Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Robert Anderson]

--- Original Message ---
From: "Pierce T.Wetter III" <address@hidden>
To: "Robert Anderson" <address@hidden>
CC: "Patrick Mauritz" <address@hidden>,
address@hidden
Subject: Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

>> You're being willfully ignorant and you know it.
>
>  Yep. I'm trying hard to make a point to non-Americans about
>a cultural blind spot in America.

One that only exists in your imagination.

>> Go into any
>> school lunchroom in any school in the United States that has any
>> ethnic diversity at all, and you'll instantly see that "tribal"
>> differences and "tribal" differentiation are the norm, not some
>> foreign hard-to-imagine concept in a fully integrated melting
>> pot.  That's just silly.
>>
>> Are we doing a lot better than declaring war on each other on a
>> regular basis?  Most places, yes.  Are we anywhere near being
>> blind to such differences?  Of course not.
>
>  Ah, but we don't really pick on the Irish anymore do we?

So what?  Maybe there's some sub-sects of Shiites that don't pick
on each other, either.  The point is that there are such
divisions - it doesn't matter which ones - and everyone is aware
of them.

>  Can Americans tell the difference between people that are the same
>color? It doesn't seem to me like we can...perhaps we're blind any 
>difference
>that you can't actually see.

Don't be silly.  Send any white New York financier into a family
gathering of farming whites in rural Georgia.  You think they
won't be able to tell that one "doesn't belong" with the other?

>  Which brings me back to my original question. What is the
difference
>between the Swedes and the Norweigans again? Walk into any school
>lunchroom in the US that is magically half Swedish Americans and
half
>Norwegian Americans, and I don't think you'll see that
differentiation.

Who cares?  You're focusing on one specific instance that happens
not to be a large differentiator in the US.  But the larger point
you're trying to make about "non-tribism" is still totally wrong.

Bob