Mark Slater

It changed my life when I read it aged about 14 in a way no other books have. I think I vaguely disproved of racism before it, but I hadn't really felt it on a visceral level before, and it set me on a new path of learning and understanding. I will now read it again, thanks for reminding me!

Marketing is not always true...

My brain appreciates dopamine so much I can kind of enjoy or feel better as a result of many really quite unpleasant experiences e.g. going for a run in freezing wind, rain and dark at 6 in the morning, extremely stressful crisis situations. They make me feel pretty great more often than not...

Amazing! If you squint enough they go straight. Very odd!

And abusers. They also project pretty much non-stop.

Goodwin is not arguing in good faith. He has joined the ranks of those who mislead, dissemble and obfuscate, at the expense of the vulnerable, for political ends. It is shameful and deeply immoral behaviour.

Brewdog's owner is a prime Reform wanker. Not bought anything from them since I found out. Defund racists.

I presume he is talking about economic liberty: the freedom to starve, to exploit others, to hoard resources at the expense of others. I doubt he means the freedom that comes from being paid a living wage for your work, from having a suitable place to call home, and the freedom from exploitation.

Are you sure? He expression looks like he's thinking about the many times you've forgotten to feed him before... He's sad about it, being very patient with you, but still so very hungry...

Hypocrisy is their bread and butter.

They're not actually that stupid, they just have bottomless contempt for the US voting public. And can we really blame them following Trump's reelection?

Their positions make sense as soon as you abandon the comfortable delusion that they have the slightest interest in the national interest, the welfare of the people or democracy itself. They are uninterested in all three to the point of contempt. They seek power and money at any cost.

This is how it is supposed to work. The media are suprised because the Tories and most businesses think a 'consultation' means paying lip service to consulting the people affected then doing whatever you wanted to do anyway.

It's the 'flood the zone with shit' strategy. He does so many appalling things it's hard to give any of them the depth of coverage each individual outrage deserves. Even before he and his allies bought or intimidated most of the media into complicity he broke their ability to hold him to account.

It's also a power move - to defy reality and try and enforce their lies despite all the evidence. They will see who is cravenly submitting to their alternate reality and who must be pressured or shut down to silence contrary voices.

Barefaced and obvious lies is a common feature of authoritarian regimes: the message is that the truth is whatever we say it is, and what are you going to do about it?

Projection - they are unmatched at projection. They could be used as a reference in a dictionary definition.

Well to be fair, he says all sorts of things that are utter bullshit, so it's impossible to know just from his words whether they have any relation to reality or not. His words are therefore meaningless in themselves and only seem to have meaningful content with the benefit of hindsight.

The post literally said 'how many' Americans, not just Americans in general. That is not a sweeping generalisation...

Maybe? If they're not, they're so racist they don't mind being led by a grifting bullshitter who's coining it in at their expense.

I do miss the smell of a pre-ban pub though... I know smoking is a terrible thing and everything stank, but it's a very particular smell you never get anymore. Nostalgia is a dangerous drug too.

She was a firm believer in the Just World fallacy: poor people are poor because they are stupid and lazy, whereas rich people are rich because they are clever and work hard. This is a core belief of most Conservatives.

After several decades overdoing it & getting injured, at the risk of tempting fate, I've finally got the hang of only increasing distance/intensity very slowly. So far so good, & it feels more enjoyable because I don't get too stiff anymore. Max 10% increase per week and mostly low intensity...

Absolutely. I wouldn't use neoliberalism myself, it's the post-Thatcher period for me (or Reagan in the states).

I agree, but I do think it generally refers to a real shift in British politics for which there isn't another handy label to hand.

I'm not sure what Scargill was referring to be honest, his 40 year thing just seemed hung on the post-war period, whereas the 'neoliberalism' charge is based on a real change in the opposite direction to the changes post-war.

I'm sure he does, but I thought one of the most significant shifts that happened after 1979 and lays behind most of the neoliberalism talk was a big difference and makes Scargill's claim much less evidenced than the neoliberalism claim he implicitly questioned.

Very different situations. The 40 years before '85 saw an unprecedentedly even distribution of GDP growth shared among all income groups. This was abandoned since 1979 and since, with more money funnelled towards those who need it least (i.e. higher income deciles).

He flatters their ignorance and glorifies their worst qualities whilst absolving them of any responsibility for their worst actions and intentions.

Yep. You can't assess an AI's reliability or check its sources in the way we can other sources of information. On the usual criteria applied to assess info, it fails on almost every criteria: sources cannot be traced, unclear funding, unclear agenda of the known financial backers, many errors...