I think people who only have nice things about audio toys are assholes.

It feels that my generation (Generation Y I suppose) has become overly sensitive. I grew up in a family where PC-ness wasn't important. Persian families are just like Asians or Jews except louder. Neighbors would call the cops during family arguments based on sheer volume. Maybe that's why I prefer to listen over 40dB. You guys should hear a Persian try to pronounce "nigger", it's hilarious. It's like when Harry Potter becomes a wizard and says "Voldemort" and people freak the fuck out. This has been talked about before, but it's always a hoot to get an immigrant's opinion on "social issues" in America. When people lack the "sensitivity" to understand these people's "struggles", all the PC bullshit going on in America just doesn't make any sense to them. A few members of my family would always talk about how we should have a third bathroom for homosexuals.  I do wonder how many kids in my generation had dads who would yell at them or deal out corporal punishment. No, of course, we need to keep our children safe and unscarred. Too many kids playing videogames and watching TV growing up rather than doing alpha male stuff. With my group of friends, if you didn't do stupid things you were a pussy or a fag. We would invent new cuss words rather than jerk each other off. My high school basketball coach was a salty Irishman who would swear at kids and grab them by the collar. I remember one freshman started crying and he laughed him out of the gym.

Now a bit later in life, my peers seem uncomfortable with that sort of brashness though. Race jokes and blonde jokes are no longer funny it seems. I have to be careful with slapping other dudes on the back; a lot of people are taken back by physical contact. I drop food in the dirt and stick it right back in mouth and people look at me like I'm some sort of animal. Very sheltered sort of mentality. I learned recently that my high school banned the word "retard". College campuses are doing the same sort of "inclusive" bullshit. I really have to wear a filter these days. They can ruin you in the name of PC-ness. I see forums as a natural escape from that PC world but of course that cancer is permeating in our direction too.

I realize I've shifted the discussion away from audio and toward PC-ness but might as well keep going. People who worry over getting offended are always the ones who are on the look-out for perceived slights against their _______. Being less sensitive makes life more fun and a lot less stressful.

I'm sure there are those who already think guys like Anax, Marv, or myself who have this mentality to be assholes. We won't worry about it.

Well, I do think that people have become rather thin-skinned and prone to butt-hurtness over stupid things.  However I think the flip side of that is equally important, which is that Americans have a way of torturing themselves, ruminating in angst, and inflicting self-punishment for the act losing one's temper or getting too passionate and saying something too sharply.  That is, many of us feel deeply uncomfortable with ourselves after our own emotional outbursts.  We feel like we have done something terribly wrong, and it can stick in one's head, repeating the conversation internally etc.  The lesson that I struggle with is the one I mentioned above, which is that sometimes you really do have to accept that passion, emotional content, even getting angry is valid, and doesn't have to be treated as a bad thing.  Sometimes you may say something too strongly in the heat of an argument, but that often just means you are involved in what is being discussed, that you have a world view.  Now obviously there is such a thing as the fuckwit that just demeans people; there is such a thing as an asshole, and sometimes apologies are necessary.  But it's this fear and angst over expressing things emotionally that is an issue for many. 

I assume the majority of the so-called "Asians" you've met in the USA were Chinese? China, despite being East Asia, actually has a culture quite distinct from that of Korea and Japan while the latter two are more alike than not.

No. I'm half asian dude, I don't have to go out of my way to meet different asians. I don't live in chinatown either. I've also been to China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mongolia, Nepal and Bhutan. No, my experience is not from bumping into a random Chinese dude on the street here.

Making friends is another thing altogether. I'm talking being around strangers you just met. I rarely hear an American I just met just drop the 'F' bomb, if so it's usually from me by accident. The kinds of things I've heard or seen from some Asians I've just met has literally stopped me cold in my tracks like WOW, is this for real? These are broad generalizations of course and I can think of exceptions to every case. I've seen some Italians and Germans do some crazy unbelievable things too.

I did meet an older Japanese fellow I almost punched out in Croatia. A bus arrived and as we all got on he started to shove and pack everyone inside with his forearms like he was the subway dude in Tokyo (he may well have been at one time). I'm sorry but you don't lay your hands on me, or my elderly mother if I don't know you. In Japan, anyone who's ridden the subway during rush hour would likely be okay with it. In the west, especially the US, you don't go around shoving strangers into a bus without getting your face smashed in.