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Look, if I were to believe I was being denied opportunities in the US because of the portrayal Olive Garden (and the like) was doing about Italy and Italian, I

Look, if I were to believe I was being denied opportunities in the US because of the portrayal Olive Garden (and the like) was doing about Italy and Italian, I think I wouldn't deserve the job in first place. Culture is important, you must know yours and others, but I really believe people on certain echo chamber aren't getting their priorities straight. Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of good things to complain about. But I know I may sound to harsh about this. It's the perception we get from overseas.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of good things to complain about. This is my perception of things. Or, as I sometimes put it in person, "people haven't experienced a war in a long time so they're going batshit with priorities now". Also: it's not that we run out of issues to solve, it's that most of the actually important ones - like energy security, climate change, stabilizing agriculture and healthcare, developing - are hard and don't lend themselves into us-vs-them thinking. Even figuring out how one can contribute to that is difficult, and it's easier to find some proxy irrelevant non-issue to bitch about instead. And media only amplifies that. EDIT: Also, and this is probably a very controversial opinion: I think that the ongoing talk about a lot of those proxy-issues is strongly, actively harmful. The number one focus of the world right now should be stabilizing what we have. The technological civilization is very fragile, and at the point in which if it collapses, it won't rebuild itself for millennias, because all the easily obtainable high-density energy sources have been used up. And with the death of technological civilization, all the dreams of freedom, equality, long and healthy life, will die too.
- gcatalfamo 9y ago
  Humour: I also like to think this is "Farenheit 451" becoming a little too real. Serious: we are definitely not ready.
- Xoros 9y ago
  There was an episode on The Soprano (no mafia/pizza pun intended :-D) where Tony tried to visit a prostitute he was "in love" with. She was not there, but her roommate, also a prostitute, from Russia (or an alike country I don't remember), with one fake leg, was. As he was complaining how miserable he was, she starts lecturing him of how Americans people have stopped having real issues, or living in life threatening situations, and so they invents themselves new ones which looks ridiculous for people coming from less developed countries. For me it's exactly that. And don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly aware that there are people in deep trouble in America, homeless or not wealthy enough to treat nasty diseases right. And this is a first world problem you can also witness in some European countries too. Or cities, not necessarily while countries. It's like we, humans, cannot bare to go through life being just happy.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

> Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of good things to complain about. This is my perception of things. Or, as I sometimes put it in person, "people haven't experienced a war in a long time so they're going batshit with priorities now". Also: it's not that we run out of issues to solve, it's that most of the actually important ones - like energy security, climate change, stabilizing agriculture and healthcare, developing - are hard and don't lend themselves into us-vs-them thinking. Even figuring out how one can contribute to that is difficult, and it's easier to find some proxy irrelevant non-issue to bitch about instead. And media only amplifies that. EDIT: Also, and this is probably a very controversial opinion: I think that the ongoing talk about a lot of those proxy-issues is strongly, actively harmful. The number one focus of the world right now should be stabilizing what we have. The technological civilization is very fragile, and at the point in which if it collapses, it won't rebuild itself for millennias, because all the easily obtainable high-density energy sources have been used up. And with the death of technological civilization, all the dreams of freedom, equality, long and healthy life, will die too.

gcatalfamo 9y ago
Humour: I also like to think this is "Farenheit 451" becoming a little too real. Serious: we are definitely not ready.
Xoros 9y ago
There was an episode on The Soprano (no mafia/pizza pun intended :-D) where Tony tried to visit a prostitute he was "in love" with. She was not there, but her roommate, also a prostitute, from Russia (or an alike country I don't remember), with one fake leg, was. As he was complaining how miserable he was, she starts lecturing him of how Americans people have stopped having real issues, or living in life threatening situations, and so they invents themselves new ones which looks ridiculous for people coming from less developed countries. For me it's exactly that. And don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly aware that there are people in deep trouble in America, homeless or not wealthy enough to treat nasty diseases right. And this is a first world problem you can also witness in some European countries too. Or cities, not necessarily while countries. It's like we, humans, cannot bare to go through life being just happy.