sidneybear

Let people be what they want to be, but why does a minority of pride fanatics shove it down everyone else's throats? I've got gay friends who are perfectly normal, integrated and happy in their own skins. They tell me that there's no such thing as a LGBTQIA "community", in fact most of them keep to themselves about what they do in private. "Pink economy" is just another woke marketing stunt. And why does everything have to be related to sex? Why not add an O to the end of LGBTQIA, so that ornithologists are included?

We're all human. That's the only identity that matters. The methods people use to have sex doesn't matter one bit.

Why does the media have to bring sex into absolutely everything?

I am Thai, so no need. People who make assumptions about the identity of strangers to try to win arguments aren't too bright, if you ask me.

Soi dogs are aggressive and dangerous pests. They should be rounded up and destroyed.

You aren't correcting him because you know you'd lose the argument if you tried to.

He's maybe upset and envious that he can't afford a house yet, or that he otherwise thinks he should have more than he does, and blames the older generations for that, who have worked all their lives. Bigotry against those who are older and wiser is a common phenomenon. It's a pity, because he tries to make valid points, then spoils them by having a chip on his shoulder about the entire boomer generation, who have just as much right to air their views as he does.

Thai Elite was Thaksin's brainchild. Then Thaksin was kicked out. Then the fees stayed the same for years on end. Then Thaksin's lot gets back in. Coincidentally, and suddenly, the fees go up by leaps and bounds. Could there be a business relationship here, the more cynical minds among us may wonder? Or is this mere coincidence?

Elite, or Priveleged, or whatever their marketing team comes up with is, as it's name implies, for the more minted among us. Someone might want to do the maths on the new fees, taking inflation into account since the scheme first started. Either way, Thaksin's lot has a long history of multiplying visa fees for long termers. It's ironic why so many people here adore the man.

Maybe I've been unlucky with them, but I've always found them highly bureacratic and difficult to deal with. I've had more luck with SCB.

Pheu Thai (as its TRT prior iteration) always was (financially) hard on foreigners holding long term visas, and it's a bit of an irony why so many people here support them. The Thaksin government, by way of example, jacked up prices for PR from the 25k that I paid (in 1997) to 200 odd k (or whatever it is) now, plus various other substantial increases in visa fees. Those old generals might not have been so bad. Just sayin that we might expect more of this. ..

I'm surprised that so many Thais use Bangkok Bank, let alone Laotians.

Not at all. Progressive lefty western puppets were held in check for those nine years, and won't be allowed to further their western agenda for the next nine either. Thailand uses an incremental approach to rein in problems.

Many of your posts have a point, but then you spoil them with infantile gerontophobia. The boomer generation has as much right to post here as you do, and your use of ageist slurs is unnecessary, irrelevant and quite unpleasant. And I'm saying this as a Gen-Xer before you start.

Agreed. Prayuth restored order and preseved Thailand's charming culture by removing the divisive and corrupt Thaksin clan.

The sock puppet needs advice from her ventriloquist daddy.

Agreed that complacency is dangerous, but in the past getting rid of these parties has generally been done incrementally. The powers that be never give up, and always think of new and interesting ways to protect the status quo from these leftie "progressives".

You obviously don't know Thailand very well.

Excellent news. Thailand will remain conservative and keep its traditions and culture intact. To those here who were telling me that this time was somehow different, and that the western backed lefties would rule: You were all wrong, and I'm laughing at you now.

Oh dear, what a gerontophobic post. Quite bigoted, really. You've either changed your tune, or you're uneducated by your own analysis above. A while back, you were confident that Pita would be allowed near the levers of power, and it was I who was telling you it wouldn't happen.

There's nothing new here that we haven't covered in our previous exchange. Enjoy the rest of your day.

You said the above. If not Trump, then whom were you referring too? Why did you bring Americal politics into the discussion in the first place, only to then say that you had no interest in it? "Far right", which conjours up images of violent skinheads among other things, is a smear commonly used by lefties to smear people who are traditional conservatives and who wouldn't hurt a fly. None of the above is going away, fortunately, otherwise Thailand would turn into a version of the ghastly west and lose it's charming culture and traditions. The young, by the way, have no idea what they're talking about, which is why the Senate is there: the word Senate is derived from the Latin word senex or old man, with age comes wisdom, gained from life experience, rightfully conferring veto over immature young folk who just want to tear thing down in the name of their so-called "progress". Thank God for the Thai Senate, and its moderating influence. And while you're on, tell me how the west is "democratic" these days.

Democracy, like that pantomime kakistocracy in the western world?

Ah, that didn't take long: another NYT/CNN desciple who smears everything he doesn't understand - traditional conservatism in this case - as "far right", because he's only capable of seeing things through the lens of Biden vs Trump (both are equally despicable, akin to two cheeks of the same arse, by the way).

People were saying what you're saying nearly two decades ago. PT government won't last because it's run by Thaksin. They'll be thrown out in short order like the last few times, and a proper government will be installed. I can't stop laughing. It's really so funny how you all thought this time was different. It wasn't.