other areas.” By all means, mock the far right for being wrong. But make sure to present with it a positive vision of the future. The far right don’t win in the light. They win in the mud. And I fear too many people are being drawn into the mud with them right now.

On the contrary, I think that both centre and left do have rather detailed solutions to those problems, but they have failed - and are failing - to sell that solution as what it is, the best of a set of bad options. (Which is a difficult sell, after all.) The other side are then using this very skillfully to either ignore the problem or implement even worse solutions but selling them to appeal to short term self interest successfully. Either consent is being manufactured, or large sections of humanity really are that lacking in empathy beyond their line of sight and we've got big problems.

 

@Basildon Fox on this topic, I'm glad to have you put forward your own point of view because I'm interested in your take. You appear to be OK with Reform having power, but I'd ask a question; how do you think their policy positions fit into a future where there are so many global issues that need attention? I'm genuinely interested - if their worldview ends up in power in a lot of places, I need a reason to think that social Darwinist ethos won't be disastrously incompatible with what society needs to survive. So if you have the inclination, sell it to me.

[bovril]

4 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

I don't think it does really, you just tend not to visit the same sort of areas when you are visiting as when you are living, commuting or working in a city.  I have seen plenty of shitty bits of Paris, Madrid, Milan, Sydney, Jakarta etc.

That's very true. But I still think the centres of Milan and Paris are much cleaner and smarter than London, and as I said above I think a lot of that is down to the explosion in takeaways and deliveries we've seen in Britain. You don't really see bottles, packets and scraps of food strewn across the pavements as much as you do here. 

[Nalis]

13 hours ago, bovril said:

That's very true. But I still think the centres of Milan and Paris are much cleaner and smarter than London, and as I said above I think a lot of that is down to the explosion in takeaways and deliveries we've seen in Britain. You don't really see bottles, packets and scraps of food strewn across the pavements as much as you do here. 

I still maintain Milan was one of the most disappointing cities I've ever been to and found it to be a bit of a shithole. Area around Duomo di Milano was nice enough but that was about it.

Edited 12 February by Nalis

[South Shire Fox]

I have zero sympathy for people who want society to be tolerant of them while they themselves are intolerant of others. I.e people who are extremely out spoken on racism while they are openly intolerant of gay people. Sam Morsy, Idrissa Gueye, Andre Gray etc. Small violin moment unfortunately 

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, South Shire Fox said:

I have zero sympathy for people who want society to be tolerant of them while they themselves are intolerant of others. I.e people who are extremely out spoken on racism while they are openly intolerant of gay people. Sam Morsy, Idrissa Gueye, Andre Gray etc. Small violin moment unfortunately 

Yes, intersectionality is really important.

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 12/02/2025 at 04:14, Jon the Hat said:

I don't think it does really, you just tend not to visit the same sort of areas when you are visiting as when you are living, commuting or working in a city.  I have seen plenty of shitty bits of Paris, Madrid, Milan, Sydney, Jakarta etc.

Yeah. I think you could film parts of any city in the world and make it seem, depending on your intention, a blissful paradise or the cesspit of humanity.

[Filberts lovechild]

Donald Trump, JD Vance, Musk etc are doing a transformative good job and I hope it resonates with Europe and we collectively grow the same balls

[Tommy G]

Coleslaw and cheese on a JP apparently !

[Parafox]

1 minute ago, Tommy G said:

Coleslaw and cheese on a JP apparently !

 

You like what you like.

 

It's all subjective. If you like salt and vinegar crisps with custard on your tater, go for it.

[Zear0]

17 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Coleslaw and cheese on a JP apparently !

Jonathan Pearce?

[Parafox]

1 minute ago, Zear0 said:

Jonathan Pearce?

 

Would you lick it off? 

 

Without or without butter?

Edited 14 February by Parafox

[FoxyPV]

18 hours ago, Filberts lovechild said:

Donald Trump, JD Vance, Musk etc are doing a transformative good job and I hope it resonates with Europe and we collectively grow the same balls

I, too, love the flavour of boot on my tongue

[Sly]

Baked Beans don’t belong on a jacket potatoe

[izzymuzzet]

22 hours ago, Filberts lovechild said:

Donald Trump, JD Vance, Musk etc are doing a transformative good job and I hope it resonates with Europe and we collectively grow the same balls

Even if you support their agenda (I don’t), maybe it’s worth waiting more than the three weeks they’ve had in office to see how it plays out before deciding they’re doing a ‘good job’.
 

But then smashing stuff up is much easier than doing things that actually helps improve people’s lives I guess. 

[leicsmac]

"Personal" isn't always, or even often, the same as "important".

[RonnieTodger]

A points deduction would’ve made this season more enjoyable

[Unabomber]

28 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

A points deduction would’ve made this season more enjoyable

Absolutely. The false hope is a killer 

[Soar Fox]

37 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

A points deduction would’ve made this season more enjoyable

Nah that would have gave the KP fanboys an excuse for us going down.

 

Would much rather us go down by being horrendously bad. 

[ozleicester]

Severance season 2 ...is shit.... is interesting....is great.....is stupid.... is shit

Edited 9 March by ozleicester

[Stadt]

Not sure how unpopular it is but the Premier League and Champions League eras are much more relevant than whatever came before. I sympathise with 'football didn't start in 1992 sentiment as there is some general erasure of the past - but it's almost a different sport now and that revolution happened in the early 1990s with the confluence of major rule changes. The offside law changed in 1990, the backpass law in 1992, the Bosman ruling in 95 - modern football is so different from what occurred before that it makes sense to differentiate the two. The PL and CL both rebranded around 1992-1993 and football is completely different.

 

Dixie Dean scoring scoring 60 goals in a season as forward playing against 2-3-5 formations with 3.9 goals per game just isn't relevant to the modern game. There;s lots to complain about modern football now (so much of it is crap e.g ticket pricing, over saturation, refereeing discourse) but when you watch a 30+ year old game it's a chore.

[Corky]

6 hours ago, Stadt said:

Not sure how unpopular it is but the Premier League and Champions League eras are much more relevant than whatever came before. I sympathise with 'football didn't start in 1992 sentiment as there is some general erasure of the past - but it's almost a different sport now and that revolution happened in the early 1990s with the confluence of major rule changes. The offside law changed in 1990, the backpass law in 1992, the Bosman ruling in 95 - modern football is so different from what occurred before that it makes sense to differentiate the two. The PL and CL both rebranded around 1992-1993 and football is completely different.

 

Dixie Dean scoring scoring 60 goals in a season as forward playing against 2-3-5 formations with 3.9 goals per game just isn't relevant to the modern game. There;s lots to complain about modern football now (so much of it is crap e.g ticket pricing, over saturation, refereeing discourse) but when you watch a 30+ year old game it's a chore.

The Premier League era is a quarter of the overall League history. It has been around long enough to have a status.

[Tommy G]

Those monster energy drinks are for chavs - I’ve never seen anyone with an ounce of decorum swigging them. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 14/03/2025 at 10:34, Stadt said:

 

Dixie Dean scoring scoring 60 goals in a season as forward playing against 2-3-5 formations with 3.9 goals per game just isn't relevant to the modern game. 

Of course it's relevant, because it happened, it just difficult to compare because, as you say, different tactics and slightly  different rules.

 

It's much less of a gulf than comparing Fangio with Hamilton in F1 and even then, I wouldn't call Fangio irrelevant.

[Brizzle Fox]

13 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Those monster energy drinks are for chavs - I’ve never seen anyone with an ounce of decorum swigging them. 

I thought this was the Unpopular Opinions thread?

 

On the subject of chavs I would add Vaping as a very chav thing (again probably posted in the wrong thread).

 

Yes please blow nauseus, fruit flavoured smoke in my face you losers.

 

At least if you're a proper smoker you can look cool whilst killing yourself. 

[filbertway]

13 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Those monster energy drinks are for chavs - I’ve never seen anyone with an ounce of decorum swigging them. 

May I add "greasy web developers". At least categorise me correctly

 

We do have no decorum though, you're right about that

Edited 15 March by filbertway