Joined the Mayqueeze.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • First of all, all languages do this to an extent. Singling out America or English seems pointless to me.

    Geographical names are a nonsensical construct of traditions, conventions, and misunderstandings. Why shouldn’t a language come up with names that suit their tongue? Why shouldn’t they go with whatever becomes consensus in their language? Being correct is overall less important than being understood. And that’s being understood by your peers, not the people on the other end of the world.

    With place names it’s often old conflicts and historical differences that prevent adoption of modern place names. English is one of the few languages that made the change from Peking to Beijing, others didn’t want to be told “by the commies” what to call the city. People who were fighting Napoleon 200+ years ago still call Nice in France by its Italian name Nizza, the name of the city in circulation prior to the French takeover. Out of principle. Europe, where the spoken common language variety is greater than in North America, is more used to this and people just know Brussels can also be Brussel, Brüssel, or Bruxelles. It’s like the imperial system of measurements: it makes no effing sense but it works.

    If you argue respect you’re going to hit a massive wall with some languages. Mandarin Chinese is fresh in my mind that has very colorful names for all the places of the world that often have little or nothing in common with what the locals call it. Meiguo for America? Is that disrespectful? No, when you learn that this sort of means beautiful country. And it would take ages to get English speakers onto the same page calling China Zhongguo. And I’m quite sure the locals of Zhongguo would not understand the average American Joe saying it. So what would be gained by making that switch?

    Turkey wanted to change its English name because they don’t like the association with the eponymous bird. If the bird was commonly referred to as something else, and English wasn’t the lingua franca of the world, this would not have come up. Other languages have stuck with their version of Türkiye. And for the English speaking world I see an uphill battle for this to catch on. People only switched to Kyiv out of spite for Russian bombs. People are still going to say Turkey and not mean the bird. Same is true for recent gulf name changes.

    English is half filled with loanwords. Dejavu maybe just stands out to you. Parliament, pork, and necessary maybe not so much. I think all can be traced back via Norman French or later. All languages borrow words. Many of them change meaning and/or spelling after being borrowed. This is normal.

    All of the things you complained about seem perfectly alright to me. You’re looking for a fight with a windmill.




  • If Apple were the only player on the block, at least in Europe they would be under a lot more pressure. But they’re not. There are other OSs (although only one really matters), there are other phone makers.

    Antitrust is more reactive. There is a market, a dominant player, said player plays unfairly, the authorities react. That reaction takes years to go through all the levels of courts available. By the time we get a final ruling, the market has long moved on. The corporations know that too. As long as the lawyers are cheaper than the money they stand to lose they will carry on.

    And in Apple’s defense: the mobile operating system market is not that old. And it’s not clearly defined. And as long as there is wiggle room they can do whatever they want. Part of the problem is that the legislation dealing with antitrust on either side of the Atlantic is like copyright law: no longer fit for purpose.





  • No healthcare is free. It is paid. Whether through taxes or mandatory insurance schemes. The money doesn’t grow on trees.

    It is a US BS narrative that ‘socialized healthcare’ is lefty silliness. And while there are conservatives in Europe who float the idea of abandoning government-organized healthcare every once in a while, every time they do they are met with a lot of frantic finger-pointing across the Atlantic. Everybody else sees a societal value in taking care of each other without any, or at least many, preconditions, like employment.

    Europe is not one homogenous political body. Much like the US on the state level isn’t. The only difference is that the US shares a party structure on both state and federal levels. But there are just two relevant parties, twice as many as in North Korea! The party spectrum has always been broader in European democracies. As a result, the European Parliament often creates strange bedfellows.

    There are marked differences between European countries and what they consider left and right. You’re looking at a lot of separate and shifting Overton windows. The suggested social cuts of the center-left Labour UK government would probably cause another revolution in France. The right-wingers of France are pro-Russia. The right-wingers of Poland absolutely aren’t. The list goes on.




  • Every case is different and the UK as a political union without a written constitution can technically allow one of their four home nations to become independent (again).

    The US has had bad experiences with seceding states. Big kerfuffle that people didn’t want to repeat.

    When it comes to international recognition of seceding territories, it’s frankly a mess. And also, frankly, everything is possible. Kosovo is an example where the majority of the international community decided to recognize it as a sovereign country. It was a solution to a war situation that didn’t make all parties happy. Serbia and Russia, for instance, still don’t recognize it. So while Mass may not technically be allowed to leave, if it did anyway, it would depend on the reaction from the rest of the union first and foremost, and then on the international community. If they back you and maybe even send peace keepers, there is a chance still. But there is a whole laundry list of things that have to go right for this to happen.

    I’d suggest you devote all your energy to fixing the United States first. Resist 47 and his GOP cult followers. Not all is lost just yet.








  • Don’t shoot me, for I’m only a messenger As a rule in life, if you can blame everything on everyone around you it’s time to look inwards for change. I’m just saying, maybe it’s not all of us, maybe it’s you? My first reaction to reading your post was to suggest a therapist. And I’m saying that as somebody who isn’t great at social interactions either.

    We lionize medical professionals as these infallible gods in lab coats. They’re only human too, although they would not admit that. It’s good to keep that in mind; alter your perception to work with them on you rather than you being fully serviced by them.