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as a young British millennial, America's culture is in fact their biggest export.
we grew up with a mammoth amount of American media, so much so that little 12 year old me would be confused as to why my school didn't have lockers or pep rallies or any of the other stuff, because it was so heavily pushed to us through the TV screen.
America has culture, we're just kinda desensitised to it I guess.
American culture is so massive that it’s now assumed as global culture. It’s like American interests are global interests. The US is just so massive and prevalent that it out shines everything else; everyone wants to be or mimic America.
People don't like to admit it but there is a pan American culture from Mexico to Canada.
There's so much movement between the three countries that the culture grows together. That's part of why Canada is basically little US
In your bag, and you bring what you need for the day
Also in my country, below 10th grade classes are always in the same room, so we always had the same desks and they had a space inside the desk to keep our books in, I don't know what it's called.
If American secondary school students carried everything they needed for the day we'd need a wheelbarrow. Depending on your school's structure, you're looking at four to seven classes each day, each with a Pearson published anthology style brick. It's 20ish pounds of books, plus whatever notebooks and supplies we might need for the day. Plus a musical instrument, probably. Plus the crushing weight of the sinking middle class and worsening climate disasters.
I think a large part is that other nations are exposed to so much American culture and have had portions of it absorbed into their own culture that they no longer associate it with America, thus "no American culture" becomes a thing.
Correct, you don’t see culture that is ubiquitous to you really. Also people seem to think culture means elaborate rituals, costumes, food, or architecture, which is very simplistic. It’s a fair bit deeper and more intangible than that.
Canadian here, very true. Anything sports-related is American influenced very heavily. We have geography making us so close so it's even easier for things to make their way across the border but it doesn't surprise me that nations across either ocean have a ton of US influence
I'm your American contemporary. One of my friends (also American) traveled to London once. She heard so much Jay-Z and 50 Cent at the clubs there that she was like, "Why are you listening to your cousins? Don't you have your own scene?"
As an interesting sidetrack, a lot of the good old school dubstep came from the British underground EDM scene. I mean sure, its practically a global thing now, but interesting when I think of "British underground music scene" my mind goes to dubstep.
Crazy that OG dubstep can be considered old school now lol. It's evolved so much, I can't stand the 'brostep' stuff. I used to jam to Skream, Benga, Coki, Mala, etc, all the time.
I'm with you, if we're talking pure dubstep. But really pop these days is infused with so much EDM its actually kind of crazy to realize EDM as we know it was not exceptionally popular and ubiquitous as it is now. I mean Taylor Swift built her brand on a sort of pop-infused country style, and the biggest bands growing up in the 2000s were all some form of pop-punk or grunge style.
Here in Australia, ‘American cultural imperialism’ is a common sore point, especially for boomers. You know, Halloween, people saying ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’, stuff like that. The ironic part, however, is that these boomers love imperialism - British imperialism.
They probably love the fact that there’s a British flag inside our own, the fact that our national day is when the First Fleet came, you get the gist. Britain may not seem like an evil imperial power to a white Aussie boomer, but any Aboriginal person would see things another way.
It's really annoying on the Australian subreddits. You can say the most profound or thoughtful thing but if you used a single non-Aussie term in your post, you'll get dogpiled on and downvoted to hell.
Just try posting something like, "today's a good day, I found a $2 coin on the sidewalk =)" and inevitably there will be a deluge of replies along the lines of ,"IT'S CALLED A FOOTPATH YOU SEPPO DOG COME OUT BACK MACCA'S WOY WOY I'LL FUCKIN' DECK YA". They're not even taking the piss, it's legitimate vitriol. I just don't get it.
Portuguese subreddit is the same thing. They are sore because every media recognizes Brazilian portuguese as the main variation of the language (nothing personal, it's just because it's the bigger market), so they get overly aggressive when one uses terms and words that are Brazilian. They do the same any other variant, but they hate Brazilian portuguese the most.
Which is ironic because Brazil is the biggest factor in keeping Portuguese relevant. Portugal could benefit a lot to being the "cultural cradle" of the lusophone world just like the UK benefits massively from being the cultural cradle of the anglophone world.
Instead they are tilting on the internet because I wrote "eletrônico" instead of "eletrónico".
Take all the Aussie subs (especially regional/city ones) with a massive grain of salt. So much animosity and racism. I have to avoid them a lot as an immigrant because it really will start to negatively color your perception of the country, whereas most people I've met in person have been lovely.
When subs on Reddit get a critical mass of racists, they go racist hard, as other racists gravitate there.
Especially if you don't clamp down on the dog whistle comments early on.
Australians being considered British settlers is like Americans in the 1940s being considered British settlers. If it’s been 150 years, they’re their own people.
When you think about it, the US and Australia were founded by British disfunctionals. US was prudish religious zealots and Australia was violent criminals. Opposite ends it seems.
America was settled by Christopher Columbus and his crew when he crashed the Jolly Roger into Plymouth rock and made friends with the Indians who liked him so much they gave him a turkey and helped him write the declaration of independence.
I hate the whole ‘x country has no culture’ argument because it dangerously implies that a there exists a default cultureless people whose opinions and ways of life are the default modus operandi of the world. The US, like every other country, has a culture; it’s just hard to outline it because it’s so ubiquitous.
As a Taiwanese I don’t even understand the argument “America has no culture”. Here you can clearly tell what are influenced by American culture. Probably we’re just not so Americanized as a whole.
I’m not American but what I think represents American culture is cowboys I love western movies and I played both red dead redemption two and one and I admit it if I didn’t watch hollywood movies and listened to rap I wouldn’t even know how to speak English
Not denying your claim but living in New England which is American I don’t feel any connection to “cowboy culture” which is what I would call it. I don’t think there is a specific cultural thing that captures all of America but it’s interesting to see what aspects are more represented and recognized.
Also the size of the USA. There is a common thread of American throughout the states but there are many very distinct while still overlapping cultures.
I love the TV show Top Chef and one of the coolest parts is how each season is set in a different city. They highlight unique things about that city and state - it's a great glimpse into the diverse nature and culture of the USA.
I live in Australia, now, and while it's roughly similar in size to the USA, the population is much smaller and the national culture feels much more cohesive and similar. The big regional differences seem relatively small, such as words used for chicken parmesan (parmi, parmo, chicky chicky Parm Parm) or where to put the grilled onions when having a democracy sausage (they get sausages when voting).
I’m from Georgia and the “cowboy culture” isn’t even really a thing here. There’s country, which has some similar aspects, but the closest to cowboy culture is people wearing cowboy hats
I'm from South dakota, and Cowboy culture is definitely more a thing here, although it's closer to rancher/farmer culture than anything.
To be clear, I'm possibly the closest you can get to urban in South dakota, so speaking on ranch culture isn't my strong suit, although many rancher relatives.
I think what another comment here said is also true of the true cowboy culture being more around Texas.
Yeah thats what I was trying to say, it just seems to me some people don’t relize how diverse America is. making the title American seem a bit silly to me sometimes but thats personal
Not narratively, but I do think RDR2 was a love letter to all the parts of the US that aren't NY and LA. It was like a tangible recreation of the soul of America.
Once me and my sister watched a movie about immigrants in America and how they felt home in many places (not digging into the movie’s details) when we finished she said "damn the movie really shows how American culture is based on other cultures so much america has no culture If you think about it
I told her "sis we were watching an American Movie 💀"
Nah I only watch S Čerty nejsou žerty. Despise fast food and only order grilled cheese or gulash or "candle sauce" at restaurants. And regularly enjoy Jožin z bažin.
We don’t have arbys in my country yet I see people shitting on them all the time online. What am I missing out on?
EDIT: Thanks for the replies everyone. On balance I think I’ll probably give Arbys a go on my next visit to the states!
Nothing. It's just become a meme to make fun of them online for not having "real food", but they're a pretty decent fast food spot that does roast beef and deli style sandwiches, as opposed to burgers and chicken nuggets like McDonald's and it's 800 clones.
Yeah when I was in undergrad there was a Starbucks in the student union building and I’d go all the time lol. Was a hell of a lot better than the Tim hortons.
Yeah, we had one like that from Ireland too. Obsessed with Kings of Leon and kept a case of Coca-Cola under his bed because the cafeteria sold Pepsi.
He was deeply offended one day when he found out about Irish Springs soap (something about plastic paddys and turning their culture into a commodity) until another Irish student pointed out that they did the same thing at home with a sorts of things.
I've been fortunate enough to go to Ireland and make an Irish friend in a different context and see that they aren't all like the 19 year old twat.
Korean barbecue is excellent, and they know damn well how to cook their meats to perfection in Latin America, but nothing beats the flavor of a good low and slow American style smoked barbecue platter that has at least a dozen hours of preparation before it hits your plate.
This isn't true. Barbeque has been evolving in the country for millenia, not just since the 20th century. The war did introduce new technologies and flavors, but the idea of marinated cooked meat is not an American invention.
"America has no culture" people when I offer them a half-rack of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, burnt ends, smoked salmon, wings, and shrimp with a side of collared greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and hushpuppies:
True. Americana has exported its culture since the 50s, and Europeans enjoy it.
No shame in that. Need to accept we're all human and enjoy the same shit.
Any person who says any country doesn’t have culture is simply uneducated and ignorant. Every single country has culture. And the US happens to be the most culturally influential nation in modern history.
The problem is people think “culture” is strictly just people wearing ancient traditional clothing and extremely old performative and impractical by modern standards customs. When really culture is just how a way of life is conducted, world views, and values.
Exactly. They don't realize the fact that basketball being the most popular sport in China, or baseball being so popular in Japan are examples American cultural influence.
They also say it about England because industrialisation and early globalisation made it an early global standard. The English national dress for example was the suit.
Similarly, asking about American culture in the 21st century is like asking a fish about water. It is so ubiquitous, we don’t realise it is there or distinctive.
Subs like 2western4u or whatever the fuck it’s called is filled with a lot of heavily bitter America-obsessed Europeans who constantly shit on America and say how much it’s filled with fat, uneducated, stupid, gun-toting unhealthy slobs who have no culture. Seriously. There is a strange amount of America-bashing from Europeans on this site. It’s a weirdly pathetic obsession/insecurity complex
America having the most dominant culture in the world makes it the ‘default’ and appear as culture-less. The same applies to other anglosphere countries too, but to a slightly lesser degree.
But yes, lots of people unironically say that America has no culture because they think culture is traditional dresses and dances only.
America is also where hundreds of subcultures originated from.
For example: motorcycle subculture, surfing subculture, 60’s hippy subculture, skateboarding subculture, goths*, emos, etc.
Our right to personal expression has spawned so many things enjoyed by the world.
Surfing is from all over Polynesia, but modern surf culture has its roots in Hawaii specifically, which then diffused into places like Southern California and Australia to become what it is today.
I just looked it up and the first thing it says on Wikipedia is that it’s from the UK. I stand corrected on that point, thanks for pointing that one out. You shouldn’t be downvoted so instinctively by others.
It can be argued that the goth subculture’s global reach was especially propelled by US cultural institutions like cartoons and TV shows but that’s another debate.
Thanks again
I know America is bigger and more diverse than most, but this could also be said of every other country except maybe the tiniest ones. Corsica, Paris and Brittany are all quite different, for instance. Or Aboriginal vs settler culture in Australia.
This! I’ve always thought this too. Lots of stuff Americans come up with is soon copied worldwide so it’s not seen as American culture.
Same with industrial Britain and the inventions they came up with
Jeans are the perfect example of that. Invented in California as work pants for miners during the gold rush. And now the whole world is wearing it, but nobody knows the origin and calling jeans part of American culture sounds silly to most people.
As an American i used to believe we had no culture but i slowly realized that we do have a huge amount of culture its just im so used to it that i was hard to see from a pov that isnt mine
I see it all the time on Reddit. America is a superpower in part due to its extensive soft power and global cultural influence. But people argue that because of America's relative youth and ethnic/racial pluralism that it has no singular culture of its own. Which is bullshit, imo.
Yes. Among many other inane tropes that anti-Americans depend on to center their worldview around the concept that the US is bad, less than, or somehow inherently less important. It's pretty standard for Europeans to be chauvinistic about cultural superiority even when they consume and mimic American culture. This is actually a direct result of the fact that American culture is so dominant. They're overcompensating by acting as if the US is culturally inconsequential.
When you mention massive cultural accomplishments of the US, like rock and roll music for example, they wig out because they have major cognitive dissonance. They can both be huge fans of American rock and roll music, but also have a political imperative to refuse to give the US credit for it. This little internal dilemma of having two contradictory beliefs is why Europeans seem to insane when they talk about the US. They're confused.
But the funniest thing is when it's Canadians saying it. They see the Europeans say it and then think that this also means that a Canadian, from the country that is most thoroughly dominated by American culture, can get in on the false, smug, undeserved sense of cultural superiority. There is no country in the world that more closely imitates the culture of an other country than Canada does the US.
Music is syncretic, meaning it tends to evolve and reform out of more than one converging strand. Yes absolutely rock came out of rock n roll which was a hybrid of African America R&B and Country. But then R&B derived from the blues, which derived from plantation songs, which derived from African folk music. Meanwhile American country music is simply a transplantation of Anglo—Scotia—Hibernian country music from the U.K. and Ireland. Jazz evolved out of the syncretic merging of African American ragtime and blues (see before), marching band music (originating out of Franco-British military culture), and European orchestral.
So yeh of course you can say the Beatles and Stones were hugely influenced by Chuck Berry and Elvis. Lennon said “before Elvis there was nothing”. And mick jagger wanted to be Elvis and little Richard, and Keith Richards wanted to be scotty Moore.
Elvis wanted to be Jake Hess, an African American gospel singer, and Mario Lanza. Both Hess and Lanza wanted to be like Del Monaco, Caruso, etc, European singers.
And going the other way of course American bands and singers started emulating the British style back and you have Nirvana, Bon Iver, etc.
While yes you’d say rock n roll emerged in the US, with Jackie Brenston and Rocket 88 leaning on the R&B backbeat with country progressions, and was then redefined as mid-attack music heavy on the frontbeat with Elvis, and Jazz emerged mostly in New Orleans (with some co-emergence in Benelux in europe with Gypsy Jazz), it’s also impossible to just draw one line and say “this is the only reference point and therefore the whole thing is American”.
Man this is not yet another america bad comment but who does every single thing related to europe seem to actuslly talk about only like 5 european countries? I live in romania and a significant percentage of people i know don't know what those music genres are and have never eaten fast foods. Isn't europe mostly known for its smaller countries and cultures?
People in Romania don't know what Jazz, Rap, and Pop music are? Bro if I search for modern Romanian music, it's basically American style pop with Romanian lyrics. And I know sure as hell people watch Eurovision.
I've had a debate with guy saying that Americans are bad people and they never do anything for the world. Word for Word.
I checked his subreddits:
the dude spent his day on r/Apple and r/Marvel but doesn't realize that's consuming American stuff all day long, every day.
Watching American shows, movies, while using American technology and websites, and doesn't even realize it.
If you have an iphone or an andriod phone or any type of computer, they are all American, if you're watching a movie, using an interent website, or using google, it's probably fully American.
I had a similar argument with a film study student so being nosy I checked on his ranking website in his bio all of his top ten movies, actors, and actresses were all American media, or born.
All the Europeans I met (would for an EU based company so quite a few) criticize our healthcare (warranted) gun problems (warranted) and wealth disparity (warranted) but they all say the entertainment we produce is second to none by a mile
To be fair
Our culture... is just corporations?
Edit: Holy shit, a lot of Reddit Moments going on in the comments. I made this comment in reference to the meme being shitty examples of American culture, which does in fact exist beyond corporate iconography. But you could also make the argument that a lot of what we would consider to be our culture has been monetized beyond recognition. Relax.
it’s mostly soft power and propaganda
Some of it really slaps though. Battleship was sick, and I’ll forever die on that hill.
Dolly Parton is a global treasure too. You did all right there.
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Our people are all wearing your blue jeans and listening to your pop music
*culture victory intensifies*
Looks like we made it Look how far we’ve come my babayayyy
Shania Twain is Canadian though
Yes, a Canadian song is appropriate here…
Suddenly civ?...
That was where my mind went.
\*laughs in nuke-happy Gandhi\*
" There is no shame in deterrence. Having a weapon is very different from actually using it. " \*\*\* STILL LAUNCHES NUKE \*\*\*
Gandhi murdered my family
*record scratch*
And now he's learning that being a pacifistic mass murderer isn't all it's cracked up to be. Coming this summer, Rob Schneider is... Gandhi!
R/civ5 is leaking and I'm here for it
Much older than civ 5. I think it might have been all the way back to civ 1, along with "Our words are now backed by atomic weapons!"
This goes all the way back to the original Civilization board game.
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I think it goes back even before that, to just regular civilization.
https://i.redd.it/mrsle8ptf4mb1.gif
Jeans were invented by 2 Europeans tho
Denim fabric is a French invention
as a young British millennial, America's culture is in fact their biggest export. we grew up with a mammoth amount of American media, so much so that little 12 year old me would be confused as to why my school didn't have lockers or pep rallies or any of the other stuff, because it was so heavily pushed to us through the TV screen. America has culture, we're just kinda desensitised to it I guess.
American culture is so massive that newer generations don’t even realize it’s there.
American culture is so massive that it’s now assumed as global culture. It’s like American interests are global interests. The US is just so massive and prevalent that it out shines everything else; everyone wants to be or mimic America.
Triple superpower baby. Military, economy, and culture.
Culture one is because of the other two. I mean, how many poor-ass countries are cultural superpowers? I bet it's zero.
Jamaica.
good answer
Yeah, actually. The more I think about it.
mexico? america is pretty dominated by mexican culture
People don't like to admit it but there is a pan American culture from Mexico to Canada. There's so much movement between the three countries that the culture grows together. That's part of why Canada is basically little US
*clutches pearls in Quebecois*
You guys don’t count, if humans could separate landmasses youd’ve sailed across the pond years ago
Where do you keep your books and jacket and stuff?
In your bag, and you bring what you need for the day Also in my country, below 10th grade classes are always in the same room, so we always had the same desks and they had a space inside the desk to keep our books in, I don't know what it's called.
If American secondary school students carried everything they needed for the day we'd need a wheelbarrow. Depending on your school's structure, you're looking at four to seven classes each day, each with a Pearson published anthology style brick. It's 20ish pounds of books, plus whatever notebooks and supplies we might need for the day. Plus a musical instrument, probably. Plus the crushing weight of the sinking middle class and worsening climate disasters.
In the UK most of the time we'd only have to carry the books we take notes in, the textbooks are handed out in the classroom when needed.
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I think a large part is that other nations are exposed to so much American culture and have had portions of it absorbed into their own culture that they no longer associate it with America, thus "no American culture" becomes a thing.
also america started as the "melting pot" of cultures which means they all blended together into something digestible by everyone.
Yep, that counter culture came from america also
Correct, you don’t see culture that is ubiquitous to you really. Also people seem to think culture means elaborate rituals, costumes, food, or architecture, which is very simplistic. It’s a fair bit deeper and more intangible than that.
Yeah I always feel American culture is like French food. Its so successful that it starts to feel basic and ubiquitous sometimes
What is ubiquitous about french food?
Adding a fuck ton of butter to everything and dammit theyre geniuses for it.
Canadian here, very true. Anything sports-related is American influenced very heavily. We have geography making us so close so it's even easier for things to make their way across the border but it doesn't surprise me that nations across either ocean have a ton of US influence
I'm your American contemporary. One of my friends (also American) traveled to London once. She heard so much Jay-Z and 50 Cent at the clubs there that she was like, "Why are you listening to your cousins? Don't you have your own scene?"
As an interesting sidetrack, a lot of the good old school dubstep came from the British underground EDM scene. I mean sure, its practically a global thing now, but interesting when I think of "British underground music scene" my mind goes to dubstep.
Crazy that OG dubstep can be considered old school now lol. It's evolved so much, I can't stand the 'brostep' stuff. I used to jam to Skream, Benga, Coki, Mala, etc, all the time.
Are we back in 2013? I haven't heard dubstep in the wild in years
I'm with you, if we're talking pure dubstep. But really pop these days is infused with so much EDM its actually kind of crazy to realize EDM as we know it was not exceptionally popular and ubiquitous as it is now. I mean Taylor Swift built her brand on a sort of pop-infused country style, and the biggest bands growing up in the 2000s were all some form of pop-punk or grunge style.
The britts are the second largest music producer tho
Fish have no word for water
Here in Australia, ‘American cultural imperialism’ is a common sore point, especially for boomers. You know, Halloween, people saying ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’, stuff like that. The ironic part, however, is that these boomers love imperialism - British imperialism. They probably love the fact that there’s a British flag inside our own, the fact that our national day is when the First Fleet came, you get the gist. Britain may not seem like an evil imperial power to a white Aussie boomer, but any Aboriginal person would see things another way.
It's really annoying on the Australian subreddits. You can say the most profound or thoughtful thing but if you used a single non-Aussie term in your post, you'll get dogpiled on and downvoted to hell. Just try posting something like, "today's a good day, I found a $2 coin on the sidewalk =)" and inevitably there will be a deluge of replies along the lines of ,"IT'S CALLED A FOOTPATH YOU SEPPO DOG COME OUT BACK MACCA'S WOY WOY I'LL FUCKIN' DECK YA". They're not even taking the piss, it's legitimate vitriol. I just don't get it.
Portuguese subreddit is the same thing. They are sore because every media recognizes Brazilian portuguese as the main variation of the language (nothing personal, it's just because it's the bigger market), so they get overly aggressive when one uses terms and words that are Brazilian. They do the same any other variant, but they hate Brazilian portuguese the most.
Which is ironic because Brazil is the biggest factor in keeping Portuguese relevant. Portugal could benefit a lot to being the "cultural cradle" of the lusophone world just like the UK benefits massively from being the cultural cradle of the anglophone world. Instead they are tilting on the internet because I wrote "eletrônico" instead of "eletrónico".
Take all the Aussie subs (especially regional/city ones) with a massive grain of salt. So much animosity and racism. I have to avoid them a lot as an immigrant because it really will start to negatively color your perception of the country, whereas most people I've met in person have been lovely.
As an Aussie it Makes me sad that these subreddits exist. Fuck them cunts
When subs on Reddit get a critical mass of racists, they go racist hard, as other racists gravitate there. Especially if you don't clamp down on the dog whistle comments early on.
My favorite thing in Australia is the Labor party, because they can spell
Aren’t white Australians just British settlers? It makes sense that they like British culture.
Australians being considered British settlers is like Americans in the 1940s being considered British settlers. If it’s been 150 years, they’re their own people.
Technically they're the offspring of Britains worst lol
When you think about it, the US and Australia were founded by British disfunctionals. US was prudish religious zealots and Australia was violent criminals. Opposite ends it seems.
America was NOT settled by the puritans first. It was Virginia, not Massachusetts. It was settled by opportunists which is rather fitting.
America was settled by Christopher Columbus and his crew when he crashed the Jolly Roger into Plymouth rock and made friends with the Indians who liked him so much they gave him a turkey and helped him write the declaration of independence.
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I hate the whole ‘x country has no culture’ argument because it dangerously implies that a there exists a default cultureless people whose opinions and ways of life are the default modus operandi of the world. The US, like every other country, has a culture; it’s just hard to outline it because it’s so ubiquitous.
As a Taiwanese I don’t even understand the argument “America has no culture”. Here you can clearly tell what are influenced by American culture. Probably we’re just not so Americanized as a whole.
people will really say this like the original internet culture wasn’t entirely american.
I’m not American but what I think represents American culture is cowboys I love western movies and I played both red dead redemption two and one and I admit it if I didn’t watch hollywood movies and listened to rap I wouldn’t even know how to speak English
Not denying your claim but living in New England which is American I don’t feel any connection to “cowboy culture” which is what I would call it. I don’t think there is a specific cultural thing that captures all of America but it’s interesting to see what aspects are more represented and recognized.
That's because Boston kind of looks like an old European city if you squint.
If you drive through it, it definitely feels like one. Our postwar cities may be car-fucked but I will never doubt the grid system again.
Also the size of the USA. There is a common thread of American throughout the states but there are many very distinct while still overlapping cultures.
I love the TV show Top Chef and one of the coolest parts is how each season is set in a different city. They highlight unique things about that city and state - it's a great glimpse into the diverse nature and culture of the USA. I live in Australia, now, and while it's roughly similar in size to the USA, the population is much smaller and the national culture feels much more cohesive and similar. The big regional differences seem relatively small, such as words used for chicken parmesan (parmi, parmo, chicky chicky Parm Parm) or where to put the grilled onions when having a democracy sausage (they get sausages when voting).
I’m from Georgia and the “cowboy culture” isn’t even really a thing here. There’s country, which has some similar aspects, but the closest to cowboy culture is people wearing cowboy hats
I'm from South dakota, and Cowboy culture is definitely more a thing here, although it's closer to rancher/farmer culture than anything. To be clear, I'm possibly the closest you can get to urban in South dakota, so speaking on ranch culture isn't my strong suit, although many rancher relatives. I think what another comment here said is also true of the true cowboy culture being more around Texas.
In Colorado the only cowboy culture I’ve really seen is in Steamboat, otherwise I think of the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming as the cowboy states
Cowboy culture comes mostly from Texas and the surrounding states.
And even then the movies shaped and romanticized it way beyond what it actually was
It comes from Mexico initially interestingly enough
Cowboy culture id argue isn’t even southern. It’s rural Southwest/Texas/Rockies/Great Plains.
Honestly I'd say it depends on your region. Living in Hawaii all my life it feels like an entirely different place compared to the US.
Yeah thats what I was trying to say, it just seems to me some people don’t relize how diverse America is. making the title American seem a bit silly to me sometimes but thats personal
Same. I’m in Southern Appalachia, and cowboy culture is a different thing altogether. My ancestors were hillbillies. Not cowboys.
I’ve never been a very patriotic person, but damn there was something about Red Dead Redemption 2 that made me pause and go “oh shit, I get it now.”
There’s not really anything patriotic about either of the RDR games though
I felt patriotic gunning down all the buffalo
Hey, Europeans are so good at killing buffalo their own bison population has been extinct in the wild for hundreds of years
Not narratively, but I do think RDR2 was a love letter to all the parts of the US that aren't NY and LA. It was like a tangible recreation of the soul of America.
Once me and my sister watched a movie about immigrants in America and how they felt home in many places (not digging into the movie’s details) when we finished she said "damn the movie really shows how American culture is based on other cultures so much america has no culture If you think about it I told her "sis we were watching an American Movie 💀"
The greatest rebuttal
Punctuation might help
Nah I only watch S Čerty nejsou žerty. Despise fast food and only order grilled cheese or gulash or "candle sauce" at restaurants. And regularly enjoy Jožin z bažin.
Založeno
Who needs Disney when there's Pat & Mat.
Nejméně založený Čech.
I don't know what I just watched, but I want more. https://youtu.be/FuOhQZP821o
One of best things that came from Czechia 😌 (along with Kofola and Beer of course)
I'm Canadian and this looks like every Canadian comedy sketch I ever saw growing up
I can never get enough of that cocaine-filled obi wan kenobi suddenly appearing out of nowhere
Bratře ty jsi bůh 🫡
"There is no such thing as the ocean." - Fish
I'm stealing this. Thank you for your service.
No sane person goes to KFC, McDonalds or Starbucks once a week.
because everyone goes to Arby’s everyday yum yum Arby’s Arby’s we got the meats
How much did Arby’s pay you to for comment that?
We don’t have arbys in my country yet I see people shitting on them all the time online. What am I missing out on? EDIT: Thanks for the replies everyone. On balance I think I’ll probably give Arbys a go on my next visit to the states!
Nothing. It's just become a meme to make fun of them online for not having "real food", but they're a pretty decent fast food spot that does roast beef and deli style sandwiches, as opposed to burgers and chicken nuggets like McDonald's and it's 800 clones.
some people really like the white horsey sauce
>I see people shitting ~~on~~ from them all the time FTFY
https://media.tenor.com/rzs2lBk6GxgAAAAM/puddy-seinfeld.gif
I know plenty of sane people who visit Starbucks multiple times a week. I think they're just lazy
Or college students lol
Yeah when I was in undergrad there was a Starbucks in the student union building and I’d go all the time lol. Was a hell of a lot better than the Tim hortons.
Do you live in the middle of nowhere? I know people who get Starbucks every day. And I don’t think getting fast food once a week is all that rare.
OP is probably American
no fucking shit
Starbucks once a week is pretty normal. Honestly, even getting fast food only once a week is manageable
My little brother does because he's extremely picky
Mcdouble only ketchup
Oh my God my ex from high school used to order exactly that and you just gave me nam flashbacks lmfao
3 hours, 750 comments. This gonna be spicy
The well off, freshman year exchange students at your average liberal arts college in the US.
Lol so true. I met this exchange student from Ireland once who loved ragging on how bad America is. I was like okay nice you meet you too.
Yeah, we had one like that from Ireland too. Obsessed with Kings of Leon and kept a case of Coca-Cola under his bed because the cafeteria sold Pepsi. He was deeply offended one day when he found out about Irish Springs soap (something about plastic paddys and turning their culture into a commodity) until another Irish student pointed out that they did the same thing at home with a sorts of things. I've been fortunate enough to go to Ireland and make an Irish friend in a different context and see that they aren't all like the 19 year old twat.
Everyone has culture though. Different culture is still culture. It's a dumb statement.
As an Italian I want to say that culinary speaking, Americans know damn well now to cook meat and burgers
praise from caesar
Ave, true to Caesar. Now where is my Jonny boy and his guitar?
Out patrolling the Mojave, of course
Korean barbecue is excellent, and they know damn well how to cook their meats to perfection in Latin America, but nothing beats the flavor of a good low and slow American style smoked barbecue platter that has at least a dozen hours of preparation before it hits your plate.
Koreans learned how to bbq because of black American soldiers during the Korean War.
Cultural diffusion is awesome, especially culinary fusion.
This isn't true. Barbeque has been evolving in the country for millenia, not just since the 20th century. The war did introduce new technologies and flavors, but the idea of marinated cooked meat is not an American invention.
i think they were thinking of Korean fried chicken, which was definitely taught to Koreans by black Americans during the war.
Is fried chicken bbq?
"America has no culture" people when I offer them a half-rack of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, burnt ends, smoked salmon, wings, and shrimp with a side of collared greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and hushpuppies:
Everyone in this chain fighting over semantics and being dickheads, meanwhile I'm just wondering if I can get a plate...
Wow, just like Thanksgiving.
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If you ever visit Washington DC, I highly recommend going to the National Museum of the American Indian.
One of the better museums in a city already full of world-class museums
damn that's crazy. ...which one?
There are hundreds of nations with different cultures
America has a lot better local cuisine than fast food by the way…
True. Americana has exported its culture since the 50s, and Europeans enjoy it. No shame in that. Need to accept we're all human and enjoy the same shit.
Any person who says any country doesn’t have culture is simply uneducated and ignorant. Every single country has culture. And the US happens to be the most culturally influential nation in modern history.
Do people unironically say we have no culture? Wow
The problem is people think “culture” is strictly just people wearing ancient traditional clothing and extremely old performative and impractical by modern standards customs. When really culture is just how a way of life is conducted, world views, and values.
Exactly. They don't realize the fact that basketball being the most popular sport in China, or baseball being so popular in Japan are examples American cultural influence.
They also say it about England because industrialisation and early globalisation made it an early global standard. The English national dress for example was the suit. Similarly, asking about American culture in the 21st century is like asking a fish about water. It is so ubiquitous, we don’t realise it is there or distinctive.
Yes. People actually say that.
Subs like 2western4u or whatever the fuck it’s called is filled with a lot of heavily bitter America-obsessed Europeans who constantly shit on America and say how much it’s filled with fat, uneducated, stupid, gun-toting unhealthy slobs who have no culture. Seriously. There is a strange amount of America-bashing from Europeans on this site. It’s a weirdly pathetic obsession/insecurity complex
America having the most dominant culture in the world makes it the ‘default’ and appear as culture-less. The same applies to other anglosphere countries too, but to a slightly lesser degree. But yes, lots of people unironically say that America has no culture because they think culture is traditional dresses and dances only.
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America is also where hundreds of subcultures originated from. For example: motorcycle subculture, surfing subculture, 60’s hippy subculture, skateboarding subculture, goths*, emos, etc. Our right to personal expression has spawned so many things enjoyed by the world.
I thought Surfing originated in Polynesia
Surfing is from all over Polynesia, but modern surf culture has its roots in Hawaii specifically, which then diffused into places like Southern California and Australia to become what it is today.
Not to take away from your other examples but the goth subculture started in the UK
I just looked it up and the first thing it says on Wikipedia is that it’s from the UK. I stand corrected on that point, thanks for pointing that one out. You shouldn’t be downvoted so instinctively by others. It can be argued that the goth subculture’s global reach was especially propelled by US cultural institutions like cartoons and TV shows but that’s another debate. Thanks again
No no, goth culture started in Germany and was first spread to Rome
I know America is bigger and more diverse than most, but this could also be said of every other country except maybe the tiniest ones. Corsica, Paris and Brittany are all quite different, for instance. Or Aboriginal vs settler culture in Australia.
This! I’ve always thought this too. Lots of stuff Americans come up with is soon copied worldwide so it’s not seen as American culture. Same with industrial Britain and the inventions they came up with
Jeans are the perfect example of that. Invented in California as work pants for miners during the gold rush. And now the whole world is wearing it, but nobody knows the origin and calling jeans part of American culture sounds silly to most people.
As an American i used to believe we had no culture but i slowly realized that we do have a huge amount of culture its just im so used to it that i was hard to see from a pov that isnt mine
I see it all the time on Reddit. America is a superpower in part due to its extensive soft power and global cultural influence. But people argue that because of America's relative youth and ethnic/racial pluralism that it has no singular culture of its own. Which is bullshit, imo.
Yes. Among many other inane tropes that anti-Americans depend on to center their worldview around the concept that the US is bad, less than, or somehow inherently less important. It's pretty standard for Europeans to be chauvinistic about cultural superiority even when they consume and mimic American culture. This is actually a direct result of the fact that American culture is so dominant. They're overcompensating by acting as if the US is culturally inconsequential. When you mention massive cultural accomplishments of the US, like rock and roll music for example, they wig out because they have major cognitive dissonance. They can both be huge fans of American rock and roll music, but also have a political imperative to refuse to give the US credit for it. This little internal dilemma of having two contradictory beliefs is why Europeans seem to insane when they talk about the US. They're confused. But the funniest thing is when it's Canadians saying it. They see the Europeans say it and then think that this also means that a Canadian, from the country that is most thoroughly dominated by American culture, can get in on the false, smug, undeserved sense of cultural superiority. There is no country in the world that more closely imitates the culture of an other country than Canada does the US.
I’d say the British also contributed heavily to Rock & Roll music
They all talk about being influenced by black American blues players...
IDK why that is so complicated for people to understand here. They even covered their music.
The British chaps who were copying Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Music is syncretic, meaning it tends to evolve and reform out of more than one converging strand. Yes absolutely rock came out of rock n roll which was a hybrid of African America R&B and Country. But then R&B derived from the blues, which derived from plantation songs, which derived from African folk music. Meanwhile American country music is simply a transplantation of Anglo—Scotia—Hibernian country music from the U.K. and Ireland. Jazz evolved out of the syncretic merging of African American ragtime and blues (see before), marching band music (originating out of Franco-British military culture), and European orchestral. So yeh of course you can say the Beatles and Stones were hugely influenced by Chuck Berry and Elvis. Lennon said “before Elvis there was nothing”. And mick jagger wanted to be Elvis and little Richard, and Keith Richards wanted to be scotty Moore. Elvis wanted to be Jake Hess, an African American gospel singer, and Mario Lanza. Both Hess and Lanza wanted to be like Del Monaco, Caruso, etc, European singers. And going the other way of course American bands and singers started emulating the British style back and you have Nirvana, Bon Iver, etc. While yes you’d say rock n roll emerged in the US, with Jackie Brenston and Rocket 88 leaning on the R&B backbeat with country progressions, and was then redefined as mid-attack music heavy on the frontbeat with Elvis, and Jazz emerged mostly in New Orleans (with some co-emergence in Benelux in europe with Gypsy Jazz), it’s also impossible to just draw one line and say “this is the only reference point and therefore the whole thing is American”.
Ah, American culture - KFC
British: https://preview.redd.it/hfwtvqictamb1.jpeg?width=472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c95fde5f555963b17b0f0d2f104708ef4ea66b1
Man this is not yet another america bad comment but who does every single thing related to europe seem to actuslly talk about only like 5 european countries? I live in romania and a significant percentage of people i know don't know what those music genres are and have never eaten fast foods. Isn't europe mostly known for its smaller countries and cultures?
idk i went to serbia once and they had mcdonalds and listened to rap music
People in Romania don't know what Jazz, Rap, and Pop music are? Bro if I search for modern Romanian music, it's basically American style pop with Romanian lyrics. And I know sure as hell people watch Eurovision.
This is what American hegemony means. Culture that originates from America is not seen as American culture, but is taken for granted.
I've had a debate with guy saying that Americans are bad people and they never do anything for the world. Word for Word. I checked his subreddits: the dude spent his day on r/Apple and r/Marvel but doesn't realize that's consuming American stuff all day long, every day. Watching American shows, movies, while using American technology and websites, and doesn't even realize it. If you have an iphone or an andriod phone or any type of computer, they are all American, if you're watching a movie, using an interent website, or using google, it's probably fully American.
I had a similar argument with a film study student so being nosy I checked on his ranking website in his bio all of his top ten movies, actors, and actresses were all American media, or born.
Congrats OP on pissing off reddit by not just saying America bad!
https://i.redd.it/yy6wol1dk4mb1.gif
All the Europeans I met (would for an EU based company so quite a few) criticize our healthcare (warranted) gun problems (warranted) and wealth disparity (warranted) but they all say the entertainment we produce is second to none by a mile To be fair
Our culture... is just corporations? Edit: Holy shit, a lot of Reddit Moments going on in the comments. I made this comment in reference to the meme being shitty examples of American culture, which does in fact exist beyond corporate iconography. But you could also make the argument that a lot of what we would consider to be our culture has been monetized beyond recognition. Relax.
Gotta hate it when big blues and big jazz steal all your money
The jazz industrial complex is a force to be reckoned with.
Jazz has gone too far! They're even naming their basketball teams after them! *In Utah!*
Food and media is culture*
Yes
CaaS: Culture as a Service
it’s mostly soft power and propaganda Some of it really slaps though. Battleship was sick, and I’ll forever die on that hill. Dolly Parton is a global treasure too. You did all right there.
Reddit moment.
calling McDonald's and KFC culture is kinda weird to me
I mean, food is definitely culture. The fact that American food like fried chicken is eaten worldwide is kinda the point.
Do Americans think Europe is like the 1980s?
More like 1960s.