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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   30492 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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Tell her you want to move to a leftist state like Massachusetts or California that has similar laws to Europe. Tell her that America is so big thinking all American states are the same would be like an American thinking there is no real difference between living in Romania or England or an American being fearful of living in Spain because of the policies of the Hungarian government.

There's no problem with appreciating and even loving the society you live/grew up in, without needing to fetishize it all the time. To some people like the OP, that may be what "America" means to him. To other people, it's meant something quite different. It's just a matter of who benefits.

I grew up with a material quality of life that's probably comparable to the average American that isn't wealthy and didn't live in poverty, which is to say well, but had it horrible in almost every other measurable dimension. That isn't a reason to love America though. That's just running away from the horrors of a life without modern technology and conveniences. Nobody would prefer to go back to more primitive times, and that's equally true if you were living in 1700's compared with the 700's (yes not every historical period applies, I get it, the Dark Ages were really a thing). Certainly didn't have a great home life. Certainly didn't have a great educational environment. Certainly didn't grow up in a good neighborhood. I don't think that's a great way to measure the intangible wealth and overall health of a society though.

That's a good argument, I've tried making a similar one in the past, but she'd trust it more from a native.

India is no slouch when it comes to size, but even it is dwarfed by America.

So you want a leftist state AND biryani? I got bad news for you, dude, your dream home is in Newark, New Jersey.

I am warning you, if I go to the trouble of visiting and find out that the biryani there is the same abomination I found in the UK, I'm going to cry and shit my pants.

I can't assure you that f3zinker isn't right, having never been to India. But while you can find the UK stuff, you're probably smart enough to avoid places like "Brick Lane Curry House", so it will definitely be better than that.

(And a correction, it's Newark Avenue in Jersey City, not the city of Newark)

The UK is the same. “British Indian” food was created by Bangladeshi immigrants to appeal to the British palate. It can be excellent, but it’s its own cuisine, it’s like Tex Mex or Italian-American cuisine of the “red sauce” variety.

London has some of the best Indian fine dining in the world, my favorite is a place called Bibi but there are also a bunch of great examples, especially when it comes to North Indian cuisine. It’s so weird to see international culinary snobs complain about a £9 “Tikka Masala” from the “Brick Lane Curry House” as if it’s an indictment against all Indian cuisine in Britain. America has some of the world’s best Italian cuisine but you won’t find it at Olive Garden.

Sorry to say this, but as a Desi who visited and ate Desi foods in some Desi strongholds in the East Coast of the US like various parts of New Jersey. You will be disappointed. A lot.

But on the other hand, they have BBQ, Chinese, Italian, Mexican !!, and just about everything else. So you wouldn't really miss good food all that much.

I always thought you were a Turk or Central Asian or something!

I don't recall saying anything that would suggest I live in Turkey or.. Kazakhstan for that matter.

I usually don't speak about my ethnicity/nationality unlike @self_made_human because I don't live in the shithole so their matters; let that be political, cultural or otherwise are more or less irrelevant to me. I'm a worse Desi than him, I'm illiterate in my mother tongue! I've grown up elsewhere.

I'm sufficiently irony poisoned that if hear someone tell me "Ayy, I'm walkin' here" in an Italian accent I'd just keel over and die.

That or my heart failing from my biryani diet. I've eaten more of it than 5 average people combined. This is actually not a joke!

His girlfriend's dream home is in a college town.

I was thinking Ithaca, NY might be a good fit for both.

If they can deal with the weather there.

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