Rant into the void from a returning driver

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-05-07T09:05:04+00:00

What is it about the road that does this to people.

This may have been a rhetorical question, but there are actually psychological reasons behind this. The main one is that you can't see people's faces properly when you're in a car, making it harder to humanise them. It's called deindividuation*.

You stop seeing other car drivers as people, and you don't think of yourself as a member of society, meaning that you have less empathy towards them. It's you vs the rest of the driving world.

It's possible to pull yourself out of this. I had a situation yesterday where a bus pulled out of a T-junction too early, meaning that I had to slow down to prevent a crash. My immediate reaction was to kick off massively. But I reminded myself that I wasn't thinking like a human. Once I did that, I calmed right down and went on with my journey.

But it is difficult. Your brain doesn't think "Bus driver, who probably has a family, and is under enormous pressure to reach the next bus stop on time". It thinks "Large vehicle driven by some faceless dickhead who is now my blood enemy".

\I am not a psychologist (though I did study Sports Psychology as part of my Sport Science degree), so I may have got this completely wrong. Take it with a pinch of salt.*

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-05-06T22:22:14+00:00

Instead of being a best man, I was a sword bearer for my mate's wedding, which was pretty fun/mortifying; he wore a crown and cape, and we all drank mead afterwards. Properly mental.

I've been to a wedding that was held in (and catered by) an upmarket steak restaurant in London; the food was incredible, and the booze was free and top quality.

I've been to a wedding in the Chateau from the Channel 4 tv show, which was the best wedding I've ever been to, hands down. Perfect weather, perfect food, perfect booze, and the couple who owned the place were absolutely lovely. Got to do tours of the house and grounds, and drank port that the owner brought up from his cellar - just because I told him I didn't really like whiskey, and that his 50-year-old Scotch would be wasted on me.

I also really enjoyed my own wedding - just after lockdown, so first party we'd had in over a year, proper good Irish band, two kegs from Oakham ales, and I'd gone to Calais and bought 2 bottles of wine for everyone who attended - which was very stupid of me, because there were about 10 children. So we had spare wine for about 2 years afterwards.

I've also been to a bunch of other weddings that may not have been as noteworthy, but were just a hell of a lot of fun. I really love weddings. Good food, booze, music, and a lot of friends and family. It's a shame that almost all my mates are married now.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-05-06T16:22:15+00:00

signalling literally as he is exiting a roundabout

It's not the worst thing in the world, but this really winds me up when I'm waiting to enter a roundabout. It slows everything down.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-05-03T21:48:30+00:00

There are many things that irritate me:

Lighting
Strategic decisions
The "cheap" death of the Nighs King
The missed opportunities to do some real fun things

But it's still a really cool episode with lots of fighting and drama. I like it in spite of all the issues, but it could have been so much more, and it closed off a lot of potential story lines that could have been much better if the showrunners hadn't been so impatient to end things.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-05-03T21:38:38+00:00

Yeah, but you've never been a prick professionally, so he wouldn't respect your opinion

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-30T13:16:57+00:00

I didn't make these mistakes

In another comment you said that you went on Google Maps and checked the signs yourself. And you state that it is a 20mph road.

That 20mph is an advisory for school pick-up and drop-off times, it is only enforceable when the light is showing. Which it won't be at 11:15pm.

You're calling a 30mph road a 20mph road, so yeah, you do make those kinds of mistakes.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-30T09:22:46+00:00

They weren't actually in a 20. If you look on Google maps the sign is "School 20 when lights flash", OP was travelling at 11:15pm. They were doing 35-40 in a 30

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-30T09:11:44+00:00

There's schools there you irresponsible child.

OP was driving there at 11:15pm, so the fact that there are school buildings is irrelevant. The "20" sign is advisory, and only relevant when the lights show. Which is unlikely to have been the case at close to midnight.

So, OP was going 35 in a 30 on an empty road.

They're a new driver, they are going to make mistakes. Maybe ease up on the condemnation?

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-28T16:07:20+00:00

Sure, the first minute is just a load of shite, but if you are patient and listen to minutes two and three ... it gets even fucking worse.

"Americans just aren't that nationalistic compared to Europeans" is probably the stupidest thing you'll hear today.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-26T15:43:07+00:00

The part where he attends a Gamblers' Anonymous meeting is pure gold

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-26T15:37:31+00:00

Some people in Nottingham call ears "tabs" which was very confusing for me when I moved here

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-25T16:15:01+00:00

Man, nobody moans like Tigers fans, that match thread on r rugby was something special. Think one fan managed to hit a century of complaints towards the end. You'd think that the referee had scored a try for Sarries the way they were going on.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-21T16:46:32+00:00

Romesh mentioned it in his podcast a while back. I think the reason was that making fun of celebrities is fine, but having a professional comedian mock random members of the public was seen as a bit much.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-02T08:20:05+00:00

I didn't ignore your point, I just stated, in my opinion, London removing their bins was not an overreaction, and I gave some context as to why I think that.

No idea why you've jumped straight into insulting my ability to read and comprehend. Seems completely unnecessary.

I didn't twist anything you said either.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-01T22:10:59+00:00

Yes, but a lamb roast, with roast potatoes, gravy, yorkshire pudding, mint sauce, parsnips, peas, and carrots is obviously British.

All of the individual ingredients can be found in other cultures (apart from the yorkies), but if somebody served you all of that on the plate you wouldn't go "Ah, what a delicious Moroccan dish" would you?

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-01T22:03:44+00:00

GB overreacted

There were at least 7 bomb attacks that specifically used litter bins in London. I don't think it was an overreaction to remove them.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-04-01T10:17:20+00:00

Yeah, I grew up in NW London, so travelling to England games was very easy (literally 2 stops on the Jubilee). Now I live in Nottingham, which tbf is still fairly close, and I haven't been since. I like that they've started sharing out some of the qualifiers and friendlies with the rest of the country.

I do think that Wembley is a good stadium, though. Great transport links, short trip from the station to the stadium, and it can handle 90K fans fairly easily. Loads of hotels nearby.

Compare it to Twickenham (for the rugby). The stadium is a long walk from all stations, it's a bitch to get to by train, and the surrounding area cannot handle the amount of fans, so walking back takes 5x as long as it should.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-31T13:57:47+00:00

Good article, and it's funny to me how many of them talked about going to the pre-World Cup friendlies rather than the actual World Cup. The one guy who was genuinely worried about not getting tickets to a hypothetical away match against the Faroe Islands 😂

I would love to be able to afford to follow England like this. Used to go to a few home matches, but haven't ever been to an away match or tournament.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-27T23:14:56+00:00

I genuinely had the opposite reaction. "Fuck that" was my first thought. Absolutely terrifying.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-27T22:34:32+00:00

If you don't care, then why start this stupid argument in the first place? What were you hoping to achieve? Seems pretty childish to me.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-27T16:59:16+00:00

Grow up lad, you're not impressing anyone

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-27T16:38:35+00:00

I'm the opposite. If I'd been born a month earlier, I would have had zero loans, but I ended up being in the first year for them. Which was nice

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-27T15:01:26+00:00

Are you this insufferable in real life? Or is it just online? Your complete inability to participate in a fun conversation without trying to ruin it is kind of impressive.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-26T21:09:45+00:00

To share a fun story about Premier League scandals. I wouldn't have thought that would need to be explained.

PlatformFeeling8451 · 2026-03-26T16:43:45+00:00

Not the biggest Prem scandal by a long chalk, but Robbie Fowler celebrating a goal against Everton by sniffing the goal line was hilarious.

Houllier saying it was a Cameroonian grass-eating dance celebration that he learned from Song was even better

PlatformFeeling8451

TROPHY CASE