The grumpy thread

[BorniteIdentity]

An observation (not a provocative point).

 

Nobody has yet managed to explain, or even demonstrate to me - what society actually is.

 

It seems to be one of those words that people throw around without really understanding or even being able to explain. A bit like ‘existential’ which seems to be word of the week on BBC news outlets.

[Richard]

It's a very odd film from the 80s.

[cort1977]

An observation (not a provocative point).

 

Nobody has yet managed to explain, or even demonstrate to me - what society actually is.

 

 

There's no such thing.  These people are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.

 

 

 

 

/ducks

[Captain Furious]

Society - a bunch of people all being shit together.

[BorniteIdentity]

Society - a bunch of people all being shit together.

Sounds like the Autoshite mission statement.

[SierraMikeHotel]

There is now plenty of evidence that we live in what's called a toxic food environment. There were lots of photos of 1976 in the press during the heat wave: hardly any of the people in the pictures were fat. People haven't become lazier and greedier in forty years. What's changed? The food industry. You cannot walk along any high street or into any shop without having fatty, sugary foods pushed at you.

 

This is not the fault of individuals.

 

While I'm not a mod, I think perhaps some of the nastier remarks could be curbed. We know from the existence of the Fat Bastard thread that there are people here struggling with the issue and I don't think insults help them.

[Captain Furious]

This argument discussion is now on an inevitable collision course with the usual fate of such topics

 

'Society' will be blamed

Those Tory bastards will be blamed for all societal issues

A Conservative counter viewpoint is expressed

Mods steam in with batons and tasers to shut down any political discussion

Splinter threads and tantrums about why we can't discuss politics

Awkward silence \ snipey comments for a couple of days

Normal service resumed

Rinse repeat

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

SIGH.......

[AMC Rebel]

There's no such thing.  These people are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.

 

 

 

 

/ducks

 

Fuck me, I thought Thatcher was dead.

[Supernaut]

[Captain Furious]

Until they do shut us down though 

 

You cannot walk along any high street or into any shop without having fatty, sugary foods pushed at you

 

 

I have to disagree with this, not least because I have never, ever witnessed such behaviour, but also because my entire adult life has been spent watching Governments and the food industry trim fat and sugar content from my favourite food and drink to the point they're mere shadows of their former selves, reduce portion sizes, bang on endlessly about the latest foods which will definitely* give you cancer\heart disease\strokes, force healthy eating down our throats (pun intended) legislate unhealthy food out of schools, police calorie counts, tax sugar...

 

People don't stuff themselves with shit because they don't know it is shit.  They do it because its easy\nice\quick\convenient\they're greedy cunts and they don't give a fuck because the Government will have to step in and save them.

 

If I had to proffer a suggestion as to why people are fatter now than the 70's it would be because they don't move around as much under their own steam.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

^ People are lazier than they were 40 years ago. Hence chubbers. Obvious, really.

 

On a different note, has anyone heard the current KFC radio ad?

I can’t stand that, ‘it’s costin naan naanty naan innit’ accent that’s increasingly becoming the norm on tv and radio. It sounds like cockney gone very, very wrong.*

Where’s it come from, and when did it become normalised?

Speak properly, damn you all!

 

* Cockney is good.

[theorganist]

An observation (not a provocative point).

 

Nobody has yet managed to explain, or even demonstrate to me - what society actually is.

 

It seems to be one of those words that people throw around without really understanding or even being able to explain. A bit like ‘existential’ which seems to be word of the week on BBC news outlets.

It ceased to exist in the 80's!

[Ghosty]

Looks like the GSi is going on SORN. My parents can't get a decent quote for insurance on it at all. Old Man is 70, could that be a factor I wonder.

I'll have to be careful not to let it eat its HG if it's sat a long time.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Captain Furious: there are two possibilities here.

 

1. Human behaviour has suddenly changed across the whole Western world in an evolutionary eye-blink.

2. The entirely new way in which we have begun to eat during that same time has had unforeseen and unhealthy side effects.

 

Apply Occam's razor.

 

And bear in mind that processed food is addictive, and that food companies behave a lot like tobacco companies.

[Captain Furious]

Why does it have to be an either/or?

 

The point is that people are not being unwittingly led into eating unhealthy food, nobody goes into Mcdonalds or KFC with the honestly held belief that it is part of a balanced and healthy diet.  Its a choice.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Well, true, but you seemed to be arguing very forcefully for option 1! Sorry if I misread.

 

Everything is always more complicated than a choice of black or white, of course.

[Ghosty]

Just realised I have to SORN by tomorrow or I'll have to pay September's tax.

I need the car for Chumley on Sunday...

[Snipes]

You know what pees me off, cake shovellers who have made themselves so fat they can't walk and claim to be disabled because of it ride mobility scooters everywhere etc, im sorry instead of paying disability the government should give out boot camp stays to get them into shape

I wonder how many people are actually ovwrweight/obese (to the point of requiring mobility assistance) due to excessive intake of cake and other sweeties?

[bub2006]

The boy has the devil today. Bent the door key in house door and broken the trike alarm fob yet said he don't know how it happened. Then decide to swing metal pole round and twatted my car with it gouging the paint. I could wrong his fucking neck. If I'd done shit like that when I was his age my dad would have knocked me from Sutton in ashfield to Sutton on sea.

[New POD]

I have 2 grumps

 

The first is that people who bring cake into work should be reported to HR because it's like work place bullying. It's like saying "Mark you fat greedy twat, I actually hate you and went you to develop type 2 diabetes"

The second is that my wife thinks that i am a liar and try to fob her off and that i don't respect her. I am fed up of the constant drip feed of insanity and anger and disappointment she focuses on me, but i have no idea how to put it right.

This week's lies were about my weight. When in fact i had lost 3 lbs whilst i was away during last week.

But there is no way of defending myself.

I don't think i can take it much longer.

[New POD]

I wonder how many people are actually ovwrweight/obese (to the point of requiring mobility assistance) due to excessive intake of cake and other sweeties?

And work place samosa runs where 200 are perchased to celebrate some milestone. 1000 calories each.

 

Plus bike well and truely goosed

[BavarianRetro]

I have 2 grumps

 

The first is that people who bring cake into work should be reported to HR because it's like work place bullying. It's like saying "Mark you fat greedy twat, I actually hate you and went you to develop type 2 diabetes"

The second is that my wife thinks that i am a liar and try to fob her off and that i don't respect her. I am fed up of the constant drip feed of insanity and anger and disappointment she focuses on me, but i have no idea how to put it right.

This week's lies were about my weight. When in fact i had lost 3 lbs whilst i was away during last week.

But there is no way of defending myself.

I don't think i can take it much longer.

Missus menopausal perhaps?

 

Not that I'd be the one to suggest it to her.

[Cheggers]

Missus menopausal perhaps?

Just the missus?

[Simonsays]

Made a total arse of getting out of the

bath this morning. I managed to twist my knee and then whilst scrabbling around (trying desperately to not crush my balls on the edge of the bath) I then smacked the inside of my knee on the bath.

 

After two lots of previous surgery the knee wasnt in the best of shapes anyway but now its swollen up and hurting like a bastard.

 

Two weeks in a knee brace that wouldnt look out of place in an S&M dungeon and "we'll see how you're getting on"

 

Shit.

[Guest Hooli]

I wonder how many people are actually ovwrweight/obese (to the point of requiring mobility assistance) due to excessive intake of cake and other sweeties?

 

I'd say its impossible to not be overeating if you are that size. Fat doesn't occur from thin (pun intended) air, it's the body storing unneeded foodstuffs.

[Guest Hooli]

There is now plenty of evidence that we live in what's called a toxic food environment. There were lots of photos of 1976 in the press during the heat wave: hardly any of the people in the pictures were fat. People haven't become lazier and greedier in forty years. What's changed? The food industry. You cannot walk along any high street or into any shop without having fatty, sugary foods pushed at you.

 

This is not the fault of individuals.

 

 

I agree with that. However it's quite possible to go 'nah I don't want to eat that shit' and avoid it, but people don't either because they don't care about being fat or are mentally too lazy to make the effort to look after themselves.

 

If more people did then the foods sold would change due to supply & demand. Businesses sell what people buy, it's how they stay in business.

[Talbot]

I'm going to blame my own profession for why (in part) people have got fat over the last 40/50 years. Labour saving devices, and the general engineered world we live in.

 

Absolutely everything can be done by a machine. If you don't want to, you can avoid hard work very easily. Even our cars have gotten that way. Drive a 1960's car, and it's an effort: No PAS, heavy clutch, wooden brakes, gearbox like stirring a bucket of bricks, etc.etc. Compare with a modern car, and you need exert almost no effort at all. That same mindset of labour saving has been extended everywhere, meaning that unless you make a concious effort to gain excersize, then you really can just do very little.

 

The food industry has a lot to answer for too. Fast foods really are very bad indeed, and although they've been available for many years, the content of sugar is just astronomical. Efforts are being made now to reduce that sugar level, but for many decades we've been sold "low fat" food, that has had all the flavour of fat replaced by processed sugar, which is only really now being understood to be absolutely fucking terrible for humans.

 

We're about 20-30 years behind America in that respect. They introduced labour saving devices and high sugar (well, HFCS-laden) foods before we did, and look where it got them.

 

There's an excellent programme on All-4 player called "the men who made us fat", which is a decent bit of investigative journalism, and it rings very true as to the market forces the pushed high sugar contents into foods. And as per usual, it's all about the money. Follow the money and you'll find the real issue.

[Captain Furious]

Well, true, but you seemed to be arguing very forcefully for option 1! Sorry if I misread.

 

Everything is always more complicated than a choice of black or white, of course.

 

Not saying it is exclusively that, but lifestyles are vastly different now to even my childhood, which relatively speaking isn't that long ago.  When I was a kid we never stopped, we'd either be out on the school playground playing any multitude of currently banned games, most of which involved running around like loons, down the park playing football, riding our bikes, building rope swings, climbing trees, generally getting up to no good.  Everyone would be out every night (unless they were grounded) I remember going home for dinner and being forced to sit down for 10 minutes to 'let it go down' before going out again.  I can't remember the last time I saw a bunch of kids playing down either of the local parks, they're always deserted.  Dropped in favour of XBOX's and iPhones presumably.  And then as you move into adult life, everywhere has escalators or lifts or travellators, heaven forbid you have to walk more than 10 paces from the car which you now use to get absolutely everywhere or climb a flight of stairs.  Nobody pushes their own lawnmower or washes their own car or gets up to change the TV channel, everything is ordered from your armchair and delivered to your door.  Its just a less active world, automation and convenience are everything.  But of course, don't forget to post those fitbit stats up on facebook whenever you top 1500 steps in a day.

 

So yeah, i'd say human behaviour has changed fairly significantly in an evolutionary eyeblink.

 

Incidentally I'm no preacher of the fit an active lifestyle, I'm one of the laziest bastards I know, but I can see this going on. 

[dozeydustman]

The point is that people are not being unwittingly led into eating unhealthy food, nobody goes into Mcdonalds or KFC with the honestly held belief that it is part of a balanced and healthy diet.  Its a choice.

 

 

They go there because it's convenient. McDonalds, KFC and the like were always a treat when I was a kid. Same with ding meals. They have their uses, such as the end of a knackering day when you've just moved house or get home from a long and tiresome journey. Even then, there are better options out there, such as a chicken or lamb shish kebab with a huge pile of salad and a pitta bread or a large cod from the chippy with some mushy peas & a pickled Wally (without the chips & leave the batter). 

 

It's easy enough to blame people being overweight on inactivity and eating crap but genetics also play a big part. Since infant school I've always struggled to be 'slim', so have my parents, my brother, my maternal granddad and my paternal grandma despite being very active people. I was always the extra tall but chubby kid in the class photo. Some of my weight issue is my own fault and I don't deny this, but I'm doing something about it. Yet you get these people who are as skinny as rakes, stuff their faces all day with a load of shite, drink loads of beer, don't do much in the way of activity.