Well there’s a long list of boring stereotypes. Shall we do the same for the French? Berets, onions, long lunches etc. etc.
Yawn.
Go ahead, DrJ, our OP gave us a xenophobia thread, lets do it properly. Not all the comments on my list came from French people, there are Spanish and German quips in there too, all made with a smile IIRC. Let's rejoice in our differences rather than claim people aren't native on some little Englander Criteria or other.
Well there’s a long list of boring stereotypes.
Not surprising given who wrote it.
For the what makes someone a native and the culture argument it is interesting looking at historical stereotypes and how they change. Historically for example the English stereotype was a lot more emotional and a lot more physically expressive. A modern stereotype which seems to match would be Italian.
This national stereotype business is very tedious. There are probably more differences amongst the population of one country than there are stereotypical differences between countries.
I am French although having spent over half my life in the UK, I have occasionally been accused of having become too British.
My partner is British but she has spent far less time than me in the UK.
My kids have both nationalities but they're often embarrassed to be British, particularly when they see the behaviour of the "patriots".
What is UK culture? I'd be interested to know. There's no doubt some things that are held in high regard throughout the entire UK , but no doubt there's some that are not
Football, racism and (with no trace of irony) curry.
Well there’s a long list of boring stereotypes.
To be fair, aside from the food (which is a throwback from GIs' experiences of wartime Britain & rationing which never went away) most of that isn't far from the truth.
Football, racism and (with no trace of irony) curry.
As I said earlier "There are probably more differences amongst the population of one country than there are stereotypical differences between countries". Though I do like a curry.
Check out the UK governments official cultural test if you want the official take on what constitutes Britishness. It's knowing about dates and kings and people who were impotant last century or before. Perhaps more pertinant is that Danes shag twice as often as Brits (the Guardian today) and most people spent 14 years voting against their own interests including voting to sabotage the economy because there were too many foreign doctors, nurses, plumbers, fruit pickers.... .
And where exactly do people get these cultural values from? Media oulets owned by rich foreign based billionaires intent on manipulaling Britsh group think (culture) so as to further their own interests.
This thread is an example of how "identity", "national identity", demonising them the immigrants, rule Britania etc. is being used to play on peoples worst instincts to manipulate turkeys to vote for Christmas.
The thread is about the extreme right notion that even people born in Britain aren't British if the aren't the right colour, religion, origin... .
So we've humoured the OP and it's neen quite revealing. Some of the replies I thought "good, I'm not the only one to see it that way". Some people can see it's devisive populist right wing nastiness. Which I didn't include in my light-hearted list of comments I've had made about my country of origin. I find light hearted quips and stereotypes amusing. I find questionning how native first second and third generation immigrants might be symptomatic of a type of politics I hold in contempt.
I'll bet someone will be along soon to spread wisdom like the French don't know that deodorant exists, all Italian men are in love with their mother etc. etc.
I was born in 1954, and I don’t recall ever really thinking about what British ‘culture’, or what being a ‘native’ really involved. By the time I was old enough to actually understand anything about other cultures, countries, etc, I was already aware of there being people from other cultures, and it just didn’t strike me as unusual, and as I’m an avid reader, with a wide range of interests, especially the history of the islands I was born on, recent discoveries using DNA to find where buried remains originated from has shown that we’re an incredibly diverse bunch of people, from an incredible number of cultures from all across what is now Europe and Asia.
I’m thinking about getting a DNA test to see what my ancestors came from; it’s likely from Northern Europe, Saxony, considering how much of south-western Britain was Anglo-Saxon, but maybe some hints of Roman, because they had a major presence around here, Roman Bath is only twelve miles away, and there are Roman remains around Castle Combe, which is six miles away.
Report
Check out the UK governments official cultural test if you want the official take on what constitutes Britishness. It's knowing about dates and kings and people who were impotant last century or before. Perhaps more pertinant is that Danes shag twice as often as Brits (the Guardian today) and most people spent 14 years voting against their own interests including voting to sabotage the economy because there were too many foreign doctors, nurses, plumbers, fruit pickers....
I get your point and agree with you to a certain extent but I think to suggest, sorry if you're not , that the anti immigration movement is a particularly British thing is just wrong . The rise of far right ideology is happening all over the world and I think is down to the the fact that all over the world normal people are struggling to make ends meet whilst a certain privileged few can use chaos to make billions in profit . People are being encouraged to blame the poor bloke next door who is just like them and trying to make a good life for his family. Reform are polling at about 25 percent now so even if you said that a quarter of the country are mad racist bigots then you could equally say 75 percent are not .
I'm an immigrant myself now and my experience of it is there's good people everywhere but also some right wronguns everywhere but I hope that the good people outnumber the wronguns .
Double post
Yup, moonsaballoon, I agree that the far right ideology is a world wide phenomenon driven by the same dictators, oligarcs, media mogals and financial interests world wide. Yet the people who vote for those interests are those least likely to benefit, they're duped.
Duped, just as people are duped into identity ideology crap such as this thread. It's back to the 30s, bin there, dun that and here we go again.
The fuel on this fire is ignorance, the better educated people are the less they're likely to vote for it.
Exactly. None of this "populism" is new
So we've humoured the OP and it's neen quite revealing
You have missed the context for the OP but never mind I am sure you feel superior about it.
I find light hearted quips and stereotypes amusing.
Uh huh and thats why you doubled down on your bollocks.
Whilst lecturing others about not falling for dubious tricks you demonstrate how completely you have fallen for them yourself. Perhaps physician heal yourself first?
I’m thinking about getting a DNA test to see what my ancestors came from; it’s likely from Northern Europe, Saxony, considering how much of south-western Britain was Anglo-Saxon, but maybe some hints of Roman, because they had a major presence around here,
Different parts of Germanic Europe etc., absolutely.
Ancestry’s reference panel claims to go back about 1000 years, but that's about the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, so anything it shows you will be from post-Anglo-Saxon (and therefore post-Roman) European regions. But as I said in another post, the reference panels change, and more people do a test, so every 6 months when they do a major update, the regions get more and more refined and your ethnic regions change quite drastically some times.
You missed the smileys, dissonance, 12 of them. I've used two methods to get my message across, the stereotypical stuff between the smileys which wasn't to be taken seriously and ruffled your feathers because you did take it seriously and the increasingly heartfelt posts as you've read down this page. If those have ruffled your feathers good, but it wasn't my intention to ruffle the feathers of any humanist, woke STW members.
Night, night. Sleep on it.
If those have ruffled your feathers good, but it wasn't my intention to ruffle the feathers of any humanist, woke STW members.
Well done for sounding like Elon Musk whilst lecturing people on the perils of ermmm listening to the likes of Elon Musk.
It's knowing about dates and kings and people who were impotant
Some people might suggest it's a pity more of our kings weren't impotant😁
the regions get more and more refined and your ethnic regions change quite drastically some times.
The problem is their data sources and how, as far as I am aware, its based about looking at who buys their services and provides some DNA to them. I dont think the mormons have plugged their various "convert everyone" genealogical websites into the DNA providers?
The only way you can really assign ancestry to locations is to start with "1000 Ancient British Genomes" project and its counterparts in other countries and then work from there.
I could be wrong but I dont think this has happened despite how superb it would be. Whilst an amateur interest in the subject it has been fascinating how new scientific methods have transformed our understanding. I read a great book a few years back published earlier still which caveated everything aside from "we didnt shag neanderthals".
Four English born grandparents. I had hoped for an Irish passport with a paternal grandmother with surname of Kerry, but sadly not, she was born in the Midlands.
but sadly not, she was born in the Midlands.
I remember listening to an episode of More or Less when the question was "are x million people in the UK really entitled to an Irish passport?".
The answer to any question was (havent listened for a while) was in the negative and the reason to listen after the headline was to see whether it could be an honest mistake, a complete lie not caring about the figures to back it up or someone doing some tricks with the statistics to lie.
This was a rare exception where they went yes its true maybe even more in favour.