You were using Zwarte Piet, which is a Dutch issue, in a discussion about a film director and Iranian woman from Florida. Sorry, but dragging issues from halfway across the globe into conversations to which they have no relevance just to force an argument is the very essence of appropriating something.

What she highlights in the interview is not a message or agenda. Its a simple observation. Pointing out that people are actually terrible to each other is as obvious an observation as saying the sky is blue.

Zwarte Piet is racist, but not because American liberals have deemed it so. Zwarte Piet is racist because Dutch black people are saying they really have a problem with the way he is depicted. They can say it because Zwarte Piet is actually a part of their lives and the cultural background they grew up in. They know…

That sounds a lot like the ‘I can’t be racist because I have a black friend’ defense. Being A does not exclude you from also being B. Present comments from you confirm so.

And in hindsight its real easy to determine what the probable optimum response to a question or comment was. Especially on the internet in a comments section where you got all the time to think about it and formulate a response.

No but racism isn’t solely defined by Americans. Whats racist in America can be considered a non issue somewhere else and thats not necessarily wrong. Don’t be an imperialist asshole.

Eh, I suppose you can read it both ways. Still don’t think its an awful take, just a bit elitist.

Sure, but that doesn’t make her take awful. Just a bit hypocritical. And I don’t mean to say that people can’t point out the fact that she makes a lot of ‘easy’ jokes as well. You know, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.

Yeah but she didn’t really say that sex jokes are inherently bad, she that people just go for the low hanging fruit sex jokes. Easy jokes, not creative, uninspired and unoriginal. At its worst, its a bit of an elitist take, but I don’t think arguing that women can do better is that elitist or really that awful.

The traditional role of the navy has not been rendered obsolete yet. The traditional role of the navy is to project force and protect commerce. Smart missiles or aircraft can’t project force, nor are they capable of keeping pirates from disrupting commerce.

Sure, thats definitely true. Once Brexit is finished the DUP loses its ability to hold something important hostage. But, Brexit is expected to take at least 2 years, and possibly a lot longer given the complexity and newness of the whole thing. So that hostage is going to be around for quite a while.

The LibDems were not in the same position as the DUP is though. The LibDem voter base is much more spread out over the UK, so when they support terrible policy, they are much more likely to hit their voter base and get punished for it as a result. Also the LibDems formed a coalition government with the Tories,…

What do you mean? They have all the influence because they are negotiating from one of the strongest negotiating positions a small party can have. Without their support, May doesn’t have a majority and that effectively gives them the right to veto everything they don’t like.

There is such a thing as customer good will you know. Putting in a feature that a lot of people are requesting, even if they hardly use it, generates customer good will. Its seen as a sign that the company is listening to its customers by adding in a feature they ask for. And that pays itself back in customer loyalty…

Except cement doesn’t absorb rainfall nearly as good as plants or just plain old dirt do. I suppose its fine if you live in a place with no heavy rainfalls, but if not you risk flooding yourself. Good to keep that in mind :)

You always recognize when you reached the German speaking part by the French traffic signs with German graffiti sprayed over them.

That sounds more like a French thing.

And beer. Don’t forget the delicious Belgian beer :)

How so? The Belgian king is basically the only thing that keeps Belgium together. Without a monarch to unite the Dutch and French speaking parts, they would have absolutely nothing in common.

The UK always loses because they always send utter fucking shit to represent them. Its either something deeply weird and bad, or its just something that is so absolutely bland and mediocre everyone forgot about it before the song is even finished. Don’t blame it on political voting blocs or whatever, the UK just…