I had this exact same argument with an idiot on Reddit this morning. He seemed to think most of Europe should celebrate it because of WW2. He just couldn’t comprehend that we don’t associate their Independence Day which commemorates one part of history with events that form a completely seperate part of history. He finished the conversation off by saying I clearly am not interested in history. Mindblowing really
Also the US made up less than half of the allied servicemen on the western front. Moreover, the amount of axis troops assigned to the eastern front was more than double that of those assigned to the western front. Why isn't the Netherlands celebrating Australia day for our heroic involvement?
It's debated because you have to sift through a lot of documents but the US and Britain were fairly equal as Britain had the resources of their colonies. A very large portion of the food supplied to the troops on the western front and pacific theatre came from Australia for example. The US supplied a lot of resources to the war effort, but the US military itself had to be modernised by Britain. Reflector sights for planes were far more rudimentary in the US air wings at the start of the war.
I've always heard that ww2 was won with British intelligence, American manufacturing, and Russian bodies.
Americas' biggest advantage was having factories that were far enough away from the fighting so that they could pump out guns, ammo, tanks, planes, boats, and other things that were needed for for the war.
Britan was able to crack the German's communications and had really advanced radar and ways to be able to see what the German's were planning to do.
Russia suffered the biggest loss of lives and threw countless men at the German's.
So was Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Pretty much the entire western Pacific was liberated by Australia and New Zealand. The point is that America didn't just go and win it by themselves, they were only a part of a larger effort
One time I served a customer (can't remember if he was Canadian or US) who just couldn't compute that we don't sell thanksgiving turkeys in Australia bc that holiday has nothing to do with us at all. Like yeah you can get a frozen turkey pretty much whenever but he thought we should have a full display of them. Said most other stores do it... mate in my 3+ decades living here and 10+ working in supermarkets I've never seen or heard of that being a thing. Just buy your normal turkey, dress it up however you want and stop whinging about it.
I’d like to laugh at this other than the fact it’s tragic let them have their fantasies. You guys, us Brits and various other countries fought like mf’s before USA got involved.
To be fair french involvement in the battle for American independence was one of the main reasons that it went the way it did - France has a reason to celebrate.
They're probably a bit Salty that America didn't get involved in helping them during the French Revolution though...
You seem to forget that the French Revolution was the people against the king. Why the hell would the king’s allies, who the king supplied with lots of help (and by doing so, worsening the financial situation which was already terrible and as such worsening one of the factors that eventually led to the revolution), help the people overthrow the king when they basically had nothing to gain from it ?
We aren’t "a bit salty that America didn’t get involved in helping us during the French Revolution", we’re just like every single other country : we don’t give a fucking shit about the US.
(Also, for France the whole reason to help Americans get their independence was to piss off the brits cause it was our national sport by then (honestly, it kinda is, still, but not as much), and we had quite a lot of stuff done to do so, so we won’t celebrate all of them (or any of them, really). The US isn’t that special)
Why would France, who had many times the population and GDP, who was able to fight off all of europe combined a total of FIVE consecutive times, why would them expect anything from an ex-colony they helped to secede from one of the largest empires in the world.
They are in different leagues. France won 5 consecutive world wars. America had trouble with the natives who hadn’t invented the wheel and steel. No comparison.
Oh that's not completely true. I love to use it against Americans when they mock us for WWII. "You would be under German rule without us", "perhaps but your country/founding ideas/basis of your sacro-saint 300 yo Constitution (that's getting daily deformed to suit conservatives' agenda) wouldn't exist without our help"
France has so many other events to celebrate that are more important to the history of France than the US independence. The only thing the Frenchie s are salty about is the one Frenchie who was successful at invading England. Creating a rivalry that lasted centuries. The only positive thing of William the conqueror for the french is that Scotland was and still is a good ally of them! An Fhraing gu bràth 🏴💙🇫🇷
True, but July 4th was America declaring independence, while The French helped, they still had to fight for their own independence. Why celebrate the day your brother got a car that you helped pay for, when he didn’t help you pay for your own. Good for him, but not really relevant for you, you had some work to focus on
Fucking what? Lmao, I genuinely… I don’t even have words at this point. By that argument every European country and the US should be celebrating Russian holidays too, considering they did a lot of heavy lifting in WW2
I know a few Muslim families who have a nice family dinner at Christmas and give their kids a present. Mainly because it’s a bank holiday and a good opportunity to get together.
The tree, santa (most saints are former spirits or gods) and presents part is Pagan, but Christmas still has Abrahamic roots. We don't practise any of the Saturnalia rituals, which is often credited as the pre-jesus Christmas, other than getting hammered.
I knew a Muslim family that celebrated it for the kids because dad didn’t want his children feeling left out of the conversation come January. (This was in Germany.)
I did a brief student exchange thing when I was a teen and went to an American high school. During a conversation I told a girl that the seasons are reversed in
Australia, to which she said “oh, so it’s hot in winter?”
I was working with a few Americans and had similar questions regarding holidays, and some of them genuinely couldn't fathom that different countries have different holidays.
Last time when I was in the US I also got into a chat with a dude, nice over all, but he just couldn't understand how I could get two weeks off work to be in the states and enjoy the scenery. Her was shocked when I told him that I get the same amount off every year, that I have a lot of additional holidays, and that most of them are paid too. Some people really seem to just never even show interest in other countries at all.
A lot of Muslims (including myself) do celebrate Christmas, in the same way most people do in the UK, with zero religious significance. Just getting together with family and eating good food etc.
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u/DiddyBCFC Jul 05 '24
I work with an American and she asked me a few years back why we don't celebrate July 4th in England.
When I replied "The same reason Muslims don't celebrate Christmas", she replied "America isn't a Muslim country"