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"China has landed on Mars" is such a bizarre sentence somehow maybe because both are metaphors. China for a country far away, Mars for something alien.
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@thor @hector @Eris @RustyCrab
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@thor @Eris @RustyCrab did Finland ever rule anything?
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@hector @Eris @RustyCrab as far as i'm aware of, no, but Finland is not technically Scandinavian. like Iceland, it's Nordic.Scandinavian is from Scania, a latinisation of Skåne, a region of southern Sweden.so it's basically all the mainland countries of Norse origin.Iceland is also of Norse origin, but it's an island, so...Finland is a separate universe. we don't understand a word of what they're saying. also, there is Russian heritage.
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@Eris @RustyCrab at one point, there was this movement called Scandinavism. the different Scandinavian countries have, at various points, ruled each other; Norway being the underdog that never ruled anyone, and was more of, uh, a "throwing ball" (Norwegian idiom) between Sweden and Denmark. but the idea is that Scandinavia should be a country. however, this is very much not a popular idea these days.
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@Eris @RustyCrab technicality: Norway isn't in the EU, but we are in the EEA, which means this: we follow EU legislation, but can formally veto it. however, we never do. also, we can't vote for stuff. however, Sweden, Finland and Denmark are EU members, and they largely have the same interests as us, so we are indirectly represented, and we have close ties, so if Norway's concerned about some issue, we talk to our neighbours.
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@Eris @RustyCrab i like to compare it to the EU.we are sovereign, but since we're a part of the union, willingly so, EU legislation sometimes overrides our own.
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@thor @RustyCrab Yes This is constantly frustrating. Europeans think our states are the same as provinces. We are a federation of 50 sovereign nations.
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@RustyCrab @Eris one thing i don't think a lot of Europeans get is that when Americans say "state", it's actually kind of like a country yet not. it's this weird in-between thing.what most Europeans hear when Americans say "state" is "province" or "region" of a country. but America is kind of in between being one country and being several.
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@RustyCrab @Eris yeah, meta thing where even Americans are subject to californication. i didn't really consider that until a few moments ago. that American popular consciousness may, in fact, *also* be influenced by that.
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@Eris @thor Yeah, everybody country-wide just calls it "The DMV" even if the state does not have one. Everyone just understands that means "the place with the slow workers where you have to go or they take away your car".
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@thor @RustyCrab I think there are a few states that call it something else, but thats a minor difference.
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@Eris @RustyCrab they have some version of it, but it's not always called DMV. pretty sure of this. read a debunking article about that.
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@thor @RustyCrab No like they are actually different cities, not just boroughs of one city. Also every state has a DMV lol.
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@Eris @RustyCrab yeah, district, borough, neighbourhood, different places place different labels on it.hell, even the city of Oslo does this. officially, there aren't many "bydeler" (cityparts) but in colloquial speech, there are many more. some of them overlap with the official ones, others are parts of those.
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@thor @RustyCrab LA is multiple cities which are next to each other and have grown into one. Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles City.
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@Eris @RustyCrab i think many people here, and in Europe, think "Hollywood" is the name of a town, but it's just a district of LA.
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@Eris @RustyCrab a lot of Norwegians have a "TV and movies" relationship to English and English speakers. fluent in English but you can tell they've been watching a lot of pop entertainment.i've had more exposure to real people. America is surprisingly diverse. for example, the DMV is mainly a California thing. so are "ten four" codes for police. a lot of what we get exposed to from America comes from Hollywood, i.e. Los Angeles. since i hardly watch any movies or TV shows these days, my main exposure is people i talk to online, so i have a different perspective.
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@Eris @RustyCrab related
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@Eris @RustyCrab didn't know that, but i feel it's got the same energy.
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@thor @RustyCrab thats from tv
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@thor @RustyCrab if you hear "oh bless your heart" it means you're a retard
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@Eris @RustyCrab you sweet summer child
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@RustyCrab @Eris in the US South, the more affectionate it sounds, the more hostile it is, as i understand it, lol
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@thor @Eris Go to a rural town here if you wanna be called "sugar"
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@RustyCrab @Eris or "hon"
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@Eris @RustyCrab i remember walking into a betting place and looking very lost and confused (was trying to find my way) and this lady behind the counter said "are you okay, love?"it was cute how this lady i had never met called me "love"very British
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@Eris @RustyCrab innit
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@thor @RustyCrab Yeah but that happens to Britain all the time. Being invaded and co-assimilated by immigrants is essential british culture.
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@thor @RustyCrab'ate normans'ate norsemenluv me sheepsimple as
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@Eris @RustyCrab there is a joke that the national dish of Britain is curry.
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@thor @RustyCrab In Europe there is such a thing as a white person with a different culture and history. In America there mostly isn't.
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@Eris @RustyCrab i think if you want to look at a country, or region of Europe, where there have been non-white groups for a long time, you should probably look at London. when i went there, i saw a very multi-ethnic society.
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@Eris @RustyCrab natives vs non-western immigrants.
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@Eris @RustyCrab in Norway, the debate isn't about white vs black, it's about natives vs immigrants. but it's not anywhere near as heated as things are in the US.
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@Eris @RustyCrab we get many Muslims, but i feel this actually should *add* to the challenge. but Oslo doesn't do that bad, really. my day-to-day relationship to immigrants is that they drive our cabs, they serve our fast food, and sometimes, they are news anchors or hold positions in government.
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@RustyCrab @Eris Pakistan is the most strongly represented immigrant group in total, even if you add in the whites.
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@thor @Eris That doesn't really tell me anything though. I'd need a rough breakdown of where they're from.And the political representation is the most important thing. That's when the immigrant groups start getting power to pass laws that disadvantage the original population.
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@RustyCrab @Eris the most strongly represented non-white country is Pakistan, followed by Somalia.
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@thor @Eris What kind of percentages are we talking? What racial representation do they have in politics?
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@RustyCrab @Eris in 2018, 33% of Oslo were of foreign origin.
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@Eris @RustyCrab relations between the different groups in Oslo are largely peaceful. there's more violent crime here, but compared to many US cities, it's very peaceful.
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@Eris @RustyCrab the slavery did it more than anything else. Oslo is the most multiracial city in Norway, yet the most pro-immigration region in the country... meanwhile, in the districts, people are more skeptical.
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@thor That's because we're an extremely diverse nation and it's causing a huge number of problems. The problems are omnipresent and difficult to communicate unless you experience them firsthand. Afaik most other first world countries do not have to deal with that on the same level.Racial tensions are sky high right now and it is LITERALLY, ACTUALLY LITERALLY all that US news talks about anymore.
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@RustyCrab @thor >why is the most multiracial society in history with long histories of racial grievances so obsessed with race?
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@RustyCrab i don't flat out dismiss the idea, but it's just funny how obsessed Americans are with race.
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@RustyCrab i've heard a lot of... odd theories about race from Americans, such as the notion that white people's brains function better because they consume more cheese (and thus get more calcium)...
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@thor The conversation is too long to have here (I need to go to bed soon) but every other argument I've ever seen rapidly devolves into 30 pages of mental gymnastics. People are different. Groups of people are different. We readily recognize this in animals but refuse to acknowledge it in humans.
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@RustyCrab oh, i don't want that discussion either. but the thing about Americans is a thing i've observed. it's hardly ever people from Europe talking about it.
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@RustyCrab why am i not surprised. white Americans love theories like these.
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@thor The US
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@thor They're smart. That's what ultimately matters. Circumstance can drag nations up or down, but the intelligence of the population defines their skill ceiling.
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@RustyCrab where are you from?
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it makes one wonder if it's money, not the ability to vote, that ultimately matters... if your citizens are comfy and stuff is improving, not worsening, it doesn't seem to matter if citizens can influence politics.
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what's so interesting about China is how they're an authoritarian regime but at the same time they trade with the whole world, have actually managed to grow their wealth, and have not shut themselves off. they're the one bizarre example of a non-democratic country that is actually functional.
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Hector [EUnomia score: -84%]
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