Culture on My Mind
Lord, Laird, Lady?
December 30, 2022

This week, I’m reading about the downfall of a YouTube sponsorship. We’ve all seen the advertisements as we’re perusing our favorite videos – let’s face it, there are a lot of ads on the platform, and the frequency seems to be increasing – and I know that I wondered about the logistics and legalities of owning a square foot of land in Scotland.

I mean, the appeal is pretty big from a novelty perspective. Make a donation, get a certificate, and laugh about being a Lord of Scotland. But how deep does that rabbit hole go? I tried digging into it back in June and landed on an article from Tales of Times Forgotten named No, You Can’t Buy One Square Foot of Land in Scotland and Become a “Scottish Lord”. But the dissent was sparse at that point. I mean, I had no intention of buying in after living through trends like the “buy a star for your loved ones” in the ’90s, and I donated directly to ecological charities and causes to make a difference, but I was certainly curious about how something like Established Titles worked.

YouTuber Scott Shafer cracked the story open recently, and I found out about his work through YouTubers like Pleasant Green and LegalEagle. It certainly has the YouTube community in an uproar as content creators take their various sides and start hurling mud, but at least we have some answers.

No, you can’t buy a small piece of land and earn a title. Yes, companies like this are under investigation for their business practices.

And, yes, they’re pulling their sponsorships and closing ranks, which implies a lot about the case on the whole.

There is more to come on the matter, but I think that these two videos are a great starting point for the logistics and legalities. Both of them sum up Scott Shafer’s original research quite well. Take some time to dive in if you’re interested.

LegalEagle:

Pleasant Green:

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

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