Look, I’m of Scottish descent, but I’m not Scottish. It’s been generations since anyone in my family has seen scotch heather in anything but a photograph. I never went to a Scottish school, sat in a Scottish pew, and while I can understand the Scots dialect I couldn’t speak it to save my life. I have a few fragments of old traditions, some of which no one in Scotland even practices anymore. Sure, I like a nice dram of whisky or black pudding as much as the next guy, but I also enjoy sushi, that doesn’t make me Japanese either. So why would it make any sense to refer to myself as a Scottish-American? If I were a recent import or maybe 2nd generation, sure it makes some sense, but I don’t have the foggiest clue what life in Scotland is like. If you dropped me in Glasgow or Aberdeen without GPS in my pocket and asked me to find my way around I wouldn’t know where to start. So what gives me the right to call myself Scottish anything? Because my family held on to a few comforting traditions from a Scotland that’s been gone for more than a century?

There’s a very old trope that the land seeps into your blood over time and no matter how far you roam from it, it calls you back, and shapes your character. It’s from the same school of thought that coined the phrase “Blood and Soil” and murdered people in gas chambers. It’s not a philosophy I have much attachment to, in spite of the fact I have one of those in my bloodline too.

Actually most other places have far more indigenous culture, because the dominant socio-economic group is the indigenous people of that place. The existence of an indigenous minority is pretty unique.

Well, as a Canadian I’d say you definitely could, but I’d rather you didn’t try to prove it.

Citizens United. That ruling should have started a riot that didn’t end until the constitution was amended.

Excellent summary. The US has used and abused the Kurds over and over again. While they’d be crazy to not take their opportunity to establish some territorial autonomy, they’d have to be utter fools to trust the US not to stab them in the back again.

That’s the big secret. Efficient at what is never discussed. It’s very efficient [… at lowering legal costs, and avoiding consequences and accountability]. As long as no one says the quiet part out loud, everything is “fine” [… for them].

I have a theory about why Trump himself is authorizing this. Trump is president, but he knows he can’t hang on to it. Bibi has offered to make him and his heirs kings in perpetuity of Gaza though. He’s aiming to build a new Dubai in Israel, a resort city for the rich and famous under his exclusive control in perpetuity and shield him from prosecution. Trump City. That’s a legacy. That’s the most massive tribute anyone has offered him yet. He’ll do anything Bibi asks because in exchange, he gets to be a petty king of his own little Morocco, his Singapore, his little Mediterranean paradise. It’s exactly that transactional. The proceeds from his “Bored of Peace” brigade will go to building his little kingdom, and he’ll be given a blank check to do whatever he feels like as long as he uses the full force of the US military machine to serve the Israeli cause.

Yeah, you can kill a man with a knife but you can do it a lot faster and easier with a nuclear warhead. People aren’t scared of an aggressive chihuahua, but they’ll have an aggressive pitbull put down. The scale and scope of damage matters.

Quite frankly we don’t have the organizational infrastructure for that. An army, including a rebellion marches on its stomach. Small protest organization feeds into larger scale organization down the road. We’ve got to start somewhere.

Absolutely rude. If you’re using AI to make a point for you, you’ve already admitted you don’t know enough about what you’re talking about to be having a opinion in the first place, let alone be worth discussing an issue with.

I know a few people who kind of went crazy with the creatine and definitely took it too far and hurt themselves with it, which is crazy because I’m not even into fitness stuff so you wouldn’t expect a filthy casual like me to see that. From what I understand figuring out the right dose is tricky because there’s a lot of different body types and metabolisms, and the label always overestimates how much you really can process. It’s a supplement meaning it’s basically unregulated so they can put whatever they want on there. I’d say it’s common enough that people overdoing it is common enough to be concerning.

Can it mess with your kidneys? Absolutely. Will it? Bruh, this is the internet, we have no way to know that, but if you’re going easy on it, then probably not. Just make sure you’re using your head and it should be fine.

Some won’t. Some will be eager to have something to shoot at. No one talks about it much but I’d imagine the esprit de corps of several services are being tested something fierce right now.

I mean, you’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean we can’t choose to do better today.

US diplomats can go to hell. Never trust an American tech company.

I’ll take that deal. As long as Mexico doesn’t try to get cute like last time. If we’re going to stand against exploitation of both of us, we need to stand together, eh?

Elites will always be troublesome, but of no importance when they cannot corrupt anyone to do their bidding.

Given enough time and enough resources, anyone is corruptible. The most corrupt are usually those who believe they can’t be corrupted. You just have to get them to honestly believe something that isn’t true. Once you figure out what cognitive fallacies they’re vulnerable to, you’ll have just turned a bulwark against you into your most loyal zealot. That’s why the wealthy usually win. With enough money, one person can command more time, and resources than 50% of the country combined.

Of course the rulers enable this behaviour. Who do you think made them the “rulers” to begin with? You think our broke asses pay to get these people elected?

Remember kids, the term “Business Ethics” is an oxymoron. Corporations don’t have ethics, they have financial interests and PR.

Trump is a senile lunatic, of course the nonsense spewing out of his brain is contradictory. Nothing he is doing makes any rational sense on any level. People are just trying to play idiot-whisperer to sus out what random two malfunctioning brain cells are going to form his next policy choice (foreign or domestic). Of course what they’re saying is contradictory, the random-bad idea generator running the country is a contradiction factory.

I mean, again, most if not all of them. Almost every language there’s slight variations in pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary and pacing between men and women that would otherwise qualify as a “different accent.” It’s more pronounced in some regions and dialects, but most of them have “male” and “female” variations.