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[Gwardinen]

My favourite bit of bizarre European xenophobia probably doesn't even qualify as such as it's in-country. Apparently the populations of vast swathes of France all hate the Parisians. Basically anywhere you go outside of Paris, the other French people hate anyone from there. I've actually seen French people spit on the ground in a car park after seeing a Parisian number plate!

[syntheticgerbil]

Something similar happened to me a couple of months ago. The points were used to buy packs of something to do with FIFA 12. I believe they're some sort of freely transferrable resource, which makes them one of the few worthwhile things to scam people out of on Xbox Live.

Oh weird, this happened to my friend two weeks ago and they spent the same money on FIFA. He was out of $80 for a while even though calling Microsoft the same day. Took almost a week and a half to get the money back.

Not sure what's with the Paypal account link to Microsoft accounts, but this is super lame it keeps happening to people.

[Orv]

The Dutch have an entire library of comedy based on the "hilarious" notion that Belgians are retarded. I guess their secession from us 180 years ago still hurts like a motherfucker.

Fuck the Dutch, in that case.

Also Rodi, I demand you send me a weekly stipend of waffles.

Finally, Subbes, how can you possibly hate Clarkson. What on earth is wrong with you dear woman.

[elmuerte]

Everyone in Germany that I know hates the Dutch for driving across the country in caravans every year. I find it hilarious, like the Dutch are secretly a migratory bird species.

So that's why Germans come to our beaches to dig holes in them

[Roderick]

Send me your address, Orvidos, and I'll begin your weekly stipend of waffles immediately.

Ooh, ooh, I have another quaint tale! Dutch people make it a sport to impersonate Belgian accents, because to us it sounds really soft and funny. Now, I'm all up for that. At the same time, I just know in Belgium people must be impersonating the Dutch as well. But every time I ask Belgian acquaintances to do their best impression, they always get shy! Come on, I just want to laugh at my own ridiculous language, is that too much to ask?

Gward; I have heard of Paris being an island quite separate from the rest of France. The same is somewhat true of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and perhaps every country's capital?

(Just for the really, really obvious record, I have no actual beef with any other country. I've been on holiday to tons of European countries and one thing always struck me wherever I went: how goddamn friendly, neighbourly and plain good the people were. Doesn't matter whether I was in Sweden, Turkey, Spain or Scotland, folks were always kind and hospitable. Screw racial stereotypes.)

[ThunderPeel2001]

Anyway, just to make sure I went to the super secure Xbox page where they tell me what to do, and I discovered a horrible secret:

If you have your console set to log on to your Xbox Live account without a password (aka vis-a-vis how everyone has their Xbox set up) and you change that password, the console will still be able to log on!

That's right, there's a separate page on xbox.com that lets you reset logged-on consoles to prevent that, but to find it you have to be a internet web expert like I am. Seems weird that this doesn't happen automatically but I guess lol Microsoft Bill Gates.

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Say what now?

[Orv]

...Screw racial stereotypes.)

Is that actually racism? To be clear, I'm not defending racism, but I'm pretty sure it's nationalism and people calling it racism drives me batty.

Basically I'm a grammar nazi.

...Oh.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Is that actually racism? To be clear, I'm not defending racism, but I'm pretty sure it's nationalism and people calling it racism drives me batty.

Basically I'm a grammar nazi.

...Oh.

LETMEJUMPONINTHERE... Grab yourself a decent dictionary, look up the word race, and amaze yourself in the face with this factoid: Race means nationality.

But it's all kind of irrelevant because *drum roll* race doesn't exist in the way that most people think it does!

No scientist can look through your genes and tell you what your "race" is. In fact, that there's no agreed upon definitions of "race". Caucasian is a race as much as, European is a race, as much as Irish is a race, as much as "brown haired" is a race.

So what do we mean by "race"? Why does the word exist? What is it supposed to mean? Simply this: Any shared genetic background. From national heritage (e.g. country) to freckles in your family.

Get ready for the biggest wham to your brain: Neighbouring African nations have less in common with each other, genetically speaking, than a European nation and an African nation.

That's right: The most common definition of race, skin colour, is amongst the most meaningless.

...THATISALL!

Edited February 27, 2012 by ThunderPeel2001

[Scrobbs]

Don't forget the Belgians were unable to elect a government for over 500 days.

Their economy also the grew the fastest out of any other EU country. Co-incidence?

[James]

My favourite bit of bizarre European xenophobia probably doesn't even qualify as such as it's in-country. Apparently the populations of vast swathes of France all hate the Parisians. Basically anywhere you go outside of Paris, the other French people hate anyone from there. I've actually seen French people spit on the ground in a car park after seeing a Parisian number plate!

Isn't there a tendency of some sort of resentment towards the capital city within most countries? You know, with it being the seat of power and so on. At least, that was the impression I got.

Hmm, I don't know why, but it sounds like German with a word or two in French to me.

Me too. My excuse is that the "sch" and phlegmy sounds are usually a pretty good indicator of German, and they're all over the place. But it's probably actually because my knowledge of other languages is shameful.

The numbers sound pretty German too, though.

[Orv]

...THATISALL!

Well now I'm not going to bother with the term at all. Thanks TP.

[miffy495]

Isn't there a tendency of some sort of resentment towards the capital city within most countries? You know, with it being the seat of power and so on. At least, that was the impression I got.

I dunno if it's necessarily the capital. Here in Canada, most people forget Ottawa exists except when there's something big up in parliament or an election. Everyone always hates Toronto though.

[Hermie]

Everyone in Germany that I know hates the Dutch for driving across the country in caravans every year. I find it hilarious, like the Dutch are secretly a migratory bird species.

Pff, hypocrites, Germans do the exact same thing in Scandinavia.

Also Belgians are nice. They make good beer, chocolate, and comics.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Well now I'm not going to bother with the term at all. Thanks TP.

I stopped using it myself a while back. I find that "ethnicity" is a much better word. Of course, "racism" is still a perfectly valid word, and it just becomes even more irrational when you know it's based on something so nonsensical.

Edit: Also I just fixed my post because I accidentially previously left in a bit that didn't make any sense while editing it. Oops. Still, the gist got through, I think.

[James]

I dunno if it's necessarily the capital. Here in Canada, most people forget Ottawa exists except when there's something big up in parliament or an election. Everyone always hates Toronto though.

Well, I said it was a tendency, not a universal law. I guess it could also apply to cultural capitals and most populous cities.