The randomly nothing thread

I had the same reaction as Sham at first, but as a part time vaper, I was aware of the impending ban on disposable vapes and pieced it together lol

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It’s what everybody did though. The French, Portuguese, Spanish etc all did the same thing. How far back do you go?

Obviously it hasn’t been perfect but I imagine you will struggle to draw a line on this.

Maybe the British actually only did colonisation because they had been hurt badly from the invasion by the Norman’s?

Maybe not directly but at the law school I went to, they have automatic 10-day extensions on assignments that are late because deadlines are a coloniser concept.

There is shit like this throughout our system which isn’t direct but the message is there.

I know you asked others but I’d like to answer two parts:

Exactly, in which. Every nation takes their issues with their respective countries/historic empires. Dutch Caribbean with the Dutch, English Caribbean with the British, French Caribbean with France etc.

As far back as you want really, as long as it’s relevant. I’ll present an example:

Two years ago Barbados wanted to buy a sugar cane plantation for housing which was met with heavy resistance. This plantation origins goes straight back to the 1650’s. It was 617 acres. Now if you’ve seen Barbados on a map, it doesn’t take much to understand that’s a lot of land. Secondly and most importantly this plantation was one of the pioneers of using slavery in Barbados. It is reported an estimated 30,000 Slaves died in that plantation.

This would of resulted in Richard Drax who inherited the estate and the land (which was still operating) pocketing £3million and getting more enriched for an action taken from his family back in the 1650’s. In other words even though he didn’t engage in the slave trade, all the same he was about to directly benefit from it.

Personally this example is interesting because while what happened was ‘in the past’ some people still stand to potentially gain quite a lot from it in the present.

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Sounds like a good policy, as long as it’s only applied to students who aren’t white, of course. If you’re white then you should have to stick to deadlines as atonement for the likely sins of your colonising ancestors.

Sure, I didn’t say no one takes issue. I’m an indigenous person of a colonised country. What I’m saying is that it’s difficult to draw a line and yet some (as above) expect people of today to hold a position which would require that line being drawn.

It’s not exactly a simple thing to get to grips with because history is fraught with this stuff. If you only go to a certain point in history, it opens the argument of why we don’t go back further.

And as above, this ultimately becomes a process of drawing arbitrary lines and ignoring anything beforehand, essentially the same thing that some are complaining about British people doing now.

If people want to feel a certain way about the ills of the past, fine. But I don’t think there’s much point in scolding people if they don’t either.

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The impact of colonisation is still being felt today by the sufferers and those who have benefitted. Do I believe in reparations? No, not really. Do I think a white family from a council estate should be apologetic? No. Do I even think an upper class family who had ancestors that were directly responsible should be apologising? Not really either. Proper acknowledgment is important though.

I’ve had to teach the Transatlantic Slave Trade recently to 9 and 10 year olds. The following unit was the Industrial Revolution. I had to take bias out of it and just teach the units for what they are presented as -parts of British history rather than the fuckery it was! This country is built of the back of the labour of colonies and even the lower classes of England. Your average English person doesn’t even know the history of the most common surname in this country.

It was only a short video clip, but for people to present the idea that colonisation and/or slavery had benefits for those subjected to punishment and inhumane conditions is absolutely deplorable. To have the ignorance to do it on TV is shocking.

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On a different note, How the fuck did a small country like Britain colonise & control the whole world?
What was your population back then?

GBNews is a horrible fourm for that type of discussion. I feel both sides made some valid points in a crass way.

It’s true that we still live with the effects of history. Applying a modernist view to history will always result in flawed thinking.

This is one of my biggest issues with right wing nationalist types who profess to be working class, who think the legacy of the British Empire is their inheritance as proof of superiority, it absolutely isn’t. This country was known for an unparalleled level of suppression against lower classes, even by contemporary standards. Your ancestors were very likely fucked over, used and abuse multiple times over for most of English history, even in the good times, with a status little different to a slave in reality.

The actual beneficiaries of the empire are a very tiny group of elites and landed gentry. I’ve never seen TV shows have this type of discussion.

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Agreed. There is a reason why serfdom and peasantry isn’t taught to British people. The British Empire made a small percentage of people exceptionally rich. Even the advancements in technology that lead to the Industrial Revolution served to make this minority even richer at the expense of the working classes. Strangely though, you find English pride amongst the white working classes despite a history of being treated as completely disposable by the country.

Obviously, anybody living in Britain directly benefits from the luxuries afforded by its colonial past, but I’d love to sit down with somebody who can genuinely explain why colonialism was a positive for the masses.

I think we more or less agree then.

Certainly not a good thing. There is a key difference between accepting it as a reality of the past and thinking it is a good thing.

For my country, it was inevitable regardless of who did it. If it wasn’t the British, the French weren’t far off. Both were likely unavoidable.

The histories are very different though between say Jamaica and New Zealand. The Waitangi (spelling may be incorrect) was a treaty expertly engineered by the British. I’m not denying that many Polynesians died under British rule, but that wasn’t the same as slavery. It was slightly different to the colonisation practices in Africa and India as well.

Regardless, with the little I know, I can safely say that colonisation wasn’t good for Māori people and the effects of this are still felt within the community today. Would white New Zealaners saying sorry move the needle? Probably not.

This is why it’s so ridiculous that the royal family
is fawned over by so many of the working class, especially after being treated like cannon fodder.

The elite have always used the working class to make themselves richer and didn’t mind invading other countries to do the same to them.

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What line am I expecting to be drawn? All I was saying in the post you quoted was that it’s not true that our education system teaches children to feel personally guilty about our history, and I say that as someone who has been through that educational system and studied at history at primary, secondary and undergraduate level, as well as training to become a teacher.

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That part wasn’t in relation to what you said. I feel like the separately-quoted parts made it pretty clear I was responding to someone else. You already replied to my post, so I don’t know why you’re asking this question now lol

Kids aren’t taught they have to feel personally guilty about Britain’s history. Nor are they taught to hate being British (a popular Reform line).

It wasn’t clear to me, you said “some (as above)” and my post was literally directly above yours and I was one of the only people you had replied to on the topic. But clearly I misunderstood.

Depends on the teacher. Plenty of poor teachers out there.

My bank card is now in my recliner. There is no way to retrieve it I just have to hope it slips out as i open and close it over the next few days lol

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Apple pay all the way.

I don’t even use mine 90 percent of the time :joy:

NFC has been such a good feature. No need to carry a wallet or card holders.
I have about 10-20 bucks in my phone case for emergency purposes and that’s all.