Big J

Spotted this whilst out on a bike ride in Western Sweden this morning. I chuckled to myself 😄

Please, PLEASE just drop this now Dave. It's a one person crusade that honestly no-one but you gives a monkeys about. I know you're not a nut job as I've spoken to you outside of the forum, but it is now sadly the way you come across. If you respect this forum and the members that come here to contribute, please cease this campaign. It serves no purpose and it's just dragging the whole forum down. On a more general note, it would be nice for folk to try to be a bit more positive, or at the very least, objective. I would love to see more moderation, taking action against those that resort to personal insults. It really shouldn't be tolerated. You wouldn't speak like that face to face, so why is it OK here?

Nothing humourous in the last couple of pages..... 😑

This thread is just an embarrassment. For f*cks sake, will you all just grow up? There isn't a chance in hell you'd speak to each other like this in real life, so show some civility and stop acting like school kids. This used to be a really interesting forum where you could reasonably discuss controversial stuff (as well as all the arb related topics) but lately it's more resembling a cesspool than anything else.

Yep, I listen to a lot of those. I disagree with them a bit on their attitude towards protein though. They are not advocates of a higher protein intake, which for me, coming from an athletic background, is very important. I've taken their 30 different plants a week mantra to heart though, and sometimes get close to that in a single day. My gut microbiome is (I believe) a healthy place

I am happy with my audio choices. It's not all political podcasts. I spent a while yesterday learning about the potential issues with the concept of terraforming Mars. My job is skilled but repetitive, so I have to keep my brain occupied. I use Peltor WS Alert XPs. They are Swedish made and literally everyone and their dog here uses them, but I got mine in the UK about 8-9 years ago. No Brits seem to use them, instead favuoring shitty bluetooth ear pieces or propping their phones against their shoulders. Why wouldn't you want high performance ear defenders, coupled with excellent audio quality and a microphone so good that you can chainsaw and hold a conversation simultaneously? Highly recommended. I just retired my first set after about 20,000hrs of use (dodgy microphone, which I could replace, but I had a second pair on standby)

OK, well if that's the case, just rise above it. I'm not privy to all of the details of the spat, but whatever it is, it's wearing. There comes a certain point where it's best just to move on. We're all here voluntarily and grudge holding and personal attacks diminish the experience. And before you say anything, I honestly don't care who started it. To quote my (and everyone else's) parents! 😄

I listen to a variety of podcasts from a variety of sources. The far left stuff is quite irritating (and the far right stuff is disgusting) and clearly partisan, so I tend to largely avoid that. My go-to podcasts are (for your reference), Times Radio, The Rest is Politics (and TRIP USA), The Bulwark and a bunch of science, sport and health stuff too. I wouldn't say that is especially radical. As for the length of my posts, I do try not to waffle and to present my arguments concisely. I can touch type very quickly if I'm on the laptop, and if I'm on my phone, I tend to dictate into my headset, which is even quicker. If I am going to make the effort to post something, I might as well do it properly.

Dave, please can you drop this. I honestly don't care what people do for a living and if he chooses not to share that detail about his life, so be it. Continually raising it in every interaction with him on the forum doesn't serve any purpose and undermines the points you are trying to make. Just move on and try to respectfully address any points of disagreement. To coin the phrase from The Rest is Politics, it's excellent to be able to disagree agreeably. If ever anyone resorts to insults, it's obvious that they've lost the argument.

Again, you've not provided any sort of useful contribution to the discussion. Just generalisations and assumptions, but at least you mostly refrained from being offensive. Yes I despise Trump. You can objectively loath someone without objectively loathing everything they do. The issue is that almost everything he has done has been loathsome. He truly is a man without a single redeeming quality and that's reflected in his rhetoric, his policy and his actions. I am well aware of how insular the US is. I've only been there three times, but having visited Texas, Florida and NYC, at least they were three quite different places. Even in a city as global as NYC, it's still inward looking.

That was an interesting podcast - thanks for the link. I am fortunate to have tonnes of time at work to listen to interesting stuff. Either way, the Skynet (from the Terminator films) scenario seems closer than ever, but there isn't anything I can do. I'm just glad that with the advent of AI that I don't have a white collar job.

I appreciate the thoughtful response, and the fact that it stuck to your perception of the facts, as opposed to attacking me and others. I don't agree that America is a place that enjoys a high degree of freedom. It is incredibly unequal, with high levels of gun violence and substance abuse. Access to healthcare and education is prohibitively expensive for many and the cost of having children in terms of childcare and parental leave are one of the main reasons why the US is so dependent on immigrant labour. People living in the United States simply cannot afford to have children. For each and every one of the 14 points listed above, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated the requisite behaviour or policy. American hegemony is most likely going to come to an end in the coming decades, and what follows it is unclear. China has a catastrophic demographic problem, decades in the making, relating to its one child policy. There are now as many people in China over the age of 53 as there are under, and their economy is entirely reliant on manufacture and export, at the expense of a suppressed domestic consumer market. What I think will ultimately be the downfall of the US is that the debt burden is now the single largest expense for any US Administration, greater even than the budget for the military. With Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, the deficit will only increase and America's level of indebtedness will skyrocket whilst the personal wealth of billionaires will expand exponentially. And then you factor in AI and the future looks pretty bleak.....

There's just no effort to dispute my assertion that Trump is a fascist. Just deflection, distraction and schoolyard insults. Please, for the sake of an intelligent debate, engage with what I and others are saying and make a reasoned argument for why you believe that Trump is not a fascist. The moment you catch yourself resorting to an insult, a redirect or whataboutery, bring yourself back on topic. We all clearly have different politics. That's fine and perfectly natural. But the moment you resort to personal attacks, you undermine your credibility and any good points you might make simply drown in a sea of personal vitriol.