Cultural Appropriation Again

Elsewhere someone was talking about this silly concept of “Cultural Appropriation”.

• I wear pants, an article of clothing invented by the ancient Chinese.
• I speak English, a language that derived from Norman soldiers trying to seduce Anglo-Saxon barmaids.
• Our government is a Republic, derived from a form invented by the Romans (Plato’s “Republic” had nothing to do with anything we recognize as a Republic today), with other parts deriving from the Dutch Republics and even the Iroquois nations.
• I drive a car, the motor-carriage being invented by a German.
• The general purpose computer I type this on is owed to an Englishman.
• My dinner was “Italian” which featured tomatoes which come from the Andes. And since I’m on a low-carb diet the
  •  pasta (invented in China) is actually
  • Shirataki noodles, which come from Japan
• My ex comes from Japan meaning my daughter is half-Japanese.
• My father’s ancestors from Germany
• My mother’s from Ireland.

I could go on and on.  Dogs originally domesticated in Eurasia.  Buttons on clothes from Germany.  Coffee (although I can’t stand the stuff, others can’t live without it) from Ethiopia.  Chocolate from Central America.  Beer from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).  Wine from China (Take that, Frenchies!).  Distilled liquor comes from Asia, by way of Greece and then via the Arabic alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (often referred to as “Geber”).

Cultural Appropriation? That _is_ our culture.