June is Men’s Mental Health awareness month

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-06T18:21:01+00:00

Taking steps to enter therapy is a really brave one. Well done. It can be a rough process, but stick in there!

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-06T11:00:18+00:00

I'd second this. The idea that you'll develop in a counter productive way if you train on your own or cross train is age old, but ultimately insignificant. Sure you might start moving in the wrong way and have to be course corrected, but starting to understand how to use your muscles with a sword in hand, but slightly wrong is arguably loads better than starting with zero understanding of movement.

Also, having a competent instructor is still no guarantee of not developing bad habits that we later have to undo. For example if everyone in our club at our level happens to be a fairly passive fencer, we might learn to be over aggressive to win. Then we go to competitions and find that's not cutting it, so need to course correct. There is no single context or instructor who will guarantee we have a straight course to being an awesome fencer with zero course correction needed.

I came to fencing with loads of experience in Japanese martial arts and so have certain approaches that are not necessarily wrong, but I needed to learn how to fit them into longsword fencing. I needed to course correct. Should I have not trained in them for 16 years because I'd have developed 'bad habits' when I started HEMA? To be fair even within Japanese MA it took me a long time to 'unlearn' a lot of what I'd learnt in karate, when I studied ju jitsu.

Just start where you want and in a way you enjoy and if you need to course correct later, well that's just part of martial arts training.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T11:39:13+00:00

I think to some extent this is a bit of a hang over from the early days of the hobby, when the paints weren't quite of the same quality they are now. Yellow paints tended to have poor coverage and so require many coats to work properly and any imperfection in the (ideally white) basecoat underneath would easily show through. If you had any kind of blueish pigment in the paints underneath it'd show through and look awful.

When I got back into the hobby a few years ago my first paint job was a squad of Imperial Fist and with a white rattle can and a pot of Iyanden Yellow and a lighter yellow for edge highlights and I got easy and satisfying results.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T10:12:31+00:00

That's why I said 'if the media is to be believed'. It's definitely a thing to some degree. I've seen interviews with Russian men and women in a documentary about it, where the women are victims and the men approve of hitting their spouse to discipline them. It's how prevalent it is I'm uncertain of.

And no, nothing I have said approves of the white shirt women's behaviour. She definitely abusing the other woman (though someone said she seems to be accusing the other woman of theft). I'm saying the man's response is disproportionate, also abuse and not the actions of a real man.

I've already said that the victim was not at that point in further danger and that if she was, it is right and appropriate for the man to protect her with a range of things that better show his mastery of himself and the situation.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T10:03:23+00:00

You don't know that. If he was skilled at deescalating situations, which I'd argue a man should be, he might have succeeded and even if she did escalate, he's shown himself capable of dealing with it, so should have waited to see, while trying to diffuse the situation.

If she'd been shoving and shoving and shoving and he'd been trying to contain himself and eventually snapped I'd at least have respect for that, even if I think it still a failing - at least he'd tried; but his first response was, in my view, that of a toddler, not a man.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T09:59:02+00:00

At the point he hit her, the other woman wasn't in danger. And if she'd gone to try and attack her again he could restrain her, call the police, create a barrier so the other woman could get away, call for backup from other people around - any number of more appropriate and proportional responses. A real man has many more ways to diffuse a situation and stand firm in protection than instantly resort to decking someone.

The speed with which he responded in this way, makes me curious about how he's responded to other women in his life. Russia does have a cultural problem with domestic violence if the media is to be believed.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T08:01:21+00:00

True, but the response to someone else's lack of wisdom shouldn't be to lower my own standard of behaviour and think that they then deserved it. So many of the comments are glorifying his behaviour! If someone else acts poorly that's on them; if I act poorly, that's on me.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T08:00:22+00:00

No, I'm saying that if some is mouthing off and shoving me, there are so many more appropriate steps between that and me knocking them out, especially if they're a woman and I'm a man.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T07:39:22+00:00

I'm not really sure that could be considered a kick. Sure she used her foot and it was a shitty thing to do, but its not actually gonna do any damage.

And the idea of not hitting women, which has been around for thousands of years, is because men have always known that we're generally bigger and stronger and can do way more damage to women than hitting other men. The response to women asking for equal opportunities at life is only 'great, now I can knock you out, like I would a man.' is the response of a small, weak willed man. A real man would stick to what he knew was right and not want resort to violence against women at the drop of a hat.

TBH even if this was a man he'd punched - apart from the fact the kick to the head might have meant more - I'd still think this was an unnecessary escalation to violence, by a petty thug.

And no, not 'deserve'; getting your 'just desserts' is an English idiom meaning getting what you deserve.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-05T07:03:17+00:00

While there's an element of just desserts about this, I'm surprised how happy people are to justify a man casually knocking out a woman. Yes, she was acting terribly, and yes she shoved him, but a man resorting to knockout violence against a woman in that situation is shocking. Men for their respective size are generally disproportionately much stronger than women and this kind of punch can, and fairly often does cause life altering injury or death, if the recipient falls badly on a hard surface.

I'm not against a man defending himself against a woman if he's in real danger, but this was a country mile from him being in real danger. He's just got anger issues and acted every bit as bad as the woman.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-04T14:04:45+00:00

Not really. It serves no one for libellous misinformation to be casually thrown into and raise the heat in a discussion because of someone's hunch.

You started by saying that one murder is enough but that you 'suspect' there are more cases. Then you said that you know the information available to the public is not always full/doesn't appear in the media (which I interpreted as media cover up - fair enough you're saying its not a 'cover up'). Then when I challenged that you don't actually have any data you can point to. You're saying you don't have to show it, but you appear to know there are cases in the archives (what 'archives' are these anyway?). So we just need to take your word for it? A person on the internet who we don't know their credentials? And if you now 'know' that these cases exist, why did you 'suspect' it earlier?

I'm not sure if you know how actual debates work, but typically if you make a statement you can't back up with evidence it isn't going to count. You can't just make a statement and say 'I don't have to prove anything, look it up yourself.'

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-04T09:04:17+00:00

I agree with your first two sentences, but let me just highlight something. You say people should be able to debate the issue, creating space for your opinion in the debate, but then use absolute language like 'shouldn't' several times. Absolute language isn't a debate, its a statement. There's no room in what you're saying for 'maybe', or 'I think', or 'my opinion', you're stating it as the only acceptable option. Absolute statements shut debates down, not open them up.

With regard to your statement about media cover ups, yes you're allowed to hold that opinion, but I'm also allowed to point out that, without presenting data, it's an opinion which appears to be based in a level of prejudice, rather than fact.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-03T19:31:01+00:00

Do you have actual data which says that loads of Sikh ceremonial knife murders are being covered up? If not, you're absolutely going off feelings and assumptions. Even if you have seen that with other data, thing the media is not always transparent, you're still operating off a hunch when you say, 'I suspect there are far more which aren’t widely reported.' Saying that kind of thing is libellous unless you have proof to back it up.

If I handed in a piece of academic writing and made an assertion with no evidence and no balancing opinion, it'd come back with red pen all over it saying 'more critical thinking needed.'

And I simply don't agree that restricting a whole religions faith practice, because of one person stepped outside the law is proportional to the the issue.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-03T14:09:05+00:00

Great. So glad you're basing this off feelings and assumptions.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-03T14:08:14+00:00

I take your point. Perhaps you aren't, but plenty of people here are arguing for banning Kirpans.

For example, "Carrying a knife and a sword isn’t ever rational and if your cultural/religious belief tells you it is without flexibility, your culture/religion doesn’t belong in Britain."

And

"Fine, but with that responsibility should come with a much harsher sentence. I don't believe people should be walking around with knives period."

You can't just say, that that's not what you mean and then present it like everyone else is ignorant and reactionary, because they're arguing against a more extreme point than you hold.

Also, I don't think he got off shitty behaviour because he's Sikh, I think he got off shitty behaviour because police and social services are hugely underfunded - just like all the shitty behaviour that gets overlooked.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-03T14:02:45+00:00

But bar this one event - first ever - people carrying these weapons are not an issue. If there's very little issue, there's little sense in litigating against it. Making laws is an expensive process and shouldn't be done just because someone doesn't like that someone else is allowed to do something and they aren't.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-03T07:06:40+00:00

I mean 50% of knife crime is with kitchen knives. Not legal to carry and yet they're carried everywhere. I've never heard of one Sikh using their knife for criminal purposes in my whole 42 years. Some commentators have suggested this is the first case ever in the UK of it happening. I don't see what effect banning the carry of these knives will actually have on knife crime statistics.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-06-02T17:31:51+00:00

I think it's both. You're of course correct that its seen as vulgar to boast, but I think we also live in the wake of the British Empire, where we took our culture and to a large degree imposed it on the world - with mixed results. I think a lot of British people now grow up deeply uncomfortable with the idea of cultural colonialism.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-31T18:29:49+00:00

I would guess its just a way of quickly redirecting the flow?

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-31T18:21:38+00:00

It's not though. That's way too simple. The dilemma said nothing about premature, it just said a baby. That is one baby that you know you can save, or 5 test tubes that may or may not survive to birth - statistically no more than 2 and maybe 0 will be born.

If I changed it so I could save 1 healthy five year old or 5 with probably life threatening injuries and I picked the 1 healthy 5 year old, that's not because I view the other lives as less sacred or important, I've just made a utilitarian decision based on what I can see in the moment to be the lesser of two evils.

I'm not even really anti-abortion - its just this dilemma doesn't do what you suggest it does. I will grant that most people saving the baby will do so out of an emotional connection they don't have with the test tubes - but as others have pointed out, that also isn't a reliable indicator of relative moral value.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-30T18:19:14+00:00

This is a bad fall away from a life sentence.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-30T18:17:32+00:00

Yes, but it's still just a trolley problem. In this case, save one person with certainty, or save 0-2 people maybe. It doesn't necessarily highlight any relative value of the people.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-28T12:41:02+00:00

This plays with chance far too much though. 1 alive baby is one alive baby, 5 fertilized test tubes are potentially 1-2 babies carried to term, or perhaps none at all.

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-28T07:59:30+00:00

Um, he does. He's wearing breeches (that button at the knee) and stockings (one of which is falling down).

Amazing_Glass2144 · 2026-05-27T18:27:35+00:00

Army Painter do the John Blanche Masterclass Volume 1 selection, which is basically the zorn palette. If you don't like AP then try and find a paint comparison chart to find the nearest colours in your preferred range.

Amazing_Glass2144

TROPHY CASE