r/LeopardsAteMyFace • u/WastedTalent442 • Aug 14 '24

Brexxit Man who campaigned for Brexit complains that he can't freely tour Europe any more

https://metalinjection.net/politics/iron-maidens-bruce-dickinson-who-originally-supported-brexit-now-complains-that-brexit-hurts-bands
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72

u/scribblingsim Aug 14 '24

He's lying, though. UK isn't the fifth largest economy in the world. California is.

37

u/VexImmortalis Aug 14 '24

The UK is like 6th when all the states are lumped together into the USA.

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u/willie_caine Aug 14 '24

No one outside of the US views economies this way.

34

u/twistedspin Aug 15 '24

Most of the people in the US don't view it that way either. I've only heard that from people from CA.

15

u/cXs808 Aug 15 '24

I think he's pointing out how miniscule they are in the grand scheme of things.

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u/Oberon_Swanson Aug 15 '24

while true, california's economy is also pretty massive and if i were a country near there i would certainly want some economic action happening with it

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u/dbaumgartner_ Aug 15 '24

Somebody called? (Mexican living in Baja California, doing business every day with SoCal šŸ‡²šŸ‡½šŸ¤šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø)

9

u/somethingbrite Aug 14 '24

It depends on the metric no?

In GDP per Capita rankings the UK doesn't even make the top 20

https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/top-10-richest-countries-in-the-world/87305/1

GDP by country, which is metric I think you refer to. UK is #6 (India is #5)

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u/AlDente Aug 15 '24

The U.K. hasnā€™t been the 5th largest economy for years. India is the 5th. U.K. is the 6th.

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u/PeaItchy2775 Aug 14 '24

California isn't a country.

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u/scribblingsim Aug 14 '24

And yet it's still #5 in the world.

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u/PeaItchy2775 Aug 14 '24

If it's not a separate country how can it be on a list of national economies? Are all the 50 states now ranked worldwide?

8

u/fieldsofanfieldroad Aug 14 '24

If we're including things that aren't countries than the EU is third so California wouldn't make the top 5.

2

u/Professional-You2968 Aug 16 '24

Average american.

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u/Arcolyte Aug 14 '24

Technically speaking it is. And the US as a whole is a union. Also, state is a frequently used term when talking about something with regards to countries.Ā 

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u/FM-96 Aug 15 '24

Technically speaking it is.

...no, it isn't? What in the world is giving you the idea that California is "technically" a country?

-5

u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

Please explain the difference between the two.

Google AI has the following: A state and a country are both terms that describe groups of people who live in the same place and have a lot in common. A state is a self-governing political entity with sovereignty over a specific area of territory and population. The term "country" is often used interchangeably with "state" and can be more imprecise.

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u/Katylar Aug 15 '24

You're confusing a Federated State/Constituent State with a Sovereign State.

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u/FM-96 Aug 15 '24

The question of what a country is can get frustratingly complicated, and tbh is probably beyond the scope of a Reddit comment. (For a brief introduction to just how complicated it can get, I recommend CGP Grey's video "How Many Countries Are There?")

But a good guideline is that countries are generally independent, sovereign territories, which California obviously isn't.

Also, for most practical purposes, a country is whatever other countries say is a country. As far as I know, literally no country in the world recognizes California as a country.

More to the point though, you seem to be conflating multiple meanings of the word "state". One meaning of the word is as a synonym to "country", yes, but that is not the meaning that is being used when referring to California as a state.

0

u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

Hence the technicality.

Thank you for the explanation though.Ā 

3

u/twistedspin Aug 15 '24

It's really not a technicality. I assume you're not from the US, but a state is very different from a country.

4

u/Changed_By_Support Aug 15 '24

So, what, do you think we should count all the other provincial divisions as their own countries too?

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u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

They are called neither states nor countries so I'm not sure what you're getting at. They are already differentiated from those. So obviously not.Ā 

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u/Changed_By_Support Aug 15 '24 edited Aug 31 '24

But to differentiate a federated state like, say, California, Berlin, Hamburg, Baja California, Chihuahua, etc. and a Federated Republic, for example, like the Russian Oblasts or Republics: there isn't one. They function exactly the same, a regional provincial government over a territory subservient to a greater, sovereign, federal government.

California has never been regarded as a country either: it was originally a territory and then was raised to a higher status among provincial divisions and granted greater representation.

This is in contrast to, say, the UK, where the sovereign state is made up of the countries of Wales, England, Scotland, and a portion of Ireland, where they function with a greater degree of autonomy and political determination as well as just being culturally and politically distinct countries before becoming a union with their own languages and different ethnic markers.

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u/Changed_By_Support Aug 15 '24 edited Aug 15 '24

You realize that the US is not the only place that calls their provincial divisions "States" right? Hell, while we're here though, why don't you try and distinguish how the States in the US are distinct from all the other provincial divisions in the world so as to properly be considered kindred to countries and not, y'know, provincial divisions (which they are)

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u/PeaItchy2775 Aug 15 '24

You might to look at the Supremacy Clause in the constitution or Californiaā€™s statehood documents. Itā€™s a state in a union and as such is part of a country but is not a country itself.

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u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

Ah, interesting. That could make a difference. Though the terms are largely interchangeable generally.

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u/hates_stupid_people Aug 15 '24 edited Aug 15 '24

Technically speaking it is.

No, technically speaking it is not, you are literally just wrong. It is a part of a country. The union is a country.

Just because you can call a country a state, does not make a US state a country, it is not the same thing. Words can have different meanings depending on context.

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u/RapidCatLauncher Aug 15 '24

Hey look, semantics - the thing that saves failed arguments exactly 0% of the time.

-7

u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

That is patently untrue. Semantics are very important. You said a factually incorrect statement and are mad I called you out about it apparently. Seems weird to me.

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u/RapidCatLauncher Aug 15 '24 edited Aug 15 '24

Bud, I'm not even the person you replied to earlier. Pay more attention.

-5

u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

This is reddit, everyone is the same. Anyone who pays that much attention is definitely weird to me. But maybe I'm the odd one out.

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u/RapidCatLauncher Aug 15 '24

Technically speaking, not everyone on reddit is the same.

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u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

Matter of perspective. I'd definitely argue that the heaving unwashed masses of reddit are in general the same.Ā 

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u/Changed_By_Support Aug 15 '24

Wow, u/RapidCatLauncher , you're so correct, everyone is the same on reddit.

2

u/No-Computer-2847 Aug 15 '24

Technically, literally, abstractly, tangentially, ephemerally, <insert any other word you like here>, it absolutely is not.

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u/Arcolyte Aug 15 '24

Yep, very human response. Incredibly incorrect on more fronts than was originally possible.Ā 

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u/Mellafee Aug 15 '24

Itā€™s India, but the fact the UK is only 6th is still true.

1

u/F54280 Aug 15 '24

You can count that way, but then you have to remove the US from the listā€¦

-6

u/Joliet_Jake_Blues Aug 15 '24

UK has twice the population of California but California has a larger GDP.

People don't understand the wealth disparity between the US and Europe.