Barbarians!

The term 'barbarian' was a word the ancient Greeks used for anyone who didn't speak Greek and were apparently therefore uneducated lowlives. 'Foreigners' in a broader sense. The word would later be used by Arab conquerors refering to the indigenous people of North Africa, mainly the Berbers. An no, that name is not etymologically connected to 'barbarians'. 

If you're done with Tik Tok and Netflix for the day and therefore have a few minutes to spare, here's a very interesting piece on the subject. 

In Dutch it's called a 'Geuzennaam'. 'Geuzen' being the name the Spanish oppressors gave the Dutch resistance a couple of centuries ago was supposed to be derogative but they started proudly calling themselves Geuzen. Derived by the Spanish from the French word 'gueux' for 'lowlifes, scum, filthy beggars'. In short. 

To defy the Spanish the Dutch stole their recipe fot bitterballen (that's not a joke but true. Bigly) and started wearing the given nickname as a batch of honour.

The Spanish got their asses kicked at Haarlem by a group of women lead by a woman called Kenau after all the men had fled from town and even the Dutch army at the time refused to come to the aide of Haarlem. 'Kenau' is now a derogative word used for strong, independent women who won't listen to their fathers and husbands. And some women use it as a badge of honour.

The nazis used the word 'Untermensch' to refer to people who were less 'genetically perfect' than the Arian race. Which I still find odd as the nazi's hated people whose skin colour was darker than that of H!tler. The Arian people were basically from India. 

But no homosexual, Jew, communist, union member, Freemason, handicapped person or gypsy ever proudly called their own people 'Untermensch'. 

It seems not every derogative term is used as a 'Geuzennaam' (badge of honour). 

Can you think of other groups of people who started proudly calling themselves the name an oppressive force used to dehumanize them?

Interesting little known fact: the French started calling the Arabs (just like 'the west' a very broad term) 'Oriental Semites'; everyone speaking a semitic language is a semite. Jews, Ethiopians and Arabs alike. Making everyone who hates Jews, Ethiopians and/or Arabs an antisemite. Just so you know.

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Living outside society

Perhaps it's time for an actual, good old fashioned 'revolution of the people'. To get people in power who actually know what it's like to be 'the people'. 

A revolution does not always have to be violent; there are many ways to protest tyranny. Like this one:

People like President Trump and former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are absolutely [useless] clueless about actual life outside their palaces.

They actually seem to think every single millionair is a decent person "because they have a lot of money, just like we do." Latest evidence for this rather silly idea: Krasnov introduced 'the Gold card'; a 'green card' for millionaires. Everyone who gives him 5 million dollars gets to enter the USA. Even if they're rapists, frauds and human traffickers. That it's illegal to simply sell immigration papers, does not matter to tyrants. My apologies to wappies: the article in question contains a lot of words. Some even have three syllables or more. 

From their privileged position 'the elite' think not having Sky Channel as a kid is considered 'hardship' (Sunak) or that it's normal to state you dislike nepotism but give your son-in-law a job in your government. Like Trump did. Just like he thinks it's normal to want to frack your own daughter and let her sleep in the White House instead of your wife.

Wappies like to defend their Great Leader's ('Führer' in German) behaviour with: "Yeah, but Biden once sniffed a girl's hair and his son got business deals, just because of his last name!" As if Trump's children didn't. 

If your country gets new 'management' and you personally could choose, would you go for a multimillionaire despote who has already proven he would mainly enrich himself and his family and business partners (despotes never have actual friends), a highly educated person who might mean well but is actually out of touch with society and reality or someone else entirely?

Would you yourself make a great President? Why?

Think about it with your country's next elections.

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Are tourists stupid?

"Karen's mad they speak Spanish in Spain":  https://buff.ly/3UI17Xd

I have this theory: as soon as people are tourists, their IQ drops some 30 points.

Why do you think so many tourists are really stupid?

The question 'How stupid can you get?" tourists consider a challenge.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

A donation (click) is much appreciated:

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When people are on vacation abroad, they often leave their thinking cap at home:

They wonder why Spanish people speak Spanish, why their favourite local cookie is not available a thousand miles away and forget how to be polite. 

I find it hard to believe but witnessed it myself more than once: often tourists don't know that the international 'Do not Enter!' sign means exactly the same in other countries as it does in their own.

"How was I supposed to know I wasn't allowed to enter?" "What do you think that sign says?" "In my country it means "Do not Enter" but I don't know what it means in this country." 

When you vacation abroad, do you leave your thinking skills at home or do you realize not thinking and not respecting local habits can be actually dangerous?