Part of me thinks “Surely this isn’t true” but another part of me is like “This is not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard”
There’s part of me that can’t possibly believe this is real, bit I’ve read parts of the Old Bailey records, and this is … not exactly normal, but not that far from it. People stole lots of shit, and drunk theater people are a very odd lot.
LOL NOPE
Europe is racist as fuck. Europe has armed gaurds and high fences on its borders. Europe makes it illegal to rescue refugees at sea. Europe locks up refugee children. Europe has killer cops that shoot teenagers of color. Europe is full of fascist politicians nostalgically fantasizing about ethnic cleansing. Not a day goes by without attacks on Muslims.
Fuck Europe.
Can confirm.
The problem with England (I can’t talk for the rest of Europe) is that our racism and our xenophobia and all our bigoted views manifest in a different way then America, and we use this to claim that it doesn’t exist, even when our country is built on it.
We are taught that the British empire was a good thing, and pretty much no one here knows anything about colionisation and our role in most current world problems.
But the amount of times that I’ve tried to talk about any issue within England and been shut down with the claim “well we’re not as bad as America”.
That’s why the trump protests were so important. We are constantly looking to America to justify our own bigotry. We’ll call America out on their unjust wars, and ignore the fact our own army and government was supporting them.
Listen, I like my country- I like that we have a rich history (not that I support it, but heck, everyone likes learning about the Roman Empire, doesn’t mean they think it’s a good thing), I like that we have countrysides and big diverse towns like London, I like that we love fish and chips and curry sauce, I love our old pubs and traditional pub food, I like that we have the NHS (though I dislike how it’s run), I like our sense of dry gallows humour, I like our film and tv industry, I love our history of theatre, I love our myths and legends.
But god damn are we historically an awful country, and have we ever tried to make reparations? Our actions are still affecting other countries and ruining life. I don’t like the empire, I don’t like what the monarchy stands for, I don’t like our politicians that spew bigotry and hate, I don’t like our press which are like vultures, I don’t like the power the BBC has to cover-up actual sexual abuse and rape, I hate Katie Hopkins and that she has any platform to spew her hate, I hate Brexit and that it was founded on hate, I hate how we think our lives are more valuable than that of refuges or immigrants, I hate that we don’t think that we are directly or indirectly responsible for a lot of the refugees and asylum seekers that exist today, I hate that we have a system that is actively leading to the deaths of disabled people and that even when investigated by the UN and told to change because we were violating human rights we refused, I hate how we support America’s bigotry and then use their country as a shield when accused of our own bigotry.
I hate that we, as a country, are incapable of accepting responsibility and making amends for our terrible actions.
Incredibly well put.
One of the tricky things is that every European country has their own fictional self image which it keeps repeating to convince itself it’s not a bigoted shithole.
In the UK it’s very much focused on being better than the US, being civilized and polite and stylish, while.. ya know… having a lot of blood on its hands and doing all the same racist and bigoted shit everyone else is doing.
In the Netherlands it’s focused on being ‘tolerant’ and gay-friendly and having semi-legal weed, while.. ya know…
having a lot of blood on its hands and doing all the same racist and bigoted shit everyone else is doing.
In Germany it’s focused on having ‘learned from the second world war’ and being ‘better now, while .
. ya know…
having a lot of blood on its hands and doing all the same racist and bigoted shit everyone else is doing.
And so on.. every European country considers itself either an underdog or a pioneer or a peak of civilization or small and quirky and of course they all consider themselves so much better than the US while
doing all the same racist and bigoted shit everyone else is doing.
I still remember exactly how it felt to read about this man being brutally asssulted, HIT ON THE FACE WITH A PLANK OF WOOD, in London, a city I lived next to and visited all the time, simple because he was speaking my native language in public.
I remember breaking down sobbing because of how many people in this country I love hate me so fucking much for being born somewhere else.
IIRC, there was another similar incident on the underground this past April.
So tell me more about the supposed lack of xenophobia and racism in Europe
These sort of things are sometimes best articulated by people who did not grow up here and suddenly experience it all at once. Pretty much every exchange student of color that I’ve spoken to in the Netherlands has recounted an experience to me
that went pretty much like this:
Day 1: “Yay! The Netherlands! Country of tolerance and gay rights!”
Day 2: “Huh, that person was really friendly to me and did like 15 micro-aggression, that was weird”
Day 4: “Waaaaaiiitt… why does this happen constantly? Are people messing with me? Am I imagining this? Do I just misunderstand their culture? The Netherlands can’t be this racist.”
Day 10: “Oh my god, I’m not imagining it, people actually are this racist and they think they’re not! WTF”
Day 12: “Holy crap, if I try to point out a micro-aggression people go from super friendly to hyper aggressive screaming in my face in about 5 seconds. And people I thought I could trust jump to their defense. What is this hellscape?”
Day 13: “Everything I thought I knew about the Netherlands is wrong. This place is so racist.”
Day 14: “Holy crap, is that a primary school teacher in black face?”
Yeah, the European side of tumblr likes to pretend they’re not racist or xenophobic or anti-black, when yall come from countries that let refugees drown at sea or try to ban headscarves.
Both the USA and Europe are built on the oppression of those deemed “other.”
Also, US-based Tumblr-users/activists/bloggers etc have a strong tendency to go “this wouldn’t happen in Europe”, “we should be more like Europe”, “we should copy the European model of healthcare/drugs/prisons/cops/etc”.
Which generally brushes over all the things that are terrible here and makes it very hard for people in Europe to make the oppression they are experiencing heard and acknowledged by an international audience.
Anything American Tumblr says echoes LOUD, so think twice before you pretend it’s all so much better in Europe.
So many horrific stories of abuse start with “he was great until we got married” and that’s honestly so fucking upsetting because it’s relatively normal.
Like so many women are so, so careful before they commit to a man in any way because he could turn out to be a horrible abuser. They find one they think is different, one they think they can trust, and as soon as they’re legally bound to him he turns out to be exactly what they feared he would be.
That’s horrible.
And, I can say from personal experience, it is embarrassing to get divorced almost immediately after being married. No one cares about how long you were together beforehand or what happened, they just think “Oh it only lasted a year, she’s so irresponsible”. On top of it being exceedingly difficult to get help from the police or other legal assistance(especially if you live together, share funds, children, property, etc.), there’s a heavy stigma that comes with it, only isolating abuse victims further.
I’m trying to think of something to say other than “boycott marriage” because I know that’s not realistic, but at the very least, please support divorced women.
By “support divorced women” I mean:
– don’t make us justify why we got divorced and don’t feel entitled to the details of what happened.
– don’t contribute to the stigma around divorced women that says we’re irresponsible, or that something must be wrong with us.
– If a woman close to you is getting divorced, don’t guilt her into apologizing or going back to her husband. If she’s the one filing, don’t make her question why she wants the divorce.
And then if you dare leave after many years, you still will be seen as irresponsible, wasting that on a whim. Can’t win either way so if you feel that you need to leave and have the needed support, run for it.
Pharaoh Ramses II’s Egyptian passport, issued in 1976 for passage to France nearly three millennia after his death.
In order to leave the country, Egypt required anyone leaving the country, living or dead, to have the proper papers. Seemingly the first mummy to receive one, Ramses had his occupation listed as “King (deceased).”
Like they said on their Twitter in a reply, that wasn’t the actual documentation created for the mummy, it was an illustrative mock-up they photoshopped together for the tweet. Which is why a passport from the 70s has a barcode on it.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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