CAPTAIN CAVEMAN

i didn't ask you

carry on

Barnard17

Commonwealth (U.S. state) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are still federated states. The fact that 46 of the federated states of the US call themselves State of ... and 4 call themselves Commonwealth of ... really has no effect on what they actually are.

I've said this before but I'll say it again, your attempts at being a condescending snob may work a shitload better if you didn't spend so much of your time talking a load of bollocks.

P.S. you missed out the territory of Puerto Rico :x

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Neapolitan

Wait a minute, didn't you go on a rant and rave about what a country, nation and state is and how the United Nation is a misnomer, and then when you are corrected it doesn't matter? That my friend is redunkulous.

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Barnard17

No, you didn't correct me. They hold the same purpose, capabilities and function as any other US states. The Commonwealths of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia are, in so far as political science is concerned, still federated states. A rose by any other name ... From the link I proveded "This designation, which has no constitutional impact ..."

It's not that when I'm corrected it doesn't matter, it's that you didn't correct me. The inference I was making to the United States of America was a glib suggestion to trigger a thought process not an in depth critical analysis of America. Considering I was being broad and general, and also considering for all intents and purposes the "Commonwealths" you allude to are still federated states simply not named as such, your correction was pointless. It was also wrong, considering the United States consists of 50 federated states, 46 of which term themselves States and 4 of which term themselves Commonwealths but all hold the same constitutional rights and powers, 2 territories (the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands - notice these guys also call themselves Commonwealths) which hold lessened constitutional rights and powers and are therefore NOT federated states, and the federal District of Washington D.C.

Also this:

Was a fucking stupid thing to say when you knew exactly what I meant and that I wasn't referring to the geographic mass.

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lucifer_sam

this semantics discussion just deflated the massive hard on i once had for nationalism.

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first.am

Ulysses

My take on nationalism is that too often it crosses a line.

I think it's one thing to have pride in a very selective perception of something as arbitrary as the circumstances of your birth but it's another when it's used as a 'my country is better than yours' pissing contest and 'arbitrary place of birth' or 'spurious take on genetics' becomes the most immediate, first and foremost way that people define themselves.

In the dozen years or so I've been online and been exposed to an international community - in a different way than actually going abroad myself or meeting people in my own country who are visiting abroad - the amount of truly messed-up nationalism I've been exposed to is staggering. Sadly, the bulk of this tends to come from Americans. I don't think there's anywhere in the Western World that espouses nationalism in the way that America does.

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The Fields of Mars

Neapolitan

So you are exempt from that because you just go straight ahead and piss on America, without expounding anything postive of Merry Ol' England!?

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Ulysses

I don't see the problem here. There's no hypocrisy on my part and there certainly would be hypocrisy if I 'pissed on America' and expounded something positive about "Merry Ol' England" at the same time. Also, even if I had not have already said that it's that kind of thinking I particularly despise, why should I knock one country and then, in the same sentence laud another? What kind of thinking is that?

If anything, I'd say your response here merely supports what I said previously. Also, the "Merry Ol' England" comment was just a bit sad, to be honest.

I'd suggest that the same kind of reasoning also is an issue with your own posts. You don't see the issue with your own posting as you're an American.

As Barnard17 has pointed out, and it's something very true of my own experience, it's rarely anyone other than an American would follow this line of thinking.

There's nowhere in the Western World that has the peculiar sense of nationalism that America and Americans have. There's nowhere that espouses it to the degree that Americans do, there's nowhere that articulates it in the way that Americans do and there's nowhere that turns it into a pissing contest the way that Americans do.



Caveat: by 'Americans', please don't interpret 'many' for 'all'.

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The Fields of Mars

Barnard17

That was beautifully ironic. Yet again, Neapolitan, you leap to an irrational conclusion from half reading a post in an attempt to start an argument. Outside of trolling I'm yet to determine why you even bother posting in threads of philosophy and current affairs.

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Neapolitan

Hey I was the one who was trolled and trolled hard by that post. just look at it:

See, since you come from England you don't see it, and I don't expect you to see it, because it was a slight against Americans.

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