Little things about Western culture that annoy you.

[ChupathingyX]

In fact, how about some political depth. Like, go for a Metal Gear Solid but better. You know, Tom Clancy likes to write novels and all that. I've got a perfect game with political and psychological depth and characterization.

You mean like Fallout: New Vegas?

Plenty of politics and characters in that game that have different views on the world and roles in society and the re-building of civilisation.

 

[Phisi]

I would go with the obsession with celebrities that really annoys me the most. How a celebrity can get off with agreeing to go to rehab and being under house-arrest but a normal citizen would have to go to gaol. Also involving celebrities is the refusal for the media and to some extent the people that like these stories, and have an obsession with celebrities, is the refusal for the media to keep things private. Another thing I dislike is how people just can't leave people to do what they want even if it doesn't effect them, I'm talking about the people who oppose gay marriage and can't let other people practice their religion. But on a slightly less manic, evil, finger-mashing-keyboard-to-express-my-rage response; People just being mean, what happened to people greeting the Bus driver and letting people get past you and apologising if you bump into someone and just having some courtesy? I'm somewhat abnormally angry today

 

[LilithSlave]

That list of cuteness seems sadly stark. Also, I don't see how some of them are related. I think there are instances of liking cuteness in the West, for certain. I just don't think it's as fostered or widely accepted as it should be. Wall-e is awesome, by the way.

Christianity. Christianity, in all its various permutations, including Islam, is not by any stretch exclusive to the Western world.

I agree with that. I am saying though, that it is culturally more of a norm in the West, or at least America, to be religious. While it is more of a norm in East Asia to be an Atheist.

As an American I'm pretty jealous of both Europe and East Asia's lack of religiosity. And I'll thoroughly admit this one probably could have gone much better in a "little things about American culture that annoy you". Or in this case, religion isn't such a little thing, honestly.

I probably should have left out religion altogether, since religion isn't a little thing, it's a big thing.

But if you really do just love the show, cool! Just don't talk about it all the time, or post threads that read "why all the Pony hate?"

Oh, being a "brony" is just one of my little fandoms I have. I wouldn't consider myself obsessive with it more than I am any other form of media I enjoy. I a big media consumer and fan of many things in general. I'm an escapist and I get into media, but aren't we all here(Haw haw!)!

I do think the reaction to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by some people can be a bit sad. For all reasons. If the West liked cuteness more, there wouldn't be such a negative reaction towards it by those outside of the fandom, and there wouldn't be such a "wow, I can't believe I like this" reaction from so many of the fans. Also, that "it's for little kids(girls)" applies to pretty much all cartoons, sadly. That's a perspective I wish didn't exist here or anywhere.

There are probably reasons outside of the ones stated, but I do think there cultural norms are a sad fact and lead to the reactions I speak of about this show. But I do think the West overall as a culture does have too much of an aversion to cuteness and animation. I'm not saying the East is perfect, certainly far from it. But cuteness and cartoons could definitely use more esteem in the West than they get.

"why don't people like dark? Batman is dark, and people (feasibly, somewhere) don't like Batman, therefore people don't like dark."

Wait, what? By the way, Harle Quinn is pretty awesome. I like insane women. Aside from that whole "I'm in love with the Joker even though he's insane and abusive" thing.

Oh, and thanks to all of the people contributing to the thread I'm not arguing with. Maybe I should be responding to those posts instead...

 

[Pyroguekenesis]

The fact that all American FPS tend to make themselves the heroes - ALMOST ALL THE DAMN TIME. Also, what annoys... I hate about the 'western' or whatever culture is the stupid tendency to believe they are soooooo much more better than people, you despite the fact we humans are relatively old compared to most species... and we call ourselves the smartest - we are not exactyly the wisest. We- oh god I better stop cause this has almost nothing to do with the post... =_=;

I agree Christianity could be more badass. What happened to God obliterating idol-worshippers and sodomites with gigantic earthquakes that literally swallowed their city whole? Now all we get is a bunch of fundamentalist crap that drives more people away from Christianity then towards it. What bothers me about Western culture? The police. You can get away with bribing cops in Central America, but American cops are too damn honorable!

Explain this? Well, sorry if I read this the wrong way but..

And as for America this link" http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bill+o%27reilly&aq=0&oq=bill+o.

 

[Arsen]

I will state this a thousand times until I am blue in the face.

Not agreeing with, believing in, advocating for, or seeing eye to eye with LGBT issues does not mean you hate, are intolerant of, or are against them in any way you want to argue it. Anyone who states otherwise is trying to push their beliefs on you in the same sense that "evil Christianity is forcing the LGBT communities to adhere to Christian standards of marriage". Yes. Perspective is a double edged sword.

Some people view this subject as subjective as to whether or not it constitutes the negative aspects I have named above. I do not hate anyone or anybody. I just oppose the lifestyle and marriage revision.

 

[Archaic Thought]

The fact that all American FPS tend to make themselves the heroes - ALMOST ALL THE DAMN TIME.

Reread this sentence. Find any problems with it?

You wouldn't expect an English FPS, or a German one to make themselves the bad guy, would you? Why should it be an exception for American developers?

Not just the FPS genre, generally the devs make their nationality, well, the protagonists, if it's not a completely new setting, say a fantasy world.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Not don't get too up in arms, I'm not bashing the West or saying that the East is better or anything like that. I just needed a nice topic to see rant about things about Western culture I don't like and see if anyone else shared them.

Starting now:

Our bottled tea is just terrible. I mean, I don't know how, but the teas that East Asia sells are just so much better. And we don't sell any of them. Forget pocky, Asian tea is ridiculously good. I remembered going to Japan and the tea out of the vending machines was the best I'd ever had in my entire life. But we don't sell it. What is wrong with our vending machines and our tea companies?

We hate cute. Now this is a generalization, but it generally seems to be true. Japan likes cute, Korea likes cute, China likes cute. The West gets a bunch of guys who like My Little Pony and everybody makes fun of them. Why does nobody seem to like cute here? Why so macho, West? Tone it down, seriously, tone it down. Stop and smell the cute bunnies. No no, put that action flick down right now. Breath in, look at the bunnies.

Christianity EVERYWHERE. And I mean not like the good kind. Not all that cool stuff you always see in video games. It's all "morals"(like hating gay people and women) and none of the fun stuff(like cool stained class and badass nephilim and Solomon grimoires and things like that. Just like, lots of homophobia and anti-abortion stuff and other pathetic other non-fun things. If there's anything media has taught me, Christianity is a lot more fun when it's not really Christianity. You know, all that megachurch stuff. Not pipe organs, not Dies Irae, not stained glass, not Gothic architecture, not prayer beads, not all of those things that make video games fun. Real, boring, oppressive Christianity. If you're going to stick around in this world that doesn't need you, Christianity, keep all that cool LARP stuff, and drop all of the stupid "having a boring unfulfilled life is the path to heaven" tripe.

West, west, please. Can you stop it with the "caring about workers = left = communist = hating the west and freedom" and all that? Caring about workers is not fascism. Workers are the backbone of society and they deserve proper rewards and we should all move forwards as a country, not just a few of us. China and Russia are not the spawn of Satan for having some people who thought the poor deserved better.

Okay, onto the tinier stuff again.

Okay, seriously, West. Make more cartoons with action and plot and all that. Cartoons are not for children. Yes, animation is for everyone. It is a medium that is truly artistic. That's a good thing, it is not childish. And no, not just comedy shows. Okay, seriously. Give artists some credit. Give animation more respect. Think of it like a piece of artwork, except with the ability to move. Artwork is good, animation is good. It is not for children. If Rembrandt lived today, he might be an animator, except that nobody respects animation when they should.

West, okay, west. Seriously, when did it become a good idea to make your dolls bronzed shopaholics in hotpants? Yes, I'm looking at you Brat"z" dolls. You are an abomination that never should have existed.

Places being closed on Sunday. Christianity, this is your fault. Seriously, don't disable one day of the week just because of one silly mythological book that was written in the desert while their brains were frying from the heat. People have days of rest, it's called whatever day of the week they desire.

Blue laws. This is another Christian problem. If people want to sell alcohol, let them sell alcohol. If people want to buy alcohol, let them buy alcohol. There's nothing wrong with buying alcohol on Sunday.

People here seem to think that being loud and obnoxious in public is a positive trait. I don't understand how, but they do.

Western pop is not only a trash, but a cancer affecting everywhere. Western music used to be amazing, Western pop used to mean great composers. Now nobody listens to instrumental music, they listen to trash like Katy Perry. Please, please, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, you lot, put down the microphone, and play a violin.

Western animators, seriously, take a break from the stupidly thick lines that allow you to now have to draw and shade anything on screen. I'm not saying never do it again. And I know focusing on animating well is good. But please, shade some things, draw some things in realistic proportions, make less Timmy Turners, and more Jonny Quests. It's disgraceful. You don't have to sacrifice good animation for detail, I just ask for more Jonny Quests, please. Please? Please.

Hollywood, fire nearly every single one of your actors. They have almost all become annoying celebrities. You know what at least Asia does when it's celebrities do stupid things? They fade out of public eye, sometimes they have to get a different job then just being a starlight darling. You know what stupid Western celebrities get out of such situations? They get money. The stupid idiots get money out of doing ten times more stupid things than the Asian celebrities do. Stop that right now.

Hey, Western developers, lay it low on the production of first person shooters. You don't have any room to insult jRPGs when you are reproducing the very same game game every year. There's inventive stuff, that's good, keep that up. But stop producing a thousand copies of Modern Warfare and Call of Duty. Heck, try some other genres, back in the day Western developers were happy to make games in genres like the Fighting game genre. Not just Mortal Kombat existed, Rare back in their prime was one of the best gaming companies and made Killer Instinct. Remember that? Why has this ended? Why have you left this genre to Asian developers? Start making fighting games again. If a Western developer really put their minds to it, they could become the next Tekken. But they're too busy making another sports game, or first person shooter, or real time strategy. Cut that out right now, making a fighting game.

Hey West, Asian games having androgynous characters isn't a bad thing. Stop with the fixation with curves, and have more variety to your cast. You know, I don't complain about Tales of Symphonia having Regal. Because he's counterbalanced in a cast of characters, a motherly woman, an effeminate manslut, a plucky dwarven raised boy, an adult woman who's body never aged, and so on and so forth. Gigantic muscular women are okay here or there, but the same muscular guy over and over it a tired and annoying cliche. I look at the Western gaming titled and I just feel nauseated by almost every title have some big hair musclebound guy occasionally offset by a woman with hips twice the size of her stomach and boobs that would give anyone back problems.

Western games, just because everyone in Japanese games looks Central Asian, doesn't mean the solution to Western gaming means making everyone a Caucasian caricature that doesn't even look like the typical person. Not just androgyny, a few more round or flatter faces would not be a bad thing. Mirror's Edge was a good idea, do more of that. You don't have to shown off the fact you're "not those Eastern developers" by making everyone's faces look cartoonishly "Western" and angular looking. The balance of diversity in the Tekken franchise is pretty much perfect.

Okay, I don't know about the rest of the West, but commercials from the United States are truly obnoxious. Can you cut that out right now, please? There are a couple of cute ones, but almost all I have come across in recent year on the rare occasions I turn on the TV from my country, make me cringe.

Western games, I have another problem. Stop making Eastern countries the enemy, please? I mean, in all of your war games it's always about the West facing fascists or communists. Usually in Russia or China or Vietnam or Korea or somewhere. Can you just... stop that? In fact, how about some political depth. Like, go for a Metal Gear Solid but better. You know, Tom Clancy likes to write novels and all that. I've got a perfect game with political and psychological depth and characterization. While not make a game where the protagonist is a woman in the Chinese Red Guard, that details her motivations and psychology within the political climate of her country? I don't like first person shooters, but I would play that. Stop being so patriotic for a second, and see things though the eyes of another.

Okay, I really want to go on and rant longer. But I think I should save more of my wall of text for another post. Rant on.

I hate how Westerners seems to think there is such a thing as Western culture.
Sorry pal, but if you travel around europe you'll see that the West has quite a diverse culture.

Same goes for the east.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

The fact that we can't let private lives be private. God help anyone who finds out that the person they are playing or talking with is LGBT, or a furry.

God help the furries.

In extent of this, pretty much the entirety of Western culture's sentiments towards Violence vs. Sex, and the sheer illogical rationality that we bullshit to make sexuality somehow worse to see than someone getting their head chopped off by an axe.

..That's pretty much it for me, save our culture's annoying pussyfooting when it comes to Christianity, and any discussion in which the religion is involved in on a public scale.

 

[ultrachicken]

By "West," you mean "USA."

In America, there is certainly a positive outlook on things that are cute. It's why every other person I've met owns a furry pet and watches viral baby/animal videos.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I dont know if anyhting truly bothers me about it cause if it did, I would probably move.

...

However, I dont like the perception of it. or more so the perception of western cultured nations that think they arent appart of it and think its only a few nations, or just one (usually being the US).

WHY YES BRITAIN, YOURE PART OF THE WESTERN CULTURE TOO!

now get off the fucking high horse and down in the shit like the rest of us, because you dserve to be here before any of us did.

...

Sorry, recent coversation with a brit at my university inspired that when he dared to tell me that the US was the only western culture and that Britain and its civilized society shouldnt be lumped together with the lowly yanks.

 

[Bobbity]

/edit
Oh, bugger, double post. Kind of. Mod delete, please?

 

[Bobbity]

-America's fixation with America. It's not just a stereotype that I have an issue with; this is a real thing, and it annoys the hell out of me.
-The negative elements of religion being so much more prevalent than the positive ones. Religion isn't a particularly big deal in Australia, but every second news piece coming out of America mentions it, and it's always homophobia, or violence in the name of a god, or bigotry, or ignorance/bashing of sciences, etc. This kind of pisses me off, especially when the primary function of Christianity was supposed to be, "be good to one another", essentially.
-Our society's obsession with celebrities. I don't give a fuck about who's marrying who, I don't want to know, and no, current affair programs, that does not qualify as news.
-Fox News.

Just my pet peeves with Western society. That said, I still think that it's important to acknowledge how otherwise wonderful it is, and how lucky we are to be a part of it.

/edit
Oh, and OP, after reading your post, I wish that I hadn't. "Put down the microphone and play a violin"? Not only is that pretentious as hell, but it also seems a lot like you're just jumping on the bandwagon. Do you honestly put your headphones in and listen to a good sonata, or go to sleep the sound of an orchestral symphony? I agree that a number of recent musicians leave a lot to be desired, and that music videos are more softcore porn than actual music these days, but please, just get over it.

 

[Toriver]

I hate how most kids in western culture dislike reading and learning, whereas in my trip to Sweden and from the stories I've heard of Japan people treat school really well and there are absolutely no disruptions during class and you can actually make friends so much easier and be able to talk naturally to them and maturely about them about stuff.

In my school its so hard to make friends, everyone is a prick who is obsessed with sex and/or football and no one wants to just 'hang out' and talk about video games or be normal.

Do you really think Japan is some kind of paradise when it comes to its schools?

As someone who works in the Japanese school system, I can definitely say, DREAM ON!

Most, if not all, Japanese schools tend to work by essentially letting the students discipline themselves. And while there is the odd school here and there for which this works as well as you say, in most cases, it FAILS, at least to some degree. Most students don't even do half the work that is assigned to them if it's in a subject they don't give a shit about. A growing problem is the "Yankii" subculture of rebels who basically come to school, try to look all badass and do nothing but go into other people's classes and disrupt them, openly insulting the teachers and staff and causing nothing but trouble.

Why? Because they know a few things:
1) The other students think they're cool, so discipline from their peers is out of the question.
2) The teachers and staff are afraid of them, so they're not going to do anything
3) The teachers and staff don't have any real power to do anything anyway, even if they weren't afraid of them, because the school system has taken that power away from them in the name of the students' "right to an education"

One example from my own experience, just today: I just started at this new junior high school today. While I was walking to a class with a Japanese colleague, one girl takes out a cigarette and lights up in the school, right in front of us, and she knew we were there. Company policy says I can't do anything, that discipline is in the Japanese teachers' hands. The Japanese teacher does absolutely nothing, either, for God-knows-what reason. So many Westerners idolize the Japanese school system, but it's very quickly becoming a joke, a shadow of whatever it once was, due to a severe discipline problem. The teachers are either powerless or too scared to discipline students, and the students know it, so they run roughshod all over them. Further, the students don't give a damn about their education until the month before some big placement test comes up, just waiting out the day until they can go do their sports club activity, which is all they care about that even remotely relates to school. Sure, not every Japanese student is like this, but I can say with good confidence that's the way the majority of them are. Hey, we were 14 years old once. Do you honestly think that if an American or European class of 14-year-olds was left to discipline itself with a powerless chicken of a teacher, that they would sit at their desks, work and pay attention? Hell no, I don't. Japan's education system needs to wake up to the fact that most students are not the ideal, quiet, hard-working student anymore. They're just as lazy, crude and rebellious as their counterparts in the rest of the world. Teachers need more power to put their foot down and get classes under control.

Sorry for the rant, but it touched on personal experience quite a bit.

Also...

This is a troll post, right? Because I had to stop and actually laugh out loud for a good minute after reading "Cartoons are not for children".


Yes.

Yes they are.

Japan would like a word with you.

NO.

At least not in any mainstream sense. Anime in Japan is definitely just as much in the Animation Age Ghetto [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimationAgeGhetto] as animation is in the US and Europe. Otaku are just as much an obscure subculture in Japan as they are in America, and in many instances, they actually get more severely thrown out of mainstream society here and hidden away than in the US or Europe. I don't know how many times I have to keep repeating this to get it through Western otakus' heads. Mainstream Japanese society is no friend of anime!!! If you try to come here and make friends based off your "appreciation" for all these anime you've seen, you are screwed, friend. The vast majority of Japanese have never seen any anime anyone in the West would know from the past 10-15 years except the Big 3 shounen anime, DBZ, and Evangelion, and of them, only Evangelion would get you any respect out of anybody today if you said you watch it and you are past the age of 15. Even if you mention Bleach and/or Naruto to them, you're not likely to get anywhere with them. The ones most Japanese adults know and actually watch are, AGAIN, Doraemon, Chibi Maruko-chan, and Sazae-san, none of which any Western anime fan would likely watch even if they were broadcast overseas, as they're all family-oriented shows akin to animated versions of Leave It To Beaver or I Love Lucy. THAT'S the kind of stuff Japanese adults like in their anime.

Sorry to crush so many weeaboos' dreams. Oh, wait. No, I'm not!

 

[Dimitriov]

That list of cuteness seems sadly stark. Also, I don't see how some of them are related. I think there are instances of liking cuteness in the West, for certain. I just don't think it's as fostered or widely accepted as it should be. Wall-e is awesome, by the way.

Christianity. Christianity, in all its various permutations, including Islam, is not by any stretch exclusive to the Western world.

I agree with that. I am saying though, that it is culturally more of a norm in the West, or at least America, to be religious. While it is more of a norm in East Asia to be an Atheist.

As an American I'm pretty jealous of both Europe and East Asia's lack of religiosity. And I'll thoroughly admit this one probably could have gone much better in a "little things about American culture that annoy you". Or in this case, religion isn't such a little thing, honestly.

I probably should have left out religion altogether, since religion isn't a little thing, it's a big thing.

But if you really do just love the show, cool! Just don't talk about it all the time, or post threads that read "why all the Pony hate?"

Oh, being a "brony" is just one of my little fandoms I have. I wouldn't consider myself obsessive with it more than I am any other form of media I enjoy. I a big media consumer and fan of many things in general. I'm an escapist and I get into media, but aren't we all here(Haw haw!)!

I do think the reaction to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by some people can be a bit sad. For all reasons. If the West liked cuteness more, there wouldn't be such a negative reaction towards it by those outside of the fandom, and there wouldn't be such a "wow, I can't believe I like this" reaction from so many of the fans. Also, that "it's for little kids(girls)" applies to pretty much all cartoons, sadly. That's a perspective I wish didn't exist here or anywhere.

There are probably reasons outside of the ones stated, but I do think there cultural norms are a sad fact and lead to the reactions I speak of about this show. But I do think the West overall as a culture does have too much of an aversion to cuteness and animation. I'm not saying the East is perfect, certainly far from it. But cuteness and cartoons could definitely use more esteem in the West than they get.

"why don't people like dark? Batman is dark, and people (feasibly, somewhere) don't like Batman, therefore people don't like dark."

Wait, what? By the way, Harle Quinn is pretty awesome. I like insane women. Aside from that whole "I'm in love with the Joker even though he's insane and abusive" thing.

Oh, and thanks to all of the people contributing to the thread I'm not arguing with. Maybe I should be responding to those posts instead...

Hate to have to tell you this but the 'East' is actually religious. Like, most of the people in most of the countries. Hinduism? Buddhism? Shinto? Islam? Taoism? Do any of those sound familiar?

I believe China is still technically 'atheist' but that's only because Mao was an ass and was trying to erase history (never a really good idea). However, most people, in Asia, and frankly still in Europe, and of course in the middle East... probably Africa too, North Africa being a given... are religious in some form or other. Most of the human race professes to believe in some form of religion.

Your problem with religion probably stems from your experiences in the States, which, as someone above pointed out, is really just religion being expressed by people who tend to like to be more loud and obnoxious in the first place ;D (mostly joking there).

Anyway, my point would be religion doesn't cause problems, here or anywhere else, but people do.

 

[Cowabungaa]

The fact that money and profit is more important than people.

Actually, I don't think that's a little problem.

Anyway, my point would be religion doesn't cause problems, here or anywhere else, but people do.

Obviously, as religion is a human tool. And humans are very good at wielding tools for nefarious ends.

 

[LilithSlave]

Hate to have to tell you this but the 'East' is actually religious. Like, most of the people in most of the countries. Hinduism? Buddhism? Shinto? Islam? Taoism? Do any of those sound familiar?

I was mostly contrasting to East Asia. Not the Middle East or the areas of Central Asia that are largely Muslim.

East Asia, aside from a few places in Southeast Asia, is mostly atheist. Korea, Japan, and China are all quite atheistic. Shinto is hardly followed by anyone anymore. And Buddhism is certainly a minority in Korea and Japan both.