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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • The “racist” between quotes in the headline just means that that one word is a direct quote from someone or something, wheas the rest of the headline is paraphrased. In this case it’s a direct quote from a coroner’s inquest by Judge Armitage.

    I’m not a fan of this style of quoting, since writing singular words between quotes could easily also be read as insincerity or sarcasm. But it seems to be pretty common in English language media.

    Edit: Judge Armitage also writes that this police officer being racist isn’t just incidental, but rather that the police station he is working at apparently has a work-place culture that has normalised racism (as per the article)






  • Failed wheat harvest which caused a bread shortage.
    Bread was a staple food in 18th century France.

    I’m not quite sure if it is similar to the rice shortage in Japan today however. When the French couldn’t eat bread in the 18th century they went hungry, but when the Japanese today can’t buy rice they can just buy a different carb.

    Its the difference between barely scraping by on bread, and being inconvenienced by not being able to buy cheap rice.


  • Would be a noble goal to bring obligations closer to something voluntarily taken and not just obedience.

    It may be noble, but it is also a bit out of touch with reality.

    When you participate in society (even if it is something as simple as buying groceries at the supermarket) then you have to follow the rules of that society that you participate in. We have decided together as a society, democratically, what those rules are.

    You can’t then say “I’m not playing by the rules” and expect people to just accept that.

    Edit: Fixed a typo


  • This group calls themselves Reichsbürger, and from my understanding it’s essentially equivalent to Sovereign Citizens in the US.

    Installing a monarchy may be the stated goal, but it is not in itself the reason why people join this group. Rather it is about illegitimizing the current government so that they (supposedly) do not hold power over you.

    There are various reasons why people would join a group like that, but a common one seems to be that they are running away from the consequences of their actions in one form or another. If the government is illegitimate, then the pain their society imposes (e.g. unpaid fines, mounting debt, etc) is also illegitimate.

    The reason for the government’s illegitimacy is irrelevant. All that matters is that the state should be illegitimized in some way.




  • The article does say that it was the local council that wanted to prevent them from moving there.

    I’m not saying there definitely is a discriminatory motive… I do not know how the people of Switzerland look at the Romani people.
    But given the way Roma are treated in much of Europe, and Switzerland’s reputation for being somewhat conservative, I am not discounting the possibility that they are being discriminated against here.

    The equivalent in the US would be if a couple of families of black people wanted to move to a predominantly white town in the south, and the county would step in claiming there are no more homes available.