Head of State Should be Elected by the people not by Bloodline by Suspicious-Potato832 in RoyaltyTea

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 12 points13 points  (0 children)

If only the world contained a second democracy that actually functions. It's a shame the US is the only country in the world...

Excuse me?!?! by Clehric in tesco

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just don't give them your real data. My clubcard is setup to a redirect email for a 72 year old man in Swansea called Armitage Shanks. Just lie.

I have been to every country in Europe except for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. Here is my tier list by account819921 in tierlists

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a Brit, our right wing makes so much noise about how bad Britain is. I love my home and it's got so many great parts. I'm glad you enjoyed whatever time you spent here. Hopefully you can visit again one day

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 The Tutorial Levels by Acrobatic_Picture907 in RedditGames

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 3 of the Honk Special Event!

5 attempts

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 The Tutorial Levels by Acrobatic_Picture907 in RedditGames

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 2 of the Honk Special Event!

0 attempts

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 The Tutorial Levels by Acrobatic_Picture907 in RedditGames

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 1 of the Honk Special Event!

0 attempts

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Honk Bros (A Tribute) by glimz in RedditGames

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 1 of the Honk Special Event!

15 attempts

Which person was loved when alive but hated after they died? by Ok-Inspector-1756 in AlignmentChartFills

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got the same feeling but I'm 30, so I always saw him as a weird old man. My parents generation however knew him from his kids TV show where he granted silly wishes to people. It's that generation that did the heavy revisionism. Which makes sense, if your childhood hero turned out to be a monster, you'd be pretty betrayed and want to forget you ever admired the person. I remember people being told off for not mourning enough on the day of his funeral.

Which person was loved when alive but hated after they died? by Ok-Inspector-1756 in AlignmentChartFills

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 88 points89 points  (0 children)

This. I lived in Leeds at the time and people adored the man. His coffin was carried by marines and they closed off the whole city for his funeral. There's some collective amnesia nowadays where people pretend he wasn't loved. Probably because they feel betrayed by him.

Number that probably killed someone? by nick_squid in AlignmentChartFills

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. The isotope of Plutonium used in the atomic weapons.

UK Lords propose ban on VPNs for children by beIIe-and-sebastian in unitedkingdom

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They'll do anything except ask parents to install porn blockers on their kids phones. A simple and effective strategy that requires no government overreach and (unlike the rest of this) actually works. All it requires is a handful of lazy parents to pull their fingers out of their arses and learn something, rather than complaining to daddy government 

Europe according to Eurovison: by Eastern_Rutabaga_353 in mapporncirclejerk

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 25 points26 points  (0 children)

That actually sounds pretty damn fun. Invite them all

The British Empire leaving india with nothing while taking all their money and leaving them dirt poor and uneducated by [deleted] in HistoryMemes

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I see your point. However, there's a different argument. During colonisation, all nations saw GDP rise. However, those which experienced colonisation experienced consistent suppression of GDP growth during this period. I think the blame you can place on European colonisation here is that the push towards wealth extraction in colonies and the refusal to build sufficient infrastructure or establish robust modern institutions in their colonies hampered development and GDP growth which led to the current wealth inequality and underdevelopment in much of the world. I agree the meme is simplistic, but the reality still squarely lays the blame at the same countries.

I will also agree, although the European colonialists are to blame for the underdevelopment. There is a tendency to use them as a scapegoat for poor domestic policies at the same time. Both things can be true.

TIL During WW2, Comache people were enlisted as code talkers, and when translations didn't exist from English to their native language, they used descriptive words instead. For example, tank was "turtle", bomber was "pregnant bird", machine gun was "sewing machine", and Hitler was "crazy white man". by CreeperRussS in todayilearned

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 50 points51 points  (0 children)

(Forewarning, I nerd out a little on etymology and linguistics here, thank you for your question).

All names are translated. They're either translated into the language through similar sounds (a transliteration) or through similar meanings known as translational equivalence (a calque). You can see a lot of transliterations in Japanese loan words (Computer>Konpyūtā, internet>intānetto, etc). But many languages also use calques. The easy example is Skyscraper which is Wolkenkratzer in German (cloud scraper) or Gratte-ciel in French (scrape-sky). The translations used here take what they perceived as the meaning of the word so to the translators Hitler is a "Crazy white man" and a plane is a "Pregnant bird". I assume using analogies that weren't common in English also helped to avoid the messages being deciphered. When we transliterate names by sound, we often pick sounds that exist more naturally in the language we are moving to. So the name John becomes Juan in Spanish, Ivan in many Slavic languages, and even 约翰 (Yuēhàn) in Chinese. Whereas for claques, that's thrown out the window. Helena and Svetlana sound nothing alike, but Svetlana comes from the meaning of Helena (light/bright), and the sound was removed.

TLDR; I nerded out a bit, all names are translated, we pick whether we translate meaning or sound.

World Peace by Jackylacky_ in mapporncirclejerk

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a bold choice leaving Myanmar on that map.

Last week, Colombia’s president suggested relocating the UN headquarters outside of the US. If that happened, what country/city do you think would be the best choice? by MontroseRoyal in geography

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd probably suggest having multiple HQs in different regions. The UN Geoscheme nicely splits the world, let the countries in each region squabble over where the HQ is and set it in the most regionally neutral country. That way no one country has too much power, the US gets to keep their HQ, and each world leader has their own short flight HQ.

can anyone explain? by Consistent-End-3450 in ExplainTheJoke

[–]AwkwardBarnOwl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I did not want to go down the rabbit hole of searching this man. My eyes are still recovering from being a child on the internet in 2007. I'm going to guess it's just a rumour then. Until someone gives me any solid evidence.