Hey guys! It's 2014! I mean, 2015!

‏And we still have to do the hard work ourselves if we want anything to change. Here are some excellent wishes for 2015. Happy New Year!

It's 2015 and my parents still batter their laptop keyboard as if they're using Jessica Fletcher's ropey old typewriter. Makes me wince. (@woodo79 )

It's 2015 and Rita Ora's cleavage is somehow considered offensive. (Hollie DeBaro ‏@hoalii)

It's 2015 and my mom still prints out MapQuest directions and uses them to get places.

It's 2015 and people are still dying because of the cold weather I really don't get it. (@TheMcBang )

It's 2015 and @945Kfm is listing movies in which "a man may cry". Dear KFM Neanderthals: men may cry whenever they want to. (@TomEatonSA)

It's 2015 and girls still have that "I don't text first" rule. (Dylhan ‏@TheRealDylhan )

It's 2015 so cheating, lying, not being loyal, etc. is played out. Time to grow up or just stay single. (@Futurehendrixx)
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It's ridiculous that it's 2015 and it's still not socially acceptable to like one direction. (@larryskey)


In 2014, contending that a man still serving a rape sentence shouldn't be playing professional football really shouldn't be controversial. (@MickPCollins )

It is the year of our Lord two thousand and fourteen and many people are still afraid of people with different colored skin. (dead internet dad ‏@Fauxgyptian)

Child poverty at 49% in Tower Hamlets. In London. In 2014. (@HeardinLondon)

It’s 2014! India’s got a space programme! (Simon Reeve on hearing that untouchables are not allowed to step into the shadow of a higher caste Indian.)

 Its 2014, why do we accept 'magicians' are simply sleight of hand illusionists but indulge 'psychics' with their 'contacting the dead' BS. (‏@woodo79)

You don’t really expect to see statements like this in in the UK 2014: NUJ calls for end to threats and intimidation of journalists reporting on the referendum in Scotland. ‏(@How_Upsetting)

It’s 2014. (@everydaysexism quoting headline: Mother of three poised to lead the BBC.)

Can't believe its 2014 and I still have personal failings smh. (Mallory Ortberg ‏@mallelis SMH = shaking my head)

It is insane that California has a whooping cough epidemic in 2014. (vox.com)

What do we want? Equity! When do we want it? Now please! (it IS the 21st century after all...) (womeninastronomyblogspot.au)

Read this by @SarahMillican75. It's ludicrous that she should be subjected to this sort of bullying in 2014.

"Have you had any maids or cooks that were satanical, made your life hell?" Libby Purves, Radio 4, 21st century. (@robertrotifer)

It was par for the course for coaches to motivate players by calling them "homo," "girl" and "sissy." But it's the year 2014, and I expect more from UI and its athletics director. (press-citizen.com)

Blue kinder eggs and pink Kinder eggs. Advertised on Channel 4 in 20 bloody 14? (@DAaronovitch)

I can’t believe we’re still talking about equal pay in 2014. (Elizabeth Warren)

Bbctbq Stop that man talking. It's 2014 we've found out why all this stuff was written and who it was written for. (‏@TheJanHarvey Prog full of fundamentalist End Timers Mar 30 2014.)

Overheard: 'She's a lesbian, but she's really lovely'. It's 2014. (‏@cluedont)

"We must make immigrants' lives unbearable" The Greek chief of police actually said this. In 2013. (Feargus O'Sullivan ‏@FeargusOSull)

More here, and links to the rest.

Buzz Words of December 2014

Give her your seat

21st century lack of manners is complained of.

Curmudgeonly middle-classes now grumbling about anybody spending any money at all on anything. (Dec 1)

Black Friday has “apparently” become “all the rage”. (It has been around for years in the States.)

Christmas mania: shopping, parties, turkey dinners

Someone suggests renaming it “Greedmas”. (The Puritans banned Christmas altogether and some people have clearly never recovered.)

People versus “people”; ordinary v “ordinary”; journalists and “journalists” - seems to be a thing now. Or is it just more so than usual? Feminists are OK, but "feminists" are not.

BBC “panic” over gales (yawn). Met Men predicted gales – we got gales.

Weatherbomb – what kind of a word is that?

Nice middle-class people are finding ethical alternatives to Amazon. And they like complaining that LinkedIn is useless (except that it means people can always find you. Remember the hell of trying to find out someone’s phone number? By the way, you can turn off notifications.)

They also like bragging that email is overwhelming and they just delete most of them. If that’s you, you need a secretary or virtual assistant to set up spam folders and work folders, and do a lot of unsubscribing. Then they could read your emails every day and filter out the ones you need to see. Go on, give someone a job!

A last outbreak of “fawning” as Wills and Kate visit America and publish photos of their little boy.

What have we become? People using “selfie sticks” now!

Many people have their Christmas “ruined” because of the wrong kind of tinsel.

Gamergaters carry on with their game of “touched you last”.
Someone’s writing a book about Gamergate.

People getting annoyed about “weatherbombs” again.

Reasons for lying to children about Santa reach new heights of absurdity (“It will introduce children to the socio-psychology of a collective delusion”  Almost sillier than “believing in Santa is good practice for believing in Jesus”.) And now they’re telling kids that the ISS is Santa and crowing “What price Richard Dawkins now!” Homo sapiens, I despair.

The BBC reports heavy snow in Wales and Twitter panics about panic.

Entitled women: Women aren’t entitled to anything, and men are entitled to everything.

man of the people: what politicians want to be seen as. (But it seems to mean “knows celebrities”, not “lives on an estate and shops at Costcutter”.)

longform: long
shortform: short

Very young men bandy about the term “White Knight” in a blizzard of mansplaining why women can’t be trusted with feminism. Very young men still don’t really know what “rape” means. (It's a violent crime.)

Of course gamergaters are used to being rude and abusive to each other in the games’ chat feature. Trash talk. Twitter is not a videogame.

Some people still don’t know what “equality” means. How can it mean “taking more than your fair share”? Is “parity” easier to understand?

Many are outraged at others’ outrage at outrageous phenomena.

More here, and links to the rest.