If your wife dies due to septic shock from infected fetal remains, but her life could’ve been saved with an abortion, rejoice in the fact that gas is cheap during your drive to the cemetery. Or you could just vote Blue.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver I don’t disagree, it’s really a very complex situation, and the social media whinging/manipulation doesn’t help anybody
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver But collectivism is different, and i think the difficulty we’re having with a discussion of it, shows the US has nothing like it. The form of social support is perfunctory, and at that, given begrudgingly.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver That’s not really my point. Americans routinely face bankruptcy over medical care. The common refrain for poverty is “you should work harder”. Personal responsibility is important. I believe in it.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver I’m genuinely not denying that the US is very diverse, please don’t misunderstand that. It’s just, compared to a lot of other places I have visited and lived in, it’s much more uniform than you’d think, in practice. Thanks for the book rec, you’ve given me loads to think about
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver Further, I think the intense importance of personal responsibility, as was patently demonstrated by the pandemic, and is seen again through the American take on healthcare, shows that any collectivism is at best an imitation, an idea rather than an actual cultural element.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver I’ll have to read it. I don’t think any of this changes that the US is not the most diverse country in history.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver Collectivism simply cannot *exist* in the US, which discounts half the cultures out there from being found in the country.
@swanoflirvety @ruvalum @zialennial@opinonhaver The core component remains Protestant Ethic and the English language, in my opinion. This vein cuts through any cultures that attempt to integrate, because it’s really quite unique, especially in comparison to the east.
@swanoflirvety@zialennial @ruvalum @opinonhaver Yes, and they assimilate into American culture. They may keep elements of their own, but the reason they immigrated in the first place is to lose their original culture. In a way that’s what I did too. It’s silly because cultural diversity means much more than diversity of origin
@zialennial @ruvalum @swanoflirvety@opinonhaver In my experience, even in parts of the US with diverse cultures, the dominant culture remains the same (which is what I meant by assimilation pressure). Contrast that to parts of Africa and India, where in each region the dominant culture is indigenous, and you’ll see what I mean
@zialennial @ruvalum @swanoflirvety@opinonhaver It really just comes across as a sign of poor exposure. A month long road trip across much of the continent to this day, remains one of my favourite trips, and I definitely saw a lot of diversity.
@swanoflirvety@opinonhaver The US allows other cultures to coexist, but only with significant assimilation, to the point where they’re unrecognisable wrt to their origin. It’s dominant and quite varied, but it’s far from diverse, to anyone that’s travelled outside the Anglo-sphere.
@swanoflirvety@opinonhaver Well that’s a stretch to be sure. It’s definitely the most dominant, but the most diverse? That’s absurd. Just go to India for instance, you’ll experience debilitating culture shock every 200km in any direction from your starting point.