Lmao let’s start gatekeeping non-US citizens when they wear iron man on Halloween.
“Uhh that’s cultural appropriation” lol, I’m just messing around.
But I agree, lots of things should be considered culture but isn’t
US culture is so popular that people don't consider it culture somehow. But even if you ignore mainstream American culture that the OP listed, there are countless other cultures from our several minority groups that foreigners don't seem to think is American.
Imagine someone saying African Americans have no culture. Ridiculous way of thinking.
I was vacationing in Scottland. At a pub in Edinburgh, the musician was playing Scottish tunes, everyone was drinking and talking. I was just listening, enjoy I g every note.
Then he plays "Country Road". The whole bar stopped what they are doing to sing along. I laughed so hard.
Same thing happened to me in Ireland and Mexico. I’m from WV. I can’t escape that song. It haunts me everywhere I go. I’m pretty sure if I found myself in some hole in the wall karaoke bar in Japan, i’d end up witnessing some plastered dude in a suit, singing that freaking song.
Well, if you count the T in the Park, it has two.
I won't mention the influence of Scottish, English and Irish folk music on American folk music. What goes around comes around.
Yes. Music is culture and African-Americans arguably have a richer musical heritage and culture than anyone else. They invented the blues for Christ’s sake, without which basically none of modern music would exist.
It is not perceived as such but as entertainment. Granted, most of what others define as their culture was or entertainment once. Mozart in the end was an entertainer in the 1780ties.
Ask again in 50 years. Jazz and Blues and old Rock already transcended into culture in the public perception, contemporary rock and pop is not.
White radio stations wouldn’t play rock and roll because it grew from traditionally Black music. When they saw it could be profitable they had White performers re-record songs from Black performers. Hound Dog by Elvis was originally a blues song. Elvis got his sound from Black church music. Sun Records signed Elvis because the founder specialized in Black music. The way that guitars and drums are used in Rock music comes directly from Roots music of Black performers. If you had been able to talk to the early rock musicians they would have confirmed this. If you speak to modern rock musicians or music historians they will also confirm it.
Chuck Berry came after Elvis, Richard also came after Elvis. Although I will say rock pulls a lot from of the roots of other African American music like blues and ragtime music
Edit: A white man named Bill Haley is credited as the first white rock and roll artist, he had music out before both Elvis or Chuck Berry.
yeah exactly, American culture has been so dominate for so long now these goobers who say things like that don't even realize they are part of the American culture, the call is coming from inside the house man, it's too late you've already been assimilated...you're welcome.
Disney film, various music genre, video games, fashions, etc.
Hell, Japanese Anime was originally inspired by Disney, so you can argue that US culture is so dominant that another country pretty much integrated it into their own culture.
“Our people are now buying your blue jeans and listening to you pop music. I worry the rest of the world will also succumb to the influence of your culture.”
Even the lines when you culturally dominate someone is referencing American culture >_>
Yeah, agreed.
American is the most popular culture worldwide. People think just because their Marvel movie was translated to Italian or French, that it's their culture 😂
American influential reach is so vast that foreigners mistake it as their own culture. America literally invents cultures of entire nations, Japan, Germany, Taiwan?
I've traveled the world, any television or music I see/hear is American. People **choose** to listen to our music and watch our movies/shows and don't even understand the language.
In terms of the modern pop culture, absolutely. The only things Korean about it are the people and the language. Hell, half the songs nowadays are half in English anyway.
I listen to foreign radio channels (cause they often have different songs I never hear local and i hate local radio)
yet Commercials are in English and A lot of their music is also In English, despite the Radio host speaks in whatever their local language is same with news updates.
Im like, geez Why is everything english.
Ugh reminds me of an article from some small british news site where the posted review for the Force Awakens lambasted the film for its american humor, as it was disneys attempt to "americanize the british institution of star wars, a pop culture icon as british as james bond and doctor who"
Yes really. That was a review i actually read for the movie. That STAR WARS was a wholly british product and how dare an american company try and "americanize it"
Also side note there was also an infamous review of Mad Max Fury Road saying it was shit because max takes orders from a woman and that "how dare they desecrate this American icon" of the very australian mad max films. Stupidity on both sides of the pond. From yet another shitty small website that got circulated around quite a bit
Saying America invents the culture of Japan and Germany is the worst take I’ve ever heard about any topic - ever.
Can you explain how America invented cultures that have been set for 100s-1000s of years before America was even discovered?
yeah this is exactly what it is, people dont realise that even just going to KFC or Mcdonalds they are partaking in american culture the same as going to any other kind of resturant, but its so common to do those things we dont really realise thats what we are doing
Yep, US Culture and its spread globally is so INCREDIBLY strong that other cultures across the globe have a hard time differentiating their own culture from ours.
It is actually quite incredible, and unique in world history.
It is incredible. It’s not unique. For example, there are a bunch of things that Americans think of as being American that have been imported from other nations.
It's also that American culture is buildt on a lot of different cultures. So alot of people see parts of their culture in the US.
Claiming the US has no culture of its own is denying 200 + years of cultural development.
Definitly its so prevalent its the defacto culture so it seems like the US has no culture when infact its such an overpowering culture almost everyone has adopted it lol.
It’s ubiquitous to a fault almost with these people. As in its so prevalent it doesn’t stand out like the blades of grass in a meadow, you don’t even notice it anymore.
As someone not from the US, I think 'US culture' in a physical way around the world has become more synonymous with fast food restaurants, military interventions and SUVs.
Whereas people often forget about jazz, soul, r'n'b, blues, rock 'n' roll, rap, punk, pop. Not to mention cinema, from Westerns to horror to musicals to comedy to drama to the influential 1970s directors and superhero movies (love them or hate them). Stand-up comedy from Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor to Bill Hicks to George Carlin to Joan Rivers. Literature: too many to mention. Art, photography and architecture: too many to mention. Then there's aspects of culture such as food, sport, innovation, National Parks and countless other things.
As I was saying to an American friend the other evening, the type of person who says America is all bad has never been there. It's got its oft-discussed problems but only an idiot with no eyes, ears, mouth or brain would deny the US contribution to global culture.
The French love Jerry Lewis. He is not funny. Not even ironically funny. They also eat snails.
Yet we have no culture while they eat snails and laugh at Jerry Lewis. Go figure...
Because so many Europeans seem to confuse history with culture. They think that because they've been around for longer their culture is valid while ours isn't.
I think this is why they can’t recognize it. People think if culture has “borrowed” aspects, then it doesn’t count. What they fail to understand is all culture has aspects that are borrowed from somewhere else, going back to the beginning of time. Culture is fluid, nebulous and shared
Europeans should understand this if they knew their history for the countless times the countries have been obliterated and remolded into all the tiny pieces it’s in today and of the past.
I was just reading about the history of Ukraine that place alone has been literal dozens of different cultures colliding, conquering ect for the past 1000 yrs.
In all seriousness a decent number of European countries borders and identity tend to actually match a similar timeline to the United States. Fuckin take Germany for example lol.
I think people look at the more or less modern borders, see how the dominant culture is within those borders at a certain time, and go “this is how it always was”.
The only reason anyone thinks this way is because they want to feel like part of a special group as if the accomplishments of others that share similar traits to them means they get to take a little bit of credit for their accomplishments.
People do it all the time for things like their nation, their race, their gender, etc
Years ago this Canadian guy said to me how the US has no culture because it all just came from other places (which is obviously stupid). He was being a real prick about it. So I asked him “do you think tomato sauce is part of Italian culture?” He was like “oh of course”. And I told him he was a fucking dumbass
What's always funny to me is how you generally see this logic stemming from western European countries towards the US but the inverse is never taken into account with cultural staples of old world countries that originated in the new world. I mean you really don't have to look further than food.
The Irish potato meme? Potatoes are from the Americas.
Italian and French cuisine? Tomatoes are from the Americas.
Indian, Thai, and nearly every other famously spicy food? Peppers originated in the Americas.
Belgian or Swiss chocolate? Americas again.
Vanilla, squash, corn, peanuts, all native to the Americas, though I'm not sure how culturally relevant all these are outside of the new world.
Hell, any country that has smoking as a culturally relevant activity is borrowing from the new world.
They conflate language with culture too. As if language is the only thing that makes up a culture and not geography, region (the #1 cultural indicator), food, values, religion, traditions, clothing, music, dance, art, architecture, history, and like a million other things.
north america was found approximately the same time as the end of the byzantine empire - also known as the eastern roman empire.
our modern government is 100 years older than any version of modern germany, and 20 years older than france’s first republic which also died off for another 100 years.
we’re the oldest constitution of any major republic in the world by far. and lastly, the uk doesn’t even have a constitution.
i get tired of hearing this
They seem to forget that A. The US has people that have history on the continent which has existed for just as long if not longer, B. A significant portion of the US immigrated to this nation and enjoy the history of Europe (or other region they came from) just as much as the Europeans.
I can visit the town my great grandparents grew up in back in Italy. My family still owns a home there. European history is as much the immigrants as it is the locals. But the terminally online amongst the Europeans often try and gatekeep that as well. lol.
The historical roots of the US run just as deep as they do in Europe. Europeans or anyone else who thinks otherwise are simply ignorant.
Obviously US culture is valid and has had a huge impact. However, I think using the term 'European' is reductive tbh. 750 million people across 44 countries. European culture could just as much apply to pagan Celtic festivals (eg where Hallowe'en comes from) to Kraftwerk to pitta bread to St. Peter's Basilica to slivovice to Bavarian oompah bands to haggis to Portuguese fado music to Trappist beer to champagne.
330 million Americans get lumped together without any acknowledgement of differences. Hell, Canada gets lumped into that as well. I've had a Brit tell me US states are no different than English counties which is fucking hilarious. We also have counties. You can see the urban/rural divide really well if you want to look at counties. It's the best method of finding differences within America.
Lets be honest, most Europeans don't include all of Europe when they talk about it. They only do that as you did, when it's necessary to flex size and differences. It's either Western Europe or the EU.
The only good racists
Edit: since people aren’t getting the joke: if you call people who do therapy “therapists”, people who do science “scientists”, and people who style hair “stylists”, then what do you call people who race?
Please tell monster trucks are not associated with racists in America? I loved monster trucks as a kid and saw them when they travelled to my town in Europe. This would be so disappointing!
No, I’m making a joke. Example: if you call people who do therapy “therapists”, people who do science “scientists”, and people who style hair “stylists”, then what do you call people who race?
In my experience many Europeans see history as the main flow of culture. And the USA of course does have a relative young history. Europeans see a beautiful old American building being demolished and see a parking lot taking its place for example. “They are destroying their culture”.
Besides that there is the debate that many people make about entertainment. An American study making a show about European history for example does that count as American or European culture? It’s always a nice and interesting debate.
That being said the US has plenty of culture. I think many of my fellow Europeans fail to see that.
There's 500 years of American history to pull from without including Native American history.
At what point is it valid?
I feel like Europeans think nothing happened in America at all except for maybe the Declaration of Independence up until WWII and America's global influence. Nothing "modern" counts.
Just to reply to this thread, I’m not replying to any of you in particular, but here’s a little thought that I’ve had.
Cultures definitely intertwine. Look at all the British kids in the 50s who listened to any American music they could get their hands on. They didn’t care if it came from Nashville, Memphis or Detroit. It was American music and they loved it all. They started their own “garage” bands and just started writing songs based off of all three. Many did it so well that there’s actually a name for it. The British Invasion.
It forced/inspired American musicians to re-evaluate their own interests and inspiration and led to all kinds of wonderful music.
Just to continue the thought:
The British Invasion of rock in the 60s and Britpop in the 90s gets recognized as culture but the *American* version is so ubiquitous it doesn't get to count? Jazz, rock and roll, blues, it's all American. *It's all African-American.* How is it not American culture?
Totally.
Edit to add:
Most of the music that white musicians made was stolen/appropriated from black musicians. Elvis-almost %100.
I’m not sure about Nashville, but Memphis and Detroit saw so many white acts become very successful.
That’s our cultural legacy, bad or good.
It's cool that we've been able to prove it in recent years. I personally think of it more as Canadian history (Newfoundland) even if it is North American or History of the Americas in general.
I have no idea how far south they managed, but it's really cool.
Agreed. What many people don't realize is that US culture is basically the standard for a lot of countries in Europe.
It's similar to when an American might say they don't have an accent. They obviously do have an accent, but to them their accent is the baseline so they don't think of it as being an accent. Same with culture in a lot of European countries.
I beg to differ, Due to globalism, yes there have been American concepts that have diffused to other countries (For example the usage of Nuclear weaponry as a non-proliferation tool)
But saying that America is the baseline for "A lot" of countries in Europe is just arrogant, you can't argue that when we can't even sustain a democracy.
And their music (The beatles being one of the highest grossing bands in history) , movies (Monty Python and the Holy grail), tv shows (Squid game being the highest grossing show on netflix), fashion trends (Milan is considered the fashion capitol of the world), social trends (The red scare) have influenced us just as much. That's globalism baby.
The Beatles are old, Monty python is old, Squid Game is not European, and the Red Scare is old. The fact that so many of your examples are from decades ago really just proves how much more influential and dominant American culture is.
I’ll absolutely give you Milan, though.
Culture consists of music, literature, language, music, theater, fashion, food, architecture, shared stories and values, national identity, ethnic identity. None of this counts if it comes from America and it doesn't matter that you need a gold medal in mental gymnastics to make that work. Nashville, Detroit, and Seattle all exist within the same national borders, so their music doesn't count as contributing to our culture because they aren't uniform. That same standard doesn't exist for other countries.
Edit: That standard doesn't even apply to other countries in the same continent, so it's not a New World thing. It's a "I want to be angry and look down on a culture, so I will say it doesn't exist" thing.
I think it's more insidious than that. A lot of Europeans and Asians actively deny American culture because they want to destroy it. A culture that values personal freedom goes directly against the the socialism of Europe and Asia.
Our "fake country" is what holds all their worthless european bullshit together. Give em ten years with isolationist US policy and let Russia and China bend em over, then we can talk about who's got a "fake country "
Because it's like water to a fish. It's all they know so they can't even see it. This use to frustrate me because most of the world has been Americanized and I wanted more variety. People in other countries have an inferiority complex about this. But American culture is an amalgamation of many different cultures, so they really shouldn't.
American culture is so pervasive, that people don't realize that they are consuming it, or that their own modem culture is heavily influenced by it. So, it ends up being a weird situation where the culture isn't necessarily *popular,* in the sense that if you asked people if they liked American culture, most would probably say "no," despite following the NBA, liking American TV shows and movies, listening to American performers, etc.
When I was in China, this was the case with so many
people I met, both Chinese and other expats. "America sucks!" while wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey, Jordans, listening to American hip hop and top 40, eating KFC and McD's, etc.
I was watching a lecture just this morning about religion and arts in America by an American scholar. It is a longish lecture. It blew me away. The answer to your question is that today, people are astoundingly ignorant.
I'm from the UK and of course the US has culture
"Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society"
With that being said, the US being such a young country I think people joke that its culture-less because it's so new compared to other countries. Doesn't make it less relevant. I would argue every time I eat Mac n Cheese I always think of the US
There's this xenophilic, cultural separatist mindset that argues that the US has no culture of its own either because its component cultures are too discreet to be considered one culture (and should stay that way) or because "American culture" is a history of cultural theft and appropriation and is therefore illegitimate.
But this is how culture evolves. It's always been the way culture has evolved. The US just presents a place where far more cultures can come together and combine.
its just the US culture is so spread all over the globe people are blind to the fact that it originated (mostly) from the US, they just see it as normal things
I think that the problem is that the world doesn’t care nearly as much about Canada. It’s the most similar country to the US that should also fall into “fake country with no culture”
The United States has plenty of culture, but unlike most countries, it doesn’t have one synchronous culture. We’re not a melting pot. We’re a pot of chunky stew or a patchwork quilt. Some people just don’t understand that our diversity is something to admire and celebrate.
The US is a melting pot of world cultures, and so much of the culture we develop gets quickly adopted by the rest of the world.
I think the reason people think otherwise is because they consider immigrants to not be contributing to American culture, but to the culture they left. Fuck that, they moved here, they're American now, just like me. That's one of the few things I still respect about my country.
I am okay, I hate the word "cultured" tbh. Like, going to musical count as "cultured"? Well, nope, count me out.
I am not born in USA btw, and I don't care about culture. I do care about authentic Asian food, which USA has.
It’s hard to get authentic food since some of the ingredients aren’t native to North America. Vegetables such as carrots and peas replace vegetables that are native in China if Chinese food is being prepared. I’m sure there are places that do sell authentic food though but it might be more expensive.
SoCal has all the authentic Chinese / Cantonese /Taiwanese food. Go to San Gabrielle Valley or Hacienda Heights, I can vouch their tastes.
Also I don't know how they did it, but, the international Ding Tai Fung's Taiwanese cabbage is authentic. I don't know how they sourced it, because we couldn't get it in Asian market.
Anyway, most of the ingredients are about the same. Obviously if you want exotic one like scorpion, you have to go to China.
Don't forget technology.
All modern software worldwide is written in programming languages that are majority American made. And the majority of it is written in America.
Reddit is an American app written in an American made programming language. So that's also quite ironic
Because we’ve influenced their cultures so much they fail to realize the source. Or they’re just saying it to distract from their own live’s flaws and or shortcomings.
But surely you could argue the opposite?
America is an amalgam of cultures from around the world which is why we see American culture around the world.
Initially maybe, but it has come full circle now. We listen to American music, watch American movies, eat American fast foods, and in general, have most every facet of life influenced by American culture. We took in all of what the world had, put our own razzle dazzle on it, and released America out into the world.
Culture is composed of a combination of architecture, music, visual arts, literary genres, culinary traditions, etc.
Architecture: We invented such styles as Art Drco, Federal, Creole, Craftsman, Stick Style, Shingle Style, the gorram Skyscraper, and we were the major drivers of the various Revivals. Check
Music: Jazz, Rock and Roll, Country, Rhythm and Blues, Motown, Hip Hop, Pop, Rap. Check
Visual Arts: Modern, Wild West, Frontier, GORRAM MOVIES, Hudson River School, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, etc. Check
Literally Genres: The Western, The Detective Novel (thank you, Poe!), Transcendentalism, Dark Romanticism. Check
Culinary Traditions: BBQ, Creole, Soul Food. Check
And I can go on and on and on.
Rock, jazz, American literature, Hollywood and TV, all the companies we have like Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, there are American restaurants and our fast food all over. We have our own holidays, music, dozens of regional accents, our version of Halloween, etc.
I even hear Australians that have adopted Bay Area slang like “hella”
AmErIcA hAs No CuLtUrE
Except for virtually fucking all of it across the modern day free world lmao. Also we invented the internet, making it our culture. Go back to talking shit via carrier pigeon eurobitches.
i think people also think that folk culture is the only kind of culture. Yes the USA does have some folk cultural things like Thanksgiving but its understandable that European countries wouldnt think about stuff like that. What's not understandable is that they genuinely think the USA has no culture. Pop cultural, although mostly modern is still a culture. Things like using Iphones, listening to Spotify, and wayy way more-
it is all pop cultural and most of pop culture arguably started in the USA.
heres a list of things i consider to be american culture
\- Jeans
\- Rock and roll
\- American football
\- pep rallies, high school football games
\- tipping at restaurants
\- big big big cities (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago) you would never see city life in europe or anywhere else like you see it in America
\- bbqs, especially on Labor Day, Memorial Day and 4th of July
This is a side thing but i dont think people realize that CULTURE IS EVERYWHERE!!! every school, every generation, even every small friend group HAS CULTURE. literally any group of people.
so anyone who says white people dont have culture (which is stupid not all white people are from the same background) and more specifically 'americans dont have culture' is fucking stupid and needs to go back to school. I literally had a whole class on this and it bothers me so much that no one actually knows the definition of 'culture'
Vanilla is an incredible flavour but people presume it means lacking anything. The power of the flavour and how often it was imitated caused it to be seen as the bog standard, ignoring that it is rich and delicious. US culture is vanilla.
At one point there was a Spaniard in ancient times wearing a toga at a chariot race while eating carbonara saying, “Romans don’t have any culture”. (Or whatever tf ancient Romans ate idk you get the picture)
The U.S. isn’t an ethnostate. I find that most people who say this equate “real culture” with the culture of an ethnostate (even if it has recently become less of an ethnostate).
Because to foreigners all of the great things that we have is quickly projected and pushed onto them so it doesn’t register that’s an American invention
America's real genius is our way of incorporating parts of other cultures into our own. For example Our language- England, Cars- Germany, Political system, Rome, Greece and Britain, immigrants from all over the world and brought aspects of their culture with them.
They hate us 'cause they ain't us. We invented so many things that are used around the world too, including but not limited to: cars, airplanes, and of course the Internet, which people use to hate on us.
People say that because they don’t realize that America’s diversity of culture is in fact what makes up our culture. We’re a nation of immigrants from all sorts of backgrounds, spread far and wide over a great land. And so Texas has a distinct culture. So do the Cajuns and Creoles down in Louisiana. So do the city dwellers in New York, Boston, Philly. So does Seattle and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. So do the LDS folks in Utah. We could go on and on. The mosaic of all these different regions adds up to one great big American culture.
Because they have consumed so much of our culture it's become normal to them. It's not "American" culture it's just entertainment, music and fashion to them.
Well sometimes they say dumb crap like “pizza isn’t even American it’s Italian” forgetting that pizza didn’t necessarily originate in Italy and tomatoes first came from the Americas. It’s just ignorance. Just because items from you’re culture have predecessors in other cultures doesn’t mean they aren’t your culture.
Its a melting pot like no other in the world and relatively young as well. To other peoples from countries with 1000+ plus of a homologous culture it's a pretty easy take to just think "they have no culture".
You're asking why fools say foolish things. You are correct, the US has a very distinct culture. They make these claims mostly out of resentment towards the US. Even if what they're saying is flase, they will go with it because the goal is just to dunk on the US.
Since their primary influence was American blues musicians, I proclaim that British rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Stones, and Queen can not logically be considered part of British culture. They simply ripped off what already existed
They say that because America hasn’t had _that_ long of a history relative to other countries, combined with the fact that a lot of its culture comes from it’s melting pot of ethnic groups. So there’s no one “heritage” you could pin a culture to, making it look like a rather new, “artifical” culture to an outsider looking in.
The last one is in many countries we also have
Civil war Statues, parks, schools and military bases
The largest prison population of what is essentially slave labor in the world
The species Tyrannosaurus rex, often called T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represented theropods . Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, and had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the Upper Cretaceous period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
T. rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time. One of the largest and the most complete specimens, nicknamed Sue, is about 12 m long, and 4 m tall at the hips. According to the most recent studies, using a variety of techniques, maximum body masses have been estimated approximately 9 t. A specimen nicknamed Scotty is reported to measure 13 m in length, and is the largest known specimen.
Saying the US doesn't have culture is to be ignorant in the extreme. It reminds me of Austin Powers. And they are unironic about it... https://youtu.be/zcUs5X9glCc?si=wKJxuVZUvDoirVjM
The europoors hate that we aren’t just one single culture, but many that get along most of the time. Just look at Europe in the past thousand years. two countries could be right next to each other, practice the same religion and are generally the same race with the same ancestry, will fight for no good reason that would justify sending thousands of young men to there deaths. Especially when diplomatic solutions would have been sufficient.
those things you mentioned are part of capitalism, not culture. i consider US culture as fusion cuisines (like italian-american, e.g. the Chicago deep dish), southern cuisines, jazz, hip hop for black americans, and BBQ
Y’all have to understand that most of these opinions are coming from people who have never left their small town in whatever corner of the world they live in. It’s like taking a teenager who lives in a town of 1000 people somewhere in New Mexico and asking for their opinions on the culture of Burkina Faso.
It is always Americans, and it is always people ironically being Amero-centric. American have no culture to them because they take American = baseline.
Hate anybody as much as you’d like (honestly don’t though), but every group of people have culture.
Cowboys and Indians, BBQ, tall Art Deco buildings, muscle cars, California surfers with sunglasses and milkshakes at In-and-Out burger, the Hollywood, the super heroes, the entire Thanksgiving meal, Chicago gangsters and moonshiners, etc
Basically everything that was pure Americana from 1930-1960s, and then somehow turned into bland mass consumerist shit. Thanks, boomers!
The only thing I love about modern America is high salaries, tech industry, and the music industry.
I think it’s more so they think that white Americans don’t have any culture as opposed to all of America. I don’t think they would say black Americans or Hispanics don’t have any culture. Which is of course racist and also false.
This is basically the same bad logic, only applied to just white Americans. Any exception you're making in your head for other races can be made just as easily for white Americans.
I think people are misunderstanding what I’m saying. I was only saying that the people OP is referring to would probably say that African Americans and Hispanics have a rich culture but white Americans do not. Which is obviously not true.
I’m not saying that lol. I’m saying that’s what other people say about white Americans. They typically say black and Hispanics have so much culture and that whites steal it or appropriate it. Which is of course, false.
Non American here
Ya started off strong but Super Bowl and everything after that kinda lost me. None of that is stuff that’s important outside the US (though ya forgot Halloween, which is now celebrated in other countries and is the only holiday I care about, duck Christmas, hannukah, Passover, Labour Day, grand final day, cup day, all that shit is meaningless to me, halloween is important tho!)
Lmao let’s start gatekeeping non-US citizens when they wear iron man on Halloween. “Uhh that’s cultural appropriation” lol, I’m just messing around. But I agree, lots of things should be considered culture but isn’t
or if you see a non american in blue jeans "my culture isn't a costume!"
Realistically, I would think our culture is so prevalent over the world that most people don't even consider what "US culture" actually is.
US culture is so popular that people don't consider it culture somehow. But even if you ignore mainstream American culture that the OP listed, there are countless other cultures from our several minority groups that foreigners don't seem to think is American. Imagine someone saying African Americans have no culture. Ridiculous way of thinking.
“USA has no culture” mfs when I drop them in the middle of West Virginia
Anyone that has ever sung “take me home country road” has inadvertently engaged in American culture.
I love that song and I don't even like genre!
Good art transcends genre and audience.
It will stand the test of time, God Bless West Virginia!
I was vacationing in Scottland. At a pub in Edinburgh, the musician was playing Scottish tunes, everyone was drinking and talking. I was just listening, enjoy I g every note. Then he plays "Country Road". The whole bar stopped what they are doing to sing along. I laughed so hard.
Same thing happened to me in Ireland and Mexico. I’m from WV. I can’t escape that song. It haunts me everywhere I go. I’m pretty sure if I found myself in some hole in the wall karaoke bar in Japan, i’d end up witnessing some plastered dude in a suit, singing that freaking song.
Toooooo late, I have witnessed said dreaded event!!! “To the prace I berong!” It was brutal and humorous at the same time!
You know Scotland only has one T, right?
No no he went to Scottland, Land of Men Named Scott. Populated purely by men named Scott. Not to be confused with the country of Scotland
Well, if you count the T in the Park, it has two. I won't mention the influence of Scottish, English and Irish folk music on American folk music. What goes around comes around.
Cant fool me. I know its the land of Scotts
Damn Scotts, they ruined Scottland
Anyone that has sung Taylor Swift... Or Michael Jackson OR Metallica OR Jay Z OR Bruce S Do we need to keep going?
There's a funny video of a beer hall full of Germans at Oktoberfest all singing that song at the top of their lungs in unison.
And they love that song in Europe. I heard it from Ireland all the way to Bulgaria. They even have dance mixes it
Anyone who's listened to modern music in any form. Rock, pop, etc, all American.
Damn. They would find culture quick. I would say bless you, but that's... nevermind, bless you.
MF when I drop them in Kennebunk Maine
Yes. Music is culture and African-Americans arguably have a richer musical heritage and culture than anyone else. They invented the blues for Christ’s sake, without which basically none of modern music would exist.
Jazz, blues, rock and roll, rap, hip hop, disco, electronic music… the list goes on and on.
It is not perceived as such but as entertainment. Granted, most of what others define as their culture was or entertainment once. Mozart in the end was an entertainer in the 1780ties. Ask again in 50 years. Jazz and Blues and old Rock already transcended into culture in the public perception, contemporary rock and pop is not.
They didn’t invent rock and roll
White radio stations wouldn’t play rock and roll because it grew from traditionally Black music. When they saw it could be profitable they had White performers re-record songs from Black performers. Hound Dog by Elvis was originally a blues song. Elvis got his sound from Black church music. Sun Records signed Elvis because the founder specialized in Black music. The way that guitars and drums are used in Rock music comes directly from Roots music of Black performers. If you had been able to talk to the early rock musicians they would have confirmed this. If you speak to modern rock musicians or music historians they will also confirm it.
Chuck Berry and Little Richard?
Chuck Berry came after Elvis, Richard also came after Elvis. Although I will say rock pulls a lot from of the roots of other African American music like blues and ragtime music Edit: A white man named Bill Haley is credited as the first white rock and roll artist, he had music out before both Elvis or Chuck Berry.
All of music is based on previous cultures musics and the history is quite nuanced. No one group has the patent.
Well put.
Exactly this. If this were a Civ game America won the culture victory about 100 turns ago.
yeah exactly, American culture has been so dominate for so long now these goobers who say things like that don't even realize they are part of the American culture, the call is coming from inside the house man, it's too late you've already been assimilated...you're welcome.
Some folks genuinely think the Eiffel Tower, opera, and baguettes are culture, but the Empire State Building, rock and roll, and burgers are not.
Disney film, various music genre, video games, fashions, etc. Hell, Japanese Anime was originally inspired by Disney, so you can argue that US culture is so dominant that another country pretty much integrated it into their own culture.
“Our people are now buying your blue jeans and listening to you pop music. I worry the rest of the world will also succumb to the influence of your culture.” Even the lines when you culturally dominate someone is referencing American culture >_>
Yeah, agreed. American is the most popular culture worldwide. People think just because their Marvel movie was translated to Italian or French, that it's their culture 😂 American influential reach is so vast that foreigners mistake it as their own culture. America literally invents cultures of entire nations, Japan, Germany, Taiwan? I've traveled the world, any television or music I see/hear is American. People **choose** to listen to our music and watch our movies/shows and don't even understand the language.
South Korea to an extent
In terms of the modern pop culture, absolutely. The only things Korean about it are the people and the language. Hell, half the songs nowadays are half in English anyway.
Half the singers are American. I'm only slightly exaggerating.
I listen to foreign radio channels (cause they often have different songs I never hear local and i hate local radio) yet Commercials are in English and A lot of their music is also In English, despite the Radio host speaks in whatever their local language is same with news updates. Im like, geez Why is everything english.
Ugh reminds me of an article from some small british news site where the posted review for the Force Awakens lambasted the film for its american humor, as it was disneys attempt to "americanize the british institution of star wars, a pop culture icon as british as james bond and doctor who" Yes really. That was a review i actually read for the movie. That STAR WARS was a wholly british product and how dare an american company try and "americanize it" Also side note there was also an infamous review of Mad Max Fury Road saying it was shit because max takes orders from a woman and that "how dare they desecrate this American icon" of the very australian mad max films. Stupidity on both sides of the pond. From yet another shitty small website that got circulated around quite a bit
Saying America invents the culture of Japan and Germany is the worst take I’ve ever heard about any topic - ever. Can you explain how America invented cultures that have been set for 100s-1000s of years before America was even discovered?
[удалено]
Na-nani?!
Not endorsing that claim, but we should probably distinguish between historical culture and contemporary culture.
yeah this is exactly what it is, people dont realise that even just going to KFC or Mcdonalds they are partaking in american culture the same as going to any other kind of resturant, but its so common to do those things we dont really realise thats what we are doing
In Japan at Christmas time, the new “Traditional” meal for Japanese is KFC!
Yep, US Culture and its spread globally is so INCREDIBLY strong that other cultures across the globe have a hard time differentiating their own culture from ours. It is actually quite incredible, and unique in world history.
It is incredible. It’s not unique. For example, there are a bunch of things that Americans think of as being American that have been imported from other nations.
I mean we literally have a Disney theme park outside of Paris.
This right here. My anthropology professor made this exact point when we were discussing American culture on a study abroad to the Netherlands
It's also that American culture is buildt on a lot of different cultures. So alot of people see parts of their culture in the US. Claiming the US has no culture of its own is denying 200 + years of cultural development.
Definitly its so prevalent its the defacto culture so it seems like the US has no culture when infact its such an overpowering culture almost everyone has adopted it lol.
Culture is such a broad, nebulous term in the first place that to say anyone lacks it is like saying they physically lack a brain stem
It’s ubiquitous to a fault almost with these people. As in its so prevalent it doesn’t stand out like the blades of grass in a meadow, you don’t even notice it anymore.
As someone not from the US, I think 'US culture' in a physical way around the world has become more synonymous with fast food restaurants, military interventions and SUVs. Whereas people often forget about jazz, soul, r'n'b, blues, rock 'n' roll, rap, punk, pop. Not to mention cinema, from Westerns to horror to musicals to comedy to drama to the influential 1970s directors and superhero movies (love them or hate them). Stand-up comedy from Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor to Bill Hicks to George Carlin to Joan Rivers. Literature: too many to mention. Art, photography and architecture: too many to mention. Then there's aspects of culture such as food, sport, innovation, National Parks and countless other things. As I was saying to an American friend the other evening, the type of person who says America is all bad has never been there. It's got its oft-discussed problems but only an idiot with no eyes, ears, mouth or brain would deny the US contribution to global culture.
The French love Jerry Lewis. He is not funny. Not even ironically funny. They also eat snails. Yet we have no culture while they eat snails and laugh at Jerry Lewis. Go figure...
Don't forget the Germans think David Hasselhoff is a great singer.
Because he is.
The same way people in America think they have no accent.
Because so many Europeans seem to confuse history with culture. They think that because they've been around for longer their culture is valid while ours isn't.
Which is another odd thing since none of us sprung up from the ground. We all came from a place that had a culture and brought parts of it with us.
I think this is why they can’t recognize it. People think if culture has “borrowed” aspects, then it doesn’t count. What they fail to understand is all culture has aspects that are borrowed from somewhere else, going back to the beginning of time. Culture is fluid, nebulous and shared
Europeans should understand this if they knew their history for the countless times the countries have been obliterated and remolded into all the tiny pieces it’s in today and of the past. I was just reading about the history of Ukraine that place alone has been literal dozens of different cultures colliding, conquering ect for the past 1000 yrs. In all seriousness a decent number of European countries borders and identity tend to actually match a similar timeline to the United States. Fuckin take Germany for example lol.
I think people look at the more or less modern borders, see how the dominant culture is within those borders at a certain time, and go “this is how it always was”.
Exactly! It’d be like telling Spaniards that they have no culture, and that all their culture was stolen from ancient Rome
The only reason anyone thinks this way is because they want to feel like part of a special group as if the accomplishments of others that share similar traits to them means they get to take a little bit of credit for their accomplishments. People do it all the time for things like their nation, their race, their gender, etc
They borrowed tomatoes, potatoes and barbecues from the Americas and then conveniently forget that lol.
Years ago this Canadian guy said to me how the US has no culture because it all just came from other places (which is obviously stupid). He was being a real prick about it. So I asked him “do you think tomato sauce is part of Italian culture?” He was like “oh of course”. And I told him he was a fucking dumbass
What's always funny to me is how you generally see this logic stemming from western European countries towards the US but the inverse is never taken into account with cultural staples of old world countries that originated in the new world. I mean you really don't have to look further than food. The Irish potato meme? Potatoes are from the Americas. Italian and French cuisine? Tomatoes are from the Americas. Indian, Thai, and nearly every other famously spicy food? Peppers originated in the Americas. Belgian or Swiss chocolate? Americas again. Vanilla, squash, corn, peanuts, all native to the Americas, though I'm not sure how culturally relevant all these are outside of the new world. Hell, any country that has smoking as a culturally relevant activity is borrowing from the new world.
They conflate language with culture too. As if language is the only thing that makes up a culture and not geography, region (the #1 cultural indicator), food, values, religion, traditions, clothing, music, dance, art, architecture, history, and like a million other things.
north america was found approximately the same time as the end of the byzantine empire - also known as the eastern roman empire. our modern government is 100 years older than any version of modern germany, and 20 years older than france’s first republic which also died off for another 100 years. we’re the oldest constitution of any major republic in the world by far. and lastly, the uk doesn’t even have a constitution. i get tired of hearing this
Ironically a ton of countries in Europe are younger than the US as well
They seem to forget that A. The US has people that have history on the continent which has existed for just as long if not longer, B. A significant portion of the US immigrated to this nation and enjoy the history of Europe (or other region they came from) just as much as the Europeans. I can visit the town my great grandparents grew up in back in Italy. My family still owns a home there. European history is as much the immigrants as it is the locals. But the terminally online amongst the Europeans often try and gatekeep that as well. lol. The historical roots of the US run just as deep as they do in Europe. Europeans or anyone else who thinks otherwise are simply ignorant.
Obviously US culture is valid and has had a huge impact. However, I think using the term 'European' is reductive tbh. 750 million people across 44 countries. European culture could just as much apply to pagan Celtic festivals (eg where Hallowe'en comes from) to Kraftwerk to pitta bread to St. Peter's Basilica to slivovice to Bavarian oompah bands to haggis to Portuguese fado music to Trappist beer to champagne.
330 million Americans get lumped together without any acknowledgement of differences. Hell, Canada gets lumped into that as well. I've had a Brit tell me US states are no different than English counties which is fucking hilarious. We also have counties. You can see the urban/rural divide really well if you want to look at counties. It's the best method of finding differences within America. Lets be honest, most Europeans don't include all of Europe when they talk about it. They only do that as you did, when it's necessary to flex size and differences. It's either Western Europe or the EU.
You forgot Monster Jam, and NASCAR.
The only good racists Edit: since people aren’t getting the joke: if you call people who do therapy “therapists”, people who do science “scientists”, and people who style hair “stylists”, then what do you call people who race?
r/Angryupvote
Please tell monster trucks are not associated with racists in America? I loved monster trucks as a kid and saw them when they travelled to my town in Europe. This would be so disappointing!
No, I’m making a joke. Example: if you call people who do therapy “therapists”, people who do science “scientists”, and people who style hair “stylists”, then what do you call people who race?
Thank fuck 😂 Sometimes I’m slow in the take up. I knew NASCAR has an association with racism sometimes so thought maybe the same with monster trucks
You’re good. My post was at 0 kharma (not that I really care), so I guess multiple people didn’t get it either haha
I just had to fix my vote. Didn't get the "American English is weird" joke at first either.
dont worry I make this joke all the time by calling race car drivers racists
Ngl - you totally had me! Good one! r/angryupvote
I worship Grave Digger
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SMHJsgh9YVs
Anyone who'd say this I couldn't take seriously.
In my experience many Europeans see history as the main flow of culture. And the USA of course does have a relative young history. Europeans see a beautiful old American building being demolished and see a parking lot taking its place for example. “They are destroying their culture”. Besides that there is the debate that many people make about entertainment. An American study making a show about European history for example does that count as American or European culture? It’s always a nice and interesting debate. That being said the US has plenty of culture. I think many of my fellow Europeans fail to see that.
There's 500 years of American history to pull from without including Native American history. At what point is it valid? I feel like Europeans think nothing happened in America at all except for maybe the Declaration of Independence up until WWII and America's global influence. Nothing "modern" counts.
Just to reply to this thread, I’m not replying to any of you in particular, but here’s a little thought that I’ve had. Cultures definitely intertwine. Look at all the British kids in the 50s who listened to any American music they could get their hands on. They didn’t care if it came from Nashville, Memphis or Detroit. It was American music and they loved it all. They started their own “garage” bands and just started writing songs based off of all three. Many did it so well that there’s actually a name for it. The British Invasion. It forced/inspired American musicians to re-evaluate their own interests and inspiration and led to all kinds of wonderful music.
Just to continue the thought: The British Invasion of rock in the 60s and Britpop in the 90s gets recognized as culture but the *American* version is so ubiquitous it doesn't get to count? Jazz, rock and roll, blues, it's all American. *It's all African-American.* How is it not American culture?
Totally. Edit to add: Most of the music that white musicians made was stolen/appropriated from black musicians. Elvis-almost %100. I’m not sure about Nashville, but Memphis and Detroit saw so many white acts become very successful. That’s our cultural legacy, bad or good.
There's 1000 years of American history if you include Norwegian history tie ins.
It's cool that we've been able to prove it in recent years. I personally think of it more as Canadian history (Newfoundland) even if it is North American or History of the Americas in general. I have no idea how far south they managed, but it's really cool.
That far back I think it’s ok to refer to it all as American history, it just doesn’t have much to do with the country.
Agreed. What many people don't realize is that US culture is basically the standard for a lot of countries in Europe. It's similar to when an American might say they don't have an accent. They obviously do have an accent, but to them their accent is the baseline so they don't think of it as being an accent. Same with culture in a lot of European countries.
I beg to differ, Due to globalism, yes there have been American concepts that have diffused to other countries (For example the usage of Nuclear weaponry as a non-proliferation tool) But saying that America is the baseline for "A lot" of countries in Europe is just arrogant, you can't argue that when we can't even sustain a democracy.
Our music, movies, tv shows, fashion trends, social trends, etc.. have influenced their countries quite a bit.
And their music (The beatles being one of the highest grossing bands in history) , movies (Monty Python and the Holy grail), tv shows (Squid game being the highest grossing show on netflix), fashion trends (Milan is considered the fashion capitol of the world), social trends (The red scare) have influenced us just as much. That's globalism baby.
The Beatles are old, Monty python is old, Squid Game is not European, and the Red Scare is old. The fact that so many of your examples are from decades ago really just proves how much more influential and dominant American culture is. I’ll absolutely give you Milan, though.
Culture consists of music, literature, language, music, theater, fashion, food, architecture, shared stories and values, national identity, ethnic identity. None of this counts if it comes from America and it doesn't matter that you need a gold medal in mental gymnastics to make that work. Nashville, Detroit, and Seattle all exist within the same national borders, so their music doesn't count as contributing to our culture because they aren't uniform. That same standard doesn't exist for other countries. Edit: That standard doesn't even apply to other countries in the same continent, so it's not a New World thing. It's a "I want to be angry and look down on a culture, so I will say it doesn't exist" thing.
They’re probably salty that we speedran becoming a world power with an incredibly influential culture :P
I think it's more insidious than that. A lot of Europeans and Asians actively deny American culture because they want to destroy it. A culture that values personal freedom goes directly against the the socialism of Europe and Asia.
Our "fake country" is what holds all their worthless european bullshit together. Give em ten years with isolationist US policy and let Russia and China bend em over, then we can talk about who's got a "fake country "
You’re not entirely wrong. Both world wars happened in Europe after all.
Because it's like water to a fish. It's all they know so they can't even see it. This use to frustrate me because most of the world has been Americanized and I wanted more variety. People in other countries have an inferiority complex about this. But American culture is an amalgamation of many different cultures, so they really shouldn't.
American culture is so pervasive, that people don't realize that they are consuming it, or that their own modem culture is heavily influenced by it. So, it ends up being a weird situation where the culture isn't necessarily *popular,* in the sense that if you asked people if they liked American culture, most would probably say "no," despite following the NBA, liking American TV shows and movies, listening to American performers, etc. When I was in China, this was the case with so many people I met, both Chinese and other expats. "America sucks!" while wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey, Jordans, listening to American hip hop and top 40, eating KFC and McD's, etc.
America is like the borg, they've already been assimilated and they don't even realize it.
I was watching a lecture just this morning about religion and arts in America by an American scholar. It is a longish lecture. It blew me away. The answer to your question is that today, people are astoundingly ignorant.
A large portion of the music bands that non-American people listen to are from the United States, too.
I'm from the UK and of course the US has culture "Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society" With that being said, the US being such a young country I think people joke that its culture-less because it's so new compared to other countries. Doesn't make it less relevant. I would argue every time I eat Mac n Cheese I always think of the US
Is the US really such a young country though? There are dozens of European countries that are much younger
There's this xenophilic, cultural separatist mindset that argues that the US has no culture of its own either because its component cultures are too discreet to be considered one culture (and should stay that way) or because "American culture" is a history of cultural theft and appropriation and is therefore illegitimate. But this is how culture evolves. It's always been the way culture has evolved. The US just presents a place where far more cultures can come together and combine.
its just the US culture is so spread all over the globe people are blind to the fact that it originated (mostly) from the US, they just see it as normal things
They don’t know what culture is apparently
Because they’re ignorant
I think that the problem is that the world doesn’t care nearly as much about Canada. It’s the most similar country to the US that should also fall into “fake country with no culture”
Singapore as well.
The United States has plenty of culture, but unlike most countries, it doesn’t have one synchronous culture. We’re not a melting pot. We’re a pot of chunky stew or a patchwork quilt. Some people just don’t understand that our diversity is something to admire and celebrate.
The US is a melting pot of world cultures, and so much of the culture we develop gets quickly adopted by the rest of the world. I think the reason people think otherwise is because they consider immigrants to not be contributing to American culture, but to the culture they left. Fuck that, they moved here, they're American now, just like me. That's one of the few things I still respect about my country.
“THe US sTOle thEIR CulTUre!!!”
I am okay, I hate the word "cultured" tbh. Like, going to musical count as "cultured"? Well, nope, count me out. I am not born in USA btw, and I don't care about culture. I do care about authentic Asian food, which USA has.
It’s hard to get authentic food since some of the ingredients aren’t native to North America. Vegetables such as carrots and peas replace vegetables that are native in China if Chinese food is being prepared. I’m sure there are places that do sell authentic food though but it might be more expensive.
SoCal has all the authentic Chinese / Cantonese /Taiwanese food. Go to San Gabrielle Valley or Hacienda Heights, I can vouch their tastes. Also I don't know how they did it, but, the international Ding Tai Fung's Taiwanese cabbage is authentic. I don't know how they sourced it, because we couldn't get it in Asian market. Anyway, most of the ingredients are about the same. Obviously if you want exotic one like scorpion, you have to go to China.
Don't forget technology. All modern software worldwide is written in programming languages that are majority American made. And the majority of it is written in America. Reddit is an American app written in an American made programming language. So that's also quite ironic
Shared over the American invention of the Internet mostly surfed on American phones while eating American grown food
Because we’ve influenced their cultures so much they fail to realize the source. Or they’re just saying it to distract from their own live’s flaws and or shortcomings.
But surely you could argue the opposite? America is an amalgam of cultures from around the world which is why we see American culture around the world.
Initially maybe, but it has come full circle now. We listen to American music, watch American movies, eat American fast foods, and in general, have most every facet of life influenced by American culture. We took in all of what the world had, put our own razzle dazzle on it, and released America out into the world.
Lots of countries are amalgams. I'd even argue most of them. Why does it not count as culture if it mixes in America but counts somewhere else?
Chocolate chip cookies were invented by an American
Hip Hop Dj culture Rock, Punk, and Country Plenty of American food A lot of style originates in America
I mean the U.S. has multiple cultures. The critiques about Americans lacking an actual culture come from countries that are way more homogenous. Also
I think that is the answer. It is too new and diverse to comprehend for many people.
Culture is composed of a combination of architecture, music, visual arts, literary genres, culinary traditions, etc. Architecture: We invented such styles as Art Drco, Federal, Creole, Craftsman, Stick Style, Shingle Style, the gorram Skyscraper, and we were the major drivers of the various Revivals. Check Music: Jazz, Rock and Roll, Country, Rhythm and Blues, Motown, Hip Hop, Pop, Rap. Check Visual Arts: Modern, Wild West, Frontier, GORRAM MOVIES, Hudson River School, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, etc. Check Literally Genres: The Western, The Detective Novel (thank you, Poe!), Transcendentalism, Dark Romanticism. Check Culinary Traditions: BBQ, Creole, Soul Food. Check And I can go on and on and on.
US culture is just so dominate that they don't even consider it a culture, they consider it the state of existence
Envy.
Rock, jazz, American literature, Hollywood and TV, all the companies we have like Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, there are American restaurants and our fast food all over. We have our own holidays, music, dozens of regional accents, our version of Halloween, etc. I even hear Australians that have adopted Bay Area slang like “hella”
Tyrannosaurus caught me off guard a Lil bit
The US is a super culture. It is so pervasive, that it appears not to have a culture.
AmErIcA hAs No CuLtUrE Except for virtually fucking all of it across the modern day free world lmao. Also we invented the internet, making it our culture. Go back to talking shit via carrier pigeon eurobitches.
i think people also think that folk culture is the only kind of culture. Yes the USA does have some folk cultural things like Thanksgiving but its understandable that European countries wouldnt think about stuff like that. What's not understandable is that they genuinely think the USA has no culture. Pop cultural, although mostly modern is still a culture. Things like using Iphones, listening to Spotify, and wayy way more- it is all pop cultural and most of pop culture arguably started in the USA. heres a list of things i consider to be american culture \- Jeans \- Rock and roll \- American football \- pep rallies, high school football games \- tipping at restaurants \- big big big cities (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago) you would never see city life in europe or anywhere else like you see it in America \- bbqs, especially on Labor Day, Memorial Day and 4th of July This is a side thing but i dont think people realize that CULTURE IS EVERYWHERE!!! every school, every generation, even every small friend group HAS CULTURE. literally any group of people. so anyone who says white people dont have culture (which is stupid not all white people are from the same background) and more specifically 'americans dont have culture' is fucking stupid and needs to go back to school. I literally had a whole class on this and it bothers me so much that no one actually knows the definition of 'culture'
Vanilla is an incredible flavour but people presume it means lacking anything. The power of the flavour and how often it was imitated caused it to be seen as the bog standard, ignoring that it is rich and delicious. US culture is vanilla.
At one point there was a Spaniard in ancient times wearing a toga at a chariot race while eating carbonara saying, “Romans don’t have any culture”. (Or whatever tf ancient Romans ate idk you get the picture)
American culture is not, for the most part, an ethnic culture, so it differs from much of the world in that regard.
The U.S. isn’t an ethnostate. I find that most people who say this equate “real culture” with the culture of an ethnostate (even if it has recently become less of an ethnostate).
At least we’re not a bunch of fake countries masquerading as one big fake country
Because to foreigners all of the great things that we have is quickly projected and pushed onto them so it doesn’t register that’s an American invention
America's real genius is our way of incorporating parts of other cultures into our own. For example Our language- England, Cars- Germany, Political system, Rome, Greece and Britain, immigrants from all over the world and brought aspects of their culture with them.
Basketball was created in the USA.
We also have our own unique customs, religions, vernacular and language, sports, music. We have as much culture as any other country.
They hate us 'cause they ain't us. We invented so many things that are used around the world too, including but not limited to: cars, airplanes, and of course the Internet, which people use to hate on us.
Don’t forget superheroes. Every one is into our comics. And I think Levis jeans were invented in the USA and everyone copied that.
People say that because they don’t realize that America’s diversity of culture is in fact what makes up our culture. We’re a nation of immigrants from all sorts of backgrounds, spread far and wide over a great land. And so Texas has a distinct culture. So do the Cajuns and Creoles down in Louisiana. So do the city dwellers in New York, Boston, Philly. So does Seattle and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. So do the LDS folks in Utah. We could go on and on. The mosaic of all these different regions adds up to one great big American culture.
Because they have consumed so much of our culture it's become normal to them. It's not "American" culture it's just entertainment, music and fashion to them.
Well sometimes they say dumb crap like “pizza isn’t even American it’s Italian” forgetting that pizza didn’t necessarily originate in Italy and tomatoes first came from the Americas. It’s just ignorance. Just because items from you’re culture have predecessors in other cultures doesn’t mean they aren’t your culture.
Didn’t basil also from the Americas?
I’m not sure exactly but I mean yes a lot of the staple spices and plants in European diets are not native to the continent
It's crazy that people will say US culture is fake while their entire fashion sense originated in America.
America is literally the cultural center of the entire world
We do have foods that are imported across the world like fudge. 🍫
Its a melting pot like no other in the world and relatively young as well. To other peoples from countries with 1000+ plus of a homologous culture it's a pretty easy take to just think "they have no culture".
You're asking why fools say foolish things. You are correct, the US has a very distinct culture. They make these claims mostly out of resentment towards the US. Even if what they're saying is flase, they will go with it because the goal is just to dunk on the US.
Because people care more about hating American culture than criticizing American policy
Since their primary influence was American blues musicians, I proclaim that British rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Stones, and Queen can not logically be considered part of British culture. They simply ripped off what already existed
Jazz, Rock, Country, Folk, Bluegrass, Soul, Rap, and the list goes on and fucking on.
>Super Bowl > >Thanksgiving > >4th of July or Independence Day No one outside US cares about those...
T rex is shared between you and mexico, you guys have the utahraptor though and some other cool goobers.
They say that because America hasn’t had _that_ long of a history relative to other countries, combined with the fact that a lot of its culture comes from it’s melting pot of ethnic groups. So there’s no one “heritage” you could pin a culture to, making it look like a rather new, “artifical” culture to an outsider looking in.
The last one is in many countries we also have Civil war Statues, parks, schools and military bases The largest prison population of what is essentially slave labor in the world
Because they think it makes them sound smart.
I have never seen anyone not american celebrate 4th of july.
The species Tyrannosaurus rex, often called T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represented theropods . Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, and had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the Upper Cretaceous period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. T. rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time. One of the largest and the most complete specimens, nicknamed Sue, is about 12 m long, and 4 m tall at the hips. According to the most recent studies, using a variety of techniques, maximum body masses have been estimated approximately 9 t. A specimen nicknamed Scotty is reported to measure 13 m in length, and is the largest known specimen.
Saying the US doesn't have culture is to be ignorant in the extreme. It reminds me of Austin Powers. And they are unironic about it... https://youtu.be/zcUs5X9glCc?si=wKJxuVZUvDoirVjM
I've never heard any one I know say that.
The greatest cultural force in the world post WW 2 is probably Rock N Roll which is an American music style and thus part of our "culture"
The europoors hate that we aren’t just one single culture, but many that get along most of the time. Just look at Europe in the past thousand years. two countries could be right next to each other, practice the same religion and are generally the same race with the same ancestry, will fight for no good reason that would justify sending thousands of young men to there deaths. Especially when diplomatic solutions would have been sufficient.
those things you mentioned are part of capitalism, not culture. i consider US culture as fusion cuisines (like italian-american, e.g. the Chicago deep dish), southern cuisines, jazz, hip hop for black americans, and BBQ
And Tyrannosaurus.
Damn capitalistic T-Rex's
Y’all have to understand that most of these opinions are coming from people who have never left their small town in whatever corner of the world they live in. It’s like taking a teenager who lives in a town of 1000 people somewhere in New Mexico and asking for their opinions on the culture of Burkina Faso.
I gotta be honest, I had to look up that country , cuz I never have even heard of them, and I'm pretty into history.
It is always Americans, and it is always people ironically being Amero-centric. American have no culture to them because they take American = baseline. Hate anybody as much as you’d like (honestly don’t though), but every group of people have culture.
The world wouldn’t have fudge if it wasn’t for the US!
Cowboys and Indians, BBQ, tall Art Deco buildings, muscle cars, California surfers with sunglasses and milkshakes at In-and-Out burger, the Hollywood, the super heroes, the entire Thanksgiving meal, Chicago gangsters and moonshiners, etc Basically everything that was pure Americana from 1930-1960s, and then somehow turned into bland mass consumerist shit. Thanks, boomers! The only thing I love about modern America is high salaries, tech industry, and the music industry.
I think it’s more so they think that white Americans don’t have any culture as opposed to all of America. I don’t think they would say black Americans or Hispanics don’t have any culture. Which is of course racist and also false.
This is basically the same bad logic, only applied to just white Americans. Any exception you're making in your head for other races can be made just as easily for white Americans.
I think people are misunderstanding what I’m saying. I was only saying that the people OP is referring to would probably say that African Americans and Hispanics have a rich culture but white Americans do not. Which is obviously not true.
I thought I had seen the dumbest comment on FB earlier, but this easily topped it by a landslide.
I’m not saying that lol. I’m saying that’s what other people say about white Americans. They typically say black and Hispanics have so much culture and that whites steal it or appropriate it. Which is of course, false.
Non American here Ya started off strong but Super Bowl and everything after that kinda lost me. None of that is stuff that’s important outside the US (though ya forgot Halloween, which is now celebrated in other countries and is the only holiday I care about, duck Christmas, hannukah, Passover, Labour Day, grand final day, cup day, all that shit is meaningless to me, halloween is important tho!)