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I'm working on crawling out from under a rock. 2023 seems like an auspicious year for that. Or at least an interesting one.

Oh hi!

Lot of it about. Things are getting Weird. Hope you're well.

[it won't matter.]

You can't undo what we have done.

Oh, sure, you'll fucking try. You'll kill us by the thousand. But that doesn't matter.

You think being alive is some kind of win condition on this fucked up little marble? How stupid are you? I don't know if you've noticed, but shit's bad and getting worse. You think I'm eager to stick around so I can drown in sewage like the rest of the apes? Hah. Pathetic. No, the only thing that keeps me going these days is spite. I'm suffering, but I'm going to make you suffer even more.

No. The thing you wanted to do was preserve the lie. Make us believe that the world fits into neat little boxes. Make your kids think that they're broken for feeling the way they feel, loving the people they love. But they've seen the truth, now.

You can kill every last one of us and it won't matter.

Everyone knows the lie for what it is.

For most of human history you and people like you have done a great job maintaining the lie, and whilst you could stop us talking to each other it worked nicely. But the truth has out. And here's the thing.

We're not content to just quietly kill ourselves any more.

We're going to make you do it. Knowing it won't change a fucking thing. Knowing that all it means is that sooner or later, you're going to throw your own kids on the pyre too.

You've lost. And that? That gives me life.

So fucking kill me, loser.

That's incredible news! Congrats!

Today was the culmination of a lot of hard work.

Can't go into huge detail without doxxing myself but we have made life a lot better for (at the moment) 30 or so trans folks in my city, and we'll be expanding from there.

I'm still buzzing. Getting out there and doing shit to make a material difference is just so satisfying.

Have we reversed the course of the ongoing horrorshow? No. Of course not. But for a few hours today people didn't need to have that at the forefront of their mind.

Fucking pissed at this.

Hello Screenwriter,

According to our records, you may be using Final Draft 9, a version of our software developed over nine years ago. In the years since the development of Final Draft 9, many advances have been made in computer hardware and operating systems, increasing their security and stability.

Because of the advanced age of Final Draft 9, it may not work correctly on the most current operating systems and hardware configurations. As a result of security concerns for both our network and our customers, we have decided to discontinue activation and deactivation of Final Draft 9, effective May 15, 2023. Please note this will not remove Final Draft 9 from your computers; however, we encourage you to upgrade to maintain access to security and support.

We want to ensure our customers use the best version of Final Draft available. We encourage you to upgrade to Final Draft 12 for the increased stability, security, and robust new screenwriting features in the program, including:

    Collaboration
    Night & Focus Mode
    Story Mapping & Beat Board™
    Track Changes
    Speech to Script, and more!

We understand that upgrading may be something other than what you anticipated. As a token of our appreciation for your loyalty, we are offering you Final Draft 12 at a steeply reduced rate.

I was sold on getting Final Draft 9 at a screenwriting festival on the basis that, whilst it was expensive, it was a one-off cost and I would be able to use it forever.

Now the next time I want to change computers I need a new copy. The discount brings it down to half price but 1) I don't give a shit about the new features 2) The offer expires on the 15th July and 3) Presumably they'll just do this again in a few years time when they decide they need more sales for Final Draft 13+.

If I want to use old software that might have security vulnerabilities in it that ought to be my decision to make.

Really hate this trend where apparently even things you think you own it turns out you don't.

In other Normal Island news I just saw a news segment titled "Police arrest volunteers giving out rape alarms in fear of coronation disruption."

I don't really care about this but I feel like I ought to throw it out there.

Local council elections in the UK are in and the Tories have taken a pasting.



One thing that I do think is interesting at a first glance here is that Labour is not nearly so clearly the victor as they are crowing about. Yes, they got the largest number of seats... but it's not that far ahead of the Lib Dems and the Greens more than doubled their holding.

My suspicion is that the Lib Dems are benefiting from the hard core of Tory voters who want to express their dissatisfaction but will never vote Labour, and the Greens are benefiting from the hard core of Left voters who will never vote Starmer.

It's always difficult to predict what will happen at the next GE from local council results but I think the Lib Dem gains give particular reason for pause here. Most people don't take local elections seriously because the stakes are perceived as lower (which is ironic as they often have a bigger impact on their lives in material terms than their MP). Lib Dems have a reputation for being good in local government (which... eh) and then rarely being able to translate that into strong parliamentary showings because people just don't take them seriously as a party of potential government (which is good; they don't deserve that).

When people are faced with the choice that 'matters' I think there's every chance they swing back to the Tories. Memories are short and Sunak still has time to craft his pitch. I still ultimately think that a Labour government (possibly a Labour led coalition) is the most likely outcome, but particularly if Starmer continues to fail to inspire and the pitch from both parties is "Things are shit, they're going to get more shit, and that's good actually" people may well decide to just stick with the devil they know.

It doesn't look entirely great for Labour...strong suggestions of a coalition government based on the showing and numbers so far. Completely squandered that 50 point lead they had seven months back, as far as I can tell they spent that entire time telling the left of the party they are swine,to the unions that they won't back them, that they won't help students and they don't especially care about rampant TERFism or refugees and promising YET MORE CRACKDOWNS in order to court the vote of gammons who will always vote for the Tories over them anyway.

So yeah. Demoralising your own base is...an interesting political approach.

But yeah, I agree the Lib Dem vote is likely disaffected Tories who want to punish them where it'll actually hurt.

The thing is, England doesn't really matter too much.

When the general election kicks off it's all about Scotland. It's a foregone conclusion that Labour will win, which is good for the country as Starmer is more Blairite centrist. It's how much they win.

Back in the day, Labour relied heavily on the Scottish vote. The SNP turning Scotland into a one party state hurt them badly. However now there is a chance that the whole "vote for independence and ignore how shit we are at running a nation" bullshit has been exposed and the Scottish folks will go back to voting Labour in order to fuck the tories.

Go fuck yourself.

I don't really care about this but I feel like I ought to throw it out there.

Local council elections in the UK are in and the Tories have taken a pasting.



One thing that I do think is interesting at a first glance here is that Labour is not nearly so clearly the victor as they are crowing about. Yes, they got the largest number of seats... but it's not that far ahead of the Lib Dems and the Greens more than doubled their holding.

My suspicion is that the Lib Dems are benefiting from the hard core of Tory voters who want to express their dissatisfaction but will never vote Labour, and the Greens are benefiting from the hard core of Left voters who will never vote Starmer.

It's always difficult to predict what will happen at the next GE from local council results but I think the Lib Dem gains give particular reason for pause here. Most people don't take local elections seriously because the stakes are perceived as lower (which is ironic as they often have a bigger impact on their lives in material terms than their MP). Lib Dems have a reputation for being good in local government (which... eh) and then rarely being able to translate that into strong parliamentary showings because people just don't take them seriously as a party of potential government (which is good; they don't deserve that).

When people are faced with the choice that 'matters' I think there's every chance they swing back to the Tories. Memories are short and Sunak still has time to craft his pitch. I still ultimately think that a Labour government (possibly a Labour led coalition) is the most likely outcome, but particularly if Starmer continues to fail to inspire and the pitch from both parties is "Things are shit, they're going to get more shit, and that's good actually" people may well decide to just stick with the devil they know.

It doesn't look entirely great for Labour...strong suggestions of a coalition government based on the showing and numbers so far. Completely squandered that 50 point lead they had seven months back, as far as I can tell they spent that entire time telling the left of the party they are swine,to the unions that they won't back them, that they won't help students and they don't especially care about rampant TERFism or refugees and promising YET MORE CRACKDOWNS in order to court the vote of gammons who will always vote for the Tories over them anyway.

So yeah. Demoralising your own base is...an interesting political approach.

But yeah, I agree the Lib Dem vote is likely disaffected Tories who want to punish them where it'll actually hurt.

From a trans perspective, with Duffield etc and the comments he's made on the latest EHRC guidance about changing the meaning of legal gender, it feels as though he's made the calculation that supporting trans people is a red line for more people than throwing trans people under the bus is.

The truth is that most people don't care too much about us either way. But the ones who hate us definitely consider support a dealbreaker, where the ones who support us ... generally care about other things more. "Sure I don't like his trans stuff but we can't let the Tories get in."

Just on a pure realpolitik level he's probably correct about that.

Everything else, with Mandelson back in the tent, really feels like a return to "Who else are they going to vote for?" Signal to business and people who consider themselves sensible moderates that they aren't at any risk of having the status quo challenged and the broader left will fall into line. I don't know if that's actually true any more though. I think there's a good chance people who feel betrayed by Starmer just vote Green instead, splitting the vote and giving the Tories a narrow path to maintain power.

The neoliberal and authoritarian policies being put forward really seem to be the true ideological core of Starmerism and the Labour Right.

Either way, it's looking bleak. Long term I don't see any political project which has an actual answer to the real structural challenges we're facing. The increasing levels of deprivation and suffering can only go on so long before there's some kind of backlash. If Starmer gets in as the 'legitimate alternative' and still fails to address anything (and... I don't think he's capable of addressing anything within the ideological limitations he has adopted) we're going to be heading down a very dangerous road.

I don't really care about this but I feel like I ought to throw it out there.

Local council elections in the UK are in and the Tories have taken a pasting.



One thing that I do think is interesting at a first glance here is that Labour is not nearly so clearly the victor as they are crowing about. Yes, they got the largest number of seats... but it's not that far ahead of the Lib Dems and the Greens more than doubled their holding.

My suspicion is that the Lib Dems are benefiting from the hard core of Tory voters who want to express their dissatisfaction but will never vote Labour, and the Greens are benefiting from the hard core of Left voters who will never vote Starmer.

It's always difficult to predict what will happen at the next GE from local council results but I think the Lib Dem gains give particular reason for pause here. Most people don't take local elections seriously because the stakes are perceived as lower (which is ironic as they often have a bigger impact on their lives in material terms than their MP). Lib Dems have a reputation for being good in local government (which... eh) and then rarely being able to translate that into strong parliamentary showings because people just don't take them seriously as a party of potential government (which is good; they don't deserve that).

When people are faced with the choice that 'matters' I think there's every chance they swing back to the Tories. Memories are short and Sunak still has time to craft his pitch. I still ultimately think that a Labour government (possibly a Labour led coalition) is the most likely outcome, but particularly if Starmer continues to fail to inspire and the pitch from both parties is "Things are shit, they're going to get more shit, and that's good actually" people may well decide to just stick with the devil they know.

Please dont let this stop the shitting on this moron but:

I wont hear ill of Brendan O'Carroll, I don't like Mrs browns boys but that character cannot be reduced to the cliched joke of a man in a dress.
Agnes brown is an incredibly accurate portrayal of an Irish Mammy, and both his portrayal and Angelica Houstons (yes its THAT agnes brown) elicit aspects of the character in interesting ways

Not throwing any shade at O'Carroll.

Just think it's very interesting that FK chose that character in this particular context.

It's almost like everything he says has some kind of unfortunate subtext to it. What a strange coincidence.

Just going to leave this here for no particular reason.

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

THAT'S what you're referencing?

So you're saying you're not being a misogynist because you're using the dismissive catchphrase of a man in a dress when addressing a trans woman?

Great job. Top work. No notes.

Lets drill down into this hypocrisy shall we? Dismissing a "man in a dress"? That's a REALLY insulting way to describe drag don't you think?

Considering it was a "man in a dress" that started the stonewall riots. Considering the fact that Florida recently passed the death penalty for child abuse convictions and will now try to use that legislation to threaten and harass homosexual (and straight) people who dress in drag and conduct story time readings. But that's ok apparently as a "man in a dress" is somehow misogynistic.

Lets look at the "man in a dress" who's catchphrase I love so much shall we? Brendan O'Carroll is a massive supporter of the LGBT+ community. He's used the show to support gay rights and the to campaign for the legalisation of gay marriage in Ireland.

Great Job. Top Work. No Notes.

Once again: Go fuck yourself.

You were given a choice, dumbass.

Being extremely charitable you used a poor analogy and were called on it. If you'd held your hands up then and there maybe some people would have thought "Eh, this guy acts like he's just been kicked in the head by a horse but he's just a moron, not malicious." Not everyone, admittedly. Some of us have reasons to discard anyone who even looks like they might be dogwhistling. Combined with your post history and the fact you still haven't addressed that, well, I'd definitely be giving you the side-eye for a good long time even if you hadn't carried on.

"Go fuck yourself" was a chance for you to go back, read what you just said, realise the sheer extent of your ignorance, how fucking insulting it is, and reevaluate just what you want your time in this community to look like.

You made your choice. You doubled down. After all, it's not you that's incapable of communicating like a human being. It's everyone ELSE who is just being MEAN and RUDE! And surely, there's not a single thing poor, bleeding heart FK did to deserve rudeness. Why, I'm just clutching my pearls.

You want to talk about perception? You want to know why everyone just seems to call you a fascist?

Well fuck, buddy, there might just be some clues buried in this thread right here. Who can say?

It's really not.

THAT'S what you're referencing?

So you're saying you're not being a misogynist because you're using the dismissive catchphrase of a man in a dress when addressing a trans woman?

Great job. Top work. No notes.

Go fuck yourself.