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I mean, of course USA has culture - it’s one of their most successful international exports!
I think when people complain about lack of culture they usually mean “old” culture, since USA as a country is still relatively young.
That kinda makes sense. At the same time, Brazil is just as young as USA but we have a ton of “old-ish” culture here. The beliefs and stories of the native population merged in with the ones from several incoming cultures and it’s now hard to really separate them, as some are much older than the country itself but are clearly inspired by stories from the old world as well. Some mythical creatures that are good examples of this: Saci, Curupira and the Headless Mule.
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.
America has a lot of cultures and does a good job of blending them together in new, interesting ways. But one thing that America doesn’t have is history in depth, like most other countries. So each culture is treated as an identity by Americans because it’s how we get our history.
A common phrase in America is “I’m part (other nationality)” and that is shorthand for “this is what traditions I am familiar with and the foods I frequently eat.” Folks love their culture because it gives them their own personal history of their family running from somewhere and finding a chance here. Folks hold onto the adventures of Grandma and Pa as their own. So it makes sense that those same stories are what help inform us that taking something a culture has made and calling it your own name upsets quite a few people.
America is sensitive about cultural appropriation because few folks want to lose their own culture.
The difference is that Brazil was a slave state were the slaves and local populations became the dominant culture. In the US, white settlers persecuted everyone that wasnt a white English/German protestant. Catholics were ostracized to the point where an entire colony was established to keep them. Millions of native people were slaughtered and their cultural identity stripped and suppressed. Africans taken from their homelands to be sold as property had their entire identity stripped from them while they worked the fields as slaves and denied their own culture. After “liberation” they were still second class citizens who lacked equal rights and had their interests and culutre viewed as lesser. Now those cultural elements have been commercialized, but it’s the descendants of the oppressors who profit, not the oppressed. Irish Catholics would be enraged and protest if London had a soccer team called “The Wimbledon Mickeys” or if the RUC did a river dance before official events.
The US is a multicultural state, but that is despite the best efforts of oir leaders, not because of them. I’ve met plenty of people who scream 'Build the Wall!" and call Mexicans all sorts of slurs, but are then happy to get blackout drunk on Corona and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant on Cinco De Mayo. Jazz music and the blues were forbidden from radio stations because they were associated with black communities, but suddenly white people started to incorporate elements of the blues into music, creating the mosern rockstar. And while Mic Jagger, Elvis Presley, and Steven Tyler are household names, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Muddy Waters are relagted to music history classes.
So your saying opposite teams won their countries, with the US being dominated by the oppressor and Brazil dominated by the oppressed?
That would change the perspective on older culture in each country.
I wouldn’t describe it as “winning” or “losing”. In the US, Canada, and Australia, the white majority rried to eradicate any non-conforming cultures, whereas in Latin America, Africa, and India, the white settlers in power were so drastically outnumbered that they used various forms of racial hierarchies amd segregation. When those colonial empires collapsed the governments became more representative of the local populations. They still oppressed (and continue to do so) various groups, but indigenous and historical cultures were able to survive due to large populations that were able to carry on those traditions.
Brazil actually merged the freed slaves into society because people at the time thought that over several generations, everybody would end up being white again. In a different way they were also trying to suppress them.
As for the indigenous population, before Portugal arrived here there was one large tribe already dominating all the others. The Portuguese then negotiated with that large tribe and that one tribe’s culture managed to survive, but the colonizers also had no respect for it or any of the others and grouped them all together as if being the same thing. The other cultures ended up being either absorbed or erased by that larger tribe.
Do you think people would feel better about how america handles culture if they would stop replacing their culture with things like shopping malls and business center?
Maybe the problem is more about Americans destroying culture and not replacing it with anything that will last or represents them.
The concept of cultural appropriation annoys me so much. Everywhere outside America people tend to love when their culture is appreciated by others that are not part of it.
It’s one thing when such culture was created as a safe space for a certain demographic that couldn’t be part of stuff from other cultures before - it’s understandable that they would hate to see that thing they created for themselves be taken over by the same people that kept them from other things before.
But then at some point someone claimed that participating in things from other cultures at all is bad and all the american whites who consider themselves allies thought “well it’s not really my place to say anything to oppose this” so instead they parroted that sentiment, not realizing it was also not their place to say anything to enforce that. In the end, we once again have the whites overriding the opinions of folks from other cultures - this time in a desparare effort to defend them (from something they see no need to be defended from).
Just look at what happened to Speedy Gonzales in Mexico for a good example of this.
What a lot of people hate is when their culture is white washed, and especially when it’s later on commercialized.
I was watching a video the other day about a neighborhood in the UK that spawned a genre of music out of the hard times they lived through. That music brought them some prosperity, but it also brought the attention of the government and hipsters. They started cleaning up the area, so more people wanted to move there. So they start cleaning it up more. Slowly but surely the area was fully gentrified and that culture is all but erased, and the area is now just another area that nobody can afford to live in.
Yeah, it seems people in this thread don’t actually know what cultural appropriation is. They seem to think that consuming outside culture, and taking inspiration from it, is cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is when a foreign culture takes a culture, or aspect of it, and then positions themselves as the owners of it.
Sometimes a term loses its intended meaning when it is misused enough. I myself have been accused of cultural appropriation before for creating a character of another culture in a video-game I was developing. Any time I see anyone being accused of it on the internet is also something similar.
I agree that actual cultural appropriation is bad, but the term has been misused so much that it is more often associated with simply consuming cultures that you’ve not inherited.
So like what Christianity did with the Pagans?
Yes, things like turning the myriad winter holidays of the pagans into christmas is appropriation. Promoting Elvis as the King of Rock is appropriation, etc.
Sounds like text book capitalism to me. What a fun system.
Imo the flaw of both the op and this comment is it almost completely leaves out the reasons why it is “young”. Were the people who created the “new” culture settling on pristine virgin land? What could possibly have happened to the existing people who bore the “old” culture? Hmm
spoiler: the answer is that anglo saxon protestants were convinced of their superiority and almost uniquely violent, with few qualms about outright massacring and displacing natives. At least the spanish speaking catholics in south america intermarried and assimilated somewhat
What’s the difference between yoghurt and the USA? A yoghurt can develop a culture after being left to rot for 250 years.
“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.
“global cultural hegemon has no culture”
Old culture sounds like gatekeeping
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. I really wonder if it’s a side effect of recent politicians pushing increasingly bizarre and oppressive agendas, and actually getting elected.
Maybe we deserve the disdain.
Funnily enough some of shittier USA politics also get imported in other countries. :')
What kills me is when I run into people in other countries that are big Trump supporters… Like, I can understand looking at other countries’ politicians and maybe seeing one they like, and saying “hey, that one has some things going for them”. However, when I run into Trump fan boys from other countries… It hurts my head.
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
I was disappointed that you guys didn’t just hold your nose and vote for Hillary (I know she won the pop vote).
Honestly Obama did wonders to repair your reputation; he was a great statesman. Hillary was a massive step down, but electing Trump…wow what an own goal.
Between BREXIT and Trump, the world got worse pretty quickly.
I am really hoping you get your act together and elect Harris, Trump is worse now than he was in 16 and 20. If he gets elected, it will further embolden the far right, but not just in the USA, the rise of fascism in Germany is not something the world needs again.
Eh, Hillary sucked, so I voted third party. I ended up voting for Biden in the next election in the extremely unlikely off-chance that he’d lose my state (I’m in a red state, but he completely lost the primary here, so there was a chance), but he ended up winning by a wide margin anyway. Even if every third party vote went to Clinton in my state, Trump still would’ve won by a wide margin.
The thing about Trump is that even Republicans didn’t think he could win, so nobody took him seriously, and all of that negative attention seemed to help him for some weird reason (seemed like an underdog).
elect Harris
Idk, Harris also sucks, and IMO she’s worse than Biden. I don’t like the term, but she absolutely seems like a “diversity hire” for Biden to improve his appeal to black and female voters, and now that she’s the presidential candidate, she’s demonstrating that she lacks substance. She’s basically parroting Biden’s policies, but watered down and with a worse sales pitch. The main things she has going for her are:
- black and female - Trump really suffers with those demographics
- not super old - she’s only 4 years younger than Obama though, so she’s not particularly young
- probably not going to pull a Jan 6
I’m going to vote third party again this year because Trump is going to win my state with 20% or more margin regardless (he has that R next to his name), but I do kind of hope that she wins. Not because I think she’ll be a good president (I think she’ll totally suck), but because I think she’ll be a letdown instead of an active force for evil. I hope Trump losing will put him out of the spotlight for good, and that the GOP will reform itself into something reasonable.
The thing is, I think the majority of the US population dislikes the options in this election and the last two elections, but our electoral process is so messed up that we end up with really bad options. Harris did terrible in 2020 and was last on my list of preferences in the primaries, yet now she’s the nominee.
Your voting system is a binary choice. It sucks, but it is what it is. Even in our elections, often it is choosing the least bad from a bunch of arseholes. From are outside perspective, I honestly can’t see a single thing trump an objectively better choice on, for the non-millionaire/billionaire class.
It is either a vote for one or a vote for the other, voting third party or not voting is exactly the same as voting for the winner.
Our voting system is a bit crap; STV is better than MMP, which is what we have. But you guys have made FPTP worse with the inclusion of the electorial college. Maybe it made sense a long time in the past…
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.
Honest question- Do other nations work on ratings and box office sales also? For example, if more people watched independent French films or Japanese anime in your nation, wouldn’t they become the dominant influences?
…then treasure yours and stop importing American culture?
IMO the big thing that America offers culturally is choices that don’t fit in the box of existing cultural norms. There’s no “American Breakfast” or “American Music” in the same way you can visually identify Finnish cinema or spot the commonalities in French cuisine.
And when I travel around Europe I see the influx of other cultures primarily via immigration (Berlin has döner, Britain has curries, Spain/Portugal has Moorish and African influence embedded) but at the same time I also see imported ‘American X’ without that immigration. Europeans have identified things they like that other cultures migrate with, but seemingly actively seeks out the things Americans make.
How popular are hamburgers or Taylor Swift in your area, compared to other Euro offerings like Gorjira or handball? France has a strong arts scene supported by the government, but the Palme d’Or rarely goes to their domestic films.
“It’s the free market” is honestly just such an American argument it’s spectacular. Chapeau to you and the others riding that particular horse. You illustrate the point perfectly.
Then whats your other argument, cause the Japanese kinda did the same thing with anime. Its what can best be described as market controlled cultural forces, nobody else was offering ultra violent animation so folks imported anime which filled a market niche. Same could be said of American cultural exports, we create a tonne of shit for ourselves and for some reason folks import it, the Brits kinda did the same thing with music back in the day.
Not really understanding where you saw a pro free market argument from what I said - my main point was that people like diverse options, and seek out variety, from within and without.
“stop importing American culture” - you blame the consumer here no?
“diverse” so long as you like the ubiquitous: hamburgers, Taylor swift, marvel movies. Increasing American cultural dominance is the opposite of diversity.
At some point to become a consumer your money and/or attention is voluntarily given to A Thing. That’s a choice. But with internet cookbooks, bandcamp, IMDb, CrunchyRoll, etc etc you have the ability to seek out precisely what interests you, with the only burden being discovery. Monoculture died with the internet, you being on Lenny is a testament to that.
Europe is all old culture, no new culture. America is all new culture, no old culture. Yes, I know that’s not 100% true, but how many European countries have their version of Hollywood, Disney or silicon valley? Iirc india, China and Japan all have their equivalents, where’s yours?. You just don’t spend anywhere near the same amount of money on movies, music and TV. On the opposite side, European art tends to be a lot more mature, however you have to spend money promoting it if you want to compete with the US.
Tbf America is nearly equivalent in size to the full West Europe and the culture difference between east and west coast of America is much smaller than the difference in culture between different European countries. With each country focusing on their own culture there, none of them will ever grow to the size of Hollywood. And with the smaller size, they have less content and less opportunities to captivate people from other places as well. It’s a full circle.
Japan is probably the next biggest cultural exporter after the US and isn’t that much bigger than Germany or Norway.
lol, America is nearly equal in size to ALL of Europe. they are within 5% of each other.
Lol, no.
how many European countries have their version of Hollywood
Most have them, but Europe speaks dozens of languages, so they are all comparatively small compared to the big English-speaking ones.
Disney
We mostly are still building on rehashes of old European folk tales, just like Disney. That said, for example Dutch “Disneyland” exists, you just never heard of it because you did not grow up with Max & Moritz, but Dutch kids did.
Silicon Valley
Well, that place is mostly about venture capitalists who originally got rich off neocolonialism doing dumping schemes on various industries. Their biggest, most impactful cultural achievement is internet ads.
You just don’t spend anywhere near the same amount of money on movies, music and TV.
We do, but we watch our own TV because you don’t watch French or Polish shows or games. Except when you do, and it gets translated, like with the Witcher. Also, with music, have you heard of Eurovision? Biggest song contest of the world, with even Australia participating? The one where Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias or ABBA got their start? You probably listen to a ton of songs that debuted there, you just don’t know it.
All I’m saying is that just because European low art is not big in the US - even though it is, like Harry Potter, Lego, basically all Western (as in Wild West) movies (they were Italian) - it does not mean it is not bigger in Europe than US art.
I’m not taking issue with anything else, but I just have to say something about the last bit of what you said.
Westerns. No. Not all of them. Or even most of them are from Italy. That’s a special and significant subgenre called Spaghetti Westerns. Or Italian westerns, mostly because of Sergio Leone, these happened in the 60s and 70s. But if you look at the history of westerns and western movies, they were made in the US starting all the way back in the 1910s with silent films and continued on into the golden age of the 40s and 50s.
You don’t have to insult us though. Just celebrate your own culture.
I hate to break it to you, but you chose it, you bought it, and you keep choosing it.
The “we” that you speak of is clearly not as sick of it as you think.
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.)
Yup, it’s just snobbery all around.
I would say a large contributor to America’s stupid yokle image are the people with the red caps.
It’s probably just trying to other/separate themselves from the horrors of usa that they’ve been awake to.
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.
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?
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
No love for Taylor Swift lol
Can someone explain the love for Taylor Swift to me? I know she makes music a lot of people enjoy. I’ve heard the stories of her giving big bonuses to those who work for her. I guess all I see is a billionaire with a great PR team.
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.
She’s a “self-made” female billionaire. Her money isn’t from something like Walmart or Amazon
Does her parents money not count? She was born into money, she wasn’t self made. Unless “self making” yourself from a millionaire to a billionaire counts.
look, if we didn’t count billionaires who come from lesser echelons of rich people, we wouldn’t have any ‘self-made’ billionaires at all.
I’m sure we could think of a few. Notch was some random slob who made Minecraft. Jk Rowling just wrote some mediocre books at an opportune moment, but neither of her parents went to college.
That’s why self-made is in quotes. But many female billionaires are primarily heiresses little known or primarily known as a male billionaire’s daughter/wife/ex-wife. Swift turning millions into billions is about as self-made as any other billionaire.
She was born into money, she wasn’t self made.
I would argue that someone who turns $1 million into $1.001 billion is self made, in that there is a billion dollars of gain attributable to that person’s actions.
Yes, the opportunities available to someone who is allowed to pursue a dream at a young age without worrying about money is an advantage in show business (or really, any career field). But a lot of people seem not to realize just how many rich people there are. Something like 1 out of every 5 American households is worth more than $1 million in net worth, or 1 out of every 8 is worth more than $1 million without counting their primary residence.
In the end, Taylor Swift’s wealth is pretty much entirely tied up in the intangible personal brand, which she can monetize basically at will, and the valuable intellectual property that she owns, a song/recording catalog that is worth probably over a billion in itself. She built it with help, yes. But she built it.
That’s in contrast to people who own wealth that they didn’t themselves build at all, like inherited equity or cash flow in valuable companies that they aren’t actively working at, or that are valuable without their own involvement.
On the one hand, there’s no such thing as totally self made. On the other, if there’s a spectrum of how much wealth is actually earned through work, Taylor Swift’s net worth is probably more self made than the typical billionaire.
Not many billionaires start out from not being millionaires.
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.
I don’t see how a music star being genuine or not matters. I don’t really care what her political or social views are, I care if her music is good or not. What really confuses me is why so many people get so interested in what celebrities have to say.
For policy, I look to politicians and journalists. For science, I look to scientists and academics. And so on. Looking for policy from a pop star is just stupid IMO.
I think the problem is more that many Americans are very focused on their own culture to the exclusion of every other culture and in a sense love these things more because they are theirs and they grew up with them than out of an honest appreciation after comparing it with alternatives.
I think the problem is more that many Americans are very focused on their own culture to the exclusion of every other culture
Of course, this position directly contradicts the other dominant criticism in this thread, that Americans don’t have any culture of their own and just take from others.
Americans are a remix culture, and take in influences from elsewhere (especially through 200+ years of immigration) and make it our own.
I am not talking about taking culture and integrating it into your own, I am talking about appreciating it without taking it.
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”
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.
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
Apparently spelling ‘you’ completley isn’t on the list. Yay for indolence.
I love u drive thru drugstore
I love u Muphry’s Law.
Apparently spelling “completely” correctly was too much work for you.
We didn’t say you don’t have culture, we said you were uncultured 🙄 😂
Hell yeah
Fuck yeah mmmmmerica!!
America! Fuck yeah! Coming again to save the mother fuckin day yeah!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
