WittyProfileName2 [she/her]

The only time they do it around here is the 5th of November and I’m conflicted about it:

On one hand:

• Bonfire Night is the one of the few big communal celebrations my neck of the woods has now the attempts at resurrecting Mari Lwyd have fizzled out around here.

• I personally enjoy the bright lights and noises.

• I think it helps instill a wonder in chemistry in children and can be an engaging way to teach them about safety around flammable materials.

• I have some fun teenage memories of goofing around with fireworks that gives the whole event some sentimental value that gives me more attachment than I should.

Whereas on the other:

• It’s a miserable time for animals, not just people’s pets but also wildlife (which, I feel, is often missing in the conversation). And can have a shitty effect on the local ecosystem.

• Is a significant number of children being severely, permanently injured and/or traumatised each year worth it to drill a respect for proper fire safety into people? Fuck no!

• There’s some boomer-headed fuckers out there who’ve moulded messing around with fireworks into their narrative of how they’re some sorta strong men from a fash “soft men -> hard times” narrative. Like all those twats that keep rambling about drinking from hoses.

Overall, I lean slightly towards banning the whole thing but not without some internal conflict.

Ol’ Reliable - the stabbed in the back myth.

“Ukraine totally coulda won if Jews/Commies/Russian speaking Ukrainians/Hamas hadn’t undermined the war effort with their scheming.”

Moths, especially really fluffy ones.

For example - the pine arches moth.

The food posters up in the school I used to go to were all the Eatwell Plate which was the exact same thing but with a pie chart instead of a pyramid.

I was convinced that it also had eggs and dairy as one thing, but I looked it up…

…guess I just misremembered.

Everything being made in China is a bit of a hyperbole but…

stream of consciousness rant ahead

The rise of neoliberalism involved the deindustrialisation of the imperial core, partly as a way to cheapen costs by relying on a pool of labour with lower minimum wages and worse safety regulations, partly to kneecap labour unions that were forming an effective political bloc against neoliberal social policies, partly to obfuscate the environmental impact of consumerism by shunting all the environmentally hazardous part of the process of producing consumer goods abroad, and partly to complete the transition of imperial core economies entirely into extraction and finance.

At the time China which was liberalising under Dengist reforms and also cosying up to the west, was a perfect target as one of the places to offload industry.

As for why none of this industrial capacity is being moved out of China despite deteriorating relations between them a the imperial core…

Industrialising a country takes a lot of planning and is expensive, (especially in countries like the UK where most of the factories and former supply line infrastructure has been torn up and the land sold off, and what remains is too dilapidated to support a renewed heavy industry), so it’s unappealing to a capitalist hegemon that’s in favour of austerity and low government spending.

What’s the source of that last image? I’m really hoping that’s one of the examples from the 80s and not a recent one…

Yeah, that’s an 80’s one. Here it is in the Tory Party’s online archive.

I’m hoping this is just me dooming but having grown up in the dying days of section 28, I’m genuinely scared for this next generation of queer people.

Section 28 of the 1988 local government act (often just referred to colloquially as section 28), was a law that made it illegal to discuss queer identities in schools.

It was repealed in 2003, but the recent resurgence of homophobia in parliament is using a similar language around “protecting children” is identical to the shit Thatcher and her cronies were throwing around in the 80’s.

Yeah, and they’ve jumped the “protect our kids” wankery into overdrive as well.

Complete doomer mode: I think they’re also gonna re-establish section 28 soon.

It’s been this kind of shit hole surveillance state for a long time. Look at the snooper’s charter/investigatory powers act, for example.

Fuck yeah! My “Bigfoot is actually a big cellar spider and that’s why it’s always blurry in pictures” theory is gonna be broadcast to everyone’s grandmother!

During the state mandated mourning, a man was arrested for carrying a piece of blank paper because the police thought he might write a protest slogan on it later.

It turns out I’m wrong, they can get that fluffy.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think those photos might’ve been edited.

I’m not an ornithologist but, according to the RSPB, this is what they look like:

I’m wrong, they do go like that sometimes.

And here’s a picture of one during the summer when they’re less fluffed up:

The way that first one tapers at the bottom, that’s probably a conical flask.

My first guess for the second image is a burette but I’m not too sure.

Most reactionary - any kind of sports hunting, doubly so fox hunting.

Most proletarian - football, any kind of sport that just involves running fast or jumping far, mario tennis for the Nintendo Wii.

Can’t find anything on what way they voted either.

It does seem really weird that Plaid MPs would abstain from this vote considering the party line on the genocide Israel’s carrying out in Gaza.

Lots of internalised transphobia years ago when I was in my teens in my teens, also I briefly fell down an earlier version of the current internet TERF rabbit hole. Needless to say if there wasn’t such an intensely transphobic cultural milieu within the UK I maybe woulda made less harmful choices in life (especially for myself).

Nearly one year on HRT now, and a much more balanced person for it.

“Piers, you woke moralist, stop drinking your tea and come help me! The chaos dragons have pulled my tie too tight, Piers! I’m choking to death!”

How would you even pierce the skin like that with a micropipette?

Caws.