NS, perhaps there are no answers, except to fulfill a self-affirming need to demonstrate, much as the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign did in the 60s. There will be something reassuringly worse to worry about by the time today's infants reach 20. Vietnam's doing rather well now - but is it thanks to the VSC?

R.

 

The VSC (and other opposition groups across the world) brought to public attention to evil being committed by the US, exposing the reality of the war that was being, if not censored then studiously ignored by the British MSM.

I guess a more pertinent, recent and effective example of a 'self-affirming need to demonstrate' () is the opposition of the repugnant Apartheid regime in South Africa. Condemned widely - curiously enough by right-wing Tory types like Maunder - at the time, but which ultimately helped turn global pressure onto the regime and causing it to backtrack.

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Well, I guess, given your previous comments, you think I want to lift them out of poverty by making them poorer... I mean, wtf is the point in talking with you what that is your attitude?..

Do you know what the phrase I used 'make the world a better place' means? Why twist is so.

No! No one in XR wants to keep the poor poor. Its shows the grubby level of the opposition to them that the 'best' lines of attack you have is to pick out the 'middle class' (I mean, are you also despoiled by knowing someone, just an odd exception to your debating purity will do it, who is 'middle class'?) or shriek 'hypocrisy!' when you scrabble about in a haystack and find the one, lone, needle; or try to make out they want to keep people poor.

It's pathetic

 

Just answer the question(s) it would be far more productive.

 

At about 3pm today I was sat watching: a pair of stone chats, a pair of linnets, a pair of whitethroats, a willow warbler and a single yellow hammer at a beautiful, magical even, bit of scrubby moorland a bike ride from my home. I could hear the chat chastise me for being near his nest, the whitethroats churred, the the sky was blue, the wind warm and gentle. Bliss.

If that's not enough 'need' or 'want' excess or luxury then either there is something wrong me or with millions of others. Clue; its not me with the problem.

 

Peter, it's marvellous that you get your contentment from such things, and I wouldn't want to foist a pleasure deemed to be 'commercial' onto you that you didn't find enjoyable.

But I'm sure you'll appreciate that we are all different and all get our metaphorical kicks from different things.

On Friday evening, I went on a motorway for the first time in about 6 weeks. Just before I turned onto the sliproad, I flicked the car into 'sport mode' and floored it, going from 20'ish to 80 in around 5 seconds. I literally smiled at the sensation, the unleashing of the power, the itching of a scratch. I wouldn't expect you for one second to find that anything to get happy about. But as I said, we like different things.

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 At about 3pm today I was sat watching: a pair of stone chats, a pair of linnets, a pair of whitethroats, a willow warbler and a single yellow hammer at a beautiful, magical even, bit of scrubby moorland a bike ride from my home. I could hear the chat chastise me for being near his nest, the whitethroats churred, the the sky was blue, the wind warm and gentle. Bliss.

If that's not enough 'need' or 'want' excess or luxury then either there is something wrong me or with millions of others. Clue; its not me with the problem.

I don't have the benefit of quite such a variety of birdlife here.  But watching the fledgling robins bathe in the water bath I put out for them, whist the sparrows and a blackbird take their turn to have a drink or a wash, is worth a platinum selling record, to me.


I do hope that some people have used this lockdown to discover such joys.  Which people may not want, but may perhaps need ....  Far more than a Costa Coffee or a even a holiday in Majorca.  I have noticed more people walking in the countryside round here.  Which is good.

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Just answer the question(s) it would be far more productive.

It would be far more productive if you didn't, first, try to slur people like me with your 'want to keep the poor poor' bull.

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It would be far more productive if you didn't, first, try to slur people like me with your 'want to keep the poor poor' bull.

But it's not bull, it's the exact consequence of your and XR's 'solutions'. You and they might well want to brush that under the carpet but I'm sorry there's no getting away from it.

 

 

Peter, it's marvellous that you get your contentment from such things, and I wouldn't want to foist a pleasure deemed to be 'commercial' onto you that you didn't find enjoyable.

But I'm sure you'll appreciate that we are all different and all get our metaphorical kicks from different things.

On Friday evening, I went on a motorway for the first time in about 6 weeks. Just before I turned onto the sliproad, I flicked the car into 'sport mode' and floored it, going from 20'ish to 80 in around 5 seconds. I literally smiled at the sensation, the unleashing of the power, the itching of a scratch. I wouldn't expect you for one second to find that anything to get happy about. But as I said, we like different things.

Mostly you're top bloke

People have different likes. That's fine. It's when, instead of making way for all of them, some likes barge others out of the way that I bridle.

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But it's not bull, it's the exact consequence of your and XR's 'solutions'. You and they might well want to brush that under the carpet but I'm sorry there's no getting away from it.

Bollox.

Goodnight

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Bollox.

Goodnight

Goodnight to you too. Perhaps while you're drifting off to sleep you could think about how you are going to stop billions of people aspiring to the living standards you currently enjoy - and consuming the energy required to do that?

I'd be genuinely interested in your answer. 

 

 

Says the most sanctimonious poster on TWO. Tell me what answers you think XR have?

 

You have no answers. You never have. You spend your life carping about democracy and the climate and poverty. But do precisely f4ck all about any of it.

And don’t lecture me about sanctimony. Your bewildering cant on Brexit was a masterclass in student bar whataboutery.

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Whereas you presume to know everything about me and anyone else whom you disagree with.

Pot Kettle Black



And in case you didn't know it, you touched a nerve too.  And not for the first time 

I don't presume anything. All I did was comment on what you yourself had said: that you were poor. You, on the other hand..

 

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You have no answers. You never have. You spend your life carping about democracy and the climate and poverty. But do precisely f4ck all about any of it.

And don’t lecture me about sanctimony. Your bewildering cant on Brexit was a masterclass in student bar whataboutery.

That's not really an answer to my question. In fact I'm not really sure what it is.

 

For nine hours a day, six days a week, until the final moments of VE Day, she used her mathematical prowess to thwart the Nazis. Last punt for my story on Ann Mitchell, the WW2 codebreaker who has died aged 97, shortly after testing positive for Covid-19. https://t.co/VmQKYkb6mL

— Martyn McLaughlin (@MartynMcL) May 17, 2020

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The VSC (and other opposition groups across the world) brought to public attention to evil being committed by the US, exposing the reality of the war that was being, if not censored then studiously ignored by the British MSM.

I guess a more pertinent, recent and effective example of a 'self-affirming need to demonstrate' () is the opposition of the repugnant Apartheid regime in South Africa. Condemned widely - curiously enough by right-wing Tory types like Maunder - at the time, but which ultimately helped turn global pressure onto the regime and causing it to backtrack.

I agree that lobbying has sometimes worked and agree with the optimism that you and NS express and hope for. However, I put little hope in the latest batch of zealots and see no reason to trust them more or less that the media or politicians. A way forward will be eventually found, and a variety of players and contributors will be involved.

R.

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