Currently watching a livestream for a conference. Big, international organization, and yet the stream is disastrous...

I remember these same issues from conferences I have been to, in-person, myself. The stream almost always failed in some way. And this is the same shit.

It's like, it's so bloated, and so tech-illiterate, as to be almost completely unusable. And yet it's ubiquitous. Eugh...

I hear this a lot. Mostly from corrupt politicians, regardless of stripe, while they are railroading something through against wishes of the local public…

Then the media repeats the lie. And then idiot NPCs all chime in to back it up, usually either because they have a vested interest, or alternatively no skin in the game, and so lose nothing as a result of the decision being made (my parents do this all the time, too, which is frustrating)…

“Progress” can be anything the politician/bureaucrat/developer//corporation wants it to be.

Drag story time is “inclusion”, so it is “progress”. Destroying a forest for a wind farm is “progress”. Or alternatively, knocking down a whole row of houses using “eminent domain” can be “progress”, if you can somehow argue that replacing them with high density tower blocks, to fill with immigrants, is “good”, and should not be questioned… Because it’s “progress”…

Of course, progress in reality is not linear. It is not about endless growth. And just because you claim to be “progressive” doesn’t mean you have a monopoly on fucking human “progress”…

Progress used to be about going to the moon, or scientific achievement, or fucking inventing something useful. Now it’s “free abortion clinics” on one side, and a completely useless new highway bypass (with the associated eminent domain destruction of housing, *of course) on the other…

It’s all “progress” to someone, and of course most of the public just laps it up. Because the media tells them to, naturally…

As someone posted earlier, a large proportion (but still a minority, thankfully) of Americans support drag queen events for kiddos now…

How the fuck did we “progress” to that point, hey?

Modern “society”. Woo-fucking-hoo.

I feel like, as… Uncomfortable as that is, it is somewhat exonerating, in a sense…

Obviously “Ignore”. “Delete”.

But still, what kind of psycho does that..??

Either she’s too stupid to work out I’m the same person (possible), or she’s genuinely that fucking confused/insane…

Her account is under a pseudonym too (mine sort of is), because of course it is…

I just… You hear about shit like this, but you never expect to actually experience it, smdh… 😑

I was specifically told not to contact her again, and then two weeks later, this…

I might not agree with Imp’s general worldview, but fuck this shit is tiring…

I’ve already dropped out for the semester, because I could not handle all the shit that had happened (bereavement, injury, sickness, this)…

If she consciously knows what she is doing, and knows that it’s me, I think that’s pretty morally indefensible, really…

Anyway, some of you predicted she would do something like that, so there you are. 🤷🏻‍♂️

In Australia, atm, the “current thing” is the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament, aka an unelected third chamber in our national parliament, further dividing the country by race…

Aaand I’ve already lost leftist social media “friends” over it. Not by posting about it. Not even by commenting. But by “liking” posts and/or pages that they disagree with…

“Be on the right side of history”, they cry, while steadily restricting their “friends” to only those who think exactly the same…

It’s bizarre. It really is utterly bizarre.

I don’t tend to do the same, on my end, because, I guess I’m not so “intolerant” of differing views. So I just find the whole idea rather bizarre…

Then again, the kind of people to “proudly” have politics in their profile pics/on their homepages are probably not the types you want around, anyway…

I just find it bizarre, though.

And these are graduates, for fuck’s sake.

No wonder things are so fucked, lol.

This is, of course, not a new phenomenon. “Bowling Alone” was written decades ago, and that’s like the seminal work on this…

But yeah. For a lot of people here, this probably holds true, in particular for things like online forums or specific gaming “communities”, LAN parties (yeah I know, old school) and the like…

I too, remember those heady days (Halo, mostly, for me. But there was some strategy gaming there, too).

MMORPGs can of course be good, too, but it’s so much more… Controlled, and sanitized, and frankly not the same…

But anyway, I’m more thinking IRL stuff, here.

Tomorrow (Easter Sunday) is the very last day ever for one of the largest community markets in my nearest city. The market has been going for 120 years, and the building it is in is probably at least 70 years old.

The market is pretty much the only weekly outing for many of the older stallholders and attendees, many of whom travel in from surrounding country towns. It is an institution.

Why is it “closing”..? Not because the market is running at a loss. Not because it has “declined”. No, the only reason is because the community entity that owns the site (showground, same as it is in most countries with Ag Shows. Not a private company, but a trust) is so greedy that they want to turf the site over to property developers, to turn into more low-quality, cheap housing, to fill with more (subcontinental and Chinese) immigrants…

Well, that’s what they’re arguing, anyway. In reality, they already sold off much of this (17ha) site, 5-10 years ago, ostensibly for housing and “community benefit”, only for it to be filled with big box retailers…

How is this possible? Because the CEO, effectively, of this trust, is a corrupt former public servant, who has “friends” in both major political parties…

He has been at this for a decade, with “bipartisan support”.

And politically, arguing against housing is a losing sum game, no matter what the true logic behind the development may be…

So the community loses out. Literally over 200 stallholders lose their income source, and the thousands of people, mostly old and/or lower income, who went there to buy stuff they needed, lose out completely. All because of greed, and so-called “progress”…

This happens all the time. All the fucking time. The local council for the area this is in are notoriously corrupt, and have a record of terrible decision-making.

But it’s much more broad than that. I’m sure most of us know of local sports clubs (leftists seem to really, really hate golf, car racing, tennis and rugby league, in particular), markets, bowling alleys, churches, community clubs, whatever, which have been destroyed in a similar way.

In Australia, at least, it’s almost always the same process.

“But don’t worry citizen - go support the local big-league sportsball team! Who cares if tickets are $50 a game - that’s all the community you’re allowed to have!”

Or join this “rally”. Or go to this shiny new store.

Real community, though? Nah, can’t have that. People gathering together and exchanging goods, or even just sharing an interest - that’s too dangerous. Better shut it down. They might get too many “ideas”…

Not sure how much this “phenomenon” exists outside the wealthy, developed West, but I know it’s a thing across many of our countries, not just the Anglosphere…

No wonder people feel so alone, especially the elderly…

It's odd, here.

Even 5+ years ago, people still respected this day, more than now. Even in Melbourne, nothing, and I mean almost completely nothing, was open.

Even more than Christmas, this was always the day when the shops stayed closed (including bottleshops).

Now? Unless you're actually a true, attending Christian, it's just a day for sport (two games of Rugby League on TV!), charity fundraising (hospitals, specifically, for whatever reason), and events - music festivals, food markets, etc.

Oh, and the highest rates of hourly pay for the whole year.

Even my own, theoretically Christian family insisted on opening and eating Easter chocolate today, much though I thought that was... Fairly inappropriate.

I dunno, just feels weird, man.

My favourite place to be, on this day, has always been one of two multi-day music festivals held over this time (yes, I know..)

At those, there was always services held somewhere, if you wanted to go to them. But it was just... Good, to be away from all the bullshit, for the weekend..?

I never felt more at home than I did at those events.

But that's not an option this time (thanks Uni/life! :-( ), so I'm just... At my parent's house, doing an assignment. God it feels shit to be "working" today, but that's just reality.

It just makes it much more apparent to me how little "normies" care about this day, for the most part, anymore.

You hardly even hear about the "religious" aspects of today on the news, at all. It's like it barely exists.

Very strange.

Obviously this will vary by country, and even within countries, but I imagine, in Catholic-majority places, at least, today must still have more meaning than that which has been stolen from it, over here?

Just curious, really.

This is in a town where there is probably… A few hundred “queer” people, at most…

And yet they’ve taken up all local media to announce this, and to spruik their “LGBTQI+++ Action Plan”…

This is a council which has totally destroyed local amenity, in order to bring in masses of low-skilled, mostly subcontinental immigrants, thereby swelling the population more than fourfold in twenty years… All to live in terribly-built slums, effectively - no yard, no plants, three rooms to a “house”, completely cheek by jowl. And all of this without the infrastructure to keep up, and nowhere near even the local “city”…

Something feels very strange about all this. Like instructions are coming from somewhere else…

I find it most unusual that a council at the ends of the earth, far from almost anything, would put so much effort into “trans visibility”, to the point of replacing national flags, while also filling the place with immigrants who are almost certainly hostile to the whole idea…

No idea what the fuck is going on, but it feels very fucking strange.

I mean, I might expect this sort of thing in inner cities, but this is like… If some obscure suburban “city” in Hawaii or Alaska decided to become a parody of “liberalism”. That’s where we’re at, now.

Trannies and low-skill immigrants. The ultimate “holy cows”…

Watching it now, live (on tv. Tickets are insanely expensive, wrong city and it’s sold out, anyway!). It’s fucking insane. Red flags, crashes and engine blowouts galore!

Just madness, lol. Personally just hoping they get all the laps done.

Also, fuck Lewis Hamilton, heh.

Some of you will have seen the post the other day. Apparently I made a girl “uncomfortable” via a text exchange (I assure you, there was nothing untoward on my part).

I pressed the University for details, and now I am told I am being formally investigated. They’ve formally accused me of misconduct, now, and told me that I must speak to them over the phone, this week…

For various reasons I won’t go into, I simply cannot do the phone thing, this week. I just can’t. I’ve told them so, and I’ve also told them that I will be seeking legal advice.

They linked me to a web page which essentially, very nebulously, outlines that anyone can make an allegation against a student, even anonymously, and it will be investigated, even if the situation in question has nothing to do with the University…

It even says “Anything can be sexual harassment, even if it only occurs once”. So I gather that is what I am up for…

Fuck me. This is so fucked…

Currently eating in an extremely hipster local café (like, stereotypically so) - not by choice, but family…

It’s run by women, I suspect for women. It’s… I fucking hate it. It’s the kind of place that refused to serve “unwashed” like me, for two years…

But even now, everything has a little sign on it. “Do not touch” this. “Do not walk here”. “Do x, y and z before entering”, “Warning”, and most egregiously of all “You cannot use this table for more than x minutes, depending the value of what you order”…

Woke shit everywhere. Mostly black American woke shit, which is extra annoying, in Australia…

Eugh…

I can tolerate the rest, but all the micromanaging fucking signs, all over this junk-filled shithole, it’s very… In your face.

They just love their petty little rules, don’t they?

Obviously we don't want to get into legal territory here, but I'm sure most men have been through this, on at least some "informal" level, at least previously...

The entire saga has taken place via text. I didn't say anything explicit, and was never given any indication that this individual was "uncomfortable". Literally no words were exchanged to that effect. In fact, most discussion was about our mutual studies. I had a slight feeling something was "off", from this girl's behaviour more broadly, but again, no direct indication was given...

Anyway, it has been some time since we had actually spoken, but today I am told that she has reported me to the University. Just informally, but the head of the student counselling department wants to pursue an investigation into me, lololol...

I have a record of the entire exchange. I haven't broken any laws, here, so unless there's some informal rule about "Her word against yours" (which I'm sure there probably is), I think I'm largely ok. Reputational damage is likely the main issue...

Anyway, like I said, in the court of "He said, she said", obviously they will side with her, but if this is a case based purely on "feelings", then who fucking knows how far she will get...

Just a fucking waste of my time. I've got so much other shit going on (my grandmother literally died two days ago, so to say this is low on my priority list..? Is an understatement), that I really just want to minimise impact, and get the fucking thing over with...

Eugh.

Yes, it's my own stupid fault for letting this one in. Yes, it's very High School. But like I said, I can calmly say that I did not actually do anything objectively wrong, here.

It is what it is, and I'm stuck with it. Like most college-age straight males who've had even the barest bit of experience, lol.

As the title says.

I know Chicago had similar issues with white flight/suburbanisation/white no-go areas, but St Louis has failed even more than that...

It's surprisingly hard to find articles explaining exactly what the fuck happened. Is it just a combination of white flight/de-industrialisation and really fucking poor governance/forward planning..? I honestly don't understand how at least the majority white parts have still continued to decline as they have...

We don't have cities like this, in this part of the world. Frankly, I don't think many cities like this exist (where population has declined more than 60%, since 1950!!), outside North America, so it's an interesting test case.

It reads like a failed state. I guess, in a sense, it is. But how the fuck has it done worse than Detroit..?