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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
I'm not creating this picture in my head from reading newspaper clippings here in the US. My opinion is coming from interfacing directly with the people of the countries, and also my own personal experiences there.
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I didn't accuse you of building your caricature of all other nations' from newspaper clipppings. I don't doubt that you have personal experiences that lead you to create these fictions. I suspect that your experiences shape your worldview more profoundly than any thing you might have read, which you might otherwise cast (inaccurately) as objective standpoint.
Your anecdotal evidence notwithstanding, you have still created a subjective impression of your world and reinterpret it to yourself as an objective reality. That is, you purport it to be, both to yourself and others, an accurate portrayal of the world as it exists.
If there is such a thing as a universal reality, I would hope that we can both agree there is no possible way for you to tap into it and all the thoughts and intentions of every single actor on this planet. Instead, you are left with the taskof ordering your experiences into categories based on very limited, first-hand experience, supplemented by the experiences of others, which may or may not be filtered through someone willing to point out the obvious--that our experiences are framed and warped by our own biographies and prejudices.