Guest - The first thing I'd like to suggest is that you become a member of the family. There's no cost, there is as much annonymity as you wish, and it's a great big global family.

The flavor of mudcat changes as the "flavor" of the members and visitors changes. We have valued family members all around the globe. If I had to guess, I'd say that the majority are from the US and western Europe. My guess is that such a distribution reflects many things, but mostly it's just a matter of language.

All of us are human (though we sometimes question the truth of that), and vulnerable to the usual and common foibles of the species. We all see the world from where ever we happen to sit, and pretty routinely bring those perspectives into discussions here. But the beauty of this commuinity is that we gradually learn to put aside many of our individual biases and prejudices and learn from each other about each other. There are sometimes those who seem content to live within their self-constructed cages, but most are sincerely open to the world.

The fact that most of us never have a chance to personally meet other members, means that we are forced to form our views of others based on the ideas and emotions they express in writting. That means that the visual cues that normally inform so much of human behavior rarely come into play, which, in my humble view, is not a bad thing.

In a more direct answer to your question, I think it is fair to say that there are some "pretty hefty cultural assumptions" made by some of us at different times, but I don't think it's either fair or accurate to view those as necessarily antagonistic to other world views or cultures.

I want to thank you for starting this thread, and hope that others 'Catters from around the world will join in and share their thoughts.