Fee Rise

I will (if all goes to plan and my sacrifices to AQA are accepted) be starting university this year. This, of course, gives me the extra special privilege of being in the first year to get hit with tripled tuition fees. 


Of course, I'm subjectively bitter about this. But I have a couple of objective bones to pick:

1) I thought implementing any kind of law took fucking years. Seriously, I read an article recently that said experts estimate that it will take 57 years before women receive equal pay. But it takes barely ONE YEAR to make me pay £9000 pounds a year to get a degree, cut my EMA payments by a THIRD, making it pretty fucking difficult for me to get to college (especially in combination with the fare increases) and cut funding for schools to make it less than a bundle of laughs to be in college, because we've had to close most of our toilets due to lack of cleaners and half the number of A Levels we offer (though that might just be because so many people failed them and brought down the grade curve). Did you see that sentence? It was fucking endless. Like the problems we are all currently faced with. That metaphor was weak. 


2) This is being imposed on us by people who did not have to go through it themselves, and paid very little for their education (well, the ones that went to Eton had to pay a fair bit, but that is a whole different kettle of inbred, socially out of touch 1 percent-ers). Is that fair? No. Really no.

3) These cuts seem to be slashing all the wrong tapestries. Granted, I saw today that the army is being cut down, that seems fair enough. I think it absolutely sucks that so many people are going to lose their jobs, and I hope something will be done for them, but if we can lose anything I guess its the thing that kills people. Cutting the NHS, taking steps towards privatisation- THIS I AM LESS HAPPY ABOUT.

4) Who is none of this going to bother? The people who are already rich. They can pay these new costs without breaking a sweat. Fuck, I know private school kids in the year above who actually took a gap year and went travelling, because paying the tripled fees is no problem for them. The people taking a hit here are the people who need help during the recession. This is, firstly, unfair, and, secondly, illogical. Man I love commas. You can tell I spoke that sentence in William Shatner's voice in my head.

Sexist jokes

Normally I'm the first to support inappropriate jokes. Within certain limits. In fact, one limit. More of a condition: they have to be fucking FUNNY.

I have heard sexist jokes that have made me laugh, just like I've heard other awful, damning jokes that have cracked me up. What gets to me is that most sexist jokes have descended to more of a put down: something along the lines of 'get back in the kitchen' or 'make me a sandwich'. 

With a high enough level of repetition, anything stops being funny. Except Galaxy Quest. I strongly advise you to watch that movie. But the kitchen/sandwich joke? Yeah, it was never funny. 

What's even weirder is that people feel completely comfortable making jokes like this in public, in perfect earshot of absolutely anyone, and in front of people they barely know. This suggests a totally relaxed attitude to sexism, and people very rarely get called out for making this kind of joke. Why not? If you think about it, it's just as bad as making a stupid racist comment. 

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION, if I walked up to a black dude and told him to 'get back in the field' everyone would freak out. I know I would, if I was somehow there to see myself say this. I would without a doubt punch myself in the face, and so would some other people. If my self that was watching punched my hypothetical racist self, would my self that was watching feel it?

That descended inexplicably quickly in to the time travel paradox, but the point stands. It's as bad to tell a woman to 'get back in the kitchen' as it is to make that ignorant racist crack. People have just convinced themselves that it's fine, and sexism is not something we should take as seriously as other types of discrimination. 

Once again, I'm not saying jokes like this can't be funny. (See the episode of Futurama where they get trapped on the planet of giant women: 'We no can dunk, but good fundamentals.' 'That more fun to watch.' That shit was hilarious). But stupid comments that have absolutely no point or merit of any kind need to be seen for what they are: sexist.

Insults

Now, I pretty much love offensive language, such as swearwords. Words are just words, it's people who attach the stigma to them. However, some words come with so much pain and cruelty attached to them that they really aren't acceptable when used in an insulting way. These words tend to be racist or sexist, and almost every group has a few aimed at them. Except for the white male.

The suggestion here is that there isn't anything inherently wrong with being a white man, but being almost anything else means you're flawed just because of what you are or where you're from.

Ok, there's 'cracker'. But that really sounds kinda cute. I'd call a puppy Cracker. I'd ruffle a kids hair and say, 'Aw, ya little cracker!' Maybe not if anyone else was in earshot... But the word cracker isn't even considered offensive by most people. I know a few people who have been surprised to hear it's actually an insult for white people.

So, I think there's only one course of action to take here. Remove all offensive words aimed at specific groups from our vocabulary? 'Take the words back'? No. We gots to come up with some awesome derogatory names for white guys! If everyone's insulted... no one is.

Aliens Attack

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations

Step 1. Read it. Step 2. Ask yourself: FUCKING REALLY?

The Guardian is a newspaper written for grown up people. I might have expected this from the Sun, or the Daily Mail, but G... I just thought you were better than that.

As they mention, this is a 'highly speculative' scenario. Which exempts it from falling under the label of 'news', meaning it doesn't really belong in a 'newspaper'. Science Journal- yes. But seriously, you can't go throwing up 'speculative' headlines in a fucking newspaper. Like, imagine opening your paper to see HORRIFIC CAR CRASH KILLS 20, TOMORROW MAYBE and OBAMA IN GAY RELATIONSHIP WITH OSAMA, BONDED OVER SIMILAR NAMES, WE ASSUME. It descends pretty quickly into ridiculous shit that some fucking jackwagons are gonna use to try to make us do what they want. I can totally see Sarah Palin putting that second headline out there.

And there's another fucked-up-edness from this article. The threat of alien invasion is supposed to make us want to fight global warming. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but it's really not ok to use the threat of punishment as a reason to just be a nice guy/ decent species. Like, telling people to follow religion and be nice to each other so they don't go to hell. If you're doing something because you're scared of punishment and you want a reward... you're not really doing it for the right reasons at all, are you? Your actions can't be said to be good, because they are performed entirely out of self interest- given the chance, (or the necessity) a self interested person will do just about anything that works for them. How 'bout we try to save our planet because it's a beautiful place and we're fucking it up, not because E.T's gonna snap and break out the AK.

Speaking of AKs: the article says we should avoid broadcasting info about our biology in case the aliens make weapons to 'target humans'. Remember those two letters from the beginning of this sentence? AK? Yeah. We kinda beat them to the punch on that one. We've made chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, seriously, all aliens would need to do would be purchase a couple of them. And in all honesty, they probably could, without too much hassle. After all, selling dangerous weapons to unknown factors has never been a bad idea. Think of the Middle East, the Western worlds' BFFLs.

Anyway... How about we all just stop driving the 10 minutes to the store and plant some fucking trees? If everyone does a little bit, the results will be huge. And maybe then we won't have to use scare tactics about ending up like EVERY FUCKING CAST MEMBER OF 'ALIEN'. (Except Sigourney Weaver.) (And the cat.)

Riots

So, merry old England descended in to chaos (ish). If one good thing came out of this, I guess it's that we've lost our stereotype. Fuck Earl Grey and monocles, now everyone thinks we're completely retarded. These riots ostensibly had no political purpose... but it's gotta be remembered, shit like this doesn't go down when the economy's grand, everybody loves the government and singing unicorns throw roses from the sky. THERE WAS motivation for the riots- it just seems like no one involved was aware of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjdhEvosC3I

Watch it and wince. I was hoping one of these chicks would come out with something along the lines of, "the Tory government is slowly crushing the poorer citizens of this country, making it harder for them to go to university, instigating policies that support the middle and upper classes, and David Cameron just generally looking like a thumb with a face. Thus, these riots are an expression of our anger." Nope. Rose. I don't know how to type the little accent over the e, so just imagine it there. Rose isn't even nice. It tastes like vomit and sending misspelled, sexually explicit texts to everyone on your contacts list before you've even done those things. If you're gonna riot for alcohol, riot for tequila and a couple of lemons, and then a six pack. But I digress. If you're gonna attack 'rich people', as these girls say they are doing, go to Millbank. Remember the student protests? They had the right idea when it came to expressions of anger. I'm not supporting violence, and I'm not gonna get all philosophical about whether dissent is ever justified, but if you're gonna do it, DO IT RIGHT. Don't tear up a bunch of areas that were poor to begin with and will take ages to recover. Perhaps an interview to restore some faith in humanity comes from writer Darcus Howe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o

Until, of course, little miss bitch there starts being- well, a bitch. At least he highlights the causes for the riots, and makes some good points. But did the rioters have any grasp on these reasons? Some of them, yeah. Most of them, not at all.

This lady sums it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNmQBx2WyN0

Power to her. I admire her use of frequent swear words.

Anyway, to finish: If you don't know what you're fighting for, don't fight. And definitely don't burn down fucking Foot Locker.