Off Topic Thread 5.0

b.gud

My wife told me this morning that for Valentines this year we'll keep it extra low key, there no need to even do a card

Dave_The_Sheep

What, Valentines is a thing when you're married? I thought it got superceded by the anniversary?

(I'm not married)

b.gud

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

What, Valentines is a thing when you're married? I thought it got superceded by the anniversary?

(I'm not married)

It's not a big thing, but it's a brave man that would just completely ignore it

b.gud

b.gud wrote: »

It's not a big thing, but it's a brave man that would just completely ignore it

I'll be completely ignoring it as I have done for years. Do plenty of nice romantic things for the wife all year round (bring her to the RDS etc), not going to be forced into empty gestures on account of a made up holiday.

OldRio

We've never celebrated it. No card. No flowers. Zero. Nearly 40 years together.

Although I do make a point of picking up half price flowers from the supermarket a day or two after the event.

b.gud

In fairness it's never been a huge thing for us but there is always a card to mark it and something very small, eg chocolates. I bought her flowers on our first one and she told me never to do it again because valentines flowers are a "F**king rip off"

errlloyd

I was specifically meant to get a card and ****ed it.

Don't suppose card shops can be made essential retail for the rest of the weekend.

b.gud

errlloyd wrote: »

I was specifically meant to get a card and ****ed it.

Don't suppose card shops can be made essential retail for the rest of the weekend.

Tesco has you covered

Zzippy

b.gud wrote: »

In fairness it's never been a huge thing for us but there is always a card to mark it and something very small, eg chocolates. I bought her flowers on our first one and she told me never to do it again because valentines flowers are a "F**king rip off"

I think we may be married to sisters with very similar views, and language skills...

Buer

Trump acquitted without so much as an eyelid batted let alone the GOP not putting up a defence.

Most of their senators doubled down as expected.

stephen_n

Buer wrote: »

Trump acquitted without so much as an eyelid batted let alone the GOP not putting up a defence.

Most of their senators doubled down as expected.

Then McConnell turns around and calls for him to be criminally prosecuted. The hypocrisy is comical.

Dave_The_Sheep

stephen_n wrote: »

Then McConnell turns around and calls for him to be criminally prosecuted. The hypocrisy is comical.

But entirely typical.

Zzippy

stephen_n wrote: »

Then McConnell turns around and calls for him to be criminally prosecuted. The hypocrisy is comical.

McConnell needs Trump sidelined but can't do it himself without alienating Trump's voters. They are no longer GOP voters, they are Trump/MAGA voters. It won't be portrayed as hypocritical by Fox. He doesn't need to care what CNN say.

stephen_n

Zzippy wrote: »

McConnell needs Trump sidelined but can't do it himself without alienating Trump's voters. They are no longer GOP voters, they are Trump/MAGA voters. It won't be portrayed as hypocritical by Fox. He doesn't need to care what CNN say.

Yep there are probably about 50 million Americans who believe Trump and think the election was stolen. They are the Republican base, McConnell and the GOP know that.

Buer

Buer wrote: »

Trump acquitted without so much as an eyelid batted let alone the GOP not putting up a defence.

Most of their senators doubled down as expected.

There is a corrosive rot at the centre of American politics but it overwhelmingly consumes one of the parties as opposed to both. If Trump emerges unscathed and energised then America will have drifted fully into fascism.

My hope is that the republican party splits and forces moderate politics back into the mainstream.

Who knows though - complete madness on display.

DGRulz

[Deleted User] wrote: »

There is a corrosive rot at the centre of American politics but it overwhelmingly consumes one of the parties as opposed to both. If Trump emerges unscathed and energised then America will have drifted fully into fascism.

My hope is that the republican party splits and forces moderate politics back into the mainstream.

Who knows though - complete madness on display.

I don't think there's enough of them or at least not enough high profile ones for there to be any sort of meaningful split. I'm a little surprised more Senate Republicans didn't see this as a chance to remove the chance of Trump running again and take hold of his base. If it was a anonymous vote you may have seen slightly more of a swing but as others have said they're too afraid of their base to vote for anything else.

Part of me wonders if the trial had happened sooner after the storming of the Capitol would more Republicans have remembered Trump sent a mob to kill them?

molloyjh

DGRulz wrote: »

I don't think there's enough of them or at least not enough high profile ones for there to be any sort of meaningful split. I'm a little surprised more Senate Republicans didn't see this as a chance to remove the chance of Trump running again and take hold of his base. If it was a anonymous vote you may have seen slightly more of a swing but as others have said they're too afraid of their base to vote for anything else.

Part of me wonders if the trial had happened sooner after the storming of the Capitol would more Republicans have remembered Trump sent a mob to kill them?

Given a large number in Congress continued to support him later that day then I really don't think it would have mattered one bit. The country is already far too polarised. I say it all the time, but its a failed state slowly eating itself alive.

molloyjh

molloyjh wrote: »

Given a large number in Congress continued to support him later that day then I really don't think it would have mattered one bit. The country is already far too polarised. I say it all the time, but its a failed state slowly eating itself alive.

Social media has become an absolute cancer and all countries have it.

America just has a more advanced case of it.

thomond2006

http://radio.garden/

I came across this from Twitter. It's a google maps representation of radio stations across the world where you can listen to any of them. The search function shows various categories such as locations at the "ends of the earth" like the northern edge of Norway or the Cook Islands.

bilston

Deleted User wrote: »

Social media has become an absolute cancer and all countries have it.

America just has a more advanced case of it.

Agree with this. Maybe anonyminity needs to be scrapped, but that would have big ramifications for somewhere like here

prawnsambo

bilston wrote: »

Agree with this. Maybe anonyminity needs to be scrapped, but that would have big ramifications for somewhere like here

You could use a two tier system. Take Twitter for example. People with verified real names can interact with other users - reply, quote tweet etc. and those who choose not to, can only interact with their followers and retweet without comment.

Zzippy

prawnsambo wrote: »

You could use a two tier system. Take Twitter for example. People with verified real names can interact with other users - reply, quote tweet etc. and those who choose not to, can only interact with their followers and retweet without comment.

We could develop this further for boards. Only verified members can post up to 3 posts a day. Anyone who has bought a mod a pint can start a thread. Instead of the "Buy Me a Coffee" link, we could have "Buy a Mod a Pint".
Want a red card removed? Buy a Mod a Pint.
Need a ban reduced? Buy a Mod a Pint.
Want your sixteenth re-reg ignored? Yep, buy a mod a pint!

Thanks for those great ideas Sambo!

stephen_n

prawnsambo wrote: »

You could use a two tier system. Take Twitter for example. People with verified real names can interact with other users - reply, quote tweet etc. and those who choose not to, can only interact with their followers and retweet without comment.

They were trying to get rid of retweets without comments, to try manage bots being used to amplify posts or hashtags. I could understand how it might stop some abuse but it causes other problems. The two tier approach would be a good idea in general though.

Podge_irl

I do not recall where I read it so can't provide references, but I recall reading recently that a surprising amount of online hate and aggression does not even come from anonymous accounts. People are perfectly emboldened to engage in these things with their own names (or at least while being readily identifiable) because the vast majority still face no consequences.

Essentially the internet gives everyone a voice and it turns out a lot of people are just assholes.

Podge_irl

Podge_irl wrote: »

I do not recall where I read it so can't provide references, but I recall reading recently that a surprising amount of online hate and aggression does not even come from anonymous accounts. People are perfectly emboldened to engage in these things with their own names (or at least while being readily identifiable) because the vast majority still face no consequences.

Essentially the internet gives everyone a voice and it turns out a lot of people are just assholes.

I have a neighbour that is pretty openly racist, homophobic and of course it turns out a Trump fan. Perfectly pleasant person until you scratch beneath the surface and realise they exist in a completely warped reality.

Similarly - a few people I knew from my time in the States have really gone down right wing rabbit holes presumably on the internet but I can only go by the stuff they occasionally share.

Maybe they always held these views and are just emboldened in the current climate - but I think online communities have successfully pooled similarly minded folk into groups where they are being somewhat radicalised and bombarded with misleading takes on popular topics and memes that manipulate debate to cheapen and dumb down complex issues and create 'sides'.

When I say radicalised, I don't mean violence or extremism, but certainly radicalised into culture wars that are picked up and ran with by predominantly right wing political movements. And radicalised in such a way as to become incredibly close minded to 'outside' views.

It's certainly happening here in Ireland too, we don't have right wing populism to speak of, but the same social media techniques are being leveraged by certain groups and it's becoming increasingly apparent online.

prawnsambo

Zzippy wrote: »

We could develop this further for boards. Only verified members can post up to 3 posts a day. Anyone who has bought a mod a pint can start a thread. Instead of the "Buy Me a Coffee" link, we could have "Buy a Mod a Pint".
Want a red card removed? Buy a Mod a Pint.
Need a ban reduced? Buy a Mod a Pint.
Want your sixteenth re-reg ignored? Yep, buy a mod a pint!

Thanks for those great ideas Sambo!

I like these ideas. Where do I sign up to be a mod?

prawnsambo

Deleted User wrote: »

It's certainly happening here in Ireland too, we don't have right wing populism to speak of, but the same social media techniques are being leveraged by certain groups and it's becoming increasingly apparent online.

Yeah, I've noticed this too. I see a lot of Varadkar trending and when I follow that rabbit hole down, invariably find that it's racist or homophobic in its origins. And people when challenged on it, deny this as purely political when it's clear from their timeline that they have all the little tells as to what they're really about.

prawnsambo

prawnsambo wrote: »

Yeah, I've noticed this too. I see a lot of Varadkar trending and when I follow that rabbit hole down, invariably find that it's racist or homophobic in its origins. And people when challenged on it, deny this as purely political when it's clear from their timeline that they have all the little tells as to what they're really about.

Big hate campaign there alright, part of it is racial in nature but clearly much is being stirred by specific opposition parties too.

I have absolutely no doubt we are moving towards our own confrontation with social media driven populism in the near future.

mfceiling

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I have a neighbour that is pretty openly racist, homophobic and of course it turns out a Trump fan. Perfectly pleasant person until you scratch beneath the surface and realise they exist in a completely warped reality.

Similarly - a few people I knew from my time in the States have really gone down right wing rabbit holes presumably on the internet but I can only go by the stuff they occasionally share.

Maybe they always held these views and are just emboldened in the current climate - but I think online communities have successfully pooled similarly minded folk into groups where they are being somewhat radicalised and bombarded with misleading takes on popular topics and memes that manipulate debate to cheapen and dumb down complex issues and create 'sides'.

When I say radicalised, I don't mean violence or extremism, but certainly radicalised into culture wars that are picked up and ran with by predominantly right wing political movements. And radicalised in such a way as to become incredibly close minded to 'outside' views.

It's certainly happening here in Ireland too, we don't have right wing populism to speak of, but the same social media techniques are being leveraged by certain groups and it's becoming increasingly apparent online.

Wife was saying that her work now involves more and more interaction with Americans than the last few years.
She says the majority of them are well spoken, well educated and very good at what they do.
However within this group of about 20 - 30 people there are about 5 who are very openly pro trump, anti immigration and don't mind saying it.
These are people working in "silicon valley" who would hold fairly senior positions but again will openly share their views on why America is why it is (none of this is trump's fault).
Huge multinational companies with the most diverse workforce you could imagine, and senior positions within that are openly against "foreigners" and "the liberal left".
She's actually came off calls and told me that her and her colleagues here in Ireland were shocked at some of the views expressed, but on a professional level you bite your tongue and move on.

mfceiling

mfceiling wrote: »

Wife was saying that her work now involves more and more interaction with Americans than the last few years.
She says the majority of them are well spoken, well educated and very good at what they do.
However within this group of about 20 - 30 people there are about 5 who are very openly pro trump, anti immigration and don't mind saying it.
These are people working in "silicon valley" who would hold fairly senior positions but again will openly share their views on why America is why it is (none of this is trump's fault).
Huge multinational companies with the most diverse workforce you could imagine, and senior positions within that are openly against "foreigners" and "the liberal left".
She's actually came off calls and told me that her and her colleagues here in Ireland were shocked at some of the views expressed, but on a professional level you bite your tongue and move on.

Don't come across it in a professional capacity but see an AWFUL lot of right wing talking points in online gaming communities.

Youtube content creators feeding into the games community are rife with very worrying misogyny, casual racism and dailymail levels of culture war nonsense.