(August 4, 2019 at 7:12 pm)Peebo-Thuhlu Wrote: So, I admit to being a 'Stinky foreigner' but the whole notion of "Gun as an implement of self defense" has always seemed completely gormless.
Me too. Well, I was raised in the US, but have been in Japan for 32 years now.
It would be interesting to see research comparing the US and Japan. Japan has plenty of violent video games and movies. It also has a huge number of virgin gamer men in their 20s and 30s. Yet these guys are known as "herbivores" (literally "grass-eaters" 草食系) who are depicted as harmless. As far as I know there is no resentful "Incel" community where people fantasize about taking revenge on "Stacey."
(Obviously there is a murderer or two every year who finds himself a "girlfriend" to keep in his freezer, but I don't think there's a whole on-line community of these freaks.)
To me the biggest difference is the American image of the tough guy. The macho man. Fuck them if they can't take a joke. If they disagree with me on politics or religion I have no more empathy -- go ahead and tell them they're assholes. All that stuff. It's common on this forum. Once someone is in the "out group" we call them "chew toys." Not worthy of our respect.
In Japan the samurai (now defunct) and the Yakuza are tough guys. The Yakuza are a tiny minority, and every normal person just steers clear. My city is famous for having a lot of Yakuza, and I occasionally see one on the sidewalk, but if you're not looking for trouble they won't bother you. Every normal person sees the tough-guy pose as ridiculous.
So maybe in the US the problem is partly due to violent movies and games, but mostly the I'm Tougher Than You ethos makes people think that this violence can be imported comfortably into real life. This plus the guns means a violent culture.
