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TIL: "B.C" stands for British Columbia, which despite the name, is neither part of Britain nor near Columbia, but in Canada.
by blueflow 2y ago
TIL: "B.C" stands for British Columbia, which despite the name, is neither part of Britain nor near Columbia, but in Canada.
- cryptoegorophy 2y agoThey did add “Beautiful” before British Columbia on the license plates, so that there is at least one word that gives the best description of the province.
- lostemptations5 2y ago"Sure! I'll call you next week!" -- never to be heard from again. Everyone seems very unhappy there socially.
- cdaringe 2y agoSubjective, likely false. No sources listed.
- paul_n 2y agoI live there, that comment made me laugh because there’s definitely some amount of truth in it. I’ve always described west coast Canada as surface nice, but harder to make friends, while Ontario is surface closed off, but a lot easier to make new friends.
- ikmckenz 2y agoThe Wikipedia page for the “Seattle freeze” phenomenon mentions it applying to Vancouver[1], also Vancouver has long been known as “No Fun City” because of laws and cultural norms against partying[2]. 1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze 2 https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/No_Fun_City https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/No_Fun_City
- ghostpepper 2y agoI'm not sure of the root causes but British Columbia does seem to have particularly antiquated liquor laws, even compared to the rest of Canada.
- cdaringe 2y agoY’all aren’t tapped into BC MTB culture. Vibes are thru the roof! Source: me, now :) Just as subjective as the OP, XD
- cjbgkagh 2y agoThat’s normal nice in the Pacific Northwest. Possibly due to the Scandinavian heritage. Another explanation I heard is that people used to be more open there before the many waves of post 90s immigration. Once people there have established their friend groups they’re not looking to add any more to the group as they worry too many new friends will diminish their own place in their friend group.
- pfannkuchen 2y agoScandinavia is similarly dark and gloomy in the winter, I think? Does the darkness cause this effect in people? Is the darkness a filter for people who are like that already?
- cjbgkagh 2y agoI do wonder, could be that for much of human history if you ever saw a foreigner one of you was about to die. PNG blood feuds being a modern example. Perhaps societies with a strong centralized state would evolve a culture open to integrating foreigners. I also wonder how much of modern multiculturalism has its roots in colonial empires. AFAIK many of the Scandinavians that came to the US were escaping the really bad ethnic / religious stratification and famines.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deanCommie 2y ago> Once people there have established their friend groups they’re not looking to add any more to the group as they worry too many new friends will diminish their own place in their friend group. That's such a cynical interpretation of a totally reasonable problem of social dynamics. A friendship of 2 has different dynamics than 3 than 4, etc. And all of them are different depending on the composition of intraverts/extraverts. FWIW, the extravert friend groups I know are highly inclusive and are always eager to add new members. For obvious reasons. And the opposite for introverts who are much more careful and cautious (I am one) because they know how fragile good vibes can be and how new strangers are exhausting and can affect them. IMO, the Pacific Northwest attracts introverts because the main activities are fairly individualistic (hiking, skiing) and the social aspects happen before/after which you can easily skip. Not so in something like NYC where everything is orientated around other people. Then extraverts move to the PNW for the hot tech job markets (Seattle/Vancouver) and are annoyed that everyone is so "cold".
- shermantanktop 2y agoAka “Seattle Nice.” People move to a place, are eager to get connected, but the people there are already connected…except for all the other lonely newbies. It’s a boom-town phenomenon, I think. And if you are a long-time resident, it’s a little rich having large numbers of people come clog up your town while doing clueless newbie things and then gripe about how they don’t feel welcome.
- lostemptations5 2y agoThough in other cities you can make friends much more easily, especially on the East Coast...
- pfannkuchen 2y agoNewbies who just moved in are much more likely to leave as well. Why invest the time?
- cjbgkagh 2y agoFor newbies often it's their first time as an expat or immigrant but for the natives usually they've been through these waves of immigrants multiple times already.
- karaterobot 2y agoI've lived in Seattle for 25 years, have been hearing about "Seattle Nice" and "The Seattle Freeze" that whole time. By which they mean that people are friendly and polite on a surface level, but cold and distant when you try to get closer. I think it's a myth, or at any rate I have never experienced it as a trend (individuals, sure). People here are as nice as anywhere else I've been. I think maybe it's confirmation bias: people hear about it, then see it everywhere, like stereotypes about rude New Yorkers, or snooty Parisians. It would be strange if whole a region, with such a huge population of transplants, all shared the same personality. They don't make you sign a contract to be rude when you move here!
- nativeit 2y agoI get this all the time in North Carolina. Maybe it’s just a symptom of the times? Most everyone I know under the age of 40-45 would rather commit hari kari than place a short, friendly phone call.
- nativeit 2y agoAlso, hear me out, maybe it’s us?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- arresin 2y agoWas it represented as an acronym on the license plates?
- arcticbull 2y agoIt was a British Crown Colony, hence the British — and the Columbia part is a reference to the [edit] Columbia River Basin which I believe was part of the territory before it ended up in Washington. You may be thinking of Colombia. [edit] just to drive home the British part the Union Jack is still an official, ceremonial flag of Canada.
- canadianfella 2y ago[dead]
- themadturk 2y agoIf I remember right, the Columbia River has its source in British Columbia.
- seabrookmx 2y agoCorrect. I just did a 5 hour paddleboard down the Columbia near its starting point in Invermere BC (it's a huge wetland). It's absolutely gorgeous out there.
- steve_adams_86 2y agoI went on a road trip and stuck around Invermere for a week or so once. It’s beautiful. I hung out at a hot spring, swam in a remarkably clear lake, camped, and generally loved it. Before that was Nelson. I’m very glad I live in this place.
- seabrookmx 2y agoDitto. I'm from Vancouver Island and while it's also beautiful, you cross like 4 different biomes driving East across BC and it never ceases to amaze.
- steve_adams_86 2y agoSame, and yeah it’s incredible! Going through Osoyoos (it was my first time) was such a mind trip. It’s a desert! I went on a little boardwalk tour and kept seeing cacti and all kinds of panels with text describing deserts. Coming from the island this was not at all what I expected. I’d been to cache creek and seen dry dusty places plenty, but that area is extra cool. And yeah, this island is absolutely amazing too.
- PeterHolzwarth 2y ago"Columbia" was a word used to refer to the New World. It's use shifted over time (sometimes just the tropics, sometimes both continents, sometimes just America, etc). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(personification) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(personification)
- thangalin 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Langley#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Langley#History > [Fort Langley] dates from a time when the boundary between British and American possession of the trans-mountain west, known as the Columbia District had not yet been decided. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_District#Hudson's_Bay_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_District#Hudson's_Bay... > With the creation of the Crown Colony on the British mainland north of the then-Washington Territory in 1858, Queen Victoria chose to use Columbia District as the basis for the name Colony of British Columbia, i.e. the remaining British portion of the former Columbia District.
- bee_rider 2y agoThe dinosaur is from B.C. geographically, and from extremely B.C. temporally.
- seabrookmx 2y agoWe typically don't use the periods, and abbreviate it like any other Canadian province or US state like BC, AB, WA, NY etc. Are you American? I'm surprised to hear some people don't know we exist!
- blueflow 2y agoI'm from Saxony.
- seabrookmx 2y agoAh, fair enough. We're about 9 time zones away!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- freeslave 2y agoThese days B.C. seems to be preferred due to the colonial connotations of "British Columbia". https://tnc.news/2024/02/21/stop-saying-british-columbians/ https://tnc.news/2024/02/21/stop-saying-british-columbians/