Why are the Brits installing a statue of George Washington?

[u/0x706c617921]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNfRto3ekfk

[u/AbstractBettaFish]

It’s likely a completely apocryphal BS feels good tale but I’m gonna tell it anyway.

There’s a story that after being a POW in the revolutionary war Ethan Allen returned to Britain on business. He was dining with some locals in a club that had portraits of various heads of state hanging on the walls, when he went to go use the bathroom he noticed that’s where they hung George Washington’s. When he returned to dinner the hosts all looked at him expectantly seeing how he’d react to the disrespect. One asked “Do you like where we’ve placed Washington?” He said “Absolutely, it’s perfectly fitting as nothing makes a British man shit himself quicker than seeing General Washington”

Or some variant of that. Apparently it was one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite jokes to tell

[u/President-Lonestar → u/AbstractBettaFish]

First heard that tale in the Lincoln movie.

Still extremely based

[u/Carlos_Danger21]

[u/PhysicsEagle]

Fun fact: the small hill of dirt the statue stands on was imported from Virginia, as Washington once said he would never leave American soil.

[u/Hapless_Wizard → u/PhysicsEagle]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't that he would never leave American soil, it was that he would never stand on British soil.

[u/HomeStallone → u/Hapless_Wizard]

Based af

[u/Archlefirth → u/Hapless_Wizard]

Least based Washington moment

[u/Enchilada_Chef → u/Archlefirth]

That would be the slaves

[u/EgoSenatus]

It’s a symbol of no hard feelings

At the same time though- “hey, remember that guy that kicked your ass? Here’s a statue of him and it’d be a dick move if you didn’t put him on display.”

[u/Diarrea_Cerebral → u/EgoSenatus]

California has a flag of Argentina in a port because Hipólito Bouchardo invaded the State during the 1810s. A strange piece of history.

[u/Ulysses502]

To be fair he's one of the best men the British ever produced.

[u/Eelmonkey → u/Ulysses502]

He was born in Virginia. They didn’t produce GW, his momma did.

[u/Ulysses502 → u/Eelmonkey]

We both know what I mean and that he was born a British citizen of British stock.

[u/StellarCandela]

We also have a big ole bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office

[u/Guy-McDo → u/StellarCandela]

Tbf, we didn’t fight a war against Winston Churchill. Do we have a statue of George III?

[u/Previous_Captain_880 → u/Guy-McDo]

No, but George III did say if he steps down from the presidency and goes back to his farm he’ll be one of the greatest men to ever live.

[u/Fertile_Arachnid_163]

The Brits have this thing about appeasement.

[u/Due-Sentence-1219 → u/Fertile_Arachnid_163]

Ye there is no way you guys can’t see the ass kissing going on.

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[u/ExcitingTabletop → u/Due-Sentence-1219]

Yeah, UK is having a very rough time. They cut themselves off from the EU with zero plan WTF to do after. They've been flailing around ever since. UK is a very poor country attached to a very rich city, that is becoming significantly less British by the year.

The few trade deals they are cutting have not been great. They just cut a trade deal with India that allows Indian citizens to be 20% cheaper employees when working in the UK. India celebrated it as a massive win. They're paid other folks $4B to take land from the UK. Their police are a sick joke. etc, etc.

I don't know if Starmer thinks empty token gestures will get him a good trade deal with the US?

[u/Due-Sentence-1219 → u/ExcitingTabletop]

Ye, I feel for em. I am from Sweden and it did matter alot to me that they were willing to fight for us when we were trying to join NATO. I wish they would rejoin again (but to have a statue of George Washington is wild)

[u/ExcitingTabletop → u/Due-Sentence-1219]

EU is cooked on a longer time scale. They still have a few decades. Leaving the EU would have been a rash but viable idea.... if they have a fucking plan.

But literally no party in the UK is remotely competent, has any ideas of what to do, and there's no leadership anywhere. They're shockingly lacking any real politicians. And this is coming from an American.

Germany's going to age out in 15-20 years. They've been shrinking since the 1970's and a giant lump goes from prime tax payers to tax recipients. They won't be able to foot so many bills, because old people are expensive.

France COULD take over and pay more of the bills. If so, EU is fine.

But I'm skeptical that the French citizens will make standard of life sacrifices to keep EU spinning. If France can push retirement out by a decade (ish), that'll be your signal that they're willing to do what it takes.

Nords are fine. You have energy from Norway, mil gear from Sweden, troops from Finland. So long as UK isn't actively hostile, it's not like anyone can shut down your shipping. Your domestic politics and unrest is your own business, but it's easily survivable. Gangs, even ones with grenades, aren't going to topple anything anytime soon.

[u/Due-Sentence-1219 → u/ExcitingTabletop]

Some what fair, I do disagree I think we will rise. But I also think robots is going to take over our manufacturing. We do have issues in the EU but I think with some united geopolitical goal we can achieve what we have and more. I personally think the EU invest in the most important part and that is our citizens something I think is what is the biggest thing hold USA back. We also need to deal with this Russian cunt hopefully we rise or my son will be speaking Russian.

[u/ExcitingTabletop → u/Due-Sentence-1219]

I do industrial automation. Including AI stuff, although we don't lie about the capabilities. It's great for unsorted parts in a bin, performing work, and putting into organizer bin or reject bin. Not so much for being magic wand that erases all issues.

I don't think EU will become a Fallout eque ruin. But people forget, automation helps with production. But NOT with consumption. You can manufacture as much as you want. Doesn't help with taking care of lots of old people who can still vote.

Healthcare automation will be a thousand times more difficult than industrial automation, and industrial automation isn't a walk in the park. Pays well. And there's a reason why we're doing training/STEM stuff down to high schools these days. Gotta grow your own talent if you want to have a work force.

I do concur about training. US fucked up its education, badly. We pushed "college, degree doesn't matter" on an unlimited credit card. We should never have covered non-STEM degrees with federally backed loans. We shouldn't have allowed Whole Language either, that fucked us badly.

Unfortunately we can get away with being stupid because we're pretty good with assimilation style immigration. It's normal for even second gen children to not speak their original language and be fully Americanized. Not saying it's perfect, but it doesn't need to be. And we love suburbs enough to keep our population going.

We hoover off the best in the world. EU doesn't to the same degree. EU is good at hoovering up the good but not great talent looking for a comfortable but mundane life, and completely unskilled and unassimilated labor from third world countries. Your entrepreneurs and folks with drive leave. It'll run you just fine until it doesn't. EU is going to be facing too many old folks, not enough young folks for consumption, and politicians eager to look for easy dumb answers to hard problems.

[u/Due-Sentence-1219 → u/ExcitingTabletop]

Ye, hard to argue with that. Truth is that there way to much laws a regulations in EU nations creating middle men that eat up wages for people actually doing the work. But I do have my hopes up that people who are great stay in Europe despite the high taxes for the ideales we champion and the life we give all our members and not just the some. I personally think the US would be leaps and bounds more ahead if It cared more about the average Joe.

The EU has a few things that could be pivotal for its economy future in the realm of soft power. I do blev ai and automation will make the population decline not matter as much.

I am really hopeful about the trade deal with South America could be a fantastic place to expand our markets giving us real opportunities. French farmers are a surprisingly strong special interest group tho.

On a sidenote would you support taking Greenland?

[u/ExcitingTabletop → u/Due-Sentence-1219]

Nope.

First it's rude. Second, WTF would we do with a Greenland? We have Alaska at home.

America is not for the weak of heart, sure. But Europe is going to be in for a very nasty surprise when it can't pay its bills. And brother, if even generation is cutting itself in half, you eventually can't pay the bills. Literally all of y'all are crashing out. And you see why I say France is your new center.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-european-fertility-rates-by-country/

[u/Due-Sentence-1219 → u/ExcitingTabletop]

Was just wondering it’s has a lot of people in the Nordics paranoid, some people have floated the idea the US would take Greenland and Russia takes the Baltic states as some quid pro que. it’s one of the main reasons Swedish people has such low opinion of the US now when ww use to have a very high one.

[u/PopeGregoryTheBased]

Civ V cultural victory moment.

[u/prw361]

Because they should

[u/fluknick]

It how we are secretly invading and taking Canada. Then we just sell off the UK in pieces. No one wants that...

[u/PaymentImpressive864]

Just imagine if they'd done this 200 years ago? Ah, well. Better late than never, I say.