Transcript

A threads post saying “There has never been another nation ever that has existed much beyond 250 years. Not a single one. America’s 250th year is 2025. The next 4 years are gonna be pretty interesting considering everything that’s already been said.” It has a reply saying “My local pub is older than your country”.

Edit: swapped image link, RIP lemm.ee

Original link: https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/b4d2f599-1922-4978-9db3-fc7832681c10.png

  • Novaling@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    Honest to god thought this was a Trump quote or some shit. Like read it in his voice and everything.

    Are we sure he hasn’t said this?

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    There’s a restaurant near me that’s been in business since 1472.
    They went bankrupt in 2023.

    • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Man, the final owner of the business must have some interesting feelings being the one that drove it into the ground after 550 years.

    • PlaidBaron@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The Hudson Bay Company was founded in 1670 and went bankrupt this year. To think a company that indirectly formed an entirely new culture 300 years ago is now going under is wild to me.

      • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        HBC was effectively a “country” for a good chunk of time as well. It had full autonomous control of the land, it’s own ‘government’, provided public services, policing, and it’s own military.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I think it’s a shame. It did some awful things in its early years, and it was mismanaged lately. But, I wish there had been a way to allow it to continue to exist as a business, even if it was just a single store and more museum than business. Who knows, maybe it could have had a renaissance at some point. Now it’s just something in the history books as one of the longest-lived companies.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I bet outside of the US they have a very different perspective of what it’s like living here right now.

      Specifically, the fact that things like some of our largest protests ever aren’t even being covered inside the states. There are huge public displays thousands and thousands of people being completely ignored by media. I wonder what else we’re not being allowed to see here.

      • rockettaco37@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’ve been saying this right from the beginning, but this is a war on information.

        Felon 45 and the right are going to do everything they possibly can to make sure word doesn’t get out

      • syreus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They think of countries as dynasties or times of uninterrupted, peaceful transitions of power. Britain has changed dynasties and government types over the years. It’s semantics.

    • Zess@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The Kingdom of Great Britain, which ceased to exist in 1800 and lasted less than a century.

  • yarr@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    This isn’t a facepalm. As any red-blooded American knows, the only country worth mentioning is America. Since all countries of note were founded after America, this OP is correct.

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      LoL. There was a comment today from somebody (in Canada) that mentioned “the time in Canada” as if there weren’t multiple provinces in different time zones.

      Self-centered exceptionalism isn’t just an American thing, though they may be louder about it in many cases.

      • yarr@feddit.nl
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        2 months ago

        Culturally, Ireland is of great importance to the US. From the humble shamrock shake, all the way up to Lucky Charms, we owe a lot of debt to Ireland.

        Meanwhile, we’ll never forgive England for the Boston Tea Party. Look at how few Americans drink tea to this day and you’ll see the level of contempt.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    if there weren’t people dumb enough to genuinely believe that the earth is flat, then i would assume it was a troll post.

    but here we are…

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I once read that we are closer to Cleopatra’s time than Cleopatra was to the building of the pyramids. Weve got 250 years under our belts, while Egypt had thousands.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      True but ancient Egypt wasn’t one long running state; it was a bunch of different states that rose and fell not unlike China.

  • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    There’s a certain irony that there are a couple of cases of “my local pub is older than your entire country” in the country in question. For example the White Horse Tavern in Newport, RI.

  • ndupont@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Remember the time we stumbled on an old local church with an American coworker. Yes dude, that thing was over 500 years old when Columbus discovered your continent, allegedly.

  • KurtVonnegut@mander.xyz
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    2 months ago

    It is wild to me how Americans forget that they built their “nation” upon the genocide of earlier (first) nations, which were there for thousands of years.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      Not really. The logic is attempting to draw a distinction between nations, kingdoms, and tribes, among other things, with emphasis on continuity in governance. So France isn’t the same nation between the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, or after a dynasty change.

      The interjection is pointless towards their argument because it doesn’t understand the “logic” and is wrong in its own way.

      His problem is that, as a truly stupid person, he isn’t aware that the point he is trying to make is one reserved specifically for democracies, not nations, and is still wrong. The Roman Republic lasted for 482 years, just to start with the most famous “democratic” example, and Japan’s government could be argued to have lasted 2,600 years depending on how much credit you want to give the mythological founding of their imperial family.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Genocide has been a frequent practice for thousands of years, ever since the standard social unit was the tribe and one tribe would massacre another. Whole populations have been “put to the sword”. The Americas are probably the largest single area, but if you really knew your history it would seem just as wild that Europeans and others around the world have forgotten about this.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Americans were straight up humane in their genocide vs. historical examples. Hell, I’d say Israel is doing worse today, not even pretending to make treaties, move people about, nothing.

        • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          “Straight up humane?” Dude in the 1800s there were times when people shot natives from passing trains for amusement. It’s not a contest about who did it more nicely.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          Sure… Gaza is worse off that Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties

          A 1975 U.S. Senate subcommittee estimated around 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths. An estimate by the Department of Defense after the war gave a figure of 1.2 million civilian casualties, including 195,000 deaths

          The Israel-Hamas war has less than 0.003% of the casualties the US inflicted on Vietnam. That’s not to say the Israel-Hamas War isn’t a bad thing (all wars are) but just trying to snap you back from historical revisionism.

          • Grimy@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Vietnam had 16 times the population of Gaza at the time. So your 1.4 million ends up being 87,500 if you keep the ratio and that’s over 10 years. Israel has passed 50,000 in less then 2 years.

            Also, the fact that you can compare the current situation to what happened in Vietnam and Japan should give you a hint that you are defending the wrong party. This is far from the win you think it is. Defending those things would be unimaginable, you should think about what that means.

            It’s not the Israel-Hamas War, it’s the genocide of the Palestinian people by a vile warmongering apartheid state.

          • RedFrank24@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I wouldn’t say casualties really matter when it comes to genocide, what matters is the intent. The US were quite happy to wipe out the Native Americans and didn’t exactly cry any tears as they did it, to the point where wiping out the Native Americans was such a sticking point to them that Britain demanding they not expand into Native American territory was actually a contributing factor to the Revolutionary War.

            The Israelis pretend they aren’t interested in wiping out the Palestinians, but they aren’t exactly stopping the settlements driving out the remaining Palestinians and they’re certainly pretty keen on ensuring no Palestinian returns to Gaza when they inevitably annex the place. The intent is there, it’s just obfuscated.

            I’d say they’re pretty similar, at least in terms of intent. Both nations want to expand because they believe it’s their god-given right to have that land, and the natives to that land need to either accept it or be ‘removed’.

          • huppakee@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            I’m on your side, 95% of the way but I don’t think it’s fair to the victims in Japan, Vietnam, Palestine etc to be part of a ranking. Just like there are bigger and smaller infinities, there are larger and smaller amounts of casualties. But in comparison to large and small infinities, those numbers do not show the hurt these people went true. In Japan for example, some died in an instant where others went through decades of physical decay because of the damage radiation did. How can that be put in numbers and compared to what happened to people in Vietnam for example.

            You can leave out a comparison with a ‘sure…you must have forgotten Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths’ for example.

            • Grimy@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              He is arguing in bad faith. His only goal is to make the actions of the state of Israel seem less extreme. That’s why he fails to mention the population differences and keeps using the term “Israel-Hamas war”.

              If you check the modlog you find gems like:

              The use of the word genocide is political.

              Until that happens, Gaza should be treated like any fascist state that throws rockets at its neighbor.

              • huppakee@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                Thanks, noted.

                Gaza should be treated like any fascist state that throws rockets at its neighbor.

                0 fucks given for actual people living there indeed. Wow.

      • PanArab@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Not as frequent as you claim. Many empires conquered foreign lands without genocide.

        • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Interesting - I said “frequently” without any specific numbers, but apparently your non-numbers are lower. My bad.

  • Matombo@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    i think the first poster misunderstood a quote and I can’ reproduce it anymore either. it was something about no empire lasted more then 250 years? or no government form or something among these lines? it was not about the contry disapearing in name or anything, but that it damatically changes in one way or another like completly changing the form of government

    • Jack_Burton@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I remember it as most empires collapse before or around 250 years. If I remember the quote correctly it mentioned most not all, and empire not nation or country.

      • MJKee9@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Depends on the condition being measured. I’ve heard similar claims about democracies. I know the OG democracy in Athens Greece lasted about 250 years. I’m not aware of another democracy that existed longer than the US … But I’m not an expert in the field, so i welcome examples of longer lived democracies.

        • Taleya@aussie.zone
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          2 months ago

          I think the US is the longest modern democracy, but it’s a very narrow margin comparatively speaking - it’s only got something like 30 years on Norway and the Netherlands, which are vastly more stable