@2:20 why does it say "Dingle : United Kingdom" & "Wexford : United Kingdom" Both of which are apart of the Republic of Ireland.... But has Belfast as Northern Ireland??? 🤦🤦♂🤦♀
Habitual Grifter Simon... In a few of Simon's rants - he said he has no crotch. Now he says he can't live without Sheath panties. Why does a crotchless man need panties ?
Ever wonder why you don't get Million subs? It's your weak delivery... Learn how to present a story you're boring us to sleep, i swear your videos are my go to sleep method
When younglings asks me how old I am, I look at them with a tired stare and tell them with a broken voice... "I am old enough to have seen empires fall. Which sounds way more epic than saying, I am 50.
Are you old enough to remember Scandinavian countries were WHITE, huh? Sweden is officially blacked forever, it's the colony of Somalia and Afghanistan.
@@Bill-yq8ppif you would of paid attention you’d know that it wasn’t a downfall but a realignment towards peaceful coexistence but we turned it into a win for us and a lost for them. Now look at where we are, on the verge of nuclear holocaust so our elites can bring “democracy and freedom” to a country which looks more democratic and freer than we are now. How things change yet stay the same.
The biggest reason that Moldova is likely to cease to exist isn't Transnistria separatists. It's eventual reunification with Romania. Moldova is an artificial nation created by Stalin to steal some of Romania's territory, after all. Half of the historical Moldavia is still in Romania, while the other half was stolen by the USSR and a propaganda out of Moscow declared that there was a separate Moldovan national identity and Moldovan language (even though the later is literally identical to Romanian, except that during the Soviet era it used the Cyrillic alphabet).
Moldavians told Romanians repeatedly they are not interested in a reunifications. Still Romania is on the principle of if you dont want us, we want you.
@@horeageorgian7766 The Moldavians are the inhabitants of a Romanian region, half of it in Romania, almost another half in what an external aggressor created an artificial state, named Republica Moldova. All medieval kings of the whole history of Moldavia, including Stefan Cel Mare, Vasile Lupu, DImitrie Cantermir, have constantly stated their Romanian/Valahian identity. Now, with only 67% of the population of Republica Moldova being Romanian, more than 70% of them support the reunification, resulting thus a total of 45% of the total population supporting the unification. So the vast majority of the Romanians in Moldova support the reunification, instead all other Russian-driven minorities are opposed. So you are wrong, the Romanians in Moldova - what you call as Moldavians - are supporting the reunification.
@@viorelgeamanu9333 Besides the BS you talk (Romanian region), fact is they dont want to be under Romanian rule. But Romania still insist. The Moldavians learned they lesson from the first unification. They were fucked over by the Vlachs, so they are not aeger to repeat the experience. They thank you, but they are just fine as they are.
@@horeageorgian7766 The only BS comes out of your mouth, otherwise you would know that we are all firstly Romanians/Vlachs, then it comes the regional naming, so Ardeleni, Moldoveni, Banateni, Dobrogeni, Munetni, etc. With the little lies you are throwing it's obvious that you are ignoring the genocides and crimes performed by the russians and bolsheviks on the Romanians/Moldavians living in Basarabia and Bukovina, so you are completely opposed to the reality. Yes, many Romanians/Moldavians in Bessarabia were and still are under heavily bombardment and pressure by the russian manipulating propaganda, which is only throwing tons of BS in all directions. But for anyone who's interested in the real history and with a little bit of brain, those manipulations are just too stupid to be even considered. As you sound like a fooled one, you are either an easily manipulated victim or you have interest into this foreign propaganda, so in spite of your faked name, you are probably not a Romanian/Moldavian, but you might most probably be a russian troll.
@@horeageorgian7766 The only BS comes only out of your mouth. The Romanian/Moldavians in Republic of Moldavia, what we call Basarabia, are firstly Romanian/Vlachians, as all the medieval kings of Moldova mentioned - Stefan Cel Mare, Vasile Lupu, Dimitrie Cantemir - and only after that they are Moldoveni, Munteni, Dobrogeni, Banateni, Ardeleni, Olteni, etc. The illuminated Moldavian kings have since always also stated that they speak the Romanian/Vlachian language, not a so called Moldavian language. The Moldavian is not even a dialect, is just a regional forms of the Romanian language, as we do not have such big internal differences like Italians, Germans, French, etc which to promote them as dialects. Further more, I do notice your complete ignorance or deliberate overlooking of the long history of atrocities, like mass executions, deportations, raping and killing for just taking the watch of the Russian/Bolsheviks over the Basarabian (and not only!) population. There's no ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON between those atrocities and the foolish things that the stupid politicians in Bucharest constantly perform over the provincial population, in all Romanian regions, not only over the Moldavians. It's just because they are what we call "Fanariots", or rulers not really Romanians, but with foreign origins, which only server theirs and their masters interests. In the end, I think that most probably, in spite of your apparent Romanian name, you are in fact nothing else but a foreign, troll, possible russian or another sympathizant of the russians.
As a Flemish citizen, he got it wrong from the first to the last word, while not even mentioning the real thread to Belgium in the coming elections: the possibility of two separatist Flemish parties (N-VA and Vlaams Belang) to get a combined 50% of the Flemish votes. It’s quite staggering how wrong he was on everything about this chapter and leaves me wondering how reliable this channel is tbh…
I thought everyone knew it is the French who are desperate to cling on to Flanders and the Flemish folk who want to be free of them, very very VERY disappointing from someone as educated as Simon!
I rather keep Belgium going, but if we do split, fuck all chance I'll voluntarily join the Dutch or live in a country run by NVA and VB. Besides that, yeah, the Belgium section of this video especially, is just straight up wrong in every possible aspect of every aspect discussed. I expected better from a Simon Whistler TM channel. The drive for splitting comes almost entirely from Flanders. Sure, there's some Walloons who do want to split or want to join France, but they are a niche of a niche. Meanwhile Flemish separatist parties have grown stronger and stronger over the years and have created vast changes in the federal and local structures designed to run more and more autonomously with the clear and for some, openly stated goal, of splitting.
Let me tell you as a Belgian you have it completely wrong as which region has a big independence/autonomy movement, it's Flanders that has that not Wallonia.
He's about Scottish and Northern Ireland independence but ther are countries already so how will not be countries just independent of England 😂😂 this video has loads of bad info
@@danielgregus9456 he didn't get that really wrong did he? I mean I know you call them countries but they haven't gotten any more autonomy than Flanders , Catalonia or California has right now. So they are just regions with a high level of autonomy inside the country of the United Kingdom.
Scotland's 2014 44/55.3% referendum was not the skin of the teeth. Try Quebec's 1995 referendum which ended with a 49.4%/50.6% split with over 93% voter turnout.
Continuing on Quebec, the independence movement is slowly rising again. If Quebec leaves Canada, other provinces have said they would leave too, Canada would be erased from the map and replaced by a set of countries.
Secession referendums shouldn't succeed with 50.1% either way. It's a way too big of a decision to let 0.1% decide the fate of future generations. Just like how stupid Brexit was. Pro-Brexit politians fueled up old British Empire nostalgia and other crap and they barely won the referendum. Now pretty much every poll shows that people feel resentment and about 60% would vote against Brexit now. The only thing it achieved is to further bolster Scottish independence movements as 62% voted against Brexit there.
@@RichardMigneronWhile the PQ are polling well again, that has more to do with them being the only decent opposition to the recently-dominant CAQ. Support for independence hasn't budged much at all in recent years and the majority of Quebecers are opposed to independence.
@@RipRoaringGarageof course he doesn't he's reading a script someone wrote for him. why do so many people who criticize Simon for getting something wrong criticize him when he's not the writer? Also if you don't like him why you wasting your time watching him isn't there something better you can do with your time?
Surprising mistake about Belgium, Simon. It is Flanders and not Wallonia wanting the independence. About the coming federal election, the difficulty to form a new government (which could take literally years) is probably a bigger concern for the population.
The chapter on Belgium hasn't been researched well. Like mentioned by others, the separatists are in Flanders. I don't think Belgium will split in the near future. Even if the extreme right party has never been as high in populariteit as it is today, the majority of people don't want us to split.
@@CobraChicken101 If you are going to spam the same comment under multiple replies, could you at least have it make sense? "Flag the first comment with their commercial" is not coherent English.
I’m Dutch, and studied a year in Louvain la Neuve with Erasmus. And I always think that all people i met in Belgium are more Belgian than that they are diverse according to their regions.
@jannetteberends8730 I'm 100% Belgian. My mom is from Walonia and my dad from Flandere. Even though the culture in the north and the south is very different, not a lot of us want to seperate. But if you want to see how seperate we are, watch the news. It's like we are in 2 different countries.
as a Belgian citizen (flanders) i have to admit that poor research was done about Belgium. if little research was done you wouldn't be talking about wallonia trying to seperate from flanders, but the other way around. Wallonian politicians created a government with all minority parties of flanders side, just so they shouldn't have to talk with the largest party in flanders, wich is (and if yuo did some research you'd know) trying to seperate from wallonia for 20 years for now...
This channel can be sloppy. They didn't even google it, I found this out in about 30 seconds. Thanks for the heads up I"m not going to finish watching because any part could be completely wrong. I don't want to become misinformed.
@@Hsalf904 It would rather be to become an independent state. We were already part of the Netherlands (talking about the 1815-1830 period) and it didn't work out.
Wow.. good for you Belgium! You came out in *_force_* to correct this. I never imagined that many people from your country even watched this channel. Glad to see you here to set the record straight! ☮ from NY NY.
The UK didn't lose a civil war to the IRA, it was a revolutionary war that ended with a treaty (Anglo-Irish treaty, more commonly known as the Free state treaty). It was disagreement over whether to accept that treaty that led to a civil war amongst the Irish. The pro-treaty side won and each province had a referendum, Ulster chose to remain in the UK and became Northern Ireland, the other provinces ended up becoming the Republic of Ireland, officially known by the Irish name Éire.
Unfortunately this video is extremely poorly researched, multiple Belgians mentioning that the section about their country is flat out wrong in just about every way possible, with seemingly the only thing that's correct in the video is that the country is called Belgium, and then there's this with Ireland that you've brought up, and no doubt there's more wrong with the rest. It feels haphazardly slapped together by having a writer ask ChatGPT about the countries mentioned and hastily chuck out a script without fact checking first
that sounds like important details, did feel like it was missing out things to me In Northern Island I happen to know the numbers of people who see them self as northern Irish as a pose to Irish or British is growing as well so there is actually a third group now. also in Scotland ever since the SNP had all that corruption exposed they've really been down in terms of popularity.
I did a talk once in Brussels about a 2 country project between the Netherlands and Flanders in waste prevention, I referred to the project area as the "Ned-Flanders" Region along with a "hi-diddly-hi neighbouroony" image of Ned Flanders on the region in question. Surprisingly, it didnt seem to go down well.
On the Maldives chapter, the country of Tuvalu has already signed a treaty with Australia to slowly allow its citizens to move there each year as they are in an even more precarious situation than the Maldives in terms of elevation.
Niue,a country that shrinked from 5 000 peoples in 1970 to less than 1 800 people is now part of New Zealand (free association).Niueans are citizens of New Zealand!
Belgium isn't really a serious candidate. If you asked a lot of Belgians "would you support independence?" most of them would probably say "yes," but if you then followed up with "do you actually want to put in the work to do it?" most would say "no, I really don't care that much."
That's not reassuring since most Belgium would support independence. Eventually, some people in Belgium will put in the work to fight for independence, especially those who are hungry for power and money.
@@ViolentCabbage-ym7koyou're right countries that aren't particularly invested in their own unity don't last long established when someone has something to gain from division.
I for one would fight to keep it together, especially if the other options are to join the Dutch or live in a country run by VB and/or NVA. Now if someone came along and said we should kick Antwerp out of the country, I'd be all for that.
I know, half of the comments here is saying it, but please... It is Flemish independence, mostly because Wallonia is more or less bankrupt and, in a way, relies on Flemish money (through the federal system), or that is at least what 'they' say (and it is indeed quite close to reality). One of the biggest problems is Brussels. Geographically speaking, it is completely surrounded by Flanders, and so it is historically speaking a Flemish city (Brabant, to be precise), but, well... 'bilingual' and such... It is like this since the very beginning of the state Belgium, and it peaked the heaviest in the 1960s I think. Another problem are the other bilingual cities, along the (language)border between Flanders and Wallonia. And of course, like already mentioned, the fact that they have come to rely on Flemish money (though it used to be the othere way around, when there was still the heavy industry in the south). It's just the usual Belgian mishmash of reasons and absurdity, really.
Oh, oh, I beg to ... agree. I lived in Brussels for 5yrs (expat, of course), and in my neighborhood of Woluwe St Pierre we had Belgian neighbors (DU + FR speaking) who had NEVER talked to each other. SERIOUSLY! After 30 years of living on the same block! I quickly came to the realization that I was living in a failed country. The Belgians have devolved government to the micro (local) -- and at the same time to the macro (the EU) -- and "Belgium" only exists on postage stamps and holidays. Sad, but true.
Oversimplified so it becomes wrong. What bothers most flemish people is the fact that wallonie wants to keep the status quo. For over 30 years we've been asking to get their shit together financially. And to stop cockblocking our reforms. Then there's the disrespect to our language. French in school is mandatory in flemish region. Dutch is an optional class in wallonie. Most flemish people speak 3 languages. Wallonians speak french and thats it. Culturally wallonie has more in common with frenchies.
Ikr, Ive seen this guy in like 3 channels already. And to be honest, I dont like that, Im not a native english speaker, so I find difficult to follow his speed talking. Its like he is always on 1.25x for me 😅
@@argusy3866 you can lower the speed,but what you say doesnt make sense,you dont like that he has so many channels because he speaks fast?its kinda funny as where i am from we speak WAY faster than him,also he has like 8+ channels
How to break the news, I follow 12 he is on, think 1 or 2 he rarely posts, also not counting the biographic geographic and top tens that he used to be on about 6 months or more ago
@@florinvoinea5203 Yep we will but will, and should take time, we'll still a basket case and no where ready for re-unification anyway. Baby steps is best
In regards to Moldova you failed to mention its historical pie to its motherland Romania and the fact that the Soviet union in 1940 occupied and annexed Romanian Moldova to the USSR and then added Transnistria two Romanian Bessarabia that the Russians conquered.
No, they don't. They want to be sponsored by the Northern part. If you would offer independence to the Walloons, whilst guaranteeing they will be able to make debts that will be paid by others, I guess most wouldn't mind at all separating.
"What would be the point of a floating city out in the middle of nowhere" I don't know, probably the same point as a non-floating city out in the middle of nowhere.
@@dawn_alex Not much, if it is anchored in deep enough water. As it is, the Maldives only saw 1 to 4 meter heights from the 2004 tsunami. That's pretty wimpy storm surge heights. And it is Typhoons and SuperTyphoons that would really stress an a raft city. Mostly because of windage.
I've stopped the video no less than 5 seconds into the 1st chapter where it lists Belfast as Northern Ireland and Aberdeen, Dingle and Wexford as the in the UK. Only Dingle and Wexford are both towns Ireland not the UK. Great researching right there. I didn't even bother with the rest of the video after that.
Kiribati (Pacific Islands) is in a similar dire situation to Maldives. It's a group of 32 coral atolls and one island (Banaba). Banaba has a highest elevation of just 87 metres, but excluding Banaba, the average elevation is just 3-4 metres. Most of Banaba is pretty low to sea level too. If current trends continue, the rising sea levels will make Kiribati uninhabitable in about 75 years. Like the Maldives, the Kiribati government is thinking very seriously about their country literally vanishing, to the point they have purchased an island in Fiji.
Did they actually go through with that? I read that a previous president had started to make those sorts of agreements but didn’t know he’d actually completed any purchases. Maybe it happened after him…
Belgium will not split, for multiple reasons : -most people don't want it to split (or don't care) and those who care are just saying it (like people claiming they want to leave the city for the countryside. Some people do, but most don't). -even if splitting, the problem is Brussels, the richest part of the country : where will it go ? No side would want to part from it. Some people talked about Brussels becoming independent (like an international city), but that just means everyone would lose. -if there is too much trouble in Belgium, there is a good chance that the EU/NATO offices would leave the country, which would leave everyone poorer. Again, everyone lose.
"even if splitting, the problem is Brussels, the richest part of the country : where will it go?" Seriously, as a European, have you forgotten about East and West Berlin? What makes you think Brussels can't be split into two?
i don't want belgium to be split only the abandonment of the national goverment, just a flemish and a walloon goverment. only because of those danm long discussion of forming a goverment and agreements
You forgot another reason. As more and more migrants come and native Belgian fertility rates drop, these migrants and more importantly, their Belgian-born children, would likely oppose the splitting of a united Belgium into two quasi-ethnostates. Multiculturalism will dilute both Walloon and Flemish culture until they no longer even have enough to form an independence movement.
Where did you find the research on the Belgian chapter ? I m Belgian and as far as i know, we the dutch/flemish part are more keen on independence then the french part. I m really baffled.
As a Flemish citizen, he got it wrong from the first to the last word, while not even mentioning the real thread to Belgium in the coming elections: the possibility of two separatist Flemish parties (N-VA and Vlaams Belang) to get a combined 50% of the Flemish votes. It’s quite staggering how wrong he was on everything about this chapter and leaves me wondering how reliable this channel is tbh…
@@Johan.Molenberghs I have a feeling this side projects channel is Simons test channel for writers, it's usually short content and seriously hit and miss in its veracity. There are a few writers like on Casual Criminalist, who I have great faith in doing good research for their content, as most of the videos made for that channel I already knew practically everything about. But whomever wrote for this video, seriously, this was really bad. Not just "mistakes were made", but like Parakeet said, almost every word of the section was just straight up wrong.
To be fair: the evolution of the disparity between Flanders and Wallonia (economics and employment being better in Flanders, whereas Wallonia used to be the economic powerhouse) is mostly accurate. But the crux of it all... completely flipped the script, yeah. Quite a letdown for the credibility of the channel and I honestly don't get how this switch happened.
@@Johan.Molenberghs credibility is important for channels like this and being so extremely wrong will throw any work put into credibility over the years, by all other writers Simon employs, straight out the window.
You learned a lot that is wrong tbh. Wallonians are quite happy to skate by on the work put in by the Flemish, without actually putting in the work themselves. To put this to the test, try going to Vlaams and speaking French to them, and see how it compares to going to Wallonia and speaking Dutch to them. It gets worse from there.....
I was raised Catholic so I can laugh about this. The fact the Catholic population in Northern Ireland is catching up with the Protestants reminds me of the scene from Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life with the Catholic family with kids coming out of every nook and cranny of the house. And that wonderful song “Every Sperm Is Sacred” 😂
That isn't going to happen, regardless of how much of a stiffy certain political groups get over the idea. There is a movie coming out on April 12th. That will have to do.
America is fine. We have small groups crying about this or that but the vast majority of us just tune it out. It only seems bad cause those small groups are incredibly loud and obnoxious. Add in some Russian bots to stir the pot and it seems like we are at each others throats. It also doesn't help when you have super partisan news/propaganda networks that do nothing but fear monger 24/7.
Your factcheckers are really off today. The Maldives are the lowest at 1.5m, but not alone down there. The average elevation for Tuvalu is 1.8m. Its highest point is 15m. Kiribati averages 2m. Marshall Islands is 2m. Singagpore is 15m. Then Qatar at 28m.
Your Irish map referencing Dingle and Wexford as UK is a pathetic mistake for anyone to make but for a Brit it is unacceptable, shame on you Simon. It also makes me question all your other ‘facts’ do better
As a Dutchie, I don't think Wallonia wants independence. I beleive the Dutch speaking part is more looking for a split, and I can't blame them. For nearly 150 years they were suppressed by the French speaking Wallonians. The Flemish were even not allowed to speak in their native language! You had to speak French to get a post in the government, etc. and in their army French was the only language you were allowed to speak. Now that the Flemish speaking region is by far the richest part of Belgium, I can understand that they want their own country.
@@crashwave299 I don't know. Some of them do, some them don't. But it's up to them to decide. If the Flanders speaking region wants to become part of The Netherlands again, they are very welkom to join us. We love them. It could boost their economy even further. On the other hand, they would have a little less influence in politics because now they have about 50% influence in Belgium. If they joined The Netherlands, their influence in politics would be around 1/3rd. But if they want autonomy it's also good. I am not Belgian, so I'll leave it up to them. This is by the way how the majority of the Dutch people think. We like a reunification but if they won't, it's ok too. If they do join though, we'll have to change the name of our country again. Then we can call it officially 'The Low Countries'. 😁
@@marcelrenes2435 very well I hope if THEY became disconnected from their southern selves in wallonia and finally achieve their long literal break from the french side of things and do things their own way or join their fatherland and as you said is up to them
Flanders became riches only in last 60 years Before that Wallon region sustained Flanders. Regarding French language this was a prestigious, franca lingua until ww2 . Englishman, Germans , Russians , all European elites used it .
Some really strange ones here. What happened in Ireland 100 years ago isn’t really what you say and, if anything, the Protocol secures the Union more (as it enables an all-island economy for goods without the hassle or changing sovereignty); Scots are about to reject the SNP quite decisively (not to say that rejection will be permanent but the direction of travel currently is away from independence); it is *Flemings* not Walloons who are keener on independence from Belgium, so that one’s completely wrong… but most of all, the whole original point was that a lot of countries break up entirely unexpectedly (most obviously Czechoslovakia) so, by definition, you can’t really predict it.
You could do an entire episode on Canada. Québec, guaranteed their language & religion in 1759, feels constantly threatened by the rest of the English speaking country, and has had a referendum about separating. Newfoundland, who only joined the country in 1949, and has a vibrant culture completely different from the rest of the country. Alberta, the Texas of Canada, whose wealth is based on oil, and doesn't like how the current federal government is focused on renewable energy, and is whispering loudly about separation. J'attends les réponses. Waiting for the replies.
Three mistakes i noticed (please read whole thing) Not Wallonia, Flanders wants independence from french domination. (Like 99% of the comments has noticed) Second mistake is Transdnistria which is defacto an independent country and one of the frozen conflicts of the previous USSR. Moldova has no influence and they are independent but have significant influence from Russia and are controlled by a singular company. Thirdly you make it sound like the UK lost the independence war but it ended in a referendum which sorta favors them.
Another country that may appear in the future is Centroamerica. Bukele has never hide his desire to reunite central american countries, and now he is very popular in Guatemala and Honduras. Constitutionally speaking this countries are very similar and several business operate in a regional basis, there is also a financial network already in place. The only difficulty is a small part of the political class in Honduras and Guatemala that feel that they will loose part of their share of power
Belgium's problems are not so much caused by Wallonian nationalism but by Flemish. Political parties in Flanders are slowly being confronted by a nationalistic blok that feels that Wallonia is getting too much of the economic pie within the federation ... and wants that for itself (felling that, as Flanders is the motor of the Belgian economy, it should have the money it earns). By all accounts the split may come sooner than we think
There is an Irish Unification of 2024 coming up. In the 1990s there was a Star Trek Next Generation episode that mentioned it, so the UK banned the episode.
Oh Simon, dear Simon, I hope you and/or your staff read the comments about the Belgium section and make a correction video. It's embarrassingly funny...
I have a feeling that even if people don't want it to split, we/they will be unable to keep it together. If at the Federal level a problem arises, it's because Waloon/Brussels and Flemish interests differ. The solution at that point is to transfer that authority to the regions. If you do this often enough, at one point, there are no authority left on the Federal level, and defacto the country is split up.
Also to jump in on the Belgium thing, since I'm now not the only one who's noticed research mistakes, I wanted to mention that Simon's teams (on all of his channels) have been wrong before multiple times, it just happens and that's fair... several times, I actually fact checked and corrected his videos in the comments. It seems to be happening more and more often lately, too. but they never actually recognized that i was right or that they had made mistakes, they just say his research team noticed the mistakes instead of at least saying "someone in the comments found an error and corrected it". I don't like that. So I wanted to mention it. It's OK to be inaccurate, but when I fact-check, I don't just say random things, I actually research and know what I'm talking about, so I know it's correct. Then I correct videos in comments to help them out if I know about the topic. I literally have the same degree requirements to be a researcher on Simon's team. The point is I have corrected his team several times before but they don't like being corrected and never really pay attention despite my information being 100% true and accurate(maybe because im not a patreon supporter?) Yet they continue to make mistakes even when people are in the comments constantly correcting them...I'm starting to think its about the views rather than the accuracy of information...I still watch because it's mostly good information and I enjoy it. But sometimes it's dead wrong, and so I fact-check. I guess I'm just upset because I expect at least a reply to my comments from Simon's team saying, "You're right, thank you for noticing the mistakes so we can improve." I'm not criticizing, just saying that when you are wrong and someone says something right to help you, acknowledge it... and improve from it, and dont get offended. I help because I care about the truth. It's just frustrating when you try to correct and fact-check false information, but look like the bad guy when you do it...either because nobody wants to admit mistakes and be fact checked or because they haven't heard of what you're talking about because they didn't actually research it long enough. Instead, I got a reply saying I'm basically wrong because I'm not a member of Simon's research team, so i can't possibly be right. But I was, and they were wrong they just didn't like to admit it. If you take anything away from this comment, it's that Simon's team makes mistakes a lot, thats fine and normal; but they don't like admitting it or being corrected. Or maybe I'm just really mean when I correct it, and it upsets people... not my intentions.
Glad to see that the literal entirety of Flanders is in the comment section to correct how backwards the part on Belgium is. Kinda disappointed that no acknowledgement of this screw-up has been made; I'm sure tons of people that don't read the comments will now just take this as fact. It's not like our country is that well-known to begin with, so now there's gonna be a bunch of people who think they've learned an interesting bit of trivia about the doorstop between France and the Netherlands. Hey Simon, an idea to fix this: have someone do some in-depth research on the actual situation here and do a full episode on it on one of your channels. How we've held the world record for longest time without an active government, and often don't even know if we currently have one because society just keeps doing its thing (I remember a post on reddit that showed a comical socially distanced photo of our new temporary government, and the top comment was simply, 'We have a government?'), how German is one of our official languages even though barely anyone speaks it as their first language, and how Western-Flemish is more of a separate language than a dialect, but to recognise it as such would mean adding *another* language to our extremely convoluted language politics, which is pretty much the only reason it isn't acknowledged as such. Personally I can understand German better (don't speak it) than I can someone who's speaking really *west* Western-Flemish. Vocabulary, pronunciation, even grammar are simply different. Yet some people want to argue Flemish is a separate language from Dutch when all we differ in is pronunciation and some vocabulary--mainly adding more French words. This probably won't be read by anyone, but hey, no harm in trying. Maybe I'll pitch the idea in the discord sometime.
Do you think it will be with the help of the SNP or despite it? I used to support them but after the past few months my opinion of that party is very low. It looks as though there will be a Scottish version of the Pakistani blasphemy law, but when we fall out with someone we don't say that they are blaspheming against islam, rather that they made a racist remark. It doesn't need to be an insult. (By the way, have I hurt your feelings. You can have the police after me if you phrase it correctly.) And what happened to the money?
As a Scot the prospect of that is about zero. The SNP are about to collapse in the 2024 GE and 2026 Holyrood elections which puts the topic off the table politically and all the delusional "the movement is bigger than the SNP!" takes are just that - delusional.
Wow, the very first graphic is SO offensively wrong. Dingle and Wexford are in the Republic of Ireland NOT the UK. Which given the whole point of the video is places becoming independent countries is a baaaaaaad mistake.
Everything he advertises is ridiculously overpriced. I was going to get some Blaze Beard Oil for a Christmas gift last year, but the shipping was going to be $20 inside the US. For a tiny package? Fuck that noise.
The struggle for autonomy in Belgium is situated on the Flemish side, not the Walloon side, with the two largest parties, N-VA and Vlaams Belang, advocating for independence. On the Walloon side it's much more of a marginal phenomenon. Take it from a Belgian. Wonder where you got that information, Fact Boi.
The Belgium section was very poorly researched, albeit not entirely incorrect. Belgium is and always has been a weird construct, almost doomed to fail, but clinging on for dear life nonetheless. From the start there was a linguistic divide between the French speaking elite and the Dutch speaking poor. That feud is still going on, even if the economic situation changed rather radically. Either way, due to political changes, and how this pretty much put up a barrier between Flanders and Wallonia for decades now, Belgium is pretty much doomed. We've drifted apart to such an extent that the break-up is now pretty much inevitable. Thanks to decades of politicians hollowing out the country, ever increasing the divide. The next elections very well might lead to the breaking point. And the Wallonians definitely are better prepared than the Flemish.
When the Maldives is flooded, a floating city won’t be, “in the middle of nowhere.” It will be in exactly the same place as it is now. Just because the water rises, doesn’t mean it’s suddenly very very deep. It’ll be floating 1-2m above its current position.
Uhhhh, Qatar is not the second lowest country… Your editor skipped right over Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Singapore. (Easy to do, since, you know.)
If Transnistria broke off completely, Moldova would still exist. The only way Moldova ceases to exist is union with Romania: a possibility Simon unfortunately didn't go into.
@@MindBodySoulOkwhat exactly is the left doing towards splitting up the US? Not a US citizen, but as far as I can tell there are plenty of right wingers dreaming of another civil war, literally waving around the flag of the last failed and extremely bloody attempt of segregating from the Union. And some in certain southern red states who occasionally bring up this idea without really having serious support for it. But I haven't ever heard of any attempts or policy positions on the left that are geared towards splitting up that union.
I think you’re becoming quite American/Canadian because any other Briton would likely have talked about putting their “bits and bobs” instead of “parts” into the Sheath compartments, which I don’t think has become too dated yet.
Quebec is overwhelmingly interested in "sovereignty association", which is essentially semi independence funded by alnglo-Canadian taxpayers. Alberta has little actual support within it for independence, and it's landlocked.
As a Belgian, I would think you got it backwards: while there is an anecdotic Walloon independentist movement, it's Flanders who somewhat aggressively seeks independence. It is made difficult by the fact that the capital of Flanders is the mostly French speaking, also administrative region of its own, city of Brussels.
The NI situation is better judged by politics rather than religion. Sinn Fein (an Irish party in favour of a united Ireland) are now the largest single party and have undoubtedly attracted protestant vote.
Countries tend to split when part of the country feels that it is being exploited by the rest of the country. I doubt that the United States will split as long as it remains federal. If it starts to look like the USA is run by California and New York, all bets are off.
This is why I think the electoral college *as originally intended*, was a good idea. It stop the major population centres for the site in the fate of the country. But thanks for the winner takes all two party system is now just a matter of you can win the swing states.
The US IS run by New York and California. Those two states alone generate over 25% of the nations GDP, in terms of the nations total wealth account for a even larger percentage than that. We are talking numbers that rival places like France and Germany.
I think the main reason preventing the US from splitting is because the issue isn't regional with defining lines. It's mostly a rural vs urban divide. Where large cities kind of define what happens with the state. NY is probably a good example with NYC.
A lot of misstakes in your video. Wallonia is not a province but a region. It is Flanders that wants independency not Wallonia because they get the money from Flanders. The numbers of are not correct. Less than 70% is of the active population is working. It was the Dutch speaking people, culture that they want to erase after founding Belgium. Charles Rogiers was one of them. A prime minister in the early beginning. These misstakes shows how good you do your research and how reliable they are.
@@CobraChicken101He's said before, counting money is his favorite thing to do (besides talking, obviously). He's basically Mr. Krabbs , just holding his eyes below his shell
Only way Transnistria is getting that independence is if Russia reaches it by securing successive victories in Ukraine, which is not happening. Also, Transnistria currently became a bit quieter, and it's actually the Gagauzians that have become more vocal in Russia's favour, even though, back in 1992, once the civil war started, they agreed to negotiate and got their autonomous region.
I'm an American. However I don't think that Northern Ireland or Scotland is thinking it through if they separate all be go from a lower first tier or higher second tier power to nothing of any real consequence. There has been a struggle to retain the current position (while slowly slipping) since WW2. All that would be left is 3 rump states.
N.Ireland could join the Repoblic of Eire but Scotland would be in a bad position especially as with all the independance movements it would be very hard to join the EU if not impossible as it would be blocked so other EU nations don't have to deal with all there movements wanting to leave and join the EU. Realistically speaking England is the heart of the UK and the only part that really matters in terms of national strength. N.Ireland has under 2 million people and Scotland is about 5 million. England is near 60 million and where all the industry really is. If you take the whole population of N'Ireland (ever man,women and child) and the whole population of Scotland it is still not nearly the population of London City itself. Both countries together are a little over half the size of London alone. England is far far larger than the rest of the UK put together and if N.Ireland and Scotland left not much would change really for England only in a short term sense. England would still be where London,Manchester,Sheffield and Birmingham are as well as the main ports and largest international airports. Would still be where London's financial district is. England would still have the military and the Navy and all the nukes. England would be the one that has the economy and England would still be the one on the UN security council and one of the two nuclear powers of Europe and Nato. England would still be the one that controls the English channel that is the busiest shipping lane in the world by a large margin. The UK is the second largest economy in Europe and that would not change if Scotland left as all of that flows through England and is not affected by Scotland. A grim reality that emerged near the end of the last referendum is that England would actually be better off budget wise. Scotland had a referendum and they voted to remain. They saw through the SNP who would turn Scotland to ruin so they could rule the few ashes.
The reality is there is almost no prospect of either Northern Ireland or Scotland leaving the UK. There is a marginally higher chance in Northern Ireland because the Good Friday Agreement contains a mechanism for secession but as soon as anyone factors in the cost of joining the Republic of Ireland support collapses. The nationalist party in Scotland has been in the ascendancy for the past decade but is faltering now after a series of corruption investigations and perceptions of incompetence.
@@Flintlockon I’m Scottish and we were told that it would be once in a lifetime referendum, we overwhelmingly rejected independence. The SNP keep saying indyRef 2 but it’s all they have up there sleeve. They have made it clear that they are going to rejoin the EU and personally I would rather not do that. It’s much more preferential to stay part of the Union and be governed from London than handing over power to Brussels. Maybe 50 years ago independence would have been feasible but after Thatcher shut down our booming Steel industry in Ravenscraig and the Boatyards on the Clyde to move all of the work down south combined with the depletion of North Sea oil it’s not an option anymore.
Your ad has inspired me! Guy goes into a pub, sits at the bar and drinks 12 pints of Guinness one after another. Then he speaks to the barman. "Do you serve shorts? Sell me a pair quick. I've just shit mine." Groan.
As a Belgian this seemed to be about a parallel universe, or a what if scenario. I appreciate the thought of including my country in this list because it is a country on its last legs. However a little bit of research would’ve been nice. It has been Flanders that wants independence. I guess since 1979 because that’s when the far right Flemish party was first created. Wallonia however is clinging on to Belgium because it’s living a life far above its station. Spending money it doesn’t have. Flemish money. A yearly transfer of 7.4 billion euros from Flanders to Wallonia has to occur so they won’t go bankrupt. Not only that but our political ideologies are far to different. Flanders votes particularly center right to far right (nationalism, separatism, liberal conservatism, populism) and Wallonia votes particularly left to far left (socialism, ecologism, progressivism, marxism, communism). And then the winners of both regions have to form a coalition, I don’t think anyone needs an explanation why that doesn’t work. Most of us Flemish people just want an actual government that we voted for. And I haven’t even started on Brussels. That’s the main reason the split hasn’t happened yet. No one can seem to figure out what to do with the Brussels Capital Region. Some suggest independence like Flanders and Wallonia. But let’s be real, both Wallonia and Brussels are too poor to become independent. Wallonia would most likely be swallowed by France and become Nord Pas de Calais 2.0, Brussels on the other hand is very proud and they won’t join France. From the Flemish, Belgian and European capital demoted to a mere French province city? I don’t think so. I love Brussels but it should’ve stayed what it is, a city. Not a region! This country is just too absurd for words and that’s why I guess it’ll disappear. Some say Brussels has to become an equivalent of Washington DC and be under direct European control. But does Europe really want that? The only thing Wallonia has to offer after a potential split is a common language. Flanders has much more to offer. I mean it’s literally surrounded by Flemish territory. The split won’t be that easy. What will happen with EU and NATO in Brussels after a split like that? In modern Belgium we Flemish have more in common with our Dutch brothers than with French speaking Belgians. I wouldn’t mind a split, I wouldn’t even mind a reunification with the Netherlands. However I also wouldn’t mind Belgium not splitting. However if Belgium keeps existing IMHO it should be as a confederal state, like the president of the N-VA party and mayor of Antwerp Bart De Wever suggests. We keep major things like defense federal but we just do our own thing. If Wallonia wants socialism, marxism etc they can have it! But they can also pay for it themselves. We Flemish will do our own thing aswell.
3:12 speaking of The Troubles, You should really do a bit on that on Warographics, that's just an endless source for videos material... And a bit of history that really should be remembered and reminded!
BELGIUM: The problem with the situation of Belgium: The northern part is constantly open for connecting with the southern part, but the southern part refuses to even speak the language of the North. The fact that the northern part funds SO much to the southern part in terms of money, the differences in mentality and that the southern part refuses to work in a lot of instances, but still demands much more benefits, funds etc… (Belgium’s the only country in the world where you can stay on wellfare for your whole life) Also the tax rate in Belgium is astronomically high (40-45%) so people feel it MUCH more when they’re supporting half of a country that isn’t working. It’s a delicate social system that’s easily being abused and it attracts exactly the type of people it doesn’t need, from inside the country as well as from outside of the country. It would already be a tough burden for half of a population to work and pay for the entire country (a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s close), and the fact that so much money goes only one way (top 3 highest tax rates in the world), but when the working half has to pay for the southern half that doesn’t even want to communicate with them, THAT’s where I think it hurts with most of the population. The northern half is obliged to learn the southern language in school, the southern part doesn’t…. And when they get the opportunity to do so, they don’t even want to. It’s difficult already to pay for your neighbor’s house, but it hurt twice as hard if he gets an even better house than you and doesn’t even find you worthy enough to talk to you…
Given China and India, nothing of any significance will be done about CO2 emissions. Further, nothing need be done. CO2 levels are an effect - not a cause - of warming. Further, the fact that the Maldives survived the Medieval Warm Period, which was warmer than today, indicates they'll survive the current warming.
Sheath - I actually paused for an advert. Query. What if you’re a grower, not a shower? If you’re not long loose is the purpose defeated? I like bamboo though. Not gonna name drop but my chilly bamboo boxers are really nice for all occasions. Sheath is… tempting… ‘Do you balls hang low, Do they wobble to and fro Can you tie ‘em in a knot Can you tie ‘em in a bow Can you throw ‘em over your shoulder like a continental soldier Do your balls Hang Low!?”
Hilarious! I remember as a kid from Canada it went like this; Do your balls hang low, do they wobble to and fro. Do you get that itchy feeling like they're bouncing off the ceiling, do your balls hang low. Thanks for the chuckle down memory lane.
Ireland was never unified in the first place, the only time a single state was present on the island was during British rule, prior to the Norman invasion, and even afterwards the Irish tribes were in a constant state of war. It wouldn't be a reunification but an annexation.
@@eldoolittle on the Walloon side there is maybe a fringe of a fringe section that would want to split the country, but they have no power and no followers. They are sub 1% of the vote, with no seats in the house, no senators, no power what so ever. The very reason the last government formation was so long it set another world record is because the Walloons negotiated to get every single party EXCEPT the 2 HUGE FLEMISH PARTIES who's whole shtick is BREAKING UP THE COUNTRY who also happen to jointly have about 50% of the vote and with that a huge chunk of the house and senate seats on the Flanders side and a fuckton of power. The separatist element is not on the Walloon side and is not because Walloons feel exploited by the Flemish. The separatist element is 99.99999% on the Flemish side and because the antisocial far right parties consider the Walloons (and anyone who doesn't/can't work, is disabled, has a different color skin or otherwise doesn't fit into their perfect picture) are lazy and leeches. It's another story of far right nationalists, one party which was founded by Nazi collaborators to boot and the other just straight up racist and antisemetic shitheads (one of their party leaders was just convicted for hate speech and holocaust denial), considering the lesser developed region of the country lesser people and wanting to get rid of them. And since the oldschool way they liked doesn't fly in Western Europe anymore, they opt to split up the country once they get all the power their totalitarian little hearts desires.
