Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

ugotamesij t1_ja7fmja wrote

>I overlooked the fact that this was in Nazi territory.

If it makes you feel better, nowhere in that little paragraph does it say where that anecdote took place

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bonreu t1_ja7enp6 wrote

You send a message. They can't tell what's in the message, but they can tell you send a message to someone. And they can ask you who you sent it to, and what was in it. Very thoroughly ask.

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PrettyText t1_ja78q3f wrote

The UK managed to get their version of history taught in the entire west, for some reason:

- The Spanish armada's failure is known, this isn't known

- Everyone knows about the devastating English longbow and Agincourt, even though England, you know, lost that war.

- The Irish potato famine and the Bengal famine, if they're known about at all, are mostly seen as a tragic accident and not the fault of the Brits at all. Conversely, for example the Holodomor is seen as a malicious and intentional genocide. I'm not saying those situations are the exact same, but it still seems a bit skewed to say that the Brits were 0% at fault for their famines while the Soviets were 100% at fault for their famines.

- While obviously the UK was important in WW2, frankly its role is a bit overstated while the Soviet Union's role is a bit understated.

- Even though the Brits had the largest empire ever, they're still thought of as polite, cultured people as opposed to people who ran an empire.

- India's colonization is seen as quasi-positive in the west.

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froodydoody t1_ja76dsq wrote

If the UK government got their hands on the crown estate it’d be sold off to some Russian/Chinese/Arab billionaire tosser within a year.

It may seem somewhat ironic to you, but being out of the hands of the government is a net positive for the people of the UK. Because the crown effectively has to justify its own existence, it in turn has a vested interest in keeping its holdings, stopping them from being asset stripped by foreigners.

I’m not against the idea of an elected head of state, but only in the situation that the crown continues to exist as a wholly separate entity from the government.

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