Notices by The Dread Slender Gnome (gnomeshatecheese@spinster.xyz)

@taylan Fair to the viewpoint of the islamists? Not sure what that would look like.

But honestly, if you want the history of the conflict, you're in for a long read, since you'd really have to go back pretty damn far to get a proper view. Including what happened to Jews under Romans (that laid the scene, even though it happened before the Arab conquest) and then obviously the Arab imperial project during the Arab conquest. Even the fall of the Ottoman empire is a relatively recent development in this particular story. The good news is, the further back in time you go, the more likely you're to get neutral commentary that just focuses on the events and doesn't bring things like religious ideology in the mix.

@taylan @brendamccann @polarisera It's probably just me then, but I've never found that kind of behaviour particularly funny or fun.

Therefore I tend not to engage with or pay attention to people who do that, and hence end up not really having a more through opinion on them.

The main reason I asked about this is because I'm seeing a lot of people online who talk about this saying people should be banned from the gym immediately, no second chances.

I'm generally of the mind that it's a good idea to give people a chance to change their ways, so I was curious as to whether the "one strike and you're out" was the general consensus out there.
Not that I'd have anything against that approach.

Six votes obviously isn't much, but at least it's something, I guess.

Ah, the Nordics.
We might be at each other's metaphorical throats continuously, but fundamentally, we have so much in common...

@taylan Stop farting.

@KeepTakingTheSoma @jmakesart When the inspirational message is "you can't do it, it's too hard, you should stay in your safe space with plushie toys and colouring books".

@jmakesart If you're in for slogans, here's one.

"I don't agree with you" is not hate.

Covers a lot of ground, and strikes at what I think is one of the most important issues, namely the claims that someone who disagrees with you also automatically hates you and that makes them bad.

@KeepTakingTheSoma @Biff All the people who don't want to come see your fake painting are just mean haters.

From the video, btw:

Nina: "If men can be women, and women can be men, then happiness can be sad, and sadness can be happy."

Watching a video commenting on Ellen Page's message to young people.

There's the of course the obvious visual, that she looks like a 40-something accountant profoundly disappointed in how their life ended up, which multiple people have already pointed out.

But there's another striking thing about her too. She sounds like she's 70.
Seriously. Her voice and her speech sound like they belong to a frail 70-something, not an adult in what should be her prime.

Lord knows what else testosterone has done to her body. Her voice seems completely destroyed.

No wonder she doesn't seem to be working much.

(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POhdW7MqswQ )

@Biff I suspect that in order to be a good actor, one must have awareness of how emotions look like for real. She seems to have dug herself so deep into self-deception, that she has also pushed away whatever awareness of that she previously had. Because if she didn't, the self-deception might falter every time she saw herself in the mirror (or a selfie).

@KeepTakingTheSoma I don't think everything is controlled, because I don't think everything can be controlled. Way too many moving parts altogether.

The rape gang thing was always going to bubble up eventually, I think. The question was when. It does seem that the stranglehold the right-thinking people had on public information and narrative is slipping, especially in the UK. A good example of this is the pushback against trans nonsense making it more and more to mainstream. And once it slips in one area, it'll start slipping in another.

Fundamentally, no one contingent can hold power forever. Nothing is permanent, everything changes, this too shall pass. And I think there's a shift in the power balance in the UK, and perhaps elsewhere too. What happens with the shift, I don't know, because things like that tend to be unpredictable.

@taylan @HebrideanHecate From your keyboard to the eyes of the Fates...

I'm personally annoyed that the legislation in Finland is clearly happy to go on a banning spree when it comes to consumer devices, but says absolutely nothing about car manufacturers embedding exactly the same technology in their cars.

It's such a glaring double-standard. One rule for the little people, another for businesses.

@taylan @HebrideanHecate I would believe you. And I also hate this especially in cars. In fact, I suspect it'll be a deal breaker when we have to swap cars. If at that point it's even possible to get a car with physical controls, that is.

Finland has made it illegal to not just talk to a smartphone while driving, but also to operate one. But for some reason, touch screens on car controls are perfectly fine and legal.

I guess a touch screen magically converts from a dangerous, attention-hogging device to a safe piece of equipment by being physically attached to the car.

@HebrideanHecate Apposite. Just this morning I was contemplating what the proliferation of touch screens on bloody everywhere and everything is doing to blind or near-blind people.

A building I visit regularly converted its lift controls from buttons to a touch screen (during covid years no less). I can't imagine how a blind or a near-blind person could possibly operate it now.

so afraid of being called out for bigots who you are that you are afraid to talk about your beliefs without a veneer of politeness

What..??
Hashing out difficult issues and expressing one's opinions and views in a civilised and calm manner is now a "veneer of politeness", and a BAD thing to boot??

So I take it that screaming, cursing and raving at one's interlocutor is now meant to be the ideal way to conduct social affairs.

Hmmh. Maybe I should try this "without a veneer of politeness" at work, since it apparently is the way to communicate when one is not afraid.
I could report back how it goes.

A female person, whose testosterone levels are raised to that of an average male, is probably still going to have significant disadvantages

If this was not the case, the East German female athletes pumped full of anabolic steroids would've achieved men's performance levels in a way that would've been obvious to everyone.

They didn't. They just dominated women's competitions.

@KeepTakingTheSoma @GrumpyOldNurse @sim @FeartnTired I don't even mind a completely nice character, like you'd get in old-school adventures. Those are fun. But the forever-non-redeemable ones are just nihilistic. And I don't do nihilism.

@GrumpyOldNurse @sim @FeartnTired And I for example don't mind a rough character with difficulties and flaws. But I want there to be something redeemable about them. Or that they develop into someone redeemable.

A non-redeemable character that starts, stays and ends that way is just... utterly distasteful to me.

@taylan There's a shared mime database?

Why was I not told???

And where's my allocated mime? I want one right now!