I get your point - it’s awful these days - but there’s loads of real life local groups, marketplaces, and contacts that I’d lose if I deleted it. Besides, how would I otherwise keep track of the birthdays of random folk I met travelling nearly 20 years ago? :-)

Probably The Winchester.

Slightly related - I went to the doctor’s with a suspected UTI, which turned out to be nothing serious. During their scan, they discovered that I only have one kidney. I was shocked, but they explained that it’s more common than you might think and that my life expectancy/quality would likely be unaffected. I was 47 at the time and drank pretty hard in my 20s. Zero ill effects, but definitely unsettlling.

Annoyingly, I made the mistake of telling a friend immediately after the diagnosis. I live rurally, so now a bunch of people know me as the guy with one kidney, which isn’t ideal.

Yeah, I seem to spend half of my time here responding to killjoy puritanical misanthropes, which likely says more about me than I’d like to admit.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s many interesting and intelligent folk here, I’m just not sure it’s the best place to find a pal.

I live rurally (no Starbucks), but recently had to catch a train from Edinburgh for the second leg of a family holiday. It was delayed by an hour and was raining, so we went into the nearby Starbucks. 2 small hot chocolates for the kids and 1 coffee for my wife and I was down £23. I was caught in the slipstream and stressed so didn’t have time to process how much this would cost. We could have got a bag of snacks and drinks for the journey for half that. Robbing bastards.

Good for you (genuinely). Some folk absolutely should never touch booze. Alcoholism is hell, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

But my God, Lemmy is so puritanical these days. I’m 50, an ex-smoker, and I still enjoy the occasional drink. There’s a massive middle ground for most people.

Countless people have a normal relationship with alcohol. Personally, I have met some amazing folk and had wonderful experiences where drink has played a part.

I’m sure many of you are poised to jump in with the health risks, but honestly, don’t bother. It’s been part of enlightened societies for millennia. You can keep your few extra years at the end of a life of joyless macro-nutritional slavery. I’ll have a beer.

The assertion that women can’t even walk down the street without thinking that a man they pass might suddenly rape them is an extraordinary generalisation. Of course, women have legitimate reasons to be conscious of their personal safety, and sexual violence is a serious problem. But there’s a difference between acknowledging that reality and suggesting that women live in a constant state of fear whenever they leave the house. You’re presenting an extreme scenario as though it’s the universal female experience.

And the suggestion that your life is 20 times easier simply because you’re a straight white man is equally hyperbolic. Privilege isn’t a mathematical equation, and disadvantage isn’t experienced exclusively by women or ethnic minorities. Male suicide rates, loneliness, social isolation and the difficulties many men face in forming meaningful relationships are serious issues too. Men can experience profound disadvantage, vulnerability and suffering. Those things don’t disappear because they happen to be white.

None of this is to deny that women experience sexual violence, that racism exists, or that certain groups face systemic disadvantages. They do, and acknowledging those realities matters. But recognising one group’s difficulties shouldn’t require exaggerating them, diminishing another group’s struggles, or engaging in a competition over who has the hardest existence.

I also find the self-flagellation rather tiresome. You aren’t personally responsible for every terrible thing committed by another man who happens to share your skin colour. You don’t need to feel guilty for existing, nor do you need to apologise for advantages you didn’t consciously create. What you can do is recognise them, avoid dismissing other people’s experiences, and treat people as individuals.

And perhaps most importantly, stop confusing having privilege in certain respects with having an easy life. Struggling to pay your rent is a genuine hardship. Male loneliness and mental health are genuine problems. You can acknowledge those things while still recognising that other people face obstacles you don’t.

The answer isn’t to stay in your apartment. It’s to stop treating social inequality as either a reason for personal guilt or a competition in comparative misery.

So I was right to move to Surfshark?

Got a cheap deal on SurfShark, so moved to them from ExpressVPN. Both worked great, got good reviews etc. Happy to be re-assess if anyone has information to the contrary, or tells me they’re affiliated with the clan or something, but so far so good.

Hey, real sorry for that. Definitely should accept responsibility for all the evils I’ve done by chosing to be born into a British working class family, going to school, uni and getting an IT job in local gov. Definitely got blood on my hands and deserve everything I get for the actions of governments and institutions I’ve never voted for.

Manic Street Preachers

Literately just installed it. Decent!

I disagree, as do millions of others. I still think he shit the bed with this clumsy bit and the subsequent pile on could have been easily avoided. He’s done some hilarious sketches on SNL. And him ripping on Trump with his ‘beautiful dogs’ observation was class.

Holy fuck, who knew that taking a valued institution that’s existed for generations, was universally repected and part of the trusted working fabric of working Britain - then selling it to the highest bidder (something that even Thatcher drew the line at), would have some sort of negative outcome?