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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2329 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 4, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What’s going on in the UK? Foreigner born in UK stabbed three British children, then protests/violence is about all I know. Is the violence actually big or is it being hyped?

My local TV station was on full damage control/max gaslighting. They focused on the riots themselves and the cause for them was an offhanded remark by the talking head, mentioned only ONCE, saying the murder by the immigrant was "racist fake news on twitter", while saying this an image of Tommy Robinson's twitter account was on the screen.

I don't know what these people think they'll achieve, with such obvious brazen lies. They've again reached firey but mostly peaceful levels of blatant obvious lies. I think it will backfire even more spectacularly.

No, it works, at least on big groups of people. My Conservative-voting family think that it was, and I quote, "bored football fans" who "deserve to be put away forever and ever". There are still lots of people who get their news entirely from mainstream radio and TV.

Did you educate them on reality?

How? They have beliefs slightly to the right of the BBC. At this point, the gap between our worldviews is so large that anything I say comes out as alien and incomprehensible to them; if anything our conversations push them further into their own hermetically sealed worldview. If I attempt to say anything honest about politics, it's drowned out by loud wails that their son has been brainwashed by Russian misinformation and Andrew Tate. I've never even seen Andrew Tate.

@2rafa put it best:

It reminds me of real life conversations I’ve had with white English people, intelligent, center-right conservative types, about groups, identity, mass immigration, genetics, civilization, and they just shut down. I don’t mean that they shut down the debate, they’re usually polite enough and I wouldn’t discuss ‘edgy’ things with people I didn’t trust anyway, but they shut down internally. They display the exact pigheaded stubbornness that the Seattle video interviewees do, the strange combination of [post] Christian guilt complex and superiority complex and absolute, ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ type emphasis on propriety above policy. [...] Some (politically involved people, one a former MP) will even admit the current levels of immigration are a catastrophe, but then suggest in the same breath that what happens will happen, and that above all the focus should be on preventing the far right from making too much hay of the situation and “destabilizing” things. What can you do with such people?

I come back to that quote often. It's true. And it drives me to absolute despair.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thought maybe a bit more coordination would be a good idea than wild looting.

The system is built to notice and disrupt coordination.

I'm not sure I have ever seen English-speaking white people looting like this. It's quite disturbing to watch actually.

That’s still the most hilariously polite looting I think I’ve ever seen. The only way it could be even more British would be if they were queuing.

Real talk, what is the deal with the British queueing meme? I don't find that British people queue than Americans. On the chewb it's often total chaos, I've seen better queueing on American metro systems. Paging @2rafa

I know it’s been a self-deprecating joke among Brits for a while, though I don’t know for how long. What drove it home for me was watching video interviews (that I unfortunately can’t find now) of a bunch of English pensioners during the 2009 financial crisis. They were calmly lining up to withdraw money from the bank, even though they all expressed concern that the bank was going to run out of money before it got to their turn. It was quite the contrast to the chaotic scenes occurring in other countries around that time.

they're looting a Lush store? That's hilarious.

ShockedTucker.jpg

There was a discussion going in in last week's CW thread, if you haven't seen it.

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