[ExI] list intimidation

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, 12 April, 2023 8:58 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: spike at rainier66.com
Subject: Re: [ExI] list intimidation

 

Learning about another culture, like looking up the alphabet sex stuff is not faking. It is trying to understand the other. You may find it alien, different from what you are, and so on. I would not even mind if the "fake" in the US way to be was a form of culture. You can really stretch the word and say it is a kind of culture but in the way that Doritos is a kind of food. 
It is a cheap way of being. Not sure where it came from. Maybe from people coming from so many real cultures, cultures that took centuries to grow and solidify and everybody had to fake it to be accepted or even understood. The US is amazing for being a multicultural fest but and when you happen to be in the area of a city with a large community that maintained something of their original mother culture is a wonderful experience but then when people interact or are completely assimilated they start to fake it. 
It is sad like Italian Americans forgetting not just the Italian language but cooking horrible imitations of the real thing…

 

 

Cool thx, perhaps I can offer another take on it Giovanni.

Cultures take centuries to evolve thru one of my favorite mechanisms, evolutionary psychology.  That whole concept is so cool to me: individuals evolve by survival of the fittest: the most well-adapted genes are passed on thru reproduction.  In evolutionary psychology, the most well-adapted memes are passed on at the group level, for memes influence groups whereas genes are all about individuals.  So… cultures evolve.

The USA has people struggling to get across the border to get in here, not just from desperately poor failed socialist states, but from other places as well.  If one is gay in the Middle East, his best shot at a happy life, well, best shot at basic survival is in getting to Mexico and walking across the border into the USA, where we are generally cool with that.  Well OK then, I am good with it.  Chinese people who hate communism, well OK come on, so do we.

Regarding horrible imitations of the real thing… OK but… I loooove fake Italian food.  I really do, the Americanized half-hearted attempt at Italian recipes are among my favorites, and it isn’t just Italy (but Italy is one of the best examples (oh that country has given this weary old species some marvelous culinary delights.))  Today I had Taco Bell, which is fake Mexican food.  Living where I do, I can get the real thing within 5 miles of my house.  I do occasionally go there, and it is good.  But Taco Bell, oh those marvelously bland burritos, the tostadas, the five layers with that phony cheese-like product on there, oh so good.  It is fast, cheap, available everywhere. 

Phony isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

I didn’t even start to talk about all the choices in imitation pizza, but if I did, I would hafta say it is all so very good, even that greasy Costco pepperoni stuff with the orange pools of oil floating on the white cheese, mmmmmmm piiiiiiizzzaaaa…

Giovanni, now see what ya done?  Ya got me now to where I hafta make a Costco run tomorrow, just to get that hot greasy delicious imitation pizza.

spike

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