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Theodiskaz
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28 Feb 2017, 1:03 am

bamsaidthelady wrote:
I don't understand how any American who reads about social and political issues can't admire various aspects of other nations/cultures.


Generally, Americans are not interested in the ways other people do things, as they suspect the American way is already the best way.


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Theodiskaz
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28 Feb 2017, 1:22 am

Raptor wrote:
bamsaidthelady wrote:
I don't understand how any American who reads about social and political issues can't admire various aspects of other nations/cultures.

- We are one of 3/4 countries still using an inefficient and inconsistent system of measurement.
- Many Japanese schools don't have janitors due to the emphasis on self-responsibility in their culture.
- Various countries outpace us in education due to teaching methods, policies, year-round schedules, etc.
- With perhaps one or two exceptions, we are the only developed country to not offer universal healthcare.


You had somewhat of a respectable post going until this:
Quote:
- It is not possible for civilians in various other countries to legally acquire [multiple] guns with high-capacity magazines.

The reason there are so many of those icky guns with high capacity magazines is due to the threat of restricting or banning them.


Your comment does not refute the claim. Sloppy, or intentional? You impugn the respectability of her post, because of the very part you do not refute. Perhaps what you meant to say is that you do not respect one of the things she included on her list of unadmirable things about this country. Instead, you employ baby talk and a seeming attitude of disparagement.

You had a 100 percent chance of my considering you a respectable person, until your post. The reason I don't respect you is due to the existence of evidence that you are a bully.


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Farunel
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28 Feb 2017, 1:25 am

Theodiskaz wrote:
In the main I would say, not. The idea of American exceptionalism is pervasive across most cultural spectra, not so much the increasingly nervous minority populations currently under scrutiny.

As an aside, I credit my autistic perspective to such freedom as I have from such mindless cultural monstrosities as racism, a nasty s**t sandwich my mom served me throughout my childhood. I finally met a black (actually rich golden brown) person in my sophomore year in high school. and since my mom's world view did not include nice black people, such as obviously stood before me here, I concluded she was crazy and never wondered if I had to be afraid of someone who didn't look like me again. It was that easy to ignore years of conditioning and propaganda. And I overanalyzed even then, but never found a thoughtline which persuaded me to consider her perspective seriously again.

Born and raised in America, I more or less admire organizations and cultures, but not countries. I admire the governments administering the nordic economic model in northern Europe. I find much that is excellent and admirable in many different cultures throughout the world. All of them, true, existing in "countries".
I will admit to having a certain irrational fondness for Canada.

Can anyone validate feeling as if having autism makes it easy to critique or even shed bits and pieces of the culture you are in? Have any of you ever felt like you were a culture of one?


Not sure how to quote only those last two sentences because I am dumb. But yes, both me and my s/o (Who is also autistic) have feelings of shame when it comes to the whole of society, and how much we separate ourselves from each other. It makes absolutely no sense, especially racism. We have people who consider people of darker skin to be a completely different species. That's like saying a black Labrador is a different species from a yellow lab. Same applies to all dogs, but with selective breeding we have come up with strange... results.

The only differences between any of us are the ones we invent for ourselves.



wrongcitizen
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28 Feb 2017, 1:54 am

Yea, I spend most of my time studying them actually. I typed a HUGE post about the countries I'm fascinated by but then I thought it revealed too much info. Let's just say I have a bit of an obsession and leave it at that lol.



ASPartOfMe
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28 Feb 2017, 3:57 am

A lot of Americans are infatuated with the British. Israel has been traditionally widely admired although that is changing or has changed.


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Raptor
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28 Feb 2017, 9:26 am

Theodiskaz wrote:
Raptor wrote:
bamsaidthelady wrote:
I don't understand how any American who reads about social and political issues can't admire various aspects of other nations/cultures.

- We are one of 3/4 countries still using an inefficient and inconsistent system of measurement.
- Many Japanese schools don't have janitors due to the emphasis on self-responsibility in their culture.
- Various countries outpace us in education due to teaching methods, policies, year-round schedules, etc.
- With perhaps one or two exceptions, we are the only developed country to not offer universal healthcare.


You had somewhat of a respectable post going until this:
Quote:
- It is not possible for civilians in various other countries to legally acquire [multiple] guns with high-capacity magazines.

The reason there are so many of those icky guns with high capacity magazines is due to the threat of restricting or banning them.


Your comment does not refute the claim. Sloppy, or intentional? You impugn the respectability of her post, because of the very part you do not refute. Perhaps what you meant to say is that you do not respect one of the things she included on her list of unadmirable things about this country. Instead, you employ baby talk and a seeming attitude of disparagement.
Goo goo gah gah?

Quote:
You had a 100 percent chance of my considering you a respectable person, until your post. The reason I don't respect you is due to the existence of evidence that you are a bully.
Wow!
I am really crushed.
:(
Yours truly,
The Bully


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Theodiskaz
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28 Feb 2017, 11:22 am

Farunel wrote:
Theodiskaz wrote:

Can anyone validate feeling as if having autism makes it easy to critique or even shed bits and pieces of the culture you are in? Have any of you ever felt like you were a culture of one?


Not sure how to quote only those last two sentences because I am dumb. But yes, both me and my s/o (Who is also autistic) have feelings of shame when it comes to the whole of society, and how much we separate ourselves from each other. It makes absolutely no sense, especially racism. We have people who consider people of darker skin to be a completely different species. That's like saying a black Labrador is a different species from a yellow lab. Same applies to all dogs, but with selective breeding we have come up with strange... results.

The only differences between any of us are the ones we invent for ourselves.


Thank you for your kind reply, but I must respectfully reject your word "dumb". I, too am ignorant of the easy way, if one exists, to select parts of a post for quoting.

Imagine your reaction upon being confronted with a lab who promptly sat down and begin acting like a chimp who was trying to communicate with you using American sign language. And if you have never seen an ape using ASL, it's pretty interesting. Youtube it.
I imagine you might actually find that kind of awesome. I would.

But now imagine you have what feels like in ingrained, instinctive distrust for all non-labs, a real lab fan. For some people, it's as if the juxtaposition of the familiar and the unfamiliar provokes fear. As in a lab who kind of acts like a chimp, or a woman who seems to be attracted to other women, or a religious person who appears to be praying to the wrong god, or the ptsd sufferer who uses cannabis as if it were a medicine, or an Evangelical who claims to be a socialist, or the Liberal Redneck etc etc etc. My point is that some people seem to find it especially disgusting when the acceptable is combined with the unknown, and I believe this is a cognitive error that most people on the spectrum are not prone to.


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kraftiekortie
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28 Feb 2017, 11:48 am

I've never been to the Iron Range.

But that's where Bob Dylan comes from.

I've seen pictures of Hibbing and of Duluth. Very interesting....



LoveNotHate
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28 Feb 2017, 12:10 pm

bamsaidthelady wrote:
I don't understand how any American who reads about social and political issues can't admire various aspects of other nations/cultures.

- We are one of 3/4 countries still using an inefficient and inconsistent system of measurement.
- Many Japanese schools don't have janitors due to the emphasis on self-responsibility in their culture.
- Various countries outpace us in education due to teaching methods, policies, year-round schedules, etc.
- With perhaps one or two exceptions, we are the only developed country to not offer universal healthcare.
- It is not possible for civilians in various other countries to legally acquire [multiple] guns with high-capacity magazines.

Yeah, our standard of living and overall state of the country is good. But it can and should be much better.

American patriotism says America is "land of the free".

So "Socialism" , "Communism", "Monarchy" are dirty words in America.

They invoke the idea that the people of these countries are not free.

So, naturally, Americans will look down on these countries.



Theodiskaz
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28 Feb 2017, 12:22 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
I've never been to the Iron Range.

But that's where Bob Dylan comes from.

I've seen pictures of Hibbing and of Duluth. Very interesting....


Duluth has a nice bridge :). And wild canids. Aside from that, the Iron Range of northeastern Minnesota might just be the furthest thing from Queens there is.

Ever heard of Garrison Keillor?


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Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. Albert Einstein

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kraftiekortie
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28 Feb 2017, 2:16 pm

I've seen the name, but don't know too much about him.