ReindeerF posted:

Heh.

Even in an immigration context, it's probably more applicable in places like where you came up, but if you can't find a Spanish speaking business to sell you phone cards in South Texas then you're seriously doing something wrong. The flag is definitely marketing, I agree, I just personally find it petty. If I had an American restaurant in Bangkok I would never fly a US flag out front. You're actually in another country, it's a bit petty to wave your flag in their face. I'm not hugely nationalistic, but one of the key characteristics of not being an rear end in a top hat is empathy - and imagine how it looks to the people here when you wave your flag in their face.
Okay, that does make it like twice as funny. Though, of course, they're mostly just trying to stop the Swedes from taking over I'm sure, heh.

R. Mute posted:

there's only one flag, comrades, and it is red.

R. Mute posted:

something similar was introduced here last year as well. they're called GAS fines. they're rly stupid and people hate them. some examples:

in antwerp, a arthouse for children and teens got a GAS fine for protesting against GAS fines. in another incident, someone with a mental disability was fined for playing a flute on the street.
in hasselt, nobody but sinterklaas, santa and the easter bunny can wear masks in the street - punishable by GAS fines.
five residents of verviers got a gas fine for criticising local police in the online comment section of a newspaper
in merchtem, children can't play football while pigeon racers are playing with their pigeons. in hamme and waasmunster, you can't dry your laundry outside, wave flags or 'hit objects' when the pigeons are out.
if you stop sliding when you're halfway down a waterslide in dendermonde, you're getting a gas fine.
in arendonk, there's a line you can call if you know someone that didn't report the presence of oak processionary caterpillars on their property - gas fine up to 250 euro. also in arendonk, if you're fishing and the distance between you and your fishing rod is more than three meters, it's a fine.
in deinze, you can't throw confetti in the air after it has been on the ground. in wellen, however, confetti has to be biodegradable and at most 10mm wide
in ghent, you can't pick up the sand left behind by road crews for fifteen days - afterwards, it seems you can?
in lokeren, you can get a fine for scaring someone
in ronse, you can get a fine for making noise in public spaces
in antwerp, medicine for the people (a rly cool and good group) were vaccinating people in the marketplace and were fined for it
in evergem, if your dog's breed is on a list of an outdated and no longer used royal declaration, it has to wear a muzzle
you can't sing dirty songs in dendermonde
in mechelen, a resident was almost fined for picking a single flower
in jabbeke, you can keep 'aggressive and cruel' dogs, unless they're "too" aggressive and cruel
in beerse, only pregnant women can throw up in public or on private property that isn't your own
in leuven and hoeilaart, you can't shake trees or bushes in public.
in a couple of communities, you're not allowed to fire cannons.

and so on and so on

ReindeerF posted:

I think we can all agree that immigrants who can't use the internet are immigrants we don't want!

SedanChair posted:

The Post That Turned Half of D&D Euroskeptic

R. Mute posted:

those are actually all municipal laws and your country probably has stupid ones like this as well, but also gently caress the EU so i'm glad everyone hates it now

R. Mute posted:

those are actually all municipal laws and your country probably has stupid ones like this as well, but also gently caress the EU so i'm glad everyone hates it now

R. Mute posted:

those are actually all municipal laws and your country probably has stupid ones like this as well, but also gently caress the EU so i'm glad everyone hates it now

R. Mute posted:

it's a "sport" where you release a special racing pigeon and they return to their home as fast as possible. their speed is then calculated and compared to the other pigeons and whoever is fastest gets the prize. it's still really popular in belgium and has actually spread to a lot of other countries. you can actually make a living breeding and selling racing pigeons - they go for absurd amounts of money if they're any good. a friend of a friend got something like 25.000 euro for a single pigeon. poo poo's insane.

in reality though it's really lame and dumb, but whatever. just wait until you hear about Vinkensport/finch sport.

Kurtofan posted:

I think he means that American liberals that tend to see Europe as the perfect haven of freedoms aren't going to be as fond of Europe once they're aware of stuff like this

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Why don't you like the EU? =++++...

Kurtofan posted:

I think he means that American liberals that tend to see Europe as the perfect haven of freedoms aren't going to be as fond of Europe once they're aware of stuff like this

R. Mute posted:

i like the idea of european cooperation and i don't necessarily have a problem with the original stated idea behind the eu, but the actual resulting organisation is just disgusting. it was always bad in the sense that it's foundations generally served to strengthen the larger nations (mainly france and germany) in favour of the smaller ones (mainly the PIGS), but the whole project really got into a bad zone once they decided to pursue expansion rather than further democratisation - a decision that was made for the most cynical of reasons. i don't have anything against eastern europeans, but the inclusion of the eastern european states was just a ploy to turn the union firmly liberal (as in: european liberal) - aside from the other reason of loving over russia. considering the rushed entrance of these states, despite them breaking nearly every rule the eu has, just makes this obvious. and you can see that once they were part of the eu things turned to poo poo even faster, clearly illustrated by the mess around the treaty of lisbon. and, y'know, its contents.

all the while, the democratisation process was left by the wayside until the rise of euroscepticism binned it permanently. sure, i can vote once every few years to get a representative into the european parliament, but that's not democracy. there's no european space, no oversight, no transparency, nothing that constitutes a healthy democracy aside from the actual vote. and even that's pretty worthless all things considered. meanwhile, the eu is encroaching on all levels of national governance taking that level of democracy away from me as well.

so what you get is a zealous neoliberal organisation that skirts around actual democracy so it can implement its vile ideas without any resistance. it also provides a fig leaf for scumbag politicians on a national level to hide behind eu regulations or guidelines when they want to introduce something particularly unpopular

also, it's massively corrupt - one look at the farm subsidy scheme should be enough to tell you that.

i mean, there are good things about it, but they're just overshadowed by how overwhelmingly poo poo it is.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

That sounds like a good description of the American Federal government, to be honest. Maybe there just isn't a good way to govern over so many people in such a large territory.

Cercadelmar posted:

Since when was a smilie?

Cercadelmar posted:

Since when was a smilie?

Absurd Alhazred posted:

That sounds like a good description of the American Federal government, to be honest. Maybe there just isn't a good way to govern over so many people in such a large territory.

Alhazred posted:

Absurd Alhazred posted:

That sounds like a good description of the American Federal government, to be honest. Maybe there just isn't a good way to govern over so many people in such a large territory.

Rappaport posted:

For some reason my reading comprehension was confused as I was reading this post (I blame the whiskey) and thought the word pigeon meant a penguin.

It was magical

euphronius posted:

Despotism.

Chantilly Say posted:

Europe used to have that licked, actually, but the main office was further south. The Germans hosed that one up, though.

JohnnyCanuck posted:

Legit upset that the Japanese flag is on that huge conglomerate and yet there's nary a Maple Leaf to be found.



Canada Flag Best Flag.

Majorian posted:

To be fair, Italy somehow managed to become absolute poo poo at empire building and organizing in the interim as well.

Dreylad posted:

Honestly most of Europe was garbage at empire building, it's just that the British were exceptionally good at it, the Dutch were pretty decent, and the French win the endurance challenge since they basically still have one.

Majorian posted:

Plus the French also basically get Charlemagne by default, so that's pretty rad too.

visceril posted:

Spain was a tryhard but peaked way too early and passed out a mile before the finish line

nutranurse posted:

I'd argue that Charlemagne and the Franks were more Gemeranic than French.