31–40 of 91 posts
>"Well, you would need to learn our way of life. It wouldn't be easy." The village was on the path to extinction, yet the thought of it being invaded by "outsiders" was somehow worse. throwing foreign people into a country without them adaption the culture is not reviving that country but changing it which on a longer time scale is the same as that country (read culture) dying. nobody would claim old empire are still…
I’ve lived in many parts of the U.S.—from major cities to the rural countryside. I’ve also lived outside the U.S. And without fail, every time I visit other developed countries, I become so confused about how our economy is apparently one of the strongest, and yet the U.S. just feels behind a lot of other places. A friend was telling me the first time they moved to the U.S. to work in Silicon Valley, they were expect…
us is the strongest in arm not civil
the US economy is one of the (if not the, depending on who you ask) strongest economy in the world - and we're not talking military economy.
To pretend otherwise is simply naive. Mississippi, the poorest US state, has both higher GDP Per Capita and GDP PPP Per Capita than most of Europe, much less the world.
Lived in Japan. I think world will come to realize that Japan's past is also the world's future.
Came to say the same thing. The supposed backwards parts are seeming charming the longer I live in Canada. Having a sovereign language has allowed it to avoid so much brainrot in our culture today.
The Japanese central bank doomed their economy to 20+ years of stagnation. Instead of allowing prices of assets to crash after the big bubble they locked interest rates at 0 and prevented a recession and repricing of assets but at the cost of future
Lived in Japan. I think world will come to realize that Japan's past is also the world's future.
Came to say the same thing. The supposed backwards parts are seeming charming the longer I live in Canada. Having a sovereign language has allowed it to avoid so much brainrot in our culture today.
それは、翻訳行為が高価である限りにおいてのみ機能します。
(That 'free' is also 'mediocre quality' does not help when the problem is 'brain rot': viral memes still be viral)
It's interesting to consider that these "Japan is backwards" takes might persist in part simply because it hasn't melded with the global first world culture. I can go to various countries and very similar experiences at an electronics store, a hotel and a gas station. In Japan all of those (and many others) are distinctively Japanese. I've read travelogues from the 17th-19th centuries, and in a lot of them, all of th…
It's interesting to consider that these "Japan is backwards" takes might persist in part simply because it hasn't melded with the global first world culture. I can go to various countries and very similar experiences at an electronics store, a hotel and a gas station. In Japan all of those (and many others) are distinctively Japanese. I've read travelogues from the 17th-19th centuries, and in a lot of them, all of th…
Most writers who give this "Japan is backwards" spiel all seem to have lived in the 80s or 90s. I'm much younger than these Gen Xers and Millenials, but it feels like Japanese style cultural impact is much larger now than "western style". Heck, KWave, KDramas, and Manhwa are heavily based on Japanese JPop, JDramas (the GOTO back in the 2000s before Sony made licensing expensive), and Manga. > view xenophobia, fear of…
In Neal Stephenson book Seveneves the technology of a future is in a few small ways described as weirdly un-advanced compared to the present. I wouldn't describe it as the focus of the book but it still seemed particularly implausible to me but ... I hadn't really thought about Japan. I've never been but I've read that in a few ways technology (fax machines were (are?) still popular just a few years ago) is weirdly retrograde.
That said for potential readers of Seveneves - as with all Stephenson's book it needed an editor to keep him in line. The second half was no where near as good as the first. There were plausibility problems with the technology used throughout the book. Also it was really a lot of fun and I have to admit that I enjoyed reading it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came to say the same thing. The supposed backwards parts are seeming charming the longer I live in Canada. Having a sovereign language has allowed it to avoid so much brainrot in our culture today.
> Having a sovereign language has allowed it to avoid so much brainrot in our culture today. それは、翻訳行為が高価である限りにおいてのみ機能します。 (That 'free' is also 'mediocre quality' does not help when the problem is 'brain rot': viral memes still be viral)
Not that your point isn't actually a good one - we do now often see the worst of US-made culture war toxoplasma (in all stages of its lifecycle) being imported wholesale into European cultures where it is barely relevant to local circumstances, which I would squarely blame on sufficient English skills and superior production value of anglophone politics.
Lived in Japan. I think world will come to realize that Japan's past is also the world's future.
Came to say the same thing. The supposed backwards parts are seeming charming the longer I live in Canada. Having a sovereign language has allowed it to avoid so much brainrot in our culture today.