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by Scapeghost 2002 days ago
Anglocentric chauvinism has always had a gross habit of looking at other cultures in a patronizing way. Though to be fair other cultures are guilty of this too when viewing those different than them.

Ever since antiquated Orientalism, it's rarely been an honest curiosity but more of a high-nosed "what's wrong with them" or seen as an exotic escape from the West's own mundanity.

The latter of course often ends in disillusionment, prompting generalized complaints about the object of fetish (if you lurk on any expat forums you may know what I'm talking about).

It can be really annoying to other people, specially when they have to either live up to some stupid assumption or defend against it.

2 comments

Surly noone in the orient ever expressed such opinions, least of which the japanese --known throughout asia and the world for their love and admiration of other races -- which is why the west is in desperate need to turn the lookingglass around and cleanse itself from all forms of racism, which it is uniquely capable of doing. Other races needn't play in this game.

One could say that this is merely the continuation of chauvinistic anglocentrism by other means, but to do so would embarass self-professed "anti-racists", hence white supermacy gets a new lease on life deep within the liberal mindset that nominally opposes it.

“japanese--known throughout asia and the world for their love and admiration of other races”

Tell that to anyone actually living in Asia and most will absolutely scoff at you. There is too much historical baggage about what horrifying things the Japanese did to other Asians during its colonial era (early to mid 20th century), especially with regards to Korea and China. Japanese resentment is still highly noticeable in countries where they colonized and raped them.

> with regards to Korea and China. Japanese resentment is still highly noticeable in countries where they colonized and raped them.

The US and UK are resented for the same reasons in many parts of the world.

For example the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation

And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnō_jōi

They were sarcastically alluding to that very reality
To be fair, wasn't Japan invaded first? A few times.

The "West" has had the longest record of invading other nations, forcibly "opening ports", or just generally intruding into and screwing up countries in other ways besides war.

The Opium Wars are one of the more appalling examples. Literally invading a country because they don't want to buy your narcotics? What the fuck.

How tiresome. Every time a conversation regarding this topic is discussed, we always have someone arrive to graciously remind us how Asian People Are The Real Racists.
Im no expert, but from what Ive read, some of the imperialistic ideas and hiarchy of races ideas in Japan do have their roots in a historical period where Japan's Eliets were looking to Europe for a model of how to be a part of the world.
Just say "you people invented racism" and slither back to Parler.
I tend to see chauvinism as either aware or self-aware. The French would be an example of self-aware arrogance, whereas the anglosphere tends to be completely unaware and this leads to patronizing attitudes. It's interesting to see the effects of this difference.