The Official "Total Randomness" Thread

[AB23]

lol, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who, in face to face conversation, will defend Trump either. It's mostly Internet champions. You get them in a real conversation and you get a glimpse of how unfounded their opinions are.

[Timotheus]

This entire Erdogan situation isn't helping either. He's saying exactly what the Western populists want to hear, so they can proclaim their agenda, which is only beneficiary for Erdogan.

[gbruin]

I'd much prefer a video of Greg ranting. Turn it into a weekly series where Greg spends 3 minutes ranting about a topic and making the world agree with him, and then one minute reviewing a rock/metal song.

That post sort of wrote itself as it happened. The more I think about it, the more I think it should happen. Just need a cool catchphrase/tagline.

I do this every day. It's just that there's rarely anyone present and/or listening.

[gbruin]

Praying to tha lawd above I get this legal internship in Denver. Holy balls. Greg you swing all your connections and good graces my ways please.

I try as hard as I can to avoid lawyers wherever possible, but I do know the good place to live, eat, hang out, etc. We'll hook you up. Send me details and I'll see what I know.

Oh, and Alter Bridge plays a show here about every 3-4 years.

[gbruin]

My country chose another 5 years of darkness on the presidential election today. It breaks my heart to say this but I'm really going to leave if the preliminary results turn out to be true. I think this moment is an all time low for me when it comes to life in general,when it comes to questions such as where I'm gonna live, what I'm gonna do. All I know is I can't stay here much longer. I feel uprooted and betrayed.

I know a lot of you guys felt similar when Trump won. Just imagine Trump winning and no media being allowed to say anything but great stuff about him, and 2m people with IQ under 90 voting for him. When it comes to dictatorship we're getting close to Turkey and North Korea, and it can only get worse. I just... I don't know what to say or write anymore. We had a chance to change something and I really hoped we would. There's nothing left of my proud people that not so long ago could win heroic battles and live to fight another day - only cowards and fucking bootlickers. I'm sick of it all, sick and tired to the bone - and I'm only 24. I can't let this God forsaken hole of a country eat another 5 years of my life.

I'm really sorry, Lotha. I totally get how frustrating and hopeless things seem right now. It's hard to understand the motives of so many people, and it seems like elections, the one time that should make everyone really really try to look into things and sincerely explore issues and evaluate candidates, are the times everyone falls for fancy advertisements with no substance and hollow slogans that play on nationalism. It looked from here (granted, very far away and very superficially) like Jankovic might have been a really reasonable candidate with good interests for the country's/world's long term issues, but people are so focused on the immediate and the reactionary. It's really unfortunate.

I do support what Monty says how it's important to stay at home and fight for what is right. Serbia will always be better off with someone like you there, no matter who is holding whatever office. But I understand the fatigue and resignation, too. Most days I just want to move to Slovenia and open a microbrewery and let the rest of the world go fuck itself. You, your BF, and almost all of TABN are welcome to join me. And we're making AB the national band.

In the meantime, hang in there, L.

[Tigra]

Hi, I'm new here and you are such a team but I just feel so the same about the politicians... For the last 1,5 year our government has consisted of paranoiacs, populists, nationalists and EU-phobes (is there such a word?)... I sometimes feel so ashamed for their hysteric behaviour on the international forum... I get an impression that everybody is just laughing at us... And what you say about censored tv - it is already happening here.
And although it was tempting to get away and leave them to discredit themselves, the sad fact is that there is nowhere to run because it seems that in so many countries people tend to vote for such wrecked personalities...
I feel sorry for you and your nation... We just need to survive until the next election, pray they make as little mess as possible and hope that people who share our vision will stand up from their couches and go to vote...

Edit: and to add a little bit of hope - there was a lot of protests against same laws they wanted to pass and the result was that we managed to prevent them from doing so. They still do not hold absolute power!

[Lotha]

Jankovic might have been a really reasonable candidate with good interests for the country's/world's long term issues, but people are so focused on the immediate and the reactionary. It's really unfortunate.

That's true. I voted for him though. People like him are the future. But it wasn't just the immediate and reactionary in his case. The regime used the fact that Jankovic's best friend committed suicide 20 years ago, in Jankovic's apartment, with his own gun, and named him a killer, even though the case was closed years ago. Or they say he had connections with the regime back then which made it possible for him to evade punishment. And people who can only see that info on TV and in 90% of newspapers believe the story. But Vucic didn't get over 50% in most major cities in the country, so there's that. He'll never win the local election in Belgrade, ever again.

I do support what Monty says how it's important to stay at home and fight for what is right. Serbia will always be better off with someone like you there, no matter who is holding whatever office. But I understand the fatigue and resignation, too. Most days I just want to move to Slovenia and open a microbrewery and let the rest of the world go fuck itself. You, your BF, and almost all of TABN are welcome to join me. And we're making AB the national band.

In the meantime, hang in there, L.

It's not over. People are protesting. It started in Belgrade, and spread to many towns and cities. Yesterday there were a thousand people on a protest in my town, despite heavy rain. I'm not holding my breath but it feels good to be able to do something.

Hi, I'm new here and you are such a team but I just feel so the same about the politicians... For the last 1,5 year our government has consisted of paranoiacs, populists, nationalists and EU-phobes (is there such a word?)... I sometimes feel so ashamed for their hysteric behaviour on the international forum... I get an impression that everybody is just laughing at us... And what you say about censored tv - it is already happening here.
And although it was tempting to get away and leave them to discredit themselves, the sad fact is that there is nowhere to run because it seems that in so many countries people tend to vote for such wrecked personalities...
I feel sorry for you and your nation... We just need to survive until the next election, pray they make as little mess as possible and hope that people who share our vision will stand up from their couches and go to vote...

Edit: and to add a little bit of hope - there was a lot of protests against same laws they wanted to pass and the result was that we managed to prevent them from doing so. They still do not hold absolutne power!

Welcome Tigra! It's awesome to see a new face on Total Randomness
You're right. When America has voted for Trump, what can the rest of the world hope for? Still, the people are really the ones who hold power. It's good to remember it.

[Tigra]

Welcome Tigra! It's awesome to see a new face on Total Randomness

Thx!
From what I've managed to read cursorily - shouldn't it be named "Total Craziness"? ;-)

Back to that political thing - no wonder then that songs just as TLH or SMtL are created. It's just so common phenomenon and so universal feeling of people, I suppose.

I watched an interview with Myles talking about TLH songs, he was talking about all that "leadership" stuff and "longing for leaders". I started thinking it over and it became clear to me there will be no leaders/heroes/statesmen anymore.

As I said, our political situation now has become very right-winged and nationalistic. About a year ago a bottom-up political (people's) movement had appeared. It had seemed quite successful in defending our Constitution, freedom of press, etc. However, it had been led by a guy who later on was discredited by some news related to his unpaid child support. He had to move away and without him, the movement somehow lost its momentum.
So it seems to me that in today's information society, some discrediting pieces of information become public sooner or later... which was not the case in past, e.g. during WWII. People are used to those flawless heroes but the old heroes were flawless only because the access to information was very limited in the old times. That's why it was possible to have that men of the moment, leaders, kings, politicians who appeared to save people but today it won't happen. We have to steer it ourselves...


And btw. from what I read, you are from Serbia so I feel for you even more so - I am Slavic as well :-)

[Micky]

i'm not moving in with Gabby anymore. I'm not moving to Pennsylvania anymore. This is the worst fucking week of my life.

[AB23]

tbh i think that all forums are well-served by having a political thread. Let people air out the hostility, and mod once it gets personal (name calling, etc).

Just me though. I know I've benefited from hearing from the best of the from the best of the right, and I hope they feel the same. I feel like I bring a different perspective than most regarding some things because of where I am from and what I write about/research for a living, but everyone does in a way.

edit: Not limited to US politics, of course. But I love policy debates. Everyone can chime in, no matter the country of origin.

[Lotha]

i'm not moving in with Gabby anymore. I'm not moving to Pennsylvania anymore. This is the worst fucking week of my life.

Noooo, what happened?

From what I've managed to read cursorily - shouldn't it be named "Total Craziness"? ;-)
And btw. from what I read, you are from Serbia so I feel for you even more so - I am Slavic as well :-)

Well let's not be nitpicky

Where are you from exactly?

[gbruin]

So this morning I had to wait about 10 minutes in the Starbucks drive-thru for my grande peppermint latte, then I had to drive an hour to meet my mom-in-law to drop off our dog so I can take my son to Arizona for the weekend to play hockey, and now I have to toy with my iPhone 5 because I'm short on memory and can't play all my music.

Meanwhile, maybe 70 people in Syria are dead and hundreds more ill because their country's leader thought it was fine to bomb them with nerve gas. You can watch the videos of children seizing while they suffocate to death on their own pulmonary secretions. Unbelievable.

Fuck you, Assad, for murdering your countrymen. Fuck you, Putin, for offering an obviously total BS cover story. Fuck you, Trump and the other world leaders, for not being the kinds of humans to dissuade others from making this happening.

And fuck me for going along in my perfect little bubble everyday while shit like this happens around the world. I'm depressed.

[Tigra]

And fuck me as well for

going along in my perfect little bubble everyday while shit like this happens around the world

and thinking that I have problems.

[Tigra]

Where are you from exactly?

About 1000 km to the north in almost precisely straight line Southern Poland.

Well, it's not that far, after all ;-) two weeks ago I drove 1005 km west and back after 4 days.

[Tigra]

i'm not moving in with Gabby anymore. I'm not moving to Pennsylvania anymore. This is the worst fucking week of my life.

So sorry to hear that
Maybe there is still a way to fix it all somewhow...

[Timotheus]

I just used the word "deny" in a lyric and I feel absolutely disgusting.

THANKS MYLES.

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

i'm not moving in with Gabby anymore. I'm not moving to Pennsylvania anymore. This is the worst fucking week of my life.

I'm sorry, Micky

[AB23]

Did not get the job Greggory. Apparently they like people "with ties to the area" and responding "I know Greg" was not sufficient.

[Tigra]

I just used the word "deny" in a lyric and I feel absolutely disgusting.

THANKS MYLES.

Lol, you've just killed me.
And exactly a minute ago I read that Myles "denied" things over 50 times. Poor guy

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a workshop for our top management - they are called "leaders" within our company.
So the words "leader", "to lead", "leadership", etc were used in every second sentence. I was laughing inside sooooo hard that it was difficult for me to focus on my job

[gbruin]

responding "I know Greg" was not sufficient.

Hard to find truer words.

Sorry, Chris. I'm sure something better will come along quickly, though.