• Vespair@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    Meanwhile on tiktok British people are apparently mad at Americans for not knowing or caring about Robbie Williams

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    instead we studied useful things

    Have you ever seen any British television quiz game shows? The amount of world geography and history most contestants seem to know is abismal, makes me scratch my head and seriously wonder what many of these people are doing there, in a game show about knowledge. What are they even doing there, in the delusion that they have a shot.

    “What is the capital of Denmark?”
    “Erm… pass.”

    This person’s comment is just another drop in the bucket in the sorry state of things.

  • Fontasia@feddit.nl
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    7 days ago

    How are you supposed to enjoy the music of Civilisation 7 without knowing The Odyssey?

    On a similar note, you’d think the guy on the right would counter with Beowulf

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I learned what it is when I played oddworld: abe’s oddysey (and as a bonus I appreciated the deliberate misspelling to insert the word “odd” into the title, which they did again in the sequel, abe’s exodus)

  • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I’m a little mad that Nolan is making the Odyssey. It’s gonna be so pretentious and trendy, and I’d be surprised if Anya Taylor Joy, Timothee chalamet and Jeremy Allan White aren’t in it, to round it out into the most pretentious movie in history

    Edit: Nolan can’t film anything but drama. Go watch Batman again and notice how awful the fight scenes are shot and the terrible choreography.

    • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      Yeah, another heavy dramatic saga to wade through. I think I’d prefer a Simon Pegg/Nick Frost adaptation. Or maybe a Matt Stone/Trey Parker version. Something still epic, but also hilarious and full of the vibrancy of humans.

      • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        You bring up a point, that in these Greek Epics you do find humor. But Christopher Nolan doesn’t know what a sense of humor is

  • mhague@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The world doesn’t revolve around America, but you’ll see idiots in Bumbfuck, Romania talking about Soros and wokeism. It’s got to be exhausting.

  • modifier@lemmy.ca
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    8 days ago

    As an American, I am going to dine on this single example as if it disproves the idea that we are insular and provincial hicks for the next decade.

        • lath@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          As a layman, i believe you have a stronger private school presence, which tend to specialize in order to differentiate. But I might be wrong because I have limited information on the topic of British education.

          • ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk
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            7 days ago

            We have a strong private school presence, yes. Trouble is it leads to privilege and people get on in life not cause they’re clever, but cause they wear the right school tie.

            • lath@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              People often choose the easier path, which in this case means choosing status over knowledge.

        • CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org
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          7 days ago

          it’s /s because someone could’ve implied that i consider americans and brits as the winners in this competition, when in fact, the only competition they’re winning is the one for the most villanous politic actions. USA is a leaéer here at the first glance, but brits literally created USA, so that kinda makes all of the USA villainy into a subset of the british one

          edit: i was wrong, the best villains are the french, bc William the Conquerror is the reason brits exist, and therefore also the reason usa does

  • bulwark@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The problem is, I have this big bag of stones in my glass house, and I want to throw them at the UK for being dumb, but if I do, I also have to admit the US education system is trash.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      I’ll throw that stone for you

      The British education system is almost as bad as the American education system. The biggest difference between our cultures is that a lot of Americans are willing to point out how incredibly racist our country is

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        It’s not just slavery minimization. A lot of far right Americans have taken over local school boards to ban books that talk about gay people existing or the fact that sex is something that happens, among other nefarious purposes. And a religious organization in Texas writes pretty much all the textbooks used across the country. It can’t be this bad in the UK can it?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        So much broken glass, was it worth it? Now I have to go get the broom.

        The amazing part is you somehow broke France and the Netherland’s glass too? Just so much to clean up.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      8 days ago

      I can do both. I’m ot gonna let some backwater pit like the UK insult my home, especially since the UK is essentially completely dependent on the US at this point.

  • DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The Illiad and the Odyssey are classics and hardly American culture. They are western culture as a whole. No idea what the drama is about but some dude not knowing what the Odyssey is, is the same as not knowing any other classic. (There are too many to count, but not knowing the most popular ones are is like not knowing the titanic sank.) (Spoilers)

    • Krudler@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      The world is awash in morons and they aren’t localized to that venue, although by way of it’s very structure, it’s a venue that strongly attracts people incapable of holding two thoughts at the same time.

      As G Carlin would have said, think how stupid the average person is and realize 50% are stupider than that. This is the world we live in - where the trivial thoughts emerging from society’s dreck take have equal stage and prominence to expertise and wisdom

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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    8 days ago

    $10 says the dipshit in question did a frantic google, saw ‘ulysses’ and went james joyce.

  • Seeker of Carcosa@feddit.uk
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    7 days ago

    Liam’s a tool. UK schools absolutely do teach the Odyssey, and have done so at least as far back as my youth.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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      most of the time someone says something wasnt taught in school its because that person straight up didnt pay attention in class

      • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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        7 days ago

        I suspect there is significant overlap between the kids who were complaining in math class that what they were learning was useless along with the adults who claim math class didn’t teach them “how to do taxes”. (As if you do anything other than fill out a form, anyways.)

        • Krudler@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Take the numbers from the numbered boxes, and transpose them into the numbered boxes on the tax form. There, you know how to do taxes, what are we gonna do with the other 13 years of your pre-college education?

            • Krudler@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              lol

              Let’s see… what other words are in the Financial Incompetants’ Guide to Life… ok here’s something that sounds cooL WRITE OFFS!!!1

        • mogranja@lemmy.eco.br
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          6 days ago

          Guess someone didn’t pay attention when the teacher said “Pay attention please” multiple times.

    • TheEmpireStrikesDak@thelemmy.club
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      Mine didn’t. We did Buddy, The Crucible, Animal Farm and Shakespeare from what I remember. First I heard of the Odyssey was when I was 19 and DW did a retelling of it on Arthur. When I saw a copy of the story in the shop I worked at, I got it so I could read the actual story.

      • Seeker of Carcosa@feddit.uk
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        Were you not aware of it at any point? I don’t necessarily mean as part of the GCSE curriculum. I’ve been aware of the Odyssey and the Iliad from the “Ancient Greeks” part of our primary school curriculum back in year 4. Of course we weren’t analysing texts, but I’d expect any ten year old to be capable of rattling off some major plot points like blinding Polyphemus, or sailors plugging their ears with wax against the sirens and tying Odysseus to the mast.

        • TheEmpireStrikesDak@thelemmy.club
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          Nope, I don’t think I’d ever heard of it prior to the Arthur version.

          We did the fall of Icarus in Year 3. My little sister learned Theseus and the Minotaur when she was around the same age, which is how I knew about it. Other than that, I don’t remember studying Ancient Greek anything, not even Heracles. Your school was obviously better than mine.