woke.

[Chris B]

On the they/them, thing - a small trick I used to make it feel more natural was to treat the sentence as if it's about someone who isn't there and whose gender you don't know. Like "I've invited a new friend round for dinner" - "Cool, what time will they be here?". Doesn't work every time for me, but it makes sense in terms of it feeling more natural in the sentence.

As far as the game goes, some people pointed to how Rowling appears to take general support of Potter stuff as proof her views are supported. Which she's not said directly, but the references to support and money make it a pretty easy inference.

That said, I've seen less vitriol from trans people/allies, and far more from people who bought the game going "look, I'm not transphobic and I don't agree with her, but it's just a game, and she's rich anyway, and what about the hard work the poor developers put into it, and why do you have such a problem with it, you're the real bigots, this is a free speech thing, and really, the left have gone too far".

[Jonny Vegas]

Last weekend I was driving past a relatively local hotel when I saw a protest by people presenting as local residents against a number of asylum seekers who were being placed in said hotel with another 200 or so to come.

I know someone who works there so asked them about it later that day and they said around the corner closer to the hotel was a counter protest of a few different groups clubbed together to show their support for the asylum seekers and show them they were welcome.

The thing that puzzled me however, was that they didn't for example bring some toiletries, food, local snacks, clothes, comfort items to show their support and welcome to the asylum seekers. They apparently just turned up, shouted at the racists, then left 5 minutes after the racists did.

Now I'm not for one second complaining about the shouting abuse at racists, however it seemed more about the two groups arguing with each other rather than any direct actions to help or welcome the new guests. 

My friend said a couple of the asylum seekers watched from the reception and didn't have a clue what was going on.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Jonny Vegas

[Merzbow]

Wasn't the counter protest a last second thing? I know some Young Communist  League kids who did that recently and had almost zero time to mobilize but still got a decent number out.

They're also out collecting for people including asylum seekers each week.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Merzbow

[Keith Houchen]

Yeah it sounds likely the counter protesters  were there to do exactly that, counter the protest. A show of numbers and solidarity is to show the fash that they don’t speak for everyone and that people find their views abhorrent. The “Actual” support for asylum seekers is done behind the scenes as it were, it’s not recorded for social media clout, it’s done by community led groups who just want to help out desperate people. 
 

The smokescreen regarding the scenes in Knowsley was how it was really about an asylum seeker trying to nonce a 15 year old. So obviously the thing to do is to turn up mob handed to a hotel in the hope that the faceless individual in question gives himself up without involving any of the other people there. And of course, it was organised by Patriotic Alternative who are a nazi group who are led by Mark Collett, and surprise surprise for a Nazi, he is himself a nonce. The far right only care about nonces when they have brown skin given how many there are within their ranks. 

[Keith Houchen]

Ugh, just because Le Tiss speaks the truth etc. 

 

[SuperBacon]

10 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Ugh, just because Le Tiss speaks the truth etc. 

 

He played for a Saints legends XI in the village I live in days before I moved here.

I was gutted as locals could play in the game as well and I wanted to play and mark him and every so often just say things like "Pumpkin Spice Lattes are only available for a month a year...makes you think" etc.

That would've been fun.

[Keith Houchen]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

He played for a Saints legends XI in the village I live in days before I moved here.

Ah that’s a shame, you could’ve watched, or as he says had a proper gander. 

[Keith Houchen]

Telegraph in being cunts shocker. 

 

[BomberPat]

If there's one prejudice I'll never get my head around, it's being anti-disability. It benefits everyone for buildings and life in general to be more accessible.

You could be racist your whole life, you're never going to change race. You can be a massive homophobe, and no amount of fluoride in the water is turning you gay. So you can go through life a horrible prick and never feel an ounce of empathy for these people and then die, fine. But it's a pretty reasonable assumption that the majority of us are going to be struck by some disability before we're gone - through age, illness or injury, we're going to lose our hearing, our sight, our mobility, some elements of our cognition, and so on. 

Obviously, these people are spiteful ignorant fucks, so the idea of empathy is alien to them, but you'd think pure naked self-interest might steady their hand from time to time. 

Edited February 23, 2023 by BomberPat

[Mr_Danger]

What are Lego playing at, do they want children  to think it’s ok to have missing limbs and Down’s Syndrome? I long for the day that will almost certainly never come when the tide turns against this bullshit and these cunts are held accountable for this bollocks. Think of the money invested in to these cunts’ education to produce easily editable hate blogs. Scum.

[Keith Houchen]

7 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

If there's one prejudice I'll never get my head around, it's being anti-disability. It benefits everyone for buildings and life in general to be more accessible.

You could be racist your whole life, you're never going to change race. You can be a massive homophobe, and no amount of fluoride in the water is turning you gay. So you can go through life a horrible prick and never feel an ounce of empathy for these people and then die, fine. But it's a pretty reasonable assumption that the majority of us are going to be struck by some disability before we're gone - through age, illness or injury, we're going to lose our hearing, our sight, our mobility, some elements of our cognition, and so on. 

Obviously, these people are spiteful ignorant fucks, so the idea of empathy is alien to them, but you'd think pure naked self-interest might steady their hand from time to time. 

Despite the lengths we have gone to within society, I still think the disabled are the most marginalised group there is.  Whenever access issues are raised with restaurants and cafes, they’re always met with “Just go somewhere else” type comments from the public. On public transport, buses won’t let wheelchair users on if the designated space is taken up, even if it’s by someone with a pushchair or pram. Many tube stations are inaccessible, proposals to remove staff from train stations will impact the disabled but they’re an afterthought. 
 

And then there is the annual dehumanising assessment to see if you’re disabled enough to qualify for assistance. There’s that story of a man at his PIP assessment getting marked down for answering “Nope my leg hasn’t grown back yet so there aren’t any changes to my circumstances”. And if you do qualify for assistance, you have to prove you live in poverty to continue receiving other benefits. “The Disability Tax” is very real. 
 

This one image sums it all up. 

 

[BomberPat]

No disagreement on any of that, which only makes it all the more baffling to me. I suppose perhaps the unfortunate alternative takeaway from my point isn't, "any one of us could be affected by these issues, so it would benefit all of us to address them" but "if we can't convince people to have empathy for this, there's no fucking hope for anything else". 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

But it's a pretty reasonable assumption that the majority of us are going to be struck by some disability before we're gone

Not me, it'll never happen to me. Therefore when it happens to others it must be their fault. So said the greatest ever legend of an England manager, before he got cancelled and forced to scrape by with a top flight telly job.

[Keith Houchen]

I see Gary Lineker is the latest to be cancelled by the woke brigade for stating an opinion. Thankfully that professional racist Ian “Ian Wright Wright Wright” Wright has gone with him saying he won’t appear on Match Of The Day in Solidarity. 
 

Thank goodness we had Fiona Bruce on Question Time last night fending off that awful woman (who probably shouldn’t even be in the country) saying poor old Stanley Johnson was “A Wifebeater”. Didn’t think I’d be praising a lefty BBC wokeist like Bruce but good on her for pointing out he only did it the once. Presumably meaning he only broke her nose once, but the lying cow said Stanley had beaten her numerous times. But then they do that, women, don’t they? They exaggerate. 
 

Edit @RedRoosterAny chance you could c&p your post in the tories thread into here?

Edited March 10, 2023 by Keith Houchen

[RedRooster]

21 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Edit @RedRoosterAny chance you could c&p your post in the tories thread into here?

Absolutely: 

I'm really glad that - up until now - the non-story of Gary Lineker tweeting opposition to the bill hasn't been discussed in this thread. We could point out the hypocrisy of it all, but by talking about it, you obviously give these fascists-in-denial what they want; a smokescreen. However, now that Lineker has been pulled from Match of The Day, I think it's worth bringing this up. The attempt to silence left-wing views is really alarming. We've had Alan Sugar back Boris Johnson on Twitter, and tweet this about Jeremy Corbyn. When did this lead bulletins, and where were the calls for him to go? We had Prue Leith backing Brexit, and news presenter Andrew Neil - while he was employed by the BBC - making his views on Scottish independence quite clear on Twitter. 

Corrupt right-wingers get the benefit of the doubt to the point you have a ludicrous situation where we've just seen, on Question Time, Fiona Bruce minimise Stanley Johnson breaking his wife's nose. If this was Keir Starmer's dad, I can't imagine she'd say something like this without a significant (justifiable) media outcry. 

I'm genuinely concerned about what is happening in this respect. The bill is horrific and shouldn't be minimised or ignored - but the attempts not only to silence left-wing viewpoints, but to silence factual viewpoints and lend credibility to lies is also too alarming to ignore.