Off Topic Thread 5.0

swiwi_

OldRio wrote: »

I recently watched a BBC series called 'Rise of the Nazis'
Utterly fascinating and compelling viewing.

The similarities between what is happening in Britain and the States right now is frightening.
Control of the media. check
The judiciary. check
The civil service. check
The upper classes. check
A common enemy/scapegoat

Only the army left.....

I would highly recommend the series if its on again.

Dont think anyone forced to wear yellow stars though. Haven’t seen book bonfires. No smashed shop windows. Concentration camps non-existant. Maybe a little similar but let’s not exaggerate.

kuang1

Guinness RFC wrote: »

You need to chill out and stop taking it so seriously. If more people had that viewpoint the extremism would just die off and gulf between right and left would disappear.

Wow.

awec

It's getting a bit heavy in here, we allowed casual discussion of political topics but this is not the politics forum and this thread should not turn into a mini politics forum.

OldRio

swiwi_ wrote: »

Dont think anyone forced to wear yellow stars though. Haven’t seen book bonfires. No smashed shop windows. Concentration camps non-existant. Maybe a little similar but let’s not exaggerate.

Well lets not minimse.
'Smashed shop windows' It happens to certain ethnic groups.
'Concentration camps' Only last week the Ascension Islands were mentioned as a 'temporary accommodation' by a government minister.

Anyway. I apologise but that needed pointing out.

sydthebeat

OldRio wrote: »

Well lets not minimse.
'Smashed shop windows' It happens to certain ethnic groups.
'Concentration camps' Only last week the Ascension Islands were mentioned as a 'temporary accommodation' by a government minister.

Anyway. I apologise but that needed pointing out.

and not just any government minister either :P

jacothelad

Can anyone remember what 'normal' was like? Seems a distant memory.

aloooof

jacothelad wrote: »

Can anyone remember what 'normal' was like? Seems a distant memory.

It's mad, in one sense it's felt like the longest feckin year. In another, with how worried I was in March, I can't believe it's now October. Definitely more the former tho....

Neil3030

I visited a friend in February to watch the Wilder v Fury fight. It honestly feels like it was a few years ago.

errlloyd

jacothelad wrote: »

Can anyone remember what 'normal' was like? Seems a distant memory.

My best memories are the first few weeks of lockdown. Almost every night, stack of cans, the novelty of working from home, not going to the gym etc.

It peaked early, in more ways than one.

mfceiling

The first few weeks were great.

Meself and herself drinking a few glasses of wine at night and watching The line of duty from the start. Hard to believe we were off work for 6 weeks though.

jacothelad

You have nothing to fear from Covid except an eye-wateringly large medical bill to get treatment like mine, insists Donald Trump


Donald Trump has told the American public they have nothing to fear from COVID, except an astronomically large medical bill if they are to get the same level of treatment he was lucky enough to receive.
President Trump, who received a number of expensive drugs and a revolutionary antibody treatment given to less than a dozen patients in the country so far, said the average American should not fear a virus that can be easily defeated with just two or three hundred thousand dollars worth of medical care.
“There’s really nothing to it folks,” Trump told the public while struggling not to cough on the White House balcony.

Just to add to 2020, my oldest friend was explaining to me last night why the holocaust isn't real. I can't be dealing with this.

CatFromHue

I hope you countered their argument but arguing that they weren't real!

molloyjh

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Just to add to 2020, my oldest friend was explaining to me last night why the holocaust isn't real. I can't be dealing with this.

I can't get over how much traction that has gotten in relatively recent times. Having been to Dachau & met one of the survivors of that awful place I dont think I could listen to that from someone I know without violent reaction.

aloooof

Pretty concerning stuff from NPHET last night. I thought they spoke very clearly, with an excellent amount of detail. Seemed in direct contrast to the emotive appearance from Leo on Claire Byrne. Really felt it made his "not thought through" comment look pretty foolish, tbh.

Guinness RFC

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Just to add to 2020, my oldest friend was explaining to me last night why the holocaust isn't real. I can't be dealing with this.

Wouldn’t surprise me there are plenty of anti semites in Ireland.

errlloyd

kuang1 wrote: »

I take it you enjoyed "the social dilemma" then Venjur?

Sorry everyone for banging on about this documentary yet again, but a must see for everybody with a social media account or smartphone imo.

Watched this last night and I was wondering if anyone is taking any personal health actions off the back of it? I'd self diagnose with a relatively serious device and social media addiction.

Smartphone screentime is on average around 4 hours per day, and that is when I am working from home and have unlimited access to social media on my as well. I get about 400 notifications per day. I am not really on twitter but scroll facebook and instagram pretty regulalary.

Enabled some "nighttime" features on the phone last night, no notifications and only black and white after 9pm. But I was wondering if anyone had any other strategies.

Synode

errlloyd wrote: »

Watched this last night and I was wondering if anyone is taking any personal health actions off the back of it? I'd self diagnose with a relatively serious device and social media addiction.

Smartphone screentime is on average around 4 hours per day, and that is when I am working from home and have unlimited access to social media on my as well. I get about 400 notifications per day. I am not really on twitter but scroll facebook and instagram pretty regulalary.

Enabled some "nighttime" features on the phone last night, no notifications and only black and white after 9pm. But I was wondering if anyone had any other strategies.

Delete Facebook. Best thing I ever done

kuang1

I've never been on social media.
I indulge in YouTube daily alright. Blooper reels, clips from curb your enthusiasm, discussions about athaeism, and Stephen colbert are my current things. But my daily average YouTube time would be between 45-60 minutes.

I used to have a zombie survival game on the phone that really got a grip of me. Got up to 5 hours on it one day.... That scared me so I got rid of it. Not part of the social media discussion but relevant to answering your question errloyd:

I replaced that game with duolingo. (learning another language has become a bit cliche this year I know!)
Forked out €90 for the full package of it in order to increase my chances of committing to it.
Now into my second month of learning Spanish. Averaging 30 minutes a day at it.

Also went to a bookshop for the first time in ages last month and picked up 3 books. That was done to replace my phone time in bed with something else.
That's been partially successful at least.

I have a pihole running at home and use it to block Facebook. Haven't deleted the account as there are a few local groups that I want to look at occasionally (and even that has reduced) I spend almost all my at home these days so it doesn't come up much outside of home. Reddit is the one I really need to ditch. I'll probably block it soon and see how I go.

Pi hole works for me as it's sufficiently difficult enough to unblock or disable that I don't bother.

errlloyd

Synode wrote: »

Delete Facebook. Best thing I ever done

Man, I genuinely feel I need to be on there to stop my parents from getting radicalised (I am only half joking).

Squidgy Black

I deleted facebook and twitter after all this started, and turned off all news app notifications. Was just way too much for me, and delighted I did too.

Still have Instagram which is probably as bad as the other two and will probably scrap that as well. Reddit's a massive timewaster for me but I don't bother with any of the stuff on the front page or any of that because it's just wall to wall American politics

Podge_irl

I only open Facebook about once every fortnight. Twitter is my real "problem" - I spend quite a bit of time on it but I find it quite useful for news and information. I follow a lot of political/trade/sports stuff on it. I never post anything either so I don't feel "invested" in it in that sense. But the constantly updating format of it does mean it can be quite a time sink.

swiwi_

errlloyd wrote: »

Watched this last night and I was wondering if anyone is taking any personal health actions off the back of it? I'd self diagnose with a relatively serious device and social media addiction.

Smartphone screentime is on average around 4 hours per day, and that is when I am working from home and have unlimited access to social media on my as well. I get about 400 notifications per day. I am not really on twitter but scroll facebook and instagram pretty regulalary.

Enabled some "nighttime" features on the phone last night, no notifications and only black and white after 9pm. But I was wondering if anyone had any other strategies.

Close down your boards account

Synode

kuang1 wrote: »

Also went to a bookshop for the first time in ages last month and picked up 3 books. That was done to replace my phone time in bed with something else.
That's been partially successful at least.

Recently picked up 2 books, The Count of Monty Christo (based on recommendation on here) and a book about John Hume. Been pretty busy lately so getting through them slowly, but books are so much better than looking at devices. Far easier to sleep after reading than browsing too.

Edit: no idea why that sunglasses emoji appeared above

aloooof

Champagne Football is an astonishing read, flew through it in the last week. Far better than constant scroll in the evenings. (Says the fella who's as guilty as anyone....)

Buer

kuang1 wrote: »

I
I replaced that game with duolingo. (learning another language has become a bit cliche this year I know!)
Forked out €90 for the full package of it in order to increase my chances of committing to it.
Now into my second month of learning Spanish. Averaging 30 minutes a day at it.

How is it going, as a matter of interest? I'm rapidly approaching my mid-life crisis so wouldn't mind being able to order a pint, a tequila chaser and a bag of bacon fries in Tenerife in Spanish.

errlloyd

swiwi_ wrote: »

Close down your boards account

I was tempted man. 12 thousand posts is too many.

The one thing is that makes me reluctant is that boards hardly manages to stay online for a whole week without crashing. So I find it hard to believe there is too much nefarious psychological manipulation going on here.

I must just enjoy it!

Zzippy

errlloyd wrote: »

I was tempted man. 12 thousand posts is too many.

The one thing is that makes me reluctant is that boards hardly manages to stay online for a whole week without crashing. So I find it hard to believe there is too much nefarious psychological manipulation going on here.

I must just enjoy it!

I don't know, I'd say there are a few Russian bots pop up on here.

Recent join date. Check.
Numbers in their userame. Check.
Post inflammatory content to stir up indignation. Check.
No mates. Check check.

irishbucsfan

errlloyd wrote: »

I was tempted man. 12 thousand posts is too many.

It is