Credit where credit is due, to reddit for making them go to court over it.

I have a feeling that an actual martial law declaration would be enough to motivate a general strike.

This actually happened when early nationalists tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic in interwar Germany. Some old generals and their men took over the capital and declared themselves in charge of the country. A general strike was declared, and the whole country shut down. The generals were then left “in charge” of a totally shut down society. Needless to say, the coup lasted a short enough time that it’s usually not even mentioned in world history lessons. This whole event pre-dated Hitler’s first beer hall putsch by like a decade or something, if memory serves.

This. Video games too. And porn for that matter. We’re overall a little weak on the trifecta of primary internet subject matter.

At least we’re solid on owls though, my enduring admiration to our dedicated owl posters.

It’s really just recent history.

The funny thing is the groundwork for the current UK was actually formed by a Scottish king who managed to get the English throne. That’s how Scotland and England unified ultimately, the Scottish king peacefully took over both due to some inheritance thing. Like a century later someone else formalized the unification of the two, instead of it being one king who had both crowns.

WW2 is widely considered the deathblow to the British Empire. They were still fully intact after WW1, they still had India, a lot of Africa, etc and that all played an important role in how WW2 played out.

After WW2 is when they started slowly granting everyone independence, in major part because they didn’t have the resources anymore to keep control of everything after being economically drained by both the world wars.

You could make the argument that losing the American colonies was an early indicator of the beginning of their decline, but that’s really debatable. They did grow in land area in other regions (Africa mainly) after that point. Personally I would make the argument that the WW1-WW2 era was the high point of British power in comparison to the other global powers.

Interesting question, I’m not sure. Would need someone more knowledgeable on Turkish history specifically.

Ottomans is an easy one, it was dismantled by treaty after losing in WW1.

Generally there is no clear cut rule about when you draw the line if it’s not obvious, so you could make the argument that the British Empire still exists if you really wanted to. They do still have some overseas possessions after all, that would be a perfectly legit position someone could argue if they felt like it. And I’m sure some people even do.

Oh, interesting, thank you. I did not realize that was a thing.

Anyone have any insight on why NR does particularly well in the south of France?

Was it news to you that religious nuts were kinda uneducated?

Regardless, I’m still asking about the content of the bullshit prophecy, not whether it’s bullshit or not. Discussing it’s actual merits or lack thereof seems like a waste of time to me. I mean, we’re talking about a literal prophecy. Those generally aren’t taken seriously by your average even halfway intelligent person.

Sure. But it’s legitimacy is irrelevant so long as they believe it, which they do.

Waitasec, I’m no expert, but I thought the whole Rapture thing required all the Jewish people to be gathered into one place first. So, they literally require every Jewish person in America to be deported to Israel for their whole process to even begin.

Did I misunderstand something?

I think it’s a little more complicated. I can empathize with the reluctance to share, I was raised that way too. He’s right that we can sometimes share even innocuous things we like because that’s easier and feels safer than trying to compose our own thoughts into words. I’m guessing you’ve probably done it with music before, songs are really good at communicating things like that sometimes, it can even just be more efficient.

I grew out of it eventually though. I wanted the choice, the power to either share a piece of media to represent me or just open myself up and present my own case based in my own feelings and with my own logic. Since I can now comfortably do both, I recognize that my old reluctance to open up was an unnecessary burden I was putting on myself, rooted in fears that were ultimately unnecessary and unproductive, that I acquired in my childhood. Much like many other things I acquired in my childhood, it just wasn’t what I wanted anymore. That fear was a crutch, training wheels, and just a hindrance now. Ultimately it had become a weakness, as fear can sometimes be if you listen to it too much.

No point. We can control ourselves, but we cannot control other people. If a girl wants you to talk to her instead of show her videos, then whatever, she can want that. If you don’t want to change yourself for her, then just find a different girl.

fear of criticism for having insecurities

Found your problem. If your boys won’t accept you when you’re having a hard time, you might just have shit friends. We all struggle with different things, there’s no shame in being honest about that. A good friend will get that and have your back anyway, even when you need to vent or whatever.

You might get teased a little or something, but you shouldn’t really be afraid of that either if you know your friend actually does give half a shit about you.

If you’re posting links to someone’s service on the internet, I think it’s going to be hard to make the case that posting their links isn’t “supporting them”, regardless of your own personal motive for doing so.

That was my thought. They could also install some arcade games, sell beer, be a venue for local arts, stuff like that. Basically a pivot from family-friendly food place to hip hang-out spot for nostalgic millennials wanting a more grown-up version of Chuck E Cheese.

If they could pull this off, it’d turn their biggest current disadvantage (all that expensive square footage they’re sitting on) into an advantage for them.

I’m not knowledgeable enough about the industry as a whole to really go much deeper, but I do know pizza faces some of the stiffest competition in the entire restaurant industry, which itself is unusually competitive.

Barriers to entry are minimal and profit margins are high compared to the rest of the industry. Even anecdotally, pizza places are everywhere, and pizza is a fairly cheap food.

I actually can’t think of a good parallel. Pizza is a pretty unique dish, from a culinary-economic standpoint. It’s deeply beloved, ingredients are very low cost, labor input is minimal, necessary physical footprint is small.

If I were them, I’d try leaning into the physical locations, pushing a little bit into Chuck E Cheese territory, but quieter. Try to get like, DnD groups and study groups to use your space for their get togethers, and sell them food while they’re there. It’d be a marketing shift more than anything else.

Actually watched a short documentary about their business situation the other day.

Not going well.

Pizza Hut’s advantage used to be the nice dine-in experience with the buffet with salad and stuff, pasta dishes alongside pizza, etc. That’s all declined in recent years though, with them being squeezed on all sides by the competition without a clear way to positively differentiate themselves. Because they operated larger sit-down restaurants though, their overhead is higher, and they’re really struggling with those greater costs.