I'd like to throw in a contrarian opinion to the general HN crowd (and my sibling comments), putting my social credit points on the line... For reference, I'm

I'd like to throw in a contrarian opinion to the general HN crowd (and my sibling comments), putting my social credit points on the line... For reference, I'm a Sweden-born-raised ethnic Swedish white male, I know that's relevant to a few people so I'd just like to throw that into the mix as well. In Pakistan for example, people in general do not drink alcohol. The same goes for most of north africa. It's basically unheard of and stigmatized that people would go for a beer in a western-common fashion. Saudi Arabia and even UAE obviously varies a bit but the same stigma definitely applies. (I have extensive experience from these societies but feel free to challenge my claims) Sure, hasheesh exists, but it's not socially accepted and it's not at all as widespread as alcohol consumption in the west. It's definitely something a young professional will avoid for career reasons, for example. I really feel that a lot of the cultural differences and conflicts have a common ground somewhere, and a more or less common problem definition, but the solution varies. For example, much (but not all) of western society is against total bans. It's basically stigmatized to believe in such a thing with a few exceptions. Far and middle eastern societes are not as negative against it though - I guess there are historical reasons for this - and as such the sets of acceptable solutions to problems differ from the western ones. For the record I would also like to mention some assumptions I've heard in Sweden that simply arent true but are quite understandable given the mentioned difference in mentality. Human, if I had a dime every time I heard "adultery exists in the exact same amount in north african and middle eastern countries as in the west", "sure they might not have alcohol but they have other drugs - it's simply a matter of swapping one vice for another", and other absurdities. So one example of a fundamentally shared understanding of a problem is the danger of alcohol and drugs. Western ideology leans more to allowing but educating, Eastern ideologies lean more towards bans. The idea of women commonly being treated badly by men and taken advantage of is also definitely shared. I dont think anyone really thinks that for example gangster rap or other popular cultures are really portraying women and men as having equal value, and certainly not pornography which more or less amounts to showing the male dominance and humiliating the woman as much as possible, swedish surveys showed that a staggering amount of women in sweden have been subjected to sexual violence, including spitting and hitting, and other surveys show that this even exists in high school ages! West wants to educate away the problem, which is why we have sexual education in preschool, even for toddlers, in Sweden, to give sensible ideas to people at an early age, but virtually noone talks about banning pornography or denigrating depictions of women because in the west, we dont do bans. .. and Eastern ideologies lean towards an honor and relative based structure and security net. My point is that we perhaps aren't so different from eachother after all. Just my two cents.