I guess I wouldn&#x27;t define a silent perspective, whether majority or minority, as present in the conversation.<p>It is one phenomenon when everyone agrees.  Probably everyone is right.  When everyone who speaks agrees, and everyone who doesn&#x27;t agree doesn&#x27;t speak, that&#x27;s quite a different pattern.<p>As I noted above, I agree: I think the problem is the tone.  In combination with this pattern, of course.<p>(I should have just noted that it seems possible that the reason American parents find their children less safe in public is that they&#x27;re right.  Parents are worried about assaults and kidnapping.  I couldn&#x27;t find statistics on child assault and&#x2F;or kidnapping, but the Japanese rape rate is roughly 27x (not 27%) lower than the American [1].  Given this fact, it&#x27;s not immediately obvious why one should search for an additional cause of the disparity.)<p>Wherever our moderator is from, his perspective is an American perspective. This is an objective factual statement, like the fact that English is an Indo-European language.  Probably in the same geographic region 100 years ago, there was a living pre-American intellectual tradition.  But it hasn&#x27;t existed since 1945 at the latest.<p>(The most concentrated remaining geographic locus of pre-American ideology is -- by no coincidence -- the subject of this article.  Nippon Kaigi anyone?  But I don&#x27;t believe Dan is Japanese.  And even Japan isn&#x27;t exactly what it once was.)<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nationmaster.com&#x2F;country-info&#x2F;compare&#x2F;Japan&#x2F;United-States&#x2F;Crime" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nationmaster.com&#x2F;country-info&#x2F;compare&#x2F;Japan&#x2F;Unite...</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nippon_Kaigi" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nippon_Kaigi</a>