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You can’t buy one square foot of land in Scotland and become a Scottish lord
- Kaibeezy 4y agoBut you can trade your Brooklyn Bridge for one.
- vorpalhex 4y agoOh, no, my Brooklyn Bridge is caught up in a DAO that was taken over by scammers using a sybil attack! My only hope is to buy more BRIDGECOIN and get back a majority stake! What if they steal my NFTs!?
- PaulHoule 4y agoIt's kinda embarassing that many of my favorite Youtubers are promoting this.
- teddyh 4y agoYou shouldn’t listen to people who promulgate such obvious scams.
- cj 4y agoIs there a yelp for YouTubers? How am I to know who’s generating quality content with quality sponsorships vs. those that aren’t? Particularly if I’m trying to learn about a topic I don’t have experience in.
- joe_guy 4y agoLike everything else -- what evidence do they present and what credentials do they posses that makes them a valuable interpreter of such evidence.
- reaperducer 4y agoCredentials? They're on YouTube! Look at that follower count! Surely that's more important than actual credentials! "If it's on the internet, it's true" is a real thing.
- joe_guy 4y agoWe're discussing what we as individuals can do, but a yelp for youtubers isnt needed and wouldnt solve a larger misinformation problem anyways (yelp didnt make bad food disappear). The following isnt just for youtubers, its for all information. As individuals, we can ensure they present evidence. If we're going to attempt something drastic off this evidence, ie, claim Scottish Lordship, we should validate the evidence ourselves or ask a credentialed validator. Ie, a Scottish lawyer. * Did they present evidence? * If yes, do they posses credentials that make them a meaningful evaluator? * If yes, do other meaningful evaluators agree? It's not dissimilar to the scientific method.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- anshumankmr 4y agoNot really but some YouTubers call out other YouTubers from time to time. There is a mini cottage industry that was made out of just calling out the Paul brothers.
- PaulHoule 4y agoThis includes people who I think are absolutely reputable in their specialty, such as https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey
- duxup 4y agoThe YouTube ecosystem feels so dirty. It feels like inevitable disappointment with every channel eventually devolving into garbage. Granted they don't all do that, but it is so frequent I feel like I'm just dreading my favorite channels going bad ... often. One Youtuber I used to follow was sponsored by some scam. Dude actually responded to the issues raised in the comments. But the response was "yeah these folks are kinda dirty but you could get free money out of it". 1. No you won't thus the scam... 2 ... -unsubscribe- YouTube feels like a perpetual race to the bottom.
- ravenstine 4y agoTo an extent, this is just how life is. I'm certainly not excusing low level scams, charlatanism, or snake oil, but even before YouTube there were TV commercials and radio hosts peddling things like "Name a Star." There comes a point where I can't really feel sorry for anyone who buys this stuff thinking it's actually real and not just a cute gag.
- deathanatos 4y ago… I mean, charlatans are a fact of life, yes, but it doesn't need to be that way. We have laws against it. Prosecute people. The biggest problem AFAICT is other countries don't give a damn about fraud (as long as it isn't against their own), and, e.g., American phone companies continue to permit falsifying caller ID. The idea of capitalism is that a better product (i.e., one offering more utility/$) should win out. There are some … requirements for that, though, like a good flow of information, and that's hard in a marketplace where actors lie, fraudsters, but increasingly "legitimate" companies as well. We all see the stories from the FTC et al. where the enforcement penalty is paltry. I.e., the cost of doing business. Better consumer protections. But nobody cares about things like that, presently, as we're too busy having conniptions over far stupider things.
- bena 4y agoEverything becomes a race to the bottom, until every last ounce of perceived value has been extracted and the platform exists only has a shattered husk of what it once was. You start with early adopters. They get big on novelty or being genuinely entertaining. Eventually, they learn how to make money off of it. Once people realize money can be made off of it, more people will try to do so. Then actual production units get involved. It's no long suitable to have a camera and a mic. You need condensers, filters, lighting, schedules, etc. And now, it's not just you, it's you, your neighbor, your friends, Sony, the platform itself, your goddamn fucking cat has a channel somehow. And then there's just not enough money to just grab. You have to hustle for it. And then you find yourself shilling crypto or timeshares or some bullshit.
- FalconSensei 4y agoTo me, I instantly doubt anything they try to sell on Youtube. Even if not scam, it's probably just a low quality product/service
- pwdisswordfish9 4y agoI am thankful none of my favourite ones do, but one of my guilty-pleasure channels does. Not that any of their other sponsors is much better…
- barneygale 4y agoYou can block sponsored content with a browser extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/
- Ekaros 4y agoI actually wonder what is left if you block all even somewhat questionable sponsors.
- kstrauser 4y agoI bought my friend a lordship at Sealand one year for Christmas. I'd been thinking about the Scotland thing first, but decided I'd rather gift him a real title in an arguably fake country than a fake title in a real one.
- user3939382 4y agoI like how the moment something happened there that even slightly piqued the UK's interest they immediately sent a warship to it and suddenly they weren't so sovereign lol
- dougmwne 4y agoI do believe that’s a perfect illustration of how sovereignty works in the real world. See also: Taiwan.
- mbreese 4y agoOne thing I remember from my (only) poli sci class: you are only a sovereign country is other sovereign countries think you are. Much (all?) of international politics is based on consensus and agreement.
- notch656a 4y agoMeh I mean you can be "sovereign" even if almost everyone around you hates you and the entire world doesn't recognize you, even if you are weak and others have "interest" in hurting you, so long as it's more hassle than it's worth for them to eliminate you. See the northeastern cantons of Rojava in Northern Syria. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of unrecognized people living their lives in a "sovereign" way who could easily be slaughtered by their neighbors but the neighbors are just like fuck it, not worth losing a few of our guys to slaughter the unrecognized others. A slightly worse example is the Chechens, who gained a sort of unrecognized independence for several years until they became a bit more of a thorn to Russia who didn't really value their soldiers life much to begin with to worry much about the risks of putting them back down.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xnx 4y agoA predecessor to the NFT scam
- dreen 4y agoSure, but the rumor is believed by just enough people that you can get away with selecting 'Lord' in every single paper or electronic form that asks for a title.
- happyopossum 4y agoAs stated in the article, if you live in any number of countries (incl the US), you are completely within your legal rights to call yourself Lord anyway. You don't need a fraudulent urban legend to 'get away with it'.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- blastro 4y agoBasically like buying "land" in the metaverse.
- reaperducer 4y agoI remember people used to buy and sell virtual real estate in at least one of the various metaverses that have come and gone over the years. Second Life, maybe?
- number6 4y agoIf you start early you can make a fortune like the guys who now own the black sun
- alerter 4y agoThis practice led to a big defamation case involving a Scottish politician. Seems like the company involved was basically a tax avoidance scheme. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51832504 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51832504
- notahacker 4y ago> If you’ve been on the internet much, you’ve probably encountered an advertisement at some point claiming that, if you own any amount of land in Scotland, even if it is only one square foot, then you legally qualify for the title of “lord” or “lady.” I've been on the internet a lot, sometimes even without ads blocked, and never encountered this. Do they geotarget Americans?
- Far_Pig 4y agoAmerican, I see them on TV and on the internets regularly, and have been for at least 5-8 years.
- bowsamic 4y agoAs far as I'm aware, yes
- atty 4y agoAmerican here, have not seen this in my many corners of the web.
- surfpel 4y agoNot that I’ve seen, but at this point my targeted ads are all industrial products.
- junon 4y agoThe ones I've seen are from in-video ads (where the YouTuber themselves have a sponsorship deal and dedicate a part of the video to it).
- wnevets 4y agoThere was a MMA fighter on YouTube that I used to watch that would hock this crap. Would you like to guess why I stopped watching?
- brightball 4y agoI see them all the time.
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
- leeoniya 4y agodon't be stupid; buy her a star: https://starregister.org/ https://starregister.org/ EDIT: lol > NFT Star > While we are 30 years old, we use the newest and most innovative technology. All Sparklingly Star Register Stars are backed and verified on the Ethereum Blockchain through an NFT (Non Fungible Token). NOTE: The NFTs will be minted in July 2022 and customers will receive instructions on how to receive theirs then.
- anshumankmr 4y agoIs this a joke?
- dinkledunk 4y agoYes, as in, anyone can start a star registry and charge people for an entry. It's all meaningless, so NFTs seem like a perfect fit.
- LadyCailin 4y agoI have here a piece of paper which states that I own this piece of paper.
- jessaustin 4y agoIs this a joke? I thought so, until I read Death's End.
- ad133 4y agoI was hoping there was going to be some minimum definition, and that I could call myself Lord, but alas, my ~300m^2 of land doesn't seem to qualify me either (I live there, I didn't get scammed ~3k times over for 1 sq foot). I mean honestly if you could be a lord with 1 square foot, there would be a lot of lords in Scotland due to the ownership nature of buying a house (very little of this "leasehold" thing that's prevalent in England). My parents would be a lord and lady, so would their parents... I've not encountered these ads though, I guess it would be pretty dumb to geo-target it to people living in Scotland. Edit, on the other hand, if you buy a house and let it out, I guess you can be a land lord, even if you still can't call yourself lord.
- yupper32 4y agoCould be targeting tourists.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Banana699 4y agoWhy is becoming a Scottish Lord desirable in the first place ? explained for someone who doesn't live in Scotland or any of the neighbouring Isles ?
- dougmwne 4y agoI doubt it confers any practical modern day benefits aside from the Right of the Braggart.
- Macha 4y agoThere are sufficient people who value items that give them (real or imagined) prestige with other people (especially those of a similar mindset) to sustain these industries.
- cjbgkagh 4y agoI think it’s a holdover from when airlines and other service industries would treat their customers with titles more favorably.
- chrsig 4y agoMy wife and I bought one for our cat as a gag. We hope they plant a tree. Even if they don't, it's brought me enough amusement to be worth it.
- imwillofficial 4y agoYou’d better be treating Lord Whiskers with the proper respect! Only fancy feast for the young highness.
- cptcobalt 4y agoExactly this. It was cheap enough for my husband and I do be lords as a great gag gift, and the framed certificate is on a bookshelf. The night of fun of referring to each other as Lord Alexander & etc. more than paid for the purchase. And this is kinda the point, people don't really care if it's real or not. Nobody is about to go to put "Lord Alexander" on their drivers license or airline boarding passes—and if they do, good for them. Anecdotally, I have a friend who is a hereditary heir to a baronet title, and that itself sounds way cooler.
- adriand 4y agoCan you do anything with "your" land? Like plant something or erect something on it (I know you're not going to, but if you wanted to, could you)? What about access, is it possible to go see "your" plot? And do they give you GPS coordinates so you can check it out on Google Maps?
- chrsig 4y agoof course not -- silly expectation to be able to. I'd have to dig up the packet they sent for any exact details, it had a bunch of fine print about stuff like access and what not.
- cptcobalt 4y agonah, there's a bunch of terms, and the idea is that this will protect forests. but you can visit it! https://establishedtitles.com/pages/faqs-ii https://establishedtitles.com/pages/faqs-ii
- er4hn 4y agoThe description of the businesses feels like someone took the Laprophiag online membership gift of a "plot of land", which clearly a joke, and tried to commercialize it. I wonder which plot of land fake happened first? Also glad to know from the article I can just go around now calling myself a "Laird"
- cassepipe 4y agoThe article mentions that current law that applies to land in Scotland is an act from 1976 revised in 2012. Not sure which one of the original or revised prevents the selling of "souvenir plots" but it might indicate that it was not forbidden before 1976/2012 so practice may come from before when it was legal to do so.
- throwthere 4y agoClearly we need a new nation where lord and ladyship flows from NFTs. That way there's no confusion and no scams. dash s.
- linkdd 4y ago"NFT" and "no scam" in the same comment. Bold.
- happyopossum 4y agoAs is including “no confusion”
- OJFord 4y agoI think 'dash s' meant '/s', i.e. sarcastically bold.
- turtleman1338 4y agoThis comment shows how unnecessary the /s is. Even if you write it people will take it seriously. Additionally, it destroys the irony for the readers who understand the /s.
- linkdd 4y agoTBH, I understood it was sarcasm. I thought it was funny to note the combination of "NFT" and "no scam" anyway.
- OJFord 4y agoThey didn't write '/s' though, which is why I mentioned it - took me a minute to understand 'dash s' so thought the commenter I replied to might not have. (Perhaps '/' is called a 'dash' or something similar in other languages, but it's an 'oblique' or 'slash' usually in English. To lend weight to that theory, I believe 'oblique' comes from it being the oblique/italic form of a dash - so other Romance languages may well give it the same or very similar name to that for '–'.)
- Victerius 4y agoI find the following passage interesting in the context of modern capitalism: > In the United Kingdom, “lord” and “lady” are peerage titles, meaning a person can only hold the legal recognition, privileges, and protections associated with those titles if they rightfully inherit them, if they marry into a noble family, or if the queen grants them a peerage. Since the only hereditary peerages the queen has granted in decades have been to members of the royal family, realistically, the only ways a person can become a lord or lady are either by inheritance or by marrying into a noble family. It is not possible for someone to buy their way into lordship or ladyship. I think some people are angry at the fact that there remain positions of privilege in the Western world that one cannot buy their way into, or be elected to (e.g. President), or grind toward (e.g. CEO). I wonder whether that's a form of envy.
- pajko 4y agoLaphroaig used to give land with every whisky purchase: https://www.scoopwhoop.com/Laphroaig-whisky-free-land-in-Scotland/ https://www.scoopwhoop.com/Laphroaig-whisky-free-land-in-Sco...
- cnasc 4y agoThey still do, a bottle I opened over the weekend had the voucher inside
- cassepipe 4y ago"give"
- dylan604 4y agoI like to think of it as a free bottle of Scotch with purchase of every 1 sqft parcel of land
- asvitkine 4y agoWho pays the property taxes on that land? If not the the customer, then do they really own it?
- nailer 4y ago> My most recent McDaniel ancestor who actually lived in Scotland is John McDaniel, who was born in Scotland in around 1760. By 1776, he was living in Frederick County, Maryland. I myself have lived my whole life in the United States and have never even visited Scotland. I do not consider myself Scottish and instead consider myself only an American. This is the most American paragraph ever written.
- Macha 4y agoWouldn't it be more American to claim that the above makes you Scottish? In this case that level of disclaimer feels like second order consequences of that: Someone claimed to be Scottish in a way that pissed off an actual Scottish person, who then took it out on the next American of Scottish descent (maybe just with snarky internet comments), and then this person either recieved or saw that and now feels the need for a disclaimer that she doesn't think like that.
- nailer 4y agoYou have an accurate handle on the situation. I was saying the need to state that someone who clearly has little connection to scotland isn’t Scottish, because so many random Americans pretend to be Scottish , is amazing.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- escapecharacter 4y agoActually, this is good for Lordchain
- EddySchauHai 4y agoThis has been a thing for years, probably even decades. It’s a gag gift but sometimes people take it far too seriously. I’m pretty sure someone on the British show Come Dine With Me had one of these and called themselves a Lady, and everyone thought she was legit. Madness.
- CRConrad 4y ago> I’m pretty sure someone on the British show Come Dine With Me had one of these and called themselves a Lady, and everyone thought she was legit. Madness. Or everyone pretended to, for the sake of the episode. Possibly sa a bit of a gag.
- aulin 4y agogreat, now you're also going to tell me I don't own any plot of Islay land from all those bottles of Laphroaig
- fredgrott 4y agoOh the Lord Barron puns that lurk about a famous orange golf cheater known to own Scottish Land of certain golf course overlooked by modern wind machines.
- jonriddell 4y agoThis is fraud, they are literally selling you nothing. They sued a Member of the Scottish Parliament for writing a blog which explains the tax haven structure they use. http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4152 http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4152 Don't believe any similar claims they make like "reintroducing lynx" they are doing no such thing. It's just a way to get people to give them money in return for nothing.
- jamal-kumar 4y agoI had some dude try and rope me into one of these land banking scams. He wanted me to build some wordpress site to convince people they could do this on some property he owned. I pretty much told him this: Sketchy people ripping off other sketchy people is funny, but ripping off people with less money than you is a really lame thing to do and not something I'd support whatsoever. I can copy paste one of his messages in reply to that (sic): "Im pretty sure you havent done any ethical hacking in the best of present so talking about sketchy pyramid whatever makes no sence. I told you very clearly i dont do shady illegal bullshit what we do is 100% legit focused on protecting earth and helping people" I blocked and deleted that contact after sending them a famous obscene image from back in the day which starts with a g and ends in oatse. Land banking schemes are fraud.
- nailer 4y ago
- OrvalWintermute 4y agoI saw this editorialized section and paused. There is a large brouhaha in the US currently about alleged trans-exposure (which some claim rises to the level of grooming), and allegedly bringing very young children to sexualized locations such as strip bars for shows with a trans dancer, complete with dollar tipping. There is also an open debate happening around the healthiness of certain hormone treatments at a very young age which also, allegedly, causes sterility, and school pressure to change a gender identity. Likewise, the sports debate primarily around physically advantaged men transitioning into women, dominating female sports in the process. I believe we should have these discussions openly and freely without attempting to demonize proponents or opponents of either side of a hopefully civil discussion.
- Dylan16807 4y agoShe propagates a lot of misinformation beyond such a concern that could plausibly come from somewhere other than deliberate bigotry. Despite spending far more than enough time on the subject for proper research.
- jessaustin 4y agoPlease link to such propagation. Disagreement isn't always bigotry, so I'd like to judge for myself.
- Dylan16807 4y agohttps://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/ https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... https://medium.com/@briehanrahan/a-reasonable-persons-guide-to-the-j-k-rowling-essay-6bd9e2d638ad https://medium.com/@briehanrahan/a-reasonable-persons-guide-... and a post talking about issues One of the most blatant I'd call out is "studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria". That's is a horribly inaccurate statement on par with "vaccines cause autism" and someone that believes it is not even trying to look for real information.
- ipaddr 4y agoThis hit piece offers much fact but misses the mark on the intent.p and usage. I looked into to this last year and they clearly state you do not own the land and you get a laird title by being part of this estate and the land is held in their name. I don't think anyone thought you are getting an official lordship from the queen. If you did you would be forced to give up your citizenship in Canada unless the prime minister blesses you. You can buy official titles for thousands of dollars but no one expects the same. The amount of people who are scottish or have historical roots to Scotland is very high. People buy clan colors, people buy fun titles because they want to feel connected to a history that has shaped who they have become.
- DubiousPusher 4y ago> it occurred to me that the target market for these fake title companies overlaps considerably with the online history community. Reading any amount of European history and coming away with a desire to have a title of nobility is bizarre to me.
- omnibrain 4y agoWith every bottle of Laphroaig (Scotch Whisky from Islay) comes a code you can use to register 1 square foot of land at the Laphroaig Distillery on Islay. Of course, it's also only vanity, but you can actually visit the plot and they pay you "rent" (1 dram of Whisky at the bar) when you visit the distillery.
- willio58 4y agoThis is amazing. Thanks for the share!
- schoen 4y agoIs there a limit to how many drams you can get per visit this way? (Not that this would be a very cost-effective way to obtain extra whisky!)
- kurupt213 4y agosorry barkeep. i had to double rent. and i've registered a lot of bottles.
- omnibrain 4y agoYou can only register one plot. When I visited them in 2015 they were happy to let you try all of their regular expressions. That may have changed since then, but I suspect it might still depend a bit on the bar keep working that day and your conduct from what I read in forums. And Islay is well worth a visit, even if you can't get hammered for free anymore. ;) It may not have the beautiful beaches, high cliffs and insane shattered landscape of the Outer Hebrides (not necessarily all on the same island, though), but the people are lovely and you can have easy hikes and have fun running into the same people all over again. And don't forget to greet the other car drivers.
- elwell 4y agoYes, I'm a proud owner of such.
- amelius 4y ago
- komadori 4y ago> It is not possible for someone to buy their way into lordship or ladyship. Life peerages are still routinely created (excessively so, in fact) and, arguably, giving generously to your favourite political party might improve your chances of getting one.
- BoxOfRain 4y agoThe House of Lords appointment process has been notorious for cronyism since at least the days of Tony Blair and continuing to the present. In 2020 Boris Johnson even made a Russian newspaper owner and son of a KGB agent a lord! While I'm still convinced of the benefits of a strictly limited, appointed rather than elected upper house to act as a brake on unfettered populism, the selection process is in desperate need of overhaul and should be taken out of actively partisan hands at least. I'd also make all lords crossbenchers, a non-partisan upper house would perform its role more effectively in my opinion.
- pmyteh 4y agoLong before Blair, even. Lloyd George had a semi-official price list for honours, and I'm sure he was not the first. The current price is supposed to be £3m to the Conservative party.
- pyuser583 4y agoLloyd George was planning to pack the House of Lords, in order to control and discredit it. So selling the seats kind of made sense.
- toolslive 4y agoScotland uses the metric system, no?
- alistairSH 4y agoYes and no. The UK is a mix of imperial and metric. Stone is still used for mass/weight (mostly weighing people), miles for driving, but metric for most other things. Which leads to fuel being sold in liters, but efficiency being measured using mpg.
- pmyteh 4y agoStone is now a 'folk' measure. People still think in them and use them, but all 'official' uses (health records, for example) are kilograms. There are still a handful of official uses of imperial. Miles for driving, as you say, pints for draught beer etc. in pubs, miles and chains for railway distances, maybe a few others. More cases where the labels but not the size have changed, like 568g jars of jam.
- Ichthypresbyter 4y agoThe only even quasi-official use of the stone is in horse racing (to measure the weight carried by the horse in a handicap race), which is also IIRC the last surviving use of the furlong.
- mNovak 4y agoThis was a great and informative article, but one thing it misses is that there is in fact another way to purchase a 'legitimate' peerage title (though the cost is much much higher). I recall reading about it a while back here [1]. Basically, you pay a (broke) noble family to legally adopt you. Apparently there's brokers and everything to get you connected. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/even-if-you-weren-t-born-into-nobility-you-can-buy-your-way-in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/even-if-y...
- Ichthypresbyter 4y agoThis doesn't really work in the UK. The rules of succession to a title vary depending on the specific title but they almost always include the phrase "heirs of the body" of the original grantee. In other words, they only pass to natural descendants not to adopted ones.
- Grustaf 4y agoI know a man who did that, he's now using one of the oldest German noble titles. It's also how the current house (Bernadotte) took over in Sweden, through (forced) adult adoption.
- slyall 4y agoFrédéric Prinz von Anhalt (who was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor) is well known for doing this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Prinz_von_Anhalt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Prinz_von_A...
- throwaway290 4y agoTo get peerage all you need is to be cozy with the current Tory leader. See Lebedev et al.
- shapefrog 4y agoHe also had to chuck him £10,000 - so it wasnt exactly free. The donation did probably cover a whole bunch or other favours than just a peeerage - cheap perhaps but not free.
- Mo3 4y agoSee, that's why I invested my money into a honorary PhD of Psychic Sciences instead.
- PaulHoule 4y agoThese people give titles for free: https://www.ulc.org/ https://www.ulc.org/ I am an ordained minister and a "Brother". I own almost 70 acres of rural land so I'm not interested in buying another square foot.
- tdeck 4y agoIf you're looking for a traditional title, why not buy membership in a London livery company? I believe some of them can be joined for a fee nowadays. This awards you Freedom of the City of London, which comes with some ancient privileges like the right to carry a sword in public and the right to herd sheep over London Bridge.
- happyopossum 4y ago> This awards you Freedom of the City of London, which comes with some ancient privileges like the right to carry a sword in public and the right to herd sheep over London Bridge. That appears to be just as much bunk/urban legend as the topic of TFA... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City_of_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City_of_London
- tdeck 4y agoI don't see in the wiki article how this is "bunk" or an "urban legend" - care to elaborate?
- happyopossum 4y agoOk, let’s start with the City of London: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/freedom-of-the-city https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-govern... Nothing about drawn swords or sheep. And another article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City “the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand—although today the title of "freeman" confers no special privileges” “While sheep have occasionally been driven over London Bridge by Freemen on special occasions, these privileges are now effectively symbolic.” Effectively, what once was is no longer, but people still want to believe it to be. TLDR; don’t go carrying a drawn sword or herding sheep across the bridge (unless it’s during one of the ceremonial and permitted sheep drives).
- tdeck 4y ago
- fnord123 4y ago> One example of a person who has become a laird is the British novelist J. K. Rowling, who is best known as both the author of the bestselling series of children’s novels Harry Potter and also arguably the most influential proponent of transphobia in the English-speaking world today. It should be noted that JK Rowling does not identify as a transphobe.
- anoonmoose 4y agoOh? Why is that?
- Nition 4y agoAre you asking why it should be noted? I'd say because often the Internet makes its mind up about things on limited evidence, or things getting exaggerated as they're repeated, and it's nice to hear the subject's side as well. Otherwise we might be left thinking Justine Sacco is racist etc.
- anoonmoose 4y ago
- kcplate 4y agoNot taking a position one way or the other, but I think it’s really more accurate to describe that she is phobic to the redefinition of historically established words with definitions that describe people who have certain sexual organs.
- handoflixue 4y agoExcept it's not about sexual organs, because even getting surgery isn't enough to become a "real woman" by her logic.
- 4y ago
- stakkur 4y agoBut can you become a laird?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- theknocker 4y ago
- pablok2 4y agoBethesda: buy Skyrim instead
- rmason 4y agoRight when Detroit was at it's lowest and about to declare bankruptcy I had a friend buy an empty lot, put up a website and sell a square foot of the city to anyone. In Michigan at least it attracted a lot of publicity. The website is long gone and although you got a deed I'm not certain you really owned anything. If you did you'd owe taxes and Detroit is pretty aggressive about collections. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/evicted-101-year-old-detroit-woman-home-back-article-1.1056341?comment=true https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/evicted-101-year-o...
- rootusrootus 4y agoI kinda wondered about all those stupidly cheap lots. At the price they are going for, there is a huge number of people in America that could buy them just for speculative reasons. Turns out if you do that, the city will take them back if you don't fix up the house and get it occupied. Source: Friend of mine bought cheap property in Detroit. Threatened with a lawsuit, so he gave it up to the city.
- ben_w 4y agoI was slightly tempted to do the same. Glad it was triggering my "too good to be true" radar.
- kurupt213 4y agobut what about my certificates from Laphroig? do i still own a few square feet of Islay?
- 0898 4y agoI researched these a while ago and the way these “titles” work is simple: you change your name by deed poll to “Lord Appleseed” or whatever you fancy. Although amusingly while they say deed poll, there’s no such concept in law. In actuality you just start using your new name and that’s basically it.
- gidorah 4y agoAre these guys really telling me now I wasted £14.99 in 2005 on a square foot of land from play.com?
- anothernewdude 4y agoSure you can. The reality is that titles are no longer protected, and you will no longer get your land taken away and your head cut off for declaring yourself a lord. The idea that titles matter is the one that is dead on its arse.
- lostgame 4y agoShamefully, a few YouTubers I have subscribed to for a while started shilling this bullshit as video sponsorships. Needless to say, as soon as I looked up the company (it smelled more like bullshit than a cattle farm) - I saw on a rudimentary Google Search that; of course you can’t buy a square foot of land and be a ‘Lord’. Needless to say, I got rid of those subscriptions right after. It’s unfortunate how some YouTubers who get sponsored either don’t even Google the companies they shill for, or in the case of someone like AVGN shilling ‘Raid Shadow Legends’ - they know what they’re shilling is complete shit.
- Uptrenda 4y agoWhen I was much (much) younger I bought one of these titles. Obviously its complete BS and I never called myself a 'Laird' because its cringe. But you would be surprised how beautifully put together the packages are. The paper is like thick parchment and there is this nice looking wax seal. They also put together a kit with lots of information and photographs of your so-called "land." The land that I "bought" was part of a nature preservation project so they were at least using some of the money to do something good with. I'm not saying its not completely misleading. But I think it would still be a cool gift for someone if it was priced right.