Poll of the Day > My Uncle once said certain other cultures have 'a real violence problem'.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I then said,

"Didn't a murder-suicide happen in our family in the past year?"

A real "gotcha" moment.

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I mean, its true, but you can find that in your own backyard too

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ReturnOfFa posted...

I then said,

"Didn't a murder-suicide happen in our family in the past year?"

A real "gotcha" moment.

Or a real "whataboutism" moment. Particularly given the disingenuous nature of the remark. Even if your particular family routinely engaged in murder, it wouldn't necessarily be reflective of the rest of the society.

A great case-in-point is that the US's murder rate is 5.35 -- well under the world average, although hardly ideal (but to be somewhat expected considering America's problems with alcohol and drugs, among other issues). The idea that, for instance, a country with a murder multiple times higher than the national average is exactly like the rest of the world is absurd.

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At least he doesn't have a extremely serious L U M B A G O problem.

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Your own culture (or family) having "a real violence problem" doesn't really invalidate the point that certain other cultures also have "a real violence problem".

Plenty of cultures either glorify or justify violence in multiple ways, and likely influence behavior along those lines (cue the old criticism that Americans love movies where hundreds of people get shot to death but flip their shit the moment they see a nipple on TV). Culture defines society, often in ways we don't even necessarily realize unless we're on the outside looking in.
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Zeus posted...

Or a real "whataboutism" moment.

Imagine having so little self-awareness as to post this and be Zeus at the same time.

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*gives PO a sensual wedgie*

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Sarcasthma posted...

*gives PO a sensual wedgie*

Joke's on you, I'm not wearing underwear.

Or pants.
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Then...then what was that I was pulling up...?

Oh god...

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what cultures?

The world has a problem with teaching violence as a problem solving tool.

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The ones one Sarcasthma's hands, apparently.

*Provides some hand sanitizer*

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Entity13 posted...

*Provides some hand sanitizer*

My mom says I'm not allowed to take *hand sanitizer* from strangers. Not after last time.

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Zeus posted...

A great case-in-point is that the US's murder rate is 5.35 -- well under the world average, although hardly ideal (but to be somewhat expected considering America's problems with alcohol and drugs, among other issues). The idea that, for instance, a country with a murder multiple times higher than the national average is exactly like the rest of the world is absurd.

I wonder how those averages change when only looking at the developed world. That 5.35 is well above the European, Asian and Oceanian averages.

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Nichtcrawler X posted...

I wonder how those averages change when only looking at the developed world. That 5.35 is well above the European, Asian and Oceanian averages.

"The US doesn't have a murder problem, just compare its stats to all of these other countries that are literally run by mobs!"

In truth, without actually looking up stats and just going based off of vague recollections of how it ranks up, I don't think the US is actually that bad compared to most of the developed world, and there's reason to believe that many of the countries that seem to be better than it are underreporting their numbers, but yeah. Being under the world average murder rate as a developed country is kind of like beating the average score on a grade 3 math test as an adult.

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Muscles posted...

I mean, its true, but you can find that in your own backyard too

I've had 0 backyard murders in my family!

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Did he explicitly say which "cultures" he had in mind?

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Human beings are a pretty violent species overall.

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Lil_Bit83 posted...

Human beings are a pretty violent species overall.

Especially when we teach younger generations that violence is a problem solving tool.

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ReturnOfFa posted...

I've had 0 backyard murders in my family!

Haha! That's good to know.

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Fam_Fam posted...

what cultures?

http://www.youtube.com/c/whatculture
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adjl posted...

Imagine having so little self-awareness as to post this and be Zeus at the same time.

Imagine being adjl and feeling the need to troll stupid shit. This was probably the most apt where a whataboutism was criticized in the history of... well, a week or so >_>

ParanoidObsessive posted...

http://www.youtube.com/c/whatculture

Went to do that (but linked to the normal website) then noticed you'd already went there =x

Nichtcrawler X posted...

I wonder how those averages change when only looking at the developed world. That 5.35 is well above the European, Asian and Oceanian averages.

Like I said, the US has problems for a developed nation, but we also have a lot more substance abuse than other nations and a wider mix of cultures. The US also has a terrible mental health system and a criminal justice system that refuses to deal with substance abuse because we have a ton of nuts who insist that prisons merely be used to punish people rather than rehabilitate them and constantly call for life sentences (and death sentences).

adjl posted... In truth, without actually looking up stats and just going based off of vague recollections of how it ranks up, I don't think the US is actually that bad compared to most of the developed world, and there's reason to believe that many of the countries that seem to be better than it are underreporting their numbers, but yeah. Being under the world average murder rate as a developed country is kind of like beating the average score on a grade 3 math test as an adult.

Well, yeah, that, too. Japan in particular -- which has one of the lowest rates -- has been criticized as writing off potential murders as suicides (or simply not investigating that hard when it looks like a suicide).

Either way, the US is on the higher end for developed nations... although there are probably a few caveats there, since a few areas drive up the rates.

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