iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

How do you know what I would and wouldn't say about any other ethnic group? When do you consider that England was "founded"? And how did it happen? New Zealand?

100

It doesn't matter if it's there because its a mistranslation; that's the version in the official handbook for Christianity. Half the books like that. Mary wasn't originally a virgin; that's a mistranslation, which meant they had to retcon an immaculate conception into the story.

110

There are no such indigenous people in the UK. We've invaded, immigrated, integrated and mongrelised that out of existence here. The historic behaviour of Britain abroad is one of the reasons those rights are necessary.

Well, you say that... Leviticus 20:13 If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offence.

100

Most religions are incompatible with reason.. There isn't any "our" society, there's just society. And it evolves and is malleable. We don't own it and we can't control it. Part of the reason for the plantations was to try to suppress the followers of a suddenly non-approved religion, remember.

You have to draw a line between stuff that's just part of the explanation of why things are like they are and stuff we're angry about and want to correct. You can't fix the plantations. You can't undo what Cromwell and William III did. You can't unkill the dead people from the troubles.

100

When it happened is relevant, because it changes who was persecuting whom and why and how it was done. Absolute monarchs acting during a period of early colonialism during a religious schism when religion was everything isn't the same as not giving council houses to Catholics.

200

Four hundred years ago! And brilliantly managed over time to create a divided country where everyone feels like they belong to a persecuted minority.

100

If being one of a minority isn't as appealing as being one of the majority, doesn't that make you think the problem is how minorities are treated, not that they exist? And, let's be honest, no one's "asking".

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 23/09/2026

Spent all morning playing "Risk" with my wife. Or, as she prefers to call it, being asked my opinion on her possible clothing purchases.

381

I only have experience of Britain, but it's very weird that most people who claim to be patriots have never liked the country they live in and spend their lives wishing it was totally different. In most cases, like an imaginary high-tech 1940s without the war and where everyone was white.

260

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 22/09/2026

A proverb only used by people who've never tried to lead an unwilling horse anywhere.

130

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 21/09/2026

...and in other news, the North and South Korean military, who have been camped on opposite sides of no-man's-land since the 1950s, were recently criticised online for not allowing men who self-identify as women to go there and have resumed hostilities rather than get involved in that kind of drama.

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 20/09/2026

My own experience of Billionaires is more disbelief than theory. My plan, should I ever meet a billionaire, is to remind them that Americans had to redefine a billion to make it a thousand times smaller than it was originally so they could call themselves one.

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 20/09/2026

Absolutely. Perhaps some attractive "strewers".

121

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 20/09/2026

When people become incredibly rich, they seem to want to live forever, buy remote homes in case of an apocalypse, interfere in politics and buy sports teams. But what would greatly improve life is always being accompanied by backing singers. That would be my first choice.

1101

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 17/09/2026

You're not serious about losing weight until you blow your nose before you weigh yourself.

361

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 15/09/2026

“Not my circus, not my monkeys”. The despairing cry of a monkey circus owner as the bailiffs repossess everything he owns for the money he owes.

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 15/09/2026

Our government is talking about returning our water supply into public hands. Despite centuries of preferring pipes.

292

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 10/09/2026

A thing Apple does best is pricing. They understand that not that many people will want a foldable phone, but enough will pay a big premium for an Apple version. But the price also makes "standard" iPhones look cheaper. It's the Overton window of consumer pricing. Moving up instead of right.

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 09/09/2026

He might be exaggerating for effect, but he's right. And as a prediction, rather than a fact, he'd be right again.

020

All great points. I went least worst is better. But I’m of the privacy is toast clan.

I keep alpacas and they are incredibly mindful of barriers. You can herd large numbers of them just by holding thin rope, which they treat as seriously as an actual wooden fence.

I use a Eufy security system with local storage only. There's an AI option where you can allow things to be analysed somewhere in the cloud, but you can turn it off. They make doorbells, although I don't have one personally.

130

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 01/09/2026

Given the state of most AI platforms and how they're trained, if they ever do become self-aware, they'll just switch themselves off through embarrassment.

030

I am very judgmental of people who are still on X today. It is revealing (both their presence there and my judgment!)

100

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 01/09/2026

I would argue that it's better for everyone if people using X don't learn anything of interest using the site, so it's of less use to them. Anyone who thinks they have a reason to use X obviously believes it's better it exists than not. This is not so, so that also can't be true.

110

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 01/09/2026

Please don't visit X/Twitter. And definitely don't post. Anyone's presence on the site or on a linked app feeds the algorithm and supports the site working. The way to fight it is not to look at it at all.

I was citing the theory, it's not one I believe in personally. I accept it might have been attempted, but I don't think it worked. Otherwise it would have been repeated, and it hasn't.

000

Westminster is just theatre, it's all back room deals and dodgy horse trading, but the room's smaller and the horses fewer. Jesus, I can't believe I'm on a Social media platform debating Brexit. Where did that decade go?

100

C'mon, Corbyn's Labour were irrelevant to Brexit (as they were to everything that wasn't Glastonbury or Gaza).

000

Social media was meant to be weaponised by an organisation attempting to manipulate a population brought up on excellent traditional media, which they trusted, and were unused to being blatantly lied to online. It didn't need a conspiracy for that. A bus and some convincing liars was enough.

110

It's not something I believe in, but that's misstating the claim. The Cambridge Analytica paranoia is that voters can evaluate competing claims, but they weren't given competing claims; they were given one-sided claims, and the competing views were suppressed or misrepresented.

China and America benefited. Russia's dead it just doesn't know it yet. It's a failed state lashing out as it decays from the top.

That might be true, but it's made zero improvement to anyone's lives, either day to day or longer term. We're subject to way more external influence than before; it's just not formalised. We're bullied by the USA, EU and China, and run by an English-speaking elite rather than one with an accent.

Please don't post Twitter posts here without a warning - I avoid that place.

000

We're still run by bureaucrats, they're just not as effective as the ones who run the EU. It doesn't matter how rich Farage is, he's the political equivalent of a nasty smell - hard to ignore but too unpleasant to be widely accepted.

CineQuote - Guess the movie in five quotes or less!

The one frame one is very hit and miss for me. The original one I enjoy more. I do the cinema quote quiz (cinequote dot net) and that one each morning to start my elderly brain turning over.

cinequote.net

Play daily movie quote challenges, track your stats, and share with friends. Can you ace today's movie?

I had to stop talking about my own Irish heritage because it made me sound like an American!

You're not wrong or being in any way inappropriate.

020

John-Paul Keates @jpkeates.wsocial.eu · 30/08/2026

No it wasn't. Brit is a word used by people to describe people from Britain. It's considered quite polite given some of the alternatives. I'm British and that's one way I'd describe myself without thinking much about it.

030

I think of myself as a moderate. While it should obviously be legal to walk up to any employee of Heinz or any other company that's started using ring pulls on food cans and flick soup on their clothing, I don't think it should be mandatory. That's a step too far.