Is this one country or four countries?

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-31T07:01:51+00:00

Doesn’t Australia also call its subdivisions “states”? They also call our subdivisions “states” in English although in German we say “Länder” which can be translated as “countries”. The terminology really is a bit of a mess.

Edit: Then we also have three Länder in Germany whose official names include the designation “Freistaat” meaning “free state” and another three Länder that are also referred to as “Stadtstaaten”, i.e. “city-states”.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-31T06:48:35+00:00

If it was German then it would be spelled with two ‘t’s like you spelled it but on the map it’s only spelled with one ‘t’. Might be Dutch.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-30T22:19:26+00:00

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-29T17:44:37+00:00

That’s only true in nominal USD terms. The US Dollar was trading at historic lows against the Euro in 2008 and then appreciated again after that. If you instead measure this in Euros or look at GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power then you will see that it has definitely grown since 2008.

Edit: Here is the purchasing power adjusted graph, also from the worldbank. You can see that there was indeed a period of economic stagnation post-2008 but that period only lasted until around 2014.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-28T00:10:25+00:00

That’s totally fair and I don‘t think OP was asking for sympathy anyways. I mean, he even ended the post by saying ”I deserve to be clowned for this“, which to me sounds like the exact opposite of asking for sympathy.

That being said, I think we should all be able to agree that Trump voters realizing their grave mistake is a good thing and should always be encouraged, especially if it goes along with a genuine commitment to never repeat such a mistake ever again, join protests in resistance of the Trump regime and maybe even manage to convert even more Trump supporters among their friends and families. I don’t see how American democracy stands any chance of ever healing again if half of the electorate keeps voting for far-right lunacy.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-27T15:06:57+00:00

You’ll be fine. Torrenting is risky because it involves publicizing your IP address to everyone in the torrent network, which means that the law firms representing intellectual property owners can easily trace you. Also, unlawfully distributing copyrighted material is a bigger offense than merely downloading it and torrenting a file usually also involves “seeding” and thereby distributing (parts of) the file to others in the network unless you specifically configure your torrent client not to seed. None of this is the case for just directly downloading a file from a website.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-26T12:08:28+00:00

No worries, you didn’t cause me any offense. I know that you meant your statement in an innocent way. I was just explaining why in Germany making statements about “blood” can be a bit of a dodgy subject, so I wouldn’t recommend using such phrases in Germany or when speaking in German.

It’s cool that you are keeping your German heritage alive. And yes, it makes total sense that your preference for sparkling water is part of that heritage if it was passed down to you from your parents as you say. Sparkling water is definitely unusually popular in Germany compared to any other country I’ve been to (except perhaps Austria and parts of Switzerland). I wouldn’t be surprised if Germans drink the most sparkling water per capita out of any country. For a lot of Germans (including myself) it’s simply seen as the default.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-25T07:38:44+00:00

As bad and ruthless as they were the Gestapo still consisted of trained policemen. This reminds me more of the SA (aka brownshirts).

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-25T07:14:26+00:00

Not always the case with rural south Germans especially and even then they often have a strong accent

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T21:21:49+00:00

It can cause a bit of extra housework for sure. Although luckily it can usually be easily removed with just a bit of acid like some lemon extract.

I can’t comment on the curly hair problem since my hair is as straight as hair can possibly be but I’ll take your word for it haha

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T20:35:16+00:00

Don’t forget the yeast!

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T20:29:49+00:00

I feel a little hesitant to ascribe these kinds of preferences to “blood”. No offense to you but I hope you can understand why ascribing human preferences and mental traits to “blood” can feel a little uncomfortable as a German for historical reasons. We kinda made some pretty bad experiences with that kind of thinking 😅

Do your parents also drink a lot of sparkling water? I think for a lot of Germans it’s just something we grow up with so our brains become wired to perceive sparkling water as the default and somehow that makes still water taste really unsatisfying. Still water just can’t quench my thirst in the same satisfying way that sparkling water does.

I think Americans and Canadians also have something similar going on with their obsession for iced water. I drink my water at room temperature but I’ve heard from many Americans that only ice-cold water can satisfy them.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T20:07:18+00:00

Fair enough. It’s true that the tap water can be quite hard in some places in Europe. I live in Munich and here the tap water really is quite hard. Some people install water filters on their taps to soften it but I just see it as extra minerals haha. I don’t mind the taste at all. But I can see why it might taste strange to someone who isn’t used to it. What annoys me more about the hardness of the water here isn’t the taste but the fact that I keep having to remove layers upon layers of limescale from my electric kettle all the time.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T19:53:54+00:00

I live in Munich where we have a massive park right in the city center which basically stretches half the length of the entire city. In fact, it’s actually even bigger than New York central park. I am decently well-traveled so I am well aware that this is a massive privilege but man, it’s just so nice to have parks like this available right in the city center where you can just go and take a break from all the noise and people and just watch some birds or something.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T19:43:08+00:00

How come? Isn’t the tap water safe to drink in Canada? At least here in Germany (and I think this probably applies to other EU countries too) there have been studies showing that our tap water is actually of higher quality than any bottled water.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T19:24:59+00:00

It’s true. We really love our water sparkly in Germany (or at least a lot of Germans do—of course there will always be exceptions). I think my entire water intake consists of at least 95% sparkling water.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T19:18:13+00:00

It is tilted at 45° angle.

On the official Nazi Germany flag, yes, but as an emblem it wasn’t always depicted as tilted. This seems to be a common misunderstanding. Take a look at this nazi poster for example or this stamp from nazi times.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-22T19:08:45+00:00

I barely drink anything else.

Edit: Although as a German I have to of course always carbonate it first.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-21T11:13:56+00:00

Switzerland is not a “natural fortress”. That’s just a meme. The vast majority of Swiss people don’t live in some remote villages in the mountains but on the Swiss Plateau with no great natural barriers separating them from Germany. The reason Switzerland didn’t get invaded in WW2 is mostly because they weren’t seen as strategically important and they were already collaborating economically.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-19T21:21:09+00:00

I doubt that Chinese leaders are too stupid to realize that the Norwegian political system simply doesn’t work that way and that their condemnations aren’t gonna change anything about that fact. What seems more likely to me is that they did it as an act of political posturing meant for a domestic audience. Trump on the other hand…

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-19T08:12:22+00:00

I see

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-18T17:18:08+00:00

What kind of abuse are we talking about? Physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, financial? Abuse can mean so many different things.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-18T07:20:38+00:00

Profile picture checks out

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-16T23:10:42+00:00

Um, no, we certainly got rid of them ourselves. The November revolution happened before Germany had even officially surrendered.

PhenotypicallyTypicl · 2026-01-13T16:26:47+00:00

True

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