Messages

21 years now of PUK? Damn. I made this account in 2008 when Diamond/Pearl were just released I think. I still pop in from time to time, more out of nostalgia than anything else, but I haven't really been properly active on here since 2013. The internet has changed, everybody uses stuff like Discord these days. I still actually have a few people from here on stuff like Facebook but I rarely use Discord. I miss the days of IRC.

[citation needed]

fyi the average person who goes to university also cares about stuff like that in the near future - but how are they more likely to be propagandized? Learning how to properly analyze statistics and facts is propaganda now?

Here's one for you. Judging by some of the stuff I've seen US universities do (accepting a kid into Stanford who's application was literally '#blacklivesmatter' 100 times, although it probably had more to do with the fact he interned on Hillary's campaign), I'd say it's even worse there. It also heavily depends upon the subject you study, but you're ignorant if you think these left-wing professors aren't expressing their views to their students, and often only giving one side of the argument. In fact it very aptly explains why a lot of the UK students that actually bothered to vote (lol) in the EU Ref. voted to Remain. Thankfully at my university I'm only taught by one left-leaning professor and for not even a term (economics at my uni seems fairly apolitical thankfully, I don't like being told what to think) and she's a laughing stock for her warped views.

He gained power through nationalism and has authoritarian tendencies. This is pretty much textbook fascist; he is very Mussolini like as well. He's just ineffective.

Pick one of 'fascist' and 'ineffective'; you can't have both. Or maybe 'impotent' is a better word. The notion of being a fascist leader (Franco, Mussolini, Hirohito, but not Hitler, NatSoc is different to fascism) implies that if you want something done it gets done, leading into one of fascism's criticisms of democracy, which is how it favours talk over action. An example of this is how a couple of years ago the US Congress couldn't even agree on setting a national budget, meaning they had to roll over last year's one.

So they elected a racist/bigot/fascist/misogynist to prove them right? I don't understand this line of reasoning. Trump got elected because he promised coal jobs back throughout the rust belt, and to some he promised to tear down the establishment (which is...  exactly what he's pandering to). Otherwise, he made a bunch of lies up, talked really loud, etc so he got elected. Also, party lines are generally kept the same, so Republicans only voted him in cause he had an R next to his name.

A very small minority of people were pissed about being called bigots, and even then they decided to vote to prove themselves right. This is not why Trump won.

No, they elected a 'racist/bigot/fascist/misogynist' as you describe him as simply to give the middle finger to all these Democrats whose modus operandi was to pander to minorities and name call and strawman everyone who has the audacity to disagree with them. I guess if you want to get to the truth of the matter, maybe Trump won because Hillary spent all her time pandering to minorities and neglected to even think about the biggest voting block in the US, white men? I remember reading she didn't even visit one state she thought was a sure win, well guess what, that state turned red. I guess the Dems thought that their name calling would scare white people into voting for their candidate. Ignore the fact that Hillary has a history of screw ups (Benghazi, those damned emails) and is pretty much a mouthpiece for Wall Street, as well as one of the richest people in the world with her husband. But no, Trump said something mean about someone of a different race/gender therefore he's a racist/sexist and you're also a racist/sexist if you vote for him.

Ah, so you're saying I shouldn't call people as they are? Because that hurts their feelings too much?

To use the terms of the day, that's a problematic line of thinking, if we were all allowed to call people 'what they are', does that extend to 'hate speech' as well? If it's what they are then it must be fine, surely? /s

Your general point is correct, it's not healthy to just call someone a bigot, but you're arguing a point that is pretty vague and untrue and pretty much had overall very little to do with the election. The voter turnout was horrible as well (less than half of the eligible voters voted this past election, and there's plenty of voter suppression and there's plenty of issues with our two party system). As it stands, Trump's 35% approval rating and the constant failures of the Republican Party to do anything correct more or less indicates a shift the other way in 2020, not calling a bunch of people bigots for being bigots.

Take an example that I've literally seen happen; guy and girl in relationship, everything is going great until the girl starts accusing the guy of cheating, even though he hasn't, but she doesn't stop. She keeps going, eventually the guy gets sick of it and cheats on her. Who's fault is it? Is it the guy's fault for cheating, or the girl's fault for constantly accusing the guy of cheating? Thought experiment, the answer doesn't matter. But maybe, just maybe, if the girl hadn't accused the guy of cheating, then he wouldn't have even thought about it?

Also where does that approval rating come from? Don't tell me it comes from the media, you know, the same media who said Trump would never run, Trump was a joke candidate, Trump would never win the election, Trump has ties to Russia (with literally zero proof lol), etc, etc? The same media who have been proven and admitted to oversampling Democrats in their polls? The same media who predicted a 99% chance of Hillary to win? The same media who, time and time and time again, have been proven wrong?

If you're arguing against an "SJW pro-politically correct" that probably hates Trump, you're arguing against a boogeyman that's very little in number and has zero influence on the electorate. I'm not sure what your point is here, but you're not really making a coherent point, because Trump seriously only won due to the rust belt and voting along party lines. He lost the popular vote by 3 million.

An estimated (they'll never know the true figure) 3 million illegal immigrants voted in California. Obviously they would vote for the candidate who offers them a 'path to citizenship' rather than the one that will deport them for being illegal immigrants. That on its own invalidates the popular vote, and think how many more non citizens voted in other states? They discovered non citizens on the electoral roll in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the only thing they have to stop illegals voting is a tick box on the ballot saying 'are you a US citizen?' which, of course, does nothing. I also heard that a lot of Democrat votes came from dead people, which is about as blatant as you can get with regards to electoral fraud.

I like how you didn't even argue about the fake news stuff; you just came in and went on a tirade.

Fake News was a term coined by Hillary and her ilk to explain why they lost the election. Notice how the term only entered common usage after Nov 8. It's funny because they are more guilty of that than Trump ever was. They're now saying 'alternative facts' too, whatever that means. Although I do find it rather humorous that there are only 5 or 6 'real' news outlets and everything else is deemed 'fake news', despite the fact these media outlets are all owned by the same people.

How about all the shootings still going on in public places in the US? Still think that they aren't forms of terroism NOT caused by Middle Easterners, Mr. Trump? What will you do about THOSE terrorists? Can't kick them out of the country if they are born citizens.

They pretty much all happen in 'gun-free' zones. Think, would a potential spree killer start shooting in an area where they're likely to be killed before they've even killed anyone, or an area where they can go ham and the police will have to be called to stop them? And nah they don't kick them out of the country if they are citizens, they just put them in jail where they belong.

this + people after brexit saying "weeehh i only voted leave as a joke" are why the vast majority of people should just not be allowed to vote

Heh. I agree but for different reasons. Although the fundamental problem with democracy is how it allows the ignorant masses to outvote the so-called 'intelligent' classes. Yet believe it or not those who go to universities and consider themselves intelligent are also the most likely to be propagandized. The average citizen only cares about the survival of themselves and their family because it's most important to them.

Although it's kinda funny seeing everyone call Trump a 'fascist'. It's almost as if 'fascist' has become a term to describe people you don't like. Oh wait, it has;

Since the end of World War II in 1945, few parties have openly described themselves as fascist, and the term is instead now usually used pejoratively by political opponents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Y'all might not like to hear this, but all this name calling (fascist, racist, bigot, misogynist, etc, etc.) is why Trump got elected in the first place; people were sick of being called things they obviously weren't just because they disagree with the 'flavour of the month', whatever that may be. Now the solution is to continue calling people racists, fascists, bigots, etc? I hope you've started to like Trump because if you keep doing that, he'll only get re-elected in 2020. What you reap is what you sow.

It's already happening. Facebook uses your phone's build-in microphone to listen to your conversations all the time, then sells that information to advertising companies. Have you ever been talking about something you'd like to buy, then later see ads on Facebook advertising that exact product? Now you know why.

Yeah the government has been spying on everyone for years now. Under the guise of 'preventing terrorism' no doubt but who decides what is terrorism and what isn't?

people were Shocked about the NSA and all that but the uk is an Expert at espionage and Intelligence to the point where we were the ones who figured out how the ussr was eavesdropping on the white house at the end of the war and i guess we got drunk on being the survelliance capital of the world.

How else do you think the Soviets figured out how to build their nukes? Lord knows they couldn't figure it out themselves so they had their Manhattan Project spies deliver them the information.

Even so you'd think with all this surveillance you'd think there would be less crime and less terrorist attacks. I guess they've got their priorities mixed up, like the Germans who recently raided a load of homes in Berlin for literal Facebook posts that they disagree with.

[I don't think he'll be as bad as the media makes out tho,]

To really sum it up though, I think hes a poopy-head with really silly hair, and the idea of him having the nuclear codes terrifies me.

So Trump is going to start a nuclear war? Interesting. Any particular reason you think this?

the sheer fact a man didn't get the popular vote and yet still ended up in the white house is baffling to me. america needs to sort out its voting system cause the collegiate system looks like garbage

Hillary won the popular vote against Obama in '08. Guess who has been President for the past 8 years?

The reason the US has the electoral college is so that the most populous areas don't dominate US politics. If the vote was conducted simply by population, it wouldn't be representative of all areas of America and a few highly populous cities would decide the election. Does this sound fair?

Re: Trump tho, I feel like he would be a lot less scary if it weren't a republican dominated Congress too - I don't think he'll be as bad as the media makes out tho, he can't act on a lot of his extreme policy (e.g. making Mexico pay for a wall - that's just not going to happen). I think he'll be fantastic for the UK, however, in that he's already mentioned he wants to return the special relationship back to the Reagan(?)/Thatcher era. Plus given his business skills he will probably be good economically. I guess we just have to hope is questionable humanitarian policies are blocked by congress, or at least the more extreme ones.

He won't be anywhere near as bad as the media have told everyone he will be. Apart from the fact they were bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign, they spent the better part of a year demonizing Trump, throwing any journalistic integrity out the window in the process. There's a reason fewer than 10% of Americans trust MSM these days, and now they're calling any dissenting news 'Fake News'. Their backpedaling is a great source of amusement for me.

Let's revive this board shall we?

President Trump. I know it's a month or so after the election, but I'm interested to see how people feel about this prospect. Where do you fall on the spectrum? And I'm interested in opinions such as "HE'LL START WW3!" and "HE'S GONNA MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" and everywhere in between these rather polarized viewpoints.

I personally am interested to see how it's all going to go as a nuanced observer. Personally I doubt WW3 will happen, but making America great again is a rather vague statement. What do you think?

If money doesn't grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?

If money grew on trees, it'd be worth as much as leaves.
Valid point though.

I remember your vent threads from years ago. Posted in a few of them.

Happy ~10 years fam. 8.5 and counting for myself, even if I don't post here at all often anymore. Heh.

Whilst I wouldn't say the referendum was completely racism driven it definitely outed closeted racists within Britain. The amount of people I've heard say they wanted out solely because of immigrants was quite a lot, even from people I didn't expect. There were a few who voted out without even realising the potential of what it would cause as well. I think from both sides there was a lot of naivity.

It's happened though, we can judge all we want now but we can't even say whether it will be a good thing or not now until a few years have passed and the effects will come to light. Until then we just live on our lives and roll with the punches.

Yup, sad to say. A lot of people voted on the basis that it would mean we'd "kick out those dirty immigrants", which obviously is not going to happen. Anyone with a brain knows that the world doesn't work like that.

Our lives won't actually change that much until the process actually begins. It won't happen instantly, it's simply not possible. There's thousands of pages of legal documents that need to be gone through first.

Since the referendum, and whilst oh boy Leave definitely wasn't all about the xenophobia / racism, it's shocking to hear of several incidents wherein "immigrants" (really british-born people of non-british descent) have been given abuse on the streets based on the vote to leave. Not all leave voters did but it's been on the up since the vote. Shocking.

It's just the media playing up a few isolated incidences of drunk racists abusing people on the streets, once again due to their misguided belief that a Brexit means all the immigrants will be kicked out. Stupid people exist everywhere.

So in spite of the whole "young 'uns didn't half turn up did they hnghhhhh" thingy, could the vote actually have been extended to include 16 and 17 year olds??? Again stupidly low turnout probably meant doing so would not have made a difference, but seeing as how the decision will affect us younger people for longer than a good few people...any sense in that? Personally yeah, I reckon it could have been inclusive of them...but again, not many would probably have voted.

I'm glad that 16-17 year olds are still not allowed to vote, and my reasoning for this is that I was talking to a friend last time who had gotten into an argument over the referendum in a Facebook group chat (a lot of these people were either just turned 18 or still 17) and one of the reasons I heard for wanting to stay was that they thought that if Britain left the EU, they would stop selling magic stars in the UK. This wasn't a joke either, which I thought it could have been. To me this is just indicative of the political ignorance and arrogance of this generation, despite the fact that we have access to more information that in any period of history prior to this.

The low turnout, 36% of 18-24 year olds, of which I was one, actually got up and voted. The voter registration process was painfully easy. If I managed to do it, so could all of these other people. Once again, they have no-one to blame but themselves.

think about your typical uni student and now think about their typical track record for turning in assignments on a timely manner and the number of extensions they totally need cos me cat was sick and it was sooooooooooooooo traumatic like. now extrapolate that to something you can literally do in about 15 mins and even less if you do a postal vote and thats ur answer for why the youth vote is so terrible.

i really dont want to sound Crotchety and Old here but sadly its the truth.

Yup, as a student myself, I know how bad people are at turning in assignments on time. A lot of my friends failed their first year, although none of them are on my course. Thankfully I am not one of these people and have never needed to ask for an extension on an assignment. So far. Let's hope that doesn't change.

Another thing, uni students who consider themselves 'more educated' than the old, and therefore believe that their vote should be worth more, disgust me with their arrogance. Education and knowledge are two completely different things.

I randomly got Pokerus in Emerald once I think. It was from there that I transferred it to all of my other games. Damn useful, meant that with the power items you could fully EV train the HP stat for example by defeating 25 Bidoofs. Then just remove the item and defeat another. Hehe.

yes it does. so many people/idiots who voted leave are now thinking "oh no what have i done" bc they used it as a protest vote or didn't think they'd win ... could have easily won it for remain.

Did they? Please provide a source for that claim, seeing as you've asked me for sources.

I did vote and I voted for Leave. Unless that was directed at someone else. I reiterate, only 36% of people aged 18-24 could be bothered to vote on an issue that will affect them more than anyone else. If this demographic disagrees with the result, they have themselves and ONLY themselves to blame. The registration website crashed the day of the deadline. I registered to vote weeks in advance, as should have anyone who actually cared about the result.

ps, the future is bright?? what have yall been sniffing cause i want some of that to deal with this garabage

The highest quality cocaine, imported straight from the Colombian highlands. /s

Oh, and by the way? ... rampant nationalism go unchecked. Sit down.

You lecture me on claiming to know what they stood for, but you weren't there, you don't know what they stood for either. In terms of geopolitics, believe it or not WW2 was started (by us) to halt German expansion. Learn more about the geopolitical situation of WW2 before you lecture me on it. You might not like what you discover. The assumption what we knew about the Holocaust is also wrong; we didn't know about it until we discovered the camps after the German defeat. Or you can analyse any existing reconnaissance photos yourself.

Well that was long. I doubt anyone here will agree with me though. Oh well, such is life.

I'm glad someone has actually gone through my post and has constructed an argument against it instead of just saying that it made them laugh or saying it's 'racist'. I'll honour your commitment by doing the same.

Quotes have been shortened and double post incoming, because I broke the 10k character limit.

the uk is a tiny, and i repeat, tiny stupid little island drifting off of the coast of europe ... say bye to companies who came to the uk SPECIFICALLY to trade with the eu. say bye to thousands of jobs.

A tiny island that has the 5th largest GDP in the world, behind Germany, Japan, China and the USA. Our military expenditure is the 4th (or 5th, depending where the stats come from) largest IN THE WORLD, behind the US, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Russia are 6th on the list where Britain is 4th. We are hardly isolated, unless you've been living in a different United Kingdom to the one I've called home for the past 20 years.

I know what free trade is. Free trade makes it so whoever can produce a good at the cheapest is the only one to sell it. Free trade is also the reason that Africa is still wallowing in poverty while South Korea, who rejected free trade in the 1960s or 70s to build up their industry, is now one of the world's strongest economies. Here is support for my claim that free trade has harmed Africa, for reference.

In case you've forgotten we are still a member of the G8 and have veto power in the United Nations. Something that we had before the EU and will continue to have after it. The 'thousands of jobs lost' claim is once again remain scaremongering. Here are some articles that refute that claim.

Aston Martin to go ahead with £200m Wales plant
Remain-backing energy giant won't leave post-Brexit UK and plans to invest MORE, says MP
UK: Foreign investors eyeing property amid post-Brexit price-fall

That last article also provides another reason as to why the pound dropping was in fact a good thing. It's basic economics. Investors are drawn towards cheap things, in the exact same way that regular people are drawn to a '50% off!' sign.

i'll touch on greece for a second here. the reason greece sucks so much anus right now is because the government played the fiddle whilst athens burned ... now they gotta deal with it. and as for ur goldman sachs claim... i'mma need some sources on that : )

Here's your source. And this was found after a very, very quick Google search, along the lines of 'Greece Goldman Sachs scandal'.

I will agree with you though in that Greece largely screwed themselves, massive welfare payments and retirement at age 50 are some of the culprits there. This does not for a second mean that the EU isn't partially to blame. Default on debts is forbidden under the EU constitution. If Greece had their own currency, as any economics student will be able to tell you, they would be able to devalue their currency and default on their debts so the recovery process can begin. Instead, they will continue to get further and further into the red.

the eu was created after the second world war... thank god he wasn't in power when we tried again : )

While the idea of 'never having another world war' may ring true, you cannot deny the intention of halting communist expansion if you have even the most basic understanding of the geopolitical situation of the world after WW2. It's the same reason that the UN recognised the nationalist Taiwanese Government as the rightful Govermnent of mainland China. It's the same reason the USA intervened in Vietnam. It's the same reason the USA supported the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

AND THE LEAVE CAMPAIGN PROPOGANDA WAS FULL OF LIES ... they cried. "curse the EU!!" they cried. "take our country back!!" they screamed. from what? a fascist dictatorship? yall are dumb

Are you using fascism as a political buzzword or for its actual meaning? Because the political buzzword that is so readily thrown around by political opponents of say, Donald Trump for example, is so far removed from it's original meaning that it can be ignored.

Still, there were lies on both sides. I'd also love to know where you're getting this '37%' figure from. Even if it is true, less people voted to stay than did leave. That's democracy and if you don't like it, why don't you go and live in North Korea, Cuba or Venezuela? I hear all three of those countries are lovely at this time of year.

I disagree with the assertion that the referendum result was largely driven by racism. This ignores and marginalizes all of the black, minority and ethnic groups that also voted to leave the EU. Believe it or not, over 50% of Sikhs and Jews in the UK voted in favour of leaving the EU. Anyone who cries 'RACISM!!1!1!' in the face of that is quite frankly deluded and racist.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY GOD GET A LOADA THIS HAHAHA"the pound dropping is not a bad thing either" ... "initial shock" the pounds value basically threw itself off a cliff. that's not shock. that's economic suicide

While all this may be true to an extent, it is short-sighted to think it will last. If you have the faintest idea how markets work, you would know that it was hedge funds that caused all of this; they overwhelmingly bet on remain, and had positions to reflect this. When the markets closed and the news broke that Britain would be leaving, they all panicked and tried to keep themselves from losing money, hence the economics shocks.

The drop in the pound is not 'economic suicide'. If you're calling what happened to the pound 'economic suicide' then I suggest you look at what happened to the Euro after Brexit. Spoiler: its value plummeted. Worse than the pound, which I reiterate, has rallied since.

I said it before and I said it again, in the long run, it's NOTHING. And not being able to eat is a gross exaggeration, we are not going to go the way of Zimbabwe, who printed money to pay for literally EVERYTHING, and that is why their population are starving to death.

let me tell you something. my grandad, bless him, has dementia. he's in his 80s, was a kid during ww2. ... so no. i'm not going to sit by and not be angry at the people who took something great away from us : )

My grandparents are either dead or were too young to remember the war. It's the generation of my great grandparents who fought and died in WW2, so while you are correct in saying that all the WW1 veterans are dead, the WW2 veterans are the ones who fought and died to halt German expansion. In my honest view however we should have fought the Soviets as well (Winston Churchill and Operation Unthinkable, look it up), but that's a story for another day.

The EU is a failed project. It advocated for greater integration in Europe with the eventual goal of an EU superstate. When it was formed it worked because it only included strong economies; France, West Germany, Britain et al. Its downfall, which again benefited Germany, was including weaker economies into the mix.

"desperate to trade with us", again, sources'd be nice. ... we're going into an economic downturn and yknow, i won't be surprised if we drag the rest of the world with us.

You want sources? Okay. And another.

Ohhh, soo many countries who will refuse to trade with an independent UK. You seem to forget that they want our money. They aren't going to realistically sacrifice their own economic wellbeing simply because we left an undemocratic political union. Anyone who thinks so is simply being obtuse.

Double post incoming, sorry.

I voted leave because I believe that Britain's sovereignty is more important than the EU's money, which by the way is a net loss for the UK, we pay more into the EU than we get out of it. The EU benefits Germany more than anyone else because the existence of the Euro allows the Germans to sell their industrial produce at competitive prices. Look at how it has shafted Greece and Spain, who 'enjoy' massive levels of youth unemployment, 50% for Greece and around 40% for Spain. Greece even hired Goldman Sachs to fiddle with their balance sheets to even gain them EU admission in the first place, and since Greece can't default on their debts, again another fault of the EU, things will only get worse and worse for them.

The EU was 'required' upon its creation; a bulwark against communist expansion was needed, hence the need for a strong and united Europe. That was then, but communism is now dead save for Cuba and North Korea.

The remain campaign lost because their strategy was based entirely on fear; fear of the unknown and 'better the devil we know'.  Also time for a fun little fact about Jeremy Corbyn: he is actually anti-EU. But instead of sticking to his principles he abandoned them and toed the party line, as Labour is a pro-EU party. Showing his lack of a backbone in my view.

The pound dropping is not a bad thing either. A weaker currency means your exports are cheaper and therefore more competitive. Besides, after the initial shock it rallied back up again anyway; in the long term that shock is literally nothing.

The elderly vote did admittedly win it for Brexit, but upon examining the voter turnout statistics you will find that only 36% of people aged 18-24 even voted, on an issue that will affect them more than anyone else. This number for the 65+ demographic? 83%. The total voter turnout was around 70%, the highest it's been for any issue in decades. If you are angry at anyone for the result, it shouldn't be the elderly who, through the democratic process, made their voice heard, and fought for this great country in two world wars.

The UK will be fine, despite what remain might lie and tell you. The USA, Canada and Germany have already said that they are desperate to trade with us. Hardly the 'isolation' that remain promised.  Also, Aston Martin have just announced that they are investing £200m in a car plant in Wales. Hardly the death of British industry that we were told would happen.

Even so, arguing about the result accomplishes nothing. The result is final, and that petition to have another vote simply shows the arrogance and contempt for democracy that Remain have, simply because they lost. Instead, we should accept this result and forge a new path for the UK. The future is bright.

EDIT: Apologies for any typos, I typed this on my phone.

Walsall to Birmingham New Street is £4.10 on peak I think, but Spalding to Peterborough which is about the same journey will cost you at least ten. But I guess it's down to demand/frequency as opposed to distance.

That seems to make sense, I mean the trains I have to get are often nearly empty. I still think we're being ripped off with train tickets though but what can you do.

Ohhh where to even begin.

I think the main one for me is this whole PC culture, where you can't even speak your mind or voice even a remotely contentious or controversial opinion without being chastised for it. Websites like Facebook and Twitter are particularly bad for it. That being said it's very funny to watch Twitter's stock price tank when it's revealed that their moderators in favor of censorship and the curbing free speech.

Curbing of free speech in any way, shape or form is something that is a source of particular aggravation for me. Goodbye to a key cornerstone of Western democracy.

Celebrity culture as well. It's mind-numbing and boring. Honestly I don't care about what some B-list 'celebrity' has done.

One final thing; people who think liking something on Facebook will do anything beneficial. You probably see stuff like this all the time without realising. It's basically a way for someone to pat themselves on the back and say 'I'm making a difference' without doing anything of the sort. The new form of armchair activism.

Rant over. There's stuff I've left out but hey ho, only the essentials right?