Comments by "John Roberts" (@view1st) on "serpentza" channel.

  1. In my neck of the woods (Rotherham, Yorkshire) we've always had a tendency to pronounce the words 'thick' and 'mother' as 'fick' and 'muvver' when speaking rapidly or colloquially. That and the use of more quaint words from a bygone era such as thee and thou (prounounced thi, tha).
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  2. Great Britain during the industrial revolution. Ditto the USA. Ditto France, Germany....
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  3. *Richard Plumb: * What is an 'evil uncle' ?
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  4. What has communism got to do with anything? This is a cultural thing that has existed in China and in most places and periods from the year dot. Indeed Europe is probably an outlier in this respect and love marriages/individualism relatively recent historical developments.
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  5. I'm guessing that Chinese society/culture has inculcated the idea into its citizenry that it's best to let the authorities and/or immediate family deal with situations like this. Basically a 'I shouldn't get involved because this person is a stranger and it could make things worse for me' sort of attitude.
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  6. Biden isn't a leader though, he's just a figurehead at best. He's far too mentally challenged with dementia to be in effective control. No, someone else is in real control of US policy, maybe a single individual like Harris, maybe a group of people, I don't know. Perhaps that's why the USA seems so adrift right now because the country is being run by a committee.
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  7. Throughout most of history and into our own time relationships are mostly about utility, even if Hollywood would have you believe the opposite.
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  8. We need massive anti‐war protests like they had towards the end of the Vietnam war era. But even bigger.
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  9. That's nothing. Just wait outside an English pub at closing time and see people pissing in public.
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  10. Warren1814 I'd say it's more to do with the legacy of imperialism and colonialism and the fact that The West is perceived as having generally higher standards of economic development. That and how westerners are portrayed in Hollywood and western Cold War propaganda.
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  11. Anonymous Asians tend to live in hierarchical societies and thus grade nations according to the perception of how 'developed' they are in comparison to themselves. As the whole idea of development is a construct of the West (who naturally put themselves at the top) then they tend to grade people according to what countries they come from with people of darker colour being seen as coming from 'less developed' countries (and thus more likely to be poorer and therefore not a particularly 'good catch' from a potential spouse's point of view) and those of lighter skin colour coming from 'more developed' countries (and thus richer, etc.). Also, western imperialism and colonialism and ongoing western hegemonic domination of the world may also have something to do with it (success, power and dominance, together with better living standards being seen as attractive).
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  12. Number Five I'd say it's a combination of the two. :-D
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  13. Number Five I don't dispute what you say about non-westerners having their own motivations for preferring light skin over dark but I would argue that, in addition, the cultural influence of western Europe and North America (through globalisation) has also had an impact on non-westerners perceptions. That is to say, it could be argued that the influence of what is called "The West" has helped strengthen the existing societal prejudice.
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  14. Number Five Forgive me, but you basically seem to be agreeing with my original position, that it is a combination of the two: that the influence of the West, combined with a widely held prejudice, contributes to a tendency within Asian societies to favour lighter shades of skin tone. The wealth of the average white tourist, combined with their naturally pale skin feeds, into a bias that already exists.
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  15. And you certainly won't be marrying royalty.
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  16.  @eugenetswong  In their culture it might. Perhaps it's a case of you imposing your cultural standards upon another culture that may not share the norms prevailing in your society. This is the thing that probably irks non‐westerners a lot: cultural insensitivity and the invincible conviction held by westerners that they are right and everyone must share their values; that such values are, or at least should be, universal.
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  17. Is male circumcision right?
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  18. Said that about the Koreans and Japanese too. They were so bad at making things that when it looked like they might overtake the USA it sabotaged their economies. And I'm sure that the Chinese would have said pretty much the same thing about the West in the 18th century. Curb your racism and xenophobia. Misrepresenting entire peoples and cultures might be comforting, but in the long term it breeds complacency and a misplaced sense of superiority. As the Chinese will tell you, that's not a good thing.
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  19. ​ @wandregalbjornson1452  But what's driving the homelessness? In China it's largely people from the countryside without residency permits coming to the big cities in search of a better life but not being allowed to work, rent, etc. rather than them not being able to afford a home. In the United States and elsewhere it's precisely the opposite, with the homeless not being able to a afford a home or pay rent because of them not having a job (jobs brings sent to China?) or being evicted because they can't afford to pay rent/mortgages (rentier economy based on usury). There are also people with drug and mental health problems which are big issues in the USA and Canada to a degree that they aren't in China. The problem of homelessness in both countries have a solution but particularly in the USA and Canada, those solution are not ones that the political class are willing to hear. The economy of the USA puts the profits of Wall Street above providing decent living conditions for a sizeable part of its population.
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  20.  @williamnunn8847  Which side of the Brexit line do you stand?
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  21.  @the_mowron  Probably because of the stuff they have to put up with from ungrateful customers. Are the frequenters of motels good tippers?
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  22. ​ @gordo3582  Can't wait.
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  23. According to Francis Fukuyama we have. He says we have finally come to the end of history. He also says that the USA is the most perfect civilisation to ever exist, that its socioeconomic system is the most perfect, and that every event to occur, from the big bang up until the present, was merely a lead up to this point in time and that neoliberalism (aka neo‐fascism with a liberal twist) is what the universe was working towards for the past 13 billion years. Communism, he says, is an abject failure; an evil ideology that wants to take over the world, kills billions, and always, always fails wherever it's tried. He says that only capitalism works and that no other system is possible.
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  24. In the USA they'd be shot by white policemen. Accidently, of course.
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  25. Europe wants a word with you. 😅
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  26. One does not need religion to behave morally. Indeed, Confucianism is nothing if not a highly refined philosophy of moral conduct.
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  27. @Benjamin Eby Once upon a time, cats were seen as witches familiars and were badly treated, all due to the influence of Christianity. So much for that side of our Christian heritage.
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  28. But they do allow those who possess them to get away with mass murder, theft of land and resources, and genocides as those countries with nuclear weapons are not willing, and those without not able, to stop them. So they don't really need to use them because they can do to weaker countries with what they want anyway just by sticking to conventional weapons. Also, let's not forget mini nukes and nukes used against non‐nuke powers.
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  29. "Who would care about 1 child?" European/United States propaganda.
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  30. What does "bussed a table" mean?
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  31. Capitalism is all about competition and social Darwinism.
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  32. I doubt you're really Chinese because I don't think a real Chinese person from China would say such things.
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  33.  @Jay-bf8yp  Well, the fact that people were ignoring her means that they weren't too interested in what she was selling (a girl, Chinese want boys), and that they weren't too keen on breaking the law (I'm sure China has laws against such things and the Chinese are fully aware of this fact). You should be glad no one was interested.
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  34. What a silly question. It's really like asking: how can you fight against the legitimate government of a prosperous country called the Peoples Republic of China? Why would Chinese people want to fight their own government? Why would Chinese people want foreigners to fight against their own government? And why would most foreigners even want to fight the government of China anyway, what's it ever done to them? Should we be asking people to fight back against the corporate‐capitalist government of the USA?
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  35.  @davesy6969  Isn't capitalism – the pursuit of profit – wonderful‽
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