I'll start. Fahrenheit is the superior temperature system for weather reporting. We should use metric for literally everything else, even Celsius for cooking, but I'll be dead in the cold ground before I abandon a system in which you actually get to experience both 0 degrees and 100 degrees. Freezing being 32 instead of 0 is literally the only downside, and it's not a hard number to remember. I'm prepared to die on this hill in the comments.

  • kilternkafuffle [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    A lot of Westerners who admire Japanese culture (beyond anime) just enjoy the thought of a country where everyone is polite to them and never confronts them over anything.

    You said "a lot" as opposed to "all", so maybe I shouldn't feel the need to disagree. But I'm a Japanophile and this doesn't ring true for me at all. (I don't think I'm a "weeb", I consume some anime/jRPGs, but it's a minority of the things I'm interested in.) I enjoy the sound of the Japanese language, Japanese music, the taste and style of Japanese food, the Japanese approach to religion and spirituality, philosophies of simplicity, asceticism, and everyone taking care of each other, the architecture and atmosphere of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, the creativity of modern Japanese art that's Westernized and yet still unique...

    Where I would criticize my Japanophilia (and at least that of some others) is that it is "raw consumption", I'm not interested in becoming Japanese and know that Japanese media and cultural products aren't a true reflection of Japanese society. (Billions of people around the world are the same way with American culture - love Batman and McDonalds, have no idea what it's like to be American.) So it's a bit of a fantasy world - Japan's projection of itself is appealing. But saying it's just politeness, or anime, or ramen or whatever is caricaturing the many different things you can enjoy about Japanese culture.

    • Mencoh [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      You said “a lot” as opposed to “all”, so maybe I shouldn’t feel the need to disagree.

      I can't make blanket statements but I've met too many suburbanite liberals who think of the world as a travel resort and Japan is always high on their list since they never feel any hardship there. The privilege gateway of travel filters them through I guess.