My bad then.

Did you edit your comment so that mine doesn’t make sense?

That’s skeevy.

You write essays at your job?

I’m not sure calling Gorbechev an idiot is right though.

Just because he was a victim of external interests, as you describe. Feels a bit victim-blamey.

“Look what you made the US do to you”.

Yeltsin, maybe though.

Which bit of history does this represent?

At first I thought it might be the break up of the USSR, but that doesn’t really work here. So that leaves me at a loss.

I just can’t see how Gorbachev and Trump, or their actions, are similar.

Nah, we sometimes call them “Yank Vegetables”.

Classic bully behaviour.

Stupid and self defeating.

Says regime that is cosplaying Nazi Germany.

Not a serious man, by his own admission.

I’m starting with the man in the mirror I’m asking him to change his ways And no message could’ve been any clearer If they wanna make the world a better place Take a look at yourself and then make a change

Yep. Cool. There’s a place for them, certainly.

Still don’t think that’s reading though.

I say unpopular because those that do think audiobook are “books” tend to be very, very vocal about how wrong I am when I express that opinion… As if I’m somehow undermining their enjoyment or the legitimacy of their consumption.

The 52% on my side are just sat quietly reading books and minding their own business.

I think you make some interesting points… Content is important.

Although I think there’s such a desperation to get people into the reading habit that anything is considered good enough.

Remember the Harry Potter book when they first came out. I seem to remember a lot of chat about how those books were low effort, but that they encouraged a lot of life-long readers.

I know that here, in the UK, our education system tends to make people resent reading. Furthermore it instills some awful habits… Like feeling you have to finish a book even if you aren’t enjoying it (which usually means you stop reading altogether).

Anyway. That’s a long way of saying I think you are right.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but listening to audio books isn’t reading.

It is a different sensory experience. It uses different parts of the brain and imagination too.

It is far closer to listening to a radio play.

I’m not saying it is any worse or better, just different.

I’m not sure that conflating the two is useful, particularly when talking about reading habits.

But let’s not forget the time the US dragged the world into a horrible war on terror just so it could maintain oil prices too.

Yes, that was what I joking about.

When this is all over. One way or another. And the dust has settled. Please remember that even moderate republicans supported him.

Fun fact. The choir sing “Ecce homo qui est faba”.

Behold the man who is bean.

He’s an alien.

You see him drop to earth in the titles.

There’s such a prevailing vibe that the EU would want us back too… What if they don’t?

I mean, after events of this week, it’s probably more likely, but even then they’d be well within their rights to tell us to sod off.