Look at fucking white people...you ask their ethnicity and they give you a rambling TED talk about what type of white they are (ummm...yeah, my great, great, great grandma on my mom's side was welsh, but my on my dad's side....)

As a non American, this is one of the entertaining things about America. Firstly, no one's just American and second, no one has English ancestry. It's one of those funny cultural quirks like when a British person says something is "interesting" meaning "possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard".

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, I suppose I was feeling either more energetic or annoyed.

FWIW, I don't expect to reason him out of hist position, since as you say you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into (I like that phrase). I don't want his to be the only word on the topic.

Unfortunately no one loves teams and will volunteer to take yours.

Right so you basically sealioned the class to death and the instructor had to drop the topic in order to actually have some chance of teaching the class.

This does not mean you were in and way correct.

It's all just "man shaming",

"incel" was a term originally coined by a woman about herself and it was taken over by a bunch of very angry men. It's only "man shaming" if you think incels are somehow representative of men. That's a pretty dark view of men you have there.

and dehumanizing redpilled people.

Having stupid, counter factual views is not a protected class.

When in fact,

That sounds very much like a made-up fact you invented to score a point.

That is what they were written for - for people to read and follow.

I have done before, which is why I know they're a bit dense. I installed a pond and a fountain pump (a tiny thing), which is apparently notifiable because it's outdoor, but not it turns out if you put a plug on the end of the cable and plug it into a socket.

Anyway at work I'm now up to my ears in the machinenery's directive. I know how to design something safe, what I don't know are all the regs and boxes to be ticked (not complaining as such, I don't think the box ticking is actually a bad idea). It's a bit of a slog if you're new to it!

But I disagree with your reading. [If you're qualified OR you hire a (qualified) electrician ] AND [the work is major (e.g. involving one or more complete new circuits)] you don't need to get authorisation from Building Control. But if the work is NOT major AND you don't know one end of a screwdriver from the other, you don't need authorisation from Building Control.

Yes, I agree. If it's big, you need to do it properly, otherwise go nuts.

Bloody hell I'm going to have to read the regs aren't I?

OK turns out the IET has some nice digested info.

https://electrical.theiet.org/...

notification will need to be given to, or full plans deposited with, a building control body only if the work is major involving one or more complete new circuits, and is not being carried out by an electrical contractor registered with an authorised competent person self-certification or third-party self-certification scheme.

Basically you need to tell the council if you decide to YOLO it, but if you're qualified and hire an electrician, it's fine.

And apparently those rules specifically are the only significant difference between Englandshire and Bruland.

https://electrical.theiet.org/...

Who knew?

Your assertion that he is now talking about the middle class (seriously dude we're talking about truck drivers here)

It was literally the first line of his post: "I keep pointing this out but 70% of middle class jobs lost since the '80s got taken by automation not outsourcing. ".

There is nothing else you would rather do with that time than fix a coffeemaker? Jesus...

Right so you don't like being wrong about it not being worth someone's time so you move smoothly to insults. You keep your spare time in your way, do not presume to think your way of spending your time is better than mine.

I don't like needlessly landfilling or incinerating things. Maybe I should be as judgmental as you are about your profligacy.

Despite more people on the planet and more automation than ever before employment remains as low as ever.

He did not say there will be no/fewer jobs. He said be no/fewer middle class jobs. Have you seen what's happened to the middle class over the last 20 years or so?

but banning legal gambling just creates black markets. It's better to legalize and tax

I agree, legal, but taxed and regulated. I would 100% ban all gambling advertising just like cigarette advertising, and mandate prominent warnings on apps and physical locations, just like cigarettes.

I don't see a particularly good argument for banning advertising for any legal activity either.

Corporations have no inherent right to exist, they are not people. And people (like Ea Nassir) did business for millennia without the limited liability legal structures we have in place today. Corporations are a tradeoff between good and harm, and regulations should reflect that. I am in favour of freedoms for individuals, but not for companies.

If you want to advertise as an individual person with no limited liability protection maybe this would be a different conversation.

You may as well bad all forms of advertising at that point,

This seems to be the slippery slope argument and I don't buy it.

The cheapest trinkets made in the USA will be the same quality as the cheapest from China.

Kinda, but also kinda not. The cheapest trinkets in China aren't subject to any of the safety regs. They are supposed to be on import but we all know how well that works. With either made in USA, or making local sellers actually accountable for the goods they sell rather than merely creaming off profit, you'd expect to see fewer wildly unsafe goods.

Just look at some of the teardown videos of phone chargers.

You think the people in these new factories are going to get paid a wage to support a family in 2025?

No, not even slightly.

Want to replicate Temu? Just buy a run of the mill Samsung phone charger, use it for an hour, and then set your house on fire.

Genuinely laughed at this, thank you!

is that it allows people of lower incomes to have a somewhat higher standard of living. If your only option was a $200 coffee maker, you'd probably just stick with instant coffee. Or maybe just brew it on the stove manually, I suppose.

Or buy a filter for under £4 and a box of filter papers. It's like the fancy hipster things for making pour over, except cheap and called a filter. Or what Americans call a French Press for under a tenner. There's about a billion cheap ways of making coffee for under $50 which don't involve instant.

Repair is an option only if your time is worthless.

Repair is only worthless if you value the acquisition of money above all else.

You hate throwing away a coffeemaker?

Yes.

You can fix it, or you can buy a new one for $50.

Yes.

by the time you get it all said and done you'd probably have spent $200 in time and effort.

I don't bill the universe by the hour. If I take some leisure time to fix it, like a normal person, I would not have some magical way of making that $200 by using that time differently. And then I get the satisfaction of having fixed it.