@5434a's banner p

5434a


				

				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					

					
joined 2022 November 18 19:56:37 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
User ID: 1893


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
5434a


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 November 18 19:56:37 UTC
				


				
					

					
No bio...

				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 1893


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					
					Year
					All
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Speaking of immigrant gangs and large scale fraud reminded me of the various fake colleges scams in the UK.


2014

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/02/students-private-higher-education-colleges-taxpayer-subsidy-benefits-nao-loans




A separate internal government inquiry found that 1,000 of these students, most of whom come from Bulgaria and Romania, were definitely fraudulent and had already claimed £5.4m in student loans before being found out. The government has been able to recover just 7% of that money so far, the NAO said.


In 2012 Willetts said he wanted to see alternative providers take on established universities and offer students even more choice. These colleges were allowed to charge £6,000 a year in fees, which their students could draw from the government-backed Student Loans Company.


But though they were in receipt of public money, Willetts was unable to get new parliamentary powers he needed to hold private colleges to proper account with inspection regimes or demands to see their books, after Lib Dems backed out of supporting a new education bill.


Tuesday’s report was prompted by a Guardian investigation into the sector which found that lectures were teaching to empty or near-empty classrooms. Students and staff alleged that bogus students who were barely literate were using colleges as a “cash point” to access loans they believed they would never pay back.


The NAO findings highlighted that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) lacked basic powers to monitor publicly funded students’ attendance and their progress, even as it relaxed the purse strings to fund private sector growth. It said the department had not defined “an expectation of what might constitute an acceptable dropout rate” for the sector, let alone scrutinised whether the rates were too high.


Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University College Union, which represents academic and other college staff, said the government failed to police the system it had created. “While we are pleased the misuse of public funds is finally being brought to light, we remain angry that it took so long to happen. We raised the issues of for-profit colleges’ access to taxpayers’ money time and again with ministers, but we were ignored at every turn.”




[My bolding]


2009

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/may/21/bogus-college-scam




A Home Office investigation is under way today into a Pakistani gang alleged to have pocketed millions of pounds enrolling hundreds of men from the militant heartland of al-Qaida into bogus UK colleges.




I had to dig in the sources section of Wikipedia to find those links - which I'm not sure were actually the scandal I was looking for - because using a search engine kept returning results of a new student loan scandal that came to light last year: https://aseannow.com/topic/1355961-the-uk-university-fraud-scandal-sham-students-and-fake-degrees/


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 4, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Good point, it would serve as a means to monitor even though donation itself probably wouldn't have any significant effect. I've been meaning to start donating for a while, I should get my act together.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 4, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I wonder whether blood donation might offer some reduction or whether that's overly simplistic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 4, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I started that one a few years ago out of interest in Jungian archetypes but I quickly tapped out when I realised it's not about Jungian archetypes, it's about Men Who Take Turns Crying Together.


My impression is it's one of those books where any people who need it will never read it and the people who'll read it probably don't need it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
All sides have their accelerationists who imagine that just x% more of what they hate will shock the masses out of their false consciousness. What that strategy ignores is that the polity can remain unfavourable longer than you can remain politically relevant.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Shamima Begum is back in the news with news that the European Court of Human Rights are questioning the UK Home Office's decision to remove her citizenship on the basis that she may have been "groomed" and "trafficked" into joining ISIS.




In a document published by the ECHR earlier this month, it states that Ms Begum is challenging the decision to revoke her British citizenship under Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights - prohibition of slavery and forced labour.


The four questions posed by judges in Strasbourg to the Home Office, include: "Did the Secretary of State have a positive obligation, by virtue of Article 4 of the Convention, to consider whether the applicant had been a victim of trafficking, and whether any duties or obligations to her flowed from that fact, before deciding to deprive her of her citizenship?"


Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Ms Begum "chose to go and support the violent Islamist extremists".


He added: "She has no place in the UK and our own Supreme Court found that depriving her of citizenship was lawful.


"It is deeply concerning the European Court of Human Rights is now looking at using the ECHR to make the UK take her back."




If the UK is manoeuvered into allowing Begum to return at the the behest of the European courts it will be political suicide for the government, an open goal for the far right, but what gets me is how it will foreseeably be consequently counterproductive for the very demographics that human rights activists seek to defend! It will pour fuel on reactionary sentiment and division. I think that the functional part of Labour understand this, and will be working hard to make sure it doesn't happen, but I worry that the activist section of the back benches will work against them, ignorant (wilfully?) of the prospect of ushering in a Reform government on a swelling tide of rightist sentiment. It's like a moral puritanism that denies the political reality of trade-offs. Sure, there might be a hard right UK government, but it won't be their fault - they stood against it!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				2026 prediction thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Has it stopped?


Sorry, I'm being flippant. I don't follow Israel/Palestine beyond it being the background radiation of international news for my entire life. As such it strikes me as almost humorous to predict it might re-ignite when its continual conflict appears as perennial as the sun rising.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				2026 prediction thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Israel-palestine conflict reignites




Prediction: Sun rises tomorrow.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 21, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If anything I found it less culture warry and more entertaining than Knives Out 1 and 2, with 2 being particularly bad, but it's pretty clear at this point that assembling a spread of culture war punch bags and pitting them against each other is the established format for Knives Out.


The part that stood out to me the most was the church building. I didn't realise there were such textbook English parish churches in America with lych gates and yew trees and everything, and apparently they're Catholic(?). And now I've taken the time to check and apparently it was filmed in Essex, which makes a bit more sense.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 21, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A partner with more resources can better nurture and educate their blank slate while a partner with less resources can't.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Now you might ask, fairly, "What does this have to do with TDS?" And it's a tough explainer




You've got that right on both counts.


To me it reads like a trademark rambling attempt to ""weave"".


"Before they died they thought I was bad, which obviously means they're crazy and wrong. And they're not really that famous anyway. Death is sad, but at the end of the day I'm the best. Sad. Best. RIP. "


It's less a deft weave and more like two postcards that have been jammed into a shredder at the same time.


Edit: On second thoughts I think it's simpler than that. There was a news headline that wasn't about Trump, and he wanted to divert the attention away from the news and on to himself. Mission accomplished.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 12, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The critique I've seen of this idea is that while a paid platform would appear more trustworthy the same trustworthiness would make it equally valuable to marketers who would then pay the admission fee to exploit it.