#extremely normal country

[probablyasocialecologist]

Suffering is key to being proper. And Britain’s worsening energy crisis, inflation and inequality have ushered in a fresh wave of lectures on the moral benefits of suffering. Stern voices have clamoured to remind us that being dangerously cold, being desperately poor and enduring powercuts, broken supply chains, food shortages and cold baths has happened to Britons before, and it would probably do us good, if anything, if it happened again.

For the rich and powerful, this is a handy philosophy: they are rarely the ones enduring the pain. In February, Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, whose annual salary is more than £570,000, told workers they should not demand higher wages, in order to contain inflation. In May, then-food and farming minister George Eustice told people they should buy value brands to “contain and manage their household budget”. “Blackouts,” wrote Telegraph columnist Robert Taylor in October, recalling the powercuts of 1973, “could be just the ticket to shake some of today’s youngsters out of that sublime sense of entitlement and self-righteousness.”

From the Covid pandemic and lockdowns to the cost of living crisis, it seems that the harder the challenges of contemporary British life become, the more we are encouraged to suck it up, and channel the hardships of yore – usually by people who did not experience those hardships themselves. Since the start of 2020, “the blitz” has clocked up 37 references in Hansard, the official parliamentary record – only 11 shy of the 48 citations in parliament during the whole of 1940 and 1941, when the blitz was actually taking place. The first reference in Hansard to the famed “blitz spirit” was not until 1972. The phrase was not used again until 1999. But since 2000, it has appeared six times. The further away we get from the Nazi blitzkrieg, the more we are asked to revive the “spirit” of the time.

Underpinning this celebration of suffering is the masochistic idea that it is your individual responsibility – indeed an important test of your character – to withstand ruinous social and economic crises not of your making. It is there in Keir Starmer ventriloquising a dead monarch to a proper bin man’s tune, with his advice on how the poorest Britons should deal with an economic situation that could very possibly kill them this winter: the Queen “would urge us to turn our collar up and face the storm”.

Dan Hancox, ‘Who remembers proper binmen?’ The nostalgia memes that help explain Britain today

[ahaura]

im sure its been said already but as the election draws near more and more liberals will come out of the woodwork to shame people with a conscience to give away their vote to the democrats for free. i'm already seeing posts saying "why aren't people more concerned about a trump presidency?" you want to know why? it's because people already know he's bad. everyone already knows what he is and what he's done and what he'll do. there's nothing to discuss. he's a racist despotic worm of a man. there's nothing else to say.

biden is currently president. the genocide is happening under his watch. he's the one funding isra*l and arming them; he's sidestepped congress more than once to give them weapons. by oct. 27, the biden administration already knew that "Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets." the state department/biden have engaged in atrocity propaganda, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the death toll recorded by the gaza health ministry, and so on. the united states is currently in the process of trying to pin the "war in gaza" on netanyahu (see sen. schumer's speech) after months of backing blatant genocide as a means to act as if they're "doing something" about the genocide (Instead of, say, threatening to cut off all aid to israel with the condition that all hostilities in gaza, the west bank, and occupied jerusalem are halted immediately and permanently, allowing palestinians freedom to travel, allowing aid into gaza, etc etc etc.)

the long and short of it is that liberals view their own lives as being worth more than palestinians'. that's it. they'll vote for another 4 years of the guy ushering in genocide and supporting apartheid + settler colonialism because he isn't outright attacking them (despite various laws and rulings happening both at the supreme court level and at the local level all over the country that will endanger people). they'll settle for the illusion of safety and security and shame anyone with a conscience and accuse them of "supporting the republicans" when in an actual democracy you would be able to use your vote as leverage to extract concessions from those who want to be elected. that's how it's supposed to fucking work.

democrats are not owed people's vote. if biden loses, it will be biden's fault; it will be his campaign's fault; it will be the democrats' fault. trump is bad; the republicans are bad. we already know this. this is not an endorsement of either. but if democrats are too cowardly and feckless and servile to the motivations of the american empire and never do anything for their constituents then why the fuck should anyone vote for them. you want to get mad at someone, why don't you do something useful and stop worrying about team-sports with a purely selfish basis and start hounding the people in power who are supposed to serve you, the voter.

[can-i-use-ur-nuns-bog]

they really made true detective s4 for the lesbians huh

[justplaggin]

went to milan last week and brought back some italian little guys :D

[salemontrial]

Six of crows fandom, before you there is a Matthias POV chapter of Crooked Kingdom. Your task is to get through it in its entirety without making a joke about how his chapters are just him calling himself a whore for being in love with Nina or otherwise trivializing his religious trauma and deep rooted issues with purity culture. If you fail 3000000000000000 hammers will fall on you one at a time forever and ever. The hardest challenge of your life starts now,

[saltyfilmmajor]

Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney and Detective Conan work/ intersect well as two franchises that deal with the concept of a universal truth in pursing justice while having absolutely absurd cases or premises that are still emotionally charged

[cashmere-caveman]

Hanif Abdurraqib, it’s not like nikola tesla knew all of those people were going to die | Anne Carson, H of H Playbook | Richard Siken, Snow and Dirty Rain | Franz Wright, Heaven | Toby Whithouse, shooting script for Being Human S1E1 | Franz Wright, Heaven | Erin Slaughter, I Hope My Salt Lamp is a Weeping Deity | Richard Siken, Straw House, Straw Dog & My Country: The New Age, Episode 16

image descriptions in alt

[thetwiggiesttwig]

i made this and the heat immdiately set in so it MIGHT be my fault, sorry guys.

[thematicparallel]

funny to be half of an unsentimental mother/daughter duo all of the time but especially on christmas don't ask what we're up to we are just snacking & watching our silly films in separate rooms. the diy wreath isn't even on because it smelled like the electricity was going to blow up yesterday lol!

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

i was just now thinking how effectively this kinda is a blog now about spanish / iberian stuff, but i will never brand it as such as i've seen other blogs i follow do with their countries / cultures / regions cause due to the context here, there is no way i can do it without thinking of myself a fascist lol.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Devised by the France-based urbanist, Carlos Moreno, 15-minute cities are a broad planning concept based on people living within easy reach of workplaces and schools, as well as local amenities, gradually reducing the need for short car trips. The idea caught the attention of a range of conspiracy theorists, who see it as a supposed part of a “great reset” or “climate lockdown” in which people are forcibly kept within their local neighbourhood and not allowed to travel. In his speech to the Conservative conference in October, Mark Harper, the transport secretary, described 15-minutes cities as schemes in which “local councils can decide how often you go to the shops”, which was incorrect and is something that has never been proposed in the UK. While many critics assumed at the time this was just rhetoric, the documents indicate Harper and the Department for Transport (DfT) used this definition as the basis for one of the biggest shifts in transport policy for decades. In September, Sunak ended years of policies aimed to promote walking and cycling with his plan for drivers, which promised to crack down on “anti-car measures” like 20mph speed limits and LTNs, which seek to limit through-traffic on residential streets.

[ricoka]

I wish I could be normal about any interest I have but here I am contemplating going to an away game for my nation's football team because I got invested during the fucking euro

[quaranmine]

at least when im in the country all i have to hear at night is coyotes howling or my neighbor having a mildly concerning shooting spree (presumably?? at hogs)

in the city i just have people drag racing down the road by me all the time 😭😭😭

[quatregats]

Honestly don't think I realized that Valencian music was this much of an actual genuine special interest until I got here and had to start explaining myself to people

[unclefungusthegoat]

.

[audhdnight]

I really wonder what goes through some peoples heads to see a post taking about all the reasons someone shouldn’t support a certain author (if they cared about racism or Zionism or literally just had any kind of care for other humans) to then comment “I love her books!! 🥰”

We know. And we know why. Choke.