Speaking as a Briton, I’ve been almost brought up to hate American culture, I suppose out of some sense of rivalry or something, and I do my best to treat them fairly, but I still have vestiges of antiseptic attitudes. They remind me of friends I’ve had who’d brag about everything, so you end up resenting letting them have anything no matter how genuine an achievement it is. I still can’t stand the accents if I’m tired or in a bad mood or whatever either. Just rubs me the wrong way.
It feels silly to “admit” as it were, but I remember once matching with someone on a dating app, so I went like, “what’s your story”, and he said “I’m a trans man and I’m American”, and I felt bad unmatching in case he thought I was transphobic, but come on, haha.
Americans have been rubbing their faces all over the rest of the world calling themselves superior in movies and tv for over 50 years now and then they get mad when people poke fun at them on the internet
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” He didn’t originate the quote, but his endorsement is enough.
It’s fine to love your country. But that’s not what nationalism is. Nationalism isn’t just saying your country is among the greats. Nationalism is saying your country is the best. Especially vile examples of nationalism are those that silence people that would bring up significant areas where their nation needs improvement. People who claim that there is no systemic racism in America come to mind. People who claim every American has an equal chance for opportunity come to mind. As an american, I view myself as a patriot. I want my country to be the best. But I’m not a nationalist because I concede that while my nation could be the best, it is far from it, and worse, it is the nationalists who are preventing us from progress because they’re so busy proving that it’s not necessary.
post modernism is partly defined by the shift towards stories about institutions and governments not being the good guys.
and also almost every war movie. some notable exceptions like full metal jacket, but most are very very pro American military. think lone survivor, Blackhawk down, hacksaw ridge, band of brothers, etc…
Reread their post, they didn’t say it was Hollywood’s fault for being successful. It’s Hollywood’s fault for the “AMERICA NUMBER 1” sentiment shown in every movie, aka propaganda.
Is it not okay for Bollywood movies to celebrate Mumbai, or for Japanese movies to celebrate unique Japanese culture / condemn Western influences?
I know extremist nationalism is bad, but it’s still okay for artists to love their country. Heck, on its own there’s nothing wrong with the US Army sponsoring movies. Ideally, the world would have enough critical thinkers that any completely braindead national propaganda would be ignored.
We don’t rub anyone’s faces in anything. We express a love for our country through art like every other country does, the difference is that the whole world watches when we do it. If you want less pro-america movies and TV, maybe watch movies and TV that aren’t from america.
Any time anything outside of America is mentioned, you can almost count on a comment starting with “American here.” It’s really prevalent in UK-centric communities, and it’s really funny.
A lot of the time it’s easier to fully blame America, especially because half of American’s agree with you when it’s usually a more complicated situation. A lot of it is a America centric reporting that highlights negative things about the US without really covering other countries.
Yes, but everything is not all about us. It actually detracts from serious issues when every conversation leads back to America. For example, if I’m trying to highlight the problems with rising prostitution in China, someone will immediately point to how the U.S. isn’t much better. Okay, fine, but now we’ve taken the focus off of an issue in China that deserves attention.
I think it’s also important to recognize that a lot of the forums and that gain traction on the internet are us-centric, actually with the fediverse one thing I’ve noticed is that while still definitely us centric I’m noticing a lot more international focused posts
Opposite for me. It’s constant US politics and US domestic shit I really don’t give two shits about. But it’s mostly just because communities are so small and quiet, so I browse All instead of Subscribed more often. There’s some nice porn but if I have to hear about some dumbass sports game politics drama (??) one more time I’m going to kill someone.
I’ve had some success with blocking some of the communities I am not interested in. It’s not perfect, but it has improved my all feed. Lemmy could definitely benefit from some more active niche communities though.
But it isn’t US centric. The majority of the sites are not US centric.
But somehow, because the community is English, Americans think it is US centric and post like it is. Using fantasy metrics and dollars, thinking the small minority of outsiders just got to adapt. And then when they tell someone where they live, they only mention the state for some reason.
Lemmy is worldwide and still get soo many dumb Trump vs Biden posts. Not to mention Elmo shit.
So make some posts that aren’t us centric and start discussions that aren’t us centric, sounds like what you’re more mad about is that the US is participating and the audience you are looking for isn’t
I don’t think its really that crazy to use your country’s currency and units of measurement in a space that is not explicitly for citizens of your country. Nor is it that crazy to make posts about things that are happening in your country. And if your country is large, it does make some sense to mention the specific area you’re from instead of just the country.
Its annoying when an American barges into a conversation and forces it to be about america somehow, but none of the things you’ve mentioned are really that bad. Just ignore posts you don’t care about, get an idea of what a US dollar is worth, and move on.
And if your country is large, it does make some sense to mention the specific area you’re from instead of just the country.
Especially if your country is essentially 50 different sub-cultures that have more differences than some European countries do from each other. But I think their point was that someone from another country might not know that Nebraska is in the United States, so we should identify that it’s Nebraska, USA for clarity.
Just because the USA isn’t completely homogenous to those who live there doesn’t mean that it’s remotely comparable to Europe. Yes the EU and the eurozone exist, but the USA still has a common language, a common currency, a common government, and a comparatively tiny history.
Man, I wish I had that Kremlin gig, all you gotta do is sit and watch 80 years of US foreign policy do your job for you.
Sure thing boss, I’ll make sure that Latin american country hates their guts by friday. I’ll just make them think the US executed a coup in their country l, supported and funded the dictatorship that came after and trained their torturers. I’ll do it by very sneakly making no changes to their history books whatsoever.
Note: No points for guessing which country cause you can guess any of them and probably be right.
The US has done many terrible and many good things. From hundreds of years of history of being a powerful country, it’s not hard to find shitty things to focus on, and that’s what propaganda does.
Add comment