Cultural practices / values you wholly disapprove of or disagree with

[ZeaLitY]

I'm curious if anyone can think of cultural conventions, values, schools of thought, practices, or institutions that he or she completely, utterly disagrees with and considers detrimental to humanity. This isn't about religion, but culture. The easiest example is the Indian caste system, so I'll go ahead and get that one out of the way.

I've got one, but I'll hold back. If you're wondering if you have a good one, imagine whether expressing your utter disapproval of it in that culture's home area would offend or incite anger and hatred against you.

[MsBlack]

- The plethora of practices, punishments and other injustices perpetrated against women. Would I be right in saying this is most common and extreme in 'Middle-East'ern countries, or are there other gepgraphic areas with similar practices and values?

- The American and British (possibly other countries I'm unaware of) discouragement of willful education, intellect, intelligence, individuality, disagreement, unconventionality and so on. Perhaps a more concise way to put it would be 'jockiness'.

- At lease in Britain, the light punishments for despicable criminals.

And then there's all the other unacceptable practices and values that occur on a global or near-global scale. Shall we post them in this topic?

[placidchap]

Americans thinking that America is the centre of the world  and the general lack of knowledge of non-American things.

[ZeaLitY]

Hm, well, I suppose the severity of disagreement should be a prerequisite. Punishment for criminals may not be a very incendiary topic, but yeah, telling millions of people in the Middle East that they're misogynistic fuckers would certainly pass the test for candor in that region. I suppose the test might be, would you be perceived as a villain in that country for speaking out against such a value?

general lack of knowledge of non-American things.

For every hick in America, there is a chav in Britain.

[placidchap]

general lack of knowledge of non-American things.

For every hick in America, there is a chav in Britain.

Sorry if I offended you, heh.  I did have a general lack of knowledge of non-American things, before I moved out of the country.

[MsBlack]

Hmm.. an odd one perhaps, and who you said it to may affect the extent of anger or persecution:

- Again in the UK (and America if I'm not mistaken), the disproportionate stigamatisation of burping and farting.

EDIT: Are you withholding yours to see if someone else will think of it?

- Homophobia

- Opposition to and willful ignorance of facts regarding differences between races.

- The "Just leave it." attitude of the intelectually feeble when one is pursuing a point.

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, I'm seeing if someone will nail mine. Try to peg them down to a specific culture.

[Burning Zeppelin]

Well, basically what has been said above I totally agree with. But a unique one that may not have caught your eye, as it is very isolated, is the Bengali culture. A backwards, sexist, racist group of people, who carry out their daily activities deluding themselves they are doing something holy, when in actual fact, these so called "Muslims" are nothing but bigots and Neanderthals. A group of people who try and impose their evil values on to their children, even when they live in a different nation, where they try and shelter their children from the "immorality" of, say, Western society. These "Muslims" are nothing but people who are brainwashed by their equally ignorant Imams, and amalgamate Hinduism, Islam and their own primitive rituals, and pass it off as being God-fearing. Their faithfulness towards their leaders is sickening, especially since each party is more like a dynasty, and each election tends to be more like a civil war.

But I guess I'm being a bit too harsh here. Good parts of the culture is the love between the mother and the children (of course, unless the child is doing something "unBengali"), the endurance of the people under tough times, and the general family connection (again, unless someones doing something unBengali)

[Blackcaped_imp]

I'm sorry for being a little patriotic over here, but I hate FARC (I am a Colombian imp).
I feel also pissed off about Chavez messing around with our politics and Latin America in general.
And I feel sorry for those who enjoy listening to "reggaeton", ultra low class hip hop.

[BROJ]

But a unique one that may not have caught your eye, as it is very isolated, is the Bengali culture. A backwards, sexist, racist group of people, who carry out their daily activities deluding themselves they are doing something holy, when in actual fact, these so called "Muslims" are nothing but bigots and Neanderthals. A group of people who try and impose their evil values on to their children, even when they live in a different nation, where they try and shelter their children from the "immorality" of, say, Western society. These "Muslims" are nothing but people who are brainwashed by their equally ignorant Imams, and amalgamate Hinduism, Islam and their own primitive rituals, and pass it off as being God-fearing. Their faithfulness towards their leaders is sickening, especially since each party is more like a dynasty, and each election tends to be more like a civil war.

Sounds kind of like North Korea (e.g. Dear Leader), another bane of the world, except without the Muslim part, and they *don't* see elections, apart from passing the title to the Dear Leader progeny. I mean it's sick, *every* household has to have a portrait of the Dear Leader, which, if you want to take a picture of, you must take a picture of above a certain point. (Which I think is to hide the fact that he is short.) And forget about free speech, they are so brainwashed, when you ask if their leader's actions are unjust, they almost, simply, cannot comprehend what you're actually asking... a very sick society, indeed.

[placidchap]

It is not in fashion anymore, as far as I know, but foot binding is/was cruel.

[MsBlack]

The stigmatisation of using 'swear' and 'curse' words.

[BROJ]

The stigmatisation of using 'swear' and 'curse' words.

For me it's not the use of said words, as they are needed to convey some emotions properly (I mean they were created for a reason, right? ), but rather the over-use of those words that should be the *only* thing considered inappropriate.

[teaflower]

I see this a lot here in my burg of Fitch.

Intolerance towards something foreign.

Every where I go, people are yelling to each other in Spanish. (no offense to anyone who speaks Spanish, but I, quite frankly, don't need to hear every thing you say!) When walking down the street, every now and then a car will drive by with reggaeton blaring. It's so loud, I can feel it in my feet! I have nothing against the stuff, but after a while, GET ME A REVOLVER!
However, if I were to do something, like, oh, I dunno... start yelling at people in Japanese or Korean or Latin... Sure, I'd turn some heads. (I do, in fact, no a BIT of Japanese, none of Korean, and am currently studying Latin, but... they're just things you don't hear every day... especially the Latin.) But then they'd probably scream at me to shut the hell up. And if, for some reason, Rylan (my MP3 player) was hooked up to a super amped car speaker and I went speeding down Route 2 with random video game music, Japanese, pseudo Latin (I count One Winged Angel as pseudo Latin), etc. blaring, I'd probably...

A! Die because I can't drive.
B! Die because someone would crash into me/shoot me.
C! Get yelled at in different languages.

... In short, intolerance to something you don't understand is just as stupid as yelling something to someone who doesn't understand. One sided. Detrimental to this whole 'Melting Pot' idea America has going on. And JUST PLAIN ANNOYING!

... I'm done ranting now!

[Burning Zeppelin]

@BROJ: Bangaldesh isn't seeing elections either, although it is one example of how democracy is not always the best way (the caretaker government is holding off elections, and arresting all of the corrupt politicians)