Same with slavery
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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No, not really.
1)The british did not invent slavery.
2)Americans did not adopt it from the british because they had been practising it since they emerged as a nation.
Sort of to both, but not really.
Slavery has existed for at least as long as states and kingdoms have, yes. But the specific form slavery took in the Americas (not just the US and North America) was unique. That being race-based chattel slavery. That form had not existed anywhere else in the world previously or since. The closest you could claim were the Helots in ancient Sparta, but even that was closer to serfdom than chattel slavery.
So, no, the British did not "invent slavery", but they (along with the Spanish and French) did pioneer a new form of slavery that was uniquely brutal and inhumane.
And while you're correct that America as a nation did not adopt slavery from the British after the formation of the US since the colonials had already been practicing race-based chattel slavery before the US existed. But where did those colonials get that slavery? From the British who were their overlords and ancestors, who formed the colonies, and who created the economic system that relied on race-based chattel slavery.
So while you might be technically right, it's only due to semantics. The Brits absolutely did create virtually everything about the American system of slavery, which we then continued to perpetrate for another ~century after independence.
But when that happened, the americans were not a group distinct from the british, they were a part of the state that did that, so it is not the case that they adopted slavery from the brits, like it is not the case they adopted english from the brits for example.
That's just semantics. Sure, I guess the more proper way to say it is that when the Americans founded the US they continued the practice of race-based chattel slavery which the British had instituted in the colonies prior to the formation of the US. Is that really substantively different than saying the Americans adopted slavery from the British?
Would you say the americans adopted the ebglish language from the british?
Like I said, while semantically imprecise, yes, we did get the English language from the English.
Did Northern Ireland adopt the Irish language from Ireland after the treaty then?
That's a different situation considering the Irish language was created before there even was a united Ireland. We can trace the history of how English came to America, and it came from the English people. We can't trace the history of how the Irish language spread across Ireland because it predates history.
They also get really mad if you tell them Soccer is a British word for Association Football. It's like they hate their own slang but don't want to admit that their slang is stupid.
Britain also invented Imperial measurement system that is still used in the USA while being extremely outdated and inconvenient.
The US just can't adopt changes. It will most probably die as an XVIII century country with a pile of juridical clutches and props.
The US just can’t adopt changes. It will most probably die as an XVIII century country with a pile of juridical clutches and props.
RIP
The US doesn’t use imperial measures. It uses US customary measures which often have the same names but are significantly different.
Technically theses days they use SI with weird conversion factors, and call that by the old US customary names
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The US measures are based on an older Imperial system that Britain changed. There were different measures in different parts of the UK.
Well this escalated quickly
All of your thoughts don't always end with death to america?
I was eating at my kitchen table the other day, looking out the window and watching the wildlife. It's nice to see the trees budding and the critters out again. What's really wild is how lazy Americans are. Those fatasses couldn't get up even if the country was doomed, and will most probably die as an XVIII century country with a pile of juridical clutches and props. At least the weather has been nice recently.
I see you didn't end that last thought with death to America. How easily the common man's mind is distracted from the downfall of an empire by a little sun. The weather is nice despite the president's best efforts to boost the stock value of umbrella corporations.
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Britain also invented Imperial measurement system that is still used in the USA while being extremely outdated and inconvenient.
British people still use it too sometimes.
Brits can't make fun of Americans for measurement because they still measure bodyweight in stone
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It will most probably die as an XVIII century country with a pile of juridical clutches and props.
Nope. They seem to have successfully moved into early 20th century politics already.
Mid second quarter even
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The meme doesn't really work. The working-class people who played football the most always called it football. Upper-class people at public schools (don't confuse this with state schools - in the UK, public schools are even posher and more expensive than private schools, and the name comes from letting anyone who could afford the fees in, not from any intention to educate the general public) needed to distinguish it from Rugby Football so they could make a rule against playing it, and invented the name Association Football. There's a tradition at public schools to shorten names in a particular way (Rugby football to rugger, buggery to bugger etc.) and when applying that to association football, it becomes soccer. Soccer has always been a term used to mock poor people who play football instead of rugby, so of course it's badly-received when people say it.
Soccer was a widespread term for it among all classes up until the mid-late 1970s, with books, magazines, newspaper columns, and so on using the term interchangeably with football. There appears to have been a switch to actively hating on the term, and it coincides with the rise of the hooligan in the 60s and 70s, and general xenophobia as demonstrated by the rise of the far right. It is at this point that “soccer” becomes a filthy American term among a certain type of “fan”.
So you're saying that because the printing press in the 50's used the term interchangeably, his claim that poor people always called it football is wrong?
Doesn't it sound likely that the upper class just... Owned more magazine companies maybe?
As the close relative of a football journalist, I spent my early life surrounded by historical books, journals, fanzines and programmes from around 1900 to the 2000s. Strikingly, pre-1970s, soccer and football were wholly interchangeable in every social grouping, every purpose, every outlet. Dockers down the pub would talk about footy, football, or soccer as if it meant the same thing. It is only with the xenophobia of the 70s that it became an “American” word and a naughty thing to say in certain company.
Would be lovely if you have some source or something to read about.
Consider my interest piqued. I gave the Wikipedia page a skim and it seems like a good starting point
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TIL
the name comes from letting anyone who could afford the fees in
Thank you for including that, too
That's a very diplomatic way of saying: just the rich
Soccer is short for "Association Football" so either term is valid.
The Public Schools in the west of Britain were Army schools, they played Rugby, and used western prouniciation ie "castle = carsell" and "lieutenant=leftenant"
The Public Schools in the east of Britain were Navy schools, they played Association Football" and used eastern pronunciation "castle=kassel", and "lieutenant=lootenant".
Lieutenant is still pronounced differently in the Royal navy and army.
Reason why, most clubs founded in the 19th century onward, used football club in their names. Including Italian Spanish etc clubs founded by British immigrant
Also, did you know aluminum is the original word for the metal? The aluminium spelling was invented by British people after the fact simply because they thought it sounded better. Now they act like we're illiterate for leaving out the second "i"
Because other metals have -nium not -num
Well, many Americans indeed are illiterate, and this is going to become even worse with Trump and DOGE destroying the education system. But the current system is shit as well, the level of education lacks behind compared to other western countries by far. And then there's the unregulated homeschooling in many states, which religious nut jobs, flat earthers and other conspiracy idiots love to do. Most Americans only speak one language and only learn about the US and it's history while skipping the rest of the world. Many don't even know where the UK is on a world map. Even your vice president didn't know where Greenland was, that it's close to the north pole and fucking cold. There are loads of videos of interviews with random people on the street where the average person can't even tell how many sides a triangle has.
In the movie Idiocracy they predict the world to be extremily dumb in the year 2505 but Americans probably thought this was a goal to work towards, and had trouble reading "2505" and thought it was 2025.
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it was called aluminum by the original discoverer, but a later physicist called it aluminium so that it would be the same as germanium etc.
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