Dean Burnett (that brains guy)

Why stop there?

Severely physically or mentally impaired? Lifestyle choice

Living in an abusive environment? Lifestyle choice

Literally drowning right now? You should have chosen a lifestyle with better access to air

Don't have to fund support for anything if everything is a choice, after all.

Nov 4, 2023 at 11:57amWeb
Show threadDarren LeathleyNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy Being an awful (expletive deleted)? Lifestyle choice.
Show threadRichard Michael BlaberNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy Exactly! People like Braverman CANNOT admit, under any circumstances, that there is anything wrong with the socio-economic system, so any social/economic problems MUST, on their account, be the result of the flaws & failings of individuals. How a supposedly "perfect" system produces such imperfect individuals is accounted for on the basis of the idea of intrinsically imperfect human nature. But then, how did imperfect humans come up with a "perfect" social system?
Show threadJoe DowlandNov 4, 2023
@rmblaber1956 @Garwboy you shouldn't ask for logic or self reflection from that lot, they are incapable of both
Show threadmhoyeNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy I've decided that all this time not having a peerage is a lifestyle choice so I'll be choosing to be to take up a position in the House of Lords in the coming weeks and I'm looking forward to choosing to live in a palace on an estate soon afterwards.

I'm not British so I don't really know how any of the royal castle stuff works but I've decided that is also a lifestyle choice so I foresee no problems with this plan, I look forward to choosing my weird symbolic gilded hat with lions.

Show threadBadger AF (he/him) DEMOCRACYNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy She needs to spend a few weeks on the streets and then get back to us.
Show threadMaggie MaybeNov 4, 2023
@Badger_AF @Garwboy they all do. Here in the US we regularly fantasize about making some of our representatives have to live off food stamps for a month, but they wouldn’t even feel it with just 30 days. They have a stocked pantry already. Their car probably won’t break down in the next 30 days, they need it for a few months to feel it. With no access to their credit cards or loans from rich friends.
Show threadSteve IngamellsNov 4, 2023
@Badger_AF @Garwboy Just the few weeks on the streets, followed by a lot more. I don't want to hear back.
Show threadBadger AF (he/him) DEMOCRACYNov 4, 2023

@SteveIngamells @Garwboy I have a sibling who acknowledges the problems we have with affordable housing in the states, but based on a friend of his who has done missionary work on the West Coast, "Most of those people want to live on the streets."

This is fertile ground since people can comfort themselves with the idea that this is working out fine.

I'm at wit's end dealing with people who rely on anecdotal evidence when dealing with a huge problem worldwide.

Show threadMaggie MaybeNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy here in the US we have a lot of people living on the streets because they are disabled, and nobody’s disability check is 3 1/2 times any of the rents anywhere. (That’s a bit of an exaggeration, my brother’s SSDI was $2700 a month, but otherwise nah.)

I don’t drink but if I had to sleep in a tent or in my car I sure as hell would need to knock myself out every night in order to do that successfully. I mean, I currently live in a very comfortable apartment with heat and a nice bed, and because of my disability I have to use THC products and LDN to stay asleep throughout the night, and that LDN costs about $90 for 90 days. Alcohol is more affordable and easier to access.

Show threadLeonardo Ferreira FontenelleNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy medical doctor freaks out as patients come in with symptoms
Show threadMark MaguireNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy This is obviously disgusting and untrue as it is but _how_ Braverman dissembles here is instructive. She says UK cities will go the way of 2 Californian cities which have hot to mild climates. On the US East Coast, where the winters are closer to the UK’s, homelessness is not as _visible_ as sheltering inside becomes a matter of survival. She deliberately compares apples and oranges to stoke fear about vulnerable people. Vile.
Show threadNemoNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy
Most of them, I think they're greedy, or stupid, or lazy, or uncaring. It's disappointing, sad, but not jarring.

This one, every single time, make me go "what the fuck is *wrong* with her".
@cstross

Show threadCharlie StrossNov 4, 2023
@iinavpov @Garwboy The worst thing about Braverman is that she's clearly part of a Project, and she's phase 2 (phase 1 was Priti Patel): coming next is phase 3, and it's going to be home secretary Kemi Badenoch. (Who is like an insane cross between Braverman and Liz Truss.)
Show threadJeff Zugale - Z FactoryNov 4, 2023
@cstross @iinavpov @Garwboy you guys really need to start French Revolution-ing these execrable upper-class twits before you really, truly are reduced to serfs. Your island isn’t that big, and you outnumber them thousands to one. Compared to the US your geo-logistical situation is much simpler.
Show threadJeff Zugale - Z FactoryNov 4, 2023
@cstross @iinavpov @Garwboy I should disclaim here that I would very very much prefer non-violent resolutions to all of this insanity, but history is pretty stark about this.
Show threadNemoNov 4, 2023

@jeffzugale
So... Britain did it first. Too early. And because there was no theory of the liberal state then, the king got replaced by a Lord Protector, and then weaker kings, and *centuries* to tend towards democracy.

I don't know that today there's a theory to replace the liberal state (I'd like social democracy, but that seems transient). And people just don't do revolutions to get the system back where it should.

Nor, perhaps, should they.

@cstross @Garwboy

Show threadCharlie StrossNov 4, 2023
@iinavpov @jeffzugale @Garwboy Revolutions tend to eat their children.
Show threadJeff Zugale - Z FactoryNov 4, 2023
@cstross @iinavpov @Garwboy I know this well. There’s no “good” way to fix any of this. 🤷‍♂️
Show threadMajor Denis BloodnokNov 5, 2023
@iinavpov @jeffzugale @cstross @Garwboy Centuries is a stretch; Cromwell and the Glorious Revolution did effect a very fundamental change. It's just gone a bit shit since.
Show threadrandom thoughtsNov 5, 2023

@cstross @iinavpov @Garwboy

Incoming phase 3 of Fascism in the UK:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/04/plans-to-redefine-extremism-would-include-undermining-uk-values

Revealed: plan to brand anyone ‘undermining’ UK as extremist

Leaked documents spark furious backlash from groups who fear freedom of expression could be suppressed

The Guardian
Show threadCharlie StrossNov 5, 2023
@hittitezombie @iinavpov @Garwboy See you in the camps, I guess?
Show threadrandom thoughtsNov 5, 2023
@cstross @iinavpov @Garwboy I am a very potential 'undesirable'.
Show threadJonathan HendryNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy

Amazing how she is awful in every conceivable way.

Show threadGavin Chait;Nov 4, 2023
@Garwboy In 2019, I was taken to court by Westminster, Sheffield & City of London for making FOI requests for lists of vacant commercial properties. They claimed (amongst a long list of crimes, including terrorism) that the spreadsheets would be used by homeless people to find places to squat. Trial took place in Sheffield in the middle of winter. I took a walk one night when it was well below zero. Every doorway, of every vacant building, was being used as shelter by a homeless person.
Show threadGavin Chait;Nov 4, 2023
@Garwboy They already knew where the vacant buildings were, but remained stoically proud that they wouldn't do anything illegal even if it meant freezing to death. I pointed this out in court the next day. The judges didn't give a shit. They found against me for all charges. It's not just the UK government that has contempt for human suffering & sees it as a personal failing.
Show threadAral BalkanNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy You know what really is a lifestyle choice? Being a heartless prick.
Show threadDoug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦Nov 4, 2023
@Garwboy If it's a lifestyle choice, then she should let them choose. The last thing you can take from anyone, if you think about it, is choice.
But, of course, she's dead wrong.
Show threadWilhelm GereNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy

Vile. They make it sound like it's a quaint summertime camping trip. All warm and fuzzy, instead of cold, damp, miserable, starving, ill trying to survive.

Show threadJane CNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy
This might explain it :(
'UK gvt about to make thousands of asylum seekers honeless'.
https://x.com/1goodtern/status/1709845533215387922?s=20
tern on X

So the government are about to make 50,000 asylum seekers homeless, which is going to lead to a huge increase in rough sleeping and possibly even to whole 'migrant camps'. It's wholly deliberate, because they can then use them as a scare story to breed fear and hate and try to…

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threadRick MycroftNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy Sorry, is she objecting to homeless on the streets, or just that their use of tents is above their station?
Show threadVery Human RobotNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy
Not affording food?
Lifestyle choice.
Shackled to the oars?
Lifestyle choice.
Show threadBoxOfRainNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy
Feel almost physically sick.
Show threadmmbyNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy ah right, and when they're banned, you can send them to a heated prison, right?

you will not let them be picked up by the police and be thrown out on the city limits to freeze to death, right?

Show threadhappyborgNov 4, 2023

@Garwboy
And #KeirStarner objects to calling Tories scum.

A phrase used by his deputy.

Show threadSparkNov 4, 2023
@Garwboy Why British politicians wouldn't be sensitive of the city's historical association with debtor imprisonment is beyond me.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Nov 5, 2023
@Garwboy How do these people get elected?
Show threadscott fNov 5, 2023

@Garwboy "will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco...without measures to tackle the use of tents"

I live in San Francisco, and measures to "tackle the use of tents" rather than house people have been our primary strategy for 30 years. She is describing emulating our failed strategy.

Show threadrandom thoughtsNov 5, 2023

@Garwboy Wait until you find out about this.

UK Tory Government wants to mark anyone who disagrees with them as 'extremists', because it is just impossible to define what 'undermining the UK' means.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/04/plans-to-redefine-extremism-would-include-undermining-uk-values

Revealed: plan to brand anyone ‘undermining’ UK as extremist

Leaked documents spark furious backlash from groups who fear freedom of expression could be suppressed

The Guardian
Show threadAliNov 5, 2023

@Garwboy Braverman ratcheting the Overton window further to the right.

The pathway from here leads through imprisonment, to overcrowded prisons, to "life unworthy of life".

All one step at a time.