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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1880 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 26, 2026

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I was rather surprised to see how outright hostile the sentiment was towards Americans, while attending a reasonably high profile comedy show in Edinburgh tonight. Even directed at the poor sods who responded when the MC/individual comedians asked if there were Americans in the crowd. Apparently "I didn't vote for him" is no defense.

I ran into a very nice gentleman from Washington state while sheltering from the rain under the alcove of his building, next to the venue. I told him that while the show was nice enough, he's better off pretending to be Canadian. He was a tad bit strange, since, as he explained and then demonstrated, he'd stepped out to get soaked in the rain in lieu of a shower. That is probably whimsy and not pathology, but I opted to stay dry.

To be fair, I was sampling from the most vocally leftist/progressive strata of Scottish society. The average Scot seems to be much less deranged, and outright welcoming of the odd American tourist. Anyone else notice such obvious hostility in other countries?

Judging public opinion based on standup might not be an unbiased estimate.

I noted that the average person is far more amiable. This was distilled exposure to the leftest of the left - comedians are known to be happy and well adjusted people after all.

Also the whole Comedy Festival loop is incredibly activist and will purge you for wrong think very happily. Atleast based on being into the Melbourne Comedy Festival scene for a couple years and knowing there's a high overlap with the Edinburgh talent pool. Melbourne famously renamed their 'best act of the show' award a couple years ago from Barry Humphries (Better known as Dame Edna) to a generic one due to him making fairly milquetoast anti-trans comments.

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