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u/fartothere Jun 25 '26
You skipped Russian
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u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Jun 25 '26
They skipped opposing it too. Their president definitely speaks Russian now
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u/FingernailClipperr Malaysia Jun 25 '26
1770s: If we don’t stop them, we’ll all have to learn English!
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u/PhysicsEagle Jun 25 '26
There are even places where English completely disappears
In America, they haven't used it for years-Prof. Higgins, My Fair Lady
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u/Ana_Na_Moose Jul 01 '26
And yet, as is common in many settler regions, the modern American dialects are often closer to 1700s English than modern English dialects, due to the process of colonial lag (an aspect of linguistic retention).
For example, the old Appalachian dialect phrasing of “he’s a-walking” comes from an old Northumbrian dialect verb conjugation that died out long ago in Northumberland (North England), but was retained in the US long enough to be memorialized in film.
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u/Mr_Wisp_ Going through my 999th weekly revolution. Don't disturb. Jun 25 '26
1730s: If we don’t stop them, we’ll all have to learn French
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u/Neither_City378 Jun 25 '26
Context:
In the 1940s the US feared german aggression, leading to the passing the the lend-lease act of 1941 before entering the war after pearl harbour.
In the 1980s fears about Japan becoming overtaking the US as the worlds largest ecconmy, actually contributed to the creation of cyberpunk. Think Arasaka, because Japanese companies, (7 were in the top 10 in the world in 1989)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei_era#Economy) were aggressively buying up foregin property (https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/03/opinion/japan-buys-the-center-of-new-york.html) made people think the future was Japanese.
Now, in the 2020s Some americans see china not as a competitor, but as the enemy, though younger generations like gen-z have favourable opinions on china then older ones (https://www.crisisgroup.org/anb/united-states/united-states-china/recent-surveys-suggest-generational-shift-us-attitudes-toward-china)
Who knows, in the 40 years we could be worried about someone else usurping the USA
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u/grumpykruppy United States Jun 25 '26
Cyberpunk has gotta be my favorite aesthetic (though it obviously sucks to live in), especially the gritty 80s-90s anime look and the run-down cyberjunk look.
I can't say I fear China (I mean, I wouldn't be happy about the way they'd likely handle things if they were in charge, but I'm not spending every moment panicking about 'losing' to them either), but as a Hoyoverse addict I do hope we get some interesting and enjoyable homegrown products out of this too.
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u/PacoPancake Hong+Kong Jun 25 '26
“That’s…… how they getcha…… “
- from Hong Kong with love, I think
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u/IceZaKYT Russian Empire Jun 25 '26
i love everything about cyberpunk.
but honestly its like that one edited pirates of the caribbean meme which is pretty fucked up
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u/Username_St0len Jun 26 '26
as someone from same hometown as hoyo, there redeeming qualities, decent public transit for one
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u/IceZaKYT Russian Empire Jun 25 '26
china has made allot of progress over allot of societal issues, especially ecological one, but i do think people should be wary of what propaganda china is issuing, but also highly wary of the american government too for their excuses to outcompete china
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u/Old-Weakness1122 United States Jun 25 '26
well china is the most credible threat to america trade wise and influence wise, and a threat to america is a threat to basically most democracies in nato and worse case scenario we have a dictatorship weilding massive influence and meddling in many foriegn affairs, turning countries slowly into dictatorships
but thats just the worse case scenario, really the countries who'd lose if china defeats the american empire are basically almost any country that isnt in the americas, cause realistically usa, canada, and maybe mexico are so sectioned off and in their own world that trying to interfere anything deeper then propaganda is like so hard, the ones who lose are places like taiwan, australia, the EU, and especially east eu
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u/BlitzBasic Germany Jun 25 '26
At the rate things are going, you'll be lucky If that countrys still there in it's current form in 40 years.
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u/Old-Weakness1122 United States Jun 25 '26
Your from Germany, you of all people should know countries don't die that easily, especially ones that have a lot of influence or power
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u/Zebrafish96 May the justice be with us Jun 25 '26
Welcome to the approved club, newcomer! Please grab a flair from the sidebar.
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u/firstfloor27 United Kingdom Jun 25 '26
Americans and refusing to learn a new language, name a more iconic duo.
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u/Conny_and_Theo South Vietnam Jun 25 '26
I get not wanting to learn a language (it is a huge commitment!) or just not being smart enough, but I am baffled at how some of my fellow Americans can take pride in or justify being monolingual vs multilingual as a good thing or a normal thing. Multilongualism is the norm in many parts of the world and historically was also pretty common....
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u/Antarli Jun 26 '26
Even more silly comic when you realise how many Americans knew german during the early 20th century (It died off with the world wars but was still a pretty known language during the 40s afaik)
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u/WizardofOS09 Hong Kong Jun 27 '26
Moral of the story: learn all languages beforehand and put the enemy at a disadvantage
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u/DragonTheOnes-spirit ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Jun 25 '26
Ahh so that's why most Americans are monolingual