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It obviously has culture, but most things listed aren’t culture… Or is that the ‘joke’?
American definitely has a culture. And most of it is shit. Keep that idiocy away.
Foreigners might not get this post’s reason for existing, but with some people it really does feel like we’re supposed to rebuke everything we see on a day to day basis and sometimes everyone we see, or else we’re no better than Maga MacDougall who actively donates to AIPAC over here. Sometimes an exception is made for Black culture, but it’s usually a shallow one that unravels the minute they have to elaborate on their dislike for American culture.
And I have never found an elaboration on “America has no culture” that wasn’t steeped in some combination of appeals to a pure and ideal past, ignorance of how migration shapes every culture, classism, and sometimes even racism. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a statue PFP if you say this.
Yes, that’s also how you’re supposed to act if you’re English. And we mostly do.
We provide some of the best and some of the worst this world has to offer. But, that’s also true of a lot of, if not all, countries.
Motherfucker ain’t even mention bubble gum.
American exceptionalism always made me cringe, but it makes me cringe more the older I get. I hate how presidential candidates feel like they have to call the US the most powerful, the greatest, and so on.
It’s telling how you qualified the exceptionalism as American, fellow citizen.
That’s true of any politician tbh, I’m indian and most of the elections are about how we were great and ancient and holy and blah blah.
True. One of the biggest parts of modern-day American exceptionalism is thinking that only America has these problems. People who claim to dislike America unknowingly put it on a pedestal as “the worst thing ever”, without acknowledging the very similar problems in their own backyard.
The main point of American exceptionalism is that “America is different from other countries”, to an advanced degree. Some people mean “good” when they say “different”, but it’s not necessary.
American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations.
Hell yeah
Fuck yeah mmmmmerica!!
America! Fuck yeah! Coming again to save the mother fuckin day yeah!
I think it’s more a complaint about the people not being cultured in general than it is a complaint about the country not having a culture (also, a bunch of the things mentioned aren’t culture but whatever).
How would you define “culture”?
A living collection of microorganisms, duh!
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cultured
If all you know is cultural items from your own country I don’t think you can be considered to be cultured.
This is honestly a pretty ignorant take on america and its culture. A lot of our culture comes directly from the places people immigrated from, mixed with the culture that already existed. After a few generations it amalgamates into the broader culture. Its constantly evolving (whether people want it to or not). Its quite the opposite of only knowing culture fron our own country. In fact, a statement like that makes no sense when you factor in how peoole got here in the first place
Ok but if it’s integrated to your culture and seen as local culture but it actually comes from elsewhere and people don’t realize that US culture is just everyone else’s culture, it just shows that US people aren’t cultured since they just assume that everything is US culture when it’s in fact foreign.
There’s a reason why the “American calling black people African American while traveling abroad” cliche exist.
I think I’d agree with that, but that’s in reference to a person. A culture by definition must have its own cultural artifacts that aren’t simply taken from another culture. There’s also no requirement for those artifacts to be “high art”. Nearly everything listed in the OP is culture. So to clarify, I ask what you mean when you say “a bunch of the things mentioned aren’t culture”.
Oh for that part of my message what I meant was things like coastlines, cactus, fireflies and foggy days, that’s not culture, what you do with it can be cultural, but otherwise they’re just natural features.
foggy days
I thought that was a British trademark. Foggy Albion and all that.
Yep, that was a funny thing to mention in the list considering that fog is mostly articulated with the UK, not the USA
I think the implication is that the things you do with those natural features form a culture. Fireflies aren’t culture, but catching them is. And besides, there are plenty more examples of culture in the post. But you are correct.
I also think they there’s a lot of things that they associate with US culture in the USA that’s just stuff brought from other countries that were appropriated, so in that sense the US culture isn’t as rich as some people think (but that’s normal for such a young country with such a high number of fairly recent migrants from all over the world). Like trick or treating (to use an example from the OP) that comes from Scotland and Ireland and the first North American record of it was in Canada.
What’s funny is that it’s a pretty good demonstration of the lack of culture that (we can assume) American person has!
I reject the idea that something that originated in one society cannot become another society’s culture. It morphs and changes, and is reinforced by the society until it becomes a part of their culture, too. Surely you would not say that tomato-based foods aren’t part of Italian culture just because they came from the new world?
I love when they feel the need to clarify apple cider, as opposed to all the other famous kinds of cider.
Pear and peach cider is fairly popular. Strawberry and plum cider is also good, but less common.
The post: Can we just take a moment to acknowledge that there are at least some positives to be found in in the US?
The comments: No
Can’t blame us when Americans see any non-american as second class citizens. As per their laws.
The bad overshadows the good. And the good is still nothing to write home about either.
What do you mean? One relatively unique thing is that the US Constitution protects anyone physically on US soil, not just citizens. There is very little that treats physically present US citizens different from non-citizens beyond voting and certain welfare benefits.
That said, the police here can absolutely enforce the law unfairly. But that’s not really a problem with the law, but instead the individual police departments.
As an American, I think there’s a lot we can do better to be more fair, but I also think our system of laws is quite fair in general. We just need to get our police in line and change the “us vs them” mentality in our military and policing. I’d really like it if we would stop bombing people we don’t like and instead strive to open trade routes.
A lot of fun things listed, but they aren’t going to mean anything to any of us when we’re collectively burned out from working endlessly and incapable of retirement… thanks to America’s capitalists.
I was thinking how to express something similar for this post. I think its easiest to express in song:
And I’m ashamed to be an American where folks pretend their free And I won’t forget the men who lied, and stole that right from me And I’d gladly sit down next to you and protest her still today 'Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land Work to save the USA
I love u baseball
Let’s not go overboard.
The man has never seen a game, at most he hit a tennis ball with a bat-like object once and thought “that’s cool”
Honestly I’ve been getting more into baseball as I’ve gotten older. Just easy to chill out with.
Yeah that and golf. Both still kind of boring but ok in the background. Beer helps
Golf is so much better played with friends than watched
I mean, compare it to the other pro sports. Unless you live in a state with a hockey team, baseball is as good as it gets.
Basketball works anywhere.
u
USA culture will be forgotten when the present empire falls. How much Prussian/ German culture do you consume? Prussia was considered a high watermark for culture, but nobody seems to care about it anymore. And y’know? Good. Because countries who are violent, imperial, oppressive? Their culture deserves to be forgotten.
How much Prussian/ German culture do you consume?
A ton. Germany is a defining cultural influence on the lives of all Europeans, and you are missing out if you don’t know it.
Yeah, American Christmas is pretty much entirely derived from German tradition: Santa, gifts, Christmas trees, lights, carols, etc.
So much of American food derives from German food: hot dogs, pretzels, hamburgers, modern beer (hopped beer and bottom fermentation of lagers were both invented by Germans, and are now the dominant form of beer globally).
And as America exported all of these cultural traditions, those still derive from German immigration to America to begin with.
The English language itself still has strong Germanic influence.
I just love seeing that quote, said in a Germanic language. Fucking hilarious. Hubris is lost on idiots.
pubris
Lemmy Challenge: accept that there are good things among the 300 million people and 3.8 square miles of the US
Difficulty: impossible
Fucking preach. I’ve never down voted so many comments on my own post before. Or any post honestly.
A LOT of things in that list aren’t originally American, or even commonly American. And quite a few others aren’t “culture”.
My favorite is probably “Victorian houses”. Where did Victoria live again?
One of the most dominant “culture” in the US, is they can’t take any bit of criticism.
Confirmed time and again with threads like this.
The “Victorian House” is just the commonly accepted name for the archetectural style. I’m not an architectural expert, but the average person in the US would hear that and imagine a 3 story house with porches and elabroate decorations. The US certainly has a distinctive building and decorative style from that era that is different than any Victorian homes in the UK.
A LOT of things in that list aren’t originally American, or even commonly American
That’s literally one of America’s superpowers. immigrants bringing ideas and foods from their cultures then as they integrate these ideas become more ingrained in local identities (and of course morph over time to adapt to local tastes) and later might even become something entirely different and so nationally popular that it becomes an exported cultural sensation.
To me, pointing out, “America has culture too!” Feels dismissive of how the most brilliant “American” cultures developed specifically in spite of being segregated from and exploited by the dominant American culture. It’s not called the bureau of native american affairs for a reason.
I guess I’m not ready to reclaim an American identity before all others.
