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[Arcvasti]

Why is there ALWAYS a relevant xkcd strip?

[timferius]

Argh. Beat me to it.

[Sirus]

Britain imposed on her

This reminds me; I've always wondered as to why countries are almost always referred to as being female.

I'm going to start messing with people promoting gender equality by referring to boats and countries as male.

Isn't Germany sometimes referred to as the "Fatherland"? Or is that just in video games and such?

[smjjames]

Britain imposed on her

This reminds me; I've always wondered as to why countries are almost always referred to as being female.

I'm going to start messing with people promoting gender equality by referring to boats and countries as male.

Isn't Germany sometimes referred to as the "Fatherland"? Or is that just in video games and such?

I've heard of that as well, not sure how common it is though.

[smjjames]

Yeah, that's mostly where I've heard it from, no idea if it's a general tradition or not. Plenty of German forumers around here, so they'll know for sure.

[Neonivek]

Why is there ALWAYS a relevant xkcd strip?

There isn't...

For example a xkcd strip on being respectful towards other people's annoying habits even when it is grammar or factual.

After a while the person who writes xkcd seems like sort of a jerk because a large part of the comics seem entirely focused on ways to annoy people for doing innocuous things that any ordinary person would move on from.

I half expect there is a xkcd comic about playing fart noises whenever someone chews loudly.

This is ignoring the other large portion of xkcd strips which is about being INTENTIONALLY annoying for the sake of pissing people off.

I wonder if there is a xkcd strip where the characters suddenly have this sort of period of self-awareness where they realize that for everything they criticize and annoy others for, including murdering them, they are no better and are just as irrational and offensive just for different reasons

[Orange Wizard]

Writing comics about something != actually doing that thing

[Neonivek]

Writing comics about something != actually doing that thing

I know but it is funny that when you think about it... A comic about accepting someone who makes a lot of grammatical mistakes would be unheard of in that comic. Someone like that would probably be murdered.

So no, it doesn't have a comic for everything. It is a comic for the OCD troll inside everyone.

Even its comics about acceptance tinges with a "See ignorant masses, that is how you accept people!.. but I wouldn't let them near me..."

[Gentlefish]

Why is there ALWAYS a relevant xkcd strip?

There isn't...

For example a xkcd strip on being respectful towards other people's annoying habits even when it is grammar or factual.

After a while the person who writes xkcd seems like sort of a jerk because a large part of the comics seem entirely focused on ways to annoy people for doing innocuous things that any ordinary person would move on from.

I half expect there is a xkcd comic about playing fart noises whenever someone chews loudly.

This is ignoring the other large portion of xkcd strips which is about being INTENTIONALLY annoying for the sake of pissing people off.

I wonder if there is a xkcd strip where the characters suddenly have this sort of period of self-awareness where they realize that for everything they criticize and annoy others for, including murdering them, they are no better and are just as irrational and offensive just for different reasons

Spoiler: ACTUALLY SIR (click to show/hide)

[Helgoland]

I *think* that was Nazi Germany.

Well, they had plenty of "Für Volk und Vaterland", and that coupled with modern Germany's militant pacifism, anti-militarism, and anti-nationalism has made the term fall somewhat out of use. But it is certainly still in use as the usual term, and we certainly wouldn't use the term Mutterland. Well, we do, but it has a different meaning (it's the country a colony belongs to, so the UK would be Gibraltar's Mutterland).

It even occurs in our national anthem: "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit / Für das deutsche Vaterland".

[bluejello]

for some reason my laptop was clicking randomly,  I  think I figured out what was causing it though,  it has a trackpad and a nob mouse thing, both with mouse buttons, disabling the nob thing fixed it.  not sure why though

[Lord Shonus]

de facto if not de jure

This phrase is like my biggest history-related pet peeve.

How so? It's pretty much the perfect way of describing a situation that exists without formally being introduced, such as an aristocratic heirarchy that doesn't exist in any formal form but is quite real.

(Carnegie famously stepped off an immigrant ship in 1848 and was a wealthy industrialist by the time the Civil War ended in 1685, something impossible in the South.)

The secret to good business is time travel.

The obnoxious thing is that I originally put in 1864, corrected it to 5, and still didn't notice the transposed middle numbers.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Look, I didn't notice the switched numbers either, if that makes you feel any better.

[penguinofhonor]

de facto if not de jure

This phrase is like my biggest history-related pet peeve.

How so? It's pretty much the perfect way of describing a situation that exists without formally being introduced, such as an aristocratic heirarchy that doesn't exist in any formal form but is quite real.

That's what de facto means by itself. It doesn't need "if not de jure" thrown behind it every single time it's used.

[Lord Shonus]

Ah. I see what you mean. Technically, de facto merely means "in fact" without necessarily meaning "in fact but not in law", and I've seen more than a few cases of "de facto and de jure" (in fact and in law), used to emphasise that a situation both exists and is acknowledged, or "de jure but not de facto" (in law but not in fact), used when a situation is nominally the case, but really isn't, (freedom of speech in the former Soviet Union, for example).