New Testingstan

Jung wrote:

evilsoup wrote:So that would have made you 18-19?
Hahahahaha oh wow
I though it was going to be like 14-15, that would have explained it, but
hahahaha

I think I still had some pretty terrible opinions at that age

I think I was still in my fairly hard right winger phase back then.

Oxymoron wrote:Danke schön.


Quick question : generally speaking, are Adult Swim's programs available on Netflix/that app on the Xbox ?

Darth Wong wrote:A list of major items which I suspect of contributing to the difference between American and Canadian culture:

1) The American Revolution Mythology. We all know that the way Americans are taught about their Glorious Peoples Revolution is a white-washed crock, but it's a crock that makes them feel good about themselves. It basically becomes a sort of religion, complete with holy prophets (the "Founding Fathers"), pilgrimages to shrines like Mount Rushmore, and rituals. The world has many other countries, but most of those countries don't have the luxury of saying "our nation began with the events of this one story, which I'm going tell you about now". For most countries, they think of their current system of government as merely its latest stage of evolution, not as a distinct invention of a bunch of heroes. A lot of Americans' self-image and social conduct can be tied to the way they feel about that story, ie- how completely they've bought into it, how important it is to their personal self-identity and self-worth, etc.

2) Slavery. Already mentioned. What hasn't been mentioned is that Canada didn't just have less slavery than the US; Lord Simcoe abolished it in Canada with the Act Against Slavery in 1793, many years before it was abolished throughout the British Empire. So you didn't just have two neighbouring countries, one of which had more slavery: you had two neighbouring countries, one of which was unusually backward-looking on the issue of slavery and one of which was unusually forward-looking on the issue of slavery. The contrast was sharper than people realize.

3) Self-selection. If we consider the possibility that our biology may play a role in our social tendencies, then it would stand to reason that people who were naturally more inclined to rebellious behaviour would have joined the rebellion in the US, while those inclined to prefer social order and stability would have remained loyalists and been driven out of the US. Therefore, there may have been a slight evolutionary group differentiation which took place during the American Revolutionary War: people who leaned toward social order would have moved north, and people who dislike social order would have moved south. Even if we reject the possibility that our social tendencies are influenced by DNA, this could be construed as a social differentiation rather than a biological one, and would still have lasting effects.

4) Climate. Is it really a coincidence that the world's most fanatically religious regimes seem to cluster in very hot climates, or that some of the world's least religious nations happen to be situated in colder areas? If there is some link between climate and religiosity, then that would be another significant distinction between Canada and the US. People like Jared Diamond would probably go farther and theorize that a cold climate has all sorts of effects on the development of societies, even if for no other reason than the need to plan ahead, conserve supplies for the long winter, and possibly work together in a more social co-operative way to overcome the dangers and difficulties posed by this environment.

Oxymoron wrote:Why he is trying to explain historical, societal and cultural differences through environmental causes, instead of basing his analysis on historical, societal and cultural causes, is beyond my comprehension.

Oxymoron wrote:Point 4, finally, is an appeal to a subset of theories that in geography are regrouped under the label "Environmental Determinism", which even if they form part of the basis of "Gun, Germs and Steel" (the book), have been disproved by the scientific community since the first half of the 20th century.