My view of gun culture is the same as my view of creationism, which is another thing exceptional in the US among developed countries with high education levels. Nobody else anywhere takes creationism seriously.
Conversation
And both gun culture (which is not the same as non-religious levels of firearm literacy) and creationism are things that I think make America significantly dumber in its response to serious societal problems.
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Specifically, this means everybody who lives here has to pay an annoying "gun culture literacy" tax and accept the higher risk of really stupid ways of dying. Just like in India you have to accept a "sacred cow literacy" tax and accept higher risk of violence around it.
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More generally, native-born Americans tend to have an all-or-nothing approach to their exceptionalism. They demand that you either accept that all the great things like tech innovation etc come from the same roots as gun culture, creationism etc. or keep your mouth shut.
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Of course, the rest of the world -- including immigrants here with significant experience of other cultures, simply rolls its eyes and indulges the self-congratulatory American view of itself. For the same reason you might agree with a powerful boss you need to keep happy.
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The rest of the world has its own different account of the source of American strength, and contrary to insecure American fears of it, it is NOT an unflattering one that tldrs to "smallpox and slavery." People genuinely admire America and believe in a positive story about it.
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It's in general a more accurate one, that more correctly separates truly exceptional features of America vs. the features that Americans just assume is exceptional. The overall picture that emerges is actually more flattering to Americans than the one they paint for themselves.
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This entire thread is for non-Americans and immigrants. I've now spent more of my life here than in India (22.6y vs. 22.4y) and one thing I've learned is that there is no upside to challenging American views of themselves. They simply don't believe non-native-borns can see them.
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If you're not native-born, all you can do is quietly nod and skirt native-born introspection conversations and place your bets according to your own estimates of whether or not you believe their own accounts of themselves.
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The most effective tactic for dealing with native-borns is to indulge their deep-rooted belief that you couldn't possibly understand them or see parts of them they can't see themselves. Don't take them at their own estimation, don't try to communicate your estimation to them.
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Replying to
I'll add one thing. When a B-grade-TV-star-turned-politician like Trump governs by the American mythology of itself rather than any genuine sense of America, it actually tends to devalue and destroy everything that outsiders actually admire about America. Sad.
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Replying to
I've been wondering about what this is like for you. My sense has been pretty much what you shared here: sad and a bit fun. You are a very smart man, and I trust that the sadness will not prevent you from advancing our collective insight.



