LogFAQs > #985498552

Salrite posted...

That's a pretty jaded perspective to assume that's a subversion. There's nothing wrong with them practicing their own traditions in a positive manner even if the receiving end doesn't practice themselves.

When someone doesn't believe in your religion or accept your cultural traditions, and you force them on them anyway, that's kind of disrespectful and shitty.

I personally don't celebrate birthdays and dislike any attempt on the part of others to do so for me, and have told my friends this before. If my friends all spontaneously decided they wanted to throw a surprise birthday party for me it doesn't really matter if their intentions were good, it's still kind of an asshole move. Because it effectively means they don't consider my personal beliefs to be as important as theirs.



Salrite posted...

Would you look down Maori people performing Haka out of respect towards you?

Depends. Am I following my own cultural tradition that explicitly looks down on excessive social displays?

Even aside from hypotheticals, I'd probably be really weirded out by a group of Maoris spontaneously busting out in a dance routine where I'm the central focus. In exactly the same way that I'd be uncomfortable if someone started kowtowing to me out in public, or even a Frenchman grabbing me and kissing both my cheeks. It doesn't really fit my own paradigm of the way of how things should be done (I'm not even a fan of the dominant paradigm of my own culture - I really dislike greeting people by shaking hands, and the social pressure you absolutely feel to do it even if you don't want to).

There's some degree of being willing to make exceptions or accommodations if you're going somewhere where a specific behavior is common and accepted and -I'm- the outsider, but it's a different thing if you're in a position where expectations have been established in advance to not do those sorts of things (like in your hypothetical, if I go to New Zealand and tell my friends there that it embarrasses me and I ask them to please not do it).

There's a difference between someone who just doesn't celebrate Christmas as someone who literally follows an ideology that says they're not allowed to celebrate Christmas. Giving a gift to one of those people is just sort of inconsiderate, giving a gift to the other one is definitely a bit disrespectful.

And speaking as someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, and who has told everyone I know to not get me any gifts, I'd absolutely be really annoyed if one of my friends just spontaneously decided to buy me something anyway. I'd probably be waaay more annoyed if I didn't celebrate Christmas because my religion told me that celebrating earthly things or thinly-veiled pagan holidays was a sin and should be avoided and I took that seriously.