Taiwan was filled with garbage long before that CJ fellow came around.
Says a _____(whatever gender u prefer) no in Taiwan.
By the way, u had your enlightenment, do come up with better arguments.
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youâve got a point on some of the core aspects of Western culture, but you write this missive at a time when the life that I know in the West (USA) is in steep free-fall and those keystone tenets you mention crumbling.
For now, Iâm content to live in a place where I most likely wonât be murdered or subjected to the ensuing fear and violence stemming from the absence of any social safety net.
I wonder where you live that these finer points of life in the West still bring solace. ?
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Itâs good to get these things out of your system.
âŠand breathe
Agree that the Western democracies underpinned by balance of powers and strong human rights are superior to pretty much everything else thatâs out there.
Whatâs probably the biggest forte is that Western democracies can change over time generally without very damaging revolutions and rebellions.
Learnt those lessons the hard way in Europe though.
It could be that western democracies are simply far ahead on the curve.
China is certainly a VERY strong argument on the vital need to preserve our hard fought for democracies and their respect for human rights! I include Taiwan in that as well as Taiwan does have a highly functional and stable democracy.
Not enough people supporting extreme points of view, we need some ethnostatist to show up and move the thread in the right direction.
The best culture is the kind thatâs capable of self-examination and soul searching, and have enough people speaking out about what needs to be changed, why things need to change, and remain logical and respectful while doing so.
In the end, such superior cultures will choose a way to do things because it is the right thing to do, not because itâs how things have always been done.
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is it so difficult to see the good and bad sides of different cultures? why does one have to the best culture?
I agree with the best culture being capable of self-examination and soul searching.
I canât say I agree with OP but I think in Western culture, people have the advantage of being able to always criticize and question things. Here in Taiwan, criticizing culture is almost like a taboo (itâs same in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia too). Itâs the same with criticizing your parents or your seniors, itâs just not proper.
One can actually argue that true Han/Confucian culture encourages people to speak truth to power, and people who do are often praised in the history books.
However, thereâs a huge penalty attached to speaking the truth in Han culture. People who make the seemingly wrong criticism are punished severely. Itâs actually the courage to do so despite the danger that gets praised. So usually historical figures that get praised for speaking truth to power often met terrible ends.
In that kind of an environment, it isnât hard to imagine that most people wouldnât do it, and donât do it casually.
In Tang and Song dynasties, scholars are highly respected and donât get killed outright as they do in Ming or Qing dynasties. You would find people more willing to criticize the government back then.
In the end, I think itâs all about social mobility. If there is high social mobility, people are more willing to speak truth to power. If people are generally powerless with nowhere to go if they piss off those in charge, then they are less likely to do so.
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Who all are we including in âWestern Cultureâ? Russians? American blacks?
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One recent advance in culture that is almost exclusively western is the gay rights movement. Certainly there were other places in the world that afforded more freedom or respect to the LGBTQ but I doubt that any of those cultures have taken the extra step to allow those people to marry.
When one questions why western countries are so progressive the answer is very interesting: development of science, loss of religion, human rights, freedom of speech, etc⊠All of these things worked together to create an environment where a large group of people no longer hold a massive, life changing burden that they must hide. This seems to be the one of the best arguments for western thought if not western culture.
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Isnât it ironic that Taiwan is one of those cultures that has taken the extra step to allow those ppl to marry?
And why hasnât this topic been closed?
Itâs all goes back to the Renaissance and the city states as far as I can tell.
Lols this guy so bad at trolling, get gid son
There was some potential for butthurt, but it got wasted.
Feelsbadman.