Tollund_Man4
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User ID: 501
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
Thinking about it, it makes no sense to ever retort “well did it work for the USSR?” when someone brings up the prospect of communism.
Generally people are advocating for communism for the quality of life it promises, this still seems like an appropriate retort regardless of how the country fared in great power competition.
If it didn’t work well, the USSR could never have been a competitor to America
Wouldn't present day Russia be a competitor to America if it controlled the same territory as the USSR + satellite states?
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
Just finished Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness but I think I may have hit the limits of my audiobook comprehension because I was left thinking "wait, when does stuff start happening?". Maybe it's just not that type of book, there have been enough potent lines that it may be a book you just have to enjoy the language of.
The Brother's Karamazov was much more comprehensible. I did have some confusion with the names, not just because of the Russian naming conventions but because apparently none of the readers could agree on a single pronunciation of 'Ivan'.
Ireland
Continuing from last week's post on Sinn Féin making a u-turn on the hate speech bill, the Irish Independent has reminded us of one of Sinn Féin's proposed amendments to the bill just one year ago:
The definition of “hate” is laid out in section 10 of the bill and is about preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against people on account of their protected characteristics.
Under the Sinn Féin amendments, migrant status would have become one of these protected characteristics.
The party’s amendments to the laws specified that reference to a person’s migrant status included references “to persons seeking international protection, persons with refugee status, persons with permission to remain and persons with any other regular or irregular migrant status”.
Now given the party's present (probably tactical) lack of clarity on why they are opposing this bill, and the fact the past year has seen the controversy garner worldwide attention, there is still a possibility that Sinn Féin have woken up to the fact that there is political gain to be had in curtailing the most extreme woke tendencies which until recently have gone unopposed amongst all the main parties. This is more plausible in light of the fact that some genuine opposition has arisen within the coalition government, notably Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea accusing the Justice Minister of playing to the "woke gallery". It does seem like every party has simultaneously remembered that elections are still a thing and that they've been doing a lot of very unpopular things recently, but whether that will actually lead to a change in direction seems far less likely.
Still, unless some very clear statements are made that leave no doubt about the party being genuinely opposed to any hate speech bill, I'm going to rule out the scenarios of Sinn Féin remembering that a good portion of their base are the same working class types who have to live beside asylum centres and chalk this down to "left-wingers think left-wing law doesn't go far enough!".
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
Yeah it’s amazing how strong caffeine is after your tolerance is reset. I remember being off it for a few months before discovering that an americano can give you an adrenaline rush.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
If you’re into coffee for the taste this won’t work but usually I’ll switch to tea if I’m trying to cut down on caffeine.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
There's a video of the incident out there right? Or maybe this isn't that uncommon and I'm remembering someone from some other agency being arrested on the job.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
I'm not going, to by any means, memorize all the facts in an audiobook
In my case, unless I set out to study it, this is also true for reading. My problem with audiobooks is more practical: I get distracted by something, the audiobook plays on regardless, I realise I've missed a few steps in the argument/missed some important turn of events and fumble about on my phone's touchscreen trying not to accidentally jump back 20 minutes. With reading getting distracted usually just means you stop reading for however long your attention is elsewhere.
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was excellent
I might take your recommendation and give it a shot, I haven't noticed myself getting distracted too often with this recent run of fiction audiobooks so maybe I've just gotten used to the format over time.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
I realize the critique of the "finishing quantity of books" approach to reading, but I stick to it anyway, sometimes I just need the feeling of closure.
I'm also breaking this rule but it has been very enjoyable. Being able to listen to audiobooks at work has paradoxically increased my reading pace by a lot. Sure you can read much faster than you can listen to someone read aloud, but 6-8 hours of slow listening each day still adds up to more than however many hours I could realistically devote to sitting down and reading after work when I'm tired and have the internet to distract me.
I'm still pessimistic about the use of audiobooks for denser stuff like history and philosophy, but another hack that works here is to bring a kindle to the gym and spend 40 minutes reading on the exercise bike. You can read between sets while lifting too (24 2-3 minute rest periods is a decent chunk of time) but I'm not confident that all the stopping and starting is good for comprehension.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
Second this. My experience with all dating apps is pretty much the same as far as number of matches go, few and far between, but on Bumble 3 out of 4 are going to turn into an actual date (which suits me because I do much better in person).
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
They brought in age of consent laws in line with most western countries in 2021. The crime of atteinte sexuelle sur mineur didn't carry as long a sentence as a rape conviction so you still had to prove rape to get the full 20 year sentence, now it's a 20 year max regardless.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
We can, and should, frown on and punish that behavior. But it's not rape.
Reading him as charitably as I can I'd say he's advocating something like what the French had before they brought in age of consent laws a few years ago. You still got sent to prison for having sex with a minor but it wasn't called rape, and you got sent to prison for much longer if your case satisfied the coercive bar needed for a rape conviction.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
6 servings of bread a day? Are you fucking with me?
Not basing this observation on any science, but I see far fewer overweight people in France in neighbourhoods with boulangeries and pâtisseries on nearly every corner than I did in Ireland where meat is noticeably cheaper. Bread is very cheap here so presumably people are buying it fairly regularly to keep those businesses going.
Ireland is full of easily accessible processed food (we have delis on the corner serving chicken rolls, breakfast rolls and sausage rolls instead) so maybe just not eating that is the key, but it seems like you can get away with eating a lot of bread - even bread with chocolate and sugar - if you avoid the truly terrible stuff.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
That’s a difference I hadn’t noticed but yes, it’s common enough to see newspapers say stuff like “the party has now said“. Maybe intra-party discipline is more of a thing where elections can be triggered at any time by a loss of confidence in the government.
Tollund_Man4
7mo ago
Ireland
In an unexpected change of tune Sinn Féin have come out against the controversial hate speech bill, citing their own experience being on the wrong end of censorship and the refusal to include their proposed amendments to the bill. This is especially strange given that they voted in favour of the bill at every stage of the process so far. Leo Varadkar has accused the party of cowardice and falling prey to "an online campaign of misinformation".
They've also come out against the EU migration pact saying that Irish immigration policy should be decided in Ireland. The migration pact seems like it would solve some of the immigration problems the EU is facing so Sinn Féin's opposition isn't a move to the right on the face of it, but they have said they agree with some parts of the agreement so the objection doesn't seem to stem from their being against stemming the flow of migrants.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
The family friendly form would be gwaylge (gaeilge), I'm not sure if gaelic is an anglicisation or just an old word but gaeilge is the name of the language in Irish.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
Leithreas gan sneachta, leithreas gan anam.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
At what point does lifting weights become detrimental?
Realistically, when you're already stronger than most men and the time cost is cutting into other valuable pursuits.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
He's the "Covid-19 means there have been 18 other Covids" guy.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
Rinne me rud isteach sa leithreas, an bhfuil tú ag iarradh é a ceannaigh?
Best I can do without looking it up.
I went to an Irish primary school, it seems like the years of coasting on that have finally caught up to me.
An bhfuil ceannaigh mé dul go dtí an leithreas! (I checked after I wrote this and it was even worse than I thought).
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
Well if the next Taoiseach is to be a sacrificial lamb I'm not too unhappy with it being Simon Harris, Helen McEntee would be my preference.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
Ah well maybe that's why we just call it Irish, 'Scottish-Gaelic' and 'Irish-Gaelic' can get confusing.
Maybe next time I'll go to Scotland and buy a proper Irish dictionary.
One of the best books I've read on Irish culture (the one that died in the 17th century) was originally written in Welsh (excerpts 1, 2, 1000 years of the poets being on icy terms with the Irish kings and then the English), I'd imagine any Scots-Gaelic or Welsh scholar will have some good books on Ireland too.
Tollund_Man4
8mo ago
I wouldn't say that's true of any of the Harkonnens in the recent Dune movies, even if some of their monstrous qualities have been omitted they're not replaced by anything redeeming.
I'm only listening to what I can find for free on Spotify, mostly librevox recordings. A good reader can make a difference so maybe that explains it.
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