Refuseniks (or: okayyyyyy, boomer)

[touchingcloth]

My mother-in-law is visiting at the moment. The first thing she said when we picked her up at the airport was:

Some bloody jobsworth at the airport tried to force me to wear a mask. I said no, I'm not doing that, I am wearing a face covering as mandated, and I showed him the terms and conditions. So after I asked to speak to the manager he let me on the plane with my face covering instead of a mask.

The face covering in question was a thick woollen scarf. To stick it to the man she spent 3 hours on a plane with a big old scarf wrapped round her face, I imagine to absolutely no one's discomfort or inconvenience other than her own.

Are the boomers in your life sliding into senility and no longer sure what it means to have the last laugh?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Your mother in law sounds like an arsehole.

[touchingcloth]

Your mother in law sounds like an arsehole.

Intransigent Brexit voter with a distaste for authority no matter what form it takes. In short: a Facebook user.

[bgmnts]

No offense but I'll be happy when she dies.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not really. My dad (like me) doesn't want a smart meter and after getting fed up of receiving multiple sales calls trying to talk him round he said if they called him again he'd consider it harassment and shop them to the ombudsman or something.

He's generally quite easy going though and is happy for others to waste their time with pettiness. They got a woodburner fitted to their conservatory that required a flue and it meant a back-garden neighbour in a different street could see it, which for some reason incensed them no end. After trying stuff with the deeds that failed ('cos my folks weren't stupid enough not to check before getting the work done) they moved on to other pettiness. One day a lady from the council turned up to investigate reports he was running a business involving chemicals from the garage, he opened the garage, showing it to be full to the brim of garage shit (pressure washer, bits of caravan awning, rubber dinghy, toys from when I was a child etc) and she was like 'yeah fine, I can see whoever reported you is a dickhead.'. My dad didn't seem to bothered 'if he wants to waste his and the council's time and look a twat in the process I'm happy to let him'.

[touchingcloth]

I think she's picked this up on Facebook, but she's convinced the government have some ploy to keep us in masks forever.

Astonishing for someone who lived through the tail end of world war rationing. Imagine if the people in those generations went "coupons? For food? I imagine this will be for forever. Oh dear."

[touchingcloth]

Not really. My dad (like me) doesn't want a smart meter and after getting fed up of receiving multiple sales calls trying to talk him round he said if they called him again he'd consider it harassment and shop them to the ombudsman or something.

He's generally quite easy going though and is happy for others to waste their time with pettiness. They got a woodburner fitted to their conservatory that required a flue and it meant a back-garden neighbour in a different street could see it, which for some reason incensed them no end. After trying stuff with the deeds that failed ('cos my folks weren't stupid enough not to check before getting the work done) they moved on to other pettiness. One day a lady from the council turned up to investigate reports he was running a business involving chemicals from the garage, he opened the garage, showing it to be full to the brim of garage shit (pressure washer, bits of caravan awning, rubber dinghy, toys from when I was a child etc) and she was like 'yeah fine, I can see whoever reported you is a dickhead.'. My dad didn't seem to bothered 'if he wants to waste his and the council's time and look a twat in the process I'm happy to let him'.

Ha! I think that sort of thing is fair enough.

I can see where my MiL is coming from because the masks are annoying, but she'd obviously taken on board that she wasn't going to be able to board the plane if she didn't cover her face with something, but she somehow saw it as a victory that they weren't going to force her to wear a mask, even if that would be more comfortable than the winter scarf she had opted for instead. Cutting her nose off to spite her face, and then saying "I don't need a mask, actually - no nose, mate, what you going to do about that?"

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think she's picked this up on Facebook, but she's convinced the government have some ploy to keep us in masks forever.

Can you tie this in with a question about police departments spunking loads on facial recognition systems?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I can see where my MiL is coming from because the masks are annoying, but she'd obviously taken on board that she wasn't going to be able to board the plane if she didn't cover her face with something, but she somehow saw it as a victory that they weren't going to force her to wear a mask, even if that would be more comfortable than the winter scarf she had opted for instead. Cutting her nose off to spite her face, and then saying "I don't need a mask, actually - no nose, mate, what you going to do about that?"

I think what you're describing is known as 'malicious compliance'.

[idunnosomename]

cover her face with a pillow

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

A full-on scarf though? Tell her to start rocking a bandana. Much easier, and still sticking two fingers up at The Man.

[touchingcloth]

A full-on scarf though? Tell her to start rocking a bandana. Much easier, and still sticking two fingers up at The Man.

Full on. Dr Who level scarf. The odd thing is I know she owns some silk shawl things, so the daft cunt hasn't even chosen her most comfortably scarf.

[touchingcloth]

I think what you're describing is known as 'malicious compliance'.

Nah, that'd be more putting face paint on knowing you already had the covids, and then coughing all over the plane.

There's no malice in her compliance other than towards herself. "No fighting in the war room? Didn't say I can't punch myself in the dick, did you? Ahhh. Ahhhhh. Ow."

[Goldentony]

ask who he fuck she thinks she is and tell her to grow up and stop fucking showing off

[touchingcloth]

ask who he fuck she thinks she is and tell her to grow up and stop fucking showing off

That was the first thing we said in the car. "You know that only inconveniences you, right? Did you sit there on the plane with that thing in your face the whole way? Look at it!"

She just harrumphs and says something like "well, I'm not going to...bloody ridiculous" under her breath. Tragic, in a way.

[Goldentony]

best bet is put wheels and an engine on the house then and drive off during the night while shes asleep I imaginbe

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Did she put her seatbelt on in the car?

[Tony Tony Tony]

My Father In Law is obsessed with anyone in his street putting their wheelie bins out too early.

He claims that he is doing them a favour as apparently he has heard that the council will fine miscreants who wheel out their rubbish too soon.

   

[Pingers]

My Father In Law is obsessed with anyone in his street putting their wheelie bins out too early.

He claims that he is doing them a favour as apparently he has heard that the council will fine miscreants who wheel out their rubbish too soon.

   

Gas this cunt

[Sebastian Cobb]

My Father In Law is obsessed with anyone in his street putting their wheelie bins out too early.

He claims that he is doing them a favour as apparently he has heard that the council will fine miscreants who wheel out their rubbish too soon.

   

In some ways I think I'd prefer a fine from the council to some self-appointed bin warden bothering me about it.

[JesusAndYourBush]

My Father In Law is obsessed with anyone in his street putting their wheelie bins out too early.

He claims that he is doing them a favour as apparently he has heard that the council will fine miscreants who wheel out their rubbish too soon.

   

How early does he consider too early?  I put mine out anywhere between mid-day and early evening the day before.  Would that be too early?

[Famous Mortimer]

You kids today wouldn't survive the Blitz, you're too soft, says tedious old fuck who can't even wear a mask for ten minutes if it means saving someone else's life.

[Thomas]

Once I was talking to [redacted relative] and she employed two racist, contradictory clichés within a single minute: that migrants were taking all the jobs and sitting around doing nothing on the dole.

Since moving from the UK to Ireland, I've heard a few racists complain about migrants - apparently forgetting that I, too, sitting across from them, came over on a plane and took a job. I'm not visibly 'from elsewhere', so it's different, I suppose. So much of this casual nationalism, spouted in harmless, shrugging tones by uncles and in-laws, is about skin colour. They won't admit it - it would blow their cover, or force them to confront things - but it is.

[ASFTSN]

bloody ridiculous

Think this is the tell really, somebody using this phrase in earnest.

[Goldentony]

bin cunts are the fucking worst man, its a hole for shit to go in, its a toilet for fucking cigs, calm down

[Sebastian Cobb]

bin cunts are the fucking worst man, its a hole for shit to go in, its a toilet for fucking cigs, calm down

Innit. In my last street there were a few who seemed to be outdoing each other for who had the most noticeable and elaborate number painted on their wheely bin. All it told me was they were probably highly-strung.

My neighbour and I just had two bins next to each other, rubbish went in the one with space left in it.

[Tony Tony Tony]

bin cunts are the fucking worst man, its a hole for shit to go in, its a toilet for fucking cigs, calm down

There was a thread on my Nextdoor app the other day from someone complaining that a neighbour had been using her wheelie bin WITHOUT ASKING. She was threatening to get a padlock.

The number of post sympathising with the OP was jaw dropping.

[touchingcloth]

Innit. In my last street there were a few who seemed to be outdoing each other for who had the most noticeable and elaborate number painted on their wheely bin. All it told me was they were probably highly-strung.

My neighbour and I just had two bins next to each other, rubbish went in the one with space left in it.

When we lived in Bristol the paper recycling was done in open boxes rather than wheelie bins. One week we had quite a lot of paper to recycle, and so I'd put some of it on the pavement next to the box. I noticed later that day, not long before the collection usually came, that the neighbour's box had a lot of space left, so I put what didn't fit in my box into theirs, thinking nothing of it.

Before I'd even got back down the path and to my building the neighbour appeared behind me, and went "oi!" before having a go at me for stealing his bin space. Calm down, mate, I'll put it back on the pavement if that's preferable to you.

Mind, the same neighbour had some time before that put a note through our building's door with some Telegraph article clipping about how wet wipes clog up plumbing and asking people to not flush any down their toilets. A week or so later he grabbed me - I'd never met him before - on my way out to work and asked if I'd seen his letter, and if so why was I still flushing wet wipes? I don't wipe my arse on wet wipes because I'm not a foetus, and my building had about ten separate dwellings in it.

White people.

[Sebastian Cobb]

How did he know someone was still flushing the wet wipes? I can only assume he was lifting a manhole cover and inspecting what was flying past. Which really, unless you work for the waterboard is somewhat beyond the call of duty.

[touchingcloth]

How did he know someone was still flushing the wet wipes? I can only assume he was lifting a manhole cover and inspecting what was flying past. Which really, unless you work for the waterboard is somewhat beyond the call of duty.

Well, exactly. I charitably assumed he had had some flooding in his garden and DynoRid had found wipes and that triggered his initial note, but the follow up? Nah, he'd had his hands down the drain like a little boglin.