Cultural Appropriation

[P for Pancetta]

I hate the cultural appropriation that is culture itself.

because the only thing that matters is individuality and originality.

People who are educated have appropriated themselves with knowledge they did not uncover.

People who are religious have appropriated themselves gods they've never known.

People who speak do so in words appropriated from people who are never going to speak again.

Unless people can teach themselves everything they need to know and invent and come up with masterpieces on a daily basis where're all fucked. It's true, if people aren't smart and witty enough to make apple pie from scratch they better shut their mouth and keep their hands tightly gripped around their television remote lest they do anything to upset people on the other side of the globe.

[Spectral]

Simultaneously promoting diversity and multiculturalism while insisting that the predominant culture may not adopt, enjoy, use, or profit from elements of other cultures is a sure recipe for strife. It explicitly privileges minority cultures above dominant culture. This is not a sustainable arrangement in any meaningful sense.

I am somewhat more sympathetic to arguments about sacredness and such, but these still fall pretty flat - no one except the Bill Donahues of the world take seriously the idea that non-Christians are obliged to treat everything in Christianity with the utmost of seriousness and respect. Going to the extent of the Piss Christ or something is a deliberate affront and I'm not a fan of that, but not because it's "cultural appropriation", but because it's deliberately insulting. If the principle is just "don't deliberately insult people with no other purpose", I can get on board with that. If, on the other hand, someone insisted that it was very upsetting that Southpark culturally appropriated Christian traditions to make their Easter Bunny episode, I would laugh at them and move on.

Really though, this is all overthinking it. When it comes to these sorts of academic leftist ideas, the only heuristic you need to figure out what their position will be is to figure out what someone that wants to push an anti-white ideology would say. When filtered through that lens, it becomes clear why wearing a sari is "appropriation", but wearing a dirndl doesn't really register.

[petej0]

Which one of those wasn't invented in America?

The automobile wasnt. The telephone has many claimants. You could argue that electricity was discovered by ancient peoples living in the middle east when they found clay jars that were used as batteries, that knowledge has been built upon over the centuries by people with names like Joules, Faraday, Orsted, Siemens, Tesla etc.. As for "computer" I suppose you are talking about the common use of "computer" being the modern computer. Alan Turing would have been the person who came up with that.

[MonsieuRoberts]

Companies like Chanel are better off ignoring twitter weepmasters. Apologizing just legitimizes these morons.

Weepmasters, I love it! I'm gonna use that.

[Delaios]

You once said in another thread you want to punch racists too, now is a good time to hit yourself.

My sarcasm senses were tingling when I read the post you replied to.

[Xargoth6634]

Yet another "issue" I give zero fucks about. Whatever happened to "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?" If you don't copyright something that becomes popular, expect other people to adopt/sell it.

[Deleted]

I have to admit I was a bit surprised the first time I heard about cultural appropriation. For long we had heard how everything was racist, because we didn't mix and respect other cultures enough etc., and then suddenly it was racist to mix other cultures thing with our own and such.

I've said it many times but we are essentially entertaining the opinions of what amounts to drunkards sitting at the train station, spewing their craziness.

[Deleted]

There is a war on nationalism and western culture.

Other than that, sheep being sheep.
When you guys will stand and wonder why you are so worthless, its because you are weak and follow the sheep.

There is only one way when you follow the masses and be trendy. You will be the average of that mass.

Men like me walk the higher path, men like me bow to no one and have their own principles.



Just look at the people with their smartphones on facebook, endlessly, doing absolutely nothing but watching cheap entertainment. You can feel the death reeking out of them.
I prefer a good ball game over smartphone any day. Im a man of competition.

I kinda miss my childhood days when you played some soccer and put some passion in it, you wanted to win, you felt that sweat and struggle of winning.

There were some american history x kind of games every now and then... whites and gypsies. Felt good, so glad i didnt spend my childhood in the west to be told that everything is racist. Not that i would give a fuck, fucking pc robots.

[Heladys]

The automobile wasnt. The telephone has many claimants. You could argue that electricity was discovered by ancient peoples living in the middle east when they found clay jars that were used as batteries, that knowledge has been built upon over the centuries by people with names like Joules, Faraday, Orsted, Siemens, Tesla etc.. As for "computer" I suppose you are talking about the common use of "computer" being the modern computer. Alan Turing would have been the person who came up with that.

Thank you for investing the time in addressing his lack of education that I clearly was unwilling to.

[Kalis]

It has nothing to do with american culture. That's bullshit. No one thinks if you're using guns then you stole from chinese culture. You're talking about extreme cases that no one actually believes.

But why not? What is the difference between saying that guns are cultural appropriation of Chinese culture and claiming a boomerang is cultural appropriation of Australian aboriginee culture?

The boomerang was used in a number of different cultures throughout the world, so why does only the last one to use it get to claim dibs on it?

And even if they had invented it, why is someone else using it wrong at all? People use British/French/German/Italian/American/whoever cultural achievements all the time, including the very people accusing others of cultural appropriation. Once they have been put out there, then appropriate away.

[TITAN308]

I like to cook a lot of mexican food in my house.

Just another long line of things that make me racist I guess.

[Kalis]

Probably none. My point is that there are very few things that I would consider culture appropriation. One example that comes to mind is a Native American headdress. Even then, I think it's fine to use them as long as you're portraying that culture in a positive light and not making fun of it or something. For instance, girls that dress up as Native Americans for Halloween where the majority of their clothing is just the headdress.

What would be wrong with that? Would it be wrong to dress for Halloween as a French maid, or a nun?

The whole idea that others are not allowed to use cultural symbols as they see fit is a bit bizarre, like claiming they are committing some sort of cultural blasphemy.

- - - Updated - - -

Hey Bolivian lady, that hat is a part of British culture, you appropriating swine...

[Aucald]

As I understand the phenomenon, "cultural appropriation" without critical context is neither bad nor good, it is more or less the end-result of cultures meeting, intersecting, and diffusing into one-another over time. The concept has its own hierarchies, but for purposes of simplicity we'd split them between "trans-cultural diffusion" and "cultural misappropriation" as the two primary types of appropriation. The former is a net positive thing and is pretty much unavoidable - two or more cultures intersecting and bleeding into one-another to influence art, cuisine, and media and often creating entirely new elements through synthesis. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruit of such a relationship, IMO - so eat your favorite cultural/ethnic foods, enjoy its influences on your preferred type of art, and be happy and enriched by the luxury of cultural abundance.

Cultural misappropriation, however, is a uniformly bad thing - defined as the theft of sacred or spiritual elements of a given culture without due reverence or respect, either through willful ignorance or malicious desecration. Misappropriation is used to demean or belittle a culture, treating its specific trappings as novelty or frippery, or outright employed to demonize or stigmatize a given culture in an uneven display of power dynamics. For me I think intent is the primary element to take into account - while misappropriation can occur through ignorance of what is important to a culture I don't think insult attaches without a generalized or specific intent to demean.

[Kalis]

Did you miss the part where I said it's fine as long as it's not portrayed in a negative way? I also don't really consider a french maid part of a particular culture. It's just a maid in France. A nun's appearance should be a bit more respected since it represents certain types of religions. Like I said, there's very few real examples I agree with.

The whole point is that what one person considers to be culturally offensive is irrelevant. You do not get to determine how other people should use cultural symbols, I do not, Australian aboriginees do not, Red Indians do not, etc.

She is not wearing that hat properly, she is Bolivian not British, but so what? If she wants to wear a bowler hat then she is free to do so, it is her hat, she can wear it how and when she likes.

[Adam Jensen]

Appropriation is the biggest bullshit issue the far left have dreamed up.

"Whites can't wear dreads because it's black culture!" Oh shut the fuck up. Like suddenly we aren't allowed to do things that other cultures created? So I can't eat pizza because I'm not Italian? Blacks can't play basketball because it was a game designed by a white dude in Massachusetts? I can't put a menorah in my window because I'm not Jewish? Maybe I like menorahs!

I understand to an extent that yeah, we shouldn't use other people's cultures in a way that is deliberately offensive, but most of this bullshit the far left is freaking out about is, well, bullshit.

As a liberal, I really wish the far left would fuck off.

[Deleted]

The idea of cultural appropriation as a bad thing on a melting pot world and on-going daily transformation of the same is the most retarded concept ever. ALL cultures appeared from the osmosis of other cultures.

[Adam Jensen]

So just more liberal logic?

On the one hand, spouting about coming together as one, peace/love/unity and whatever blah blah idealistic pathetic shit

But on the other hand, "this is black people stuff!!!" "This is Asian stuff! No one touch!"

And comments like this is why I wish the far left would fuck off.

Because they makes the normal, more center left folk like me look bad.

[Deleted]

Appropriation is the biggest bullshit issue the far left have dreamed up.

"Whites can't wear dreads because it's black culture!" Oh shut the fuck up. Like suddenly we aren't allowed to do things that other cultures created? So I can't eat pizza because I'm not Italian? Blacks can't play basketball because it was a game designed by a white dude in Massachusetts? I can't put a menorah in my window because I'm not Jewish? Maybe I like menorahs!

I understand to an extent that yeah, we shouldn't use other people's cultures in a way that is deliberately offensive, but most of this bullshit the far left is freaking out about is, well, bullshit.

As a liberal, I really wish the far left would fuck off.

Olympic Games is cultural appropriation of the greek culture, lets ban all nations but Greece from it.

You are absolutely right, it's silly from whatever ideology one looks.

[Kalis]

It's also the right of anyone else to bitch and moan about why she shouldn't do it. It's a pretty subjective topic and there's a pretty big range of where you can stand on the topic. I think very few things are culture misappropriation where as others think anything from another country being used by a white guy is bad. That's obviously an extreme case and I don't think it's a common thing but it's still their right to think that and look stupid. Like the video someone shared earlier of some guy wearing a poncho on May, 5th. She was even accusing him of somehow portraying Mexicans as being drunk criminals or something but he seemed perfectly of sound mind. He just wanted to wear a poncho. No big deal.

Either way, when it comes down to it, it's pretty subjective so no one is really wrong. Just more extreme one way or the other.

As far as I am concerned, then they can appropriate whatever they want. If someone wants to wipe their arse with a Union Jack, then I will sell them extra soft Union Jacks so they can wipe without causing discomfort.

Individuals do not have exclusive rights on cultural symbols, it is a conceit that people think they do.