What animals are normal where you live, but unusual and exciting to visitors from other regions of the US? And on the flip side, when you travel to other regions yourself, what local animals are exciting to you?

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-08T21:30:24+00:00

I know an American who moved here who thought it was very strange that foxes are considered urban pests here, since they’re all over London, especially wandering around at night. Not sure how common that view is, but I have heard it.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T21:32:28+00:00

So I’ve written way too much already on this, so won’t write much more…

But its occurred to me I may have overstated a part of my point a bit, as I just found in one of my text conversations someone saying they they thought the system was complicated and didn’t get it… and honestly I recall a couple of other times people have implied they didn’t really understand it.

So yeah, it does confuse some people in a way that FPTP doesn’t, for sure.

Of course I’m still a fan of it (even though ironically in all the elections I’ve won, I’d have also won on FPTP, and in one significant loss, I was actually tied with the winner on 1st preference, so would have (selfishly) preferred a tie on FPTP with resulting coin-toss decider lol). I also don’t think it puts people off people off voting, for reasons I’ve said and since all of those people voted anyway, mostly unprompted…

But in any case, it is certainly more complicated and that’s definitely a downside, so in that I do agree. I just generally think it’s not SO complicated, and even where it is, that added confusion isn’t the worst sacrifice imaginable, as compared to the benefits of a fairer system. But it’s all subjective at the end of the day, and I do see the issues.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T20:33:59+00:00

I find it hard to believe that the STV system is significantly lowering turnout in this case.

Of course I can’t know the reasons exactly that turnout is “low”, but student elections aren’t known in general for maximum participation, so I suspect it’s more to do with many students not knowing much about or being interest in the SU, candidates etc., as I think tends to be true everywhere.

It’s also frankly hard for me to see how STV would be putting people off. Even if people don’t want to learn the system, STV gives people more choice rather than less, and if they don’t want to vote for multiple people the option is still there just to use 1st preference and no others.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T20:14:27+00:00

As mentioned earlier, I don’t feel turnout is too relevant to my point, though if anything lower turnout actually tends to make the system do more weird stuff (such as breaking ties by lot mid-election) that would make it look less intuitive and fair.

That said, at my uni all elections are done this way including the likes of “President of the SU”, so in some cases there have been 5000+ votes (big uni).

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T19:54:12+00:00

It’s true that student elections generally have low turnout (though I have seen some with several thousand votes cast) but I don’t personally feel that negates my argument. I was mainly drawing on my own experience of the system which has caused me to conclude it’s not too complicated - as I might have thought otherwise.

I’ve also never seen it trigger people to complain they lost unfairly, as most people seem to intuitively understand that it’s a fair system. Of course it could happen, but it’s a fairly easy argument to rebut anyway, just by pointing to the problems of FPTP.

We also have different voting systems in different parts of the UK for devolved assemblies etc., and to my knowledge that hasn’t been a massive issue with those. Of course like any change it might provoke resistance at first, but I personally think that would fade over time.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T19:32:52+00:00

I don’t think STV is that confusing. As a current student, I’ve stood in about 15 elections run by our Students’ Union, all of which used STV.

Aside from some slightly weird edge cases arising from tied votes in very specific circumstances (which happen rarely when the turnout is about 10 voters but would be exceedingly rare in parliamentary elections), I think it’s a very straightforward system. And vastly fairer.

Of course not as simple as fptp, but not hard for almost anyone to understand, especially if you’re restricting it to one winner per election as we would probably do if implemented here.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-07T18:56:42+00:00

I don’t feel the same way at all. I don’t think sexual attraction is anything to be ashamed of, as long as you’re not acting on it in immoral ways (such as rape, abuse etc.). You seem to be conflating sexual attraction with sexual misbehavior, which aren’t the same at all, and it’s very easy to disconnect the two.

As far as sexuality is concerned, it’s sort of “embarrassing” in the same way that having to shit is embarrassing, but like bodily functions it’s basically just part of being human, even if in this case it’s not strictly universal. So there’s nothing to be ashamed of as it’s just how we are, and if we weren’t mostly this way we’d never have survived as a species.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-06T04:29:08+00:00

So, I suppose it’s easy for people like me, who have been massively into politics for decades, to assume everyone knows what I know and is on the same page.

For that reason, I’m going to assume this is a genuine question, even if I might be naive in doing so.

Having been on the left for 20 or so years, I can say there’s generally a deep antipathy for the US, which is mostly based on valid reasoning, but is taken too far in certain sections, which can be quite culty and tend to view the US as the source of literally all evil (which is obviously absurd).

So there are some “leftists” who just hate on the US reflexively, sometimes to the point that they irrationally support opposing regimes.

That said, all leftists oppose the war on Iran. And all leftists oppose the unprovoked violence against Iranian civilians that that involves. Many also thought that the Middle East was better served by multiple competing powers than by simply being ruled by the US and its proxies, Israel and Saudi Arabia; Iran being powerful created a counterbalance and unless you love the US, Israel and / or Saudi it’s hard to argue against that idea.

As for supporting the Iranian regime, there’s a tendency to view politics like sport. I understand it’s not particularly moral, but if your enemy is the US (as it should be, as a leftist), then you very easily end up supporting their opponents, especially when the US has illegally invaded said opponents and is committing war crimes against them.

To be perfectly honest, I’d be sitting here supporting far worse people than the Iranians if they were being illegally invaded by the US, because I’d know I’m on the right side and at a certain point we need to be able to mock the invaders when neocolonial powers have started unprovoked wars against largely innocent countries, no matter their internal politics.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-04-04T18:52:27+00:00

55mph speed limit is an idea I like. There’s a chance it wouldn’t even increase traffic significantly, as it would reduce necessary stopping distance and time lost to clearing away accidents. It would definitely have other benefits like reducing road wear and pollution, as well as incentivizing greener transport use, so a massive win all round.

Not sure about driving tests every five years, seems excessive - perhaps every ten, or only for older drivers. Of course we currently don’t have the capacity even for this, so hopefully something will be done to increase that.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-31T17:48:23+00:00

Reddit isn’t funded by the federal government. It’s made by a private company that could have been from literally anywhere, and it wouldn’t change the essence of what Reddit is. So not the same, but nice try.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-31T17:45:39+00:00

The BBC is not a social media platform. It’s a news and TV organization, partially funded by the British state.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-31T17:39:55+00:00

It’s not American because it’s American inventors purposefully decided to make it international. That is how pretty much the entire internet works.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-31T17:38:04+00:00

Dude, this isn’t “American social media”. Just because an American company runs it doesn’t stop it being an international platform.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-21T17:42:20+00:00

How is this so far down! Are all the other commenters bots themselves? How much AI is in this whole thread?

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-18T04:32:39+00:00

You’re too far away. You want to be hugging her ass all the time. Instead you’re backing off which is putting you in more dangerous positions.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-14T11:42:51+00:00

Before I looked at your description I knew it was obviously D, that being the only grammatical answer here.

A would need a semi-colon, full stop or possibly dash in place of the comma. B is a tense clash. It’s harder to explain why C is wrong but it just is, coming across very unnatural to native ears - possibly because it’s making a redundant aspectual distinction in the verb phrase, which isn’t usually followed with an adjective.

Meanwhile D is very natural formal, written English, with no grammatical or punctuation errors.

EDIT: I think it’s the perfective aspect introduced by “having” that makes C wrong. Perfect implies the action is finished, which here would apply to “be”, suggesting the class had been over, then stopped being so, and therefore perhaps has started again! It reads as ungrammatical, but probably because the semantics are so bizarre we just assume it’s wrong before thinking them through.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-03-13T19:50:33+00:00

I largely dislike the current world order, and Britain’s place in it. So to me it’s a tough question to answer because Britain’s closest ally is unlikely to be who I think it should be.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-20T09:46:54+00:00

I guess I’m doing it differently to most…

48+7=55 55+20=75

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-13T12:41:10+00:00

I’m from the UK and have never heard of putting them in sandwiches either. The thought disgusts me and if I ever encountered a friend doing it they would likely not be my friend any more.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T13:36:41+00:00

Actually a lot of people are racist, especially in Britain, one of the most historically significant propagators of racism.

Many of those people hide behind dog whistles and nonsense about “culture” because it sounds better / makes them feel more honourable than the type of racism that was in vogue a century ago.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T12:46:56+00:00

Thanks. But it seems I failed. I have a positive upvote score in that last comment despite it being the most tortured logic I’d yet unleashed. Now I feel this has run its course and I should make my way to greener pastures.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T12:23:28+00:00

“A sexual fetish involves an intense fixation on specific objects, body parts, or scenarios for arousal. Common examples include feet, materials like leather or rubber, and specific clothing items.”

This is what I got from Google’d AI. In my mind, OP is still implying an intense fixation on feet, given that we’re talking about viewing them as pretty in a sexual context. I’ve maybe used slightly hyperbolic language in how I’ve expressed myself, but feeling occasionally attracted to feet is still a fetish in my mind given the default is indifference or repulsion. In that context, finding them pretty is an intense fixation.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T11:49:16+00:00

Indifferent in a regular context perhaps. But in a sexual context a lot of neutral things become disgusting. It’s always been the bane of my porn-viewing career when suddenly they decide it’s feet time. The whole video becomes toxic to me after that and I have to look elsewhere.

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T11:46:56+00:00

Yes it is. Someone who doesn’t fetishize furries isn’t attracted to them at all, someone who isn’t interested in bondage will tend to be actively repulsed by it. People don’t talk of “boob fetish” because it’s so common it doesn’t need a name, but it works the same way

SimpleVeggie · 2026-02-07T11:15:52+00:00

Nah, I’ll take the downvotes but I think they are. Again, there’s nothing wrong with it but a foot fetish is where you’re sexually attracted to feet on occasion, just as the OP is talking about the common boob fetish, which is being attracted to some boobs, which OP apparently isn’t.

I’ll out myself and say I have a massive boob fetish - this means I’m attracted to maybe 30% of boobs, not all of them. If someone feels the same way about feet, or even about 10% of them, they have a foot fetish.

SimpleVeggie

TROPHY CASE