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Maybe gp is referring to the extremely classist nature of UK culture? One of my best friends who got his Bachelors in the US but then did his masters at Cambrid
by arminiusreturns 8y ago
Maybe gp is referring to the extremely classist nature of UK culture? One of my best friends who got his Bachelors in the US but then did his masters at Cambridge explained to me that egalitarianism basically doesn't exist in reality there. They denied him his application for PhD, while the professor who read it stole his idea and made it his own... and this was to a dual American/British citizen. When I visited, I was taken aback at how snobby and disdainful of the plebs people at Oxford were. To me as an American who had made British military friends during the war that seemed awesome, it was really shocking how dystopian the UK was, and not just the massive government surveillance, (for example, imsi catching in The City stole my GPS signal for a few hours at one point) it felt much more like a thin veneer over oligarchical neofuedalism even the plebs participated in. There may not be an official social credit system (yet), but Brits are good at knowing it without the card.
- Balero 8y agoIt sounds like you met a bunch of arseholes tbh. Sorry about them. We are not all like that. The only people who I have experience with who are overly classist, tend to be a bit older (50+) and consider themselves above other people, and are as mentioned arseholes. The vast majority of people think this whole thing is old fashioned, out of date, and disgusting. It is not something that people (at least myself, and the people I know) overtly come into contact with on a daily basis. This is not to say things are perfect, or that there are not people like this. But that modern Britain is not, aside from some annoying exceptions, like this.
- arminiusreturns 8y agoThat is the impression I had too (that it was overstated), until I visited and experienced it firsthand, from Birmingham to Oxford to London. Perhaps the countryside is different. Of course it's true the same can be found in the US, but my experience with that is that the rich in the US only care if you are rich, whereas in the UK it seems much less than about just the money.
- Balero 8y agoWas there another common factor that linked these people? You mentioned that the one's in Oxford were from the university? They tend to be a bit older and to think they're better than other people (joking!!). And old institutions do tend to drag a bit. But you are right there is a 'class' element, like how you speak, where you went to school, that isn't just money. It does seem to be going, luckily. Sorry again for your bad experiences! edit - made statements clearer
- village-idiot 8y agoMight just be an age thing. In the United States those above the age of 50 tend to look down upon later generations. It doesn’t come across as classist, because we abandoned our formal class system a while ago, but ageist is probably the right word for it.
- arethuza 8y agoBad luck - sounds like your friend ran into the Bullingdon Club on a night out.... Very little of the UK is like that and I'm pretty sure I could find equivalent examples in the US!
- dazc 8y agoHis experience may be extreme but, sorry to say, the UK is like that in many subtle ways. Try living in the Home counties with a northern accent, for example, and see how you fare.
- DanBC 8y agoClassism exists but it's definitely much worse at oxbridge than elsewhere.
- jhayward 8y ago> for example, imsi catching in The City stole my GPS signal for a few hours at one point I'm going to need an explanation of how you think GPS signals are mediated by an IMSI catcher, because they aren't. Maybe you're thinking of the A-GPS information that cellular providers typically send? Missing that won't harm anyone's GPS, it will just take a bit longer for a first fix.
- arminiusreturns 8y agoI don't know how it was done, but after walking past The City Police HQ, my GPS for hours showed I was there. this is after phone reboots, etc. Unfortunately I wasn't on a rooted android (iPhone 6+ at the time) so I couldn't verify.