Reveal Your Uncool Conservative Beliefs Here

was sat at a restaurant once with a guy watching porn videos on his phone at the next table, that was in guangzhou though so doesn't really count

We even have explicit rules against that behavior on our public transport.

I wish we had. It used to be kids who did this but, where I am anyway, it's now almost overwhelmingly adults - and I mean people in their 30s/40s/50s.

I don't like people driving around playing loud music driving through neighborhoods at night (like my son's friends who roll up to the house at 10:30 pm to hang out) but I enjoy pulling up to someone in traffic who has something loud on. It doesn't even have to be (and usually isn't) music I like, but it's good atmosphere for me.

Also wanted to mention that I think people blast music in cars way less than they used to, but it may just be my own experience. Can anyone confirm?

When terrestrial radio was still a thing, I used it as a gauge. The last time I got a thrill was early April 2020 at the peak of lockdown when the car beside me at the stoplight blasted Dua Lipa's "Levitating" and I thought, yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvDazrJuSdA

Yeah this no headphones in public thing is getting horrible

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

Yeah I'm not into that

Also not into those portable blutooth speakers especially in the park, at the beach

Don't really mind music blasting from cars as long as they're moving and not standing or idling l

Yeah this no headphones in public thing is getting horrible

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, October 21, 2021 12:26 PM bookmarkflaglink

I used to hate Sia's "Chandelier" because before boarding a Megabus, this kid in the seat across from me kept playing the chorus and only the chorus on her handheld device. Loudly. At 6 in the morning.

BLOT: if u don't wear headphones I'll meet you off the bus

actively pro bluetooth speakers at the park, beach, etc, that's literally what they're for, just keep the volume courteous imo

having a conversation over speaker phone in public is absolutely depraved, however

park/beach definitely. I have a tiny little bluetooth speaker for that type of thing, was really affordable from Oontz

speakerphone in public i'm tempted to join in the convo but I don't because the person on speaker didn't choose to be on speaker but part of me wants to alert them to the fact that they're on it and their convo isn't private

i probably posted upthread about this but someone at the airport once had a speakerphone convo about their debauched hen party weekend with someone, very loudly, and it seemed pretty apparent that a) the person on the other end probably would not have said what they were saying if they knew it was v much in public and b) the person on my end (in the airport terminal) was enjoying the exhibitionism, she kept looking around to see if anyone was listening

Think about how they’re not blasting their ears using headphones & feel good for them

having a conversation over speaker phone in public is absolutely depraved, however

― gbx, Thursday, October 21, 2021 2:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm pretty sure that this "pizza talking" speakerphone thing is 100% the result of people emulating reality tv shows where everything had to be on speakerphone for the cameras

C/D: holding a phone in front of your face as if it were a slice of pizza

i was thinking a bit today about the fentanyl flood, mostly because i saw a dude just cold zonk out standing up at the sandwich place and smack his head on the corner of a table.

anyway, one of the fever swamp theories is that the chinese govt is pumping the US full of cheap fentanyl just to nakedly weaken and kill americans, and/or for the money. there's no good reason at all to believe this, but if somehow it turned out to be true i wouldn't be at all surprised. why not? it is exactly what the british empire did to china, and what US intelligence did to americans more than once

the recent nyt story about this (relying on a book by Ben Westhoff i haven't read) only identifies china as the source, or source of the raw materials that go into it. trump pressured china to ban all varieties of fentanyl, which apparently they did, but china is still named as the ultimate source of the ingredients. the nyt story says nothing on this point, but the invitation is there to suppose that if the precursors were still being exported to the same suppliers with a wink, the chinese state would have to know about it

i'm extremely skeptical of major US journalism about china these days. just something that came to mind.

Probably my most hardcore, far-right opinion:

https://www.methodsman.com/blog/gas-stove-statistics?fbclid=IwAR1ZH3rDX3-f9XFl3CHBcC7jLKNFwsAiGNgkR2TLyFhKgRHSuf19igCEKdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LjDgzntvI

idk you also were toying with the notion of buying guns to defend your suburban homestead from imagined home invaders

pretty sure you're talking about the thread where I was talking about buying a gun because of fear of fascists, but ok

But here, you can read all of my posts about it in this thread, or, if you prefer, just make some up to support your strawman of me

Are you considering purchasing a gun?

the gas stove post is completely idiotic

Is this another American thing where gas means petrol

it means farts

no "natural gas" -- America had a brief post trump stress disorder flashback seizure where some govt agency made a probably misguided suggestion to ban gas stoves, conservatives seized on it as they're coming for arr freedom, and then liberals had to reflexively take the polar opposite position and started throwing their stoves out the window. In reality, there are probably some decent environmental arguments for phasing out gas stoves (assuming we can actually make our electric grid cleaner, which it isn't yet), and induction stoves are very energy efficient and, though expensive, starting to come down in price. However, one of the main "facts" that has been cited against gas stoves is that they are "responsible for" some large % of child asthma cases, and that is just not true, it's based entirely on bad use of statistics.

America had a brief post trump stress disorder flashback seizure where some govt agency made a probably misguided suggestion to ban gas stoves

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-09/us-safety-agency-to-consider-ban-on-gas-stoves-amid-health-fears

in reality, one official (trumka jr) raised banning it in an interview, and in the same interview also suggested that other options, including setting standards on emissions from the appliances.

(assuming we can actually make our electric grid cleaner, which it isn't yet)

by the wording of this, i assume you mean "clean", and it'll never be 100% clean, so that's not a very good goal. if you mean "cleaner", as in, "improving",

https://i.imgur.com/AlfxKTK.png
https://electrifynow.net/fact-the-electric-grid-is-getting-cleaner-every-day

that was before the pandemic. but clean energy is now much, much cheaper per MWh than coal, and recently the costs have even dipped below natural gas. and many states have passed laws mandating 100% clean energy by 2035, 2040, 2050, etc. the winning argument, as always, is to be very cynical and say that those states will never get there. but they are doing better and making progress toward it, especially the states that aren't run by conservatives.

Claims about 'capitalism' producing a bad life condition (like, say, 'being a slave to the clock of the working day') are often implicitly predicated on a better alternative which once existed, whereas, unfortunately, in actual history (eg absolutism, feudalism, and arguably Stalinism also), it didn't.

This isn't truly a 'conservative' argument because it is, I hope, consonant with the Marxian view that capitalism represented progress and needs to be developed further / built on for something better, not reversed.

Pre-covid I remember having an argument with a fellow anarchist friend about this ... and he was kinda in denial about feudalism, and kept referring to some version of land stewardship by peasants minus kings/lords that seemed to be the exception to the rule

ecologically, tho, capitalism could well yet prove fatal to humanity

Like we agreed on the goals for the future, but were arguing about his premise that Capitalism was some "exile from Eden" thing whereas I was saying, "life was shit prior to Capitalism, there was no pre-Capitalist Eden"

xp - I'd argue that humanity could well prove fatal to humanity

it's the Lou Reed fallacy ... romanticizing being born 1000 years ago and sailing on a great big clipper ship ... dude would have gotten scurvy and been miserable tbrrwu

we're talking Lou Reed here lol

Also clipper ships didn’t exist 1,000 years ago

well Lou Reed is dead now so

Have to agree strongly with Sarahell. Life was bad back then - unfortunately.

Tend to agree with N Vague also. Capitalist infliction of ecological damage very dangerous for humans, as well as others.

So, agree that ecological case vs capital is a strong one, though from purely human POV, return to sustainable serfdom not a good plan.

She said hey babe

Take a sail on a clipper ship

And the colored girls go

ahoy ahoy ahoy hoy hoy hoy hoy ahoy avast avast ahoy hoy

apparently life was pretty swell in precolonial Hawaii

I don't understand UK politics

at some base level we're just talking about stronger people exploiting weaker people, with "strength" and "weakness" determined largely by economic status. And that's a tendency that far, far predates the industrial world that birthed Marxism, right?

otm

I don't understand UK politics

Don't see how that's conservative but I'm willing to hear the case.

As in, America is way more conservative than the UK

Ah. Just about, I guess, but the UK is catching up quickly and is insanely conservative compared to most of Europe. UKILX posters v much not representative, lol.

At least the US has legal weed and depending on which state you're in you might not be burned at the stake for being trans.

some of the US has better weather ...

I like how Mr. Bean gets presented as this aloof little dumb guy when in reality he's a massive dick to everyone he comes across. maybe I just don't get the UK mentality

is Mr. Bean related to Bosom Manor?

Mr Bean easily the most successful British cultural export within my lifetime, beloved around the globe, everyone loves a massive dick. lest we forget this recent international incident:

http://news.sky.com/story/next-time-send-the-real-mr-bean-the-bizarre-feud-between-zimbabwe-and-pakistan-surrounding-t20-world-cup-12732125

I prefer the older, less problematic British entertainment like Benny Hill

Mr Bean easily the most successful British cultural export ... everyone loves a massive dick

TIL