William McCready

@RoryStewartUK @JohnCleese Christianity underwent centuries of strife, war, and philosophical struggle to arrive at an open, fairer interpretation of the religion. Islam is more than a century into its own period of theological strife, and the fundamentalists are winning. Pretending protects no moderate.

.@JohnCleese - What would Christian “culture” look like if you represented it with 1 Sam 15:3 Josh 6:21 Deut 7:1 Deut 20:16–18 Ex 17 - Deut 25 Psalm 137:9 etc? How about actually meeting some Muslims and listening to them instead of demonising a religion you know very little about with selective quotations…

@pkudropout @kunley_drukpa My point is that instead of snarky rude and ad hominem responses you could share your insights re the topics you claim he knows nothing about. If we follow this account it's because we enjoy learning and hearing interesting perspectives, add to that.

@WSMcCready @kunley_drukpa Yeah my insight is that OP is just making shit up like that Senegalese dance club post. This guy is some turd worlder whose poor mother made their way into EU territory just to have their sons end up retarded.

SHOPPING MALLS AS THE BEST PLACE TO MEET ARAB WOMEN 🇰🇼 Concept of shopping malls as ‘third spaces’ in the Arab world and especially the Gulf sounds funny but makes sense when you think about it. Gulf countries often get called giant shopping malls in the desert (which they sort of are) but at same time the mall is also a more important social institution than you might first think. Major example: under their brand of conservative Islam where else are you supposed to meet people of the opposite gender? Was in a mall in Kuwait with an Arab friend. You would see packs of young people - not unusual or weird anywhere in the world of course but a lot were sort of slouching against walls, just watching people walk past. Monitoring milling. Friend told me to look up - there was a group of young men leaning on the balcony of the floor above hunched together grasping sugary milkshakes and scanning the floors below, pointing and murmuring to each other. This was a very common sight he said. Difficult to meet young women in any capacity outside of very socially mediated spaces so all the young men would come to shopping malls to leer. There are social spaces like ‘diwanayahs’ or ‘majlis’ were people could meet and talk, play FIFA together etc in these countries but these are mostly sex-segregated Two hijabed-up girls walked past and the men stared down at them, murmuring to each other again with a flash of excitement on their faces. Friend claimed that sometimes these girls would come to these shopping malls knowing that the boys would be there waiting for them and then deliberately walk around arm-in-arm in a flirty way to ‘tease them’. Whole set-up was a kind of parlour game where the coquettish hijabis had some plausible deniability, which of course made the young men go mad. Was thrilling to be in these spaces with women without any oversight, doubly so if ‘they clearly wanted it’ Asked if anything ever came of it, if any of the guys any got any action out of it. He said it did happen but the culture was a bit reserved about that so for some of the younger guys especially it was months of giggly “no I’m too modest we can’t do anything like that oh my god you’re so naughty” even if they did get a bit of hand-holding out of it. There was some ‘pre-martial’ shagging going on but it was important generally that other people didn’t find out, same as with eg drinking alcohol Said a lot of young men must be sexually frustrated. He said they were. Asked if it was true that they would sometimes hump each other as a release, he said it did happen but it wasn’t regarded as gay because it was just a release. Some older young men would go to migrant worker prostitutes too now. Seems to be important for healthy gender relations the ‘third space’ malls exist at the very least

@pkudropout @kunley_drukpa You're replying to an account that exists to share info, insights, and anecdotes. If you've got any, share them.

@kunley_drukpa If you were actually tapped in and not LARPing you wouldn’t have written about malls in Kuwait as the mingling location when there’s a far more infamous and ridiculously hilarious one. Honestly just delete your account atp you lost your touch.

@kunley_drukpa The drivers in my team in Iraq set up a room that looked something like the right. All times of day any driver not on duty was sat in this dark smoke filled room in the basement of this office we had gossiping away with whoever was nearby.

‘Diwaniyahs’ and ‘Majlis’ are one of the main alternatives, sort of like IRL groupchats. Arabs will spend a lot of time in such places, constitutes a significant bulk of their socialising. Generally insufficient for meeting women though on account of sex-segregation

@mythical_meier @MsMelChen Clearly asserting dominance

The only time I met a Japanese woman, she was CFO and functioned as a translator for a company we were doing business with, she would stand absurdly close when talking to me, like as close as you could get without actually touching. Wasn't sure what that meant but it didn't really matter.

My black friend who did the digital nomad thing in Japan told me that he didn't face racism there but that many girls would giggle and laugh around him and whenever he said hello, they would say "Godzilla" and then walk away 😱

@MsMelChen @Michael41739926 I'm also curious, it used to happen to me all the time in China (occasionally in less well traveled bits of SE Asia too) back in the late 00s! Arms never bothered me, though the occasional leg stroke was a bit awkward were I wearing shorts that day 😅

@Michael41739926 I am laughing so hard because I just know where this comes from 🤣🤣🤣

@Michael41739926 @MsMelChen I had the same all over southern China back in 2009. I'd be sat on a bench somewhere and out of nowhere an old boy or lass would appear staring at point blank range, with the inevitable stroking of my blond(ish) hairy arm to follow. Always found it quite funny!

@MsMelChen When I lived in South China, while riding the bus strange women would reach over and pluck the blond hair of my forearm which glowed gold in the sunlight. It was . . . awkward.

@afneil God this brings back memories. I used to watch this regularly during 6th form, excellent stuff!

It was a late night political talk show which didn’t take itself too seriously. And aspired to a sense of humour (needed after Question Time). I didn’t aspire to run the country. Or sit in parliament. So your analogy is pathetic. But thanks for reminding us all what a fun show it was.

@afneil I've no doubt my French in-laws will have a few jokey barbs to share when I see them later this week...

French TV tonight - "C'est une honte nationale": dépassée par la France, suppléée par l'Allemagne, qualifiée de "jouet" par Trump... Le déclin de la marine britannique embarrasse les Anglais

@kunley_drukpa Wrote a document about peacebuilding projects between said tribes years back when working in Kenya. Hard to argue with the scrubland Pokot raiders taking a fancy to the fat and fed upland Samburu cattle when you've spent a night in the barren hellscape they call home...

@kunley_drukpa Then you see the upland plateau in the distance, green, fertile, sweeping views, still shoddy but comparatively luxurious villages (19th century frontier rather than the lowland pre-agricultural vibes). Then add in the tribes with their differing dress and physiques. Fascinating.

If you want whimsical IRL fantasy in sense post means this does ‘sort of’ exist but you have to visit a ‘Final Fantasy Country’ ie a country that has a ‘fantasy world-like’ exotic ‘other-y’ feel, unique compelling aesthetics etc. This is closest to ‘fantasy world’ you can get IRL

@LBC Interesting snippet, but where can we find the full segment to watch / listen?

'I think he's bananas about this stuff, frankly.' Podcaster Dominic Sandbrook takes umbrage with his co-host's 'rubbish' views on Islam.

@SwipeWright @LoganLancing The moment it clicked that you just couldn't win if you dissented, however mildly and sincerely and no matter how informed or researched, in the face of an ideologue was quite liberating. My main frustration is that I persisted in trying (and hoping) for so long.

@WSMcCready @LoganLancing Yeah, I've had my opinions on whether humans can change sex dismissed because I am not transgender. Somehow that apparently gives a person special insight to biology.

The biggest criticism I received after writing The Queering of The American Child was that I wasn't "an academic" who is degreed in "gender studies." Lol. I just read all of the literature. Didn't need a degree to lay down that ass whoopin'

@kunley_drukpa When they're not overly exposed to Anglosphere prog think the French are prone to a bit of fun sweeping generalisation. A glass of wine and a sunny terrace then launching them on "les anglo-saxons" can set you up for a pleasant bit of sparring all afternoon

Enjoyable thing about places like Iran or Russia is they are only countries who will create longwinded intellectual and cultural genealogies for enemies out of reverse orientalism, or occidentalism. Discussions in civilisational terms you won’t see anywhere else outside the right

@SwipeWright @LoganLancing Remember seeing this with Blair White at the time, even being a trans person wouldn't save someone from slander or attack.

When I started criticizing sex pseudoscience, the line of attack was: "Are you a biologist?" "Yes." "Do you have a PhD?" "Yes." "In what?" "Evolutionary biology." "Where did you get your PhD?" "At UCSB, a top-ranked university for my field." "Oh, but are you a Christian?" "No. I'm an atheist." "But you're MAGA." "No, I don't support Trump." (true at the time) "You support JK Rowling so you're a transphobe." "I'm... not a transph–" "BIGOT!!" Essentially, they only bring up your lack of a PhD because it's the quickest thing they can use to disregard your opinion. But if you had a PhD, they'd just move down the list to the next thing they can use to disregard your view. And the next... When you get to the bottom of their list unscathed, they'll just assume you're a bigot or a grifter. You just hate trans people. Oh you just wanted to sell your book. There's nothing you can be, do, or say to make them consider you might have a valid opinion.

@RoisinMichaux Jesus not in the river, please...

Lefties didn’t want nuclear shut down because of waste or risk or nostalgia or whatever. They wanted to perform degrowth. The wanted to go live in a tree and play board games and wash their period rags in a river (and film themselves doing it all, on an iPhone MAX), and if others didn’t want that then they would just have to be educated to not want things. I know these people.

@escapefrommelos Prosperity has ruined the American mind. Beige slop is the original and best slop - respect your heritage.

crazy to think that there's a whole “country” of “England” and they all live actually like that

@cienfuegos1958 @tomhfh @JohnRentoul The primary point wasn't to defend him, it was to challenge your assertion that it's merely kneejerk reactionism that would lead to one not appreciating Brutalism. Mine is that it's had time to prove itself, it hasn't and so most wish to be rid of it - the odd curio aside

@WSMcCready @tomhfh @JohnRentoul He doesn't need you to defend him. My point about Georgian was a comment on his limitations, not that style of architecture. We don't need anyone to gatekeep architectural validity for us, whether Harwood or indeed you. A style does not have to become popular to have purpose.

I will never understand why some people think it looks anything other than awful. The only acceptable parts of this hideous concrete blob are the bits that are hidden by foliage.

@cienfuegos1958 @tomhfh @JohnRentoul He commented on the Barbican specifically, you then spoke to his stance regarding an entire aesthetic (Georgian) following on. I was addressing this latter point. The style has had nearly a century to convince and it largely hasn't, unlike Georgianism and countless others.

@WSMcCready @tomhfh @JohnRentoul Whether true or not, that is irrelevant. Harwood's argument was that The Barbican was objectively a terrible building, and would have been better as a Georgian pastiche. I, and many others, disagree. Styles do not have to "convince as a mass architectural movement" to be valid.