The thing they have zero tolerance for is the embarrassment, not the corruption, pollution, crime, or other abuse. You can do whatever you can get away with so long as you don't cause embarrassment or shame.
A country with satellites is running a Wile E. Coyote tier balloon plot?
But enlighten me. What critical signals intelligence was that balloon getting?
That's not even remotely close to what I said. You should read the comment you're responding before responding with ignorant and blatantly manipulative falsehoods.
> And where did you get this super objective assessment that eastern peoples only care about “saving face”?
Again - never said anything like that. Learn to read.
> The racists
Actually, learn to think. This has absolutely nothing to do with race, as anyone who has passed high school can tell you. This claim is straight-up objectively false.
The second you start slinging the word "racist" around you immediately prove that you have zero valid points to give and are just trying to cry your way into acceptance. Which correlates with the rest of this post.
This is either a troll post, written by a middle-schooler, or blatant propaganda.
And before you start on me, yes - I'm able to "think", and no, I'm not a "troll"
If its not what you wanted to imply, then perhaps you'd be better served at owning up & clarifying, rather than insulting others who merely pointed out what you originally wrote.
And on a general note (not specifically or only you), I'm somewhat amused (in a morbid sense) at the sheer predictability of some of the "oh no, don't you dare try to impugn any moral superiority to that lot over there, vs us westerners" reactions.
Refreshing to see how even after a multi year ongoing genocide, kidnappings other countries presidents, and triple-tap bombing little girls elementary schools, westerners still feel they own the "moral high ground" (wherever that is anymore ...)
Ahhh, the propagandist's classic tactic - when unable to muster even the feeblest possible response to an argument, just make up things and pretend that the other party said them.
Fact: I said nothing of the sort. You are lying.
> owning up
I have nothing to own up to because I said nothing of the sort, and anyone with basic reading skills can see that.
> clarifying
I was exactly as clear as I needed to be. I do not need to provide every single possible hedge on my statements. It is ok to not be perfectly clear and disclaim every negative, and this is now normal, sane, socially well-adjusted people behave.
It is completely unacceptable (and more than a little psychotic) to take that ambiguity and interpret it in the worst possible way.
It is downright evil to then defend that malicious misinterpretation instead of apologizing.
You are evil.
Have fun. Over and out.
You want to win? Make them look stupid in such a way that continuing to fight makes them look even more stupid. Pain doesn't stop people, practical futility doesn't stop people; but, faced with the prospect of being considered persona non grata or a laughing stock or just robbed of their dignity, whether they win or lose, that is when people will call the match and walk off.
So, yes, face is a Western thing, too.
See also: oil futures, politicians who feud over “vibes” instead of tangible policy, constant symbolic strikes in war with no results, etc.
If you cause certain people to lose face, you will get China-like response.
In fact it’s a core conservative value and you can observe it in interactions with police - if a victim embarrasses the police they will prosecute the victim instead of the perpetrator
Yes, in the sense that a bicycle and a Formula F1 are both wheeled modes of transportation.
I never said that western cultures don't have the concept of pride - just that it's categorically different in eastern cultures.
This is both extremely well academically supported[1] and immediately obvious to anyone who has nontrivial exposure to most eastern cultures (including, specifically, Chinese culture).
Furthermore, the punishment of Chelsea manning is clearly irrelevant for multiple different reasons:
1. Specific instances are not reflective of a general pattern
2. Manning and Assange were instances of leakers of classified information, which is a separate category from merely "losing face"
3. There's a consistent pattern of the US government prosecuting leakers of classified information[2] even when there's zero media exposure, which conclusively disproves the "its just saving face" theory
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Re...
[2] https://www.justice.gov/news/press-releases?search_api_fullt...
I buy the whole thing that some cultures give more weight to face-saving than others. I would classify my supposedly western country (Chile) as one that gives it more weight than, for example, Germany. Even then, this just sounds like a kneejerk "you cannot trust these dastardly orientals".
Face saving is a thing in the US, to the point that it's a common plot point prestige TV (e.g most of The Wire). It's an accepted fact in political campaign with spin doctors. The 30K in credit card debt to keep up appearances is also face culture. The hustle culture, etc.
You don't need to be racist, you just can be skeptic of the claims of an autocratic government.
Read my comment again, carefully, and you'll understand that your response is unrelated to my point.
Also: all of these things exist in large, industrialized Eastern nations too. You've clearly never lived in any of those places or even had tangential exposure to their culture. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that - just understand that you are exactly the kind of person who is going to have the hardest time understanding the cultural difference - which is part of my point.
For understanding this better - you can try to read the Wikipedia page on the concept of face ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept) ), but part of my point is that academic/intellectual understanding is a really poor substitute for experience in this domain, and reading a page allows for intellectual disagreement that is literally inconsistent with reality - experience forces you to directly confront that reality.
I'd suggest watching a few hundred hours of media from several different Eastern cultures (I personally like a mix between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese television shows - they each have their own memetics and charm and can be highly enjoyable - but most forms of media should give you the same experience as long as it's diverse enough).
When Americans apologise to non-Americans for the behaviour of American tourists abroad, is that collective face saving?
How does a “diverse enough” media diet give someone the “same experience”? Maybe you’re picking and choosing media to reinforce your inner biases?
> Maybe you’re picking and choosing media to reinforce your inner biases?
You think that I chose to watch thousands of hours of media, not for entertainment, but specifically to deluse myself into a very specific and niche bias that the vast majority of people don't even have a mental framework to conceptualize and never comes up in casual conversation or has any relevance to my daily life? Congratulations, that's one of the most insane accusations I've ever seen on the internet.