moviefreakedmind said:
Now this is an example of not separating between cultures and governments. It’d be like saying that having an asshole for a dictator is part of North Korean culture (although the cult-like devotion to him is part of the culture).
So if you live in the United States, particularly in low-income or middle class areas where the average enlisted personnel are drawn from, you would be familiar with the slavish patriotism many of these people and their families possess. The kids are targeted by military recruiters or family members or peers when they are teenagers, then the mindset is cultivated into early adulthood. Some of them believe it’s a noble idea to go over to a foreign country and shoot some “sand people”, or whatever racist epithet is dujour for the day. Their family members are proud that their sons and daughters are “serving their country” and “defending our freedom”, which are high ideals of course, but seldom or never is it brought up that they may simply be used pawns in a global game of kleptocracy. At best, their child is just a cog in a wheel that brings death and destruction and mayhem to all those backwards people you so eagerly criticize, while enriching a small number of politicians and businessmen in the process, and at worst, some of those soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines are actually doing very bad things to innocent civilians in those far away lands.
The culture of war is endemic in the United States. It is in our DNA, considering we evolved from the people who got off the boat and started slaughtering the natives and stealing their land. You might want to consider this part of American history, from a few hundred years ago, up until what we currently do throughout the Middle East, before you continue with your indefensible position.
moviefreakedmind said:
What pornographic companies advertise to youth? As for violence, if you’re talking about violence in media, I don’t care about that at all; there’s no evidence that it is harmful at all.
The ubiquity of porn particularly in the internet age and the ease of its accessibility to youth (and everyone) is the problem. We have an existential porn problem in our western culture, there’s no question about it. On its face, there isn’t anything wrong with adults indulging in a little erotic material, and it’s important for humans to have healthy sex lives. However, without checks and balances, over-indulgence can lead to serious psychological and physical maladies. There is empirical evidence that increased pornography use has lead to sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men. Studies have shown that boys and girls exposed to pornography have very unhealthy views of what constitutes normal sex. There are now record amounts of women who are spending insane amounts of money on things like labiaplasty because they have become addicted to watching pornography, and suddenly don’t think their bits are as attractive as a porn star’s. Meanwhile, when you read a stat that labiaplasties are up 100% in the last two years and it’s suddenly a billion dollar industry, remember those first world problems and compare them to the starvation and disease that often runs rampant in those backward countries you were just complaining about.
moviefreakedmind said:
I doubt that most of the cultures I’ve alluded to have better education systems. Maybe they value education more than in the US, which is certainly good, but I’m still in favor of a lesser education system than widespread acceptance of religious extremism or female genital mutilation. I suspect that you probably are too.
A lot of the things you are complaining about are endemic to poor, politically unstable countries. In many of those countries, their political instability can be traced by to actions taken by western governments. Take Iran, for example. Was a progressive, westernized nation. The British and Americans kicked out its government and installed a puppet regime in order to expropriate all of the oil out of the country cheaply. After a couple decades of repression and theft, they revolted and put a bunch of religious nutcases in charge.
Look at Cuba. Looted by the Mafia and multinationals until Castro came to power. Could have still been an ally but American business interests who wanted back in the country said no, so they turned to the USSR. They then lived in extreme poverty for decades because of American sanctions that were a direct result of, once again, western business interests wanting to loot the country.
Look at most of the poor countries in Africa. Or Central America. And on and on.
There seems to be a common thing here…