• Emmie@lemmings.world
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    2 months ago

    Britain has the most sane immigration policies in EU currently. It truly is an advanced country compared to many other Western European states.

  • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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    2 months ago

    Created the best popcorn flick, like for example Brexit, Death of Queen Elizabeth, Installation of Palpatine, Lettuce Leaf, and the ongoing season of Riot.

  • Praise Idleness@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Thanks to them I can confidently say things about historical events even without actually knowing anything about it

    “Yeah British did that”

  • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It’s really sweet how they add unnecessary letters to feel all fancy about their little words.

    “Colour”

    “Humour”

    Aww, so cute.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It gets worse- “foetus,” “aeroplane.”

      They also think “er” is pronounced “re” like in the words “centre” and “theatre” and “s” is pronounced like “z” like in words like “apologise” and “realise.”

      Get it together guys. We know you came up with the language, but that’s no excuse not to keep up.

    • Zip2@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      Now let’s hear yanks say “mobile mirror”. You’re too lazy to even pronounce the letters you do have.

    • Chewget@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      The USA newspapers are credited with removing letters. It used to cost per letter, so people started removing whatever they could.

      • Avatar_of_Self@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Noah Webster dropped the ‘u’ on words as well as otherwise changed the spelling of many words in ‘American’ English.

          • Avatar_of_Self@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Nah, Webster really did drop the ‘u’ and changed a lot of spelling. He also learned a lot of languages since back then there were many, many different languages/dialects in America at the time and he wanted to make it easier as he changed spellings, such as swapping ‘re’ to ‘er’ for phonetics. There was also a lot of anti-British sentiment at the time of course which certainly would have motivated acceptance.

            Webster is definitely also credited for this in histories and not newspapers outside of anecdotes.

            • Chewget@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              “it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States, but he did not originate them. Rather […] he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences

              Either way he didn’t change the spellings he popularized them…

              “Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted.”

              Edit, I messed up markdown

              • Avatar_of_Self@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                If we’re doing Wikipedia as the sole citation then:

                In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. By 1807, he began work on a more extensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, which took twenty-six years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-eight languages, including Old English, Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. His goal was to standardize American English, which varied widely across the country. They also spelled, pronounced, and used English words differently.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster#Blue-backed_speller

                As time went on, Webster changed the spellings in the book to more phonetic ones. Most of them already existed as alternative spellings.[34] He chose spellings such as defense, color, and traveler, and changed the re to er in words such as center. He also changed tongue to the older spelling tung, but this did not catch on.

                Furthermore your quote doesn’t actually have a relevant citation:

                He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States, but he did not originate them. Rather […] he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology”

                Though in context of the previous paragraph seems to imply that this was an opinion that the wikipedia article came to simply because there was a previous work that argued specifically for ‘or’ in place of ‘our’ but again, it appears to simply be their opinion based on an assumption.

    • Zip2@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      Actually can we collectively agree to blame the French for this? It was they who introduced it.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I went to the tate modern and their bathrooms were progressive as fuck. I’d never been in a mixed toilet just surrounded by women, but it was an experience I’d quite like to repeat again. I got some strange looks after, but hey that’s London for you

  • FUBAR@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    The British 3 pin plug is superior to all other plugs. I miss it

    • Ibuthyr@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Schuko is the only one anyone would ever need. Those gigantic tumors from the island are horrible. And don’t come with the fuse argument. A fuse belongs in the electrical cabinet and is the last failsafe. GFCIs are the ones protecting you l, the appliance and the house.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Switzerland and Brazil use this weird as shit one and I kind of like it.

      And no, I don’t know why Switzerland and Brazil.

    • zik@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’s certainly the one most likely to shank you if you step on it. Beyond that I’d rank it as the least space efficient plug. I honestly think it’s the worst design I’ve seen.

      “But it has built in fuses”, I hear all the Brits say. This isn’t the advantage you think it is. Why not put the fuses in the actual appliance with all the other components where it makes more sense to put them?

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Here’s another one: In the last 10 years the UK has made the largest change in time freight waits to enter the nation.

  • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Brought law and order to the world. Education. Infrastructure. Destroyed the slave trade. Brought stability and prevented genocides. Created governments. The industrial revolution. Science. Large parts of economics and free trade.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m pretty sure India had law and order and infrastructure long before the British invaded and colonized it. And Britain benefited from the slave trade for a long time before working to abolish it.

      As far as prevented genocides, I’d ask an indigenous Australian how they feel about Britain preventing genocide.

      • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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        2 months ago

        Really? We still don’t have law and order and infrastructure in India. Also we weren’t a country called India before the British came.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Weird, because I’ve seen pictures of India and it looks to me like there are things like roads and rails.

          Also, I never said there was a country called India before the British came. Would you have preferred it if I had done a big list of all the kingdoms they conquered? I felt “India” was faster.

          • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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            2 months ago

            Man, I didn’t mean to rub you in the wrong way. Just saying our infrastructure basically sucks, it’s all great in the first year and then crumbles. Almost all of our railroads are from the British times still sustaining, and roads have just recently started to be good but even then after a bit they’re not in good shape. Look at what happens to any of our cities when it rains for a couple of hours.

            On the history front, you’re right to have thought of referring it as India before it was India, though it still feels that as states we are so disconnected at most times that we should reflect on whether are we even a country or just some kind of loose alliance held together by the corruption of politics.

            In any case, I didn’t mean any offense to your comment, just added on some of my own sarcastic comments.

            Edit - forgot to mention, in terms of law and order, our law is pretty good, but it’s not enforced at all. People could blame corruption, but it’s probably the system and also the population vs resources. For example, cops are paid a pittance and they need to pay bribes to get good posts and they then recover those bribes by taking bribes…

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 months ago

        Honestly, I’m willing to give Britain the slave trade bit. Slavery is ancient, and choosing not just to break free of it, but to actively work for its suppression across the world, deserves some credit, at least.

        The rest, though? Y I K E S

    • Manzas@lemdro.id
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      2 months ago

      That’s like saying communism brought up living standards for eastern Europe (It didn’t)

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        But isn’t it nice of them to let the Greeks go to see the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum whenever they want for free?

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            No, it’s free except for special exhibitions. That’s one of the few compliments I’ll give it. That and the curators themselves really know their stuff. There’s a YouTube series where they talk about their areas of expertise. But they don’t get to decide what the museum has acquired and what it is willing to give up.

            https://www.britishmuseum.org/visit