The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XLIII

[Valka D'Ur]

@Arakhor, @Plotinus, and anyone else based in the UK:

I have what will probably seem like a dumb question for you, but here it is: There is a vocal, very rude bunch of people on FB who insist that Harry and Meghan's children don't exist. They say that the kids in the Christmas cards are AI and the kids in the photos are rented (apparently you have businesses there that rent children out to people who pretend to be their parents).

Not that I believe this BS for a moment, but just to confirm: Did they or did they not have two children - a boy named Archie, and a girl named Lillibet?

Some of the complaints are that the kids' faces aren't clearly in view. My answer is that it's reasonable to not want their faces plastered all over the newspapers and social media, due to security concerns. Nobody owes the public photos of their children.

Is this an actual thing there - a segment of society who believes that these kids don't exist? Or are they just internet crackpots?

 

[Birdjaguar]

There is a segment if USians that think Trump won the 2020 election. There are people who thing the moon landing was staged in Hollywood. Stupid people are everywhere and often they are looking for their 15 minutes of fame or a pot of money.

 

[Arakhor]

The official website of the Royal Family lists both Archie and Lillibet, so I'm going to assume that they know what they're talking about.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

So the people on FB who hysterically insist that the kids never existed and that the ones appearing in the photos are rented from some "rent a child" business are just stark-raving lunatics on par with the ones who insist that humans have never been off the planet.

The conspiracy crap is off the wall in that group. Just because Diana hugged her kids in one photo, these nuts are saying Meghan is "trying to pretend to be Diana" because she hugs her children.

I'd ask if there was something in the water, but since you and the rest here are sane people, I guess I'll chalk it up to jealousy? Racism, in the sense of how dare a black woman's kids not also be black?

I'm no Meghan Markle fan. But to accuse her of renting her children to pretend to have a family is just insanity.

 

[Gori the Grey]

It's just that we now live in a world where there's nothing one can't assert.

 

[r16]

the trouble stems with Meghan Windsor(?) not entirely White . A great talking point for everyone with a dog in that fight .

 

[Kyriakos]

It doesn't help that (former?) prince Harry has an IQ in the 70s. It can lead to antipathy even if he didn't mean to cause trouble - just opened his mouth/pressed buttons on the keyboard.

 

[r16]

a person of 70 iq will not be even used as sandbag as ballast on an Apache combat helicopter . This guy saw combat in one .

 

[Kyriakos]

You take things too literally.

 

[r16]

if he was too dumb , he wouldn't have survived childhood .

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

What does the phrase "we be balling you" mean? According to Google, balling means "living a flashy, extravagant life", but what does it mean to ball someone?

 

[Gori the Grey]

Urban dictionary gives this:

Urban Dictionary: balling

To full of money, To be rich.

www.urbandictionary.com

Urban dictionary isn't sophisticated enough to distinguish transitive from intransitive uses.

My guess for the usage would just be that "we are out-balling you," i.e. more rich, flashy, pimpin than you are.

Is there more context for the quote?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

It's from this unreleased Michael Jackson song.

The rap lyrics context makes it seem that "balling you" means "outperforming you", but the way Jackson is singing the chorus made me think he was using it in a different sense

 

[Gori the Grey]

Oh, well, for starters, "ballin'" just means playing basketball.

So, in that context, "outperforming you at basketball."

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I guess that must be it. The chorus just sounds silly, then

 

[Gori the Grey]

The thought of Michael Jackson "balling on" anyone is inherently silly.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Way back when, "ballin'" meant having sex.