Quote:
Originally Posted by cranks
Under the freedom of speech, you can express whatever opinion you want as long as it is not illegal. They can say whatever they want. I'm free to think and say some people are bigoted racists too.
I'm not trying to "win" an argument here. Rather, I am trying to promote understandings. I don't want to sound arrogant but I see how Ronin thinks and where his "logic" is coming from. What I'm trying to do is not to convert him to a whale eater, but to help bring about an understanding that there are cultures that are fundamentally different from your own. To be honest, I don't care that much about dolphins and whales themselves. There is an episode of Southpark called Whale Whore, which pretty much sums up how I feel about the issue.
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Unfortunately for you... I dont share your definition of "culture"
For me culture is not a static thing... it is a fluid thing. It changes and reimagines itself constantly. Japanese culture today is not the same as Japanese culture 100 years ago. Western culture today is not the same as Western culture 100 years ago etc.
In fact it was ACCEPTED in Western culture that whaling was acceptable up until the mid 20th century before Westerners realised that Whales were going to be extinct very shortly if they didnt stop. Also, New Zealand which had a huge whaling industry is now one of the biggest anti-whaling countries out there. So I dont know why the Japanese think the whole "Its our culture" argument is valid. Its bullshit and it shows a lack of progress and extreme Conservatism to present it as an argument.
Muslims in Africa also use the "culture" argument for circumcision of women for example. Is that the kind of argument you want to make?
And culture is NEVER an excuse and will NEVER beat rational and logical arguments.