Unpopular opinions #5

[Jesus]

Singapore is also essentially, a benevolent dictatorship. It has really harsh punishment and fines (which often disproportionately effect one group). It has harsh restrictions on assemblies, free speech and other human rights. It was extremely authoritarian when covid hit, sharing track and trace data with the police. It is not an example IMO to follow.

it’s been criticised for its treatment of “migrant workers” and white British/European expats have been known to get preferential treatment. For example some 300K migrant workers were essentially locked into dorms because of covid. They are poorer and more vulnerable. The PAP control the media in Singapore so of course internationally it enjoys a decent reputation. It helps that it’s a small, wealthy country.

The jury is out for me if Singapore can be deemed successful on that front…! To me it’s basically the Dubai of South Asia. I suppose it depends what successful multiculturalism looks like to the individual!

That would have been me that stated Singapore was successful.
I was using it as an example of how Singapore actually made an effort to get communities to integrate. This was a policy implemented pre 2000s to bring the Chinese, Malay and Indian people together.
I wouldn't aim to be like Singapore but I think we can learn from other countries with their successes and failures. I can't think of many countries where the wealthy expats don't get preferential treatment to poor migrants but ya Singapore has some fucked up laws (they use canning as a form of criminal punishment ).
My point was that Singapore could bring the Chinese, Malaysia and Indian communities together through policy and I thought the idea of mixing children from an early age is a great one.

 

[Hastaggifted]

95% of motorbike riders are absolute c*nts and deserve to crash and die.

I said what I said.

 

[HelloStereo]

People who call themselves single mums making out they do it all alone how hard it is etc you wouldnt understand cus your not single blah blah blah, but send the kids of to dads every Friday-Monday.

Haha this was my mum. Admittedly she did look after my brother and me Monday - Saturday with my dad having us on Sunday. But he supported her enough that she could work part time and my aunt was around the corner so my brother and I used to spend the most time around there.

I obviously don't know what work went on behind the scenes that I didn't see, but from my childhood I just remember her spending about 3 hours every evening sat on the bed on the phone in her room.

 

[dancingqueen5678]

I agree, when you have this overriding identity it helps but I’m not sure what that is with being British? Scotland and Northern Ireland want to break away from the Union (I missed out Wales because it’s not as big a want as the others but I understand there are people who want Wales to be independent) which would make Britain useless surely because it would just be England and Wales? And not many people seem to want to identify as English due to past colonial issues and that our flag is so heavily associated with football hooligans and the far right. I spoke a few threads ago about my family friend who wants to take off her hijab and maybe leave Islam and her family’s reaction has been well you’re dead to us, the hijab is our culture (it isn’t, but that’s another story), you don’t want to be like English girls, they are all sluts. Her family want her to marry a man from the same ethnic background to her, told her they’d cut her off if she married a white man, etc. And she says that this is so common in ethnic communities around the country. People don’t speak to each other, some don’t even speak English, they won’t integrate, they send their children to the faith schools and they are only friends with people of their background. She says it’s endemic across this country. And to be fair I’ve noticed this too, I used to live in an area that had a high Muslim population and I was made to feel like an outsider, someone even asked why I had moved to ‘their’ community as I didn’t belong to it, I had men telling me to cover my hair.
I don’t know, it’s just been playing on my mind a lot with what my family friend is going through.

I am welsh and I feel like "British" is only a concept for English people? I don't know a Welsh person who refers to themselves as British. We're just Welsh (even though we are British but that's just not how we see ourselves). I don't know about Northern Ireland but I have a Scottish friend who says the same thing. She says she's Scottish and that is that. Do English people refer to themselves as English or British? Most of my English friends say they are British (except my Liverpudlian friend who refers to himself as Liverpudlian/scouse... we make jokes that he is from the independent republic of Liverpool )
I think the movement of independence in Wales is growing and I do think if Scotland gain independence Wales will follow suit. Our First Minister has said he is considering this as an option. I also think that Brexit and it's on-going impact in Wales will turn people more towards independence.

 

[thegirlscout]

I am welsh and I feel like "British" is only a concept for English people? I don't know a Welsh person who refers to themselves as British. We're just Welsh (even though we are British but that's just not how we see ourselves). I don't know about Northern Ireland but I have a Scottish friend who says the same thing. She says she's Scottish and that is that. Do English people refer to themselves as English or British? Most of my English friends say they are British (except my Liverpudlian friend who refers to himself as Liverpudlian/scouse... we make jokes that he is from the independent republic of Liverpool )
I think the movement of independence in Wales is growing and I do think if Scotland gain independence Wales will follow suit. Our First Minister has said he is considering this as an option. I also think that Brexit and it's on-going impact in Wales will turn people more towards independence.

I say I’m English and it frustrates me in forms where it says White British, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, etc but never English. I remember filling out a form a few years ago and someone asked the teacher what to tick for English and she said ‘you tick British because you are infact British, not English’.

 

[dancingqueen5678]

Imagine moving to a country and hating the people/ideology that is there . Saying that I know the parents of these children's probably aren't first generation immagrant but somewhere along the way, someone made a decision to move to a country where they didn't agree with the culture. I think children are the perfect examples of who should be first to start mixing, adults are so set in their ways and varied opinions tend to divide rather than become adopted.

sometimes I think moving away from a culture makes you more patriotic. I was the most patriotic Welsh person when I lived abroad. Got home and I don't care again

 

[HelloStereo]

I am welsh and I feel like "British" is only a concept for English people? I don't know a Welsh person who refers to themselves as British. We're just Welsh (even though we are British but that's just not how we see ourselves). I don't know about Northern Ireland but I have a Scottish friend who says the same thing. She says she's Scottish and that is that. Do English people refer to themselves as English or British? Most of my English friends say they are British (except my Liverpudlian friend who refers to himself as Liverpudlian/scouse... we make jokes that he is from the independent republic of Liverpool )
I think the movement of independence in Wales is growing and I do think if Scotland gain independence Wales will follow suit. Our First Minister has said he is considering this as an option. I also think that Brexit and it's on-going impact in Wales will turn people more towards independence.

I am from England and agree. I would class myself as British first and English second. I am not sure why, I guess England had less of a national identity compared to other parts of the UK.

 

[jackolantern]

I am welsh and I feel like "British" is only a concept for English people? I don't know a Welsh person who refers to themselves as British. We're just Welsh (even though we are British but that's just not how we see ourselves). I don't know about Northern Ireland but I have a Scottish friend who says the same thing. She says she's Scottish and that is that. Do English people refer to themselves as English or British? Most of my English friends say they are British (except my Liverpudlian friend who refers to himself as Liverpudlian/scouse... we make jokes that he is from the independent republic of Liverpool )
I think the movement of independence in Wales is growing and I do think if Scotland gain independence Wales will follow suit. Our First Minister has said he is considering this as an option. I also think that Brexit and it's on-going impact in Wales will turn people more towards independence.

Im English and say British. I don’t know why really, I never gave it any thought. I suppose because while they are all separate countries, there is a broader country as a whole so that’s the one I refer to. If I say English I feel like I’m unnecessarily segregating myself. Plus to be fair it’s obvious when you don’t sound Irish, Welsh or Scottish.

 

[hydeist]

I'll probably twist some noggins but Fibro, IBS, ADHD etc etc, I don't believe any of them are real illnesses. Don't get me wrong, I believe people's symptoms are real, but I think the diagnoses are just names the doctor gives because they essentially don't know what's wrong with you. A sort of, take this, be happy and duck off now you have a named thing.

You may enjoy this Wikipedia page:

Wastebasket diagnosis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[dancingqueen5678]

Haha this was my mum. Admittedly she did look after my brother and me Monday - Saturday with my dad having us on Sunday. But he supported her enough that she could work part time and my aunt was around the corner so my brother and I used to spend the most time around there.

I obviously don't know what work went on behind the scenes that I didn't see, but from my childhood I just remember her spending about 3 hours every evening sat on the bed on the phone in her room.

This was my mum too. My dad had me twice a week (admittedly when it was convenient for him!) and every weekend she'd palm me off with whatever family member would have me (usually the man she was seeing's parents). She owned a pub so throughout the week, she was downstairs most of the time while I was upstairs alone, did my homework, packed my lunch, put myself to bed etc. She bangs on about how she did alone but brutal honesty, if anyone did it alone, it was me

Side and probably very petty note: Every Mother and Father's Day since I was about 20, I buy myself a present as a congratulations to myself for raising myself

 

[Warpaint]

Everyone who is born in the UK is British; anyone who is not English doesn't like term because it makes us all seem like one big happy family.

 

[Purrrrrrr]

The English are not encouraged to be proud of England. Other Brits are allowed to fly their flags without worry but we seem to be seen as some kind of racist if we do it. I've never understood how everyone else's flag is something to be proud of but the English flag is discouraged.

 

[Rainbow1]

I hate the term ‘fed is best’

I know it’s in relation to bottle/breast but surely a basic is feeding your baby so saying fed is best makes little sense, I dunno it narks me

 

[dancingqueen5678]

The English are not encouraged to be proud of England. Other Brits are allowed to fly their flags without worry but we seem to be seen as some kind of racist if we do it. I've never understood how everyone else's flag is something to be proud of but the English flag is discouraged.

To be fair, a lot of British nations had to fight the English to be allowed to have their own culture etc so I'd imagine that's why. A lot of my Welsh pride comes from growing up learning about how we were thrown in jail for speaking welsh, killed for land, how the English monarchy came and killed our royals, kidnapped the last princess of Wales and locked her in a tower before forcing her into a convent so that the line would die, demolished our towns to make room for reservoirs for English people (and then charged us double for the water), shut the mines so people lived in poverty (many mining towns are still very low income communities here).
I'd imagine the Scottish and the Irish have similar stories. It's not that we hold grudges (except when it comes to the rugby ) but I guess when you grow up learning that the people before you fought to be welsh (I did my education through the medium of welsh with quite nationalist teachers honestly) then flying a flag does feel like a victory.

 

[Apple In My Pie]

Shockingly bad opinion coming up……

I don’t like Percy Pigs.

 

[Keet]

Shockingly bad opinion coming up……

I don’t like Percy Pigs.

Love how it’s like you had to whisper that one

 

[Mardyarse]

I hate the term ‘fed is best’

I know it’s in relation to bottle/breast but surely a basic is feeding your baby so saying fed is best makes little sense, I dunno it narks me

Yes! As some one who bottle fed from 6 weeks breast milk is superior to formula! Their is not denying it it’s a scientific fact. That doesn’t mean bottle feeding makes you a bad parent it’s just a fact! I feel like people say it to try and make themselves feel better

 

[dancingqueen5678]

Shockingly bad opinion coming up……

I don’t like Percy Pigs.

neither do I and the constant shoehorning Percy Pig onto everything they can. It's overkill

 

[thegirlscout]

The English are not encouraged to be proud of England. Other Brits are allowed to fly their flags without worry but we seem to be seen as some kind of racist if we do it. I've never understood how everyone else's flag is something to be proud of but the English flag is discouraged.

See, I call myself English over British but I wouldn’t feel comfortable flying the English flag. 1) because it’s ugly. Like no thought went into it. And 2) it’s been hijacked by football thugs and the right wing morons. It’s a bit of a chavvy flag.

To be fair, a lot of British nations had to fight the English to be allowed to have their own culture etc so I'd imagine that's why. A lot of my Welsh pride comes from growing up learning about how we were thrown in jail for speaking welsh, killed for land, how the English monarchy came and killed our royals, kidnapped the last princess of Wales and locked her in a tower before forcing her into a convent so that the line would die, demolished our towns to make room for reservoirs for English people (and then charged us double for the water), shut the mines so people lived in poverty (many mining towns are still very low income communities here).
I'd imagine the Scottish and the Irish have similar stories. It's not that we hold grudges (except when it comes to the rugby ) but I guess when you grow up learning that the people before you fought to be welsh (I did my education through the medium of welsh with quite nationalist teachers honestly) then flying a flag does feel like a victory.

Damn, when it’s written like that, my people suck. I think it’s bullshit that British history isn’t taught properly in schools. I didn’t know how crappy England had been in the past to the Irish, Scots and Welsh until I left because all throughout it was the British Empire is great or we learnt foreign history. We need to change it up a bit. And I’m not saying English children should be told they are tit, being white is tit, they have all this privilege and should just shut up, but some basic background on issues would be better.

 

[Delihla]

I am welsh and I feel like "British" is only a concept for English people? I don't know a Welsh person who refers to themselves as British. We're just Welsh (even though we are British but that's just not how we see ourselves). I don't know about Northern Ireland but I have a Scottish friend who says the same thing. She says she's Scottish and that is that. Do English people refer to themselves as English or British? Most of my English friends say they are British (except my Liverpudlian friend who refers to himself as Liverpudlian/scouse... we make jokes that he is from the independent republic of Liverpool )
I think the movement of independence in Wales is growing and I do think if Scotland gain independence Wales will follow suit. Our First Minister has said he is considering this as an option. I also think that Brexit and it's on-going impact in Wales will turn people more towards independence.

I agree, I think of myself as Scottish. I was highly amused (no objection btw) by the petitions from the north of England wanting to come with us during the independence referendum.

It’s often clear in the media when they use terms like Britain/British they are actually only referring to England.