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What point is being made here, exactly? The OP was talking about American culture in general terms, not relative to “first-world nations” specifically, so shoul
by umanwizard 6y ago
What point is being made here, exactly? The OP was talking about American culture in general terms, not relative to “first-world nations” specifically, so shouldn’t the US’s murder rate relative to the median of all societies be more germane?
Yes, the US ranks worse on some measures of development than similarly rich countries, including murder rate. This is not news to anyone. I don’t see the relevance to the present discussion and suspect it was just an opportunity to sneer at the US for no reason.
- monoideism 6y agoYou're wrong. I have great respect for my country and its traditions, and would never sneer at it. I'm also not for any additional gun legislation. But for a variety of reasons (some of them not "politically correct" by some measures, such as inner-city gang-related crime), the US has a high murder rate vis-a-vis other developed countries. It's a fact. And why wouldn't you compare a country to similar countries? Or OK, we could say, the US has a comparable murder rate to poor countries and war zones. Or compared to the median of all countries? Well, once again, much higher than the median (~3.5 vs ~5.0). Quantitatively, there's a great deal of support for saying we're "fairly violent". Not "really violent", but "fairly violent". We were discussing sex and violence in American movies, and tieing it to real-life phenomena, so it seems like an appropriate topic. I understand why you're disdainful of people who hate their own country, but you're picking the wrong target.