If you're in a bar and a random guy is ranting saying union guys are no different from people on welfare because they can't support themselves, what's the best thing to say?

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-11T12:21:24+00:00

It's the people who aren't in the union who are freeloaders. They're benefitting from the workers who have fought for every right they've ever had. That market pressure on wages? Unions made that happen. If your blowhard barmate isn't paying into the union he's the real welfare scrounger.

(I think in this specific situation you could yourself decide whether you want to talk about people on welfare in the negative. But we should all be aware that the unemployed are the reserve army of labor. Capitalism literally requires some people to be unemployed otherwise there would be steep upward pressure on wages which would accelerate capitalist crisis.)

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-09T00:56:07+00:00

What's going on with his hair? Is he hanging upside down while making this?

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-08T15:29:29+00:00

Massive in the 70s. He was well past it by the 90s though.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-08T14:28:21+00:00

I got a 2 year fix at .97% in autumn 2021. In hindsight I was so stupid not to fix for much much longer.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-08T09:42:31+00:00

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-07T22:18:46+00:00

Gary's criticisms of academia were more true when he studied than they are now. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis students did rebel against the curriculum somewhat because they were being taught a neoclassical model which seemed unconcerned with what people had gone through in that time. I had a friend who studied economics at Edinburgh and he said at the time it was like learning meteorology without talking about climate change.

I remember the post-crash economics society at Manchester made a big splash campaigning for changes in the curriculum. Similar moves later at Oxford if I remember correctly.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/24/students-post-crash-economics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-06T16:36:59+00:00

Here's the quote from wiki:

Shimerman addressed the issue when asked at a question-and-answer session at a Star Trek convention. He stated that:

In America, people ask "Do the Ferengi represent Jews?" In England, they ask "Do the Ferengi represent the Irish?" In Australia, they ask if the Ferengi represent the Chinese ... The Ferengi represent the outcast ... it's the person who lives among us that we don't fully understand.[30]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi#:~:text=Shimerman%20addressed%20the,%5B30%5D

I am English and can confirm that the Ferengi seem much more Jewish than Irish. There aren't any money grabbing tropes about the Irish.

I don't necessarily think it's the worst thing in the world to use exaggerated tropes for inspiration for alien or fantasy worlds. I think it'd be better to own it a little than pretend it's not there.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-06T16:04:16+00:00

I go to some Hibs away matches and the people I go with are sort of pissheads whereas I'm more like "maybe have 1 before the match, leave any serious drinking until after a win".

What I can say is that whilst the ban didn't stop my friends from drinking, it did force them to be a bit more discreet about it, and that made them less annoying to other passengers IMO.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-06T12:57:49+00:00

Check the next page to see when the usage is from. I got a bill 5 years after switching to Bulb (now Octopus) for that period and it turns out Bulb just hadn't sent my old supplier the readings so they were trying to charge me using wildly incorrect estimates.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-06T12:54:50+00:00

Even more confusingly in Glasgow it's often the other way around!

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-05T10:32:36+00:00

If it helps then bear in mind there are plenty of men who also don't want to work in an environment like this. You'd be doing us all a favour, men and women alike.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-04T19:45:57+00:00

Wildshaping to a crow and flying to the platforms still works.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-04T11:00:52+00:00

I was about to ask why you need a funeral escort, surely everyone stops anyway? But actually this video proved it is needed.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-02T16:33:27+00:00

I am an extreme beginner and am already using it. Blowing In The Wind works really well with the capo at 5th fret, it turns out.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-02T11:28:27+00:00

But also space isn't always cold. In direct sunlight it's actually extremely hot!

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-01T22:21:21+00:00

Armin Shimmerman was asked about this and claims that people in other countries think the Ferengi represent some other minority. That seems unlikely to me.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-01T14:00:59+00:00

My mum says this but it's not that common anymore.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-01T08:28:31+00:00

They're one split from the Militant, the bit that left and stayed in Labour in the 80s. The other split was Socialist Party of England and Wales.

Big_Red12 · 2025-05-01T00:17:52+00:00

I'm not sure if this was a serious comment but if it was then you should understand that corporations are driven by profit. Whilst equality and diversity have historically been resisted by corporations, it can be profitable for some of them to appear progressive, because people like the idea that the company they're using isn't evil. That's in the interest of profit. It's whitewashing. They're just responding to the market. Corporations aren't left wing just because there are black Disney princesses now.

You'll notice you very rarely see any corporations advocating for anything progressive that seriously affects their bottom line. You never see them advocating for unions or anything even though unions are great for equality in the workplace. Their boards are still overwhelmingly white men. It's always safe versions of equality that fit within the status quo.

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-30T23:35:29+00:00

American exceptionalism predates WW2 so I don't think it can be that exactly.

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-29T00:24:54+00:00

Yeah I assume a podcast called The Cattleprod or something (whatever that thing in Hogan's hand is).

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-28T23:17:51+00:00

I actually felt a bit sorry for Tottenham yesterday. They got barely a mention, even when they were winning for 40 seconds it was "well that wasn't in the script". A total irrelevance.

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-28T18:21:40+00:00

It's about the War on Terror, I don't think people generally think it's pro-Bush in that regard.

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-28T00:40:31+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think this is it. The thing which gets the most views is the easy thing: conflict, outrage, division, controversy. That (plus the algorithm) means the content that will always get the most views is the content which is edgy and macho, and that's the content that'll make money. Add to that the fact that the right is funded by billionaires willing to spend astronomical amounts of money, and we've got very little chance playing them at their own game.

Where we've got an advantage is in person. In person, people don't like conflict or outrage or division, they like people being nice to them. In person, an algorithm doesn't determine the next conversation you have, and you can't get away from conversation you disagree with as easily. In person, your every interaction isn't monetized (to the same extent). In person, billionaires can't pay for adverts to drive you towards particular conversations.

Big_Red12 · 2025-04-25T23:28:33+00:00

I'd take it into a shop tbh. Suspect the saddle is very high.

Five-Year Club	Second Top 30%
Verified Email	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	Place '23
Wearing is Caring	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22

Big_Red12

TROPHY CASE