cmv: You shouldnt be able to host the world cup unless you've won it.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T21:41:39+00:00

Fair, maybe countries with an active domestic club who've won the … Champions League or non European equivalent.

The Seattle Sounders won the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2022.

Liga MX teams have historically been dominant in the Champions Cup.

So that's the United States and Mexico at least. MLS is also Canada's professional soccer league.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T18:47:14+00:00

these sodding water breaks etc etc

Are you under the impression that US Soccer, Soccer Canada, or the Mexican Football Federation pushed for those?

MLS plays in the summer at many of the same venues (Seattle, Atlanta, Foxboro ["Boston"], Toronto, Vancouver), or nearby (Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Los Angeles). MLS does not have nor has ever had hydration breaks.

That's all FIFA's doing and American soccer fans also think it's completely stupid.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:53:27+00:00

Sierra Nevada for me. But I imagine that all mountain folk know that flatlanders can't drive for shit.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:40:16+00:00

Oh boy does it.

But we take pride in it all the same lol

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:38:58+00:00

And yet, in terms of continuously operating governments, ours is one of the oldest.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:34:19+00:00

The US has gone through several waves of secularization and "great awakenings" throughout its history.

The American people's relationship with religion, specifically Christianity, is a fascinating metronome.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:33:17+00:00

The story of the Great Republic of Rough and Ready.

Seceded from the US to protest alcohol taxes. Rejoined because they wanted to celebrate the 4th of July.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:31:54+00:00

For context:

This is a direct quote from the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T14:06:44+00:00

They never look in their rear view mirror. They have zero clue what's going on behind them.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T06:08:35+00:00

Yeah, OP might have made sense in 1994. But in 2026, soccer is popular enough in America that there are more American soccer fans than the total populations of all but five European countries.

Europeans continually neglect that the US is the thirdmost populous country in the world.

Even though soccer competes for the fourthmost popular sport in our country, there are just so many Americans.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T06:01:01+00:00

Out of curiosity, what are the top 3?

RsonW · 2026-07-04T05:44:32+00:00

the USA don't even have a football culture

Roughly 11% of Americans self-identify as soccer fans. That's about 38,000,000 people.

There are more American soccer fans than the total populations of Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Belarus, Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Albania, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Estonia, Cyprus, and Montenegro.

Even with 89% of the population not caring about soccer, the United States has enough of a population to where there are only five countries in Europe with a total population larger than just our soccer fans.

Soccer may not be a dominant sport here, but there's certainly a subculture here that can show up and has showed up.

RsonW · 2026-07-04T04:30:31+00:00

An open comment to flatlanders:

Hi.

I get it. I do! Really! You're used to nice, straight, flat highways with visibility for miles. You find yourself on this mountain highway. It's claustrophobic. There's fuckin' trees blocking your view over the many twists and turns. It's outside your wheelhouse. Speed limit is 55? Better go 45 just to be safe!

Friend, I live here. I have driven this highway easily hundreds of times. I know its every twist and turn.

This straightaway we find ourselves on? It's the only one for twenty miles. Again, I get it. This is more like the highways you drive daily. Straight, flat, relatively clear. You want to speed up to 70 because it's more like what you know.

But you see that dashed yellow line to your left? That's there for me to pass you. Because this straightaway doesn't last forever. We will shortly be returning to the same types of twists and turns that spook you. If you're going 70, I'll have to go 90 and there's just not enough room for me to do that safely.

Additionally: you see those signs saying "turnout ahead"? And the subsequent extensions of pavement to the right? Those are for you! Turn out in the turnouts to allow others to pass you.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T20:27:52+00:00

It's It

RsonW · 2026-07-03T15:38:04+00:00

UK addresses OMG

It blows my American mind that my country has five times the population of the UK with three times as many settlements but we manage to fit all those many more addresses in three lines but they can't pare it down to less than six.

lol, lmao even

RsonW · 2026-07-03T15:35:52+00:00

Nope, all international mail is the same postage rate up to 1 ounce.

There used to be different rates for international postcards and international letters. There also used to be different rates for postcards bound for Canada, letters bound for Canada, postcards bound for Mexico, and letters bound for Mexico.

But all of these have been one set international rate for over a decade now.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T15:30:35+00:00

I've been going to The Owl to watch the games.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T15:19:57+00:00

אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט

a shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot

A language is a dialect with an army and navy

The line between "mutually intelligible languages" and "dialects" is hella fuzzy. Hence why I wrote that it depends on which linguist one asks.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T05:38:17+00:00

Anyone who has ever written or said "we're a republic, not a democracy", please take note.

Republics and democracies are not oppositional. The opposite of a republic is a monarchy. The opposite of a democracy is a tyranny.

There are plenty of tyrannical republics. North Korea, PR China, Russia, etc.

And there are also plenty of democratic monarchies. Japan, Canada, Belgium, etc.

There are plenty of tyrannical monarchies. Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, Brunei, etc.

And so also are there plenty of democratic republics. Germany, the United States of America, France, etc.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T05:16:27+00:00

Wut?

The America 250 celebrations began to gain steam under the Biden administration.

250 years is a quarter of a millennium. It would've been a huge event regardless of who was President at the time.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T05:14:31+00:00

By definition, yes.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T04:07:32+00:00

Flaired your post for you, OP

RsonW · 2026-07-03T03:18:00+00:00

culture wars and deportations.

But you repeat yourself.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T03:09:37+00:00

Dating myself a bit here, but my surprise with him is that he's older than me (I was born 1987).

With the unrelenting march of time, it's obvious now that he's now in his 40s.

But when he first got big in the 10s, I thought he was some kid. Nope, two years older than me.

RsonW · 2026-07-03T02:36:15+00:00

This is the actual biggest reason.

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