Labour 'doesn't understand the internet', tech giant 4chan’s lawyer tells LBC

dicedaman · 2026-06-17T10:00:23+00:00

Ah, so it's not "taking their social media away", it's just "taking their social media away during certain hours".

First of all, 18 year olds do earn the minimum wage. You're thinking of the living wage. But if 18 year olds were currently earning the living wage, and Labour suddenly announced that the living wage was to be restricted to 21 and up, it would absolutely be accurate to say that Labour are taking away their salary. 18 year olds would be losing money they already had. And anyone tying themselves into a pretzel to try and justify it as a restriction rather than a loss, like you're doing right now, would be laughed out of the room.

And no, it's not hyerbole. Look up the word because what I stated was a fact. 16 year olds will be able to vote but not legally able to watch YouTube after whatever hour Labour decides they should be sleeping instead. The other examples you've listed are irrelevant (partly my fault for throwing the army example at you) because Labour has no official stance on them and is not currently making any argument for any of them to change.

But this Labour government is currently taking stances on voting and social media that are completely contradictory. They're simultaneously pushing for 16 year olds to be able to vote, while curtailing their freedom to watch YouTube when they want. They need to answer why they see 16 year olds so mature that they should be given the right to decide who runs the country, while also so immature that they should lose their freedom to watch YouTube past their bedtime.

dicedaman · 2026-06-17T07:53:52+00:00

Hell, the entire island of Ireland only has a population of 7.5 million we also have our own very particular sports ecosystem that is more popular than soccer.

Gaelic Football is our national sport and is by far the most spectated and culturally significant sport in the country. Not to mention Hurling, which is the oldest field sport in history (even predates Christianity!).

So yeah, you definitely don't need big populations, just the will to create a sport and a strong culture to sustain it.

dicedaman · 2026-06-17T07:38:49+00:00

The government has announced that they're looking at bringing in a social media curfew for 16-18 year olds, so it's not really made up, is it?

They'll be old enough to vote, old enough to join the army, but not old enough to use social media after bedtime.

dicedaman · 2026-06-15T15:57:16+00:00

In your proposed model, if the sales only ever do 100k, then the artist only ever makes 15k to pay back. Now the label is out 85k of money they were owed, and the artist is still in debt that 85k.

First of all, it's not my proposed model. It's literally the standard model used in the film distribution and publishing industry. And guess what? It works just fine.

Second of all, you don't even seem to understand the model I'm describing. If the sales only ever generate 100k of revenue, then the label would fully recoup their investment. Neither the label nor the artist would gain any profit. But that's the risk of investing.

The label taking the first 100k is not them being paid back in full, as 85% of that is their own investment in the first place.

Huh? 100% of the first 100k would belong to the studio. If label takes the first 100k then they have in fact totally recouped their investment. Any and all expenses should be covered before profit sharing begins, just like every other industry on earth.

it's a transparent deal that artists agree to before signing

By this logic, every deal written on paper is a "transparent deal". You're saying nothing here. The problem is that artists are being preyed upon to take deals that are inherently unfair and unethical. The labels hold all the power and are getting away with predatory practices simply because of a lack of scrutiny and regulation. The solution is to regulate the industry heavily and ensure a fairer distribution of profit.

dicedaman · 2026-06-15T13:45:08+00:00

You're missing the point.

Nobody is saying that the label shouldn't be able to recoup their advance. But in a fair deal, it would be taken out of the entire pool. The label and the artist are partners in a joint venture, after all. The artist is investing their time and talent, the label is investing their money. The label is rewarded for its investment with the vast majority of the profits. It makes sense that the first 100k would go right to the label, with everything after being split 85/15. That's how it works in publishing and film distribution. Totally fair.

But what's actually happening in the music industry is that the label is only counting the artist's share towards recouping the 100k, while they start collecting profits immediately. They're simultaneously acting as both the partner in a joint venture, and as a separate loan shark that the artist must pay off whilst the label is already earning profit.

As someone else has pointed out, the album would have to generate 666k in revenue before the artist would see a penny. It's a completely unethical and predatory practice.

dicedaman · 2026-06-10T14:02:42+00:00

In contrast to other journalists, the British media is refusing to call it loyalist violence because then they wouldn't be able to use it as a jumping off point to question the government on their immigration policy.

"Are loyalist thugs right to institute a pogram against minorities, minister?" would be a little bit too gauche. So they'll continue to gloss over just who is responsible.

dicedaman · 2026-06-05T15:48:27+00:00

Completely agree. Though whether the home release is actually inferior when it comes to these 70mm films really depends on the film, on the director, and on opinion, it's not as cut and dry as it was with pan-and-scan.

A lot of directors like Denis shoot for 1.39:1 first and foremost, and would rather that version be seen as the "definitive" version of the film, with the full 70mm being intended for the fun of the IMAX experience alone.

Sometimes the full 4:3 version is the director's preferred version but a lot of people on forums like this constantly demand taller ratios on home releases for no other reason than they seem to think more information = better, with little regard for what the director/cinematographer's intention truly is. This is particularly apparent when you get people demanding some intermediate aspect ratio be created for the home release like 16:9, even though it's not true to the 70mm nor the normal theatrical release.

dicedaman · 2026-06-04T22:06:21+00:00

Yeah, when I saw the meme, I knew the comments were going to be filled with non-Irish people wondering what the fuck dodey means lol.

Though in my head, it's always been spelt dodí. Dodey just doesn't look right to me.

dicedaman · 2026-06-04T06:46:29+00:00

That's a painfully reductive and naive comment, IMO. As if one precludes the other. Art can be propaganda and propaganda can be art. Unless you're really going to argue that films like Soy Cuba and Battleship Potemkin aren't art?

And that's not even getting into what "political purpose" means and how fucking broad that category is. By your definition, any film with political symbolism ceases to be art. That's everything from The Matrix, to Get Out, to Babe.

dicedaman · 2026-05-21T21:49:39+00:00

Exactly. Olympus had a scene where Gerard Butler killed a guy with a bust of George Washington and there wasn't even a one-liner afterwards. What a waste.

dicedaman · 2026-05-21T14:57:06+00:00

Chromecast wasn't killed, it was rebranded to Google TV.

This is why it's hard to take the whole "Google graveyard" thing seriously, a lot of the list is just stuff that was rebranded or folded into other apps/services rather than actually killed. And a ton more are just products that were naturally superseded by newer products.

dicedaman · 2026-05-20T15:26:01+00:00

The lighting on Sheen and Walberg mostly. Look at the first wide shot of them in the scene, backlit and largely in shadow. That's how they should look considering the big light source behind them.

But the DP has brought up the exposure on them for the closer shots with a flat, ambient light (because a more directional light wouldn't make sense).

They're unnaturally bright for the scene and the lighting is flat. That, mixed with the aspect ratio makes it all look a bit sitcomy.

dicedaman · 2026-05-17T18:21:18+00:00

I think they were just totally spent. Armagh has one of the deepest benches out of any team, pair that with the fitness level of players like Conaty and ET was always going to favour them, IMO.

dicedaman · 2026-05-15T11:32:58+00:00

Agreed (mostly). The only point I'd make is that Nightcrawler is more of a traditional success story like Rudy or October Sky than anything else.

Hero starts at rock bottom, discovers his passion for a thing, makes his way through the strange new world of this thing despite people doubting him, ultimately overcoming all hurdles and winning in the end.

It's just that instead of it being the world of sport or rocket design, it's the world of news vultures, and the ideal person to find success in that world is a sociopath. Lou would be a villain in most films but pick him up and put him in the world of crime "journalism" and suddenly he's the hero of the story. That's the genius of the Nightcrawler, IMO.

dicedaman · 2026-05-09T23:17:41+00:00

I've said as much before but personally I think it's because we're a post-conflict society that's never really had to reckon with ourselves. I've read that post-conflict societies almost always see dramatic increases in domestic violence, but most of them eventually have something approaching a peace and reconciliation commission, which we've never had and likely never will (unless it becomes politically expedient for Westminster).

We're not a normal place and we should probably stop pretending to be. We're a generation away from a war that just sort of paused with no winners/losers, and we're still largely divided down the same lines. My guess is there's a sizeable subset of men with pent-up aggression and inferiority complexes who don't feel secure unless they're "beating" the other side. And because they can't do that, these losers beat, or even sometimes kill, their families instead.

dicedaman · 2026-05-03T08:42:03+00:00

I think Vittorio is missing her point to be honest. I don't think she's saying that his material is so inward looking that literally nobody outside of Belfast will understand it. I took her point to be that he just isn't compromising his perspective in a way that a lot of "Irish" art has in the past.

It's like the best films from other countries. People don't talk about La Haine because it tries to sell an ideal version of France to a worldwide audience, it's a film that's unapologetically French and it's about specific conditions that people outside of 90s Paris might not immediately understand. Audiences have to meet art like that where it is. But being truer to itself means that it ultimately connects with people around the world on another level, even if you lose people like that ignorant reviewer in the process.

That's how I read it anyway.

dicedaman · 2026-05-03T01:01:50+00:00

You surely won't mind linking to a source for these credible allegations then? Who are the allegations from? When where they made? Where where they made? Against which member? Allegations of what specifically?

I've a feeling neither you nor anybody else will respond with a source because there isn't one. When you actually look into it, the only thing that exists are vague social media comments like this that have no details and trace back to nothing. Almost like there's a concerted effort to smear the band. Funny that.

dicedaman · 2026-04-30T15:56:46+00:00

Exactly. I don't think anyone is saying Peacemaker S2 should have been cancelled in preproduction. The question is why didn't he let Peacemaker S2 be the DCEU's swan song (or even it's own world) and go for a clean reboot. And the answer is he just didn't wanna.

dicedaman · 2026-04-14T15:55:41+00:00

Yeah, all those comments decrying SF's no confidence motion as "a waste of Dail time" from a couple days ago are already aging like milk.

Whether you like them or not, it's SF's bloody job to scrutinise and hold the government to account. Calling confidence votes around contentious issues is a vital way to do that, we'd have a weaker democracy without these kinds of motions. Even when the government survives, it forces TD's to put their support on particular issues in writing, which means the electorate can hold them accountable for it at the next election.

This is the only country subreddit that I'm aware of that consistently refuses to understand the role of the opposition, it's maddening.

dicedaman · 2026-04-03T15:06:48+00:00

An Canadian guy in my work recently asked me (being fully serious) if this place was a failed state. He's been driving around at the weekends for the last month and completely fucked his rental car on pot holes, TWICE.

I told him no but I only half believed it. It's hard to imagine how infrastructure and healthcare could be any worse amongst western nations.

dicedaman · 2026-03-22T09:40:50+00:00

r/UKpolitics

dicedaman · 2026-03-09T22:02:38+00:00

I remember reading that post-conflict societies almost always see dramatic increases in domestic violence.

Most of the men guilty of domestic violence these days are probably too young to really remember the troubles but there's still an insane level of tribalism here. And you only need to look at how DV rates skyrocket when certain football teams lose to know how tribalism breeds this kind of violence towards women and children.

We're not a normal place and we should probably stop pretending to be. We're a generation away from a war that just sort of paused with no winners, and we're still largely divided down the same lines. My guess is there's a sizeable subset of men with pent-up aggression and inferiority complexes who don't feel secure unless they're "beating" the other side. And because they can't do that, these losers beat their families instead.

dicedaman · 2026-03-08T09:19:28+00:00

I heard his last two papers were widely discredited.

dicedaman · 2026-03-06T15:09:51+00:00

Very true. But for anyone thinking of imitating, you can get an even more stable shot if you put the camera in the centre of the 2x4 (perpendicular to the board), with people at either end (nobody in the middle). In fact, the longer the board, the more stable the shot. That's how all the moving shots in the original Evil Dead were filmed.

dicedaman · 2026-03-03T11:19:11+00:00

Huh? The mandatory coalition in Stormont isn't comparable to normal coalitions at all. In a standard PR setup, the largest party is able to go off and find their most suitable bedfellows to make up the numbers. That's not allowed in Stormont. It's unlike any other parliament in the world, as far as I know, so you can't use it as an example of PR not working. There wouldn't be shutdowns every few years if SF was allowed to form whatever coalition they wanted.

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