• schnurrito
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    vor 2 Tagen

    Lots of places have subnational entities which they may or may not call something that translates to “country”. Nothing particularly unique about the UK. The only thing that is unique is that in some sports, the UK’s subnational entities have separate teams, you are right about that part.

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      Lots of places have subnational entities which they may or may not call something that translates to “country”.

      Not saying you’re wrong, but I’m curious as to some examples of this. I’ve heard various languages translating words for a country’s subdivisions as things like state, province, prefecture, etc, but I haven’t run across a country within a country before (unless you’re talking about enclaves like the Vatican).

      • schnurrito
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        Germany and Austria are divided into Länder (singular: Land), which literally just means country. (Germany has 16 of them, Austria 9.) This is usually translated as states or provinces in English, but the word in German isn’t Staaten or Provinzen, which is what we call the subdivisions of Australia, Canada, and the US.

        The Kingdom of the Netherlands is also divided into 4 countries.

    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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      vor 2 Tagen

      Quite typical of the Brits to get pissy about you saying the truth.

      They went all over the world drawing arbitrary lines separating or forcing peoples together, but try to get them to understand that the world considers the UK to be a singular entity and they blow a fucking fuse over the semantics. And they’re not even correct about the semantics!

      The entitlement some British people feel over foreigners giving a shit for their internal politics is frankly outrageous.

      • Zombie@feddit.uk
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        Quite typical of the ignorant to ignore years of history of rebellion, genocide, imperial conquest, cultural warfare, and indoctrination.

        The Roman Empire spanned Europe but you wouldn’t blame the subjects in, for example, France, for the decisions and conquest of the Roman leaders. How exactly does the same logic apply to us?

        England are an imperial power, they gained their power through military conquest. Who were their first targets? Their neighbours. Maintaining a military conflict within your island is difficult so eventually they resorted to cultural warfare as well as military. For example, outlawing the Scottish language, dress, instruments, and ultimately identity. A crime to be yourself.

        You empathise with people all over the world having arbitrary lines drawn and the separating/forcing of peoples apart/together but not with Scotland/Wales/Ireland because of your dislike of Brits.

        You’re blinded by your own hatred. My hatred of Brits is likely higher than yours, and I am one in your eyes, which only exemplifies part of why I hate “Brits”. A made up term for a made up people.

        • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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          Sorry, I don’t hate the Brits, I just think UKans are being ridiculous to expect us to care. The onus is not on foreigners to have an opinion – much less weigh on – domestic issues such as Scottish Independance or Irish unification. Even if I wanted to have an opinion, I’m more than likely to eat my own foot.

          Scotland and NI are nowhere near unique in their having a federalized governance and internal struggle for independence. However until independence happens, Scotland and NI are part of the UK and you can’t be mad at maps of Europe for reflecting that fact.

          I support a sovereign Ukraine but a 1980 map of Europe would have it as a non-sovereign Soviet Republic and that’s not a contradiction.

          Also very ironic that you would talk about “made up people” to a Belgian. I don’t even talk the same language or receive the same TV channels as my compatriots 50 km over. We’ve mastered having a national identity built on not having a national identity.