SL a California based virtual world

[Bree Giffen]

I was watching a youtube video (forgot what it was) but they mentioned that nearly all of the online social sites were made in California and reflect a lot of the social norms and morality system of the people who created them. SL is made in San Francisco. I was wondering if people outside of that state or outside of the U.S. notice anything in SL that seems different from what you'd expect to see if SL were made locally in your State/Country. 

Is SL too liberal in it's values? Too restrictive in certain things? 

[Phil Deakins]

I'm in the UK and I've never noticed anything in SL that seems odd or different from my point of view.

[Cindy Evanier]

4 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

I'm in the UK and I've never noticed anything in SL that seems odd or different from my point of view.

Ditto

[AviNews]

Also... SL (or Linden Labs) has an office in Boston as well.  And further there's another couple in other locations.

Point tho... is not ALL in CA. (then as we 'go to the Cloud'... it'll be hard to tell where we are!!  

[Rhonda Huntress]

I have seen plenty of red-neck hi-larity but there is a distinct shortage of possum-on-the-half-shell in SL.  This ain't like Texas.  Worse yet, yall but beans in your chili like soup. No sir.  Not like Taxas a'tall.

[AviNews]

That'za Darn tootin'!!  Ya' put dem beans in dat chill.... that's where the toot's come from

SL's not BIG 'nuf fer Texas

[Innula Zenovka]

I think we in the UK (and much of the rest of the world) tend to forget that, in general, much of the USA is far more right-wing than we are, so places that seem, in US terms, extremely progressive or liberal simply look like bastions of common sense to us.

Brits will remember the fuss about Theresa May's doing a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party last year.    I recall it was pointed out at the time that most of the views that made the DUP seem grotesque right-wingers and religious maniacs, even to many mainland Conservatives, such as their opposition to abortion and same sex marriage and their wanting Creationism taught alongside evolution in school science lessons, would simply make them mainstream Republicans in much of the USA.

So maybe the question is best answered by other Americans.

[Rhonda Huntress]

If it has beans it ain't chili!

 

[Pamela Galli]

12 minutes ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

  This ain't like Texas. 

Almost anything can be said to be like or not like Texas, depending on which part of the elephant you are touching.

I am in the Silicon Valley part of the state.

[Jae Villa]

UK here... I've never noticed anything in SL that is particularly "Californian" from my perspective. The cultural differences between Americans and us European folk have occasionally reared their head (never in an overtly negative way though). And, to be honest, I seem to spend most of my time bumping into European folk especially Germans which makes Second Life sometimes feel more like Europe than California!

[Rolig Loon]

23 minutes ago, Innula Zenovka said:

I think we in the UK (and much of the rest of the world) tend to forget that, in general, much of the USA is far more right-wing than we are, so places that seem, in US terms, extremely progressive or liberal simply look like bastions of common sense to us.

It's getting increasingly hard to tell what's "normal" or what "most people think" in the US. We tend to live in enclaves, much more even than our stay at home grandparents.  We can make broad generalizations (people in cities are more likely to be liberal than people in rural areas, people in the south are more likely to be conservative than those in the north, people who live on the coasts are more likely to be liberal than those in the middle of the country), but those break down when we look closer.  Orange County in California is not at all like the Bay area, Austin is not like Dallas, Minnesota is not like Wisconsin.  Even in a neighborhood, we segregate into households that watch Fox News and drive pickups and those who watch NPR and drive sedans.  We're mostly polite to each other, but we don't mix much.  We no longer go to the same churches and we don't like to send our kids to the same schools. 

Strangely, education doesn't make things any better.  As demographers have known for decades, the more educated and well-informed you are, the more likely you are to take a hardened, polarized stance on things.  As a result of all of this, "normal" America is looking more like a tattered patchwork quilt every day.  If we try to decide whether we are more liberal or conservative, the answer depends on where we look and when.  An answer based on geography is different from one based on population or educational or socioeconomic level, or on who's holding the microphone at the moment.  The one thing we still seem to have in common, mostly, is that we are glad to be here.

[Love Zhaoying]

“Right Wing” America is more in the news because of politics which does NOT represent the majority of the population, and the media talking more about it to get attention.

[JuliaFina]

12 hours ago, Innula Zenovka said:

many mainland Conservatives, such as their opposition to abortion and same sex marriage and their wanting Creationism taught alongside evolution in school science lessons, would simply make them mainstream Republicans in much of the USA.

So maybe the question is best answered by other Americans.

 That's kinda a USA stereotype i think as this chart shows http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/party-affiliation/.

From the chart, 10% of Buddhist's are Republican/Conservative, 62% of Muslims are Democrats/Liberals - 44% of Christians are Democrat/"Liberal" - In the USA, more Mainline Protestant Christians are Democrat than Republicans. So not all Conservatives are for the issues you named. Likewise, in the USA not all liberals are against them. In fact, in the USA, 22% of the population does not belong to any religion. So almost 1 in 4 people does not base their views on issues on anything from a religious teaching. Conservatives and Liberals in the USA make up their own minds where they stand on individual  issues and really there is no "party" (or religion in many cases) enforcing what individuals should believe. 

Edited April 21, 2018 by JuliaFina

[ChinRey]

18 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

I was wondering if people outside of that state or outside of the U.S. notice anything in SL that seems different from what you'd expect to see if SL were made locally in your State/Country.

Oh yes. I'm not familiar enough with the nuances in US culture to say if it's typical Californian but SL is very, very American.

But that's ok and it can't be avoided anyway. Everybody have to come from somewhere and everybody have to live somewhere. And the culture you grew up with and the one you live in will always color everything you do and your pereception of everything.

Edited April 21, 2018 by ChinRey

[Paul Hexem]

17 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

“Right Wing” America is more in the news because of politics which does NOT represent the majority of the population, and the media talking more about it to get attention.

That depends on who you ask and what you watch. I still firmly believe that the country and people in it are much more moderate than political TV would have us believe. 

 

17 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

The one thing we still seem to have in common, mostly, is that we are glad to be here.

This gets forgotten all too often.

 

 

That's what's fun about SL, everyone brings in a little of their own culture, geography, and beliefs. I can go to a nature sim, sailing sim, combat sim (that's definitely not Californian), an Asian sim, a redneck sim, and more, without ever leaving SL.

[Callum Meriman]

20 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

I was wondering if people outside of ... the U.S. notice anything in SL that seems different from what you'd expect to see if SL were made locally in your State/Country. 

Is SL too liberal in it's values? Too restrictive in certain things? 

The mortal fear USA people have of female nipples is always surprising. It's a national phobia.

[Fionalein]

22 minutes ago, Callum Meriman said:

The mortal fear USA people have of female nipples is always surprising. It's a national phobia.

I reccommend male nipple pasties as suggested elsewhere on this forum

Edited April 21, 2018 by Fionalein

[Innula Zenovka]

14 hours ago, JuliaFina said:

 That's kinda a USA stereotype i think as this chart shows http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/party-affiliation/.

From the chart, 10% of Buddhist's are Republican/Conservative, 62% of Muslims are Democrats/Liberals - 44% of Christians are Democrat/"Liberal" - In the USA, more Mainline Protestant Christians are Democrat than Republicans. So not all Conservatives are for the issues you named. Likewise, in the USA not all liberals are against them. In fact, in the USA, 22% of the population does not belong to any religion. So almost 1 in 4 people does not base their views on issues on anything from a religious teaching. Conservatives and Liberals in the USA make up their own minds where they stand on individual  issues and really there is no "party" (or religion in many cases) enforcing what individuals should believe. 

Sure.   I don't disagree.   All I'm saying is that political positions that seem quite extreme and grotesque in much of Europe are apparently pretty mainstream in much of the USA and, similarly, many positions that non-contentious and accepted by most mainstream political parties of both the right and the left -- e.g. universal healthcare funded by general taxation, or gun control -- are seen as radical and contentious in much of the USA.

Certainly, if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were to take an interest in British politics, they'd be most at home in the centre-right of our Conservative Party, just as most of our Conservatives would be Democrats in the USA.   Bernie Sanders' natural home would be with our Labour Party or, possibly, the Liberal Democrats,  but he'd be well to the right of many Labour parliamentarians and supporters.

I'm not criticising the US for this, particularly -- I don't have to live there, thank heavens, so it's not my problem.   All I'm saying is that views that appear extreme on one side of the Atlantic appear quite mainstream on the other, so probably Brits aren't the right people to comment on whether San Francisco values and attitudes seem odd or out of place (they don't, by and large).  

Edited April 21, 2018 by Innula Zenovka

[Chaser Zaks]

Despite Linden Lab being a California based business, LL seems to be on very neutral on grounds when it comes to politics. Personally I find it good business practice. You don't make your customers angry at political based decisions if you don't do political based decision, all sides win and LL keeps customers.

Granted there are some things that can be argued are political based decisions but really though they are more of common sense rules, rather political decisions.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Chaser Zaks
grammar

[Elijah Pyrithea]

SL is formed by those that are 'living' there. So I cannot say that SL is so typically American. However, the moment you have to deal with Linden Labs / Linden Research itself you get the all too familiar American cultural traits to deal with. One of those that irritates me is the lack of knowledge when it comes to everything that is outside of US borders. I haven't got a support ticket answered for quite a few days now because I had to reply by answering a control question where they asked my place of birth. Since this is a place in Europe, they do not understand apparently. Support is arrogant, judgemental and disrespectful compared to what I'm used to from the few European countries I've lived, also mostly because for most Americans, the USA is equal to the world/planet. Nothing much to do about this except for hoping that one day the US education system changes to be less narrowminded. 

[Rolig Loon]

6 hours ago, Elijah Pyrithea said:

for most Americans, the USA is equal to the world/planet. Nothing much to do about this except for hoping that one day the US education system changes to be less narrowminded. 

I'm not apologizing for my fellow Americans, but to add a little perspective .....  Even after seven decades of travel across the US, I am still amazed at how radically different people in one region can be from those in another.  A reply that might be considered sharp and rude in Atlanta is unremarkable in New York city.  The frontier attitudes of Montana and Idaho mark you as very strange indeed in New England. 

Despite that -- possibly because we all speak more or less the same English language -- you might expect us to all follow the same rules of behavior.  And yet we don't.  Americans are just as naive about each other as they are about foreigners, and we treat each other about as unkindly at times.  It's not so much that the USA is equal to the world/planet as it is that my neighborhood is my horizon, and everything beyond is odd and a little unsettling.  The paradox is that we have been able to travel from one part of our country to another -- a trip that can be a couple of thousand miles -- rather freely for a couple of hundred years.  We ought to understand each other better after all this time, but we haven't learned the social skills to do it.

This country covers a land area significantly larger than about the same size as Europe and has as many cultural/ethnic/linguistic subcultures in it as Europe has, but it hasn't had the political boundaries and historical animosities to overcome that Europe has. My own personal theory is that 20th/21st century Europeans have been forced to recognize their differences and to learn how to be polite with strangeness, but Americans haven't had that advantage.  As a nation, we've muddled along, grumbling at each other's regional differences but not being forced explicitly to learn how to deal with them as politely as Europeans. 

That's a very broad generalization, so I know that it doesn't apply well to individuals. I know a great number of worldly Americans and have met more than a handful of culturally insensitive people in France, Germany, Great Britain and other places.  Perhaps the Internet, world-wide communication, and international travel will smooth things out over time, if we don't kill each other first.  Until then, we'll sit here on one side of the pond pretending to be a homogenous society, and Europeans will sit on the other side knowing that they are not.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Rolig Loon

[Ceka Cianci]

I haven't noticed LL too political in either direction..For me that's a good thing, because it's ONE of the reasons I come to SL..To get away from that migraine of a circus..

SL for me, is like going into my own sensory deprivation chamber from all the noise..All I'll can really say about it is,It's peaceful enough for me to get creative..

Where other forms of entertainment and medias seem to be trying to recreate me.So I stay away from most of them these days..

LL and SL have been pretty legit for me and think it wouldn't really matter where they planted their steak of land..I feel they'd be the same way anywhere.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2018 by Ceka Cianci

[Callum Meriman]

4 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

This country covers a land area significantly larger than Europe

Are you sure Rolig?

In terms of land mass, the United States and Europe are pretty similar in size — the United States is 9,833,000 square kilometers, while Europe is 10,180,000 square kilometers.

[Rolig Loon]

24 minutes ago, Callum Meriman said:

Are you sure Rolig?

No, I'm really only sure about a few things in this life.  And every time I turn around, another one of those sure things has gone up in smoke.  Thank you for double checking.

[Fionalein]

6 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

This country covers a land area significantly larger than about the same size as Europe...

Yeah problem here is map projections... I found out comparing land masses on a globe beats screens/maps by length.