The idiotic battles of the culture wars

[Satchmo Distel]

It's been mobilized more than the others into legislation for malign political ends and targeted more at vulnerable groups, most obviously trans. In my state it's being used to destroy public education as a worthwhile endeavour and to make liberal arts teaching a nightmare career.

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/lorrainemking/status/1764634035106480406?t=E5UigZ27euzC7TweO65idA&s=19

Fox drops his action.

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/I_amMukhtar/status/1764639062931955777?t=_GdX7CfJxjRF0UARlmjR_w&s=19

And Fox of course lies about it.

[Patrick Thistle]

Could also be on the grifters thread

[Patrick Thistle]

This thread started with a discussion of low traffic neighbourhoods and 15 minute cities...

...which seemed to stoke fear among the easily frightened people who get outraged easily.

Meanwhile the government are pushing ahead with 74 "Special Economic Zones" including 12 freeports and it all seems.very under-reported

This came up on Twitter earlier

https://twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1769424651929677878?t=YSvB8N3npMogb1W582-9Tg&s=19

https://twitter.com/FiveByFiveTimes/status/1769451464307466648?t=gyTCnJ6XUC83gp3RojE2Ng&s=19

[Satchmo Distel]

This is good interview with Naomi Klein from around 6 months ago on the causes of culture wars and conspiracism:

[Sean of the Shed]

https://twitter.com/CeliaRichards0n/status/1774672525202481190?t=UmCY63Wzsir46BOn-ReX0Q&s=19

[Antepli Ejderha]

I thought this was an April fool.

[Sean of the Shed]

I thought this was an April fool.

You'd think so, but the Heil wrote it yesterday.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don’t really understand why the National Trust is in the sconery game. But I found this blog which makes me think Britain may secretly be the greatest country on Earth.

https://www.nationaltrustscones.com

[Ginger Yellow]

I don’t really understand why the National Trust is in the sconery game.

They've got to sell something in the tea rooms.

[Hot Pepsi]

Why do they have tea rooms?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's just a cafe for people with notions.

[ad hoc]

Why do they have tea rooms?

Why do cinemas cell popcorn? The reason is basically the same.

(Plus, after you've tramped around a large house and extensive gardens you are in need of some for of sustenance - far more than you do through sitting through a 2 hour film)

[Hot Pepsi]

Movies sell popcorn and soda because their margin on it is about 99% whereas most of the money from tickets goes to Hollywood. Their labor is cheap.

A tea room seems like a more labor-intensive, high-overhead effort.

[ad hoc]

The margin may not be quite as high, but the motive is largely the same

[diggedy derek]

I suspect a number of people at National Trust properties might be volunteers. That might be incorrect though.

Me, I freaking love their tea rooms, as we often split a long car journey by stopping at a National Trust property and getting a bite to eat. It's much more interesting than a motorway service station and feels like you're contributing to something vaguely worthwhile.

[Balderdasha]

I would be completely outraged if I went for a day out at a national trust property and it didn't have a cafe. The cafe is at least half of the point. A day out with young children essentially goes like this:

- Arrive at destination. Immediately go to toilets and spend half an hour there.
- Buy caffeinated beverage to recover from the horror and steel yourself for the day ahead.
- Attempt to visit whatever the attraction is, perhaps ambitiously manage half an hour admiring the building or walking around the grounds until your toddler falls face first into a puddle.
- Return to toilets to clean / change wailing toddler.
- Buy toddler a snack to stop the wailing.
- Go to the outdoor playground.
- Return to the cafe for soup/more caffeine/cake/sandwich.
- Another half an hour in the toilet.
- Go to the gift shop. Regret this immediately when your toddler breaks something and you have to buy it.
- Visit the toilet one last time before hurriedly exiting.
- Congratulate yourself on an excellent family day out.

[MsD]

Yeah, my routine visiting a museum is something like that without the kids.

Maybe not as long in the toilet.

[Eggchaser]

Are they tea rooms? I am a semi-frequent visitor to NT properties (take the kids for exercise, to the groans of my son at the threat of the inside of a country house and the groans of my daughter at being evicted from her room for anything other than mall mooching) and I don't remember tea rooms.


Cafes and restaurants yes. Maybe I'm just ignoring the map signage.

Anyway, fuck Restore Trust, but they will chip away forever until they win, just like Brexit and all the other cuntery funded to the tune of millions by shady cunts. Why do none of these gits ever think, "I have enough money, time to do some good", why is it always building dick shaped rockets and mad right wing brutality?

At least your old money aristocracy had the grace to blow the family fortune on horse racing, mistresses and substance abuse (ironically often leading to the National Trust taking on the crumbling ancestral home).

[ursus arctos]

Just my episodic note that Balders' experience with children, while not uncommon, is far from universal

[diggedy derek]

I would be completely outraged if I went for a day out at a national trust property and it didn't have a cafe. The cafe is at least half of the point. A day out with young children essentially goes like this:

- Arrive at destination. Immediately go to toilets and spend half an hour there.
- Buy caffeinated beverage to recover from the horror and steel yourself for the day ahead.
- Attempt to visit whatever the attraction is, perhaps ambitiously manage half an hour admiring the building or walking around the grounds until your toddler falls face first into a puddle.
- Return to toilets to clean / change wailing toddler.
- Buy toddler a snack to stop the wailing.
- Go to the outdoor playground.
- Return to the cafe for soup/more caffeine/cake/sandwich.
- Another half an hour in the toilet.
- Go to the gift shop. Regret this immediately when your toddler breaks something and you have to buy it.
- Visit the toilet one last time before hurriedly exiting.
- Congratulate yourself on an excellent family day out.

Understood. My realistic target with any National Trust property, in terms of its historical relevance, extends no further than 'glean a vague idea of what and who it was for' and that's a job done as far as I'm concerned.

[Janik]

Are they tea rooms? I am a semi-frequent visitor to NT properties (take the kids for exercise, to the groans of my son at the threat of the inside of a country house and the groans of my daughter at being evicted from her room for anything other than mall mooching) and I don't remember tea rooms.


Cafes and restaurants yes. Maybe I'm just ignoring the map signage.

More likely the other way around - those calling them 'Tea Rooms' are imposing their own term in defiance of the organisations names.
The nearest NT property to me has one 'Restaurant', two place termed as a 'Cafe'. Their website warns the opening is highly seasonal - I think I've only ever seen the restaurant open. But then I'm usually there around 9-10am on a Saturday, which is not going to be the peak time.

[Balderdasha]

Just my episodic note that Balders' experience with children, while not uncommon, is far from universal

Yes. Definitely not universal. Though I do remember my brother-in-law complaining when his children were young that "I still haven't fully come to terms with how much of our days out are spent in the toilet". They have four kids so when they were younger if a day out involved anything whatsoever in addition to visiting the toilets, it was considered a huge success.

[Balderdasha]

MrB still hasn't quite come to terms with the lowered expectations of a day out. He still hopes to do something that he might enjoy, whereas I have long since abandoned that in favour of assessing "what will be the least traumatic outing for everyone involved".