I don’t know if this has reached international news yet but one of our telecommunication monopolies went down today at 4am and half the country is without internet. People working from home off VPN are not getting paid until it’s fixed (that’s me!) No debit machines are working. Gas pumps are closed. The CEO of Rogers tells us it could be days, possibly weeks to fix. This is going to have a huge socio-economic impact on our economy if it’s not fixed in the next 24-48 hours.
This is why monopolies are bad. There’s no fall back plan. I heard rumors that this may be a cyber attack or this is a sign a large amount of money is being moved (ie, fraud) but that’s heresay and speculation.
It’s probably the Russians /s
2 Likes
I’m actually happy to see the phrase ‘cultural misappropriation’ floating around. Because cultural appropriation is just a commonly observable phenomenon wherein two cultures will adopt traits from eachother after prolonged exposure. It’s value neutral.
As for languages German is maybe the most useless one to know. Because every German I have ever encountered speaks perfect English. But when you bump into another German American speaker it feels like you’re in a secret club.
Like awhile back I’m at my buddy’s Christmas party and of note I’m the only non black person. I bring this up because a woman there just came from the Chicago Christkind fest which is a German run festival heald annually downtown. And she is nailing all the pronunciations, while visibly drink, which is pretty impressive. So I ask if she speaks German and sure as ish her grandfather was German.
So we start excitedly talking auf Deutsch. Talking about where our respective grandparents came from and the weirdness of knowing this language nobody else seems to speak. And the entirety of the party had stopped dead to stare at us, thinking perhaps we were having some synchronized stroke.
1 Like
I’ve never heard of cultural misappropriation before. But i think you would like the term cultural appreciation, which exists, where two cultures share traits from eachother. There’s a first Nation tribe here for example, that created such a mutual bond with Ukraininan refugees from WW2 that the Ukrainian scarf, called the “Kokum scarf” to tribe members, has been incorperated into traditional regalia and fancy dress. It’s not cultural appropriation but appreciation, and we see that a lot in places with multiculturalism. Ukranians and Canadian First Nations have a good relationship and interconnected community.
Due to proximity my family has a long history of shared culture with First Nation. My dad used to fly supplies up to Nunavut. In exchange for things like snowmobiles we’d be gifted beautiful carved statues from local artists, and trade goods, seal pelts etc. I keep a carved bear to remind me of my dad and great-randmother. My great- grandmother had a pet bear (it was the great depression I dunno how she just did, you can feed bears and they stick around) and when the bear died she donated it’s remains to the tribe, in turn they gave us a bunch of beadwork and moccasins for our babies that have become family heirlooms.
See that is just cultural appropriation though. It’s a value neutral anthropological term.
I’m sick of academic and clinical vocabulary being hijacked by know nothings on social media. Seriously how useless is ‘gaslighting’ now? It used to refer to a campaign of essentially psychological warfare designed to collapse the victim’s trust in their own perception and memory.
It is not just someone being dishonest. Nobody was gaslit by a used car salesmen they were just lied to.
2 Likes
The meaning if appropriation has not changed, it’s the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.
It’s the taking without permission bit.
Appreciation is, recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.
One is negative, one is positive.
Missapropriation doesn’t fit. It’s like to lose or embezzle something, We are not embezzling other cultures unless we are making a profit on thier culture. This can be applied only to niche people who steal culture just to profit off of it and it comes up alot in dicussions on if companies like Hobby Lobby should sell dreamcatchers made in China, or if people should be only buying dreamcatchers from Native craftpersons, who make dreamcatchers as part of thier culture.
You get what I’m saying
Buying dreamcatchers at Hobby Lobby is cultural misappropriation.
Buying dreamcatchers from native craftpersons is cultural appreciation.
But Natives have been very outspoken about thier culture being exploited. But not every situation is cultural appropriation. The caveat here is permission. The Kimono is culturally significant in Japan. But they also encourage anyone from any culture to wear a Kimono as long as it’s worn respectfully and traditionally. They are giving us permission to appreciate thier culture respectfully, so it’s not appropriation unless it’s done disrespectfully.
Who is the owner? Who owns a culture? An incredibly vague diaspora of people cant exactly be reached for comment much less consent baring some Borg hivemind.
1 Like
The people whose culture it is.
Yeah. Which means a random grouping of individuals who’s sensibilities are going to vary wildly.
Unless every ethnicity decides to elect a President or declare an Emperor then it’s kinda up to the four winds.
Cultural misappropriation I’d refer to as wearing a Sombrero and yelling racist crap in a bad Mexican accent at a Halloween party. Cultural appropriation is using a tortilla.
Nobody gave me permission to do so. And I kinda dont care. Because it’s bread.
2 Likes
cultural appropriation is really only hot topics for Native American’s to be honest. Thier culture has ben appropriated to almost extinction. That’s where you are going to see the most social activism.
Japanese appropriate American culture and Americans are not offended, it’s not a universal rule. But natives and mexicans have asked Americans not to make costumes out of thier culture and with the north american treatment of mexicans and natives, and the general ignorance, I think it’s fair to listen to their complaints.
The hashtag #mycultureisnotyourcostume is a place for people to speak up and voice thier opinions on appropriation. That’s where you are going to get answers to your questions about how individuals feel about this topic.
Also while I’m at it;
No culture is wholly unique. Because humans are going to come up with similar solutions and ideas even when separated by oceans of water and even time.
The Longboat is important to both Scandinavian and Pacific Islander Culture. There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest one took the idea from the other. Because it’s just a sensible way to conquer the ocean. They both frequently had Storm deities as a result.
If you’re actually interested in culture and history you pick up pretty quick that humanity’s had maybe a total of two to three dozen ideas total.
Lets go to storytelling. Every single culture on Earth has the Clever Slayer archetypes. To the Greeks he was Odysseus. To the Iroquois he was Anwe. But at the end of the day it’s the same basic story structure.
Because we all have the same god damn power fantasy. The fact of the matter is what scant differences the tribes of mankind have are due to geographic circumstance and otherwise we’re pretty damn interchangeable.
4 Likes
humanity evolved from a tribe of 200 in Pangea, now known as Africa, so yes there is similarities between our oral history and tradition. I don’t think it’s aliens but Inuit tibes have been telling us that the ice bridge between Alaksa and Russia/Mongolia was a thing, they said an advanced cilvilization used to live there, and archaeologists are just now, within the last 5 years, proving them right.
we have similar cultures because of shared oral traditions, I’m with you, I think we should accrept that we are a global cutlure of many different interconnected cultures. I’m a Globalist (that’s a left wing value too, not to be confused with the New World Order)
It’s as simple as us just being the same species.
Race, ethnicity, phenotype- whatever you want to call it - are secondary characteristics based on geography about as relevant as wolves having different fur colors depending on their hunting grounds.
The material differences boil down to nothing but mildly differing health issues also based on said geographic circumstance. Beyond that the differences are entirely unremarkable.
This idea we’re somehow all unique and mysterious and have some esoteric tradition shrouded in myth is nothing but racist propaganda our dumbasses globbed onto because A. Everyone wants to feel special and B. It’s extremely profitable to act that way.
2 Likes
I’m watching it right now, aww at least got to say goodbye to cartoon friends.
yes Frenchie, you tell Butcher.
1 Like
Pangea was long gone when the dinosaurs went extinct, it wasn’t around anymore when the first upright apes started to make stone tools.
1 Like
I don’t know 
about human evolution tbh. Not my expertise. I’m just just a classical age historian.
I just remember that there are only 200 unique genetic strands or something in human DNA. 6 degress of seperation or something. I’m watching the Boys I can’t look this up right now. 
I just find it weird that Soldier Boy and the whole Payback group were more or less a B plot that acted like an A plot.
Seriously beyond Noir’s (apparent) death it didn’t really effect the status quo of the story. The B plot with Neumann and Homelander ousting Stillwater did.
They said they had 5 seasons worth of story and I hope they keep it that way. Because ironically Ackles’s previous big show Supernatural is sort of the prime example for continuing to talk even though youve run out of ideas. That had a neat beginning middle and end. Then it kept going. And yeahhhh.
This is so far the best adaption I’ve seen. Because it took a story that kinda sucked and was very angry Gen X Bush era edginess but had some actually extremely good ideas inside, and just built off the good ideas. Love Sausage is a joke not an actual character. Also his dick didn’t even have powers in the show he was just weird Commie Soldier Boy. How are you going to give someone a trait like that and NOT make it part of the powerset?
But this is the first time I feel they’ve treaded water in some places. Because the ultimate changes to the status quo aren’t really that meaningful. Even if you’ve never read the comics I think we all know where and how this ends. And theres no reason to dance around it longer than necessary.
1 Like
Kimiko going from insecure psycho to confident pshyco is good character growth. I love that for her.
Is this the season finale or penultimate episode?
eye for and eye… ear for an ear?
Butcher and Homelander are in the wierdest coparentling relationship. Voughts new reality show “My Two Toxic Dad’s” I feel bad for that kid.
1 Like
I once ran into a German gentleman who didn’t speak English working at a gas station in college.
He started going through the list of languages he spoke until he landed on Spanish, and then he could explain he needed air in his tire to me.
Pantomime was not helping. And making my teenage baby self a bit nervous.
2 Likes
Actually, both sides have moved away from the center. But the left even more, and now they’ve dragged the center with them so even moderates and centrists like Elon Musk seem right wing.
Surprised? The Boys runs on edginess, since the comics are an edgelord’s anti-superhero power fantasy and one of the author’s edgiest works. As much as I dislike the show, the comics are worse in several ways. And Hughie might be the protagonist in the show, but Billy is Garth’s favorite, mouthpiece and self-insert (the comics flip-flop on whether Hughie or Billy is the protagonist).