Conversation

Gavin Deichen
@gdeichen
Replying to @Triquetrea
In spite of everything, I think Britain isn't a terrible place from that point of view, either, for all but a (growing) minority… it could be pretty lovely for everyone, but a lot of people don't want it to be (and I don't just mean that they're not willing to pay the price).
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@gdeichen
I speculate that the sheer spitefulness of Anglo culture is an atavism from your imperial days. Confer American attitudes towards the wider world and the resemblance is uncanny.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@Triquetrea
and
@gdeichen
Living under a system which crushes and abuses the Other for profit does something to the collective mores. I'm almost 100% sure of that. It makes people very unseemly, at the individual level.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@Triquetrea
and
@gdeichen
I see the same creeping narcissism and apathy in the younger generations in Norway. It's real moral decay. It's a delicious irony that the conservatives take ownership of the term, when they are its worst purveyors. Well, it makes perfect sense actually, but y'know what I mean.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@Triquetrea
and
@gdeichen
(And no, in fact, me and the wife have occasionally considered moving to the UK. We've got plenty of exit routes if something wouldn't click with the finances. But she's Polish, so I prevaricate. The racism seems... pretty bad.)
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Gavin Deichen
@gdeichen
Replying to @Triquetrea
That's an interesting point to consider… I actually don't know how bad the racism really is… I don't think that there are that many truly hateful racists, but a lot of people are disturbingly desperate to be allowed to be.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@gdeichen
There is also the (really primary) concern that the child education & care options seem both A) byzantine and incomprehensible and B) ludicrously expensive. Here it's quite laissez faire, whatever the ridiculously conservative dominant public mores might have you think.
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Gavin Deichen
@gdeichen
Replying to @Triquetrea
We've been broken down very hardly into family units here. Problems like the cost of childcare could be solved quite easily with a bit of collectivism, but it almost never happens. The education should be a lot better than it is, but it gets more bad press than it deserves.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@gdeichen
Not talking about the quality of schooling as much as the regulations around it. Which makes me realize, there's one thing I don't know: is homeschooling legal in the UK?
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Gavin Deichen
@gdeichen
Replying to @Triquetrea
Lol! You might like it around here. If I had a place to put you I'd invite you over… must get on with that extension. Anyway, I do consider myself lucky to live here, all things considered.
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Cinder
@Triquetrea
Replying to
@gdeichen
I, personally, probably would. Whereabouts in the UK are you located, anyway? I'm sure I've asked before. I'm equally sure I've forgotten.
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