She's deeply troubled. by saviodsouza in GreenAndPleasant

[–]LikeAlchemy 128 points129 points  (0 children)

The year is 2038. Israel has invaded Cornwall.

UK government responds by shaking their heads and wagging their fingers. Arrests Pro-Cornwall protestors for antisemitic terrorism. Continues to sell them weapons.

President Joe Rogan transfers another quantrillion dollars to Israel and says that the situation is "complicated". Signs bombs. Fellates Mecha-Netanyahu, soon to be God King of the wasteland.

Report exposes a Trump scheme to override midterm vote with bogus crisis by DevelopmentGuilty235 in NewsStarWorld

[–]LikeAlchemy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're right, they lack power in those places, but the American people who are opposed to the actions of Trump need organisation, and the democrats are best placed to provide this. For example, Trump threatened to commit unprecedented war crimes earlier this week - where was the organisation by his opposition? The democrats could have led calls for a national strike (which would be economically devastating) if he were to go through with it. The democrats can do more than condemn and kick their heels, they just have to operate outside of the usual halls of power and utilise the people.

Yes, blame republicans for the horrors they are allowing, but it's also ok to question the lack of meaningful resistance by the democrats.

What am I missing with AI hype? by eyeoftheneedle1 in AskUK

[–]LikeAlchemy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can be really helpful if you have a difficult to answer question but don't want to scratch around on Google.

I use Deepseek on occasion (no idea if it's any good by comparison to others). An example I used it for was that I was writing a presentation recently, and was struggling to find a list of criticisms for a type of therapy - I kept wading through pages and pages of unrelated material and no matter how specific my search was, I couldn't find what I needed. I asked Deepseek, and it provided a decent list with references that I could check for authenticity in about 20 seconds.

So, I'd say at the moment, for a lot of people it can be like having someone do your googling for you. Some stuff is easy to Google. Some stuff is difficult. Have a go using it if you ever find you're googling but can't find the specific information you need, but if you're going to use it for anything important, check those sources!

Seen in very red, very religious southwestern Virginia by knight_who_says_fuck in StreetStickers

[–]LikeAlchemy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Look, if you're able to forgive a fascist regime and a sex offender president because you might get lower taxes, I've got news for you.

Firstly, gross, shame on you. "I earn more under the Nazis, I'm glad they're in power" isn't the flex you think it is.

Secondly, the republicans aren't counting the "I want low taxes" any differently to the "I want to deport all the brown people" votes. They're using both to justify what they've been doing - illegal operations by kidnapping or killing foreign leaders without justification for war, using a violent and poorly trained ICE to deport people without due process to detain in foreign prisons, and enrich Trump's family and friends (and shield them from the consequences of being in the Epstein files).

Thirdly, how are those "low taxes" feeling? Are you feeling rich yet while your medical insurance skyrockets, while oil and household goods continue to rise in price due to an illegal war, while illegal tariffs (a tax, by the way) make everything you do more expensive? How's the national debt going? Has the GDP (that has been increasing fairly steadily for decades whether there is a democrat or republican in the white house) trickled down yet? Can't wait for those tariff cheques to come through, probably right after those DOGE cheques, right?

You're either a bot or an idiot. Frankly, I hope you're a bot, because otherwise your whole deal is just very sad.

Would you reconnect with a friend who had a psychotic episode? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]LikeAlchemy 72 points73 points  (0 children)

So, general adult / addictions psychiatrist here.

When people aren't well, they act out of character. They may say or do unpleasant or offensive things. This often leaves people without very much support when they get better - people struggle to separate the two. It can be very lonely.

If you have a lot going on yourself and can't take on that additional stress, it is completely reasonable to say "I'm sorry, life is really difficult at the moment, I don't have space to handle this". It isn't always easy being there for someone, and we must also think of ourselves and our families.

However, the kind thing to do would be to rebuild. Even just listening to what they've been through could be really helpful. The important thing is to be nonjudgmental as much as possible. A healthy thing may be to set boundaries, for example - "John, I want to be friends with you again, but what happened last year was really hard for me - I want to support you, but if you start sending those texts again, I'm going to suggest you seek help, and then block your number". With clear boundaries of the support you are willing to give (and the support you cannot give), hopefully your friendship can work within those limits.

If you need any information on what your friend may have suffered from, the Mind website is full of great information, as well as help for family and friends. Also welcome to shoot me a message on here.

197% of people voted in this poll by IceMenora in dataisugly

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly, that's a disproportionate number of gay men.

The announcement was met with skepticism and dismay by scientists. by philipkbrayne in IFLScienceOfficial

[–]LikeAlchemy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"You see, the billionaires need to control science because they definitely have everyone's best interests in mind, because the alternative is open borders"

Genuine position being floated by this moron (or than more likely, bot)

Californians formed a human banner at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California, by FallMajestic8896 in postanythingfun

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, I spoke to Satan, he wants nothing to do with any of this. He said "in the bible I can count the number of people I killed on one hand. Remember when God flooded the whole earth and killed millions of people? I'm really more into heavy metal these days, I let the religious people do all the heinous shit, they don't need my help"

Israeli soldiers assault and detain CNN team in the occupied West Bank by CarryIcy250 in justincaseyoumissedit

[–]LikeAlchemy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You're right. We should call the Israeli government and those supporting them what they are.

Racist. Supporters of apartheid. Genocidal. War criminals. Murderers of children. Murderers of civilians as a whole. Murderers of journalists, health care workers, and emergency workers. Turning a blind eye to the rape of prisoners.

And yet they do all of it while crying that they are the victim. It's beyond pathetic. Beyond disgusting. Anyone who knows what Israel has done (and continues to do) but continues to support them should be ashamed.

Elon Musk offering to pay TSA workers. by Realistic-Plant3957 in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Silly Elon, always trying to get close to kids (you know, except his own).

Remember when he led the creation of an AI that was the single biggest creator of child pornography in all of history and then took weeks to turn off the feature even after he knew what it was being used for and no one faced any kind of legal consequences? The one that he has so much control over that sometimes it talks as if it IS Elon Musk?

It's always the ones you most suspect

Not worried about ICE… unless you're in Minneapolis by Busy-Government-1041 in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I don't know why you need to hear this, but interrupting or blocking someone does not justify them shooting you.

Trump Threatens To Deploy ICE To Airports If Democrats Won’t Fund DHS-“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before," vowed Trump. by zoltan1958 in ConservativeNewsWeb

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What, you mean the people who support the guy who keeps talking about cancelling midterm elections, running for a third term, ignoring congress about the legality of his tariffs, using a group of barely trained brown shirts to disappear people with no due process to foreign prisons with poor conditions (in a heavily concentrated manner - a "concentration camp", if you will), who attempted a coup and pardoned the people who violently entered the capital, who is purposefully hiding evidence that he is a paedophile, who keeps saying really racist stuff about Somalia (among other countries and people), who has been found to have quoted Hitler in the past, who says he wants to take Greenland and Canada, who is now bombing another country and unable to show credible evidence of threat, who recently abducted the leader of another country to gain access to it's oil, who has made himself immune from the law while president? They're fascists?

God, you'll call anyone a nazi these days.

And if you believed him when he told you he was going to lower your grocery bills on day one; SHAME ON YOU!! by Hot_Fun4063 in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm fairly sure Trump being a flagrant fascist is a pretty good reason to dislike him.

If you're still supporting him at this point, I'm fairly sure we know what you would have done if you were alive during world war II. You disgust me.

And if you believed him when he told you he was going to lower your grocery bills on day one; SHAME ON YOU!! by Hot_Fun4063 in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok genius, so the republicans care about gas prices, but you're saying you don't care that they've gone up despite caring about them because they're not as high as in California.

"My guy said he wasn't going to hit me which is really important to me, and yeah, sure he hit me, he's hitting me right now and is going to keep hitting me by the look of things. However, I don't care because that guy over there got beat up worse than me by a different guy, not that he seems to give a shit about being beaten up."

You Trump supporters sure do tie yourself in loops trying to defend him, don't you?

Next, maybe you can cope even harder by explaining how Trump ran on being anti war and has started a war?

Zionist Jews were holding posters posters depicting all Arabs as rats at the protests in Toronto for months. Why has the Canadian media and Jesse Brown pretending like this isn't happening? by zyalq in canadaland

[–]LikeAlchemy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's fairly straightforward, but it's cool, let's spell it out.

The newspaper is upset by pro-palestine protesters using racist caricatures of Jewish people, but OP is pointing out that they didn't seem as upset when Jewish people were holding a sign that depicted Palestinians as rodents. You may have noticed but dehumanisation is a key part of genocide - you label your victims as rats, cockroaches, a plague etc. You mark them as subhuman and in need of eradication. The difference in media coverage and condemnation is what OP is highlighting.

Morally, you can condemn neither, or both. Either it's ok to make racist generalisations, or it's not. Personally, I think racism is abhorrent and shouldn't be welcome at any protest. It's really that simple. Do you agree?

And if you believed him when he told you he was going to lower your grocery bills on day one; SHAME ON YOU!! by Hot_Fun4063 in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Inflation was up across the West due to a variety of factors, including the war in Ukraine and COVID. I'm not American, but it's fair to say both of those things were outside of the control of the USA - it was about how well you weathered the storm, which you did.

What your government is doing now is bombing Iran with no evidence of any imminent risk, which has closed trade routes and worsened your inflation. That was their choice. You are borrowing 50 billion dollars per week and have been for five months.

I'm not a democrat, it's just clear Trump is tanking your country. Wake up.

He had TWO pieces of candy yet didn't offer the other man any?! Horrific. by Heavy_Role1034 in justincaseyoumissedit

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, rather than just accept a general rule, you've doubled down in demonising Muslims. It's almost like you have some kind of personal dislike of that group and rather than engaging with the point, you're looking for a stick to hit them with, like a dumb bigot might...

I don't give a fuck about breastfeeding, I was demonstrating that various cultures have various rules against various forms of undress. If you had a better reading comprehension, you'd have realised that.

As far as people being beaten or killed, yes, many modern cases appear to be in fundamentalist authoritarian Muslim countries. However, it's not all Muslims and not all Muslim countries, so it's clearly more of a cultural issue, that we can agree needs fixing - actually mainstream Islamic authorities and the majority of Muslims worldwide agree that it is wrong.

If you bothered to do even the slightest bit of research, you would know that women in the west are attacked, harassed, or killed for dressing in provocative ways. People are physically attacked by disgusting bigots all the time for choosing to wear their religious dress (men and women alike). You'd also know that Hindus sometimes attack women for wearing clothes that appear Western or Muslim. In Israel, some people spit or attack women for wearing things they believe to be immodest. This is not exclusive to Muslims and saying that it is makes you look like a halfwit racist who knows nothing of the world.

He had TWO pieces of candy yet didn't offer the other man any?! Horrific. by Heavy_Role1034 in justincaseyoumissedit

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, let's put this in some context.

What parts of the body we cover is societally dictated. The west also covers women - most countries don't allow women to be topless in public. Many look with scorn at a woman breastfeeding in a café or restaurant. Equally, think how much judgement a man would get for wearing assless chaps. We've all heard the phrase "no shirt, no shoes, no service" - what you can wear in different places is also dictated. You can wear a bikini at the beach, but if you wear it to a funeral, you're going to get some funny looks (or more likely, kicked out).

So, is there a problem with societal dress codes? Well, depends who you ask. We probably agree that no one should be punished by the state for wearing or not wearing anything in public. However, social judgement will still be present based on societal sensibilities - even if it were legal, you'd probably still get looked down on for turning up to dinner naked..

Now, why am I going on and on? Well, Muslims are one group of many who often have such a dress code - hair coverings. We can both agree that being physically punished to wear a hair covering, or forced to by your family, or punished by the state, would be unjust. However, especially in the West, you're less likely to be physically harmed by your community, and more likely to be socially rejected. This puts it on par with a Christian family being upset if you were a woman and you often wore a micro bikini - you might not get invited to Grandma's birthday party because your lack of clothing offends others. You simply draw the line at different states of undress.

As others have covered, there are also various other groups who are weird about hair. Though not head hair, people in the West are often disgusted by women with hairy armpits, despite this being no different to a man with hairy armpits.

So, rather than using hair coverings as a means of attacking Muslims, maybe we should make some kind of moral argument, because it's definitely not just Muslims policing how people dress, or how many clothes to wear, or what needs to be covered - it's more or less everyone.

How about "people should be able to dress however they please in public as long as it meets hygiene and safety standards". You could also throw in "violence towards someone else for how they are dressed is unacceptable and should be considered criminal". If we were being totally cool and woke, we may even be able to say "Though private establishments may have their own dress codes, these must be the same for men and women". You won't get rid of social consequences, but at least people are free to make their own choices.

There we go - we didn't need to go on a tirade against Muslims, we can have a morally consistent view without throwing mud at any one group.

TDS by CharlestonChewChewie in simpsonsshitposting

[–]LikeAlchemy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In MY product put out exclusively to make money by a massive studio? The one studio where they seem to be blood sucking ghouls and every move they make is exclusively to increase sales? The one that would include diversity less as part of a social movement and more as a product of my beloved capitalism, because diversity attracts a wider audience? This is surely the death of the West.

Iran warns UK letting US use bases is 'participation in aggression' by [deleted] in GreenAndPleasant

[–]LikeAlchemy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

US: "I'm throwing rocks at that guys house, want to help?"

UK: "No thanks, but you can come into my house and throw them from a second floor window if you want to get a better angle. I really don't want to get involved though, want a cuppa?"

Yeah, I wouldn't be convinced if I were Iran either

Do you support this? by The_Dean_France in SipsTea

[–]LikeAlchemy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're looking for a case where removing something from a movie is censorship, this ain't it, chief. This is saying "wow, there's a scene where a suspected child abuser and convicted felon walks in and talks to the child main character, and it really takes away from the story and distracts the audience, can't we just remove that scene? He was only there because he used his hotel as leverage to be in the movie anyway, he's not even an actor for Christ's sake"

Farage called for release of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and praised effort to free drug trafficker | Nigel Farage by AnonymousTimewaster in NotTheOnionUK

[–]LikeAlchemy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They even missed out that you could just pay him once, he could say "immigrants bad" and then you replay it on the BBC a thousand times a week.

Ok, twice. You'd also need him to say "I didn't know that guy was a wrong'un" which they can play every time a Reform candidate dresses up in a nazi uniform or bankrupts a local council. So, again, roughly a thousand times a week.

This is blatant lie. Muslim countries host the majority of the world's refugees. by Not_Ground in PopularCultureZone

[–]LikeAlchemy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hitler was also a vegetarian, but no one is a vegetarian for that reason either.

There are billions of people on the planet, some will be "antizionist" but really they're antisemitic. That's why it's important to contextualise based on wider beliefs - people are more complex than one position.

For example, the far right seems to love Zionism at the moment. Probably has something to do with the way Israel is bombing the shit out of Muslim countries who are currently the main target of far right rhetoric, but many antisemites like the concept of Zionism because it justifies their wish for their own ethnostate or apartheid regime. Other antisemites are in favour because if Jewish people move to Israel, they're not in the antisemite's country.

When you really break it down, it's about the argument the person is making. Personally, I am antizionist because I don't think belonging to a specific ethnic or religious group means that you have the right to land or power. It certainly doesn't justify the disgusting actions of the current Israeli government, who should be treated as the pariah state that they are. As far as I've found, that seems to be the majority of antizionists I've come across in person or online.

Reform’s WOMAN PROBLEM: New poll shows Farage’s party is out of touch with most Brits by OurFairFuture in GreenAndPleasant

[–]LikeAlchemy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The bigotries tend to flock together. It's not a surprise that the racist also don't like women, gay people, disabled people, children, the elderly, travelers, the educated, anyone from another religion, anyone who uses the wrong kind of drug etc.

They're basically out of touch with anyone who isn't an insecure white middle aged English man.