>

If you think American culture is bad in this regard, wait until you see Dutch culture.   They built their beliefs around never apologizing at all.
Guilt and shame helped robber barons of old control their workers, so I don't think your logic tracks. >

Of course they don't feel themselves. If there's a way to force them to feel guilt and shame then it's all good.
The problem is, I don't think they are a kind of people who even can't feel the survivor's guilt >

Guilt and shame are great when earned, but feeling guilty for existing and having done no harm to others is just self-defeating. >

Then people should be very specific about it.
But that won't sell a lot of books and tickets for the lectures. >

You are kidding right? There is an entire subsection of society that wants me to feel guilt and shame for being CIS, white, straight, and male. >

Aaaaaaaand many of them also promote guilt-free lifestyle.
And that should tell you something. Life is already unfair, and many of us are actually benefitted by it. It was never about right or wrong. Life is all about your own benefit at any cost.
When I realized it, I simply lost a huge chunk of my life including my passion as an artist. And I also became collapse aware. I ended up losing hope in humanity. Guess what kind of individual turned me into this. Someone who present themselves as humanitarian. >

I mean, if feeling guilt and shame about something you had nothing to do with makes you feel alive, then go for it. Im not going around like that. Ive got enough things Ive actually been a part of to feel guilt/shame about without adding shit I had nothing to do with to it. >

That's not what I meant.
But think about this. A huge chuck of our culture, not exactly politics, is led by a bunch of narcissistic sociopaths. Have you ever tried to see that way? They are the ones who tell us how to behave, posing as the moral bastions of this nation. >

If we are going down this road you absolutely have to include politics. Politicians are arguably almost worse than religious and buisness leaders. >

I agree.
We are living in the time when politicians can absolutely get away with a lot of stuff, possibly more than ever from a certain point of view. Ironically, this is partially possible because of the prolonged period of peace artificially maintained by global economy.
Not saying globalism itself is bad, but those elites are practically giving us the argument against it. Our world is full of ironies. >

Hang around some lapsed catholics and get back to me >

I am already one.
The thing is, my native culture is an amalgam of Confucianism, a very militaristic form of Mahayana Buddhism, and a dash of shamanism. And Catholicism in my home country has a very amicable relationship with first two, and fairly tolerant to the last one. >

Then i assume you’re familiar with the catholic guilt trope, ie feeling guilt for generally meaningless/inconsequential things? I can’t think of any reason why that’d be considered a positive thing >

I am more familiar with Catholicism after the Second Vatican. And Catholic church in my home country has been associated with the fight for democracy against the military dictatorship