I thought your summary was good and yet it points to something that troubles me. I can understand how a society can change so that things that were formerly ra

I thought your summary was good and yet it points to something that troubles me. I can understand how a society can change so that things that were formerly rare and remarkable become common and unremarkable. I can also understand not wanting to make people feel "other". Yet there will indeed always be things that differ interestingly from the usual practices of the day. It seems strange (heh) for everyone to suppress the (very universal, you will learn if you travel) human impulse to find difference interesting, exotic, and delightful. Eventually you will find yourself on both sides of this dynamic. I don't necessarily have a problem with making updated versions of Dr. Seuss books that try to avoid accidentally alienating parts of a now-broader audience. But the larger principle, of refusing to see "foreignness" as "weird", I'm not sure how to deal with. It seems the safest approach is to always suppress surprise. You cannot exoticize if you refuse to acknowledge anything as exotic. But I don't think surprise ("gaijin-das!") is always malicious, and something feels wrong, "anti-human" even, about always burying that reaction. It also invites a certain kind of social attack, which is like a higher-stakes "you laugh, you lose". It's as though certain parts of ourselves have been let out of the closet, but other, mostly harmless parts, have been shoved in. I would like a way to be respectful but also human. I do not think norms are moving in that direction.