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1. Embed this notice
   goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Monday, 15-Apr-2024 22:57:47 JST goatsarah

   I think I’ve put my finger on what coming back to the UK feels like. If an actual nation state could be suffering from clinical depression, this is what it would look like: Everything is slowly going to shit; the country seems to see no future for itself; it’s making decision after decision that is self neglect bordering on self harm; quite possibly the most unpopular government to be removed by democratic vote rather than bloodshed is about to lose an election by a cataclysmic margin, and when the opposition, who are set to clean up, are asked what they’re going to do differently, the answer is a shrug followed by, “nothing”.

   And people here more or less accept it, because boiling frogs and suchlike, but then you go elsewhere (no, America, not you, sit back down), and it’s like the colour returns to the world and you didn’t even realise it was missing.

   • Embed this notice
     Andrew (andrew@social.digitalmountains.co.uk)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 05:31:02 JST Andrew

     in reply to

     @goatsarah This has really summed it up for me. Been struggling to discribe the feeling for a while. This is likely to be the first election (besides london mayoral) where I have got the government i have voted for and yet is the only one i will have voted for without a significant sense of hope. Thats not to say i dont have any hope, but it’s much longer term and vague.

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 05:35:28 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Andrew
     @andrew I still have a vote in the UK. I’m gonna vote green because I just won’t vote for anyone whose platform is “this is all shit, and we will do nothing about any of it, but we aren’t Tories”.
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     Estarriol, lucozade dragon (thebratdragon@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 19:34:32 JST Estarriol, lucozade dragon

     in reply to

     • Andrew

     @goatsarah @andrew

     Had a booklet through my door listing the candidates for south yorkshire mayor.

     Labour, Tory and LibDem had identical manifestos, could have been cut and pasted.

     Then there was the Social Democrat with the same manifesto but added fascism explicit.

     Lastly the green candidate who actually had a manifesto that was for the region.

     Guess who my vote will go to?

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 21:39:49 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Sylvhem
     @Sylvhem Is that why the hard right are gaining there? If people think that will make things better, I have bad news from Britain: when these people get power, their only instinct is to break the remaining things that still work. It just makes everything get worse faster.
   • Embed this notice
     Sylvhem (sylvhem@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 21:39:52 JST Sylvhem

     in reply to

     @goatsarah It feels a bit like this in France too, perhaps not as dire.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:16:54 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Mike Breedlove

     @stirlock It's worse. I grew up in the UK of the 80s. It was shit for a lot of people, but if you were in the yuppie set at least it felt like there was something dynamic going on, even if it excluded most from the rewards.

     But now there's nothing.

   • Embed this notice
     Mike Breedlove (stirlock@dragonscave.space)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:16:55 JST Mike Breedlove

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Kinda sounds like the UK of the 80s, from everything I understand as an american.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:23:26 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Big Pawed Bear
     @bigpawedbear It's coming, but the soon-to-be replacement is promising to keep everything exactly the same.
   • Embed this notice
     Big Pawed Bear (bigpawedbear@masto.nu)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:23:30 JST Big Pawed Bear

     in reply to

     @goatsarah a change of govt is needed, soon too.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:33:27 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Mike Breedlove

     @stirlock It categorically is better in other places. I know, because I emmigrated.

     Other places have problems, yes, but certainly my new country, Portugal, doesn't have this all encompassing feeling that the whole of society is engaged in some sort of agreement to die from self neglect.

   • Embed this notice
     Mike Breedlove (stirlock@dragonscave.space)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:33:28 JST Mike Breedlove

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Oof. I'm so sorry! Not that it's any better anywhere else. It's all broken of different kinds.

   • Embed this notice
     Nudeln Al Dente (nudelnaldente@mstdn.social)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:40:48 JST Nudeln Al Dente

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Interesting that others are seeing the same. And countrywide depression is a very good description of it I think.

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     Nudeln Al Dente (nudelnaldente@mstdn.social)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Apr-2024 23:40:49 JST Nudeln Al Dente

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Had been feeling this the past couple of years living in the UK & was wondering if it was my own perspective on the country colouring my view of it (in the planning stages of moving back to the EU at the time, not physically out the door of the UK yet but very much mentally). Having moved recently, we're now shaking off the occasional tendancy to moan about it all being terrible "but what can you do? 🤷♀️" (in our case, GTFO).

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:00:02 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Mike Breedlove
     @stirlock You may notice my caveat in the original post along those lines.
   • Embed this notice
     Mike Breedlove (stirlock@dragonscave.space)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:00:04 JST Mike Breedlove

     in reply to

     @goatsarah I'm glad there are places that are better than others. The US certainly does not feel like one right now.

   • Embed this notice
     Quixoticgeek (quixoticgeek@social.v.st)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:04:31 JST Quixoticgeek

     in reply to

     @goatsarah having just returned to the continent after a weekend in the UK. You sum up what I experienced exceedingly accurately.

     It's heart breaking to watch.

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:08:47 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Quixoticgeek
     @quixoticgeek It's simultaneously validating to hear someone else noticing the contrast, but it also makes me profoundly sad for my homeland, even if it's made it clear that it hates people like me.
   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:32:14 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Quixoticgeek
     @quixoticgeek I think I know exactly what you mean x
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     Quixoticgeek (quixoticgeek@social.v.st)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 00:32:15 JST Quixoticgeek

     in reply to

     @goatsarah exactly. I used to go back every 6 months, and the change was gradual enough to not notice it as much. But COVID meant I couldn't go for 3 years. It just broke the cycle of the boiling frog.

     In a way I feel survivors guilt for having managed to escape.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 01:06:53 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Axel Foley
     @Roadwarrior29 Yeah. I don't think Scotland is in any way free of the same disease. I think it could be, but right now it's not.
   • Embed this notice
     Axel Foley (roadwarrior29@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 01:06:57 JST Axel Foley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah And, furthermore, though I live in Scotland which is way better than the situation in England, due to our Holyrood parliament, I am spending more time outside of the UK, indeed, it may be time to consider moving permanently.

   • Embed this notice
     Axel Foley (roadwarrior29@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 01:06:58 JST Axel Foley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah I spend a lot of time outside the UK every year and notice this every time I come back.....

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 06:21:46 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Ian Turton
     • S . G . A .
     @geonerd @ianturton they’re not in any hurry to do any of that. It would involve the entire state changing its mind and there is a lot of inertia involved in that.
   • Embed this notice
     S . G . A . (geonerd@mapstodon.space)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 06:21:48 JST S . G . A .

     in reply to

     • Ian Turton

     @goatsarah @ianturton How about admitting Brexit was a huge own–goal and preparing for rejoining

   • Embed this notice
     S . G . A . (geonerd@mapstodon.space)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 07:25:44 JST S . G . A .

     in reply to

     • Ian Turton

     @goatsarah @ianturton I know. But it was still an unbelievably naive thing to just leave.

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Apr-2024 07:29:23 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Ian Turton
     • S . G . A .
     @geonerd @ianturton I was part of the remain campaign. I know.