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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • Hi American friend!

    I absolutely get it - “too good to be true” is definitely a thing in the English speaking world.

    I absolutely get the apprehension - if I was jumping on to a Bee Bus or the Edinburgh Trams with a ticket that some rando was trying to offload, then my Spidey senses would be tingling too.

    In this instance though, we’re probably looking at a value of US$10ish, so in my own perfectly subjective opinion, I’d be happy to give it a bash. If it doesnt work, the the ticket gets yeeted and the contactless card gets used instead.

    I absolutely understand settling in to the “normal” of buying your own ticket though and I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.


  • A great question. I was going to call it a “thought experiment”, but as Wikipedia more succinctly calls it, a “philosophical concept”. I’m wary of jumping to the paradox of tolerance as a device to handwave away violence against anyone.

    It’s an important point to consider and it raises vital questions that challenges my own argument, but ultimately the rights of the human override any philosophical ideals.

    In this instance, I would much rather preserve the rights of any person - arsehole or not - rather than subject them to sexual violence because of a perceived difference in political opinion.


  • Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your insight.

    We still disagree, but I genuinely appreciate the additional context you have to offer. I’m not wholly altruistic, I think Fuentes is a massive piece of human garbage.

    But, he is human - and with that, is his right to human rights.

    I don’t like him as much as the next person and that is an entirely subjective opinion, but levelling the same kind of hatred and lack of compassion effectively makes you no better than fanny balls Fuentes is. It’s a dangerously small leap from <I don’t like what this person stands for> and therefore sanctioning sexual assault, to <they don’t like what I stand for> and therefore sanctioning sexual assault.

    I suspect we’re on the same broad page, but our means are vastly different.


  • You and I are on such vastly different platforms that you’re one of the few people I don’t think I can find any common ground with. Whereas I agree one’s own qualified rights end where others rights begin, I consider basic human rights to be absolute, and certainly not influenced by whatever political views you do or don’t share.

    By extension, the abstracted opinion of “I think it’s funny that <a group of people I don’t like> <experiences something terrible>” is borderline fascism in itself, and your position is cancerous to any anti-fascist movement you’re involved in.


  • It’s whatever floats your boat at the end of the day. I’ve seen people with unique usernames being super chill in one community, and then appear in another spouting off like they’re two steps away from annexing Poland in another. It’s wild.

    I do my absolute best not to block people or communities though. I worry that my account will just end up as an echo chamber for whatever I’m interested in, and I’ll just end up disconnected from the Real World™️, as tempting as it sounds sometimes.

    Sometimes seeing and hearing shit that wasn’t top of your agenda keeps you grounded - but it’s an entirely subjective view.

    e: community clarity.






  • Nah that’s fair enough, I get it. It’s a reasonably common thing in the UK - either the person who takes it is a local rogue who’ll flog the travelcard for a quid, or it’ll be used by someone away out on the piss for the night.

    I just found it odd is all. Like, if you take it and it works, happy days - you’ve saved yourself a bit of cash. If the ticket gate spits it back at you, then oh well, back to plan A.

    It’s cool to hear your take on it though, thank you.


  • Hey thanks for your insight.

    Maybe in the UK we’re super used to fast fashion shite like Primark or Asda George. I mean, the designs are cool but the quality rivals that of the Looney Tunes ACME products.

    Maybe you’re right though, maybe I’m looking at them through rose tinted specs. I rather like the Old Navy stuff or American Eagle. The material just seems to last a tad longer than the supermarket pish in the UK.


  • Oh man, I forgot the ESTA. A travel plan for your travel plan for your travel plan.

    We’ll have the ETIAS to do soon as well. Won’t be long before the dude at the border in Gibraltar will be like “¿que tal bruv, where’s Travelling With Authority Treaty form?”.

    Oh well. We did it to ourselves 🙁

    edit: forgot to say, thanks for the addition.

    Definitely worth calling your mobile provider beforehand - I think I had an add-on where I could pay £2 per day and use my contract allowance as usual. It worked nicely.