Can’t have semaphore gridlock if you don’t have semaphores.

When I told my husband some Labour politician is calling for this he said it’s not going to be taken seriously. He was surprised and dissapointed to find out the country that says it’s terrorism to hold a sign also bans even ultra-centrist Cenk Ughyr for not being a zionist.

Is that number plate written in linear b?

Labour at least since Blair has always been the patron of the MIC and security state. Jack Straw was notorious and it only gets worse. Corbyn created so much panic and reaction not simply because of fear of “the left” in general but fear the security state might lose control of their primary political vehicle.

They do throw the most obnoxious and violent far right characters under the bus from time to time but if anything this just gives the ones left over a greater air of “respectability”.

I think that the government restricting my ability to hear anti-Israel speakers is worthy of condemnation even if it protects Cenk and Hasan from having to endure the UK for a few days.

You will encounter a lot of paranoia on the left, this is mostly for good reason because there’s a lot of infiltration and interference in political spaces. But it also often becomes disruptive in itself because people can get caught up in hunting spies and engaging in recriminations which ultimately just sows division and makes working together harder. Best thing to do with suspected spies is to give them a lot of non-sensitive work to do, if they do it well great, work was done. If they do it badly then you clearly shouldn’t be giving them sensitive stuff to do anyway. For everyone else not being provoked and disrupted is the same whether the person is well meaning but struggling (with ptsd from real spies, from unrelated mental health issues, with just having a disruptive personality, from being misguided etc) or actually trying to disrupt.

Its a bad thing that my country is banning people here from hearing speakers because of their positions on Israel. It’s not a “failed blow” against them, it’s a blow against us.

I think obsessing over word use is counterproductive and it’s better to understand where people are actually coming from. Some words are coded one way or another way because of who tends to use them but in the end the user of a word can have very idiosyncratic intentions with it and it’s better to just take the time to get to know them and then you will know for sure how they’re meaning it.

In terms of my own communications I’d avoid it in serious (inc. jokes meant for a wide audience rather than a contained one) content because of the connotations.

Magpie and woodpigeon, the rest of these birds are too small have you got anything for someone who never remembers to bring her glasses out?

I sometimes do the “yeah we’ve always been bad, nothing to see here, what you thought this was a free country??” cynicmogging thing. But I am gonna admit I didn’t expect 20 years ago I would ever find myself in the revoking TYT members visas timeline.

He’s been made to take it so often he can now ace it.

I don’t think it needs to be such a hostile discussion. I think it tends to get this hostile when people overestimate the importance of individual voices. No-one is going to change policy over our discussions. If it convinces people to act or not act in some circumstances it will do so in a much wider environment of discussions not on its own. Some people think Hasan is misleading people into an electoral political road that will just win them fell for it again awards. Some people think Hasan is bringing attention to Palestinian issues and anti-Imperialist narratives that people already on that path need to hear and won’t hear easily without him. Both those views have justifiable arguments for and against. It doesn’t have to be this hostile, we’re all just people having a chat, nothing we say will make or break anything. Some minds might be changed, but even that will be in unpredictable ways because we don’t control most of the factors that will effect how they receive our words, only our words.

Dunno what explains Herr Stermer tho, he went to a normal school right? How’d he lose his spine?

When you realise that Winston is just him I find its easier to just kinda pity him for being so spineless. Like damn bro, apparently public schools are spine removal factories.

I have introduced my children to cow and chicken.

I wonder if anyone sells delayed annuities where you pay for it now but don’t collect til normal retirement age?

Students should boycott assignments until it stops being like this that’s ridiculous.

https://yt.chocolatemoo53.com/watch?v=Rokv7yeY59I

Physics people are nothing like those other ones if you avoid the “top tier” universities. Physics people are usually very chill nerds who smoke lots of weed and tend to be deeply interested in the subject for itself not for career reasons (outside top tier - I mean I assume I went to a mid-low tier at best uni lol).