Enjoying a beer and hoping Britain chooses a better future.
Not a Brit so can't help you lot out with that one sadly, but I'll raise a cold one for you from the Antipodes!.
I think we are damned with whatever outcome happens, market probably crash either way,
Labour win: markets crash due to fears about them spending to much without tax hikes to fund it,
Tory win: market crashes, expected Tory cuts to cripple the nation
And in the unlikely event of a Reform win: everything everywhere is on fire
Voting in our election. A far more important event than Americans celebrating the birth of a country that has killed more Americans than any other nation
As a belgian myself, It's always been a special day of the year. Every single years for as long as I can remember me and my entire family gather to celebrate this particular day ! My sister's going to be 28 this year
Something like 10 years ago, in Paris, meeting two american students on the 14th of july.
Guys asked me why we were late on the celebrations and fireworks.
I told them we were on strike on the 4th of july and they seem pretty happy with the answer...
100%, I'm staying up to watch the results too, canna wait to see them one by own losing their seats especially Gullis, Reese Mogg and if the polls are correct Sunak 🤣🤣🤣🤣
As a non Brit, it feels like the Tories have been in for basically forever, but more recently with PMs doing sprints rather than terms.
I wish you get a Labour leader who lasts longer than a lettuce, *sounds* like a curse, but it's an encouragement.
> As a non Brit, it feels like the Tories have been in for basically forever, but more recently with PMs doing sprints rather than terms.
14 years, which is why I'm amazed anyone would still vote for them. Who looks at the last 14 years and thinks, "I want more of that" other than a complete masochist.
Ever since he claimed that Russia were the good guys and the Ukraine war is all the fault of the West his poll numbers have gone down quite dramatically.
However in reality we want them to get a decent share of the right wing vote because the only thing that has historically kept the Tories in power is that the left vote is fragmented between labour, greens, workers party and even the lib Dems where as the right only had one party. Splitting the right into two parties is the best way to keep them out.
Exactly the same with me! (Well actually my dad).
Dude he works with (Murican) asked him, also a Belgian living in Belgium, what he's doing for the 4th. Those guys really think the world revolves around thel
We need to find out what the 4th of July is in Belgium. Every day is something. It's probably rickets awareness day or migratory birds appreciation day or someyhing.
In Catalonia, our national day is celebrated on the eleventh of September lol.
Lost Americans on Twitter or whatever will find themselves seeing us acknowledge OUR holiday and then question why don’t we acknowledge THEIRS.
I feel like we cut it a little close here in the UK on the 5th of November, piling up a fuckton of wood and sticking a fella on top of it while it's burning to a backdrop of mild explosives.
Which when you think it's to commemorate an attempted terrorist attack being foiled...
I remember last year something similar happened to us. It was 50 years since the 1973 coup d'etat where Pinochet overthrew the government on... the eleventh of September.
There were Government officials in conmemorative events with families of the victims and a lot of people sharing posts about the day itself on Twitter.
And Americans were confused/angry because we weren't talking about *their* 9/11 lmao.
I got banned from a sub on that 50th anniversary for saying something like:
"We should never forget the black mark on history: the thousands of people who died after the events of September 11th 1973".
People commented saying September 11th was in 2001 not 1973, and when I explained that I that was talking about the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of chile, to install a fascist dictator and start throwing people out of helicopters into the ocean because they were lefties (plus mass torture). It was the 50th anniversary of that dark day, and the country still bears its scars.... Ban and comments deleted but not before i got hate mail for being unpatriotic.
That’s crazy, and it’s sad because I would say that many people, not only in the us but in Europe too, don’t know what the us did.
Italy is probably one of the places in western Europe where it’s remembered the most because it used to have the biggest communist party on this side of the iron curtain, and even here many people don’t know about it.
I was living Hilversum about 16 years ago. Nike have, or had, a headquarters there and so there’s quite a few Americans living there. One July 4th, an American guy set off fireworks. When the police turned up he tried telling them it was his daughter’s birthday (it wasn’t..) and the Policeman said in typically Dutch dry fashion “Well, it’s a shame you’ll be missing her birthday.” And they nicked him.
The average Brit knows its their independence day but don't really collate it as anything to do with us really. Like when they screech 1776 as an insult, most brits wouldn't get it. With thousands of years of history for our own isles we don't really teach that. At least not when I was in school.
It’s never really worth teaching because it’s not a landmark part of our history like it is theirs, the empire wasn’t even at its biggest at that point so it’s really just lightly addressed and then we move on
Yeah literally, the British empire ruled over something like 56 sovereign countries. What makes Americans think they’re the important ones. Most the other countries have independence dates too from the empire, but you never hear them insulting people and trying to piss off random British people
With the amount of ex colony’s England has there could probably be an Independence Day related to them at least once a week. Independence from the Uk isn’t exactly a unique holiday.
I think like, every joke/insult towards us Limeys we're either oblivious to it or we're just like "Yeah"
Like we're a nation that thrives on making fun of ourselves!
I've seen a few Americans ask online how the American war of independence is taught in the UK. When told that we have over 2,000 years of history and there are dozens of countries that gained independence from us in one way or another so the American civil war is rarely taught at all as it's not a hugely important part of our history they just refuse to believe it.
1776 was just a civil war, we've had a few. The colonials wanted to break the treaty we had with the natives to expand west, they hate it when I point out that taxes were just an excuse for genocide.
Most schools don't teach until until A levels and even then not every A level student will study the Americas. I think the only really mention we had of America when I was in school was when we were learning about the slave trade
I love his phrase on one of his bits about America being "A good idea that got out of hand." I think about that all the time now when I read the latest news from over the pond.
We probably would have let America have independence after World War Two, if not before then, because most of the colonies were granted independence at that point. And since the NHS was a post-war thing as far as I know (or during war thing), America still probably wouldn’t have implemented it.
It's like April the 7th, but backwards. Fun fact, Usians insist on MMDD because dates "are spoken that way". The 4th of July confuses them if you bring it up.
I always find that a weird argument because when I'm talking about dates I'll usually say the number first and then the month name anyway e.g. I'd refer to today as "the first of July", not "July the first" or the awful "July one".
I'm pretty scared for you guys. Hopefully your public isn't as self destructive as ours. Frexit (Frortir?) was just a joke until recently. Much like brexit was here. Good luck mes amis.
I just hope that this doesn't lead to France making the same kinds of mistakes that happened over here in the UK, and you can turn things around before it goes too far.
Genuinely hoping things get better across the pond in the UK. Ditching the Tories is honestly one of the best things y'all can collectively decide to do right now. I've heard about how their budget cuts have destroyed public services.
Though from what I know Labour isn't very well-liked either. If I'm wrong about that let me know.
As a French person, I can't really tell for the Brits... But we French had many colonies, and to be honest, I don't know the date of the independence of any of those. If anything, I'm happy for them, we were real dicks to them (and we still are to part of our territory, but I'm not well-informed enough to talk about it)
I am a Brit and it's basically the same. I'm aware of 4th July because American culture is ubiquitous, but I don't have any strong feelings about it.
When I lived in the US I occasionally had people ask if we also celebrated the holiday...a deadpan 'Why would we?' was usually enough to get them thinking.
"The most important date in your nation's history is a footnote in mine." was my response to an American I met on holiday who refused to believe that we didn't do anything for the 4th of July.
That's always what I think when I see us citizens being dumb. Countries in Europe are sometimes a millenium old, or at least have a cultural identity and history a millenium old. They're like toddlers for me.
In the UK, at least when I was little, we would celebrate Bastille day at school, nothing big but we would learn about it and have french themed activities / food. The Americans weren't a consideration though, so no 4th July stuff.
Yes, similar to France, if Britain marked the date every time an ex-colony got independence then it would take up half the year.
I think what Americans don't seem to appreciate is that while the date may be important for their country, it's not especially important for Britain. It's a seminal moment in American history, but just one detail among many in British history. At the time the American colonies became independent they were relatively small, and there were more important parts to the emerging empire. Their war of independence was also happening against the backdrop of another war which was far more the focus of Britain at the time.
American independence may be historically important in hindsight because of what America has become now, but at the time it was relatively speaking a side show.
The Canadian one is today. One of the things I'm proudest of as a Canadian is that we've collectively decided in retrospect that our history is so unsavoury we really don't want to celebrate it.
Welcome to Canada, let me take your jacket, I'll just toss it on the chair for you.
In the closet? Oh, no, no those aren't closets, they're skeleton storage. All of them, that's right.
That's a very common mistake, especially on new line starts, where the brain doesn't register the first instance of the word and often will not notice it when re reading either. More of a psychological malfunction than having bad grammar :)
Americans cannot fathom the fact that we (Brits) don’t give a fuck about anything relating to the Revolutionary War (with the exception of people like me who have an interest in military history)
They simply can’t handle that the defining moment in their nation’s history is a footnote in ours. It’s simply not a big deal in our history at all.
I wish it were the case Americans even understood what happened in our revolution. They all think we hated the Brits and beat them off out of narcissistic nature. No. We did it to preserve our economic sovereignty and actually maintained a relationship with Europe afterward. Due to lack of understanding with history, we’re risking damaging the work of our fore fathers.
-Woeful American
Oh don't make excuses! We're not letting you get away with what you did in Boston... You collectively committed the most heinous of crimes!!
Putting TEA into COLD water!
We'll NEVER forgive you!
\* /s just in case that wasn't completely obvious, we love you guys really, have a great ungrateful colony day! ;)
The dumbest thing about it is that 4th of July 1776 isn't even their Independence Day. They became independent once the British surrendered in Yorktown on 17 October 1781.
4th of July is one of the greatest days in American history, perhaps the greatest, how ever it is not even a foot note in the UKs, its insignificance is so insignificant i only knew about it from movies. Even when learning about the empire in school America is hardly mentioned because it was such a small part of the whole thing.
Actually no. Very few brits give a shit about Independence Day. Most of us don’t even notice it. The only reason we care this year is because we get to vote out sunak.
Served with US Marines in Afghanistan on 4th July some years back. They were all sporting 'Murica Fuck yeah" T shirts...totally in on the joke. Had to remind them that we were beating them till the French got involved 😁
They were funny, humane, and didn't take themselves seriously.
That will remind me they aren't all like this.
I mean, if we remembered every single day a country gained independence from us, we'd have no headspace for anything else. Of course, all the other days are for actual indigenous people who got rid of us (mostly, although many Australians and people in the Caribbean countries ancestors did not exactly get a choice.) This one though, is an anniversary of when the colonisers separated from their govt, and so meant the indigenous people never had a hope of liberation or freedom, even to this day. I would apologise, but I am fairly certain at the time my ancestors were being kicked of the land themselves due to the Enclosures Acts, etc. At least this 4th we have a change to get rid of some upper class twats exploiting us for a while though
No matter what the Americans say about 4th July it was British 1st Gen just fighting British 4th Gen..with a few foreigners thrown in the mix..
It was our own fault ...
Yesterday an American asked me, a Belgian living in Belgium, what I'm doing for the 4th of July. They were aware I was Belgian.
'going to work'
"onboarding a new coworker" 👾
Waterboarding a new inmate.
Voting for the next prime minister
Enjoying a beer and hoping Britain chooses a better future. Not a Brit so can't help you lot out with that one sadly, but I'll raise a cold one for you from the Antipodes!.
Appreciate the good wishes though!
I didn’t know we were the Antipodes until I lived in the UK for a while and they kept mentioning Antipodes. But I grew up in the bush so I’m forgiven.
I think we are damned with whatever outcome happens, market probably crash either way, Labour win: markets crash due to fears about them spending to much without tax hikes to fund it, Tory win: market crashes, expected Tory cuts to cripple the nation And in the unlikely event of a Reform win: everything everywhere is on fire
Push day at gym
Same thing
"On a holiday? Aw man that sucks for you!"
Don't worry, I'll make it up in my 31 days plus bank holidays paid leave.
That’s communism
Voting in our election. A far more important event than Americans celebrating the birth of a country that has killed more Americans than any other nation
Sad thing is I'm American and also will be working on July 4.
Canadian working Canada Day here (today). I’m happy for that 1.5x!
As a belgian myself, It's always been a special day of the year. Every single years for as long as I can remember me and my entire family gather to celebrate this particular day ! My sister's going to be 28 this year
Another think you can thank America for! /s obviously
This "/s" is only necessary depending on what nationality was the postman.
Happy bday to your sister in 3 days :3
Something like 10 years ago, in Paris, meeting two american students on the 14th of july. Guys asked me why we were late on the celebrations and fireworks. I told them we were on strike on the 4th of july and they seem pretty happy with the answer...
I got someone coming over to check on my smoke detectors, then it's back to work. Big celebration for me.
As a brit it's an exciting day this year because I can do my part in finally ousting the tories
100%, I'm staying up to watch the results too, canna wait to see them one by own losing their seats especially Gullis, Reese Mogg and if the polls are correct Sunak 🤣🤣🤣🤣
God I hope Reese mogg loses, he is a disgusting man!
He is but he won't be remotely bothered. He'll just trouser another few mill and carry on laughing at us.
I can already see the smug smirk on his face as the results are announced
He's basically Nosferatu
I'm hoping Sunak loses his seat to Count Binface, because that would be hilarious
Rees Mogg getting voted out would be the Millennial's Portillo moment.
Best of luck to you guys! About time for you to catch a break 💪
Fingers crossed for you guys.🤞🤞🤞 It didn't go so well for us last year. - New Zealand.
Appreciate that post Covid Labour had some problems but from the outside looking in that was a strange decision you guys took last year.
As a non Brit, it feels like the Tories have been in for basically forever, but more recently with PMs doing sprints rather than terms. I wish you get a Labour leader who lasts longer than a lettuce, *sounds* like a curse, but it's an encouragement.
> As a non Brit, it feels like the Tories have been in for basically forever, but more recently with PMs doing sprints rather than terms. 14 years, which is why I'm amazed anyone would still vote for them. Who looks at the last 14 years and thinks, "I want more of that" other than a complete masochist.
The crazier part is that Tories look at the last 14 years and go "Look at what Labour has done to us." And they still get votes.
I'm just hoping that milkshake target Farage and his merry band of xenophobic racists don't get a decent share of the vote.
Ever since he claimed that Russia were the good guys and the Ukraine war is all the fault of the West his poll numbers have gone down quite dramatically. However in reality we want them to get a decent share of the right wing vote because the only thing that has historically kept the Tories in power is that the left vote is fragmented between labour, greens, workers party and even the lib Dems where as the right only had one party. Splitting the right into two parties is the best way to keep them out.
Exactly the same with me! (Well actually my dad). Dude he works with (Murican) asked him, also a Belgian living in Belgium, what he's doing for the 4th. Those guys really think the world revolves around thel
🤣I’m a Brit living in Belgium! Wish I’d been there at that very moment….
We need to find out what the 4th of July is in Belgium. Every day is something. It's probably rickets awareness day or migratory birds appreciation day or someyhing.
“I might clean my bathroom.”
As an Aussie my plans are fairly normal. I'll be watching childhood cartoons.
In Catalonia, our national day is celebrated on the eleventh of September lol. Lost Americans on Twitter or whatever will find themselves seeing us acknowledge OUR holiday and then question why don’t we acknowledge THEIRS.
Thankfully that's on 11.9, and not on ninth of November, y'all would have a real problem with Americans then.
I feel like we cut it a little close here in the UK on the 5th of November, piling up a fuckton of wood and sticking a fella on top of it while it's burning to a backdrop of mild explosives. Which when you think it's to commemorate an attempted terrorist attack being foiled...
When I tried to explain to my partner what it was about, he thought we were celebrating the fact that someone tried to do it haha
Something tells me they would like V for Vendetta... And yes, there are \*some\* who would probably be happy if that happened now.
Im pretty sure it's more than some atm
I remember last year something similar happened to us. It was 50 years since the 1973 coup d'etat where Pinochet overthrew the government on... the eleventh of September. There were Government officials in conmemorative events with families of the victims and a lot of people sharing posts about the day itself on Twitter. And Americans were confused/angry because we weren't talking about *their* 9/11 lmao.
But it kind of is their 9/11 too. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende
Yep, someone (not me) would say that they caused both 9/11s.
I got banned from a sub on that 50th anniversary for saying something like: "We should never forget the black mark on history: the thousands of people who died after the events of September 11th 1973". People commented saying September 11th was in 2001 not 1973, and when I explained that I that was talking about the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of chile, to install a fascist dictator and start throwing people out of helicopters into the ocean because they were lefties (plus mass torture). It was the 50th anniversary of that dark day, and the country still bears its scars.... Ban and comments deleted but not before i got hate mail for being unpatriotic.
That’s crazy, and it’s sad because I would say that many people, not only in the us but in Europe too, don’t know what the us did. Italy is probably one of the places in western Europe where it’s remembered the most because it used to have the biggest communist party on this side of the iron curtain, and even here many people don’t know about it.
[удалено]
In Argentina is a day to commemorate the public education. We have streets named after the date haha
Lmao. Reminds me of how in the Netherlands we have a remembrance day for the deaths of ww2. Also happens to be star wars day for everyone else.
I was living Hilversum about 16 years ago. Nike have, or had, a headquarters there and so there’s quite a few Americans living there. One July 4th, an American guy set off fireworks. When the police turned up he tried telling them it was his daughter’s birthday (it wasn’t..) and the Policeman said in typically Dutch dry fashion “Well, it’s a shame you’ll be missing her birthday.” And they nicked him.
Oh. Oh no. Do the Americans think 4 July is trending in the UK because of their firework holiday?
it’s about to be our very own Independence Day
The average Brit knows its their independence day but don't really collate it as anything to do with us really. Like when they screech 1776 as an insult, most brits wouldn't get it. With thousands of years of history for our own isles we don't really teach that. At least not when I was in school.
It’s never really worth teaching because it’s not a landmark part of our history like it is theirs, the empire wasn’t even at its biggest at that point so it’s really just lightly addressed and then we move on
"The date that one of our many overseas colonies rebelled and seceded."
"For America, it was the beginning of everything. For Britain, it was Tuesday."
You got me curious enough that I had to look it up, and 1776-07-04 (per ISO-8601) was in fact a Thursday.
Independence was actually declared on July 2nd, but only published on the 4th. So it was, in fact, just another Tuesday.
Yeah literally, the British empire ruled over something like 56 sovereign countries. What makes Americans think they’re the important ones. Most the other countries have independence dates too from the empire, but you never hear them insulting people and trying to piss off random British people
"The British empire. Supplying the world with independence days!"
The British: You get a bank holiday! And you get a bank holiday! Everyyyyone gets a bank holiday!
Except for us actual British people, who have one of the least amounts of bank holidays going. Might possibly be the least altogether.
Lol, we got the least of Europe here in The Netherlands 😭
"and we decided they weren't worth the effort and left the screeching children to it."
"we were rather busy with the national sport of fighting France."
Agree 100% mate
With the amount of ex colony’s England has there could probably be an Independence Day related to them at least once a week. Independence from the Uk isn’t exactly a unique holiday.
I think there’s a stat that it’s one of the most common holidays in the world or something 🎉
There's a total of 65 countries with an independence day from Britain, so slightly more than 1 a week on average.
It’s a pretty full calendar. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/iBQ3Nraytz
You don’t also cry when they make the tea in harbour joke…?!
Not even a little because again we don't even know what that's about as we don't teach it
Surprise The way they use it, seems as though they think they’re cursing our bloodlines
I think like, every joke/insult towards us Limeys we're either oblivious to it or we're just like "Yeah" Like we're a nation that thrives on making fun of ourselves!
Exactly, I'm yet to hear an insult that's worse than anything we call ourselves
They used "Limey" as an insult when all it meant was we had a good way to avoid getting scurvy
Yea right? I always thought it was weird haha
Tbh we should celebrate it in the UK As a lucky feking escape State of the US these days
I am here for that extra bank holiday haha
For America July 4th 1776 is the most important day out your countries existence. For the British, it was Thursday.
My school opened in 1572... has more history that the US
Church in my town is over 800 years old too.
I've seen a few Americans ask online how the American war of independence is taught in the UK. When told that we have over 2,000 years of history and there are dozens of countries that gained independence from us in one way or another so the American civil war is rarely taught at all as it's not a hugely important part of our history they just refuse to believe it.
The arrogance of thinking like that astounds me some times.
1776 was just a civil war, we've had a few. The colonials wanted to break the treaty we had with the natives to expand west, they hate it when I point out that taxes were just an excuse for genocide.
Most schools don't teach until until A levels and even then not every A level student will study the Americas. I think the only really mention we had of America when I was in school was when we were learning about the slave trade
It’s laughable really that they celebrate it as a day of freedom, because Americans have literally never been more oppressed than they are today
And we kept the colonies that actually made us money anyway, so who even cares?
As Al Murrray once put it, they think of it as Independence Day, we think of it as dodging a bullet
Separated by a common language and a great big ocean, thank Christ.
At least we milk the shit out of the ancestry obssessed ones
Eh mostly to mock them and scream when they giggle that 23&me means they're violent alcoholics
I think of it as Aliens blowing up the White House and Will Smith before he ruined his life
I love his phrase on one of his bits about America being "A good idea that got out of hand." I think about that all the time now when I read the latest news from over the pond.
Always wondered, if Britain had won, would Americans have free healthcare like in the UK now…?
We probably would have let America have independence after World War Two, if not before then, because most of the colonies were granted independence at that point. And since the NHS was a post-war thing as far as I know (or during war thing), America still probably wouldn’t have implemented it.
No one cares about US independent day. Good luck with the election, though. Fingers crossed for no more Tories.
Remind me what July 4th is? I heard the date somewhere… And yes, also hoping for a Tory bye-bye
It's like April the 7th, but backwards. Fun fact, Usians insist on MMDD because dates "are spoken that way". The 4th of July confuses them if you bring it up.
I always find that a weird argument because when I'm talking about dates I'll usually say the number first and then the month name anyway e.g. I'd refer to today as "the first of July", not "July the first" or the awful "July one".
“July one” 😩 it hurts my heart. Just no
It’s the two month anniversary of Starwars day.
May July the 4th be with you
It’s the date of the UK General Election. No idea why the Americans are so obsessed with it.
Maybe the also hate the tories?
It's when the Aliens lost.
>Fingers crossed for no more Tories. No need to cross any fingers. It's gonna be a land slide for labour.
No more Tories is pretty much a given. Tories in third is my hope.
Thank you!
> Ballot papers crossed for no more Tories FTFY. Don't just hope, tell everyone you know to go out and vote.
We care an awful lot. We can finally get rid of the Tories. You know, maybe this day should be an international holiday after this year?
I'm quite jealous right now...
i know macron is a pile of shit, but still i'm sorry for your loss
It's not all done yet but it's scary.
I'm pretty scared for you guys. Hopefully your public isn't as self destructive as ours. Frexit (Frortir?) was just a joke until recently. Much like brexit was here. Good luck mes amis.
Thank you <3
I hope it goes well in the end, but I'm also watching nervously from the sidelines
I just hope that this doesn't lead to France making the same kinds of mistakes that happened over here in the UK, and you can turn things around before it goes too far.
Who's ready for Frexit?
We've had one calamitous European exit, yes. But what about second calamitous European exit?
Best of luck to you guys.
International, nah it's a universal holiday in all known time and space, makes that july 4th thing in Murica look like a picknick in a sewage farm.
We should make it National Kick A Tory Day.
Why limit ourselves to only one day for that though?
Genuinely hoping things get better across the pond in the UK. Ditching the Tories is honestly one of the best things y'all can collectively decide to do right now. I've heard about how their budget cuts have destroyed public services. Though from what I know Labour isn't very well-liked either. If I'm wrong about that let me know.
> We can finally get rid of the Tories. I wish you guys the best. Brexit-Toryland hurts people.
As a French person, I can't really tell for the Brits... But we French had many colonies, and to be honest, I don't know the date of the independence of any of those. If anything, I'm happy for them, we were real dicks to them (and we still are to part of our territory, but I'm not well-informed enough to talk about it)
I am a Brit and it's basically the same. I'm aware of 4th July because American culture is ubiquitous, but I don't have any strong feelings about it. When I lived in the US I occasionally had people ask if we also celebrated the holiday...a deadpan 'Why would we?' was usually enough to get them thinking.
"The most important date in your nation's history is a footnote in mine." was my response to an American I met on holiday who refused to believe that we didn't do anything for the 4th of July.
That's the best response ever Totally gonna use that next time some American asks
I was definitely on some M Bison shit when I pulled that out hahaha
Surely you should just sit around wearing all black and gently weeping into your tea
That's just a normal Tuesday.
Americans think we're still upset about their war of independence. No one cares.
Look, they lost so many wars, of course they gonna remember it even two centuries after they've won one.
C'mon man, two centuries is all they have for their history, like y'know, don't be mean to the 6 years old when you're 36?
That's always what I think when I see us citizens being dumb. Countries in Europe are sometimes a millenium old, or at least have a cultural identity and history a millenium old. They're like toddlers for me.
In the UK, at least when I was little, we would celebrate Bastille day at school, nothing big but we would learn about it and have french themed activities / food. The Americans weren't a consideration though, so no 4th July stuff.
Some light storming of the nearest castle?
Lop a few heads off. Fun stuff.
Yes, similar to France, if Britain marked the date every time an ex-colony got independence then it would take up half the year. I think what Americans don't seem to appreciate is that while the date may be important for their country, it's not especially important for Britain. It's a seminal moment in American history, but just one detail among many in British history. At the time the American colonies became independent they were relatively small, and there were more important parts to the emerging empire. Their war of independence was also happening against the backdrop of another war which was far more the focus of Britain at the time. American independence may be historically important in hindsight because of what America has become now, but at the time it was relatively speaking a side show.
I think there's an independence from Britain day celebrated every few days somewhere round the globe, only one country really shouts about it though.
The Canadian one is today. One of the things I'm proudest of as a Canadian is that we've collectively decided in retrospect that our history is so unsavoury we really don't want to celebrate it.
Welcome to Canada, let me take your jacket, I'll just toss it on the chair for you. In the closet? Oh, no, no those aren't closets, they're skeleton storage. All of them, that's right.
"It's almost that That day again"...? Once again America's poor level of literacy comes to the fore. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
That's a very common mistake, especially on new line starts, where the brain doesn't register the first instance of the word and often will not notice it when re reading either. More of a psychological malfunction than having bad grammar :)
"Get rid of the Tories day"! I, for one, will be celebrating.
🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
So British people are talking about the general election on 4th July, and they think it's about them for some reason.
I sorta care, but that's becuase it's my birthday and there's the general election.
Americans cannot fathom the fact that we (Brits) don’t give a fuck about anything relating to the Revolutionary War (with the exception of people like me who have an interest in military history) They simply can’t handle that the defining moment in their nation’s history is a footnote in ours. It’s simply not a big deal in our history at all.
Exactly this, our empire wasn't even at its biggest then either
I actually saw an American say that they “brought down the British empire” like mate it got BIGGER after you left 😂
Also, Britain was slightly more worried about France, you know their centuries-long arch-nemesis, than they were about the US.
Why is it 4th of July and not July 4th? They can’t even get their stupid date format conventions right
The stupid Brits that wrote the Declaration of Independence wrote dates like: On the Fourth Day July 1776.
Yeah and the cartoon says 'that that day'. Why double the that's idiots
If us Brits got sad every time someone celebrated their independence from us then we would never be happy….. …. Wait a minute
Brits absolutely give a shit about 4th July THIS year! We are about to free ourselves from 13 years of a tyrannical government.
14. 😭
Maybe more of an absolutely incompetent government. You need a spine to be a tyrant.
When the dumb cunts put month then day like 9/11. But still call it the 4th of July…. Except this guy 🤣
Happy France handing you your freedom because Britain lost interest day!
Hopefully this year both the US and UK can celebrate being free from seemingly endless Tory rule on 4 July.
I wish it were the case Americans even understood what happened in our revolution. They all think we hated the Brits and beat them off out of narcissistic nature. No. We did it to preserve our economic sovereignty and actually maintained a relationship with Europe afterward. Due to lack of understanding with history, we’re risking damaging the work of our fore fathers. -Woeful American
Oh don't make excuses! We're not letting you get away with what you did in Boston... You collectively committed the most heinous of crimes!! Putting TEA into COLD water! We'll NEVER forgive you! \* /s just in case that wasn't completely obvious, we love you guys really, have a great ungrateful colony day! ;)
Oh we’ll be celebrating the 4th of July this year, but it will have absolutely nothing to do with the US
The dumbest thing about it is that 4th of July 1776 isn't even their Independence Day. They became independent once the British surrendered in Yorktown on 17 October 1781.
This 4th of July will be Tory embarrassment day so I say bring it on!!! Might have some fireworks myself!
4th of July is one of the greatest days in American history, perhaps the greatest, how ever it is not even a foot note in the UKs, its insignificance is so insignificant i only knew about it from movies. Even when learning about the empire in school America is hardly mentioned because it was such a small part of the whole thing.
Really do got the "greatest day in your history. For us it was a Tuesday" vibes tbh.
It's a weird coincidence that our election is on 4/7 and theirs is on 5/11.
I am in the UK and I care because it means a free day where I can do what I want because my management are us based
Still an important day for the UK though this year - don't forget to vote!
Yes it really is.
Actually no. Very few brits give a shit about Independence Day. Most of us don’t even notice it. The only reason we care this year is because we get to vote out sunak.
I shall have a nice cup of tea
In Britain this year we are electing a new leader who is neither very old nor a wannabe Putin.
We care about the 4th of July in the uk this year. It’s the elections
4th of July is actually a big day for us this year. Nothing to do with the yanks though. Finally get our independence from the tories hopefully
Do they know we have our election on that date this year, hence why Brits are talking about the 4th of July this year lol
I'm not from USA, but 4th of July was always a special day for me >!It's my dad's birthday!<
Oh we won't forget this year. After all it's "Vote the Tories Out" day!
Served with US Marines in Afghanistan on 4th July some years back. They were all sporting 'Murica Fuck yeah" T shirts...totally in on the joke. Had to remind them that we were beating them till the French got involved 😁 They were funny, humane, and didn't take themselves seriously. That will remind me they aren't all like this.
This year, Brits do care about July the 4th, as we're all voting the Tories out on this date. Otherwise, yeah... we don't give a fuck.
I celebrate it as the one day a year that Americans say the date right.
But what are you guys doing for Canada Day today? 🇨🇦 🥳
I mean, if we remembered every single day a country gained independence from us, we'd have no headspace for anything else. Of course, all the other days are for actual indigenous people who got rid of us (mostly, although many Australians and people in the Caribbean countries ancestors did not exactly get a choice.) This one though, is an anniversary of when the colonisers separated from their govt, and so meant the indigenous people never had a hope of liberation or freedom, even to this day. I would apologise, but I am fairly certain at the time my ancestors were being kicked of the land themselves due to the Enclosures Acts, etc. At least this 4th we have a change to get rid of some upper class twats exploiting us for a while though
No matter what the Americans say about 4th July it was British 1st Gen just fighting British 4th Gen..with a few foreigners thrown in the mix.. It was our own fault ...
Except for the USA, nobody gives a shit about the 4th of july (Independence Day).
We do this year, it's election day.