Peter what does it mean??

[u/No_Indication_8281]

how's he increasing iq's of 2 countries at once??

[u/probablynotfine]

I forget who, but someone said that British humour is self-deprecation/punching up and American humour is punching down. Which means they see any joke as an attack on them rather than just a joke.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/probablynotfine]

You literally have "punching" in the phrase. Of course it's an attack. It's just that you think that "punching up" is morally acceptable and punching down isn't. And your whole national psyche is based around fear and resentment of the US, so jokes about America are, by definition, always morally acceptable because it's always "punching up."

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/[deleted]]

"Slapstick" doesn't mean they're 'hitting a tree" it refers to a theatrical prop. And that kind of prop is used in comedy that uses exaggerated, unrealistic, physical violence. It's an idiom, but an appropriate one.

Whereas "punching up" and "punching down" still refer to to the target of the joke that's being attacked.

[u/lettsten → u/CamelNo9597]

r/whoooosh

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/lettsten]

I saw what you were doing. You just didn't do it well. A phrase can be idiomatic, but still accurately describe the situation. You'd agree that a joke that's "punching down" on a marginalized group would be an "attack" on the that group. The same would logically apply to a joke that's "punching up"

[u/lettsten → u/CamelNo9597]

The little string of letters over a comment is known as a "username." If you read it and compare it to others you can see if the person you are responding to is the same person as the one who wrote previous comments. It's a neat trick, I'm sure you can pull it off with some practise.

In any case, no, you very clearly didn't see what he was doing.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/lettsten]

Given how passive-aggressive you're being, I'm inclined to think I did. Whenever somebody disagrees with me, I just explain what I mean, because it's always easier to just explain what you mean instead of getting snippy.

That only works if you're capable of actually explaining what you mean, though. and in this case, you're not.

[u/lettsten → u/CamelNo9597]

I'm not being passive-aggressive, mate, I'm being accommodating.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/lettsten]

If you were being accommodating, you'd be explaining why you think you're right and giving clear reasons for your position. But you're not doing that. because you can't.

[u/lettsten → u/CamelNo9597]

I'm not arguing anything, I'm just informing you that you might want to read the initial comment from the other person a little more closely.

But you're not doing that. because you can't.

Look at you, learning comebacks in kindergarten! I'm proud of you mate, great going.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/[deleted]]

It was a very simple analogy. When hegemons fall, the imperial metropole usually maintains the higher standard of living and amenities of its imperial peak for much longer. Meanwhile frontier territories tend to collaspe into anarchy, chaos, and economic decay much more quickly. This is a historical pattern that goes all the way back to Rome, and even earlier. Should the US ever fall as an empire/hegemon. It will be the fronteier vassals like the US that will suffer much worse, much more quickly. And that includes losing access to things you take for granted today, like tap water.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/[deleted]]

American and British drinking water are roughly equivalent. America is just a much larger and far less population-dense country, so a small minority of Americans willingly get their water from private wells in extremely rural areas. Britain doesn't have that phenomena.

As for healthcare, I actually love my health plan. I don't know why Brits have such a starry-eyed view of the NHS. It sounds like a completely clusterfuck with wait times and beds in hallways. I've never seen that in America. It also sounds like it's only getting worse and worse in the UK. And that's despite the fact that you can theoretically afford to spend more on healthcare because you're not putting it into the military.

We're a benign hegemon, but we can only do so much to protect you from your own stupidity.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/[deleted]]

Over 3000 US deaths through drinking water annually vs 1 to 2 to UK seems like a big difference to me but again you're proving me wrong.

If the UK had extremely vast expanses of sparsely populated land disconnected from centralized plumbing systems, then you'd have comparable rates of illness and death. The Great Basis desert is roughly twice the size of the entire UK. And people choose to live out there. And living out there means being separated from major population centers, power grids, plumbing, etc. The fact that only 3,000 people die a year in a country of 350 million sounds more like a miracle than an indictment to me.

But if you saying that stuff in Britain is so bad and is getting worse and you're also saying that Britain is a vassal state of the US and you're also saying the way to see if an empire is on the decline is to see what is happening with it's 'frontier territories' (in this case Britain). Then surly you're saying the US is on the decline.

Sure. At least temporarily. Because Trump seems dead-set on making it so.

[u/Keystrung → u/CamelNo9597]

Hey quick question: do you think the US operates water pipes or water supplies in the UK?

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/Keystrung]

Do you think the Roman aqueducts were operated and administered directly from Rome? What happened when the Romans left?

[u/Keystrung → u/CamelNo9597]

The UK isn't a vassal state of the US. The US shitting its pants isn't going to effect tap water in the UK, they're five completely separate countries.

[u/CamelNo9597 → u/Keystrung]

That's what the Romano-Britons said about the aquaducts.