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contestgamer on 01 May 2018
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Helloplite said:
contestgamer said:

Because I'm half American/half European. In American I enjoy the multiculturalism, especially here in NYC. Everyone is different, every cuisine is available. It's fun. When I go travelling back to Europe though I'm sick of seeing it becoming more and more Americanized. Same thing when I travel to other overseas countries. I travel because I want to immerse myself in the historic culture of the location, and ONLY its culture - not its culture diluted/mixed with others. When I go to Turkey I want to see Turkish/Islamic culture - I dont want to see it diluted or mixed with other faces/architectural styles/languages and customs. I dont need the whole world to become the same in an ironic quest for diversity.

 Now you are concerned that Turkey is at risk of losing its culture?

 

What do you think will happen once that "quest for diversity" is achieved? People will have a uniform khaki colour, speak desperado, and eat a strange cuisine comprised of bittersweet halal macarons with pizza base, ants, and soya?

 

Do you know just how many things you think are part of someone's culture ... Are imports? Spaghetti? That's Chinese. Tomatoes? South American. Potatoes? Bolivian. And that's only cuisine, so far. 

 

Europe is not being Americanized (see my further point below). America is literally the outcome of Europeanisation. A bunch of Europeans went there, raped and pillaged the local cultures thinking they were in India, proceeded to establish states and borders that were totally alien to the local cultures, and several centuries later you have what you have.

 

The world was first Europeanised, in the most sustained epoch of globalization, transporting through colonialism the state structure and the ideology of nationalism worldwide, then -- after cultural hegemony passed onto USA, it was Americanised through newer concepts of "free world", and market capitalism.

 

Turkey is already a "Europeanised" state. It used to be the Islamic Empire par excellence, commanding power over the Islamic world and beyond for centuries. Then, the nationalist uprisings in the  Balkans set up the stage for the end of the empire and it's eventual Europeanization. That's is literally what Kemal Atatürk did: he established a modern secular state in the European paradigm. Erdogan is now trying to reverse this and return the country to its roots as an Islamic State. Something which I am sure you are a big fan of, what with your wishy-washy "being a nationalist does not mean being a racist" pro-culturalist approach.

Save the hypocrisy. You do not give a damn if Turkey is losing its identity or not. Your closest encounter with Turkish culture probably started and ended with Turkish Delight confections.

Lol, you dont want to have a discussion. You just want to point fingers and call people that disagree with you racist, evidence be damned. Actually I've visited Istanbul multiple times and enjoyed it there. I love Islamic and Asian art and architectural styles more than I do American. But that wont matter to you. I disagree with you, so ergo I'm racist and hate turkey.