Really? I wonder who Gazans and people from the west bank voted for in the last Israeli elections. Right, they’re under the control of Israeli occupation but can’t vote in the democracy, all millions of them. But you know, it’s also the only country in the world that explicitly states that it’s the country of all Jews in the world and not its citizens’. Remarkably democratic in fact, so democratic that it redefines democracy as ethno-supremacy.
Mentioning Tiananmen Square, an example of internal repression with a couple of hundreds to a couple of thousands estimated fatalities, in the same sentence as two cases of near complete genocides of other ethnicities is wild. Do you not see how distorted that is as a comparison? In that comparison, you’re either trying to minimize the genocides of the Nazis, the Americans and the Turks, or raise the level of a case of internal repression with limited casualties to be comparable to massive historical crimes against humanity. Neither makes you look great.
I think Americans have a somewhat distorted view of what trains do.
I live in Sweden’s second biggest city, and visit Stockholm the capital regularly as I have family there. I can tell you that the price for flying often is cheaper than the train, and the train takes about 4 times as long to arrive to Stockholm. But I can’t think of a single person I know that doesn’t take the train to Stockholm from here.
There’s more to travel than the number of minutes on the mode of transport. There’s getting yourself to the airport here, and from the airport in Stockholm. There are security checks in airports that take time and are often frustrating. There’s the crammed space where you sit very uncomfortably. There’s the bad air in the plane itself. Planes are just a frustrating exoerience. The train takes me from the train station at the center of my city to the center of the destination, it’s spacious, it’s comfortable, you can move around in a train, you can even do a lot of work during the trip if you want to. Trains are a pleasure to ride, planes are a pain. So just looking at the ticket cost and travel time on the transport mode itself ignores the many advantages trains have over planes. Hell, even my dog is always with me on the train, while he’d be staying at home if I was flying.
Sumo has plenty of commercialism, it’s just a different kind. It’s a sport with large issues around gambling and alcohol for example, while being heavily sponsored by gambling and alcohol companies. I also believe that all divisions are pro, the top two divisions are just salaried pros. So all wrestlers win cash prizes when victorious, but the top two divisions also get a salary whether they win or lose. At least that’s how I’ve had it explained to me.