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[MorleyDev]

Eh, language alone is more complex. Majority languages tend to dominate and people get weirdly emotional about that. *looks at Ireland nervously*.

There are still a few Welsh who either only speak or aren't comfortable in English (an ever-shrinking amount, but still). But there's not exactly Welsh language street signs outside of Wales (and often in Wales they wind up translated with "Sorry, I am out of office"). I wouldn't call that discrimination against the Welsh so much as just...happening to have a majority language. (but for Welsh and Gaelic, I don't see much point beyond academia in preserving a dying language anyway. To me it seems a bit like fighting for people in the Midlands to learn Old Norse. It'd be fun, I'm a nerd, but pointless).

The issue is more when you get to constitutional rights and such. If Ukraine were to for example, deny anyone of Russian descent but Ukrainian citizenship from holding office, or voting, or legalize or have as a national philosophy that Ukraine is a nation of-and-for Ethnic Ukrainians and only ethnic ukrainians have the right to self-determine what happens in Ukraine...well, then it's different. And considering the President is of Jewish descent and his first language is Russian, if they are doing that they are doing a terrible job of it xD

Basically, it's when you start to resemble the "England for the English" or "America is for the White" types.

[McTraveller]

This all seems to be for Europol or some other theory of government thread...

For American policy, it does indeed seem like our leadership does tend to turn a blind eye toward economic and eminent-domain type abuses of the type Israel permits and supports.  Our leaders scream when an oppressed group lashes out violently en-masse.

I really do wish world politics had a real oversight body, not made of its constituents. When you have kids on a playground fighting each other, you need adults to come in and break it up.

The world nations of today are like adolescents getting in fights, but there are no adults. It's like Lord of the Flies where the kids are trying to govern themselves and it descends into violent chaos.

I don't think any modern nation, or collaboration of nations, is actually capable of such "adult" behavior at this point. They are all petty, self-serving, and holier-than-thou. And I'd say the worst ones are those saying "we're doing it for the sake of the people!" because they can tell themselves constantly they are doing it For the Greater Good™ and keep pushing their policies.

[Starver]

But there's not exactly Welsh language street signs outside of Wales

I'd bet that a number of "Croeso y Cymru" (or "Croeso i Gymru") signs are. Just.

[Strongpoint]

MorleyDev, we have moved far away from anything resembling American politics so I responded in a more fitting one - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=153622.msg8515802#msg8515802

[dragdeler]

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[Lord Shonus]

Framing something as a "call to genocide" is a very common rhetoric from university groups, and has been applied to thing ranging from mild criticism of Israel to condemnation of South African apartheid to backing the defense of Ukraine.

Do you claim that if the question was "Is it against the rules to call for a genocide of Palestinians, yes or no?" then the answer would be the same?

The answer would be the same if asked at exactly the same time - the university doesn't want to open themselves up to things like "Pro-Ukraine speech needs to be suppressed because it is code for genociding their Russians" when there is no such thing happening.

What the initial response boils down to is that the college's responsibilities under the 1st Amendment prevent them from actively suppressing student speech unless it is absolutely certain they are falling into specific proscribed areas of speech.

[Maximum™]

Ethnicity: a shared cultural identity among a group of people, often related to historical residence of an area
Nation: a group of people who share a culture, often but not exclusively based on ethnicity
State: a geographical designation on a map
Country: something that often happens when states absorb nations and assert control over a given geographical area of a map
Empire: something that happens when countries absorb other countries by force
Union: something that happens when countries agree to work together in a closer way than just sharing borders

Spoiler: rant about stupid fucking apocalyptic belief bullshit (click to show/hide)

An ethnostate is bullshit, especially when it's just something arbitrarily plunked in the middle of a bunch of existing nations because the worst fucking people on the planet believe the jews have to be in the middle east before they can get their stupid fucking fantasy end times.

They don't support israel because they think it is the right thing to do, they literally fucking believe they're the fuse that will ignite the end of the goddamn world. It's understandable if you didn't know how stupid this all is, but that is the truth of it right there: a bunch of goddamn morons think their stupid fucking book of nonsense tells them there have to be jews in israel to get tricked by the antichrist so jesus will come back and murder everyone who didn't believe their stupid fucking fairytales the right way so they can go to some bullshit afterlife reward.

I am uninfected by these beliefs (despite reading the fucking book they supposedly base their lives on but obviously never actually read) and from the outside it is really obviously bullshit that a bunch of stupid fucking farmers from thousands of years ago get ANY GODDAMN SAY OF ANY FUCKING SORT ABOUT OUR LIVES NOW. It is even more vile that they get used to justify the rape and murder of innocent fucking people SO A BUNCH OF STUPID TWATS CAN JACK OFF TO THE END OF THE WORLD!

Get rid of the stupid fucking apocalyptic christian bullshit in our government and support for israel blowing up palestinian kids would evaporate overnight, but without understanding that these disgusting pieces of shit are eagerly anticipating the end of the world which they expect to start because of israel you're just tilting at windmills.

The US is a country made up of several nations (I'm in the Deep South, here in Memphis, and Memphis is utterly unlike the rest of Tennessee which makes sense as it is part of Appalachia) and outside of the First Nations none of them have any actual roots more than a couple hundred years old.

Most borders nowadays are artifacts of various empires, be they long extinct like the Dutch or French, finally dead like the goddamn British, contracting/trying to resume expansion like the Russian and Chinese, or sneaky like the US empire of military bases around the world where we tell ourselves since we don't directly take over these other places we aren't imperial conquerors, but honestly we aren't hard to trick, USians still struggle over recognizing Puerto Rico is somewhere you can just go without a passport.

[McTraveller]

I got myself stuck in a "conversation" section today that was extraordinarily political. It was like watching a train wreck of how petty the vocal participants are, constantly shouting the Biden administration "is the worst the country has ever had."  The reasons? High immigration, high inflation, and high age.

Those are the things you use to judge a presidency? Not support for civil rights, not international reputation, not the unity of the population, or social stability (both domestic and abroad)?

I mean I think the administration has been pretty milquetoast, but worst ever? Baffling.

[nenjin]

Given the hyperbole of the person they support, are you honestly surprised?

[McTraveller]

Not surprised at the complaining, but at the nature of the complaining.

[Schmaven]

... the vocal participants are, constantly shouting the Biden administration "is the worst the country has ever had."  The reasons? High immigration, high inflation, and high age.

To be fair, high inflation is pretty rough.  I went from saving money to racking up debt from 1 presidency to the next, even with cutting back on expenses.  But such is life.  Always ups and downs.  Most people don't remember how hard life was in the 1930s, so I suppose we're ripe for a reminder.

[anewaname]

Of the people who are repeating party slogans, most are doing it to get their call-and-response dopamine hit. Regardless of whether you agree with them, disagree with them, or ignore them, they will get their dopamine hit by shouting in agreement with their "leader". The message isn't that important and they don't need to understand the message or understand how they are being used.

If the leader notices your disagreement with the message, they may take delight because you are not getting the dopamine hit, and might modify the message to show you how you are excluded from their group, which also reinforces their group bond of their followers if they don't know you. Like the crowd of kids who join in the name-calling when a bully starts up against another kid.

[Bumber]

Those are the things you use to judge a presidency? Not support for civil rights, not international reputation, not the unity of the population, or social stability (both domestic and abroad)?

You going to argue that those have appreciably improved?

[McTraveller]

I can’t say I’ve evaluated those in detail, but those are the topics at which I’d look, not petty things like “what’s in it for me.”

I don’t think those areas have gotten better, but I feel like the rate of decay has slowed, so I guess that’s something? But that’s anecdote and sentiment, not data, so eh.

[MorleyDev]

I mean, on the whole your international reputation is definitely better than under Trump.

Admittedly, would be hard for it to be *worse* than under Trump unless he succeeded in going full Fascist Dictatorship.