What little acts of rebellion or activism do you do?

[Steelworks]

I’m not talking about going on marches, but minor things, that you know about.

Mine is I won’t play Michael Jackson songs, after all the alleged behaviour, which certainly wouldn’t be accepted by today’s standards.

The second is I won’t buy McCain products, after they put out an advert for Smileys, which referred to ‘knocker’s’ in them. I thought that language had died out in the seventies.

Why?? Why is the St George flag racist?
This really annoys me, every other country can fly their flag with no issues but as soon as the St George flag is displayed, it’s Racist

A 'good' jew is one who takes the current prevailing party line in some people's estimation. Then we see objections such as 'Anti-zionism isn't anti-semitism'. Zionism is - again by this crude black vs. white manner of definition - a belief that Israel has any right at all to exist as a state. If you think it does, then you're implicitly supporting genocide against the Palestinian people. The complexities are completely lost when we move down to these over-straightforward either/or divisions.

There is no room for negotiation on either side of this. People's responses to the October music festival massacre are telling in this respect. This is a very, very old and just as complex political crisis and it's oversimplified in terms of today's crude division between left and right. In any event, this distinction is becoming increasingly blurred as time goes on and moves when expedient.

Anthony Julius got it so right in his book The Trials of the Disapora that anti-semitism has never really gone away - just as misogyny was quite unfashionable at one time but has since returned with a vengeance. Crises like these tend to bring these prejudices back out of the woodwork.

I do not - or vanishingly rarely - buy UPF. I find it easier to buy less, much much less, direct from the maker, rather than try and avoid things. So fresh fruit and veg from an organic box supplier, meat from a wild meat or organic supplier. Same for milk, bio laundry/dishwasher products. If I do buy something prepared, I will not buy palm oil, having witnessed the rainforest destruction for plantations first hand.

I don't buy new clothes unless a very special event or worn out.

I don't fly unless (once in a blue moon) to an island and my main holiday is by public transport.

I do not use AI. Or social media (except MN, which isn't really that). I do not sell my data via loyalty cards. Need to switch back to cash as per PP.

All these negatives sound depressing. But as PP said, a life with integrity feels happier, and I do lots of positives too: volunteer a lot of time, grow food and cook with pleasure, work in a valued profession, spend time creating and with valued people, do a lot of foot-based exploration. I have stuck my head publicly (and politely) above the sex and gender parapet and had nothing but support and opportunities.

I love this thread. I boycott companies who have given bad customer service and also those that don’t support women.

I also add the word ‘men’ to the signs in my offices gender neutral toilets that advises ‘people’ to close the door when using the toilet. Having never seen a woman not close the door, the sign is naturally directed at men, yet is drafted to include all. The FM people regularly change the sign and I watch them do it and go back in and re-write it.

Yes, I avoid work by those *&^% , too. When in 2015 a museum gave an RP retrospective exhibition, the signage was soon vandalised/ corrected, which was pleasing. I have avoided that museum ever since.

I've never bought a Yorkie since they marketed it as "not for girls".

Fine by me.

A man ploughed into my double buggy because we couldn't get out of his way. I was walking with my 5yo (she was holding it) and my husband who was shocked.

Plenty of space on the pavement but we were in his path and he couldn't possibly move a few steps to the side. He actually looked angry at us too. An entitled arsewipe.

Jeez I've just googled the Mccain knockers controversy and I will not be buying their over processed shite any more either! I am gobsmacked! What were they thinking - its all OK If you get a drag queen to say it? 😱🤬

Do you still listen to David Bowie? He slept with two 13 year old 'groupies' (children).

What does being “manly” consist of?

Women’s suffrage?

Absolutely.

I had a lorry steam up behind me the other day (30 mile an hour town road mind you) and even honk his horn at me.

I had had the temerity to pull out of a junction, with a gap large enough that I easily got up to 30 mph before he even reached me.

He was about an inch from my back bumper. I slowed down gradually to 20 until he got the message and grudgingly backed off. I certainly wasn't going to continue at a speed he would never had been able to stop at if I'd needed to quickly brake. I had my two small children in the back seat.

Without going down the rabbit hole of Israel vs Palestine can I ask why you single out Israel as the only country to boycott?

I think it depends on how/why it went up. If it’s been flying outside of a pub, for example, for years; fair play.

However, when a group makes an announcement that they are launching a campaign to put flags out en masse to signal unhappiness toward/exclusion of certain groups of society, we get it. We know exactly what the message is, because the social media campaign made it perfectly clear.

Just like crosses, which aren’t offensive. But if the KKK in Alabama launches a social media campaign to plant crosses everywhere, we know the score. No need for the faux naivety.

So you purposely walk into them?

I like this threat!

I litter pick every week, ditched the hair dye, boycott a local cafe because the owner was off the scale when referring to students at a local SEN school, don’t use Amazon, shein, temu etc.

There are literally no wars that have not included, or impacted women. If a scriptwriter can't be bothered to include a single scene that involves women in some small capacity then shame on them.

My driving instructor told me to just gradually slow down if people are tailgating. Precisely because the closer they are the slower we need to go for it to be a safe braking distance.

My favourite time was the fucker tailgating really close when I was going at 28 in a 30. I knew were about to get to a police speed van as I could see it on my satnav (it's a regular spot). He backed away fast when we came round a corner and there was a police speed van there . Idiot.

Why do you find it 'depressing' that people are thinking about politics?

Politics just means 'the business of the city' ie how we decide to run our country. We can all get involved, even in small ways. It doesn't need to mean 'party' politics.

Why would you not want to have a little say in how the country operates?

The expectation is that PP moves out of their way. You could say that the men are purposely walking into PP, no? PP is refusing to change her direction. Why should she, if he won’t? Why is it on the woman to move out of the man’s way? It’s manspreading. On pavements.

I'd been boycotting Nestle for years until a few weeks ago when I absent-mindedly bought a dark chocolate KitKat. And I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Its actually what my driving instructor taught me to do.

Haha I do this too!!!

She's not, she is also boycotting the US - it's literally right there in the post you are quoting.

Presumably because of their joint war on Iran which has thrown the world's economy into turmoil and made everyone worse off.

The woods I walk my dog in are also a municipal golf course. I could hear (not see) golfers screaming ‘just move’. As I got closer to where the screaming happened I could see that the people the golfers screamed at were a young family with toddler children. Not nice. The golfers could not see me due to the slope so I kicked their ball into scrub!

now whenever I encounter rude/ entitled golfer and when out of their eyeline if I can I pick up the balls, run along with the dog and throw the ball in deep shrub and nettles 🤭