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"Western civilization" does this phrase actually mean anything? I always hear it with a big 🚩as it is almost always used as a euphemism for "white people" typically by people who are afraid they are under attack by other "less civilized" cultures.

Infrapink (he/his/him)

@MnemosyneSinger

It's meaningless

"Western" is an absurdly vague term that means whatever the speaker wants it to mean.

But even if we restrict it to, say, Europe, there have always been multiple civilisations. While they tend to be lumped together, the ancient and were distinct cultures, and the , , , , and are all distinct from each other. Lumping them all together as "Western civilisation" is absurd.

@MnemosyneSinger Ian Morris in *Why The West Rules — For Now* offers the only coherent definition of "The West" I've ever come across. He defines it as everything west of the Indus Valley, which means it includes not only European civilisations but also those of the "Near East" and "Middle East".

He unfortunately doesn't really consider Africa when defining his terms, but his argument is at least sensical and coherent.

@Infrapink @MnemosyneSinger What’s REALLY crazy is that Greek and Roman culture were WAY WEIRDER than most of these armchair historians think. They would be super uncomfortable with the stuff they did, ate, and thought.