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Ah, Methley - I was born just over 4 miles from there (not as glamorous as 'tfront room - Pontefract hospital). Thanks for answering the question. I was thinking more of like one specific incident and a direct quote that I could look at - though I have now had a look around and seen some...

Yep, still there - though it's not a commune, it's a teacher training facility and retreat center. That's possible: it certainly happens on occasion. Call me a skeptic but I don't trust newspapers (or TV news) to accurately reflect reality (my lived experience seems to support this as the...

Hopefully they will understand I'm only joking when I say that the Earth might not be flat. ;) Which incident springs to mind when you think of times this has happened?

I would say they are examples of skepticism. I don't remember that happening but I'll take your word for it that it did. Perhaps they meant "lack of well-functioning critical thinking" or "correctly applied skepticism" (eg, skepticism backed up by an ability to tell what is factual from what...

Well I did say "I guess so" (ie, "I guess it does happen"). "Does 'insulting people's intelligence as a tactic' happen?" is in invitation to say something like "yes it does; here are a couple of examples". I may have seen them and not recognised them as insults of people's intelligence; or I...

I don't know if I'd say I'm not formally educated - I do have a BA and an MA and have read plenty - but perhaps you mean with regard to the more technical subjects that I know nothing about (coding, engineering, how planes bank and ATFLIR cameras work, etc) and could perhaps, in another...

Does that happen? Like directly. I guess so. Though I also think it's just as likely that people feel less intelligent in comparison - as I do on the really technical threads - and then perhaps imagine the other people are doing that to them (maybe like how drinkers sometimes think tee-totallers...

Is it? I'm reading his as "a vote by the population" or "populace vote". Actually, yeah, that does sound the same. All good then. :D That's true. Bad Rory!

UK politics and how it has changed since the 1980s, summed up nicely by Stewart Lee: "In the 1980s the Labour Party believed that the poor, who did not deserve to be poor, should be helped by the rich, who did not deserve to be rich. Meanwhile, the Conservatives thought that the poor, who...

As demonstrated, I do. ;)

Do our American friends even know what "proportional representation" is? Or that it exists? Definitely good to be aware. But I think you're mostly talking about confusions that are potential but haven't happened - and potentially confusing things by introducing extra (and extraneous) terms...

Are you middle-aged?

I checked the dictionary and it's true, there are different definitions of that word: Rest of the world: a normal person who believes it's good to help others US: a kind of demon who is intent on destroying civilization and should be burned at the stake (see also: communist) I also noticed we...

Which is the meaning we've all (bar one) been using throughout the discussion, and I think commonly understood as the prominent meaning at this point in time. But if you'd rather we all change to your preferred expression I'm okay with that.

Or probably the one before: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/when-conspiracists-psychoanalyze.12536/post-280390 Otherwise we'll have to start the whole thing over again.

Of course! How else will I know and be able to update my thinking unless someone points it out? Maybe be a little more specific and constructive (and dare I say "courteous") than that though. ;) Have I "uttered some ridiculous load of crap" in the past? That could work. Not often you guys...

Definitely. If they weren't they'd have been reported. :)

Yeah, let's not debate. I'm just looking for corrections really since I'm obviously far from an expert. And really I suppose I did meander from my original point of "ah! now I get why the whole republic/democracy/popular vote misunderstanding happened". But, in any case, I do appreciate your...

True. But the UK does elect at local (constituency) level. Obviously MPs don't have anywhere near the same amount of power as the states/provinces in a federation such as Canada or Australia (or the US) but in practical terms for how a person's vote leads to electing a government this aspect of...

Yep. :D Fair enough. I'm pretty sketchy on some of my South and Central American countries, as well as large parts of Africa. I only know the US somewhat well because I've been to 47 states and spent lots of time looking at maps. But when I first arrived (in '96, aged 20) I didn't even know LA...