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This map is not upside down

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Re: This map is not upside down

#291

Post by staplers »

rafram wrote: post #101
hyperhello wrote: post #2

> Psychologically, we tend to view things nearer the top as ‘good’ and those lower as ‘bad.’ This, of course, is the point of the article. It was so predictable that it made me wonder: who is telling me that top is good and lower is bad? The articles themselves.

Started at the bottom, now we're here. Up-and-coming. Top-of-the-line. I could go on, but I don't want to get you down.

Our eyes are at the top of our body and humans are generally tall (standing up). You look forward and then look down naturally.

We generally read top down because of this. We generally want the bulk of information at the same level as our eyes. It's why tv's aren't on the ground.

I feel like many are overthinking this.

Re: This map is not upside down

#292

Post by smsm42 »

thw_9a83c wrote: post #154
hidroto wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

Such grouping is based on dubious theories. For example, China is classified as a "developing economy" (red), even though it is one of only three countries with the independent capability to send humans into Earth's orbit using its own launch systems and spacecraft.

Sending humans to orbit while leaving millions of other humans starving on Earth is not a sign of great economy. China undoubtedly made a lot of progress in recent decades, but it also started from a very low point. Its GDP per capita has improved greatly but still way lower than most Western countries.

Re: This map is not upside down

#293

Post by kspacewalk2 »

pac0 wrote: post #261
BaardFigur wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Casually claiming a bunch of British territories

Islas Malvinas are Argentinian.

Not in these three fairly important ways: actual control, the wishes of the people who actually live there, de jure recognition by most countries. Otherwise, sure, totally and wholly Argentinian.

Re: This map is not upside down

#294

Post by giraffe_lady »

shirro wrote: post #258

The thing I resent most is the terms Global North and Global South. It seems like an offensive classification no matter which side you are placed. China is an incredibly rich, highly developed industrial economy with a history that goes back thousands of years with massive cultural influence. They are firmly in the northern hemisphere. They have high speed electric trains and their cities look like something out of B…

I mean it's basically just a drop in replacement for "first world" and "third world" to get away from the cold war history and because the ordinals have a clear, intentional value judgement attached to them. It's not a good nomenclature I don't really intend to defend it here, I also don't like it at all.

But it's not worse than what we were using before, and it's not completely arbitrary either. It's frequently useful to group countries in this way, people seem to really want to do it regardless, there's going to be names for this idea.

Re: This map is not upside down

#295

Post by smsm42 »

simonh wrote: post #267
Legend2440 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has had massive economic growth in recent years, but were undisputedly a developing country prior to that growth. They may deserve to be reclassified now, although their GDP per capita is still much lower than the US.

Only because their population is so huge. Their Dollar GDP is about 2/3 that of the USA and is 4.5x that of Japan. In a sense it’s set of highly developed urban industrial zones that also has a massive underdeveloped rural area.

And that's why it is called "developing" - because some parts are developed but some are massively underdeveloped.

Re: This map is not upside down

#297

Post by robocat »

cgh wrote: post #283
tomsmeding wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... it's a title, not a sentence. Many book titles are even a single word, which is even less a sentence. Why would a grammatical convention for sentences apply to book titles?

Heck if I know. All I know is I am a lot more worked up about the misuse of “less” when the correct word is “fewer”.

Whom would care fewer?

Re: This map is not upside down

#298

Post by themaninthedark »

paxys wrote: post #76
hyperhello wrote: post #2

> Psychologically, we tend to view things nearer the top as ‘good’ and those lower as ‘bad.’ This, of course, is the point of the article. It was so predictable that it made me wonder: who is telling me that top is good and lower is bad? The articles themselves.

Really? Before you read this article you never associated being on top = good and being at the bottom = bad?

I'm going to catch a movie downtown, about a plucky underdog from one of the Low Countries, NETHERland in particular.

Re: This map is not upside down

#299

Post by robocat »

bregma wrote: post #110
alabhyajindal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First time seeing this and it feels so offensive. I'm somewhat okay with the term developed and developing countries, though not too much [1]. But this just feels discriminatory. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness

What are "developing" countries developing into? Nice white western ones like the global north? Nope. That one is the worst of the choices.

"Economically developed" doesn't imply race: you are the one bringing white up... Or perhaps you are projecting your bad impressions onto others?

Developing is a fine word, with little taint.

You remind me of a lady who objected to me saying "retarded" who then righteously lectured me about not saying retarded, and she proceeded to give an example of her having a friend in a wheelchair as to why the word was offensive. I couldn't even start to tell her just how grossly disgusting her comments were.

Parts of reality suck, but denying reality sucks even harder - especially if you think you are helping less developed peoples.

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