In the news

I don't, and I didn't say that I did, Stonehedge below sums up my feelings pretty well here:

You don't. You can't with somebody you don't know personally, but you can form hypotheses from both his actions and what other people write about him.

Assumptions and opinions are also pretty big factors in what drives voters to vote one way or the other no?

It sounds like you're trying to make them seem insignificant but I'd argue they are unfortunately much more important than facts in this area.

Just never crossed my mind that it would come across as creepy.

Exactly what a creepy person would think.

;)

I wonder if part of the JRM interest is because he comes across as such an unbelievable character in this day and age.

Eg I remember a Spanish colleague asking me if he was a real person (as in not some sort of satire character).

I mean you wouldn't bother checking out John Prescott in the same way would you?

I wonder if part of the JRM interest is because he comes across as such an unbelievable character in this day and age.

The Tory party have a lots of MP who’s from old money/upper class background, JRM is at odd for not being from old money yet act like he’s the de facto of all the Tory.

mean you wouldn't bother checking out John Prescott in the same way would you?

Awkward lol

Struggling to see the point of your lengthy rant. You start it by slagging off someone who has taken breaks when he's given them and moved himself "up" in the world, it seems to me that your almost saying he should know his place and not hobnob with aristos and royalty. Then you finish it off by decrying how the current shower of cunts are trying to kill off social mobility and use your mum's work as an example.

I wonder if part of the JRM interest is because he comes across as such an unbelievable character in this day and age.

Eg I remember a Spanish colleague asking me if he was a real person (as in not some sort of satire character).

To be fair, if I was watching The Simpsons and they were going to introduce some "fancy" British prick, JRM is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to see

Bollocks.

You start it by slagging off someone who has taken breaks when he's given them and moved himself "up" in the world

I didn't think much of your joke and I didn't like it when he told it either. I criticised him for telling the joke, not for having made something of himself. I can see why he would feel the need, class attitudes being what they are (particularly where he came from) and him having become famous for being the funny mouth of the ordinary working man, but it's still a shit joke. It (his version) could have been could have been a riff about culture clash and the amusing eccentricities of his new pals - all of which is in his story but unfortunately isn't the point - and I would have been laughing. But instead that's all window dressing for the same shit joke you told. So...

it seems to me that your almost saying he should know his place and not hobnob with aristos and royalty.

No.

It's a shit joke (both versions) because it's wilfully blind to the reality and complexities of British class culture and because it claims to be calling out an unpleasant aspect of that class culture while actually embodying just that kind of pettiness.

The stuff about Musk putting the purchase of Twitter on hold as it's turned out their 5% of fake accounts is (obviously) false.
https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/
The real number is > 20% but one funny part is it turns out ~70% of Musks followers are fake/bots. I reckon that's the real reason he's delaying the purchase, a bruised ego.

I reckon that's the real reason he's delaying the purchase, a bruised ego.

That and he might not be able to afford it without fucking his plans for Tesla.

...just that kind of pettiness.

Funny.

Only the middle class masquerading as working class but secretly dying to be upper class would be offended by a joke about the middle class on the internet ;)

Sorry, does that need a trigger warning too?

popcorn.gif

:-P

I've read all sorts of reasons why he's done it - one of them suggested it gave him a reasonable reason to liquidate a lot of Tesla stock - which is overpriced - in anticipation of a fall.

Tesla stock - which is overpriced

Huge number of theories out there and nobody knows if any of them are correct.

That said, there are early signs that Tesla's early market dominance might not be as baked in as many thought. Lots of nervous Tesla shareholders looking at VW's pre-order list size and how easily Tesla was pushed out of the way as EV market leader in Norway.

Prepare yourself for years and years of half baked hot takes. Not just from me, for a change.

Meanwhile, Jordan Peterson - genius, philosopher, polymath and lobster expert - decided that what he really needed to do today was complain about a plus-size model being on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Please, somebody do the species a favour and shoot that prick in the head.

I love Downton but hate Rees Mogg.

One of the oddest things about Downton is that Julian Fellowes worked on both that piece of sentimental tosh and Gosford Park. The latter is a reasonable although understated depiction of the monstrously exploitative and abusive master/servant relationship in pre-WWII Britain, where many people had little other choice than to work for pin money in fucking horrible conditions for people who often couldn't be bothered to learn their names and sometimes called all staff in the same role the same name (and who would have died rather than, you know, find themselves in a pub with the lower classes). Not knowing the real names of their staff - who could be subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse with no risk to the abuser - certainly made it easier to turn them out onto the street for the slightest (real or imaginary) infraction, or for becoming pregnant by an abuser, or just out of random pique.

But hey, Downton. How jolly. The kind of fantasy Britain that Mogg pretends once existed.

I think both Downton and Jacob Rees Mogg are shit, can we move on?

I hate thread. >>>>>>>>>>>>

Mehdi Hasan did a piece about Fox News promotion of the white replacement conspiracy theory. Amazing that they're able to get away with it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIsvVOMfhLs

He really is a piece of work. Obviously quite a intelligent man but this is just mean spirited and an attempt at attention seeking. WAC

Obviously quite a intelligent man

Becoming the guru of the most mentally-challenged incel/mgtow sections of the alt right hasn't done anything for his critical faculties. Now he's so far down that rabbit hole that he can use the phrase "authoritarian tolerance" without shame.

He's been overestimating his own intelligence for a long time, though. He was a respected clinical psychologist, but most of the areas he's expanded into writing about are things he knows fuck all about and it often shows.

Yep becoming the incel guru and alt right clever person hasn't done him any good i actually think he is slightly deranged and a bit high on his own supply of incel power

Sexism in car safety?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/17/women-almost-twice-likely-trapped-crashed-vehicle-study

Oh, yes. Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez, has a lot on this and related subjects. For instance, if you believed male archaeologists then apparently our ancestors buried a lot more men than women.