Replies

lorcan_nagle wrote:

That is the SEAL veteran who said that under Trump he would have a harem of twinks. (Possibly to cannibalize.)

I doubt the ceasfire in Gaza will last for a long time. Hamas is not going to disarm, and Israel is not going to turn pacifist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/opinion/west-europe-america-lost.html

 

This “we’re doomed” rhetoric exists both on the left and the right. I don’t know…I think all our politicians are pretty shit, but if we have the right mindset there is no obstacle we can’t overcome.

 

Experts who can only promise a managed decline deserve to be kicked out of all the institutions where they are to be found. That sort of thinking needs to end.

Yeah you have to drink those Belgian beers slowly! I think my absolute favorite is the Gouden Carolus whisky infused, which is 11.2 %. Two of those is enough to have a fun night.

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Todd, Dave

Chouffe redesigned their labels. It looks a lot better now I think, the fonts on the old labels looked messy and unprofessional.

 

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Todd

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Our parliament approved a motion to declare antifa a terrorist organization.

Al-x wrote:

Yeah. You’re probably right on that. It’s just that things seem so bleak. Could use some fun.

Politics and war and all that stuff is traumatizing. It is important of course, so I wouldn’t say pay no attention to it, but a little distraction every now and then is good.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/10/05/beijing-bans-negative-emotions-on-social-media_6746107_4.html

I think theologians who say “God is in control” are contradicting themselves when they say evil is necessary because of free will. Either God is guilty of creating evil, or he is not completely in control (and people have free will).

Sean Robinson wrote:

Burr said he had “no fucking idea” the festival would inspire such controversy from people that aren’t able to locate Saudi Arabia on a map. “One time I did Abu Dhabi and somebody [texted me], ‘Oh, you’re going over there to get that blood money, right?’ And I go, ‘Hey, just for the record, I’m also doing London, England, on that tour, which is arguably the bloodiest fucking money out there,’” he said.

He does kinda have a point there. Every country has done bad things, does that mean you can’t perform in any of those countries? It would also mean he can’t perform in the United States.

 

However in the end it misses the point because this “comedy festival” was organized by the Saudi government to improve the country’s reputation. It’s something different than just performing in a comedy club in the country.

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Nah, politically correct is more things you know are true, but you’re not willing to say it because it would hurt someone’s feelings.

No, let’s have it, what do you think is true about women or trans people or gay people that you know are true but that you normally wouldn’t be willing to say? Just name a single thing, come on. It’s your hypothesis, I’d like you to provide some evidence.

For the record, I admit that yes, a lot of the time when someone is “politically incorrect” it’s racist, sexist or whatever. But in the case of some of the things Bill Burr used to say, I don’t think he was ever racist or sexist, it’s more “emm yes we know it’s probably true but you just can’t say that”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/07/edouard-philippe-sebastien-lecornu-france-emmanuel-macron-elections

 

An ally of Macron who could be his successor calls for presidential election.

Trump is turning more anti-Russia. I wonder what goes on behind the scenes, who is influencing him to make these changes.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

njerry wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Are we able to do that in modern society?

That depends: are you in captivity?

Yes. Society imprisons me. ;)

 

A semi serious response, but I think there is some truth in it. You can’t really live outside the constraints modern society puts on you, unless you want to live like a vagrant. (Or you just die.)

In 2021 parliament adopted a law that said “animals in captivity have to e able to express their natural behavior”. I think it’s a good law, but I wonder what the consequences are for humans. We’re animals too, but do we express our natural behavior? Are we able to do that in modern society?

I hnestly don’t understand why the PVV hasn’t been outlawed here…given their attitude towards Islam. They want to ban the quran and close all mosques. That is a direct attack on basic human rights. It’s crazy that even some normie parties worked with him. I mean I said some things abotu Islam and the behavior of some Muslims that some take offence at, but I hate this polder fascist.

 

Maybe it’s just that they’re afraid of riots from their supporters if that happens.

 

It’s pretty tough…some family members of mine voted Wilders. I just take the stance that everybody has to vote what they think is best and it’s their personal business, I am not going to argue with them about it. I still love them of course.

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Christian

Eh I’m not gonna argue with you about this. Be hapy with your opinions.

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

he became politically correct.

…stopped being sexist and a dick.

Let’s remember that the term “politically correct” was introduced by the right to discredit attempts to be less of an asshole to minorities and women, yeah? Replace it by “being less racist and sexist” every time it is used, and the perspective changes quite a lot.

Maybe – through therapy and mushrooms – Burr has just understood that there’s no use bashing progressives and women because they’ve lost. Trump’s waging a military war on progressive cities now, maybe even the “edgy” comedians are beginning to understand that it’s not great to stand on his side of things.

The Riyadh thing is pretty shitty though.

Nah, politically correct is more things you know are true, but you’re not willing to say it because it would hurt someone’s feelings.

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Uncle Retrospective

Isn’t it supposed to be a decision to be made by the justice system? I think we have a process in place in the Netherlands to ban parties but it’s not a decision taken by other political parties, it’s a dicision made by a judge.

 

It should ideally be very simple, if a party in their proclamations and programs repeatedly utter things that are against certain principles of the state, things like equality under the law, or infringement on certain freedoms, ban them. Under such a rule I think the PVVwould be banned here in the Netherlands. They pretty much said they want to ban a whole religion.

 

Iran has a council that is specifically there to weed out undesirable candidates, that go against the principles of their state. Now I think the principles of the Iranian state are pretty bad, but such a vetting system by the law would be a good thing I think.

Dave wrote:

Patricia Routledge has kicked the bouquet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czdjegvjz3do.amp

Made it to 96…that’s pretty good.

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Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Videos I play in my laptop browser from sites like twitter and others give a black screen after a while. I can scroll for a while, but then suddenly a video gives a black screen and all other videos also show a black screen in that browser and on that tab. When I open the site in a new tab, it works again. For a while anyway, until it starts showing black screens again. It also happens on multiple browsers, chrome, brave and edge.

 

I think it must be something in the software, because I assume that if it is hardware the errors would persist. I did switch off hardware acceleration, and re-installed the graphics driver, but that didn’t work.

 

Update on this problem: I downloaded firefox and in firefox I don’t seem to have this problem. I haven’t had any video show up in a black window yet. Apparently firefox has a different system than most other browsers which is called gecko. Maybe this makes the difference.

Honestly I’m fine with Germany banning AfD, if they can do so. We should defend what we stand for as a society and fight ideas that are not in accordance with that. I just watched a documentary on religious schools in the Netherlands and it’s disgusting what some of them teach kids. Raising a generation of zealots and bigots. Just close those schools. We sould finally get serious about that. Liberal society is not an “anything goes” society, it stands for certain principles and rights and freedoms and responsibilities we agreed on as a society. We can’t just give that away.

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Ben

Heh…Billy Burr was always a bit edgy, joking a lot about women etc. until suddenly for some reason he became politically correct.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/30/will-pivotal-election-turn-czech-republic-into-another-anti-eu-agitator

 

Czechia is a complete basket case, politically speaking. The people are fine, they have good beer and beautiful cities but oh my God are they fucked.

garjones wrote:

It’s not hugely related to what’s written though, which is a lamentation of a decline under Trump. You can’t really have a decline without a previous upside. I do get part of what you say, it can be easy to launch at the USA as they have had a dominant economic and cultural position, often very positive but sometimes not, since the end of WW2. I just think you take it too far to a position that nobody can have anything negative to say that isn’t borne of jealousy or hypocrisy. He’s allowed not to be happy and think things are getting much worse.

Well we’re reading what he said differently. I think it’s where he says Trump is the distillation of what the country has always been. That is talking about the whole country and the whole history. I think that goes too far.

 

I think people can be very critical of the US, I am also sometimes. But this seemed to talk negatively about the country as a whole. Politics isn’t all there is, and many people in the US are fine people.

garjones wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

UKians seething about the US is always funny. You lost, get over it.

This is an example of why we shouldn’t just buy the framing of internet memes. A quick Google shows the author is from Wisconsin, his Substack contains this line:

I am American, yes—but I no longer see myself as merely just “American.” Not in the narrow way nationalism demands.

To the other point. I don’t think the ‘you lost’ thing really resonates 250 years on. It probably weighs as heavily on the average UK citizen as the Netherlands not owning Indonesia, Turks pining for the Ottoman Empire or the USA wanting the Philippines back. Not at all really.

I think it is fair to point out hypocrisy at times from Brits and other Europeans criticising the USA (an example is on immigration where they always been far more draconian than the US). Trump is awful though, gun deaths are high, too many people go bankrupt from health issues and I don’t think it serves anyone well to pretend they don’t exist or they can’t comment.

It reminds me a bit of a BBC Hardtalk show I saw maybe 20 years back when I first arrived in Malaysia and the foreign minister basically defended every tough question with ‘you are foreign so don’t understand’ and when that failed with ‘the British did terrible things in 1857’. While true was hardly relevant to the questions being asked or the responsibility of the 35 year old British woman of Indian heritage asking them.

Hm well if he is American he has more standing to say it. Still I don’t like it if people just say the country is entirely bad like he seems to do. The US has lots of great people and has done great things, as well as bad people and bad things. This attitude is not helpful.

 

I think I called my own country a shithole country here once, but that is a bit tongue in cheek, I mean lots of things suck here but obviously there are positive things too.

Fascism is what we have now. Or a Brave New World control state. There will be a few enlightened ones at the top and the masses will “own nothing and be happy” while under surveillance 24/7.

 

We need a radical divorce from this. I don’t know if this can happen or how to do it. But the road we’re on leads to hell.

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Uncle Retrospective

Christian wrote:

Sounds like Bernie Sanders to me!

He’s going to be 87 in 2028 ;)

Our politicians, at least in Western Europe are experts at not doing what the people want. I think we need actual populism, where only measures that are widely popular can go forward. It’s very telling that all their approval ratings are absolute garbage.

 

There is no longer nay defense possible for our rotten system, it has to go.

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Todd, njerry, Uncle Retrospective

Well I like the olde fashioned left. Concentrate on workers rights, equality, access to affordable housing and healthcare.

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Christian, Todd

Larry Ellison who is rabidly pro-Israel took over toktok.

Ha, funny that Tim Dillon was thrown out for trolling them. I used to like him, but he’s become a bit of a political hack.

They keep going back and forth on this. Nooo Europe can fight Russia on its own, and back to save us Trump. Also Kallas has been very hawkish, saying things like Russia has to “broken up into small states”. Delusional.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/25/kaja-kallas-interview-trump-ukraine-war-00581253

Are there albums where every song is great in your opinion, where you don’t skip anything? Some of mine are: Kate Bush’s debut album, Ry Cooder’s eponymous debut album, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Purple Rain by Prince.

I had to turn my adblocker off because I kept getting errors.

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Todd

I think it comes down to who comes across better in public. I’m not sure if Newsome is a good debater but he seems to have some charisma. I could be wrong about that though. I heard he did well in the debate with DeSantis but I haven’t seen that myself.

 

His politics would be similar to Biden I guess.

Christian wrote:

Not exactly a surprise. One thing I did hear is that she now accuses the Democratic Party as being too timid (in sticking with Biden for so long and not wanting Buttedgieg as her running mate, I think), which… well, yes, the being fucking chickenshit is always the Dems’ problem, but it’s also why she became VP in the first place.

I’m not saying there isn’t probably a plethora of reasons to boo her. I’m just saying I’d rather forget she exists. She will never again have any importance in US politics.

Yeah Newsom has taken a lead in polls, he is the most like candidate the dems will have in 2028

My God youtube ads are utter brainrot…

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Todd

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

In their defense, I think you can be angry at the democrats for not being better. Yes they are better than the republicans, but that’s a low benchmark. They should be doing much more, and better, than they are doing at the moment.

Well, yes, but what exactly is the purpose of heckling an ex-Vice-President at a reading?

Wouldn’t that energy be better spent trying to do something about Trump? Or, if you want change in the Democratic Party, supporting Biden and AOC and Mamdami?

Well heckling someone is never really useful, it’s always a rather impotent display. But Harris was a terribe candidate. I can see why some people are not happy with her.

I love the US, it is truly an amazing and beautiful country but yeah the politics is crazy. However much of Europe is the same. Certainly the Netherlands is going nuts atm.

In their defense, I think you can be angry at the democrats for not being better. Yes they are better than the republicans, but that’s a low benchmark. They should be doing much more, and better, than they are doing at the moment.

 

the democrats have trouble doing the sensible thing, because much of the party is in the pocket of the neoliberal establishment. That means you don’t get much improvement to worker’s rights, wages, housing etc. Instead you get lgbt flags.

Videos I play in my laptop browser from sites like twitter and others give a black screen after a while. I can scroll for a while, but then suddenly a video gives a black screen and all other videos also show a black screen in that browser and on that tab. When I open the site in a new tab, it works again. For a while anyway, until it starts showing black screens again. It also happens on multiple browsers, chrome, brave and edge.

 

I think it must be something in the software, because I assume that if it is hardware the errors would persist. I did switch off hardware acceleration, and re-installed the graphics driver, but that didn’t work.

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-to-unveil-plan-for-digital-id-cards-to-crack-down-on-illegal-immigration-13438007

 

This would make having a smartphone on you all the time mandatory. Building the panopticon.

Sean Robinson wrote:

UKians seething about the US is always funny. You lost, get over it.

Crazy how Thiel keeps talking about the antichrist.

In Europe 8 times more people die from the cold than from heat.

One of my most socialist ideas is that every major newspaper should be forced to make their basic reporting on current events freely available. Then they can charge for more in depth coverage, and other material.

Myth has become somewhat synonymous with untruth, with a lie. “That’s just a myth.”

 

For ancient people the concept of myth was the highest truth.

 

 

 

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Christian, Todd

Graham Linehan keeps radicalizing further. Now he’s on the “Charlie Kirk was just a good Christian and that’s why they hate him” bandwagon.

 

 

We had a right wing anti-immigration demonstration here which ended in violence. Lots of hooligans who fought with police and torched their cars. Unpleasant types. Some of them literal nazis.

 

Weird thing is it was led by a woman. We have lots of women here who are prominent in right wing circles, like Eva Vlaardingerbroek and others. I always had the impression it was mostly a men’s thing but somehow the figurehead often ends up being a woman.

garjones wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Dolan’s Claim, “Kirk Is a Modern Saint Paul” Refuted by NCR: “He Was a Racist”

 

A cardinal claims Charlie Kirk is a modern Saint Paul…however he also says he never heard of him before the shooting…

I think it would be truly embarrassing really if the actual numbers of ‘never heard of Kirk before the shooting’ were discussed a bit more. I am very online and check news/politics every day and I was at best vaguely aware of him as a right wing podcaster.

There was a Reform councillor in south Wales last week who stormed out of a meeting because there was no minute’s silence or similar tribute to Kirk. I can say with a lot of confidence that 99% of the constituents in Torfaen had no fucking idea who he was before he made the news for being shot and would take a decent wager said councillor was among that group.

For all its other ills in recent years under Musk it hasn’t been really acknowledged enough how Twitter, which has always had one of the smallest social media platforms, way smaller than Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok etc, has been held up as the crucible of public opinion because it makes life easy for lazy journalists who can submit stories using just cut and paste.

It is very very odd. Like some kind of hysteria.

 

I mean this was the cardinal of New York who said it…he never heard of Kirk before but decided to compare him to Saint Paul, of all people. You would expect a cardinal to have some sort of sophistication, some gravitas, and some awareness of the political climate. But no. It’s literally like Fox News places the “Kirk is a saint” tape in their head, and they repeat it like a mantra…like they’re automatons.

 

It’s good that that Catholic newspaper refuted him, but my God!

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Uncle Retrospective

Is vocal fry getting worse or not?  I am listening to a Ezra Klein podcast and all speakers have vocal fry.

 

I can’t do it. Sometimes I try speaking with vocal fry but it makes me cough.

I agree with that, the democrats have thus far been careful not to do that. (Although with the current generation of AOC, Mamdani, etc I could see them trying to do things like making hate speech illegal, or at least giving support to such ideas – they wouldn’t be able to change the constitution to actually do that)

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Pam Bondi coming out against hate speech and saying it should be prosecuted is a bold move.

 

I notice a lot of politicians don’t really have principles about this stuff, it’s just if we do it, it is good, but if you do it, it is bad.

Actually, the right has always been very consistent in this in the US. They preach free speech when it comes to hate speech against minorities or death threats against the left, and for them free speech means that no private individual should be allowed to speak out against racism, sexism, homophobia etc.. But wherever they are in power, they actively practice government censorships against everthing they don’t like, banning books from school libraries and persecuting criticism against the authorities. The Trump admin is super-charging this, but it’s what the Republicans have always done.

I think as is so often the case, the hypocrisy is on both sides here. The left also does not really hold free speech in high regard a lot of the time, and then turns around when their own free speech is prohibited and says “I thought you Republicans were all about free speech huh?” But Republicans are really pushing this into overdrive.

Albania has appointed a minister who is an AI bot…

 

We’re done folks. The clankers are taking over.

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Uncle Retrospective

Dolan’s Claim, “Kirk Is a Modern Saint Paul” Refuted by NCR: “He Was a Racist”

 

A cardinal claims Charlie Kirk is a modern Saint Paul…however he also says he never heard of him before the shooting…

Politically speaking, the Czech Republic, which should be a key member in the EU, is not a serious country. They have a lot of different “liberal-conservative” populist garbage parties with names like “YES”, “Together” and “That’s enough”. Each populist party has as it’s platform to “clean up the mess the current government leaves behind”. A few years ago the government fell by taking the insanely stupid action of accepting a huge bribe in bitcoin from a criminal organization. It is also the most reddit country in Europe, with the pirate party getting 9 % in the polls. There is not really a Christian political movement in the Czech Republic (it is the most atheist country in Europe) and the social democrats have zero seats in parliament.

 

Oh and there is also a party which fights for the right of car owners to have more parking spots, which gets 6 % in the polls currently.

 

 

JRCarter wrote:

counterpoint: If the media and newspapers lie, and make terrible bloopers all the time, they should be punished.

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Todd

 

But will it be an Amish or Mormon theocracy?

 

 

 

Kimmel has said many bad things which were more imho fire-able offenses than the stuff he said about Kirk which was relatively meak. Troubling that this is the thing that got him fired.

 

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

Pam Bondi coming out against hate speech and saying it should be prosecuted is a bold move.

 

I notice a lot of politicians don’t really have principles about this stuff, it’s just if we do it, it is good, but if you do it, it is bad.

garjones wrote:

Last September China bought 25% of the US soy bean crop, this September that has become 0% and the farmers will go out of business in a year if they can’t replace that trade.

I certainly do agree the US is fucking up in a major way. I’m afraid that will have bad effects in Europe as well.

 

The situation in Europe is really precarious at the moment, the two main drivers of the economy in the EU are Germany and France and they’re really doing badly.

I saw a clip of Buttigieg come by on X. I’m pretty sure if dems go with him in 2028 they’re going to lose.

 

(Unless Trump screws up the economy. If that happens anyone can beat the next Republican candidate)

JRCarter wrote:

That’s really sinister. A very troubling sign.

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JRCarter

It’s almost like a flag battle. Right wingers with the English flag and left wingers with the Palestinian and pride flag. Which flag holds more power?

The Tommy Robinson protest is a bit suspicious being in September given that Starmer said he would recognize Palestine this month. You can’t really rule out Israel having some part in this, given Robinson’s sympathies for Israel. If we start recognizing Palestine, then Russia won’t be the only enemy Europe has.  Like Russia probably meddled in certain countries with covid protests, like the trucker protest in Canada etc Israel might try to do things to destabilize European countries as well.

 

I can’t even form a perception of what this protest was about. What are their ideas? It seems a vague muddle of things. They pretend to be against mass migration, but BoJo let in literally over a million people a year, and Tommeh hangs around with Sikhs. I’m not unsympathetic to certain right wing ideas, but the right that exists is just nuts. They’re all crazies. The left are almost all crazies but not all.

Good to see you back btw Gar, how are you doing? Long time no see.

 

Maybe we can get Jim O’Hara and Ronnie to come back too…

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Ben

Meanwhile Nepal has had what looks like a legit revolution, including burning down parliament and stripping politicians naked and dragging them through the streets. Not a lot of new about that in Western media, maybe they don’t want to give people ideas. There’s a new PM now but it remains to be seen what will actually change.

 

Honestly stuff like the rally in London is just tame and harmless, some silly people waving a flag and raising their fist and saying “we’re not gonna take it”.  The people in Nepal were actually mad as fuck, desperate and ready to kill anyone that stood against them. In the West people are mostly tamed.

 

(I think there are probably some radical nazis among the crowd in London who would be ready to kill but I don’t think that is true for most of them, they’re probably more like boomer conservatives who think Starmer is a commie or something silly like that.)

 

Of course it’s mostly good that people are a bit more relaxed and not ready to freak out and start some violence but there must also be some willingness to fight tyranny when it occurs. Sometimes violence is justified, as a last resort, under extreme circumstances.

[Arjan Dirkse]

Just like bookstores there used to be multiple stores that sold musical instruments in town but that number dwindled. Now there is just one store that sells guitars and they’re super expensive, their cheapest acoustic guitars are like 500 euros and the prices go up over ten thousand euros for their expensive models. They’re very good but it’s a lot of money.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 6 days ago by Arjan Dirkse.

JRCarter wrote:

Can we address the apparent elephant in the room?

I don’t think you can shoot your way out of your predicament. It seems like a bad idea.

garjones wrote:

The interesting thing is that the US has not been great in any of those stats for a long time, that show is pretty old now and nothing much changed positively.

Where they have exceeded most other countries is economically and ironically there’s a lot at risk there now. The tourism industry will take a massive hit, nobody I know will go to the US now unless they have to for work or already booked and paid for tickets. The massive debt coming from the ‘big beautiful bill’ risks the safest investment post WW2, US bonds. They are going all in for fossil fuels which is potentially a disaster, it’s an extremely long term payoff, new oil and gas locations can take a decade to come online, by 2035 most European countries will have made new petrol cars illegal. The best guess is that will be drilling for hugely devalued gas and oil by the time it reaches the market.

I read a book from John Pilger a long time ago and while he somewhat lost it in his later years, he was very clever in criticising the right using their own quotes. He had the CATO institute saying lax immigration gave the US a $50bn advantage per year over European countries because of low pay. That may also be wiped out.

Still I think the same decline in reading and math is seen here in the Netherlands. A lot of kids who are going to high school don’t have sufficient reading and writing proficiency. It is not just a US thing.

 

Europe depends on the US on a lot of things, like energy, military, and tech. It is always pretty funny seeing Euros seethe against Americans.

 

I watched a podcast by a Dutch leftie journalist a while back, while it was interesting he said some weird things. He lamented that the US is so badly polarized and he claimed that we are better in this regard. Are you crazy? The most powerful politician in the Netherlands is a loon who wants to close mosques and has to live under 24/7 protection. I don’t think we have bragging rights.

Some Fox host just suggested “euthanizing” the homeless people. That’s genocide. Fucking crazy.

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Just read a bit by our national media on the declining acceptance of lgbt lifestyles. The person interviewed said “I assumed every next generation would be more prgressive.” It’s such a dumb normie view. And what does progressive mean in this respect? For some people “progress” would mean progress towards theocracy and illegality of homosexuality. Judith Butler famously called Hamas and Hezbollah progressive, well guess how they see homosexuality. Foucault thought the Iranian revolution was progressive.

I think she called them part of the global left because they’re anti-imperialist, which is different from being progressive in the liberal sense.

And while I think you’re not wrong about progressive being a subjective idea, I do get the sentiment of the interviewee. It certainly always felt like my generation was more open to differences in sexual orientation than our parents, and I’d also say I kind of expected things to keep going that way. It’s still strange to me that so many of the young generation want to go back to traditional ideas of Germany, including fascism becoming more attractive again.

I think it’s despair of the people, and some sleight of hand by the fascists.

 

I think many people see there are many things worng with our society and they are desperate to grab alternatives, even if that means reaching for extremes.

 

Fascists say they favor a return to “the fundamentals of Western civilization” but that’s nonsense. I think there are many things about the real fundamentals of Western society which are actually good, and worth reaching for, but what fascists offer really is just the ugly parts, like racial hatred and totalitarianism.

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Philip K Dick

Al-x wrote:

In all honesty, there is some truth to that. There have been murders by friends and family members over this.

Yeah I would be paranoid as hell. I have a tendency to worry about stuff.

 

It’s even officially a mental illness:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_wealth_syndrome

 

 

Nepal is wild atm…not making a judgment on wether the politicians deserve it or no, but burning the wife of a politician is tragic.

 

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ex-nepal-pms-wife-burnt-alive-as-protesters-set-his-house-on-fire-9244838

 

 

Just read a bit by our national media on the declining acceptance of lgbt lifestyles. The person interviewed said “I assumed every next generation would be more prgressive.” It’s such a dumb normie view. And what does progressive mean in this respect? For some people “progress” would mean progress towards theocracy and illegality of homosexuality. Judith Butler famously called Hamas and Hezbollah progressive, well guess how they see homosexuality. Foucault thought the Iranian revolution was progressive.

 

Really we are so dumb as liberal Western society these days that it will be a miracle if it lasts this century.

The actions by Israel could increase voters in my country shifting from the right to the left in the coming election. Most people want the government to be more critical of Israel.

 

For the moment it seems the chances of a right wing cabinet are low, but that could still change. There could be a minority abinet led by Wilders and supported by VVD. Curse the VVD forever if that happens. However with the way opinion polls are at the moment, that would be impossible. But the election is still more than a month away so I’m afraid that could change.

https://nltimes.nl/2025/09/09/85-amsterdam-women-avoid-certain-parts-city-safety

 

85 % of women and 55 % of men in Amsterdam avoid certain parts of the city for safety.

 

Amsterdam votes very left wing but it’s basically a segregated city, certainly when you have middle class income or higher.

 

Why in the fuck is Arnold Schwarzenegger doing ads for lidl…don’t these people have enough money at a certain point…

You’d have to live with constant security as a billionaire. Really I think it would suck. Can’t even take a piss without someone standing guard.

Honestly I don’t even think I would want to win 2 billion. It would completely throw my life into chaos.

A guy was arrested here for a string of robberies where he used literal kids to do his dirty work. I have dark thoughts about this and what should be done to him.

[Christian]

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

(You could also think about teaching kids to meditate, thingslike that)

Things like that are happening to some degree, by the way. There are schools who have “happiness” or similar subjects where kids are taught things like meditating, expressing emotions and so on – things that are good for mental health.

Problem is that it doesn’t really fit in with a system that is built to judge effort and achievement in the traditional subjects and awards worth according to those only, really.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Christian.

Yeah that’s tough to get around. I guess that is one area where capitalism has had a very bad influence.

 

 

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Christian

Fireworks is illegal (all of it, even on New Year’s)  but the police literally does nothing to stop it. It is absolutely pathetic. Weak shits.

 

The only problematic fireworks are the dangerous explosive firecracker kind, which are pretty much small bombs. But those were already illegal. Being illegal didn’t stop people from blowing them up, so instead of sending the police to do something about it, they made all fireworks illegal, including the nice, ornamental type.

 

Lawmakers in my country are, and I’m expressing myself diplomatically, mushy brained. I don’t think there is a bottom limit to the crazy laws they make, I mean tomorrow they might make it illegal to wear green sweaters on a Tuesday.

njerry wrote:

It makes sense to me: why waste $2 on a $30M jackpot when I can wait a few weeks and waste $2 on a $1B megapot?!

Yeah, people are stupid. I mean, ALL OF US!! We’re ALL stupid. Except for Dave Wallace.

Fate will be kinder when you are humble and buy a ticket for the 30M lottery than when you get arrogant and buy for the 1B. Hubris plays a large part in probability.

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Uncle Retrospective

Christian wrote:

Nah, I’m kidding, I get it. School is a system that serves some people pretty well, but it is incredibly rigid and there are just too many people it doesn’t work for and who are dealt significant damage by it. There’s a lot of people working within this system who are doing their best, mind you. But schools should be very different from what they are, at this point. (Which is basically: Still modelled on the 19th century factory system.)

I exaggerated but I do agree with this. I believe the main purpose of school for young kids should be to socialize them, learn to play and interact in an agreeable manner, and some psychic resilience. (You could also think about teaching kids to meditate, thingslike that) And of course a bit of basic reading and arithmetic. But school days could be a lot shorter for younger kids

Dutch twitter has a large contingent of fanatically pro-Israel posters who attack everything that is even slightly critical of Israel. Really if you are so blind for Israel’s transgressions, purposely killing kids, raping and torturing prisoners etc, and openly genocidal language, then you have lost touch with your humanity.

The Belgian prime minister called for an “intimate union” between Benelux countries. He called the falling apart of Belgium and the Netherlands the biggest disaster that ever happened to them!

 

We’re gonna be big again!

Two bees sleeping in a flower

 

 

 

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Christian, Todd

Nah schools suck, the kid is right. I went to school for twenty one years or so and it was pretty much worthless.

Some spiders eat only once a year (or once in their lives since they don’t live that long)

 

There are butterflies who never eat at all, they lack the organs to process food.

I’m not a terrorist, but I think the green extremists like Kaczynski are right about some of their main premises. The technological system is bad and it deforms people. I’ve listened to interviews of Derrick Jensen and he has many great insights. (Although he turned out to be a transphobe which sucks)

 

I don’t believe there is realistically anything to be done about it though.

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Martin Smith, Uncle Retrospective, Todd

One thing I’m afraid of is if he might use these people, like ICE or the National Guard, to mess with elections.

Well the image invites discussion. It seemed pertinent since you have talked of this point before, what the term “socialism” means. It just means different things in different contexts. Some people define it differently.