Apparently, “I am being blocked by Quora”, and I thought I was (not so). There have certainly been times when Quora has blocked my scholarly answers.
On this occasion I wrote a post commending an answer about “What is it about Australian culture that Americans just don’t understand?”. Then I wrote,
“ I support Bill Lattanzio’s answer. Very perceptive. The majority of Quota questions are built in a gross nationalistic framing which continues to deny the obvious truth.
All citizens of all nations have varying degrees of education about other places. There will always be a small minority of those who are willfully ignorant political activists, those of bloody-mindedness who are used in campaigns of institutional political players, whether they be the American GOP or the Chinese mainland government.”
I can share Bill Lattanzio’s answer, since it is there in the public square, online public space.
“I surely can’t speak for every American, but I would feel safe in saying that the average American knows very little about Australian culture.
Australia and the US are two very different countries separated by many thousands of miles of ocean. Relatively few Americans visit or have visited Australia, and Australia exports to the US little to nothing terms of art, literature, music, or films, all things that could in theory begin to bridge cultures that are otherwise separated by great distances.
On any given year approximately 500k Americans visit Australia on average, which is less than 1/4 of 1% of the U.S. population, a minuscule amount by any metric. There simply isn’t enough cultural exchange or visitation occurring for the average US citizen to gain any meaningful understanding of a country that is so far away and that is so much different.”
I certainly welcome Americans to visit, as I have very much enjoyed visiting the United States.
To the point, though, it is a mystery what happens behind the IT screen (curtain) of Quora. I thought I was being blocked on this occasion but it turns out I was not. Thanks to Quora.
There have been rumours that Quora is controlled by the Communist Chinese government. I truly do not know. Certainly, if so, that is balanced out by the questions of Trumpers and other extreme thinking members of the American Republican Party. Certainly, Quora is a site of the American culture-history war. I am on the online battlefield as a peacekeeper, and my weapon is modest truth of the big picture, compatible reasoning, critical thinking, and agency of educated free thought. Perhaps, it is true the Communist Chinese government uses the online rhetoric of the American culture-history war to destabilises the United States. I truly do not know, but what of its truth, creating peace is the best strategy.
Still, I have no idea who pulls the strings. Perhaps, we all do. It reminds of the scene in The Wizard of Oz (1939) when the wizard is decloaked. “Oh, no, my dear, I am a very good man; I am just a very bad wizard.”
Neville Buch
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