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Tag: usa
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Third Place
I guess that’s one thing that I do miss in Singapore: informal places that are affordable (almost everything here costs money) and that are not shopping malls (exactly what he mentions in the video).
Sure, there are bars, but they are usually expensive and atas, and not the place people go for an informal chitchat (more for date nights). There are the places around the hawker centres (i.e.: the food courts) with a lot of “uncles” sitting down — but that’s hardly my crowd. đ
But maybe I’m also just in a bad neighbourhood. Chinatown has more craft beer places (somewhat affordable) right inside the food courts (i.e.: no air-conditioning, but it’s informal and easily accessible).
But I’ll admit I miss the Belgian-style pub where we’d go for a drink before dinner, or later at night for a tea. Places like Fenikshof in Grimbergen.
I specifically disagree with his stance on free speech, because I think that it depends on your interpretation of what free speech means. If you allow the most intolerant voices to be as loud as they want to, youâre going to shut down voices of different opinions as well. So allowing free speech by just allowing all speech is not actually leading to free speech, it just leads to a cesspit of hate.
I think that is a very uniquely American idea of creating this marketplace of ideas where you can say anything you want completely without limits. It is very foreign to the German mindset where we, in our Constitution, our number one priority is maintaining human dignity. And so, hate speech is not part of the German concept of free speech, for example. So I think that when Elon Musk says that everythingâs gonna be allowed, or whatever, I generally disagree with that.
Source: Time.com interview with Eugen Rochko
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On the Beating of Children
[…]
The story illustrates the level of violence we accept amongst children in otherwise non-violent societies, but it gets even worse: differing speeds of development lead to huge differences in size and strength, meaning bullying is often like getting picked on by a Shaq-like giant.
[…]
Yes, in the developed world âcorporal punishmentâ (literally âbodily punishmentâ, an eloquently Latinized euphemism for âbeatingsâ) is on the decline, but if a 19th-century person told you that though wife-beating was still legal, it was on the decline, youâd look at them at least a little bit askance.
Corporal punishment, while permitted for children, is never allowed for adults, even for convicted murderers. It’s legal to beat a child for talking out of turn, but not for adults who have repeatedly, viciously, murdered people (*).
Countries that do beat people for talking out of turn are universally regarded as brutal dictatorships, just so long as those beaten include grown-ups.
[…]
Children are expected to never resort to violence. If on the playground theyâre hit, they should not hit back, but find an authority figure instead. Generally, this authority will do nothing meaningful, and the only result will be the status penalty of being labeled a tattle-tale, resulting in an even more vulnerable personal position.
[…]
Meanwhile, if a reasonable adult simply feels threatened, such as from having popcorn thrown at them (**), they can shoot someone to death.
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The value of truth as a virtue and liars as dishonorable is universally held, except when speaking to children.
[…]
Source
Very insightful article, and many of what they touch on is true in a western society.
(*) Singapore is an exception.
(**) Probably only in the US.
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The Big [CENSORED] Theory
Really, really good analysis by The Pudding.
When these shows resurfaced, they were full of these weird jumps, signaling that scenes were removed during censorship because someone somewhere thought it would be inappropriate or illegal to stream such content.
[…]
77 of the first 100 episodes had at least one edit, amounting to 206 removed scenes.
[…]
I categorized these scenes, among which sex, LGBTQ+ (and atypical heterosexual relationships), as well as disrespect toward China or the countryâs allies are the most common ones. The four other topics account for a rather small portion but are still worth mentioning: illegal actions, religion, unhealthy addictions, and miscellaneous.
[…]
This added up to over one hour of deleted scenes, or nearly three full episodes of purely censored content.
Source and analysis by The Pudding.
The author analysed all the censored cuts out of TBBT and categorised them in 7 different ways (explained at the end of the article).
Very nicely done, showing side by side comparison of the censored and original version.