aaroads.com topics in 2064

[bugo]

One thing that I don't understand is the ethnic fighting in places like eastern Europe. For example, Albanians and Serbians hate each other and have fought against each other. Here in the good ol' USA, both the Serbian guy and the Albanian guy would just be known as "white guys" and probably wouldn't even know the ethnicity of the other person. I'm a mutt, and I've been asked if I was anything from Puerto Rican to Native American to Scandinavian to French (I'm mostly British, with some German, French, Belgian, eastern European, European Jewish, Iberian (Spain and Portugal) and a tiny bit of Scandinavian and Irish. These were from my DNA test results.

All you have to think about is, people of ethnic group X raped/killed/enslaved/pillaged/evicted/conquered your mother/father/uncle/sister/grandmother (or you) and others of the same persuasion simply because you are of ethnic group Y.  It helps if they more or less got away with it. 

I understand the history behind it, but I still can't wrap my head around it. Like I said, here they would just be white folks. America is a true melting pot in many ways. If African Americans and European Americans can get along as well as they do (despite what the media says, I generally get along great with black folks) then it looks like eastern Europeans could get along better.

[english si]

The Balkans not about ethnicity (they are basically all the same ethnicity, especially in former Yugoslavia where the ethnicity is in the name!): it's about culture, history, religion and politics. Kosovars and Montenegrins didn't feel Serbian, because they weren't. Croatians, Macedonians and Slovenes didn't feel Yugoslavian, because such a thing never really existed (except maybe in Serbia). Add in Serbia (stoked by Russia and some EU countries) trying to hold Yugoslavia together by force, rather than let it break up into nation states, and then the resulting attrition and war crimes, and you've got a hot bed of hatred.

In France, which is perhaps the most extreme*, it's simply 'French' if you are a citizen and anything else is an abhorration. America is unique, as its national identity is shared dreams and philosophies, rather than shared history and culture. That you have Albanian-Americans and Serbian-Americans makes little sense to the rest of the world (though strangely the USA who dislikes dual-citizenship more than most, but constantly describes people as dual-nationality). It's only really America that is OK with different ethnicities and nationalities living together but still defines people by their ethnic and national ancestry in a major way. It can look like pointing out smugly "look at us, we're a melting pot, we've got all these different flavours" to which the French would reply "you've not fully melted as you aren't one gloopy mess like we are".

It's when you try and change people's nationalities and deny self-definition of nationality (less of an issue in the US, as the US is a deliberately artificial nation that you move to or grow up in and can seemingly belong to two nationalities: unlike Europe or Yugoslavia, which are artificial nationalities are imposed on people without consultation and without modifications or qualifications) that the nationalistic tensions grow.

Slovenes and Croats get on well now, I gather - they didn't get on when they were forced to get along by being in one state and pretending to be the same (unlike Slovene-Americans and Croatian-Americans who are both American, but different, Slovene-Yugoslavs and Croat-Yugoslavs didn't exist - just Yugoslavs). That they can rule themselves (OK, that Brussels can let them rule themselves within parameters) diffused the tension.

Germans fear to go to Greece because of nationalistic tensions caused by trying to treat the Eurozone as one nation and Greece just getting shafted time and time again for not being Germanic, with German politicians stoking the fire against 'lazy' Greeks (who work more hours than Germans do - or at least did before mass unemployment hit due to Eurocrats hating diversity). The French have the racist and fascist Front Nationale as their second biggest party as the 'all melted together and indistinguishable' hasn't worked.

Along with WW2 and the whole Middle East for 95 years, the Balkans show that the Brits and French were awful at drawing lines on maps in 1919 as they didn't care about who lived there and their allegences. Ireland's partition was perhaps the best line drawn, as they made some effort, but as we know that was hardly a roaring success.

*British national identity allows you to be English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish or Northern Irish, rather than/alongside British. We don't do 'African-British' or similar though - it would be "British of African origin", etc to describe national identity - still solely British, but with a little qualifier. The 'Italian-' in Italian-American, etc all sound like modifiers that change the Americanness, whereas nowhere else in the world thinks like that.

[SSOWorld]

uh, guys, good discussion, but

[Pete from Boston]

"Marin County's Red Leader Highway still using wrong character's picture on trailblazers."

[codyg1985]

"TDOT reviving plan for building the northern arc of TN 840"

"Third bridge open across the Mississippi River in the Memphis area"

"Will interstates be decommissioned once parallel Super-Autobahn roads are completed?"

"Illinois DOT still won't extend I-41 from Wisconsin"

"Piedmont Turnpike, linking Atlanta and Charlotte, nearing capacity"

"New, more expensive toll lanes to be built alongside existing toll lanes and general purpose lanes along I-635 in Dallas"

"I-35 to be demolished through Austin, forcing traffic to use TX 130"

"Houston finishes fifth beltway, the Rick Perry Super Toll Road connecting Galveston, Angleton, Wharton, Sealy,  Hempstead, and Huntsville"

[Pete from Boston]

"Creative re-use ideas for land roads"

[jeffandnicole]

85 years of stalling: PennDOT admits they could've widen the Schuylkill Expressway several times now, while SEPTA continuously delays plans to build a new rail line from Center City Philadelphia to King of Prussia.

[Brandon]

uh, guys, good discussion, but

Didn't Red Leader get blown up by a TIE fighter, namely Darth Vader's TIE fighter?

[Pete from Boston]

uh, guys, good discussion, but

Didn't Red Leader get blown up by a TIE fighter, namely Darth Vader's TIE fighter?

He did get blown up.  So did Porkins (come on, Lucas), the guy in this picture.

[jeffandnicole]

So now we're being thrown off topic about a meme that is trying to keep us on topic?

[freebrickproductions]

I feel like this is appropriate:

[DeaconG]

"Flooded Wallace and Bankhead Tunnels cause Mobile residents to regret I-10 bridge decision"

[adventurernumber1]

Suggestions & Questions subforum: "Threads on AARoads being thrown off-topic at a rate of 100 times a day" 

[Pete from Boston]

"Tricking self-driving cars into taking the long way."

[Brandon]

"AA Roads Topics That Have Veered Off-Topic In The Past 50 Years"

[DeaconG]

"Visiting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel National Monument...While You Can"

[bugo]

uh, guys, good discussion, but

I created the topic, so I get to pick what is on and off topic. Ethnic conflicts are definitely on topic because there will still be ethnic conflicts in 2064.

"What will the numbering system be in the newly balkanized countries of the former Russia?"

[bugo]

"Tricking self-driving cars into taking the long way."

Nice.

[bugo]

"All religious talk is punishable by the Freedom from Religion Act of 2055. Anybody caught talking about religion in a forum where it is not wanted is subject to prosecution and if the offender is found guilty, he could be looking at a hefty fine and prison time."

[SSOWorld]

"Illinois DOT IDiOT still won't extend I-41 from Wisconsin"

FIXED!!

"State Speed Limit status - Only Oregon and Wisconsin remain at 65 max"

"CalTrans imposes congestion charges on SF, SD and LA freeways with FasTrak required"

[myosh_tino]

"California adopts 2009 MUTCD"

Sorry but I don't follow on this one.  Califronia adopted the 2009 MUTCD in 2012.

California adopts MUTCD-standard arrow pavement markings

This is another one I don't follow.  What's wrong with California's arrow pavement markings?

"California to finish exit numbering program"

THAT is totally believable!   That should be around the time when the last of the button-copy signs would be at the end of their serviceable lives.

[odditude]

"Google Maps VR SUCKS now"

[Grzrd]

"Google Maps VR SUCKS now"

Does anyone know how to disable the 75 mph governor on Google Maps VR StreetDrive?

[Pete from Boston]

"Tricking self-driving cars into taking the long way."

Nice.

This is pretty much what I did to my parents for the first 17 years of my life.  Hopefully the car will trust me, too.   

[NE2]

Just set an intermediate point. As long as you're white, it won't care where you go.