Example: It's hard to imagine any way in which just throwing trash in the street it's not an obviously bad thing. Sure it might be their culture to do that but it doesn't take a whole lot of logic to see it's untenable. It also doesn't take a whole lot of logic to see that always acting like you're the most important person and never caring about others is untenable.
Well, you might consider it an "upgrade" from the old behavior of tossing trash into people's open windows as you walked by.
You're littering to make sure people are employed? Really?
If you were generous, you might say "they just don't know any better", but I'm not generous. And if it is "just a few bad eggs" as is commonly claimed by "all cultures are precisely equal" advocates, then why don't some of their fellow righteous countrymen speak up and say something?
If I were generous, I might say "you just don't know any better to think critically at a higher level", but I'm not generous. I'm saying "you are a moron".
There we go.
No, and you know I'm not saying that. I am stating just one example of the obvious, that cultures are different - it's the topic of this thread after all, remember?
You seem to imply that all cultures are either the same, or at least "equal", down to the individual level (you have a proportionally equal chance of meeting a rude Japanese person compared to a rude Chinese/American/whatever.)
From another thread in this conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9712181
> Ancient China had tons of courtesy in social interactions, and used to consider other countries uncivilized. The lack of courtesy in Mainland China is due to the communist revolution, which promoted tough fighting mentality to break social hierarchy and order, and threw away traditional values. It's an aggressive way of promoting equality. The revolution is over since Chairman Mao left. Now that the Communist Party is the governing party, the emphasis is hierarchy and order, or in a better sounding word -- stability, so that they can stay in power forever. They try to bring back traditional values, but the revolutionary damages are hard to overcome.
Is this commenter also unable to "think critically at a higher level"? Are you of the opinion that the cultural revolutions in China had no effect on culture? When you visit different countries, do you genuinely not notice a noteworthy difference in behaviors?
EDIT: Just by coincidence, came across this comment in a Japanese food thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/food/comments/39qpcn/didnt_fly_firs...
As far as safety, there are 3 crimes per year per 10,000 residents. That compares with St. Louis' 800+ per 10,000 residents. I would like to think that those 3 crimes/10,000 residents in Japan were executed by tourists. No one locks their bikes. $2000 bikes just sitting around. I've never felt safer in my life. Japan is wonderful.
That fellow also seems to detect a cultural difference between countries. 250x higher crime rate in St. Louis vs Japan. $2000 unlocked bikes, and no one steals them. Is he making this stuff up? If we were to look up crime statistics by country, would 100% of the difference be only because of people not reporting crimes where the statistical rate is lower?
The levels of political correctness these days is absolutely ridiculous.
If you were generous, you might say "they just don't know any better", but I'm not generous. And if it is "just a few bad eggs" as is commonly claimed by "all cultures are precisely equal" advocates, then why don't some of their fellow righteous countrymen speak up and say something?
You're proposing that it's not "just a few bad eggs" because you are are claiming that no righteous countrymen are speaking up.
I would expect the same of any nationality - if you are abroad, you should be respectful of the local customs, and if any of your own are acting up, you should make an attempt to put them in line. If I saw another Canadian jumping the queue at the airport, you're damn right they would have heard a word or two from me.
In fact, I personally think it's pretty rude to characterize 1 billion people as "maximally selfish"
In any case the comment I replied to specifically talked of social graces mentioned in the article, ie. saying please and thank you.
you never notice the upper class tourists that blend in. the problem is they have so many of the lower class ones, nothing else matters.