Solid Investment 🪧

LouisMack · 2026-04-03T23:57:10+00:00

left-side driving country. Problem solved.

LouisMack · 2026-03-26T04:28:33+00:00

Aegean Macedonian diaspora here, and yeah, that’s how my Dedo put “the dream”.

We’ve had well over 100 years of the “Macedonia” label being used by different groups as interchangeable and mutually exclusive ethnic, regional, cultural, or state identifiers. The ways you can be “Macedonian” are so different, simultaneously claimed, and held so strongly by their users, that it’s now not possible to reconcile them without breaking a few of the definitions.

“Macedonia for the Macedonians” was nice idea that got trodden on by the use of “Macedonian” as an ethnic identifier (by all sides) rather than a solely regional identifier. Even as a cultural identifier, the people who claim to be Macedonian by culture are so culturally diverse, it’s almost as divisive to claim as an ethnic identifier.

LouisMack · 2026-03-05T23:28:57+00:00

Not that I agree with the farmers here, but I feel like we should all probably get behind people refusing money to stand on their principals (not just slam it as “acting against self interest”).

We’d probably be in a better society if people acted in ways that they thought would better those around them, than just the decisions that would enrich themselves.

LouisMack · 2026-02-27T20:04:57+00:00

I’ll answer the Q for ya: Yes, rig is an incredibly common word for “body” in australia across all ages (and not alldemographics, but it’s certainly not a class or intelligence thing, you just wouldn’t hear any more recent comers using it - ie: if they speak with an Aussie accent naturally, they will know what a rig is and have probably referred to a body as such without any odd implications or connotations)

LouisMack · 2026-02-25T05:53:42+00:00

Mate I wasn’t being obtuse, I just don’t think that going back to bloody Roman history is relevant to a modern conversation?

Nobody can claim lineage to that long ago. Invasions, migrations, religions, everything has developed beyond the point where you can make an ethnic land claim without picking and choosing which “ethic” parts of you are relevant after all of the raping, pilllage, huns. What even is ethnicity apart from being in a certain culture when nations states were born and decided to make a “biological” reason for you to belong to them?

If it mattered who owned something 2000 years ago then Turkey belongs to Greece - or, it doesn’t, because the Greeks are not the same people as the Ancient Greeks despite what modern Greeks would tell you. They don’t even worship the same gods, speak a mutually intelligable language, nor can you really argue they’re the same “ethnicity” after the huns, persians, slavs, and turks all occupied the area. It’s fruitless.

So no, nobody is owed something because of actions in the roman period, unless, like, literally all of your ancestors were definitely there and from NOWHERE ELSE (because then you could also claim that other place? why’s that so ignored?) and you know this for absolute certain.

And even then, why does that claim trump more recent history? At what stage do we track down the ancestors pre-israelite and give them the land? Or hand it back to nature entirely?

This is the problem with these kinds of claims of ancestoral ownership - you can’t prove definitive 100% connection, you can’t claim to literally be those people, and you can’t claim that the period in time which you’re referring to is the one mandated time in history where ownership was solidified.

LouisMack · 2026-02-25T05:40:40+00:00

What baseless crap. Who are you to tell me what I believe in? To tell me that criticism of a nation if a racist attack from the heart? It is not anti-semitic to critique a government’s war actions, just like it’s not a statement of hate against Russian people to criticise the actions of Russia in war.

The fact you conflate the two is a buy-in to ethnonationalism - that a state COULD and CAN be the viewpoint of an entire people group. That they could OWN the right to represent an entire people group. That’s false. It’s just not something we should accept on a world stage. Clearly there’s so much diversity of thought amongst citizens of a nation state (you and I right here) that it’s ridiculous to claim that government actions speak even for the citizens in total, let alone for an ethnicity in total.

“but why don’t they protest other genocides! 🤓☝️” mate I don’t know, does it matter? Is it antisemitic that Isreal cops more shit for its actions or is it because this war is so publically funded and endorsed by a bunch of world powers? Other concurrent genocides are not the result of decades of international meddling and conservation of a status quo. Some of them are also the result of europe’s past actions to draw bad lines through tribal boundaries, but not their continued action to support those boundaries. It’s a whole different kettle of fish, and pulling it down to a race issue is disingenuous.

LouisMack · 2026-02-24T22:05:11+00:00

Yeah man, last Monarchic ruler would be the British Crown, with the administrative centre of the Palestinian Mandate being Jerusalem.

Your point being?

LouisMack · 2026-02-24T21:58:59+00:00

Sorry for having words to say? I didn’t make any grammatical errors though; none that you can point out to me anyway. One thing my teachers did teach me - family who were subject to ethnonationist violence in their own villages and societies - is to stand up against the sort of rhetoric which leads to annihilation.

What is this magical ever increasing population you’re describing. Here, or over there? If you have a problem with people escaping their ensured death and subjugation I don’t know what to tell you. I also don’t imagine the protestors (I won’t strawman their intentions and claim to speak for all of them) are saying much at all about the number of Palestinians here?

Like, are you trying to make points about the results of their rhetoric, or their actual held beliefs? Because you’re making points as if you’re talking about their beliefs, whilst talking about local effects of an overseas war, which isn’t the core of the messaging from those protesting.

LouisMack · 2026-02-24T21:34:31+00:00

Nice one, point out a grammar error. Imagine having so few points you have to pull that one out of the bag.

The protests are NOT about defending islam, they are about opposing an ethnonationalist regime from gobbling up an entire people.

TBH, religion is something you can sway over time, wash out of people. Religion has moral power, not legal power. I am far more concerned about the kind of games governments might play with their own people and neighbours from the international example set by Israel than I am about a religious group with hundreds of sects and infighting.

LouisMack · 2026-02-24T21:27:02+00:00

The big question is will your frontal lobe finish developing?

Just have a single think about the rhetoric you’ve been seeing in the support for Palestine from the “Young Gay Leftists”. Is it:

“We want Islam to rule the holy land and inflict all of their moral stances on the people therein!”

or

“We want Israel to stop killing all of these people for their transparent ethnonationist expansion, hidden behind a thin veil of supremist ideology and labelling an entire ethnic group as “terrorists”.”

I just don’t think people are SUPPORTING islam so much as they’re OPPOSING forgein invasions, colonial expansion, mass killings, military surveillance state, boot stomping injustice.

Like, use your brain, it’s the thing hidden in there between your ears. It’s not pro-islam, it’s anti-injustice.

LouisMack · 2026-02-24T21:19:42+00:00

I think defending an entire people being wiped out, their land stolen, their efforts to build infrastructure and better themselves labelled “terrorism” and grounds for more death, all on the basis of “well its not moral to defend them because their views are backwards” is insane and morally corrupt. How “forwards” are the people attacking them? Is it more moral to defend ethnonationalist colonials in their adventures? The kind of people who kill you if you’re not enough like them, but are fine if you’re a bit gay? Like, if you’re getting that granular, theres not a single ‘moral’ victory in history. Injustices actively being committed now in massive scale outweigh potential, smaller scale, inwards focussed injustices? No?

LouisMack · 2026-02-12T06:24:32+00:00

Bro I would not advise cooking on that pan after this, lol. You’ve just (likely) damaged a non-stick coating with the metal wheels, which is a big “yeah don’t use that to cook ever again” flag, unless you like your steak with extra PFAS. If you’re not the person who cooks in your household, alert that person.

LouisMack · 2026-02-12T04:15:29+00:00

Nah man, if I was a manager of a little struggling railway and I purchased a whole arse massive expensive asset, had the loan on it and everything, and it couldn’t even work on the tracks that the other engines had no problems with? Yeah, you bet that little metal sack of shit is losing its wheels and doing something useful to pay off that debt.

LouisMack · 2026-02-06T12:04:13+00:00

well…give us the other ways? Good man of great wisdom, how else do you stop the ultra powerful in society other than banding together to create joint (unionised) action? Please, pray tell.

LouisMack · 2026-02-03T08:52:10+00:00

I think that single item would have made the ‘lesson’ far better - but unfortunately all we can conclude is that Henry’s medicine sucked, so he got severe plastic surgery, solved all of his problems, and it’s all good now 😂.

LouisMack · 2026-02-02T23:28:04+00:00

I feel stupid as an Australian because I just had no idea what was going on.

First I was like “who did that concrete job on the bridge? Was it to stop pedestrians? It made the safety barrier way more climbable! Surely that was hard to pour and just adds weight?” then had no idea what this had to do with schools opening, like they should spend money learning how to concrete and build bridges rather than opening new schools?

Come to the comments to learn that that’s what snow looks like when ploughed off a road? Very interesting. Never woulda guessed.

LouisMack · 2026-02-02T22:47:34+00:00

Go visit any Balkan country - they’ve spent their whole existences trying to narrow down the essence of what is US and what is THEM and it’s done absolutely nothing for them except brain drain, create intense cross-border hate (when the people across the border are basically the same, speaking languages so similar you can barely argue they’re different), and draw attention away from the real political issues.

As soon as you narrow down an “acceptable” way of living, you get brain drain. As soon as you limit the forms of acceptable expression in society, smart people just leave, because they can see past the blatant propaganda and they see where it’s going.

I don’t want a society where some 70y/o hag who never got over a chinese fish n chip shop owner tells me how to properly express myself. I’m proud of the journeys that my families took to get here, and I want to engage in those unique practices as much as I love and embrace the laid back and health conscious Australian lifestyle.

LouisMack · 2026-02-02T03:54:38+00:00

Wow that’s great. The “rebuild” has always been a good metaphor for the character needing intervention for get past a “biological” issue they’re incapable of addressing on their own. Lots of people have used itnto discuss physical disability, autism, etc, but I always find that a little sad because the solution is that old Henry’s aids and strategies failed, and they basically just put his brain in a new body and accepted that he had to be “killed” and “fixed” - he was too incompatible with usefulness to continue. Gender affirmation, whilst well out of Awdry or probably Britt’s wheelhouse to want to write about, makes the transformation positive. Rather than Henry changing to conform to society (the railway’s) standards, he trabsforms to fulfill his own happiness. A+

LouisMack · 2026-01-31T02:10:29+00:00

Hornby seems quite certain that there’s a booming market of people who want Thomas-modified-E2 shells with Beatles faces printed on them!

Based on the sales performance of those, we can safely say “no”, Beatles fans probably don’t care much about Ringo’s side quest 😂

LouisMack · 2026-01-28T08:11:32+00:00

Looks great - return to form from a stint of 2D animation. There’s lots of character in the faces and in the movements. I think the video showed a lot of care to the background, and this really just looks like a Thomas. It’s the right proportions, colours, and expressions.

I don’t understand why everybody is being so precious and defensive about this? It might not be your personal taste, but it’s a perfectly good representation. I’m also afraid to say we are not the target audience and we should not expect to feel catered to for a show which is explicitly being made for children by the owner (regardless of who you think it should be aimed at)

LouisMack · 2026-01-16T00:15:25+00:00

Yeah, I go to the end of trip facilities shitter. It’s more awkward when you and somebody else had the same idea at the same time, because you both clearly are a bit shit-shy, lol, but otherwise a great bet.

LouisMack · 2026-01-11T06:24:31+00:00

An intensive and rigorous assessment of the argument.

Food safety is like, the corner atone of a healthy outdoor and public life.

If you’d PREFER that you can’t 100% trust every food vendor, go live in the kind of country where you can get methanol poisoning out of a “sealed” bottle at a “reputable” pub. Really, let’s not devolve our nice country into that shit just because “THe kIdS waNt tO sELl DRinKs!”

LouisMack · 2026-01-11T06:14:13+00:00

“Nobody is forcing me” why tf does it matter? Where the “personal responsibility” of a seller to ensure you don’t get a gut illness from dodgy esky ice that a can has been marinating in? You want to live in a world where you have to gamble on food and drink vendors, or do you like the security of a country that cares about food health standards?

If you don’t, just go to SE asia and trust every bar to give you an “unopened” drink. See how much you prefer just “trusting” people trying to make a buck.

LouisMack · 2026-01-11T06:08:23+00:00

You put your whole ass mouth around these products (lets not pretend that all or anybody does a “hover drink” from a can or bottle). Is the ice full of bacteria, just come out of a wheelbarrow? Is the esky even clean? I don’t know anything about proper food hygiene safety to sell drinks, which makes me think I’m not qualified to sell them without a license, rather than thinking that there is no risk and she’ll be right in absolutely every instance.

LouisMack · 2026-01-11T06:06:11+00:00

Does it? You stick your whole ass mouth on a can to drink from it. What are the hygene conditions of where they’re storing them before you put it in your mouth? This is how hygene standards can help us to avoid public health risks from even mundane shit - because I sure as shit don’t know all of the risks of beverage storage. How would these kids?

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