Loving USA Culture

At least here in the UK there has almost always been a distaste for 'americanisms' among the middle-aged and older (conveniently forgetting the ones that entered common use during their youth.) Its largely just snobbery and old man yells at clouds.

It is also less that the states have no culture as they only have low culture. Again, ignoring that most 'high culture' is just old, and was low when it was new. Shakespeare wrote for the common folk, Dante's Inferno was something of a hit piece on everyone he didn't like. The Rite of Spring was hammered by critics who saw it as barberous to the point of insult and suggested women should not be permitted to see it, should it continue to be performed. The Count of Monte Cristo was serialized not unlike a comic book (and was abridged to not scandalise English speaking audiences.)

I would say a large contributor to America's stupid yokle image are the people with the red caps.

Funnily enough some of shittier USA politics also get imported in other countries. :')

Its tough when Americas old culture is centered around greed or religion. Every bit of old culture has an awful undertone to it unless you were part of the right group.

I really wonder if it's a side effect of recent politicians pushing increasingly bizarre and oppressive agendas

I bet it is. The President represents us, so when we elect a loud, hateful moron like Trump it makes our entire country look bad

It's probably just trying to other/separate themselves from the horrors of usa that they've been awake to.

The pervasive, loud, aggressive “America is full of stupid yokels and has no culture herp derp” sentiment seems to have really ramped up in recent years.

we're sick of the US being the dominant , assumend cultural force and want something else.

It might help if your country isn't paranoid about such made up concepts as "cultural appropriation". :)

Which is kinda amusing, since USA is literally made up of several different cultures.

"Behold, someone so inundated in their own culture they can no longer recognize it." Yeah, I've seen that Tumblr post too, you're very funny and original.

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.

I would expect that there isn’t anything that you would write home about.

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.

It's telling how you qualified the exceptionalism as American, fellow citizen.

Yeah that and golf. Both still kind of boring but ok in the background. Beer helps

I like watching baseball in person, but I can't stand it on TV. I like the little games and whatever on the TV between innings, and the shorter pitch clock has made the game a lot more enjoyable.

Basketball works anywhere.

Football and soccer are way better. In my home state, our women's soccer team was one of the best in the country, and my current state has one of the best men's soccer teams.

Hockey is cool, but there are a lot more options than just baseball. In fact, I almost never run into baseball fans anymore, it's mostly football and basketball these days, with some soccer fans on the side.

You're ignoring a lot of the cool stuff that America has put out:

• Broadway musicals
• alligator wrestling
• Cajun food (basically French, African, and Spanish fusion food) and American Pizza
• a wide variety of music genres (grunge, big band/swing, etc)

The best thing about America is the fusion of different cultures. It started as a refuse for the oppressed, and its culture reflects that. Unfortunately, it has itself become an oppressor in many ways, but that shouldn't detract from its unique, blended culture.

Can someone explain the love for Taylor Swift to me?

I mean...

I know she makes music a lot of people enjoy.

Isn't that enough? I don't see the appeal of K-pop either but I do understand that some folks get way too deep into some rabbit holes.

On a non-musical level she's either very genuine (private jet notwithstanding) or very good at appearing that way.

In addition to some great comments, Swift seems genuine and sincere. There's a great video going around of her arguing with her dad, literally crying that she can no longer keep her mouth shut about injustices perpetrated by the right.

I know jack about her music, but my little kids were blasting something intensely catchy. "That's pretty cool! Who is that?" You guessed it, Swift.

She's a "self-made" female billionaire. Her money isn't from something like Walmart or Amazon, where it's obvious how she's exploiting people. It's clear she's very talented. And she seems smart and like she won't get pushed around by scummy music execs (Taylor's version).

Her music speaks to people and makes them feel like they're understood and like they understand her. When she got a lot of hate (because most things teenage girls enjoy get a lot of hate), plenty of people felt personally attacked, and that made them more defensive and appreciative of her. She poked fun at the stereotypes making her more endearing.

Protest. Create awareness. Because, you now, unlike the Chinese or Russians, Americans have the freedom to do so without getting vanished in re-education camps and gulags.

"i did my best to be an outspoken critic" is gonna play great with the survivors of Gaza

Fair enough, China and Russia managed to compete with the US in the last couple of years. Enjoy.

I am not talking about taking culture and integrating it into your own, I am talking about appreciating it without taking it.

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.

I just love seeing that quote, said in a Germanic language. Fucking hilarious. Hubris is lost on idiots.

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.