Thread 19 - TalkLair: "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long"

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 18)

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

In the TalkLair, the fairy lights are festooned on the mantlepiece, the tree is twinkling with baubles, the mince pies are in the oven, the MN legendary chicken is ready to feed the hordes. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

What sort of disconnected from reality, @Kucinghitam ? Everything seems weird these days.

There's definitely more AI nonsense. Critical thinking and reading comprehension are frighteningly low, but I'm not sure they're worse. Maybe a bit of an uptick in conspiracy theories.

It's hard to be specific because I'm feeling the strangeness on a whole lot of very different threads about everything from laundry to economics.

But just off the top of my head, there was one about a daughter being afraid of potheads with an XL bully on a coach, and (apart from the one weirdo who said the OP should just buy a car for her daughter) there seemed to be a lot of posters blaming the daughter for various failings. And another about neighbours walking right in front of their window, many posters piling on to her for being petty, plus many more who (apart from being hard-of-reading/thinking) seemed unable to comprehend perspective in photography.

A general air of "not actually reading the words, making shit up inside my own head and insisting it is reality" I suppose. There's always been a tendency towards this on here but it just feels... more... lately.

This week has been quite bonkers, but I put it down to a combination of half-term (at least, it is in Kent) and bad weather. So on the one hand you have the mums being driven more than usually insane, and on the other you have bored early-teens. I suspect a number of the hit-and-run posters are the latter.

It's hard to be specific because I'm feeling the strangeness on a whole lot of very different threads about everything from laundry to economics.

I saw the one about the neighbours walking in front of the window but not the other one. Everything is strange just now but I think half-term is intensifying matters.

the only thing that's blown my mind on MN lately was posters discussing whether The Detectionists and Small Prophets were suitable for 12-13-year-olds. Because of all the swearing, you see.

Oooh! I wasn't aware of Small Prophets, so thanks for the heads-up.

We've watched the first episode of Small Prophets and have all agreed it is worth continuing with, so no spoilers please

I'm loving it! there's been two eps so far, at TV pace. Ep #3 on Monday.

There's swearing in the Detectorists? It can't be that excessive if I've not noticed it at all.

What I have noticed is that there's a new cut of Crocodile Dundee. There have always been 2 TV versions - full, and a pre-watershed one without the swearing or cocaine. But Comedy Central the other day showed a new cut, with swearing and cocaine but with both the transsexual characters cut. One entirely gone, and the other reduced to a background giggler with no lines.

I think it must be pretty mild/commonplace swearing, because I've never even fucking well noticed it.

As I used to say, (way) back when, they hear worse in the (primary) school playground. I was watching Goodfellas with DS at about that age, and Oz a year or two later.

Boo to Wales losing yet again. Never mind, as always they won the battle of the anthems which is the main thing.

Wigan kicking off shortly. In view of the inclement weather, I have decided to stay in front of the fire and shell out for NowTV. I'll watch the 6N highlights later.

I did a lot of fast-forwarding to see Ireland turn over England very convincingly. Bit surprised by that, I've never found Ireland very lovely to watch; they were put in their box by France. But it's not really my sport; a solid 34-6 win for Wigan tonight in awful conditions. Wales/Scotland will have to wait!

My latest musical rabbithole - isiZulu Bohemian Rhapsody. The pitched clicks are a thing of beauty. As are the costumes. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gbljPQbxtTQ

Their Jolene is also excellent.

Really not a fan of the song, but that's brilliant, pitched clicks an' all! 😀

that was absolutely brilliant!

I'm fascinated by this vocal group performing part of Beethoven's 5th just using voices:

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1635830747065741

Anybody else watching the onset of WWIII with despair?

It just happens that I'm currently reading The Gift of Rain by the Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng, which is set on the eve of WWII and mostly on my home island. The first half of the book felt like a lovely historic and atmospheric stroll through the familiar streets of my childhood, albeit with a sense of impending doom hovering over the characters. Then I got to the Japanese occupation, and it all feels like too much - the horrific accounts of cruel senseless brutality, the people's terror of the spies and secret police, people turning on each other - because I know from the stories my grandparents' generation told me, that it's all true.

After today's developments in the real world, I think I'm going to have to pause in reading this book.

Anybody else watching the onset of WWIII with despair?

It's a very unnerving time, isn't it. And there is absolutely sod all we can do about it, which does my head in.

I'm watching The Woman King instead, a somewhat brutal counterpoint to the apocalypse but a successful distraction.

And if my dossier is correct, I believe @Britinme is due some birthday wishes.

I think I'm more worried about my DGD and her future more than WW3. You read something like this, on the online misogny thead, and it just stops you in your tracks:

Are any of your teenage daughters or sons talking to you about this kind of thing? What are they saying / how are they reacting?

We had the first incident in Y3, when a boy asked my daughter to bring in dirty underwear and said other inappropriate things. It turned out that his older brother exposed him to online porn. In Y8, a boy send an image of his penis to a girl, who then posted it in the year group chat. The police got involved. At age 13, someone pressured my daughter to send nudes on Instagram. Like us, the police thought it was a paedophile grooming my daughter. It turned out to be a teenage boy from her year group. The police spoke to him and his parents.
At least 20% of the girls in my daughter's primary class have been raped by now (aged 18) - and those are only the ones I know about.
I think a lot of parents underestimate the extent of the problem.

And Happy Birthday, Brit! 🎂🍾