Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Another fan! She's a huuuuuuuuge favorite of mine. Often called "The godmother of rock 'n roll", it's a shame and a disgrace that she's not in the rock and roll hall of fame.

But she was hardly the first, speed this up a little and electrify it and it's pure rock 'n roll from 1929

youtube.com/watch?v=UuY6NROhCQw

Or this from 1938

youtube.com/watch?v=nTOK-Z7g6Gk

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]

Pretty much all the elements of rock and roll can be found in "race" records* from as early as the 1920s, just not all together on the same recording and/or acoustic rather than electric. (phrases like a'rockin' and a'rollin' can also be found in the 1920s).

By the late 40s American Blacks were making records that sound pretty much exactly like rock and roll which didn't get the name rock and roll until the mid 1950s.

*race records were the first records both performed by and marketed to African Americans and began in the early 1920s, some people claim there was an earlier market but the recordings are presumed lost...

Love / What do you like most about Polish girls? :) [120]


anecdotal and unprovable


likewise


Where? In South Africa? YES!!!!! In Sweden and other places that have imported many young men from misogynistic cultures? YES!!!!!

Otherwise in modern western countries among the indigenous population..... not so much. The only way to justify the "many" is to redefine rape in a way that belittles the real horrific crime.

Love / What do you like most about Polish girls? :) [120]


Not advocating as such, but they talk about it as an inevitable part of a woman's life.

It's also the quickest way to make your bones as a feminist. Claim some long ago drunken encounter was rape and you'll get lots of sympathy from feminists, say no, actually going to bed with that guy while I was drunk wasn't a good idea but it was a consentual act (even if it's one you regret) and watch the knives come out....

Love / What do you like most about Polish girls? :) [120]

There's a couple of intellectual problems with femnism.

One is the idea that women face the same problems in the same order in every country. The problems faces by Polish women in the early 90s were completely different from those faced by American or British women at the same time (and the latter two also had differences). But mainstream feminism has never really dealt with that too well.

The other is that mainstream feminism in the US achieved the great majority of the goals it could achieve by the 1980s or so. The next, obvious goal of feminism was to tackle misogyny in non-western cultures. But they chickened out (partially because the intellectuals of the time had embraced post-structuralism and similar nonsense that made critique of non-western cultures seem reactionary and misguided).

The result was that first rate minds abandoned feminism for other things and a bunch of second raters took over who began looking more and more inward and feminist theory stopped being related to very much in the real world.

At present, mainstream feminism in the US has retreated into a couple of different camps: One specializes in traditional models of femininity, especially seeing women as the arbiters of nice behavior and manners so they spend a lot of time obsessing over pronouns for transexuals and the like. The other, more vile, is creating an alternate life-track for women in which marriage and motherhood are replaced with rape and abortion as principle milestones in a woman's life.

All this has very little appeal for most Polish women. It does have traction with a small group but they tend to run into a brick wall when trying to sell this to the rest of the country.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [240]


It's accusative. I think it was Anna Wierzbicka who pointed out that impersonal expressions that govern the accusative (boleć, nie stać) tend to refer to negative experiences, whereas the dative can be positive, neutral or negative (though less than accusative)

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]


If you could convert it, which I'm not sure if you could, it would be worth 10 current zloties (back in the mid-90s they launched new zloties with 4 less 0's).

10 new zloties are worth about 2 and one half euros. Probably not worth the bother of converting.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


That's how we do things in America, comrade.

Life / Will Poland ever be multicultural like Sweden, Germany or France? [283]

The Swedish parliament made that decision (in 1974 I believe). I don't see the Sejm dong anything similar.

And Multiculturalism wasn't the goal, "multiculturalism" was a post facto rationalization after significantly large portions of the immigrants who arrived failed to integrate beyond accepting welfare. It's the authors of failed policy trying to make the policies seem slightly less terrible.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


I had in mind more things like starocie... flea markets, that kind of thing. I'm sure people who sell old weapons might have an idea where newer ones could be obtained....


Culture (maybe some genetics, but that's crime think now so I won't mention it....).

The average mass shooter in the US is not a white crazy loner (though we've got those a plenty) but more likely a black or latino at a party who gets mad about something and comes back packing and shooting in all directions. They often get away because the victims refuse to cooperate with police. Look up "mass party shooting" on google.

I don't know how likely that situation is in Poland (not so much I think) but looking at gun violence is not helped by hysterical overreactions and thinking of guns as magic charms that turn normal people into mad killers....


Actually the places with easier access tend to have lower levels of gun violence. There's been over 300 gun murders in "gun free" Chicago, none by NRA members.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Becuase Poland is generally not that violent a place. That's why mafia wars in the 1990s were nothing compared to Russia (a much more violent place).

Guns aren't magic, they don't cause crime and violence by themselves. It's culture more than the mere presence of guns that causes gun crime.

Note that gun crime did not decrease after the total gun ban in the UK.

Note that I'm not in favor of everybody walking around with guns either, but people who panic at the very idea of some citizens legally owning guns are just as gun crazy as those who keep machine guns at home.... just in a different direction.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


I'm pretty sure criminals don't have great problems in acquiring guns now.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


It's probably a little harder now, but at the Russian markets of the early 1990s you supposedly could buy weapons (and all sorts of other things not officially displayed). Same thing was supposedly true for the old Stadion dziesięciolecia in Warsaw (it used to be my favorite place in Warsaw, still sooo sad it's gone).

If I wanted to buy a gun (I don't but if I did) I would start asking around (discreetly) at an open air market or two, especially if there were non-Polish sellers.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Nah, you don't understand American gun love (they way I don't understand soccer). I don't get it entirely either but I don't reflexively look down on it either by warbling about a "climate of fear". Disclosure there were lots of guns around when I was a kid and I was taught basic gun safety and marksmanship but I was never especially into guns after outgrowing bb guns (which could be a lot of fun).


My impression is rather that if Polish people want guns they won't care whether or not it's "legal". Polish people have a long and fine tradition of ignoring laws they find inconvenient. The traditional attitude is roughtly "rules are for those other people and they should follow them.... but my case is special"

I remember a few years ago on Ranczo (yeah, a dumb show, but it can be culturally revealing at times) some mafioso types were threatening the village and the villagers decided to fight back.... and as it turned out lots of people had guns stored away somewhere. I wouldn't be that surprised if more people than is supposed in the countryside have guns that they don't talk about or wave around.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


No. They believe in self-defense because settling most of the continent only happened in the 19th century and people had to be able to take care of themselves without much law enforcement/nanny state to take care of them. This meant guns for self defense and hunting.

US gun culture is not the product of fear but of history. Given most of that is not relevant in Europe which has been settled with state infrastructure for much longer.


Spoken like a city slicker who's never gone to the dump to shoot rats....

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Suicides are routinely included in gun homocide rates in the US.


Beause drug dealers and gang members are self-selected and are mostly a danger to each other (and honestly I don't care if crooks kill each other).

I only care about gang gun violence when innocent bystanders get shot which is distressingly often (but the racial realities behind that mean that it doesn't get discussed in the media).

The facts are that gun violence is statistically mostly commited by the NAM (non-Asian* minority) population. But no one can publicly say they want to publicly disarm urban blacks and latinos so they turn on white gun owners (who have comparitively low levels of gun violence) instead.

*in the US "Asian" means East Asia, not Southern Asia as in the UK

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


When you control for drug and/or gang violence and suicide (look up the Smith and Wesson retirement plan), US gun crime rates are actually pretty modest.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


The right of self defense? I realize British people don't believe in self-defense but Americans (and I think Poles) do.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Technically the US constitution doesn't give anyone rights, it prohibits the government from infringing people's natural rights which include self-defense.

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

What is going on here?

Is someone selling a bunch of old worthless Polish currency to gullible people in Asia by telling them it's worth something?

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]


Where's the fire? if you have the karta stałego pobytu you don't need citizenship. Just wait a few years and apply normally.

News / Cardinal Józef Glemp has died aged 83. Cardinal Macharski too. [10]

Mods, why don't you just call this the "dead priest thread"? That way anytime a priest dies readers will know where to go!

Good job! (sarcasm)

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


It's apparently Polish-American. I wonder if it was a regional thing in Poland that died out here and survived and spread in the US or if it arose there.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1049]


yikes! I started with urząd and forgot to change the adjective when I realized służba was the better word.....

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1049]


I'm not a native speaker but I'll try so the native can correct it and make fun of my pseudo tough guy talk

"Jazda! Już! Bo dzwonię do kumpla ze służby migracyjnego.... nie widziałeś mnie, kumasz?"

change widziałeś to widziałaś if the person is speaking to a woman.

Life / West-East life in Poland? [45]


The one time I was there (many years ago) I was surprised to see what a dump it was. One of the most poorly maintained cities I'd ever seen in Poland. Is it any better. One friend's explanation was that they didn't want to make it look too attractive to the Germans across the border....


I pretty much agree with this. Draw a line from Warsaw to Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, Cracow and back to Warsaw. Most of what's inside that area is pretty okay and most of what's not inside it ...... is a lot worse off.

Law / I have D Type Cel Wydania 10 visa? What EU countries can I visit with it? [16]

Why is Poland giving visas to people too stupid to understand them and don't even know enough to google the answers?

I realize there are some diploma mills making shady promises about Schengen visas but the time to check these things out is before you get the visa.

News / Religious extremists advocate murdering gay Polish politician [42]


I don't know about Polish law, but calling for violence against an identifiable person (like the current mayor of Słupsk) is not protected speech and is actionable should the current mayor Słupsk choose to pursue that avenue.

News / Russian criticism of Poland - Soviet war memorial removal [332]


I thought this was settled in the early 90s. After decades of everyone complaining about it as soon as proposals were made to demolish it the majority of Varsovians decided that it had grown on them and most emphatically did not want to have it torn down. Before they started building other tall buildings it was also a handy way to keep from getting too lost while visting Warsaw.

I think the fate of the Palace of Culture is the business of Varsovians since it's in their city. I would be against tearing it down without a referendum of citizens of Warsaw (and private collections should be taken rather than taxing everybody - tearing it down would be a very expensive proposition and those who want to do it should bear the sole financial burden of accomplishing it).

And trying to pretend the Soviet period didn't exist is very harmful and counter-productive. A country can only come to terms with the past if it acknowledges it. Trying to pretend it never happened (or wanting to go back in time and redo the past) causes more problems than it solves.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]

I've heard both piętka and dupka. If I were around friends I'd probably say dupka and I'd say piętka in more polite company. I don't know if any native speakers would do that.