Fuck that post going around saying “you can have coffee in your story without justifying it :) you don’t need to explain everything :)” I want, no, I DEMAND a fully researched ethnobotanical paper on every single food item in your work, if you don’t explain to me where did potatoes come from in your fantasy setting or don’t explain how the industry of coffee works over interstellar distances with full detail you are doing things wrong and I personally hate you and I hate your stupid story, fuck you
Why are your stupid little wizards and knights eating potato stew in your dumb European middle ages fantasy world. Where did they get potatoes from. Where is the center of domestication of potatoes, do you have a fantasy Andean civilization? What are the social and economic consequences of having such a calorie rich crop in cold climates. I don’t care about “themes” or “enemies to lovers with found family”, I didn’t ask about that. Where does your idiot space captain gets their shitty coffee from. Is it imported from Earth? Are there coffee growing worlds? Is it an alien species replacement with the same name? What are the social consequences of that? Don’t try to change the subject, I’ll stop pointing the gun when I want, I’m trying to have a conversation here,
Currently sat in a summer school type thing we’re hosting in work and some English architect is telling us about sustainable design in Wales, except she hasn’t bothered learning a single Welsh name and if I have to listen to one more “I don’t know how to say ‘Welsh name’ so I’m going to use 'shitty English name/nothing while laughing at it’ I’m going to throw this slanty drawing desk at her head
Spot the unforced errors:
"Wales has three national parks. There’s the one I can’t pronounce so I’m going to say Brecon Beacons, there’s Pembrokeshire Coast, and there’s Snowdonia.”
Said with that lil laugh English people do when they say this stuff, because they think they’re being funny and charming in a 'what am I like’ way rather than disrespectful and arrogant as fuck
“This one is by a reservoir in Gwent I can say, tee hee! Landy something, but-”
Me: Llandegfedd
Her: uh… yes, so difficult! Tee hee!
FUCK OFF
“This one is called… Um… I don’t know how to say it tee hee!”
Me: Ysgir.
Her: I’m so bad at Welsh haha
YOU ARE DELIVERING A THREE QUARTER HOUR LECTURE TO WELSH STUDENTS IN WALES ABOUT WELSH INFRASTRUCTURE
YOU HAVE MULTIPLE WELSH SPEAKING COLLEAGUES CRAWLING OUT OF THE WOODWORK WHO COULD HAVE TOLD YOU
LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE THE PLACES SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRIORITY ONE YOU ARROGANT BITCH
Like listen. LISTEN. I know this is entirely normal. I know this is so exceptionally common that about 80% of English people do it, I know they think it’s funny, I know they don’t even see there’s a problem, I know I’m basically kicking off at rain in a wet country. I don’t know why this extremely normal and commonplace occurrence is nettling me this much today.
But last year, I gave a lecture on grassland management. As part of it, I told the students about the ngitili silvipastoral systems in Tanzania. I am in no way saying I’m perfect!!! I am not a template to be copied!!! But ahead of that lecture, I scoured YouTube until I found a video of an indigenous person in Tanzania talking about the system!!! And I listened to how they pronounced it, and I memorised it, and then I even wrote out the phonetic pronunciation on the slide so my students could learn too, because not bothering to learn that while then presenting myself as an authority on the subject would have been grossly appropriative and colonialist and also plain fucking rude.
And none of those students were Tanzanian for me to insult to their faces
