Which sort of implies it was a white people thing that was influenced by black culture but not when it was too black.

I can see why you might think that from reading about it in 2024 but I'd suggest to you that the tempo slowdown is the major factor. Ska is an uptempo party music. Rocksteady slowed the tempo down and Reggae generally kept the tempo at that slower pace.

Also there was a progression of people leaving skinhead for rock following more high energy bands like The Who and The Small Faces and going through the psychedelic changes into Rock at the end of the sixties.

The fans of ska had no problem with reggae, especially Bob Marley, who was collaborating with Mick Jagger in no time. It's just they'd moved on from skinhead because the scene had become much more associated with violence. There was also the very deliberate efforts of the National Front to recruit football supporters during the early 70s heyday of football hooliganism. A lot of the people that were into violence were attracted to the second wave of skinhead just as cultural changes to the music in Jamaica and the UK meant that a lot of the first wave were evolving into mods and then some of them hippies and eventually you see the emergence of street punk at the end of the 70s.

As for Rastafarianism, that was not at the time a dogmatic religion like Catholicism or the Moonies but arose out of cultural immersion and community practice in the places in Jamaica where most of its adherents lived. I don't think it is a matter of being too black, it's just that it's very specific to Jamaica and eventually the Jamaican diaspora.

Edit: It's no accident that the third wave of skinhead was kickstarted by Two Tone and was explicitly multi-racial and also that Two Tone harked back to uptempo ska.

UKs 70 year olds are far less likely than their American counterparts to share Christian memes. They share different kinds of reactionary memes suggesting that 'woke' and what they think is hilarious to call 'elf and safety' are the causes of why things are so shit now rather than looking somewhat closer to home.

It's got that 'retrain as a swan' energy.

This is amazing, I had never heard of this artist before and his work is fantastic in every sense.

Far as that cat is concerned they're the real star in that picture and the strange human is just photo-bombing.

If I were a venal and corrupt politician and I were in an easy job that paid extraordinarily well I would hold onto that job as long as possible.

I am going to say that that we'll be going to the polls in January '25.

Now all we need is for the CIA to take responsibility for the Islamic State and the circle of life (and death) is complete.

Now that's a Jod I could jet behind.

It provides a reason for them not to just “take their ball and go home” once they have a pile of money.

If that's the reason for it it's not doing its job. Investments are much like savings to high net worth individuals and their investments are managed by someone else and they simply lay in the cut and collect dividends. Yes there is a risk to investments but if you're in a good wealth fund then over time you're almost guaranteed to win even if you have disastrous months here and there.

Just FYI, the CEO of Fable Studios is one Edward Saatchi. His father is Maurice Saatchi whose advertising agency was partially responsible for ten years of Conservative rule under Margaret Thatcher. The family absolutely has previous with union bashing.

I look forward to the aliens response being something along the lines of, "You're God's best boys and girls, yes you are, who are blessed little ape-beings? You are, yes all of you."

Got in a drunk argument with a raccoon, which led to my first underage drinking ticket because I refused to be spoken to in that tone

Perfectly understandable and the fact that you later became friends shows that establishing boundaries is important.