I just don't want to have "friends" like that. A friend is someone who will help you move. A real friend is someone who will help you move a body. A Facebook friend is someone who will find out where you moved the body and report you.
@Robusto The main thing I want to express that you won't pass if you match only one criterion. Mandatory mainly emphasises the meaning already present in criterion.
@TravisJ Hmm still not some kind of opposite to "OR" criteria.
Cerberus - Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei have "level of wealth" exceeding many European countries. Many trends and fashions originate in Japan and S.Korea before reaching Europe or north America. Unless, they are part of "western", wealth should be excluded as a criteria for being "western". — Blessed Geek5 mins ago
This is about the definition of "Western".
My definition:
> To me, it is a term for countries that share certain elements of culture, a level of wealth, and a political allegiance with Western Europe, or that historically did so during the second half of the 20th century.
@BlessedGeek: I did not mean that a country had to pass only one of those criteria: only a country passing all of those criteria to a considerable degree I would call Western. As to your colleagues, the criteria I mentioned obviously apply mainly to countries, not people. It's even more complicated (and less relevant) when you try to apply this label to individual people. — Cerberus2 mins ago
I think a similar term is Americanization, or as seen recently with Russia, "American Exceptionalism". Very weighted in the eyes of people who would take a semantic issue with the term.
I mean, "Americanization" clearly means "coming to resemble America in some ways"?
And American Exceptionalism is a bit unclear to me, presumably some kind of notion prevalent among certain American officials that their country is somehow "special"?
@Cerberus - Americanization was a term coined in the early 1900's which related to the attempt made to merge cultures in the US into one mainstream culture. American Exceptionalism actually refers to the atypical nature of the system of government in the US and was also from the early 1900s.
@TravisJ Okay, so but you could apply the term equally to people living within the USA and outside the USA, right? In both cases, in means "resembling mainstream US culture more", right?
@aediaλ Right, that's kind of funny.
Somehow patriotism is more alive in America than in Europe.
@Cerberus - That would be what you would expect, but it is actually a historically weighted term which references actual policy that was enacted. You could say that someone becoming more American was being Americanized, but it would not have the same meaning per se.
That was during the same time period, so that would be accurate. There was policy passed in the government which actually prohibited certain cultural practices.
The US had (has?) a passion for defining things as "savage".
@Cerberus sings Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original colonies, Fifty Nifty stars on the flag that billows so beautif'ly in the breeze. Each innnnndividual state contributes a quality that is great. Each innnnnndividual state deserves a bow! Let's salute them now!
@Cerberus - I suppose the context would be important, so that could work. Apparently the use of Americanization has a different definition when used as a reference outside of the US.
@MετάEd I'm sure I saw a little when it resumed, but it's not a hugely familiar childhood touchstone for me. By 1993 I would also have been able to read pretty well and likely stayed in my room reading on weekend mornings or deferred to my younger brother on tv choices as long as I got my huge stack o' library books <--nerdy child
> On the weekend of October 26 — the 12th anniversary of the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act — thousands of people from across the political spectrum will unite in Washington, D.C. to take a stand against unconstitutional surveillance. Please join EFF and coalition partners for grassroots training and citizen lobbying on October 25th and a historic rally and petition delivery on October 26th.
I don't know whether this is conformity or the opposite.
AMS-IX (world's largest internet exchange) wants to branch out to the USA, but most of its members will probably vote against it because of the Patriot Act.
@BraddSzonye I have seen it labelled as such on computers, yes, although I probably wouldn't use that myself.
I think Latin is more exact, Western is a bit meh.
A while back I ran across an article discussing “It's Greek to me” in different languages. A surprising number of languages use exactly that expression (with Greek).