#british way to call xyz. american way to call xyz

[demonzoro]

yo is anyone awake. what do you guys call this and what country do you live in

[tunemyart]

Wait, this may be stupid and I'm not a native English speaker so no pretention here, but I've always though should was the conditional form of shall, isn't that correct? And so in this regard, past conditional would be should have? But that's based off the grammar of my native language so it might not work the same

It's not stupid! English is a weird language and functions in weird ways. My disclaimer is also that I'm just a native speaker with an nonexpert understanding of grammar, not a linguist, so may also get some things wrong.

"Should" does indeed function as a conditional sometimes, but not as a rule!

E.g., "Should xyz happen, we will do this." This is pretty British and/or formal sounding; you won't really hear that in colloquial American speech. (Disclaimer 2: I'm American.) You can just as easily say "If xyz happens, we will do this", which is probably the phrasing you'll hear in conversation.

In the previous post I was using "should" as one of the ways it's more commonly spotted in the wild: to denote obligation about the verb it goes along with.

E.g., "Joan should call Alex." The main verb is "call" - "should" just implies a certain obligation Joan has about calling.

This page has an overview of the various ways "should" can be used/what it denotes, including but not limited to: conditionals, subjunctive replacements, and indications of obligation, probability, opinion, and advice!

[lemonlyman-dotcom]

hey east londoner here and i think using well done mate here is often said in a sarcastic way so that's probably why they were a bit like huh? like if i said "oh i know about xyz" and someone said "well done mate" i'd think they were taking the piss out of me/sort of dismissing it. maybe saying like "that's cool/wow really?" is better!

In reference to this post where @carlos-in-glasses is teaching me how to be British

Hi!! I am definitely assuming they took it sarcastically because it was a dumb American saying it to them trying to sound British 😂

We also mostly get our British slang from bands like Yard Act and Idles, who have a whole snarky song called Well Done

[courfeynated]

Adding some more based on my friends and myself because we're all at least bilingual.

Combining idioms together. Happens especially often in closely related languages. The meaning is usually still pretty clear.

Randomly dropping a sentence in a second language while speaking English. Usually happens in very quick and emotional conversations and confuses the heck out of everyone. But most prominently the speaker...

Adopting literal translations of idioms into their first language

So much rage about untranslatable puns

Phone calls with family in their language with random words in a different language. Usually place names or information about local things

Mixing languages that everyone in a group setting speaks into one horribly beautiful franken-language because words and expressions in one language don't exist in another and we need to be clear with meaning

Overhearing people in public talk about us or about some wild drama and cracking up about it because they clearly didn't expected to be understood

Understanding bits and pieces from a language they technically don't speak but it's from the same language group as one they do speak.

Forgetting the word for something across all languages. Incredibly frustrating and results in wild gesturing

You don't have "XYZ" in your language???

Mixing up words between 3rd languages because some sounds are similar. Happens a lot to me in French and Mandarin although they are definitely not related

Wildly different comprehension levels depending on if they're seeing a text or if they are hearing someone speak. For example, I don't speak Italian or Spanish. But because I know French, I can read simple texts in both. Very useful for restaurant menues, for example

Long computing time to answer in mothertongue after a full day of speaking a different language at work.

Being able to do certain things better in a particular language (very often maths)

Language personas! I sound way more confident in English than in all my other languages. And English is my second language. Same phenomenon is true for many of my friends. We have different personas for different languages. Of course we don't completely switch character. But it's noticeable

Speaking "international English". If your character has learned English as a second language, chances are it's a wild mix of British English and American English. That's because learners eventually start consuming media in English and pick up expressions from all over the place

Cussing in English if English is not their first language. Idk... something to do with politeness and the way they've been raised? Sometimes English seems like a "less offensive" language. A bit of a problem when you find yourself in an English speaking country

On the flip side it can be easier to have hard conversations in a second language. Something to do with emotional detachment, probably...

Being way more funny and clever in their mothertongue. It's just easier if you don't need to dig up the right words for a witty comeback from the depth of your brain...

im going to have a stroke

[unapologeticallyzayn]

I think they meant Physical copy when they said that.

Hey Anon I know you probably meant well but unfortunately I have to disagree. What British Vogue did with that wording is erasure, pure and simple.

I've seen alot of comments on Twitter also saying "Zayn was digital, you guys are biased coz you're zquad" and I think there's a disconnect somewhere.

I'm gonna explain this from my point of view. So let's remove Zayn and British Vogue from the equation for a bit and do Harry Styles and American Vogue so that I'm "objective."

Harry Styles is the first man to cover Vogue America solo. - That sentence is correct regardless of whether it's physical or digital.

Let's say later this year, an artist called XYZ covers Vogue America's digital copy (if they have one) will it be correct for American Vogue to tweet "XYZ is the first male solo cover in Vogue America history"?

The answer is no.

Will the fans of XYZ be justified to be in the comments telling Harries it's because it's digital? 🫤 No. Because that would also be erasure.

When Zayn's British cover came out in 2018/9 he was the first male solo cover to be on British Vogue in any medium. Let me repeat that last part, IN ANY MEDIUM. He was the first. I didn't make those words up, by the way, British Vogue wrote that themselves. Zayn was also their very first digital cover. And he was still the first male solo cover.

Similarly, Harry will always be the first male solo cover for American Vogue in any medium. He is ALWAYS going to be the first.

If our theoretical XYZ takes the digital cover, then he becomes "the first solo male digital cover for American Vogue and the 2nd male solo cover for American Vogue after Harry."

In which case British Vogue should have tweeted "Timmy is the first male solo Physical cover in our 106 year history and the 2nd male solo cover in British Vogue history."

Because despite the arguments going on on Twitter about the semantics of digital or physical, a digital cover is STILL A COVER. So they can't say the first male solo cover because Zayn did it first!

So this reply 👇🏻 to that British Vogue tweet is bang on!

What British Vogue have is the audacity!

P.S: (I know comprehension skills are at an all time low around the world and especially on the internet, so I'm going to insert here that I am aware that Zayn has covered American Vogue but it wasn't a solo cover. That's Harry's).

[urmomsstuntdouble]

ok not sure how comprehensible this post is gonna be but! regarding the languages discussion, here are my thoughts about the anglo americans. be warned this post is long as fuck, but thank you so much if you do read all of it, and i’d love to hear your thoughts about it as well! 

so i just wanna start with alfred’s name- alfred. i think he may be named after alfred the great of wessex, who may or may not have been the first king of england. he wasn’t technically the king of a unified england that we’d think of it as today- he was the king of wessex, as his title implies, but there was a point at which he was “in charge” or however you want to put it of most of present day southern england. anyway this presents the first of his issues with his identity. he’s permanently tied to britain beyond just his culture and most common language- his name is a reminder of who he “belongs to.” of course most people don’t know that and they just think it’s a little odd that this 19yo miles morales type is called alfred but eh, what are you gonna do. 

then you have the fact that there’s no official language in the US, which makes things a little harder for him. he’s never sure what language he’s supposed to be speaking in, as the human representative of america. he thinks it should be english, seeing as that is the lingua franca, but there’s times when he just doesn’t vibe with english as a language. i mentioned before that he struggles with keeping his (spanish) dialects straight (which @cupofkey summed up as immigrant-kid-syndrome and that’s exactly it), although its not limited to just spanish. he also has a hard time keeping other shit in line, to the extent where his thoughts are a messy jumble of languages, concepts, images, and feelings. this is most evident when he’s nervous, because his accent will get super thick and he’ll start just saying the words that pop into his mind, even if they’re in another language or straight up not words at all. the only peson who can understand him when he’s doing this is canada. both of them are countries of immigrants, although they are different in who immigrated and when, so they dont have the exact same nervous tick language, but it’s close enough that they can communicate well. it’s sort of like a more global version of europanto? might sound something like this to an outside observer, but again, more global (also for the video they dont start talking until 1:17). 

america and canada also have a sort of inextricable bond because of the first nations people. the first tribe that comes to mind are the members of the okanagan national alliance, which straddles the present day border of british columbia and washington state (this is also something america shares with mexico). it’s caused a lot of pain between them personally, and with the okanagan nation. just as the border itself is vague- though the us-canada border is more respected than the okanagan borders- the parts of their identities are also vague. they feel bits and pieces of themselves ebbing and flowing, and matt and fred have gotten into arguments about it because they struggle to define their identities and they just want to be able to explain themselves to themselves. but you know that often winds up causing friction with the okanagan nations, because whatever issues with identity regarding their indigenous people fred and matt are having. they’ve got it worse, only in a sort of..negative image. like whereas fred and matt feel it on the fringes of themselves, making it so they cant tell where they end and other nations begin, the okanagan nations feel themselves being slowly eroded. none of them want each other to suffer, though, because the okanagan people can be americans and canadians and okanagans all at the same time. 

this also applies with the american border with mexico, seeing as there’s some areas in the southwestern us where spanish is spoken more than english. when he’s down there, freddie finds it easier to communicate than when he’s speaking english. chicano is his language just as much as english is- he just sort of became able to speak it when the west was colonized, and he already knew spanish for business purposes, so there ya go. there are some issues with that though because the spanish in the west is primarily from mexico and central america, whereas the east is more from the caribbean- like how miami has a large cuban minority. so he’s got a weird sort of chicano english too, because it’s no longer “pure” chicano. pure is a very loose term there because there is of course variation within southwestern chicano speakers. angelinos don’t have the same chicano as nuevomexicanos. anyway i think he’d get it mixed up with spanish proper or spanglish a lot because of the similar phonetic rules. i’m not sure about any indigenous tribes who have land that straddles the us-mexico border, but that’s probably not alfred’s biggest worry with That Border. actually no i think he might purposefully talk in an aggressively chicano dialect whenever someone in the government wants to talk to him about the ice concentration camps. like he usually doesn’t try that hard to keep the wrong language out of his mouth but he will go Full Chicano, just to make them uncomfortable and to try to get the point across that he can literally feel the physical pain of the people trapped at the border in those camps. but this also causes some tension with the countries of origins of those people, seeing as they can also feel that pain. there’s quite a lot of discourse between america, mexico, guatemala, honduras, and el salvador about that, because none of them quite know what to do. they argue again about whose pain it is and how they should, as nation personifications, deal with it.

another thing that he struggles with where matt is concerned is with his indigenous languages. the languages of his northernmost people are the most at risk and endangered, and some are actually in the process of dying. he hates that, because as much as he wants to act like he speaks just SCE and quebecois, he doesn’t. he knows all of his people’s languages, and it makes him feel like he’s losing his identity a little bit when his indigenous languages start fading away. the worst part about this is that he doesn’t even always know it’s happening until the fading feeling kicks in, so sometimes he’ll just make a point of going up to the northwestern territories and try to hang out with the oldest inuit people he can find to try and have a chat. and it’s ROUGH communicating at first but when he can get back into it he feels more solid and defined. i think this isn’t unique to him, and that the other countries in the americas do this too, but bc of the way civil rights work in canada, it’s a little different for him. because indigenous canadians are recognized as a certain class of citizen, indigenous canadian governments have a collective legal bargaining power and could theoretically ask for legal protections from the ottowa government for their languages. however, this doesn’t apply to the northwest territories, so that’s why matt goes there specifically to talk to old ass indigenous people. their languages aren’t protected legally in the same way that french and quebecois are, so he sort of takes it upon himself as mr canada to do preserve the languages and history. it’s especially sad when a language dies out forever, because then he’s one of very few people who still speak it and if he wants anyone else to know about it he’d have to teach them. but since the language is dead, there’s no one for him to get help from. the people who once spoke it are gone or use other languages now, and it’s all very weight of the world on his shoulders. i think this makes him very sad, because of the weirdly smug left wing anti-american nature of canadian nationalism. like he understands exactly the sort of pressure freddie is under but also has a cultural pressure to not say anything about it or even offer to help. 

this is also why he has the most boring and basic idiolect out of perhaps the entire anglosphere- even arthur has a distinct posh dialect that he uses most of the time. matthew talks like a textbook. a very polite and anxious textbook, but a textbook all the same. and matthew williams actually kind of likes what alfred jones has going on, but canada doesn’t. canada fell into british hands after the end of the 7yr war, which happened to be the war that sparked the american revolution (speaking of which the ages for america and canada make no goddamn sense, ask me about it if you want more detailed thoughts). loyalists fled to canada, and developed a superiority complex around the idea that they weren’t ungrateful. then it was about how they weren’t slave owners- which isn’t entirely true- and in the present day, even in hetalia canon, canadians often define themselves in relation to america. that is, they are better than americans because of xyz political thing. right now, to quote the anime, it’s “our free healthcare and lack of gun crime, eh.” this also poses some difficulties for canada in terms of culture, though, because if that much of their national pride comes from being better than america, what do they have to make a name for themselves? for anglo canadians, that’s a more complicated question. for quebeckers, it’s that the’re not anglo canadians. but quebec is also annoying as fuck and canada actually has nightmares about there being a successful secession movement there, so. i don’t know what the average anglo canadian thinks of quebec seeing as im not an average anglo canadian, but i do know that i hate their accents so now matt does too, although he will respect their right to have their language protected by the ottowa government (because quebec, that’s why). 

anyway i do have one last thought and that’s that nobody will ever really know america or canada like they know each other. they struggle with a lot of the same issues regarding language, but america has just sort of given up. in some ways, matt’s jealous of him, and in others he’s so glad he’s not the united states. but they do understand each other a lot as the anglo americans, and as some of the number one destinations for immigration out of the entire world. so yeah, i dont have any specific strong conclusion ot this post, but would absolutely love to hear your thoughts about languages in the americas! shit’s wack in this neck of the woods my dudes. 

oh actually one last thing. i think america and canada struggle a bit with their identities because they dont fit into any one specific group, linguistically or otherwise. they feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world specifically due to the intensity of the melting pot effect, and even within their own countries sometimes. people will be like oh you’re too white or you’re too black or you’re too dine or too much whatever other culture, so they often feel isolated from that stuff because they are all of those things, and have a deep connection with all of it. anyway they’ll always be there for each other

[jazon-todd]

listen up, idiots

I’m gonna be straight up, I know as much about the British royal family as I do the rules of basketball (hint: not much at all), but I do try to keep up with the American Princess Herself™. And with that said, y’all have GOT to know the difference between voicing your opinions and being a real big bitch that puts you smack dab in the middle of a Daily Mail article and a defamation lawsuit. 

saying stuff like “ugh I hate her dress” or “I wish she’d do more for her patronages” or “I wish she’d stop wearing black” or even “I don’t like her because I don’t fucking like her” is okay! That is your opinion! You are allowed to say that even if you sound like a loser constantly hating someone you don’t even know! No matter what country you’re from, as long as you have general basic human rights written into law, you are allowed to hold that opinion! I’ll be the first one to tell you that that weird ass outfit she once wore that looked like a tankini top paired with a last-ditch effort black mermaid skirt was the ugliest look she’s ever worn, and I can say that because, hey, it’s just an opinion!!

now, saying stuff like “this is a coke-whore wannabe prostitute who conned her way into the royal family and is faking her pregnancy and is scamming her poor husband and old grandma-in-law” will proooooobably land you on the cover of the Daily Mail, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself! Here’s a fun fact: IP addresses are public knowledge! and it’s even legal to view IP addresses!! Even if you press a little anonymous button when you type “I hate this effing drug addict bitch meggsy markles because she stole my ginger mess of a man who doesn’t know I exist oxoxo” people still know it’s you!!!! All they gotta do is inspect the element in any sort of web browser, and right there in the coding, is YOUR IP address!!!!! nothing is truly anonymous online!!! so you can’t exactly get mad when you are published for being a really big bitch to a woman you don’t know PUBLICLY ONLINE just because you pressed the ‘anon’ button, or you hide behind a picture of Gwenyth Paltrow or whatever else is your icon on here or on Instagram or on Twitter. 

defamation, by definition, is the action of damaging the reputation of someone; slander or libel. libel, by definition, is a PUBLISHED false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.

so guess what!!!! if you’re sitting behind your computer at 1 am typing up some article for your PUBLIC blog about how Meghan Markle or any other person for that matter is doing xyz things like putting her baby at risk by injecting her face with fillers, or how she’s a raging bitch to her niece and sister-in-law, or calling her names like a whore or a slut, or whatever rumors y’all decide to come up with, or even saying that there’s no fucking baby at all and it’s just a gddamn pillow under her dress that somehow is even fooling her husband who literally sleeps beside her every night but ok, the target of your words has the right to sue your ass!!!! that is in their legal right!!!! it might make her look really bad to nitpick articles and sue when she’s already rich (looking to you, Melania trump!), but that is still within her right!!! 

long story short, if y’all don’t want your employers or your parents or your kids or your significant others seeing your face plastered over every tabloid exposing you for the things YOU said on YOUR PUBLIC blog about a woman you don’t know, don’t say it!!!!! simple as that

the end

[moonlight-at-dawn]

This might be ridiculous coming from me, a white woman, but dear god I hate the ill-informed performative “political correctness” of some people.

By this I mean... I had once suggested kimchi as a simple recipe to make, with lots of varieties possible. The response I got was something along the lines of “I don’t think kimchi can be anything but cabbage, but thanks :)” and it was so... fucking patronizing... Like, do a fucking google search for “kimchi recipes” before off-handedly accusing someone of being casually racist? I’m gonna trust my born-and-raised-in-South-Korea-MIL more than Woke Whitey on the internet, thanks. (eta:) And the icing on that cake being that the person tagged someone asking them to clarify. Someone Asian, but not Korean, not even close. And they said ‘I don’t know much about it but you’re probably right, it’s better not to call it kimchi if it might not be.’ And they’re listened to because they’re “Asian” but they aren’t fucking Korean and admitted to not knowing and still they were listened to and now this is treated by gospel by whoever fucking read that thread.(/eta)

Because, and this is a thing about it that really pisses me off,  these people become the spokesmen of what is or isn’t racist. Using a fairly recent and public incident as an example, a museum in Boston(?) had a kimono exhibit, with Japanese immigrants very happily providing the service of helping people try on kimono, teaching about how to wear it and everything. And there was an uproar about it being appropriation. Even though they were to be taught and shown things in a respectful way by natives, it was appropriation? How...? All the Japanese people in the comments were confused, hell, I remember seeing several Japanese fanartists I follow on twitter posting confusion about the debacle. But man, white people love to tell others to be offended about shit...

Meanwhile, my husband was president of his college’s Asian American Club(? can’t remember it’s exact title) would bring his mother’s hanbok to their cultural festival for people to try on. Because that’s how you share and foster appreciation for a culture. It’s not appropriation.

But white people have said that wearing foreign clothing is appropriation and you shouldn’t let us do that, even respectfully at the hands and guidance of paid and happy natives of it. Doesn’t that seem a bit odd?

My husband thinks it’s funny that he’s supposed to be offended by Oriental. He’s like “Oh, it’s only a rug now? Did they send that in the Good Asian Monthly catalog and I missed it or something?” He’s only ever been told it’s offensive by white people. Meanwhile, he thinks “I’d rather you just say ‘Oriental’ than guess and get it wrong”

And, just...

jfc, don’t try if you aren’t even going to do minor due diligence, because people listen to white people on what is or isn’t offensive more than the person it’s meant to offend, so just, just, shut up if you don’t know, please

(and I don’t mean this to be like ‘instead you should listen to me about what is or isn’t racist!’ either. and i cite my husband here to mean more of a ‘listen to people actually of the culture, face to face, rather than a stranger on the internet who could be anyone’. you shouldn’t listen to me about this shit, i could be lying too, you can’t see me to verify any of this. you should research things and ask people in person yourself. 

but dear god just don’t fucking pretend you’re so culturally sensitive if you won’t even take 2 fucking seconds to do a google search before responding to someone on the internet. there’s not a time limit. do your due diligence. ...this paragraph shoulda been the entirety of the rant, but i typed all this, so you’re getting it all, hahhh)

((eta, because i realize it can easily be taken wrong: when i say ‘ask people’ i don’t mean ‘ask an acquaintance what they think’ - don’t be invasive. make sure it’s welcome. either someone who knows you well enough to know the place it’s coming from, who you can say ‘i’m curious and don’t have a lot of perspective, if you’d be willing to talk about xyz subject’ or if it’s in a position where it’s expressly invited - like culture events where things are being actively shared by the people, etc. just... be courteous, not selfish. your curiosity doesn’t trump someone’s privacy, ever, and let’s just be clear that i don’t encourage invading it. don’t ask someone at work, ever, even if you guys are the best of friends outside of work. and so on.

alsoalso: I said a lot that ‘white people’ tend to be the people saying what you should or shouldn’t be offended by so damn often, but I should clarify that I’m specifically referring to people who are talking about these things in a text only format, like me, here and now, with this. and then you go look, and it’s a white person. and no, not a ‘you can’t tell’ situation. i mean you go take a quick glance to get an idea on what kind of perspective they have, and it’s lots of posts about extremely violent racism, and comments like ‘i hate that i’m white ):’ and they’re an adult to boot. but often they’re young, an adult, but one who has grown up with the internet being prolific.

and american. let’s also be clear on that, that everything i’ve said is very american-centric, right down to even the types of people i see on the internet engaging in this -- actually some british people too, but mostly american from what I have personally observed. this isn’t some well researched crap, this is a venting of a grievance of stuff i’ve observed cause goddamn i’ve been hearing an awful lot of crap of white people who are being fucking selfish and just want to be able to say “see, I care more than you do” when they’re actually displaying their ignorance with the pride of a peacock. let me get you a mirror cause you have mange))

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: George Washington Made History by Deciding to Leave the Presidency. But That Didn’t Mean He Left Politics

The time of year around Washington’s Birthday — the federal holiday better known as Presidents’ Day — is a popular time for new biographies take a fresh look at America’s first presidency. But Jonathan Horn’s Washington’s End: The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle zooms in on what came after: the less talked-about last two years of Washington’s life, from the time he left office on March 4, 1797, to his death on Dec. 14, 1799.

Horn spoke to TIME about how, far from removing himself from politics after his two terms were up, Washington was in the thick of it — and torn about his legacy, especially on slavery.

TIME: What was the most surprising thing you found in your research?

HORN: We have this idea that George Washington finished his presidency in March 1797, rode away from Philadelphia [the nation’s capital back then] and went back to [his plantation] Mount Vernon. This is where the myth begins. We think we lived out his days peacefully as a farmer, but that’s not at all what happened. That’s what he wanted to happen. A little bit more than a year later he would find himself drawn back to the public stage.

Why did the myth about his peaceful retirement come about?

I think a couple of reasons. Washington did so much earlier in life — the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, two terms as President — that biographers are running out of pages and space, so essentially these last few years get left out. It’s also a complicated understanding of Washington. We want to believe he left power as the American Cincinnatus, that he gave it up and died, completely at peace. It’s really difficult to leave power. Power is a fragile thing. When Washington did it, there really were no precedents for how it would go.

I was struck by how so much of Washington’s post-presidency deviates from way we think former Presidents should act today. We have this idea that former Presidents should become less partisan when they leave office. And without doubt he became more partisan when he left office. We also have this idea that former presidents shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of successors, but George Washington majorly meddled in the affairs of his successor and part of that was because he was asked to retake the role of Commander in Chief of the Army during a crisis.

What was the crisis?

The French were essentially the mightiest military power in the world. The French had been unhappy with the Jay Treaty that George Washington had signed and ratified with the British, and their ships and privateers were praying upon American ships. When America sent envoys to France they were refused. In the XYZ affair, basically the French asked for a bribe in return for receiving America’s ministers before they began negotiating. At that point, the U.S. began preparing for war. It wouldn’t be a formal war, what we’d call it a “quasi war.” George Washington was asked to be Commander in Chief of the Army with the idea there could be an invasion by the French.

We tend to talk about the Founding Fathers warning about political parties, but it sounds as if they were deeply partisan.

Absolutely. I think they all stumbled into political parties. They didn’t want them to happen and Washington didn’t want them to happen most of all. He held out for a very long time, but in the last year of his life he’s actually calling himself a Federalist. He’s playing a much more active role in recruiting candidates for congressional elections. He would never have done that as President.

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Are there parallels to modern politics in the last years of Washington’s life?

Washington and his fellow Federalists strongly believed that the Republican Party [which is what the Democratic-Republican Party was called at the time, and unrelated to the modern Republican Party] was encouraging France in some sense. The French actually interfered in the election of 1796 on behalf of the Republican party, on behalf of Jefferson, in the hopes of getting him elected president. So those warnings against letting a foreign power interfere in domestic politics in Washington’s farewell address were based on real events that were happening. In some sense the first contested election in U.S. history was an election where there was foreign interference, so there are real parallels to Russia today.

There was also, during that period, a real explosion of partisan newspapers, and there was a feeling that new forms of media were going to tear the country apart. Political parties really started to emerge. There was a feeling that the country couldn’t stay united, similar to the way Americans feel today with divided media and divided political parties.

Was there anything Washington messed up, failed at or miscalculated in his last years?

He supports the Alien and Sedition acts, which sent journalists to prison. I think that’s left out of a lot of accounts of his life. He considered a lot of those journalists to be dangerous figures, and he was bitter about the way their colleagues attacked him personally.

In the last years, working on his will, he is still grappling with the issue of slavery, and the contradictions of slavery. At Mount Vernon, he can’t find a way to set free the slaves who came to Mount Vernon because of his marriage to Martha Custis, the so-called “dower slaves.” Many of his own slaves have married the dower slaves, and those marriages will be broken up. But even as he’s grappling with those issues and realizes those issues are painful, he’s looking for new ways to keep his slaves busy at Mount Vernon. He’s trying to pursue runaway slaves. You have many contradictions. He’s going to try to correct his stance on slavery with his will, but at the same time he’s still pursuing runaway slaves.

What would Washington think of Presidents’ Day?

Washington’s birthday was celebrated during his presidency and during the end of his life, and it was a bigger deal then than it is now. There would be cannon fire in the morning. During his presidency, people would line up outside his house and pay their respects to him, and at night there would be balls.

Washington would be surprised we call it Presidents Day and that he’d share his birthday with men he wasn’t getting along with. When he dies, he’s no longer on speaking terms with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or James Monroe. So there’s some irony that Washington’s birthday is celebrated as Presidents Day.

By Olivia B. Waxman on February 13, 2020 at 02:15PM

[njawaidofficial]

17 Movies To Watch If You Can't Stop Thinking About Cults

https://styleveryday.com/17-movies-to-watch-if-you-cant-stop-thinking-about-cults/

17 Movies To Watch If You Can't Stop Thinking About Cults

A better alternative to joining a cult.

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” (2011)

“A woman escapes a cult after several years and goes to live with her sister and her husband for awhile. Her memories of her time with the cult continue to haunt her and her paranoia begin to take over.”

This Is That Productions/Borderline Films/Fox Searchlight Pictures / Via moviemovie.com.tw

“The Invitation” (2015)

“A guy attends a dinner party thrown by his ex-wife and her new husband. The entire time there, he can’t shake the feeling that there is more to this dinner party than meets the eye.”

The Invitation works well as both a slow-build thriller and an examination of the process of recovering from a traumatic life event.

Gamechanger Films/Lege Artis/XYZ Films / Via admitonefilmaddict.wordpress.com

“The Master” (2012)

“A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future – until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader.”

This is one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last roles and watching him act alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams should be more than enough to sell you.

JoAnne Sellar Productions /Ghoulardi Film Company /Annapurna Pictures/ The Weinstein Company / Via mubi.com

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)

“A New York City doctor, who is married to an art curator, pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him.”

Watching Tom Cruise descent into madness is always worth two hours in your life.

Pole Star/Hobby Films/Warner Bros. / Via news.avclub.com

“Fight Club” (1999)

“The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives.”

The most 90s cult movie ever.

Fox 2000 Pictures /Regency Enterprises /Linson Films / Via fondlist.com

“The House of the Devil” (2009)

“Desperate to make some money so she can move into a new apartment, college student Samantha Hughes takes a mysterious babysitting job.”

Any movie with Tom Noonan in it has guaranteed to make you scared.

Constructovision Ring/TheJig Entertainment/ Glass Eye Pix / Via rogerebert.com

“Wicker Man” (1973)

“Sergeant Howie arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child. A conservative Christian, the policeman observes the residents’ frivolous sexual displays and strange pagan rituals, particularly the temptations of Willow, daughter of the island magistrate, Lord Summerisle. The more Sergeant Howie learns about the islanders’ strange practices, the closer he gets to tracking down the missing child.”

Yes, the movie that was remade with Nicolas Cage screaming, “noooo, not the bees.”

British Lion Films / Via nerdist.com

“Children of the Corn” (1984)

“As physician and his girlfriend drive across the Midwest to his new job, their trip comes to a sudden halt when they encounter the body of a murdered boy in the road. In trying to contact the authorities, they wander into a small town populated only by children, followers of sinister young preacher.”

If kids weren’t creepy enough on their own, now you have to deal with kids in a cult.

Angeles Entertainment Group/ Cinema Group/ Hal Roach Studios/ Inverness Productions/ Planet Productions / Via bloody-disgusting.com

“Santa Sangre” (1990)

“In Mexico, the traumatized son of a knife-throwerand a trapeze artist bonds grotesquely with his now-armless mother.”

How can you read that description and NOT want to watch it?

Mainline Pictures /Expanded Entertainment / Via siskelfilmcenter.org

“Helter Skelter” (1976)

“This movie depicts the murder trial of one of the most notorious serial killers of the 1960s, Charles Manson, the crimes he committed in 1969 and the attempt to convict him, as worked on by Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi.”

A documentary that dives deep into America’s most famous cult leader.

Via themoviedb.org

“Jesus Camp” (2006)

“Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady visit an evangelical Christian summer camp called Kids on Fire, where children take part in programs designed to strengthen and intensify their beliefs. The camp’s founder, Becky Fischer, discusses her mission to indoctrinate youths in the word of God, while young campers play certain combat video games and talk about their love for Jesus.”

Magnolia Pictures/ A&E Indie Films / Via Jesus Camp

“Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple” (2006)

“Filmmaker Stanley Nelson charts the rise and fall of Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones, whose followers drank poisoned punch at their South American commune in 1978. Using archival film footage and interviews with the few survivors, Nelson recounts the origins of the church’s formation and its charismatic leader, and the events that led up to their doomsday in Guyana.”

The go-to documentary if you’ve found yourself wondering what happened in Jonestown.

Firelight Media/American Experience / Via slantmagazine.com

“Night Of The Demon” (1957)

“American professor John Holden arrives in London for a conference on parapsychology only to discover that the colleague he was supposed to meet was killed in a freak accident the day before. It turns out that the deceased had been investigating a cult lead by Dr. Julian Karswell. Though a skeptic, Holden is suspicious of the devil-worshiping Karswell. Following a trail of mysterious manuscripts, Holden enters a world that makes him question his faith in science.”

Jacques Tourneur’s use of shadows and the dark create an atmosphere that will leave you scared long before you ever see the monster.

Sabre / Via bbfc.co.uk

“Going Clear” (2015)

“Filmmaker Alex Gibney interviews former members of the Church of Scientology and reveals abuses and strange practices within the controversial organization.”

Well, well, well.

Jigsaw Productions / Via her.ie

“Sound of My Voice” (2011)

“California couple Peter and Lorna set out to make a documentary meant to expose a charismatic cult leader named Maggie as a fraud. Maggie claims to be from the year 2054 and is seemingly allergic to almost everything in her environment; she lives in a basement, subsisting on canned oxygen, homegrown food and the blood of her acolytes. Though at first, Peter and Lorna are adamant that Maggie is a fake, they both soon fall under her spell.”

Filmed in a way that slowly draws you much like Maggie draws in Peter and Lorna.

Skyscraper Films / Via thewolfmancometh.com

“The Devils” (1971)

“In 17th-century France, Father Grandier is a priest whose unorthodox views on sex and religion influence a passionate following of nuns, including the sexually obsessed Sister Jeanne. When the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu realizes he must eliminate Grandier to gain control of France, Richelieu portrays Grandier as a satanist and spearheads a public outcry to destroy the once-loved priest’s reputation.”

Ken Russell’s most brash movie with biting commentary on religion, sex, greed, and power.

Warner Bros. / Via trentarthur.ca

“Martyrs” (2008)

“A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.”

Only watch this one if you’re not squeamish.

Eskwad/TCB Film/Wild Bunch / Via yesmovies.to

[justanotherlatransplant]

Home

What does it take to truly experience another country?

I remember, several years ago, going through the ordeal of opening a bank account in France. The waiting lines and the bureaucracy, the backs and forths between providing this paperwork, and actually, no, providing that paperwork, which had to be redone because xyz isn’t happy with abc and I was going 123 crazy. About four weeks later, I had a bank account in which my legit French employer could deposit a paycheck, that it turns out was cut in half for taxes and incentives that the famous French bureaucracy had forgot to mention to me. (I may be exaggerating… barely.)

All this to say, it seems like you never really know a place until you’re truly trying to get in. Poking and prodding at a country’s stranger barrier until you can find the crevice to sneak in your foreign self.

I mean, sure, at the end of the day, I knew I was a stranger in France. My accent was different, my cultural references were different, my habits and the food I ate was different. It was clear. But after many similar experiences, I knew France. I felt her in my bones. I felt her push me away when I tried to join her inner circle and I also felt her open her arms when she boasted about her pride possessions and accomplishments. I understood her, then. Why she was the way she was, and where she was going with her decisions. She made me suffer, but she was home.

France will forever be more than a postcard to me.

America, on the other hand, was never a place I was looking to collect postcards from.

Like many, I walked into, sorry, drove into America with a dream in my head and an invisible shield around my being. “I’m canadian” has been my proud slogan for the last four months. “I’m not like these people.” Hell, I want everyone to know: “back home, healthcare is free! Back home, people are nice! Back home, we don’t get nuclear threats!” etc.

Oh, and by the way, my experienced French palette is way too good for the food here.

I’m just here for the ride. Don’t expect me to stay too long. By that, I mean, I’m here to pursue my silly dream, and retire back to a chill Canadian life.

But it’s not that simple, is it?

-

Having my car break down in the middle of the California desert was my American version of the French bank account. Except ten times worse.

Remember the whole poking and prodding and feeling the poetic curves of that sexy french lady? Well, now she’s an overweight bald guy name Harold who is borderline phobic of showers. Does mold grow on human flesh? Is that a thing?

So here I am, America, alone, in the middle of the desert, smoke coming out of my hood, 100 miles away from Los Angeles, 3 hours behind everyone sleeping at home & 1 border away from the place where I’m still considered a whole person.

Fuck.

Tears start pouring out of my eyes, blood starts pouring out of my Fun Tunnel and it’s New years day. If that’s not poetic, I don’t know what is.

I wish I could say I was strong and picked myself up and dealt with all this like an adult and stuck it to the fat old man, but I didn’t. I wept. I just, wept.

I’d gambled everything on America. More importantly, I’d gambled a lot on that car. A used SUV but still, a big SUV, only four months in, that could have (should have) lasted several more years.

This meant the careful planning, the saving, the non-urgency of finding a source of income, the taking my time to settle in was all gone. No more invisible barrier around this canadian elitist.

I held my breath and stifled my tears, called a local friend for comfort, and before I knew it, I was taken care of. My car was towed to West Hollywood and I was greeted with vegan takeout. Thank God for Americans.

The car is repairable, but at an unthinkable cost. And again, a gamble. Shipping it back to MTL costs just as much with thrice the time.

My mechanic is frank with me: my best option is to sell it for parts and use the repair money as a down payment on a new car. He’ll keep it in storage for me while I figure all of that out. Fair enough. Again, thank God for Americans.

This is where the magical land of pursuing my dream suddenly turned into the nightmare of getting in line for a place in this country.

As I try not to choke on the financial loss of my prematurely departed Toyota, (64k miles! Seriously!?) I poke and I prod at all the obstacles standing in the way of me and my new car.

First it’s the dealerships. You know, the oh-so-enjoyable car shopping experience. Magnified by money-hungry America.

Good news, they’ll take my broken car as a down payment.

Then, it’s the leasing department. How do you lease a car to someone who has no credit history? “But I do have credit history. 8 years of it! And it’s mint!” - “Not in America you don’t!”

- Fun fact: you’re not a person if you don’t have credit in this country. But we knew that, right? -

Oh wait! They can’t take my SUV as a down payment anymore. It needs to be registered in California to be sold to anyone. Shit.

Back to the leasing department: So now that you have these absurd, bad-credit based, monthly payments, we need a proof of income to accept your lease!

Wait… you mean income I can’t legally have as a student in this country? And at least three months of it? Uh...

After over an hour phone wait with the DMV: “My SUV needs to pass an inspection? And a Smog test?” - “Yes, and go through US customs” - In other words, I have to drive my undriveable car to pass tests it will never pass, to sell it at a fraction of the price I got it for. Nice.

Meanwhile, I walk out of the Honda dealership with a brand new Civic. If you’re wondering how, let’s just say, thank God for Americans?

I try AAA, as they are typically more helpful when it comes to registering cars. Oh, wait, they don’t do foreign cars? Of course not. Waiting hours at the DMV it will be, then!

At this point, I’m 30 minutes on hold with British Columbia to see what their process for selling out of province cars is. Will they take my old Frog?

Oh, cool! I can get insurance quotes for my new car online! Wait a minute, why is it TRIPLE the amount of the overpriced insurance I was paying back home!? Oh, because I need an American driver’s license? Oh God… not this. Not now.

Are we annoyed yet?

We’re three weeks in and my SUV, is accumulating tickets on a street in Weho. I guess that’s what happens when your mechanic has too many cars to fix.

I get a call from another local friend here; he says he has a solution for me... You know, a “solution.” So, if in a few days, we find out my SUV has been conveniently taken care of, we can thank God for Mexicans.

Meanwhile, after making an appointment with the DMV for a driver’s license, I show up only to find out I don’t have the right paperwork with me. Lovely. I have the option to come back later and wait in the line that stretches outside the building onto the sidewalk. (It’s only 9am at this point...) No thanks.

I’m not out of hope yet. I tow my SUV to another mechanic; he’s quoted me less and he’s been more helpful so far. Looks like I’m off to BC in a couple months.

As I look into the rearview mirror of my new ride, I see my perma-sunkissed skin and my light, sun-died hair. I feel the ocean wind blowing through my moon roof, my writing notebook keeping me company in the passenger seat. I see the HBO billboards as I head down Sunset to one of my favourite vegan cafés. (guess my French palette isn’t so dissatisfied after all)

I feel that dream, alive as ever, in my heart, pounding.

I see people, everyone, buzzing with ideas and passion and fighting, just like me, for a place here, for their right to live.

Slowly but surely, my stranger barrier comes down.

It’s crazy, but I’m exactly where I wanted to be. I’m home now.

America, you got me.

[theschoolspirituality-blog]

Teaching Spirituality to Kids

By Teri Cettina

Andrew Park is the son of academic parents who were disillusioned by formal religion. Although Park briefly attended a Presbyterian church as a teen, he freely admits it was more for the social opportunities than for spiritual guidance. His wife, Cristina Smith, was raised Catholic but left that church as a young adult. Their shift in thinking began when their son started attending preschool in a Methodist church and the curriculum included a half hour each week of child-friendly religious discussions and activities.

"We were slightly uncomfortable with that, but we loved the preschool and didn't want to switch," says Park. Then when their son started babbling happily at home about God and asking spiritual questions, Park and Smith panicked—and not because they worried about him being exposed to religious beliefs. "Instead, we felt kind of bad that we, his own parents, had been ignoring this obviously important part of his personal development," says Park, who went on to write a memoir, Between a Church and a Hard Place, about his personal struggle to remain "church-free" yet still share spiritual values with his two kids, now 8 and 6.

Park has hit on a hot-button issue for many parents. For a significant number of Americans, "spirituality" and "religion" are synonymous; if you believe in one, you're automatically committed to the other and define yourself as a Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Protestant or member of another denomination. But the fact is, almost one in six Americans today is unaffiliated with any particular religion. Indeed, young adults under age 30—today's and tomorrow's parents, essentially—are the most likely to be living religion-free lives.

So if you or your spouse is sitting squarely on the spiritual fence—unsure of what the heck you believe in—or if you've already opted out of formal Sunday church services, can you still nurture some sort of spiritual development in your kids? Absolutely, says Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso of the Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, in Indianapolis. "You're not teaching math," she says. "You don't actually have to have the answer key on this one."

The Fair factor

Of course, that also doesn't mean you have to be prepared to spout wise words to your kids about God, creation, and the afterlife (unless you want to). Rabbi Sasso defines spirituality broadly as "an inner belief system that the universe and all people are connected in ways we can't see; that life is about more than just 'me, me, me.'" In other words, it's not only "Is there a God?" What Rabbi Sasso says is key: that you actively listen to your kids' guesses and musings about things like whether their hamster, Fluffy, has a soul or if there's such a thing as angels and that you explore spiritual concepts together—however your family is comfortable. Lisa Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and education at Columbia University's Teachers College, in New York City, heartily agrees: "When it comes to spirituality, we parents are just our kids' ambassadors. We can show them around, but we don't need to know everything."

And that exploration is well worth the effort. Miller's research indicates that personal spirituality results in much more than just a nice warm, fuzzy feeling. She says kids who develop a sense of a loving higher power or a guiding force—whether they call it God, creator, Allah or simply "loving universe"—are 80 percent less likely to suffer major depression and 50 percent less likely to suffer from substance abuse as teens.

Similarly, a study from the University of British Columbia, in Canada, found that children who are spiritual (and researchers clearly separated "spirituality" from "attending church services" or "belonging to a church") tend to be significantly happier individuals overall. Having an understanding of something greater than themselves seems to enhance children's sense of personal meaning and purpose, and to reinforce their connections to their community and to other people. The big question, then, is how to do it? Some ways to give your children the gifts of faith and hope:

Define "spirituality" versus religion

If you don't belong to an organized religion, your children will likely ask why their friends attend church or temple services and they don't. "I've told my kids that churches, synagogue, and mosques are places where you can worship formally, with other members of a community," says Lisa Braun Dubbels, a mom of two in Minneapolis. "I've also impressed upon them that you can find God anywhere—outside in nature, at a museum, at schoo or in your bedroom." You could also remind your kids that every family does things diffierently: "Your friends might speak a diffierent language, observe unique cultural traditions or attend a church. Our family might make another choice, but all are equally valid."

Admit that sometimes you just don't know

This one scares many "on the fence" parents. Your kid asks you a big question, like "Where will Grandma go when she dies?" and you freeze. Or, to avoid sounding like a fraud, you sidestep tough questions altogether. Mimi Doe, a mom of two and coauthor of 10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting, likes to tackle tricky questions with the phrase "I'm just not sure. Life is full of so many mysteries!" Then she suggests sharing any information you can, such as "Some people believe XYZ and some people believe ABC. I was brought up to believe JKL. But what do you think?" Having this kind of chat takes a little more time, but it's more authentic. And that's important: If you fake your answer, your kids will know.

Credit habits of reverence

Yep, these sound strikingly similar to prayers and rituals. But, hey, they've been effiective for millennia as a way to show thanks or concern. Feel free to borrow prayers or poems from diffierent cultures, or to encourag family members to write their own. Elise Rebmann of Edwardsville, IL, encourages her two children to "do their gratefuls" in lieu of a prayer before dinner. "Sometimes my five-year-old is grateful for candy or his toy airplane, while my ten-year-old daughter talks about what was good in her day," she says. Other options:

Say aloud "Good thoughts to anyone sick or hurt" when an ambulance or fire truck roars by.

Light a candle and hold hands for a minute at night before bed. Have a moment of quiet or share something nice that happened that day.

Come up with a thankful song for teeth-brushing time, like "I'm grateful for my healthy teeth. I'm grateful for my face that holds my teeth. I'm grateful for my body that holds my face. I'm grateful for my family that holds my body close!"

Read together often

Many good children's books hit on topics related to kindness, justice, tolerance and  fairness—all issues that could be considered "spiritual" in that they address the connectedness of all people and of living life with purpose. Just don't get too heavy-handed during your reading sessions, notes Rabbi Sasso, herself an author of several children's books, including God's Paintbrush. "Instead of 'See how this story teaches us not to be selfish?' ask your child open-ended questions like 'What did you think was the most important part of this story?'?or 'What would you have done?' " Sasso suggests.

Create a family mission statement

Many spiritual traditions provide a framework of values or principles to follow. Try creating something similar for your family. "Even kids as young as three or four understand something like 'Our family believes in kindness, helping other people, caring for pets and reaching out to people who are alone,'?" says Doe. You can get formal and post your mission statement in your kitchen, or simply use it when you're making choices about how to spend your time or resolve conflicts.

Open up about your own inner life

"Kids benefit greatly from hearing out loud how we handle life's ups and downs," says Doe. "It could be as simple as saying to your child 'I'm really worried about Poppy today and my stomach hurts. I'm going to take a moment to do some breathing.' Then 'Oh, I'm starting to feel better. I'm going to send Poppy some good thoughts, too.'" Miller's research indicates that kids who have at least one parent who is openly spiritually inclined—again, formal religious beliefs not required—tend to continue exploring spiritual issues on their own in adolescence and adulthood.

Delve into spiritual traditions

Consider it a way to offer your children a global education. Dubbels and her husband were raised within—and subsequently left—Catholic, Jewish and Lutheran traditions but feel strongly about introducing their kids to a wide variety of spiritual approaches. "Art is a great way to show kids how spirituality is part of history. We live a few blocks from the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts and visit at least once a month," she says. "My son always wants to visit one of the Buddhas, and my daughter enjoys the Egyptian and Judaica collections."

Schedule in downtime

"One thing religions have done well for centuries is to offer people time to pause in their week, check in, and reflect about bigger issues," says Doe. You can do the same for your own family. Go for a walk. Try yoga together. Have your kids draw or write in a journal about a spiritual topic like "What do you wish you could ask God/creator/higher power?" Or designate an hour a week as unplugged (no electronics) family time.

Teach by example

Tiffiany Dodson and her husband, Tom, of Lancaster, PA, focus on teaching their daughter, Mallory, 4, about the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you would like to be treated." So last Christmas, they "adopted" a needy family with a 1-year-old girl. Dodson helped Mallory pick out some of her own clothes and toys to give to the family to remind her of the need to help others who are less fortunate, she says.

Lean on your spiritual beliefs in hard times

When a grandparent or a pet dies, when a natural disaster hits, when your child encounters something unfair—all of these are opportunities for your child to turn to a higher power or connected universe for comfort. "In our family, we talk to our angels when we are upset," says Rebmann. "I've taught my kids to ask their angels about problems they have and to trust their own 'inner ears' when the angels talk to them."

As for Andrew Park, the religion-free dad living in the middle of the Bible Belt, he and his wife are still struggling with how to approach their kids' spiritual education. The parents talk with their children about issues of faith when they come up in stories and movies; they broached the topics of heaven and an afterlife when the kids' grandparents died; and they attend Christmas Eve church services every year as a family holiday tradition. "We've also visited a couple of different churche and taken the kids along. But as for actually joining a church—that's way too hard for us," says Park. "We're still sort of fumbling around in the dark, like many parents we know."

And as with all aspects of parenting, fumbling is perfectly okay and expected, says Rabbi Sasso. Teaching kids about spirituality isn't about doing it perfectly or finding the "right" church. "It's more about asking deeper questions with your children and letting them see people living out their lives with meaning," says Rabbi Sasso. "All parents can do that."

http://www.parenting.com/article/teach-spirituality-kids

The best foundation or stage for us everybody to learn about the basic traits  and respecting to elders is the childhood stage but we should also understand that it is the most critical and very hard stage for the children to be taught of something they cannot really truly understand deeply that is why elders should not just teach the children about the matters mentioned a while ago but also they have to explain it in way that children will understand it. 

Kids are the hope of future that is why elders should teach them nothing but all the good deeds as they will also teach it to their future children.