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British people love old stuff like Americans love cars and guns.
by tjrgergw 3y ago
British people love old stuff like Americans love cars and guns.
- walthamstow 3y agoI don't know if you've ever been to London, Rome or Kyoto, but Americans actually fucking love old stuff
- breakfastduck 3y agoOnly because they're so deprived of it in their own country.
- gadders 3y agoThey should visit our thousand (nearly) year old door: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/history/explore-our-history/britains-oldest-door https://www.westminster-abbey.org/history/explore-our-histor... I'm a Brit and didn't realise until recently that England is one of the world's oldest countries (927 AD).
- kypro 3y agoOr world's oldest "cat flap", https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66665613 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66665613
- arethuza 3y agoAnd as a Scot I should point out that Scotland is about a century older at 843 AD - but then neither have really existed as separate countries for centuries. ;-)
- dwighttk 3y ago927 - 1066 doesn’t seem that old to me ;)
- defrost 3y agoGosh, that's a bit over a thousand years. How do you define country? Continuous occupation and law? I remember talking to David M as a kid about the works he kept touched up and the stories that went with them. https://www.magabala.com/products/yorro-yorro https://www.magabala.com/products/yorro-yorro https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/australia-s-oldest-known-aboriginal-rock-paintings https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/australia-s-oldest-k... https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21416 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21416
- gadders 3y agoFrom when Æthelstan the Glorious created the kingdom. //edit// Some of your links just show that some people lived on that bit of land. I think you need more to claim a country.
- defrost 3y agoThey establish continuous occupation by the same bloodlines, I asked what the definion of country is - there's oral history and law going back along with the paintings. Bear in mind passports are only relatively recent objects. Also worth pointing out the British tried that "I think you need something more" line with Terra Nullius .. and their own legal system ditched that as rubbish: https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/unsettled/recognising-invasions/terra-nullius/ https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/unsettled/reco...
- relaxing 3y ago> How do you define country? Not having anyone say you're a different country, aka sovereignty.
- defrost 3y agoThat's your "definition" of country? These countries: https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_highres.jpg https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_high... remained sovereign for tens of thousands of years. Whereas, for example, the "United Kingdom" as a country (of four kingdoms) only dates back to 1801, prior to which there was a long history of contested sovereignty claims, there's some interesting paperwork declaring a King of Scotland as a the King of England, etc.
- dugmartin 3y agoI think the best we have is a 300+ year door here in Massachusetts, USA that has scars from a Native American raid on the town: http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/artifacts.do?shortName=door http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/artifacts.do?sho...
- SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago> but Americans actually fucking love old stuff to visit, absolutely. But you don't see the Americans insisting on getting their own ceremonial King as head of state in name only. They prefer to love that stuff at a visiting distance. This is also why "Downton Abbey" etc does so well in the USA.
- InitialLastName 3y agoUnlike the Brits, Americans only worship other peoples' landlords.
- wil421 3y agoThe city adjacent to me has a law that all heads of households must have a firearm. In response to the gun law, the next city over created a law everyone need to have a rake for leaves. Unlike the straw bale laws, we don’t take it seriously. It’s also illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In another city it’s illegal to eat fried chicken with anything but your hands.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y ago> The city adjacent to me has a law that all heads of households must have a firearm Oklahoma?
- gmcharlt 3y agoDunno about Oklahoma, but Kennesaw, Georgia, does have a gun ownership requirement, passed in 1982 in response to Morton Grove, Illinois, banning handguns. Kennesaw's neighbor, Acworth, is the one with the rake ownership requirement -- passed in response to Kenneswaw's gun law -- though it is not immediately clear to me whether that ordinance is still in effect.
- Mountain_Skies 3y agoKennesaw's law allowed for conscientious objection and had no penalty for non compliance so it was effectively dead when passed but did make quite the splash in the international press. Crime rates in Kennesaw did drop significantly after the law was passed but the same was true for surrounding communities without the law, most likely due to them becoming affluent bedroom communities for Atlanta's white collar class.
- smeej 3y agoI wish we had the back stories on more of these. Who was it who tied a giraffe to a telephone pole? What disaster ensued, such that "there oughtta be a law!"?
- KineticLensman 3y ago
- DaiPlusPlus 3y ago> British people love old stuff like Americans love cars and guns. As a British person who was involuntarily dragged around countless ruined Abbeys, castles, and monestaries for hours as a sprog by my parents, I can assure you that there exist plenty of British folk with an active disinterest in "old stuff", as you put it.
- throwawayyy9237 3y agoI think most of Europe is like that. It is true that British people do make more of their identity about it, and they tend to ignore _really_ old stuff (i.e. most of the quirky stuff is Victorian, not _that_ old). (disclaimer, am British)
- mattlondon 3y agoI wouldn't say British people themselves really care (I don't). It's just London especially has been around for so long that this sort of stuff just accumulates. The charity that exists purely to help look after just the Thames crossings in London that was doing this is itself almost 1000 years old for example. There is lots of old stuff - it's just part of life, not something that people go out of their way to give a shit about.
- jack_riminton 3y agoIf it works, and is practical and understood by many, why change it?
- andyjohnson0 3y agoBritish people love old stuff like Americans love old British stuff.
- Ensorceled 3y agoYou should go to Boston someday…
- philipwhiuk 3y agoBoston doesn't have any old stuff.
- djbusby 3y agoFor USA it's old. Our country is not even 300 yr yet and some of this New England stuff was settled in 1630s.
- Tao3300 3y agoAlong a deep 50/50 split?