How do we cheer up the English?

[crewealex]

I think we've always had a tendency to be taciturn, self-deprecating and glass half empty. Just that these days there's a lot more reasons to be unhappy:
1) quite a lot of people don't have much money
2) the systematic running down of public services health, education, transport, environment etc
3) a governing class who have set such appalling low standards; corruption, lies, incompetence
4) Brexit hasn't helped either

At the same time we squander billions on nuclear weapons so we can pretend that we're still a world power.
Basically the country's in a mess. That's why I play Civilization; it's a much simpler life

 

[Farm Boy]

You spend on the nuclear weapons for better reasons than that. But I sympathize. A lot of the alliance hasn't carried their weight for a long time. Skinny, soft hands, great skin, you know - "those people."

 

[Birdjaguar]

Putin is doing his part apparently.

Russian Media Behind Fake King Charles Death Rumors​

Another reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet.

Russian Media Behind Fake King Charles Death Rumors

Another reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet.

www.huffpost.com

 

[Angst]

It's a shared Swedish-Finnish perversion.

This has been produced specifically as a challenge, to really put hairs on your chest:

Svenskjävlar!

Världens. Saltaste. Lakrits. Vågar du? Lakrits- och salmiakkräm omgiven av salmiaklakrits och salmiak.

www.lakrits.se

[Translates roughly as "Swedish Bastards"]

norwegian and danish too. pretty pan-scandinavian.

and it's delicious. it's the only real reason i won't ever move out of the country

 

[Comrade Ceasefire]

Skinny, soft hands, great skin, you know - "those people."

The ones who think we've got other skills.
The ones who say "But you're beautiful inside"
Let's give them pills.

Great song, and a good example of the English cheering themselves up!

 

[Marla_Singer]

Putin is doing his part apparently.

Russian Media Behind Fake King Charles Death Rumors​

Another reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet.

Russian Media Behind Fake King Charles Death Rumors

Another reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet.

www.huffpost.com

Beyond fake news, we're so much flooded with Russian troll bots hysteria that I don't give any credit any longer to what I can read on the internet, even if I'm aware that still has a massive influence on people. I'm convinced that this has been key to Brexit (as well as the rise of isolationist right-wing populism everywhere in the West).

 

[Narz]

I didn't cheat on you baby, those photos were ai generated by Putin

 

[amadeus]

I’ve heard bad things about: the weather, the food, and the automobiles. I don’t know if those criticisms are valid.

Anyway, I’m sticking to my original skepticism when it comes to these so-called happy rankings. Money has no place in it? Try being poor for a while and tell me again.

 

[Marla_Singer]

I didn't cheat on you baby, those photos were ai generated by Putin

We were living in old-established democracies with very stable political balance between parties, and all of a sudden, from 2012 to 2016, it's been all trashed by populists absolutely everywhere. Do you seriously believe that is only a coincidence?

Things on the French internet were rather calm in the past months, and 3 weeks ago, after Macron told that "nothing was excluded to help Ukraine", it all of a sudden became total frenzy. Not only about the war in Ukraine, but in absolutely every topics. All of a sudden, criminality and immigration are back as the major topics in the country. And guess who we're told to vote for if we are concerned by those? Marine Le Pen. And who funds Marine Le Pen? Vladimir Putin. We're being trained to vote for populist parties exactly like Pavlov trained his dog.

 

[Narz]

I was just making a joke.

I think the stability you speak of was illusory, if it collapsed how was it stable?

Manipulation is a problem but the core question is why are people now so vulnerable to it?

The left claiming Russian propaganda and the right claiming Chinese has become a bit of a meme but the deeper question is why do believe want to believe the memes, why has trust broken down so much? Maybe because the "stable" political system hasn't been honest or met people's needs.

 

[Marla_Singer]

The left claiming Russian propaganda and the right claiming Chinese has become a bit of a meme but the deeper question is why do believe want to believe the memes, why has trust broken down so much? Maybe because the "stable" political system hasn't been honest or met people's needs.

What a weird coincidence that very different democracies all discovered exactly at the same time that their local political system didn't meet people's needs.

 

[Narz]

Anyway, I’m sticking to my original skepticism when it comes to these so-called happy rankings. Money has no place in it? Try being poor for a while and tell me again.

Knowing how to handle money more important than absolute income. If you make £25k a year and are frugal you're better off than making £100k and spending way too much. Basically if the treadmill (outflow) is going faster than than you can walk (earn) you'll be in chronic stress.

Plus high earners may have worse relationships and health, I remember reading that was an epidemic in Japan.

 

[Narz]

What a weird coincidence that very different democracies all discovered exactly at the same time that their local political system didn't meet people's needs.

They were bound to figure it out eventually

Your theory is everyone was contented politically until Putin sent out some memes and suddenly everyone realized they're actually really dissatisfied?

 

[Marla_Singer]

They were bound to figure it out eventually

Your theory is everyone was contented politically until Putin sent out some memes and suddenly everyone realized they're actually really dissatisfied?

It's not about memes, it's about massive, industrial-scale, spamming on social networks. Millions of posts, likes and retweets, every day.

 

[Narz]

It's not about memes, it's about massive, industrial-scale, spamming on social networks. Millions of posts and likes every day.

Even if so, why does it work? A contented public would laugh them off

If your society can be destroyed by a gang of trolls its not much of a society

 

[Marla_Singer]

Even if so, why does it work? A contented public would laugh them off

Because we all have our scarecrows.

If a white guy is "a bit racist" as we say, show him a video of a white guy being beaten up for nothing by 5 black guys and he'll turn infuriated. Show to a black guy a content about France abusing Africa and he'll turn infuriated. Now put both guys in the same place and it will turn ugly. That's how it works.

Now I'm not saying that Putin created that from scratch, it already existed, he's only throwing tons of gasoline on the fire.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I don't really think that this is specific to England or the English, or about Putin at all.

One effect of globalisation is an increasing gap between the rich and poor in most
countries, another effect is that wealthy people in one country tend to identify with
wealthy people in other countries more than with ordinary people in their own country.
This has created a plutocratic elite that is increasingly perceived as loyal only to itself.

Bottom up democracy where locals would choose their candidates has been widely
replaced by top down party controlled democracy where party leaders select candidates.

The plutocratic elite realised that if they control the main parties, they can disregard the masses.
Now the masses would put up with being disregarded if the ruling class delivered real benefits.
But the masses have noticed their living standards are dropping, and now peace is uncertain.

This is why the masses often vote for populists even though they don't trust the populists, often
rightly perceiving them as disgruntled or eccentric members of the elite. The thing is the populists
at least have the politeness to reflect back their concerns rather than label them as bigoted/ignorant.

 

[Gorbles]

Knowing how to handle money more important than absolute income. If you make £25k a year and are frugal you're better off than making £100k and spending way too much.

This is terrible advice, and guaranteed to not cheer up any English folk

 

[Marla_Singer]

I don't really think that this is specific to England or the English, or about Putin at all.

One effect of globalisation is an increasing gap between the rich and poor in most
countries, another effect is that wealthy people in one country tend to identify with
wealthy people in other countries more than with ordinary people in their own country.
This has created a plutocratic elite that is increasingly perceived as loyal only to itself.

Bottom up democracy where locals would choose their candidates has been widely
replaced by top down party controlled democracy where party leaders select candidates.

The plutocratic elite realised that if they control the main parties, they can disregard the masses.
Now the masses would put up with being disregarded if the ruling class delivered real benefits.
But the masses have noticed their living standards are dropping, and now peace is uncertain.

This is why the masses often vote for populists even though they don't rust the populists, often
rightly perceiving them as disgruntled or eccentric members of the elite. The thing is the populists
at least have the politeness to reflect back their concerns rather than label them as bigoted/ignorant.

That is indeed what we are being told to think in order to vote for people (or process in the case of Brexit) that are against national interests. Did Brexit make the UK stronger? Has Trump made America great again? The strength of both countries come from their connections with the rest of the world. In making the West more disunited, we allow alternative powers to grow stronger.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

We must liberate the islanders off the coast of France from the tyranny of their royal family