atypicalpolitical

The Glory Days of the Web

You know how, as people grow older, they become more and more conservative? Ugh, I can’t believe I’m that guy, before even turning 30. This might be due to more than just bitterness and being overworked. I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia.

Even after long years of consideration, debate, and self-doubt, I’ve realised that I simply and honestly prefer lots of things how I remember them to the way they are now. Sure, progress is a staple of humanity and it’s unstoppable. But could we not have progressed more in some other directions? Ideas: Matches are still essentially the same as nearly two centuries ago, and so are sailboats.

Continue reading “The Glory Days of the Web”

Predictably, we too have an issue with the #metoo craze.

“It’s time to speak out!”

That’s right, people. ‘Cause there’s a severe shortage of “speaking out” these days.

That is if you disregard the millions of moaning Michaels who find ever more creative ways to tell all their friends (without having to leave the house) every single thing that’s on their minds in bite sized portions. No, but this time we really mean it. Oh my god, we’re going to rattle the world with this hashtag, you wait!

I feel like I’m witnessing the tumorous growth of yet another virtual fad, its lifespan likely to be as short and wimpy as those that preceded it. At least the ice bucketeers actually helped raise quite a bit of money for a clearly defined cause. This, however, looks to me like a load of bored young women jumping on the bandwagon of Hollywood’s latest ladies of the hour.

Continue reading “Predictably, we too have an issue with the #metoo craze.”

#shoutyourmentalillness

The recent “epidemic” of “depression” is one of my biggest beefs with society today. People are actually gaining exposure from making whiny, longwinded articles for massive media outlets talking about their PTSD induced by overly strict parenting and schoolyard bullying. How can this be happening? When did our culture turn around and show its underbelly to the big mean world? Moaning and whimpering we flock in droves to our underpaid doctors and leech antidepressant pills out of an NHS in crisis, and then feel even more sorry for ourselves as a result because our “needs” and “desires” were not “met appropriately”.

When I myself was a moody teen, I used to wish I’d had a rougher life just so’s I could complain more legitimately. Today I see that such fantasies are no longer necessary, because now everyone’s complaint is valid and worthy not only of consideration, but thorough compensation, too. Hooray! What a shame (read: thank God) I outgrew that stage before I could exploit it.

Our middle-class first world has officially become overly comfortable. Far too full of humourless, well-off, middle-class babies are getting showered with attention for describing their “symptoms” in a semipoetic and fully public way. I think maybe this little epidemic is maybe a little touch overhyped. In fact, calling it “depression” only became fashionable about 40 years ago.

Continue reading “#shoutyourmentalillness”

Interlude

When you’re debating with someone about a very sensitive and/or political topic, it is good to have some factual backing for your arguments. Don’t worry, though. If you know you are right, the need for fact-based arguments diminishes considerably, and you can basically relax into dignified smugness and repetitive, evasive responses. You can reside safely in the knowledge that the other is just a victim of brainwashing, or simply a bigot (unlike yourself). Either way, clearly not someone to listen to. However, if your adversary plays by the same rules, you may have a chance of winning via cigarette break or introduction of an unrelated third party into the conversation – but there are few other options. If your opponent is quite laid-back in their bigotry, you may get a few points across, but you must keep your inner shield strong to avoid persuasion or manipulation that may sway you to regard their obviously wrong ideas as worthy of consideration.

Why LGBT Pride Month is (mostly) Bullshit.

by guest contributor Jack Baldwin

Why are you proud of your sexuality?

It seems this is the guise the LGBT movement uses to hide their real ulterior motives. Before moving on to what the movement is really trying to accomplish, allow me to go along with its poor alibi. I can agree that no one should be ashamed of anything in their identity which they have no control over (although that is apparently still up for debate, just ask my favourite person), but pushing that we should actually be proud of our sexuality or gender is a bit too much of a stretch, even for me, with my extremely socially liberal tendencies (ha, ha).

Allow me to break this down using homosexuality as an example. You are proud of being gay. If you are a man, you are proud of the fact that the chemicals in your brain react to external stimuli, let’s say an attractive man, and subsequently send blood to your penis, causing an erection. You’re essentially proud of a perfectly natural human bodily function. You may as well be proud of taking a shit.

Continue reading “Why LGBT Pride Month is (mostly) Bullshit.”

Why I’m Pro-Choice (Within Reason)

As a steadfast pro-choicer since as long as I can remember, I have recently made myself read and listen to as many pro-life arguments as possible. Let me cover these arguments and my rebuttals here and if anyone has anything to add or subtract, make yourself heard.

Now, I’m probably not going to say anything new here. Let’s not beat around the bush. I’m pro-choice firstly because I’m a young woman who realises that with one small mistake, I might bring my already unstable life to crash down all around me like the wrath of God. All because of a moment’s blindness to reality. I’m lucky to live in an era where I can fix that mistake relatively painlessly, few questions asked. Continue reading “Why I’m Pro-Choice (Within Reason)”

The Problems with Diversity

by guest contributor Jack Baldwin

One of the most frustrating things that our society now values is diversity, something I have never seen as an inherently good or bad thing. Speaking as an individual that would be labelled a radical 60 years ago, a classical liberal 30 years ago, and a bigot today, I declare I could not care less about your race, your gender, your sexuality or your religion. I only care about your actions and your values.

According to my set of values, I would not hold a group of diverse criminals in higher esteem than a group of homogenous criminals. Because diversity has been so unanimously accepted as a positive in mainstream British culture, my position is an unpopular one. Call me old-fashioned, but I am yet to be convinced that any protected characteristic provides an individual, or indeed a collective, with more or less virtue. Continue reading “The Problems with Diversity”

MSM on Putin: Lies, Slander and Propaganda

Surely humanity has now encountered the world’s second best personification of ultimate evil: Vladimir Putin. You must have heard of his unforgivable crimes against humanity; vicious tales of corruption during the Sochi games; “damning” tales of the murder of political dissidents and journalists; the spreading of Kremlin propaganda through government owned press (but who owns the American media?); the unlawful taking of Crimea; supporting Assad’s murderous regime. Surely all this suffices to identify him as a dictator with fascist tendencies – no room for redemption with wickedness this profound. Continue reading “MSM on Putin: Lies, Slander and Propaganda”

True Privilege

I’ve been reading a few religious opinion blogs lately, and out the window goes all I thought I knew to be true! I was always incredulous of people who disagreed with the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, but now I can see how much these smart alecs misunderstand about religion. A “God delusion” it may well be, but how can we deny its importance?

I think that what we atheists refuse to acknowledge is the significance of our own species’ history. We are too quick to turn our noses up at the faith and lifestyle of those who came before us, assuming we are at the peak of human progress. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing what history was really like, having been skewed by a narrative. We are eager to assume that the reason “they” didn’t accept or respect non-traditional ways of life is because it was, well, simpler types, simpler times, following the diktat of a centuries-old fantasy fiction novel over a thousand pages long that they actually had time to read in those boring old pre-Internet, pre-TV days.

Well, here it goes. I’m willing to take that extreme position of accepting and tolerating those who stand by those traditional values, because who in the hell am I to assume that people of the past were dumber than me? A 25-year-old first world baby, with no ambition not only for myself but for all of mankind? I’m first to say I couldn’t give a damn whether our species survives or not; this, my friends, is a direct result of our beloved individualistic Western “civilisation”. This is where we are now. It’s every man for himself accompanied by some sad illusion of mutual solidarity. Continue reading “True Privilege”