Best Of

I would have predicted this tendency .. but nothing like these numbers.

I will see if I can write about this, but the split is really major among young Dems vs young Republicans. The divide declines heavily with age.

For voters under 30 re: "would you cut family off for opposing political views"...

GOP: 77-23 "No"
Dems: 74-26 "Yes"
https://x.com/lxeagle17/status/1961458072729334197

I don't find that surprising. GOP voters (if they still are despite Trump) are colluding with something rather horrible. If I were a Dem over there (easy to imagine) and under 30 (a bigger stretch) I'd probably be answering yes to that.

I still think it's wrong - family have a right to their opinions, and they're still family. I'd be surprised if a family member cut me off for being left-wing, and I wouldn't be bothered if they were Reform voters - actual neo-Nazis would be difficult, but unlikely.

For that matter, we all chat more or less amicably here without being in the same family. It's not that hard!

Yes. I wouldn't really. But Trumpism would test that. Me v somebody who's into Donald Trump isn't normal political disagreement, it's more than that. I judge support for Trump to be indicative of stupidity or bad character. It's a special case. Normally I'm quite chilled on this political stuff. Some of the nicest people in my life (now and in the past) have been Tories or even Liberal Democrats. But Trumpites, no. Can't stretch to that.

I wouldn't rule out being friends with a MAGA type as a matter of principle, but equally I can't imagine anyone I am actually friends with being that much of a twat.

I have a friend who was pro Trump back when he beat HRC but has wised up since. And that was a big relief because he is a good friend.

Good to hear. At this point if you're supporting Trump you have to be either stupid or malign. Like I say, I wouldn't drop anyone on principle over this but I just can't imagine anyone I'm actually friends with buying into this stuff. There are probably people who I'm friendly with as opposed to actual friends who might see Trump as the "lesser of two evils" because they're against the liberal left. I'm not going to stop speaking to them. But I can't imagine someone in that camp being a real friend. Trumpism isn't really a political philosophy in my opinion, it's more a statement about someone's entire personality. It suggests something fundamentally off about them - that they can tolerate the cruelty, the bullying, the lying, the ignorance, the vulgarity, the utter absence of anything decent and human and kind. I just don't see myself gelling with someone like that. And I have had friends who are conservative Republicans in the past, who were not like that at all.

None of main childhood vaccine uptake targets reached in England - as MMR uptake hits 15-year low
The uptake target for all childhood vaccines is 95% - but one of the main pre-school boosters has been administered to just over 80% of five-year-olds.
https://news.sky.com/story/none-of-main-childhood-vaccine-uptake-targets-reached-in-england-as-mmr-uptake-hits-15-year-low-13419867

I guess this means no sneering at America.

It would be interesting to know which areas of the country are most responsible for the drop in vaccination, assuming it isn't uniform.

Based on the anecdotes of my father’s ex-colleagues there’s a London factor and a white working class factor across the UK.

Antivax sentiment has increased since the pandemic, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, it’s much worse than the Andrew Wakefield bullshit.

Doctors are getting regularly abused when they suggest to some parents that their kids need their vaccines.

London factor?

A mixture of some recent arrivals and some very middle class people who won’t allow poisons to be injected into them or their kids, the sort that believe in homeopathy.

I knew a man very well who died of Covid, because of his refusal to be "injected with poisons". He was a law graduate, from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and I found it hard to fathom such stupidity.

I had a friend, fairly intelligent, had a wonderful wife and three kids, was convinced Covid was a hoax and the vaccine was going to control/kill us all.

Got into a row with his friends and family, some of whom had friends/family who died from Covid.

Told his wife he would divorce her and would never see his kids if they got vaccinated.

Well he’s divorced now, hasn’t seen his kids in four years, I’d like to blame social media, but it wasn’t that, he was just convinced by his own arguments.

He went from earning a six figure salary, to being unemployed and living in a small one bedroom flat.

From what I hear he was sacked from his job for being abusive to the vaccinated.

I thought you said he was fairly intelligent.

Intelligence and self radicalising into weird conspiracy theories can go together.

Knew a chap who had a PhD in Art History. Urbane, polite. Went full MAGA + QANON

I have a friend who did a Masters in Egyptology. But she couldn't find work. So now she's studying for a PhD to teach others.
I'm beginning to suspect the entire subject is an elaborate pyramid scheme.

Judge Connolly, the first appointment of PM Farage to his new 'Peoples Supreme Court' after his general election wing of 2029.

You heard it here first!

She’d be the worse judge since Roland Freisler.

The disturbing thing about Freisler - and other Nazi jurists - is that they were all highly qualified. He had a doctorate in law, from a good university. Which in turn, made it very easy for many of them to move seamlessly back into civilian life at the war's end.

Remember that bit in Conspiracy, when Klopfer asks how many lawyers are present, and more than half raise their hands.

About 20 years ago I read an interview with a documentary maker and he was planning on doing a dramatisation of the People’s Court after the July 20th plot but decided not to because when they read the transcripts they thought the audience would assume scenes like this were an exaggeration.

At one point, Freisler yelled at Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, who was trying to hold up his trousers after being purposely given old, oversized and beltless clothing: "You dirty old man, why do you keep fiddling with your trousers?"

You get the dissonance nicely shown in some of the Philip Kerr cycle of novels about Bernie Gunther - especially during Gunther's service on the Eastern Front. The contrast with the respect for the law and what was happening ...

As a young man, one quote that had a profound impact on me and made me a Conservative and makes me recoil from the modern day Tory party is this one, Mrs Thatcher would be disgusted at the modern day Tory party.

‘The legal system we have and the rule of law are far more responsible for our traditional liberties than any system of one man one vote. Any country or government which wants to proceed towards tyranny starts to undermine legal rights and undermine the law.’

The Atlantic reports Trump is ‘disappointed’ with Zelensky & Europe, calling their demands unrealistic. He just wants the war over ‘no matter how’, even if it means Ukraine losing land. Now he pushes for a Putin-Zelensky summit only if he’s at the table.
To me, Trump is openly aligning with Putin, eroding any trust in the US government.
https://x.com/olddog100ua/status/1961295032167629191

A Ukraine peace deal was too hard, he got bored and has moved onto other topics.

It's shameful he is so neutral on this while civilians are targeted by Russia in Kyiv.

Who the fuck do you think works at that refinery in Saratov that Ukraine droned last week? Spetsnaz?

There is a difference between hitting workers at a plant that is intimately connected with Russia's war economy, and hitting tower blocks where people are sleeping.