From the UK and personally, 100% yes but not sure I feel the rest of the population would agree. I mean, a lot of us turned our backs on the EU and there’s a lot of cross over with US right wing nutters.
However, I would believe that when push comes to shove, we would be generally willing to defend Canada, Australia and NZ over anyone else, and then European countries at the next level. The reaction in support for Ukraine was pretty universal here and there are still lots of donations and support that is not shared with any African, Asian or Central/South American countries having similar problems.
Basically, you’re white so yes you can count on us!
If we rolled back a decade, Putin wasn’t around and something happened like idk, China invaded western Russia, I can imagine us helping Russia.
I should change it to “your population is mostly white so yes you can count on us”. I say this as an English born non-white person who has seen the differences in public reactions to Ukraine and other conflicts (Syria, various African ones, Gaza etc). Can’t say for certain it’s because of this reason but certainly feels like it!
I’m sure for some (sad and backwards) people it is a racially motivated position - but for many others I think it has more to do with cultural and geographical proximity.
But then our elected representatives go and fuck up the Middle East… I don’t know.
As an aside, do you know my favourite rugby chant? I’ve heard it at Wales v England rugby games:
“I’d rather wear a turban than a rose, I’d rather wear a turban than a rose, I’d rather wear a turban, I’d rather wear a turban, I’d rather wear a turban than a rose.”
I have a Russian friend who lives in (south) Wales and when he first arrived (10-15 years ago) he couldn’t understand non-white people being Welsh. Years later he realised that a green person born in Newport is already more Welsh than he’ll ever be.
The UK is a very contradictory bastard union that has - so far - somehow managed to stay in one piece.
Something something Emmanuel Todd and endogamous communal family structures, the tight internal clan bonds competing with and thus preventing the creation of a strong overarching identities vs. almost exclusively non-communal structures in Europe (and where there’s communalism it’s not as strong as in the Arab world, and definitely not endogamous), leading to strong overarching civil societies and identities. Very different assumptions about how society should be organised on a very fundamental, structural, level.
In those terms Europe is culturally way closer to e.g. Japan (just as much stem family structures as e.g. Ireland and lots of Scandinavian and German regions, some in France) than we are to the Arab world. Arabs actually integrating here means, for them, to flip an internal switch, saying something like “oh now my clan is my region, and my profession a secondary one”, and that is hard to do because a) you don’t actually know most of those people, while you know at least about everyone in your original clan, and b) you’re in a foreign land, not understanding what binds people together even though they might not know each other directly, also c) your family clan is still expecting you to be part of it, and not just in the “come to your cousin’s marriage” way. Lots of non-prejudicial cultural friction that especially people from absurdly individualist societies like the US don’t understand because they don’t have an overarching society in the first place. Both sides think the other is weird AF.
That’s a very good point and can’t believe I didn’t think of that! Surely the British army would have to protect “his majesty’s realm” or some bollocks like that.
I just read that Canada hosts Britain’s largest overseas base, although it seems to be for training purposes.
From the UK and personally, 100% yes but not sure I feel the rest of the population would agree. I mean, a lot of us turned our backs on the EU and there’s a lot of cross over with US right wing nutters.
However, I would believe that when push comes to shove, we would be generally willing to defend Canada, Australia and NZ over anyone else, and then European countries at the next level. The reaction in support for Ukraine was pretty universal here and there are still lots of donations and support that is not shared with any African, Asian or Central/South American countries having similar problems.
Basically, you’re white so yes you can count on us!
“Basically, you’re white so yes you can count on us!“
Russia?
If we rolled back a decade, Putin wasn’t around and something happened like idk, China invaded western Russia, I can imagine us helping Russia.
I should change it to “your population is mostly white so yes you can count on us”. I say this as an English born non-white person who has seen the differences in public reactions to Ukraine and other conflicts (Syria, various African ones, Gaza etc). Can’t say for certain it’s because of this reason but certainly feels like it!
I’m sure for some (sad and backwards) people it is a racially motivated position - but for many others I think it has more to do with cultural and geographical proximity.
But then our elected representatives go and fuck up the Middle East… I don’t know.
As an aside, do you know my favourite rugby chant? I’ve heard it at Wales v England rugby games:
“I’d rather wear a turban than a rose, I’d rather wear a turban than a rose, I’d rather wear a turban, I’d rather wear a turban, I’d rather wear a turban than a rose.”
I have a Russian friend who lives in (south) Wales and when he first arrived (10-15 years ago) he couldn’t understand non-white people being Welsh. Years later he realised that a green person born in Newport is already more Welsh than he’ll ever be.
The UK is a very contradictory bastard union that has - so far - somehow managed to stay in one piece.
Something something Emmanuel Todd and endogamous communal family structures, the tight internal clan bonds competing with and thus preventing the creation of a strong overarching identities vs. almost exclusively non-communal structures in Europe (and where there’s communalism it’s not as strong as in the Arab world, and definitely not endogamous), leading to strong overarching civil societies and identities. Very different assumptions about how society should be organised on a very fundamental, structural, level.
In those terms Europe is culturally way closer to e.g. Japan (just as much stem family structures as e.g. Ireland and lots of Scandinavian and German regions, some in France) than we are to the Arab world. Arabs actually integrating here means, for them, to flip an internal switch, saying something like “oh now my clan is my region, and my profession a secondary one”, and that is hard to do because a) you don’t actually know most of those people, while you know at least about everyone in your original clan, and b) you’re in a foreign land, not understanding what binds people together even though they might not know each other directly, also c) your family clan is still expecting you to be part of it, and not just in the “come to your cousin’s marriage” way. Lots of non-prejudicial cultural friction that especially people from absurdly individualist societies like the US don’t understand because they don’t have an overarching society in the first place. Both sides think the other is weird AF.
Well we do have the same King as the UK does. That counts for something doesn’t it?
That’s a very good point and can’t believe I didn’t think of that! Surely the British army would have to protect “his majesty’s realm” or some bollocks like that.
I just read that Canada hosts Britain’s largest overseas base, although it seems to be for training purposes.