Rayvin

This is the thing. Most people, bizarrely, are pretty decent human beings. They're just fucking idiots. The day the right wing media monopoly comes down is the day this country shines IMO.

Not disputing any of the above but I do want to point out that he can work to shed light on all of that and still be a Kremlin asset. He has consistently resisted publishing Kremlin focused information, criticised the Panama Papers publication as focusing too much on Russia, and of course helped other Russian asset Donald Trump secure victory over Clinton. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/22/mueller-report-confirms-it-assange-is-not-whistleblower-or-journalist/ Acknowledging all of this as relevant information in judging his motives does not mean our governments have won and control our minds, it simply means that the world is full of cunts. It also doesn't mean that what he revealed wasn't important or necessary. It does perhaps suggest that his motives were not "pure".

This. This x 100. Fucking this.

It really is, the last line wrapping it up so nicely We are lucky to have so many posters skilled in the art of mackem takedowns.

I still believe that "anything but Trump" won in the US. That might work here but it doesn't fix the issue. We need to stop being short termist and actually start working towards a vision. Starmer might win next time on an "anything but Johnson" ticket but Labour really needs to buck it's ideas up on where it thinks society needs to go. We need 10-20 year plans to entrench progress and a concept of what society should look like. This should be proudly stated. I wish we would stop running scared of what we believe in.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/17/keir-starmer-boris-johnson-lie-personality-politics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other Hyde on Starmer. Hard to argue the view.

I think he's probably a Kremlin asset on balance of information, a witting one or otherwise. That said, he made some important contributions to showcasing US war crimes that you would hope will have resulted in some serious policy changes in their military and perhaps fewer instances of such things in future. That's positive. Not sure he should be going down for that. I also think he's wasted 8 years of his life in voluntary prison in the hope of avoiding a lesser sentence in the US. Could be proven wrong there but I doubt he's going away for the rest of his life. Should have just faced the music IMO, wasted a lot of his credibility and sanity trying to avoid it.

Villa are spending money that basically has to pay off next year or the year after given the age of the players they're bringing in. It's a ridiculous approach IMO. They'll simply be outcompeted by more athletic teams.

Same. Its the only condition I'd rejoin for but I would do so willingly.

Though I agree that the right will pivot from issue to issue manufacturing outrage in response to attempts to treat people compassionately. That's baked in.

I'm not sure I agree on the point about being self interested. I really do think a lot of people only receive messaging on issues like this by "their paper" or relevant TV or YouTube channels. So the message doesn't come through as "Trans people have daily struggles reconciling their identifies with their lived experience and this is the cause of significant stress and turmoil within their lives, leading to high rates of suicide and mental health problems. We hope that by creating awareness of these issues and encouraging people to talk to and interact with the trans community, we can create a better society for everyone". They come through as "trans people demand that you use these words when talking to them and you face the sack if you refuse! Another example of free speech being curtailed and sacrificed at the altar of wokeness. Next they're coming for Christmas, 'real' women, and your very manhood!!" And I really do think that this messaging issue can be attributed to a reasonable enough size of right wing voters so as to deliver majorities to people like Trump and Johnson. I don't think they're any more or less self interested than you or I, they are just only getting information filtered to them by bigots - and they've had it for so long they just think it's normal. Something like 85% of the country believes the NHS should be free to all - yet 40% vote for a government that is systematically privatising it. 90% profess to be happy to live next to immigrant families, yet 52% voted for brexit to keep out immigrants. If you survey people policy by policy in this country, instead of by party, the Tories get 12% of the vote. The difference between that number and the one we see is media bullshit and narrative pushing, IMO. Most people are decent, just woefully uninformed and stubbornly sticking to it. This means messaging from the left really does matter. In my view at least.

It's a consequence insofar as you can see these sorts of things splashed across right wing media, usually misunderstood and lied about or taken to extremes, but still. I've followed the culture war since a time when I was laughed at for referring to it as such, and trans people have been a key target throughout. Started off with videos of people being "triggered", hyperbolic takes by teenagers being used to demonstrate the grave threat to Western civilisation that "wokeness", not that it was called this at that point, represented. They're always using the examples we provide. Peterson rose to prominence off resisting mandated speech laws in Canada; taking the knee is a form of cultural Marxism, etc. You could argue that they would simply invent or find other stories to inflame their base about of course but the question is really about whether they would be so successful. If you think 100% of the people voting for the Tories or Republicans are racist, homophobic bigots then maybe you're right. But for me, a big chunk of those voting for them are simply uninformed morons who are probably decent enough people ensared in the nets of believable right wing hysteria.

Yep, all true. But equally, mandating speech has thrown trans rights straight across the wider battleground of free speech and into the culture wars. Consequently, right wing populist governments are using it as an attack line and are being successful in doing so, painting wokeism, and by extension trans people (who are at this point the ultimate 'threat' above all others in the minds of the culture warrior right) as the great threat to freedom. These governments are winning elections and causing rampant and unconstrained damage - and they're doing so because they're able to point to "the left" controlling everyone. It's laughable, it really is, but that's what they're doing. They are enabled to roll back the rights you mention in the states because they can hold up things like mandates on speech as attacks on freedoms, attacks on women, attacks on traditional values, whatever. It's only recently that trans rights have become such a furious battleground for this, and it is very much wrapped up in the culture war. There is a cost to this either way, I think between you and I it probably just comes down to which side we think costs more.

None of the trans people I know have ever insisted that they/them should be blanket terms for society, only that they would like whatever particular configuration they've identified with used in their specific case. I would wager that such moves are driven more by lawyers for corporations than they are by real people. A corporation might absolutely decide that its safer to just avoid gendering people - IMO eventually they'll avoid humanising people altogether and we'll simply become numbers - but that's the legally safe option. For the rest of us, I think we can go through life being respectful of other people whilst being driven by genuine compassion and decency, rather than a set of rules mandated to us by "authority" and which probably harms the cause more than just letting people navigate it themselves as they become increasingly comfortable with it in a social setting.

Would make sense given their tenuous position as a "top 6" club. They lose that and there's really no hiding their decline anymore.

I agree but it might be worth noting that the Bruno standard has been subject to inflation itself - no way we'd sell him for £40m now, he's probably up in the 60s already. Therefore Ward-Prowse could equal 1 Bruno + 25% English surcharge. Although like others have said, he's worth half a Bruno really so it's more like £40m they should be asking for.

To echo the "people are idiots" line: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/11/poll-says-keir-starmer-worse-choice-for-pm-than-boris-johnson Polling here (just one poll but still) showing that most people still believe Starmer is a worse choice for PM than Johnson. I do not know what is wrong with these people, genuinely. Maybe media narratives as ST suggests, but I feel like the media has been pretty hard on Johnson as well?

Has this guy revealed any credentials that make him 'informed'? Because if not he's singing from the same hymn sheet as Le Tissier as far as I'm concerned. However, simply having a platform does appear to be enough for some people to take your word as gospel. Presumably people who desperately want what you're saying to be true.

That would be the best NUFC side we'd have seen since SBR at the very least. Still not sure I can quite believe all this might happen but I'm pretty glued to this thread I have to admit

If they leave it too much longer they'll be in danger of costing themselves a clear run at the GE. I hope he hangs on long enough to lead them to total annihilation. For my two cents, he leaves after losing the next GE. I hope. I don't much care if he goes now or not, although should it happen I would definitely revel in it.

Just reading Villa's response to this - All of them universally believe Digne is a better player but some are sad to see him go. What is Digne meant to have done to be such a revelation for Villa, exactly?

Not necessarily for those doing it. The front benches and wider individuals actively "involved" in Johnson's government will be acutely aware that they'll never get this close to power again - because even by Tory standards, they are incompetent. In fact I'd wager the entire grouping of Tories who backed him will be made up of that contingent and Brexit ultras - neither of whom will drop him because of what they stand to lose themselves.

I'll believe it's over for Johnson when it actually is. We've been predicting his political demise for as long as he's been in office, and for that of his party even longer. They're a shrewd, conniving bunch of cunts who have no lower floor on depths they won't sink to in order to do whatever is necessary to cling onto power. While that could very easily spell the end of Johnson if he had lost their backing, it's not relevant while he holds the majority of them on side. These are the people who forced through the hardest possible Brexit on a 2% majority. He'll cling on, his stooges will cling on, it's going to be a shitshow.

Really pleased Targett is joining us, think he's proven he wants to be here and that he's good enough to be here (at least for where we are at the moment). No need to throw money at a more expensive option there. Good business, nice to see him rewarded.

Wait so.. he's going to transform the NHS into Blockbuster in an era where Blockbuster was forced out by higher tech, more sophisticated rivals like Netflix? So he's going to destroy the NHS. Old news but where the fuck did they even think that metaphor was meant to be heading?