SomeInternetBloke wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 6:15 am
3. There's an international pandemic of hostility, seeking revenge, and demanding restitution instead of offering forgiveness. Funny thing, you can't really reason through the unmerited-favor-process with such a mental state because then it's all about measuring the transgression and proportionate recourse. The limbic system and all of that.
I guess I would have seen integration as something more transcendental than such issues? Like you're not going to estrange friends you already have over such issues? It's like a lack of integration precedes politics.
starla wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 3:16 pm
Also keep in mind that for a lot of people, vacation = no pay and even for those of us privileged enough to have high paying jobs with paid time off, a month long summer break isn't in the cards. Usually, a week is the best we can do and two weeks is a once every few years big anniversary trip. So we have to take into account how long it takes to get places when we choose where to go.
Hadn't thought of that.
Are vacations really that shit in the U.S, like where you'd be lucky to string together two weeks of unpaid leave?
I can definitely empathise with a lot of this. When I do get holidays I have little or no interest in "travel". I guess this is because I typically travel a bit with work, but also I never really had interest in going far away for the sake of it. It seems too tiring for holidays.
Now I guess it's different since my family is 14000 km away, so the travel is shit, but when I get there I can more or less relax. Plus my parents have no internet, which is sweet, like a kind of rehab.
I guess it's similar to liking TV series versus movies. With the TV series you can slip back into something comfortable and follow the plot of the characters you already know. With movies (at least the ones that are not part of a series) there's a degree of uncertainty for what you are getting yourself in for, which might be rewarding, or it might not.
However, in areas that are overwhelmingly one race, minorities are basically forced to integrate with the local majority.
That might also explain the situation in Ireland btw, which is predominantly white but with growing numbers of minorities. I think that in general minorities integrate pretty well, or at least they are not viewed in a negative FOX-news sense (though there's definitely latent racism). Some of the discrimination (no idea how much) come from within the minority groups. Worked with a guy from Pakistan who was culturally Islamic but not practicing (he drank, he dated Irish women, etc.), and he told me how when he was at a a deli (a sandwich counter) in a supermarket, the Arabic guy asked him where he was from and refused to give him ham.
ashi wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 5:31 pm
The typical American I encounter knows little of the world and cares less,
because regardless of ones background or politics the US is held as the unquestionable centre of the world.
Well if it's any solace, when I was in France a lot of people did not seem to realise that Ireland is an country independent of the UK. That happens a lot in Chile as well (even among educated people, like fellow professors), but that's understandable as we are far apart. But France? They also seemed not to give a shit when I politely corrected them.
It's not specifically a US phenomenon I guess, but may be aggravated by US exceptionalism.
I can't put any of this in objective terms, but it feels staggeringly segregated both in where people live, work, shop, and how products and services are marketed. It is all extremely uncomfortable and the unchecked "racism, but for the greater good" and resulting wildfire of horizontal hostility among lower class and immigrant populations cultivated by liberals only makes it worse. I can't comment on schools.
One thing that struck me in Chile, btw, is that all of the aspirational marketing involves white models, like you want a loan? Here's a picture of a young attractive white couple. You want some new clothes? Here's an image of an attractive white lady. It's very weird. It's not that they are targeting white people, but targeting everyone through the aspiration of being like white people or something (partly I guess because white people are generally much more affluent here, but also maybe referring to North America in an aspirational way).
Senseye wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 7:25 pm
I have a theory that one of the primary reasons futball (soccer) never caught on in North America is due to the lack of stoppage in play not allowing for sufficient ads during broadcasts. Hence no broadcasts, no real interest, no big salaries for players so no good players.
Might also work in reverse as to why American football, baseball, etc., never really took off internationally (with some exceptions).