A very quick non-political & non PC (*gasp*) #THREAD on nicknames.
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, commonly used to express affection or endearment, sometimes amusement, & occasionally to bully.
Almost all lads had one when I was young.
As my surname is Jackson, my usual nickname was 'Jacko'.
As a 17 year old, doing a bricklaying apprenticeship, I went on day release to Chesterfield Tech (College of Technology, before it became Chesterfield College) to do a City & Guilds in Bricklaying & then 'Advanced Craft'.
It was quite brutal - usually in a good way - & all of us on the course were given new nicknames by my mate 'Trent'.
Trent got his own nickname following a haircut, after which someone said his ears looked like bus wheels - the local bus company was called 'Trent Buses'. 🚍
A thinnish lad was called Jim. His nickname became 'Jim The Pin'. Then later, 'Skinny Jim The Pin'. 📌
There was a VERY big lad, who wasn't the sharpest, & Trent gave him the nickname 'Termy'.
Why?
Because according to Trent, he looked like a massive lumbering termite.🐛
Another lad was given the nickname 'Mips', then 'Chuffin Mips', because his surname was 'Marples' & he used to say 'Chuffin 'ell' A LOT. 🤬
Another lad came in from a place called Ashover. He was a bit gangly, with a sharp, pointy face, so his nickname was 'Asher Dog'. 🐶
Another lad used to say 'ballacks' A LOT - he became known as called 'Ballos'.🤬
A punk from Chesterfield who we often struggled to understand was given the nickname 'Emmo'.
I think I got away lightly, as I was called 'Jack the lad', but they said 'Jack the Laaaaaad'.
A couple of the teachers were given nicknames by Trent too.
Mr Brightmore became 'Mr Darkless', & a teacher who had a small mouth, & very thin lips, became known as 'Chicken Lips'.🐔
Did any of us care? Did we fuck. It was all funny as fuck. Times have changed.
What was yours?
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Americans who care about democracy, justice & the planet have to come together to prevent another Trump administration, which would attempt to introduce the regressive, antidemocratic & dangerously irresponsible policies laid out in the Heritage Foundation's #Project2025
Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the nominee.
Before outlining some essential information about Harris, I'll quickly summarise the process be for choosing the Democratic nominee as described by Newsweek.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Jaime Harrison said that the party would "undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November."
Professor of History & Public Policy at Duke University & author of the terrifying award-winning bestseller 'Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America', Nancy MacLean, recently discussed #Project2025.
Law professor & social critic Kimberlé Crenshaw interviewed MacLean about what the prescriptions in the Heritage Foundation’s #Project2025 mean for parents, public schools, & for multiracial democracy.
CRENSHAW: These wars on curricula are not new, of course; they go far back in our history. What folks might not know is that the Heritage Foundation, the main convenor of #Project2025, cut its teeth on curricular wars in the 1970s.
'The Republican blueprint for power contains the seeds of its own demise. It is not too late to stop the descent of the American political order into tyranny, oligarchy or anarchy', writes Timothy Snyder.
Pete Buttigieg is an American politician and former naval officer who is serving as the 19th United States secretary of transportation. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020, which earned him the nickname "Mayor Pete".
Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Oxford, attending the latter on a Rhodes Scholarship. From 2009 to 2017, he was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant.
Hitler survived assassination attempts. We know what that led to. Reagan & Thatcher survived assassination attempts. They gave us neoliberalism. Trump survived. He's chosen JD Vance as his running mate. If elected, America will become a dystopian free-market kleptocracy.
The 0.01% is gearing up to all but destroy US democracy.
Leading the charge & donating tens of millions of dollars to Trump's campaign are Silicon Valley's libertarian Tech billionaire extremists, led by Peter Thiel & Elon Musk - two of the most dangerous men on earth.
What's unfolding right now is like something from a dystopian sci-fi novel.
Except it's not fiction - it's real.
And it's a fucking nightmare assault on truth, fairness, equality, minorities, women's right, the environment & humanity, which democracy will struggle to survive.
"What first made Reform UK's white, privately educated multimillionaires Farage, Tice & Rupert Lowe oppose DEI?"
'Diversity Equity Inclusion' is a framework which promotes the fair treatment & full participation of ALL people, but particularly underrepresented groups...
Many people know that the term ‘DEI’ is being weaponized as a racist dog whistle (a coded, deniable bit of language that allows people to communicate ideas that would be too offensive if done explicitly).
There’s nothing new about using racist dog whistles. But the way DEI is used to play into racist sentiments is uniquely powerful, & may well be much more potent than other culture war terms.