Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by HVC - Today at 03:58:47 AM

Wonder how badly labour can mess up their majority term

#2

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by jimmy olsen - Today at 03:54:26 AM

So the next election is projecting to go very badly for the Tories, but the idea they're going to win 6 seats and be the 4th or 5th party in Parliament seems unlikely.

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

The predict 472 Labour seats and 85 conservative seats, but they also offer up high and low estimates. The high estimate is 545 seats. So, it's within the realm of possibility

#3

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:28:36 AM

I recall back in the noughties when I'd dream of a golden age where the Tories are dead and buried and the Lib Dems take their place as the other main party.
If only the Lib Dems had their shit in order then we could actually be heading there.

But yes. The Tories have a floor that is even harder to break than the Labour one.

#4

Gaming HQ / Re: Valve/Steam do a handheld ...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:27:07 AM

It's the greatest handheld gaming device since the original Game Boy.

It is great. Though I'd liken it a bit more to the Game Gear. The battery doesn't last too long.

#5

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:16:52 AM

I'm more intrigued by the flip side, how conservatives embraced Jews/israel. From keeping them out of neighbourhoods and clubs to acceptance and support from the influence of a death cult.

As well as the evangelical nuttiness about prophecies and such it is worth considering Nazi policy for most of their existence wasn't just to kill the Jews but rather to send them elsewhere where they couldn't interfere with the Aryans. The famous Madagascar Plan one of the more well known surfacings of this.

It does seem very ideologically consistent even with this most extreme of ultra conservative groups to support having the Jews far away. That they can create a west-friendly non-muslim state in the middle of the muslim world so much the better.

If I had to guess the general state of Jews in society feeds into an othering in the left and they simply don't ever process Jews as "minorities" or "oppressed" peoples. They internalize Jews as the "positive stereotype", wealthier than average, prominent in law, business, media etc. (Ignoring of course that this has always been exaggerated--most American Jews are not wealthy, and in Israel where a much larger % of the population is Jewish, the idea that all the Jews represent scions of some privileged economic status is farcical.) I think they also largely see Jews as "white guys", which is also troublesome because the "average" Israeli is about as white as the average Palestinian (which is to say--somewhat white, but often not having that Anglo-Saxon white oppressor look that they imagine the bad white people in America all have.)

TLDR people they see as landlords and bankers cannot be on the wrong side of oppression in society.

Its certainly true to say there's often a blindness of Jews as a minority. The Jews we have in the west are broadly very white and pretty much blend in. And this will be a factor in there being a bit of a disbelief in anti-semitism.
The rest though, no. Left wing distate for Israel is nothing to do with race and more policy.

I apologize for moron.  I thought you were using land stealing in the same way that viper uses killing all Palestinians.  That kind of thing really works me up. I realized after I had posted that you were probably talking about the West Bank.  Still no excuse for calling you a moron.

You know, not everything in discussions is meant to be about trying to "rebut" what other people have said.

Its relevant as "decolonisation is just an excuse to hate white people. What about the crimes of others?" is frequently used as a smoke screen by those who don't actually have any interest in the crimes and you often do find foreign nationalists weirdly on the same side as progressives for our historic issues...yet when it comes to their historic issues things are very different.

Agree that not everything is a rebuttal.  But I can't think of any other response that shows good faith.

One other option is the straw man.  No need to explain, I hope.

Another is guilt by association.  This is not a debate of the merits, who' sole ingredients in my way of thinking are reason, logic, evidence and facts.

Another is accusation of bad faith, which is kinda close to guilt by association.  "You claim to oppose de-colonization for these reasons, but I believe you really oppose de-colonization because you want to eat Palestinian babies."

There's also "Yes and" and "Did you also consider this angle".

I'm not accusing you of anything here. Just speaking about attitudes to historic misdeeds in the world.
Its certainly valid to say if you want to moan about say the Amritsar  Massacre then the Hindutva scum bags will be standing shoulder to shoulder to go on about how awful the British were.... but talk about the Golden Temple Massacre and suddenly your erstwhile allies are very angry and against you.

We concentrate on the misdeeds of our own countries because that's our history, our issues. And we are majority white countries.
Some people will talk about how horrid other countries were in history out of good faith... but you also find way too many people who just want to use it as a stick to beat other groups with and won't use the same standards for their own group. This makes stepping into that criticism quite a minefield.

#6

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:10:49 AM

hmm, interesting to see the overweight/obese split.
As purely in my anecdotal experience Switzerland absolutely doesn't compare to the UK, no way would I consider there to be only a 10% difference...but I guess its that obese difference that is really noticeable.
Still reported numbers seem much higher than it seems to me - I do know I'm in one of the fattest parts of the UK, maybe I was also in one of the fittest bits of Switzerland?

Surprised the Dutch score so high on overweight... Again I do wonder whether Amsterdam and the surroundings are where all the thin people are.

#7

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Solmyr - Today at 02:57:23 AM

"Swarthmore College's SJP chapter" doesn't seem like a major or important organization.

#8

Gaming HQ / Re: Baldur's Gate 3 announced

Last post by Solmyr - Today at 02:51:43 AM

If you don't save every 10 seconds, are you really playing the game?

#9

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2024

Last post by Jacob - Today at 01:22:23 AM

I didn't always agree with Rex Murphy, but I can see his appeal. He made a very solid contribution to public life in Canada.

May he rest in peace.

#10

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Jacob - Today at 12:08:53 AM

Italy apparently has the lowest (but still high) rate of overweight folks in Europe:



... and it's near the bottom when it comes to obesity as well



That said, it doesn't seem massively different from Northern Europe. Maybe there's something special about Sardinia that results in a lower rate relative to Italy as a whole... or maybe there's some other factors in play in terms of the visiting demographics?