A quick question to the Americans of this site...

[omega 616]

Also there are only 46 states, you have a few commonwealths ... such as Pennsylvania. The more you know ...

See, now that's troll-bating. You know there are 50 states and then a handful of territories etc., but you insist on pretending there are 46. Pennsylvania, though fully called the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is an American state. A state is a governed body, such as a province, kingdom, or even some cities, such as the Vatican. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a State that is a part of a larger federation of states, beholden to the federal government.

DAMN YOU TROLL!!!!

How is that troll baiting? It is just pointing out a little known fact that I only know of 'cos of a programme called QI. So I thought I would share the knowledge.

I'm familiar with the program. They are more often wrong than you would like to believe. See, you didn't do any additional research on that, you just took it for granted that, since it didn't have the word State in it's official name, that it wasn't a state. But it's just symantics and Stephen Frey trying to be clever. You'll note in 2008 the man released a documentary series on the BBC in which he traveled to all 50 states. By American law (the law that counts for American territories) it is recognized as a State, get's 2 seats in congress, a proportionate number in the house, a bird, a flower, the whole nine yards.

I must stop being dragged into this.

Yeah, it is just a technicality ... I never said it was important or made a difference, I just said it as a fact. Stop making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Also, stop screaming troll at anything you don't quite like.

 

[BlackStar42]

Hey Brits. Guess what.

YOU slaughtered the natives of North America. (Before we took the job over later.) If you open up a history book from time to time, you'll notice that the US used to be a British Colony.

You're welcome for the knowledge I just shared with you.

A little. Then you took the job over and killed more than we ever did.

And then you raped all of Africa in the next century.

Whoops, the American knows history. Apparently better than the Brit.

Not all of it. And we weren't that bad, not compared to the Belgians at any rate. Look at what happened to it once we'd left, Zimbabwe being a prime example.

 

[Ranorak]

I don't know how much of it is true, but that's the story i was always told. independence day it about national identity and revolting against corrupt rule. See also Guy Fawkes day, Bastille Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Liberation Day.

Guy Fawkes day isn't celebrating a revolt against corrupt rule, it's celebrating that Catholics didn't blow up the houses of Parliament

I never got this. Why would the mascot for people against an institution of any kind be the man who was trying to put Catholics into power in Britain by blowing up a government building?

Cause V for Vendetta made the mask look cool.
And some....anonymous group failed to do their research.

 

[Tom Oliver]

Nope, we kinda went back on the whole democracy thing with Charles II. We don't really have a national holiday, we just drink heavily at the weekends

 

[Tom Oliver]

I don't know how much of it is true, but that's the story i was always told. independence day it about national identity and revolting against corrupt rule. See also Guy Fawkes day, Bastille Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Liberation Day.

Guy Fawkes day isn't celebrating a revolt against corrupt rule, it's celebrating that Catholics didn't blow up the houses of Parliament

I never got this. Why would the mascot for people against an institution of any kind be the man who was trying to put Catholics into power in Britain by blowing up a government building?

Because they think Guy Fawkes was an anarchist and a symbol of trying to destabilize a corrupt regime. He was just a mercenary dumb enough to take part in a plot which got foiled by one of the leaders telling his protestant friend that they were going to blow Westminster up.

That and the mask of his face is pretty sweet

 

[Laxman9292]

You misunderstand... thanks giving is just like every other holiday... a piece of corporate propaganda to sell more veal... but on a deeper level for the people its an excuse to get drunk and eat a lot...<.<

No, no it isn't. If you had any knowledge of Thanksgiving you would know it originated in the 1600's if not earlier and was brought to America because of the tradition settlers had to have a feast and give thanks for a safe journey over (celebrated by Spanish as well as English settlers).

Pro Tip to OP: At this time there was no America...

 

[GrandmaFunk]

then you got pissy about us giving canada to the french to stop a war.

you have that backwards, France gave Canada to the Brits to stop a war.

 

[Deathmageddon]

Thanksgiving was about how we cooperated with the natives before we killed them all, and we don't get days off for most of our holidays. Thanks, Congress.

 

[Gincairn]

i honestly think there are some Americans who have no idea what Thanksgiving is all about, as an example I was talking to an American woman on the phone on Thanksgiving, who said, and I quote. "Well yes, Thanksgiving is just a way of us remembering that we were once British."

I shit you not, her husband in the background tried to explain it to her, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Sacman]

You misunderstand... thanks giving is just like every other holiday... a piece of corporate propaganda to sell more veal... but on a deeper level for the people its an excuse to get drunk and eat a lot...<.<

No, no it isn't. If you had any knowledge of Thanksgiving you would know it originated in the 1600's if not earlier and was brought to America because of the tradition settlers had to have a feast and give thanks for a safe journey over (celebrated by Spanish as well as English settlers).

Pro Tip to OP: At this time there was no America...

Actually, such things were extremely common back than and the first settlers actually had one once a week, usually to celebrate harvests and such. and it was hardly a feast to begin with, more of a day of fasting, prayer, contemplation rather than a day of binge eating with family. But Thanksgiving as an official holiday has actually been set several times by several presidents, at one point it was set in July. Even than the day that we have now was set during the middle of the civil war by Lincoln to try and forge a common culture with the south, who celebrated the whole day of fasting and prayer thing in like October or something, but after that it didn't become widely celebrated until the 1900's and at that point many companies had taken advantage of it and propagated it to push their products... like Turkeys... despite the fact that traditional dish set forth was ham... and canned cranberry sauce... that I'm reasonably sure didn't exist in the 1600's...<.<

But my point is we're not giving thanks for what we have or for the settlers safe trip, I'm sure as hell not, being one of them Injuns you tried to murder, we're celebrating this hopelessly convoluted path to get to the point where we can sit on our ass, watch football and drown our sorrows in food on our day off work or school... Few view the day as little more than that...