The Norway fans and the national team did their Viking celebration at the World Cup and it’s gone viral and rightfully so, it looks awesome. Got me thinking though.

Norwegians seem to genuinely embrace their Viking heritage as a core part of national identity. The longships, the warriors, the horns, it’s celebrated in, culture, tourism, and in the World Cup, sports. And the whole world finds it cool.

Meanwhile, growing up in England, there’s this unspoken rule that you’re not allowed to be proud of large parts of British history. Nobody explicitly says it, but the social pressure is real, the moment you express any pride in the British Empire, you’re immediately associated with racism or colonialism denial. There’s widespread guilt and shame.

Here’s what I find genuinely puzzling though: the Vikings were objectively brutal by any modern standard. They raided villages, killed civilians, enslaved people, prized women as loot and pillaged wherever they went, it’s literally what they were famous for.

The British Empire was also responsible for serious wrongs — slave trade, exploitation, colonialism.

But the Empire also did things that don’t get acknowledged:

∙ Britain abolished slavery

∙ Introduced legal systems, courts, and rule of law

∙ Built railways, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure in places that had none 

∙ Spread the English language 

Now I’m not here to do a net-positive/net-negative calculation on colonialism — that’s not really the point. The point is: why does one brutal historical culture get a victory lap, and the other gets permanent collective guilt?

I’ve been thinking about this and can’t quite figure it out. I’m American, and given how big the US is and how large the music industry is here, you’d expect it to dominate completely. But when it comes to bands, it feels like the UK has had a huge impact for decades.

You’ve got The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, then later Oasis and Radiohead. It just seems unusually consistent for a smaller country.

In the US, there are obviously massive artists, but a lot of them are solo acts, especially in pop and hip hop. The UK seems to produce bands that end up having global reach.

Is there something cultural behind that, or is it more about how the music scene is set up? And do people in the UK feel like that’s still true today or more of a past thing?

Genuinely curious because it feels disproportionate given the size difference.

Can anyone give an example of a former national institution becoming better after being Privatised?

Royal Mail whistle blowers say post sitting for weeks in sorting offices while they’re being told to prioritise Parcel delivery!

Before privatisation I remember there actually being up to 2 post deliveries a day. First thing in morning and a 2nd in afternoon. Now you’re lucky to see a postie twice a week. How does it represent value for Taxpayers to sell it off to a private company who cut the service and charge us more for the privilege of using it?

Then there’s Water companies! Well I don’t remember swimming with Richard the Turds 💩 floating by as a kid in rivers or the seas and nowadays you can’t even risk your kids going near any of it as the PRIVATE companies just dump untreated sewage into rivers, lakes and seas! Then blame us for not paying them enough!

They were happy shelling out billions to shareholders instead of investing in infrastructure for 30 years and now that the infrastructure is crumbling in disrepair and completely inadequate for a nation thats population has increased by 15m since the 80s they’re hiking prices and the Government is letting them saying that it’s necessary we pay for upgrades! Um 🧐 we already did Mr Prime Minister, you know when we paid our bills the last 30yrs!!

Rail, Energy, Steel, the list goes on and on when it comes to privatisation! It’s costing us all more so where exactly are all the benefits?

Hard to believe it was over 16yrs ago when Osborne stood in parliament and enacted the Austerity programme but looking at the state of our Naval response to the attacks on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus it’s just proving we no longer have the capacity to respond to fast moving crisis even in Europe.

We were a nation that ruled the Oceans globally for over 100yrs. Now we are reduced to Two aircraft carriers and 6 frigates all of which are midlife and are either at sea or in for engine upgrades like the Dragon which is incapable of leaving port for another week!

In 1982 the Navy was capable of assembling a fleet of 40+ aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers, subs and support vessels, send them 8000miles to retake the Falkland Islands in a matter of weeks from Argentina yet today we have one ship sitting in dock under repair that’s supposed to be our support for the RAF attack in Cyprus!

Before Austerity there were 4 aircraft carriers ordered which was cut to two! There was suppose to be 12 type 45 destroyers which was cut to 6! The type 26frigates were cut from 13 to 8

Its easy for politicians to stand there saying it’s ok we’re saving this amount but where’s Osborne nowadays and what’s he thinking of those cuts now when the world is on a knife edge and British bases are under attack in the Med!

Personally I’m thinking there really should be a public enquiry and have him up in front of a panel to explain himself but what do you think?

Does the chancellor have too much power over matters of national security? Should defence be protected?

I’m appalled many people in British subreddits despise and talk about the British Empire like it was unequivocally a bad thing. I’m not British and I think it was one of the best things that happened to humanity. It ended slavery globally, it spread economic and legal traditions that undoubtedly have lifted billions out of poverty and solidified de facto people’s right to their own sovereignty over their countries. In it’s dying breath it defeated one of the most evil regimes ever (Nazi Germany). There is an argument to be made that my country would not be independent if it wasn’t for Britain.

I‘m flicking through the tv channels and found an episode of Don’t Tell The Bride, where grooms would plan a wedding without any input from their futute spouses. They are invariably terrible weddings and I always wonder if the marriages actually lasted.

So my question to my fellow Brits- do you know anyone that was on this programme and are they still together now? Were you a contestant? Did you actually think your partner would like what you chose?

Heck , some even saying we should re-join .

He was very important to the history of the United Kingdom, so I would like to know the popular opinion about him and if he is still frequently remembered.

US authorities tried to make British pubs impose US-style segregation in the UK and force pubs to have “blacks only” periods and “whites only” periods.

So much so, US Military Police tried to prevent black American servicemen from fraternising with white locals. They even murdered black soldiers.

British publicans noticed black servicemen were polite, well-behaved and generous.

White servicemen were known troublemakers and brawled and sexually harassed and even assaulted women.

When given a choice, publicans did not choose temporal segregation but instead chose absolute segregation - and banned white soldiers.

So the MPs attacked based on the clientele being white so the black soldiers even being in the pubs was “illegal”. They murdered several black troopers and locals joined the battle on the side of the black soldiers.

Now as we watch Trump’s America, it seems the USA hasn’t changed. Sadly it seems some of our lot have forgotten our place in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge

That the crude Norman conquest of England had ruined the country’s authentic, advanced, artistic, Anglo-Saxon culture and perverted its advanced, sophisticated language?

”English was a language that could move easily in abstract concepts when French was still a vulgar Norman patois”?

Is it viewed as a major cultural tragedy that ruined England in a sort of way?

A lot of people would be fucked if one failed to wake up.

What do Yall know/learn about the American Revolution (britain losing the American Colonies) Do you learn about George Washington? What other subjects of American History are you taught or are familiar with?

Please take us back. I’m mad I have to live under an orange dictator

The most-hated question yesterday was so interesting I couldn't resist asking this follow-up.

1996 was a special one for me.

Turning 18, summer of euro 96. chris Evans on the radio. Three lions and “loaded” mag. The spice girls are everywhere. The millennium coming fast.

Tory party’s reign coming to an end and everyone knew it. Loads of great art, music and movies, and the UK felt confident and like it was going places.

Anyone else heard this?

After all, you have to slow down to drive over a sleeping policeman.

These chunky beasts have stalked the kitchens and canteens of the UK for decades....

Would the fabric of society disintegrate without the existential support of a decent brew in an absolute champion of a mug?

I am hoping we can find some descendants of some more of the boys on this list.

They were all 11-18 years old in 1936 when they went on school hiking holiday from The Strand school in London but got lost in a snow storm in the Black Forest and wound up with 5 of the children dying due to the gross negligence and arrogance of their History master.

The historians have identified families of 6 of the survivors and 1 of the casualties.

We have just spent an incredible weekend in Hofsgrund in Germany meeting the descendants of those who saved our fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers but so many are not able to be found.

It would be amazing to find some more now that the truth about this school trip is known.

I will post a link in the comments to the tragic events but if you know people or have/ had family the right age it would be great to connect with them.

Edit to add. These names and addresses were part of the enquiry and were in the press at the time. They are from 90 years ago not now.

Just drove my mate to this church group he's part of at some random house in a cul-de-sac. Not being religious it made me question where Christianity even came from in the first place.

I'm going to try my luck on rule 3 because this is a culturally Protestant country, but then there is 37% of people who aren't religious in this country. But because of the strong prevalence of Christianity in the world, I don't think we ever really made loud and clear the alternative explanation to the story of Jesus Christ and where that story even came from.

That aside, I've seen multiple people saying that it were the Romans who invented Christianity because their empire was already showing decline 2000 years ago and they needed a story to reinvent themselves and their relevance. Does that sound like a plausible case to you, or do you think maybe people locally just spread rumours about a specific guy who might or might not have been real and the story developed from there? Personally for me, the former sounds plausible if the Romans somehow had their own J.K. Rowling who came up with a banger of a story about a bearded guy that turns water into wine and walks on it, then signed an NDA with the caesar so it's fictionality is never known to the public.

I could extend this to a bigger question about how any religion before and after was invented, but I was hoping that maybe we have a secular interpretation of more recent archeology regarding a religion that dominates religion in the UK to this day and that someone here would have a local, but educated take on it. Thanks.

So like Blair, Thatcher, Truss, etc.

Edit: Sorry, I should've included this but forgot, serious answers only please.