Notices by The Dread Slender Gnome (gnomeshatecheese@spinster.xyz), page 2

The general consensus was that nobody could be expected to ‘regulate their emotions’ without a soft toy. ‘I take my Build-A-Bear Ninja Turtles in with me,’ said a 23-year-old shop assistant. ‘It helps me deal with my anger issues.’

Ok. I give up.
Can someone please explain to me, how exactly does a soft toy help a person to deal with their emotions?

I don't think I ever understood this. Not even as a child.

How on earth is it even supposed to work?

@HebrideanHecate @MrAndyNgo I thought he was one of those who keep hassling people. Not sure if he's the same one who was after Glinner, but may well be.

Though for all I know, there could be several ex-cop TIM making a career out of trying to get "unkind" people in trouble with the law. Would suit the profile.

This might be something to keep an eye on.

RT: https://hell.twtr.plus/objects/c1a98df5-3138-495f-bd21-d373fd4a7a09

@Flick (disclaimer: didn't read the article because the original was behind a paywall and archive.ph doesn't work for me anymore, so going by the quoted bit)

Warning: research/hypothesis geekery ahead

Students of linguistics, since elderspeak was first identified in 1981, generally regard it as a linguistic power play...

Ok, this has become one of my peeves of late.
So much in sociolinguistics is explained by the catch-all idea of "power", and when that happens, alternative explanations are rarely suggested.

Just off the top of my head, I could suggest an alternative hypothesis of nurturing impulses. The variety appears to be similar to way adults speak to small children, so might not the presence of an old person, quite possibly of some frailty, trigger similar nurture-coded language? Perhaps purely by mental association to nurturing behaviours towards children?
Mind you, I'm not saying this is the case, obviously. Just pointing out that alternative hypothesis are perfectly possible. And it irks me that they so often aren't explored, when "power play" is an easily available one.

The power explanation also doesn't explain why elderly people in specific would be the targets. Presumably medical professionals would have reason to attempt power plays on patients of all ages, if they think it helps them to gain compliance. Why not try that on a recalcitrant middle-aged woman, who isn't in the mood for taking her meds?
On that note, how much is the prevalence of elderspeak affected by medical professionald dealing proportionately more with old people, especially in institutions? Has that been taken into account?

@virvallis @Flick It's the received wisdom of the west having to be kind (there's that one again) to poor oppressed people from not-west, combined with a lot of people who think international conventions must be above everything else.
And then there's the "end of history" mindset, which also includes the belief that nation states are outdated relics and borders don't matter. This end of history idea became very popular at some point among the political and cultural elites, and they seem to see it as a fundamental truth.
The cherry on top is the "all cultures are just as good" moral relativism, that came about on the coat tails of postmodernism.

In short, I think it's an unfortunate coalescence of several cultural trends, as most things tend to be. If you look at the people advocating for this situation, you typically find they hold all or most of the above views. And if you look back at the last decades, you'll find those views floating up and becoming very popular among a certain crowd of people.

And then you had a few true believers in a few key positions, like Angela Merkel, who had enough power to push this approach in their fiefdoms, and enough influence to get others to adopt it too, and there's your poison.
And now you have Keir Starmer who no doubt happily carries the torch forward.

@Flick If one accepts this premise, there are only two logical conclusions.
One, these people were never in real need of asylum in the first place. Two, this criminal behaviour is somehow a fundamental part of who they are, and regardless of their circumstances they can't help themselves, either due to nature or nurture.

I know which option one would think the left would find more offensive.

If one does not accept the premise, then one effectively is denying that any social contract exists, or ought to exist between people who help others, and those who are helped. And that suggests a fundamental suspension of basic principles human communities observe. Like not being an arsehole to someone trying to help.

Any which way, it leaves the modern left championing these supposed asylum seekers looking rather bad.

@RadicalCartoons @HebrideanHecate @Flick The donors whose names have been leaked are probably not all rich people, since the news referred to those who donated over £50 in the past two years.

I do hope the scheme falls flat on its face and discourages nobody from donating. Even if it's a small amount.

@Flick And I would make sure to tag Bash Back in my announcement on Twitter. Or Bluesky, because I bet they're exactly the kind of gits to be on that site instead.

@Flick I haven't donated to them because different country, but if I had...

I would totally be this guy.

@Flick Conspiracy theories about linguistics???

I LOVE IT!!

@FeartnTired I would add to this Daniel Lismore that your generation is in fact not advocating for people existing outside rigid boxes. They're advocating for making tons and tons of more boxes, which are no less rigid, even if one is allowed to occupy several boxes simultaneously.

Our lot wanted to do away with the boxes. If someone can't see the difference, I don't know what to tell them.

@FeartnTired For context, here's the original whine El Gato Malo is responding to. From a Daniel Lismore (blue tick).

I genuinely cannot understand how generation above me ended up here. We grew up idolising David Bowie and through him discovered Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. We lived through punk and post punk smashing gender norms in public. We watched Prince blur masculinity and desire. We danced to Boy George. We worshipped Grace Jones. Then came the flamboyance of the eighties where androgyny excess and self invention were celebrated. Gender bending was not a threat. It was art. It was freedom. It was cool.

So how did the same generation become so hostile to people simply existing outside rigid boxes. How did we go from celebrating difference to fearing it. This backlash does not come from culture or history. It comes from forgetting who we were and what we stood for. None of this is new. Get over it.

I'm reposting this with the original text quoted here, because it is that good.
From el gato malo on the tweety site, handle boriquagato, in response to someone whining about why people who grew up in the 70s-90s are turning against identitarianism in general, but gender identitarianism in particular. And it does apply to more things than just the gender identity nonsense.

if you'd like to understand why the generations above you have so little respect (and increasingly so little tolerance) for your cohort, it's simple: everything we made was optional and opt in.

Interesting people did interesting things and if you liked them, you got on board. and that was cool. and if you didn't, you didn't. and that was cool too.

but you took the awesome stuff we built for you and you politicized it all.

you turned it from the ask of "accept me?" upon which our culture was based to an institutionalized demand of "accept me!" backed by the force and institutions of the state and indoctrinated into curriculums and cancel culture.

bowie just did things and offered them up for people to like or ignore or criticize as they saw fit.

you passed laws that if we didn't like you it was a hate crime.

you were neither inclusive nor interesting.

you did not make offers, you made demands.

you became performative crybully assault artists wielding absurdist identity like a mace against anyone you did not like or sought to dominate.

you made it into a post-modern kafka trap and force-fed it to a nation who was not allowed to say "no."

you hated the cool kids so much that you made the worlds they built into joyless bataan death marches of avolitional aggrievement worship by incredibly marginal people.

you mistook the surface and seeming of a thing for the substance of it and a self-serving cargo cult of theater kid histrionics for identity and worse, for meaning.

and you dragged the rest of us into it against our will and tried to demand a respect and acceptance you were unable to earn.

it's been one big "everyone gets a trophy day" cum pity party, invitation by gunpoint, thrown by a group of hyper-demanding, entitled brats.

and the fact that you "do not understand" how we "ended up here" or see why the distinction of choice vs force matters is exactly why everyone is so terribly sick of you and does not want you around.

i grew up in the very cultures you describe.

and you wrecked them because you were too lame to handle freedom.

@Flick Next up:

Suttee and foot-binding. Should never have been abolished, because to do so was western sensationalism. Or internalised western sensationalism.

It's not like the widow being burned alive actually suffers any trauma from the act itself.

@KeepTakingTheSoma I always think of things like that as more of a summer thing, when all the berries and fruit are fresh and in season. Having said that, oranges and mandarin oranges are now in season and they are lovely.

I should make that orange "salad" with pomegranates and mint some time soon again...

@KeepTakingTheSoma Well, seeing as there are just the two of us... 😆

I'm not terribly partial to tiramisu for some reason. But something in that vein (pudding out of biscuits liquid and flavour agent) is definitely a possibility.

Another Christmas dinner pondering: need to decide on a dessert. I've previously gone for something like a posset, or a fruit salad with my family, seeing as it's a heavy meal. But I'm not sure I feel like making another lemon posset (maybe for New Year this time), so I'm considering maybe a small sample of truffles.

But is that really "a dessert"?

Himself loves a creme brulee, but I've never tried one, so unless I do a trial run, it'll be a risk. And if I do a trial run and it works out, how could I then make the christmas CB special, and not "oh we just had this dessert a few weeks ago"? That is, without adding something insane like popcorn. Yes, I have seen that on a restaurant menu.

It'll have to be something I can mostly do one or two days beforehand in any case.

I think I'll go through one particular cookbook tonight.

Maybe creme brulee garnished with fine slices of pears poached in jasmine tea? Drizzled with tea syrup? Maybe...

We’ve never called them ‘epileptics’ – we call them ‘people with epilepsy’ because they are people who happen to have that disease. “Whereas now the trend is to say ‘I am autistic’, rather than ‘I’m a person with autism’.

I honestly see no point in this particular language game.
I'm not going to stop saying "I'm allergic" or similar, and it in no way implies I'm incorporating allergy into my personality.

If people are going to incorporate a given condition into their personality, they are going to do it however you spin the words around.

Also, it seems to me that identifying with a disease or a condition to the point that it becomes a key piece of one's mental identity is a new thing, while saying "epileptic" or "autistic" is not. So I don't think that supports the writer's argument either.

@KeepTakingTheSoma Let me know what they're like. I'd be interested to know how big a departure they are (now) from the historical baroque style versions.

@KeepTakingTheSoma I linked a Red Priest video in a chat group once years and years ago. Someone in the group didn't take to it, I can't remember exactly what she said but it was something to the effect of "ruining Vivaldi's Four Seasons with stupid wannabe shit". I suppose this person thought the piece should never be played in any style except saccharine romanticism.

I do have to say that ultimately I prefer the more regular baroque style versions, but at the time that Red Priest recording was an amazing breath of fresh air.
And of course, they ARE very good at what they do.