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It's amazing to me how Japan can be so Puritan about some things, and so... not Puritan about other things. Though I guess an outsider could say the same thing
by _bxg1 8y ago
It's amazing to me how Japan can be so Puritan about some things, and so... not Puritan about other things. Though I guess an outsider could say the same thing about the U.S.
- kranner 8y agoI would be more surprised to find any longstanding human culture that didn't have any glaring inconsistencies in the things it encourages vs the things it discourages. We are all hypocrites.
- _bxg1 8y agoTrue, but some cultures take it to a greater extreme than others. Usually it's the ones most focused on self-purification that have the most hidden vices. America and (apparently) Japan seem to be towards the top as far as first-world countries go.
- bsder 8y agoI would argue that the American people are far less hypocritical than the government. Most Americans who do marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, etc. will fairly readily admit to it if you are in their circle of friends. Heroin, crack, and crystal meth have a bit of stigma associated with them and so will get relatively less admissions unless you are a bit higher on the friend scale. Most marijuana users I know will tend to offer you some fairly unprompted.
- tayo42 8y agoIts funny that weed so bad but mushrooms were legal there until 2002
- opportune 8y agoI think a lot of these things boil down to demographics. What societies make the most dynamic changes in the shortest times? My theory is that it's ones with large-base demographic pyramids. Once you become vertical or inverted (like Japan a couple decades ago, the US and most of europe, China soon) you start to become more conservative as a society. Things change more slowly, maybe not directly in terms of politics (meaning things may not swing far right) but in terms of the actual look and feel of society.
- black-tea 8y agoAn outsider definitely would say the same thing about the US.