True. But important to remember their legacy isn't the only one, just the one that most western people have been deeply exposed to.

Of western people. Particularly Christian people.

Nobody is gatekeeping what topics you can have a showerthought on. But people are allowed to choose to not read them. Or create spaces where certain topcis are not welcome. You are free to create a space for whatever content you want to see.

I think it's cute.

At least your username is on point.

No, the imperialistic "I must dominate every space I find myself in" attitude is pretty ingrained in Americans, regardless of if they embrace it in themselves or not. Anything from "I must make everyone aware of how bad I feel about my terrible country" to "I must force every country and culture in the world to follow my value system" to just sucking the air out of any room they're in by making sure that they are the loudest and most visible person around. They come from a culture where everyone is trying to be the tallest poppy. Most of the world by varying degrees generally trims the tallest poppy. It's not without issues but I could write a hell of a rant on how the tall poppy thing has been painted in overly negative light thanks to American hyper-individualistic sensibilities worming their way into the general consciousness (and don't confuse me for a tankie, that's like cutting the whole field if one poppy grows too tall).

Maybe not all Americans go out with the intent to conquer. But very few Americans seem to actually ask themselves if maybe for FUCKING ONCE they could just shut the fuck up, sit quietly in the corner and give their attention to someone else. But no, even if magically all Americans took what I just said to heart, they'd FLOOD social media with posts about themselves sitting quietly in the corner. They'd make sure that everyone knows just how quiet and invisible they are. They would keep their mouth shut but paint a massive red circle and arrows on the wall behind them, and they'd definitely try to be better at it than the other guy. This is the American mentality.

My sentiments exactly. Americans always find a way to make eeeverything about themselves. And then they're surprised to find Trump as their president. And then, instead of actually doing something about their miserable country, they will dominate every online space with their political shitshow. Most ironically it's usually accompanied with a significant amount of self-flagellation about what evil imperialists they are. A lot of it. They REALLY need you to see how badly THEY feel about being shitty (not that they'll take any real action about it). 0 self-awareness. Trump is just the pus-filled cap of an inflamed zit.

This is actually a well known thing in Buddhism and other meditative practices. Most of the old beliefs about yourself fall away (losing that ego), and then you just replace them with new beliefs (develop a new spiritual ego that usually feels nicer). And you have no idea how insidious and subtle it can be. You of course hear about he most extreme examples but it can also be very inward turned spiritual ego that's mostly damaging to oneself. There's a whole new level of practice in dissolving that too (which is actually why having a teacher and being a member of a spiritual community is useful because if it's a healthy community, they will bring it to surface one way or another). There's a vicious cycle where the unhealthy communities (cults) led by people who are in this god realm delusion are the ones that get the press, so people start avoiding communities because they think that they're all cults anyway, and then they do practice by themselves and might gain some realization, and then develop a spiritual ego... and decide they should become teachers and then create an unhealthy community.

I think they literally are actually. I vaguely recall reading something about how if you spend a lot of time with someone as a kid, you're less likely to be romantically attracted to them because we're instinctively trying to avoid inbreeding (in the context of small villages). Even if true, that doesn't translate to their claim though.

Bonus points if they also say something like "it didn't use to be".

You think Shamil Chandaria is posting his stuff on Lemmy?? LOL

old article but hate how they are intentionally fudging the difference between people who pay for a pirate streaming site vs. people who just torrent stuff. I too will bet my left testicle that downloading anime isn't going to put money into trafficking.