To despair of Mumsnet?

[chilephilly]

Threads I've read in the last half hour so....
I'm spending more than what a significant part of the UK earns in a year on a holiday
I'm voting Conservative
Owen Jones is a skid mark
I love UKIP immigration policy.

Us Socialists are unwelcome. AIBU? Or am I just reading the wrong bits?
(preparing to be told to feck off to Russia)

I must be reading a different Mumsnet. On the Mumsnet I'm reading:

• Tory voters are scum / immoral / lack empathy / hate the poor
• Lefty liberalism is expected (except about drugs for some reason)
• Chavs is required reading (but Owen Jones is a skid mark)
• There plenty chat about tax credits, things that could impact entitlement on threads, which would suggest to me that Mumsnet is not overrun by people who take £30k holidays.

I actually feel rather far to the right of centre on here at times, whereas 'in real life' I don't feel that's the case at all

Bloody hell, my last sentence was a mess.

I don't mind the how much people spend threads. I commented on the car one as I drive a heap of junk and am happy to do so, I don't have a chip about it as cars are not my thing.

What I don't like is the 'think of the poor/disabled/divorced etc' attitude that is popping up on threads that are nothing to do with that subject.

It means that everything is starting to get taken as an offense and it can be very condescending in a 'well I don't have to worry about X but others do so lets think of them' way

Why are you trying to convince me you weren't being rude to me when you were. It's pointless.

I posted saying I personally didn't understand threads which were simply about the cost of things. It's not difficult. It's not a judgement on people who post about holidays. I just don't understand threads where the only purpose is to talk about how much something costs. I just don't understand them. They are weird to me. I feel the same about threads about homes or cars. If the only point of the thread is the cost and how much you have spent it feels weird.

You made references about my puzzlement being a 'sap to my conscience'. And then being 'supposedly sensitive' to the feelings of others.
That imo was rude.

But if you are happy in your certainty that you were not being rude and I am misguided why not just leave me to it. It is, once again, pretty pointless.

Ahhh good old reverse snobbery!!

I am a Tory voter and member of the party :)

I worry about the disabled not being able to keep up with the checkout operators in Aldi and Lidl.

I'm Tory scum though, so I can't really be worried

Hidden This is why I don't shop there, I know I would simply get the rage and tell them to slow the fuck down and I imagine I would get barred anyway - that would be a story for the grandchildren, barred from Lidl

Merry

Good old Nye Bevan had it right:
"No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin."

It never ceases to amaze me that people who declare themselves socialist and/or liberal are, more often than not, the people who are the most intolerant of any opinion or view that differs from their own.

Oh yes.

You do realise that socialism and liberalism are completely two different things, right?

Which proves the point Random of those on the Left being the ones who are intolerant of those who hold a different view.

Yes I do realise that hence the and/or.

This is ridiculous. You know why lefties get intolerant and angry? Because of how power is distributed in this country, because of the widening gap between rich and poor. Because the wealthy can buy privilege and pass it to their kids, while the poor and disabled are targeted for ideological reasons by people like IDS, who live off inherited wealth.
It's all well and good saying that Tories are easy going and tolerant. Why wouldn't they be? They can afford to be complacent: their people rule this country whichever party is in power. They always win. They don't have to fight for anything.

Politics isn't a chummy little game; it's not cricket where we clap the winners politely. Would you say that Orwell was 'intolerant' because of his horror at the conditions he discovered in Lancashire of the 30s? It's ok to be angry where there are many things to be angry about: yet people whinge on here because they feel that the biggest crime in society is having to pay bloody inheritance tax.

Er, excuse me, I have to fight my way through Marks & Spencer's food hall

Anyway, the Labour Party are not socialist. They haven't been for a long time now.

This will probably get roundly ignored because not bunfighty enough but the philosopher John Gray has an interesting take on contemporary secular liberalism as a continuation of Christianity by other means. I've found it quite illuminating to look at certain 'tolerant' type principles as religious orthodoxies rather than self-evident truths. Certainly it helps to explain the witch-hunt behaviour that follows when someone is publicly seen to be in breach of said orthodoxy.

Also, looked at in that light, Jeremy Clarkson could be described as a kind of religious heretic. Which amuses me no end

People complain about what affects them.

'Also, looked at in that light, Jeremy Clarkson could be described as a kind of religious heretic. Which amuses me no end '

The most intolerant people I know are the ones to the right. They are intolerant of anyone poor, anyone on benefits, anyone who doesn't agree with them, anyone poor who dares to have children, anyone at the airport without priority boarding oh and anyone that parks too close to the Range Rover.

I do see a major left wing bias from my friends and contemporaries which can grate too. As its not rational sometimes.

Safer to say: some people are intolerant.

I am a liberal and I would say I am pretty tolerant of other views. Apart from racism. Which unfortunately is bound up with some parties (well, Ukip)

"People complain about what affects them."

I complain about plenty of things that don't affect me directly (RandomNPC summed them up nicely) because I see them as unfair, and as victimising the poorest in society. But apparently that just makes me a champagne socialist. Go figure.

1. If someone is spending £30k in South America then fair play to them. Most Central/South American countries are run on excellent, unofficial socialist principles. A daft semi-relative pitched up on holiday, having forgotten his vaccinations and was told that they were only sold in batches of 144 and once they'd vaccinated him, they might as well use up the spares on all of the kids in the surrounding villages, making his trip and probably his existence, worthwhile.

1. Bad shit happens.

1. White men often get a bit confused about privilege but Chavs was good.

1. Nothing delights me more than a UKIP voter, they're not numerous and every single one of them is a vote stolen from the Tories. Disaffected socialists don't suddenly get all miffy about immigration.

Urgh!!! I really should've hidden this thread

I'm a lefty capitalist. Have been all my life, including when I earned stupid amounts of money. Now I'm aged, chronically ill, on benefits and broke. I still enjoy discussions with people of varying circumstances - I'll never stop being interested in social diversity, individual lives, or economic inequality.

I do agree there seems to be a creeping blanket of 'offence' which attempts to silence such discussions. I think it's a shame. Not only would it be very boring if everyone was in identical circumstances - or pretended to be - but it'd be dangerously limiting in terms of understanding one another.

Which is another way of saying everybody's being unreasonable

I LOVE your point [1] Boofy! I was also quite pleased that Mamazon's spending her vast holiday budget in Uruguay. It's a fantastic place for a holiday, is dealing with its problems in an inspirational manner, and could do with the cash :)

Ha, I love that too Boofy