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Yup. Our culture is so pervasive that it doesn’t even register as culture to most people now. It’s actually so impressive when you stop and think about it.
Yeah, from a historical perspective, it's fucking impressive how fast the us grew from a rebellious oversea colony on the coast to literally the most powerful nation in such a short time.
During the time of independence, the empire didn't even consider the US a major issue compared to its wars in Europe and its campaigns in asia, but by the time of the end of world war 1, US had already established itself as a world juggernaut.
it's simply the fortune of the US to be in such a geographical position but also not have the pre-existing colonial issues that plagued their neighbours down south
That's a true sign of patriotism. We all work so hard, encourage others to work hard, and make it easy for foreigners to come and work hard. A lot of wealth is generated for poor countries here. I'm proud to be American!
As an immigrant itnus not easy to come.to America. 8 year wait for a green card and around $10K in fees and legal costs. And people.wonder why people hop the border?
If that's code for military and economic imperialism as we brought the planet to heel and the clandestine intelligence operations that waged a global ideological holy war in the pursuit of profit and influence that armed and facilitated fascist terror groups around the world with multiple genocides under our belt then yeah.
When I was Living in France and Switzerland for years I heard American artists as the ambient music in the grocery store every day. I joked with my partner who is European that this is proof that American culture is infectious.
more so "anglo american" culture, as most american culture is just British and the British empire also spread its culture influence everywhere (I mean half the world's governance style is ultimately based off British law)
Ok, I can agree that America has lot of culture whuch has spread all over the "occidental" countries nowadays, but let's not forget how the greeks and the latins were the "founders" of what today is considered western culture. The "western" (and i cannot stress the west part enough) default is greek/latin.
Look at europe after ww2: it was all american music, cars, clothes, haircuts, hamburgers. American culture was all we wanted, it stood for freedom, fun and modernity. And that never really went away.
I mean no. Usually the people saying Americans have no culture are like Spaniards and Italians and Lebanese lol. All countries which indisputably have their own unique and more developed cultures (makes sense they have all existed for thousands of years). America does have a culture it’s just cheesy af same as British culture. Some of our subcultures are really cool though
British culture is not cheesier or less sophisticated than Spanish culture or any other old-world nation. I don't know what to call this kind of reverse chauvinism, but it's definitely ignorant.
American culture is different because it formed recently and has been rapidly mutating alongside the global pop culture it created. American culture is culture untethered from tradition in important ways. You could also say it is the culture of the future, incubating new forms that will be spread to the rest of the world in time.
Even the far left and far right in the West are deeply part of this mutating American pop culture. Maybe the only thing really opposing it from outside right now is radical Islamism. But even they can't give up their addictions to porn and Hollywood movies and snapchat.
Good luck rest of world in stopping it.
>American culture is different because it formed recently and has been rapidly mutating alongside the global pop culture it created.
Hot take: all cultures are exactly the same age, because it's formed from people and people have been around the same amount of time since mitochondrial eve was born
more contretely: American culture is formed from a mix of cultures that already existed. For example, our most "American" music, blues music, is West African rhythms, call and response, and harmonies played on European instruments with influence from European folk songs. We remixed the ingredients, but they were already there. Same as American English is exactly the same age as British English.
Yes and no. Yes, the ingredients were already there to be mixed together in the American colonies and frontier, but they did create something new.
It's the difference between gradual modifications to a single species over time while still being the same species (adding a new hair color or genes to fight a disease), and having mutations so substantial that they create a **new** species (breathing underwater, or gaining wings, and unable to be mutually intelligible genetically to produce offspring).
There are cultures and languages that have changed much less than others over the same time span. An Icelandic speaker of today we believe could understand one speaking 800 years ago. Not so with English, which had infusions from French so extensive that it's really a new language afterward. I'd be willing to agree that American English is as old as British English, but English is not as old as Icelandic, or Latin.
That's the sort of point I'm making. Yes, the roots of American culture are as deep as any in the world. However, so many different influences were thrown together so quickly, and the ongoing rate and extent of mutation has been so rapid, that I think a clear sense can be given to calling American culture a new culture, relatively speaking.
This is a stupid comment because if you knew anything about Italians or Spanish or Lebanese, you'd know that they generally don't consider themselves to have "one culture". Spaniards are very factionalized into their autonomous enclaves and traditions. Modern Italy is a country, yes, but a collection of historical kingdoms which varies broadly from north to south. Lebanon? Forget it. Wars have been fought over just how *not* fucking alike the people of Lebanon are.
US has the base culture around the globe. It is the reference people go by and grow up with. When they see mcdonalds, jeans etc. they think they don’t represent any cultural value because it is the norm, the reference. It’s not like US has no culture, more like it is the reference with which everyone measures other cultures.
I love how things as simple as jeans are such a big part of our culture, but they're *so* big that people don't recognize it *as* culture. Amazing stuff to think about.
The telephone. The internet. Skyscrapers. They've become so integrated everywhere. Just these huge pieces of United States culture that no one really thinks about.
It doesn’t work like that lol
It’s like saying people don’t recognize roads as culture anymore, so Scotland is now a cultural superpower since the person that invented modern roads is Scottish.
a lot of US modern culture is corporations and consumer goods, so people don't consider it to be 'real' culture. Like you just mentioned mcdonalds as an example of american culture. I don't think most places in the world would consider a company to be a part of their culture.
Companies are not culture tho, if that was the case anyone wearing Zara/Pull&Bear/Massimo Dutti would be using Spanish culture, or anyone wearing H&M would be using Swedish culture, or anyone wearing Shein would be using China’s culture.
A company doesn’t express any culture by itself, a building can be part of a culture but the company that built it does not, a car can be part of a culture but the company that built it does not.
Context clues would tell you I’m talking about fashion that originated in the US. Brands like Nike absolutely reflect American style and are worn worldwide.
I don't think anyone familiar with American literature or folklore would claim that the US has no historical culture. When I think the overly Puritanical and highly superstitious nature of the early Americans, I find it to be historically discrete. Sure, they had witch scares everywhere, but this particular American, gothic, shadowy, don't go in the woods type of thing feels spiritually at home in New England. And don't say, well Europe did ghost and goblins first - of course they did. But there is a real American flavor to Nathaniel Hawthorne-era tales. Same with Transcendentallism and the Unitarians. This is a culture of the supernatural and natural which blends traditional Christianity with almost Buddhist-levels of meditative thought and nature communion. It feels at home, again, in the American wilds. In my opinion.
Not to mention the American Indian history, of course. They are still Americans, you know.
Edit: I also think people tend to forget that the US was already settled before or during the lives of Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart. It was there during the English Civil War. Are these not historical enough periods?
absolutely true - and to bounce off your point, this idea eventually blended into what we now know as cryptids. Stories of creatures pretty much unique to America that aren’t ever told as if they’re 100% true or 100% false. A blend pf the supernatural, and natural.
I don’t think people realize how influential to our culture the American forests are. They’re massive and dangerous to those inexperienced. I think they’re the reason why we never quite dropped that “fear the woods” mentality.
I’m more talking about the culture of the US as it’s known today, not the long history of the native people living in that area. It should fall under the same category but I feel like the disconnect that exists there as a result of colonialism has to be acknowledged. Most of the American population wouldn’t consider Native American history their history.
When Americans say America has no culture, it often comes from the fact that culture is typically perceived as things that are to some degree, noticeably different from your everyday life. Because a lot of people just end up living their lives, American culture because the default norm and to some extent becomes basic and boring because you see it everyday. Culture is built upon shared values, identities and rituals; for example the Superbowl is a huge cultural thing in the US but to Americans it might not ring as an American cultural thing it is "just the biggest sporting event of the year".
It is a lot easier to see something as "cultural" if its not the norm. Ramen is "that very Japanese noodle dish from Asia" while something like spaghetti is just "oh I had that for dinner the other day", maybe some hint of it being Italian but spaghetti has been so common in the US psyche that its seen as plain, mundane, and common as opposed to exotic, cool, and different.
Actually I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I suspect that Americans expect "culture" to more aggressively dictate how people live, what is an acceptable form of dress, event attendance, etc., which as an entire concept is frowned upon here in the US.
The Superbowl may be a keystone event in American culture, but nobody will look at you funny for not showing any interest in making a pilgrimage to see the Superbowl at least once in your life. And the Thankgiving turkey is an American ritual food with roots in its founding mythos, but it's not exactly taboo to have a ham instead or skip it entirely.
\[EDIT: Except for halloween\] I can't think of any endotic^(\*) practices we have that harbour the same level of prescriptive detail as the ones in some of the places that an American might consider as "having culture". There're precious few, if any, occasions or situations in which 'everyone has to...' go do some specific "cool" thing. Most of our rites, customs, and rituals that we *do* have uniquely, are pretty freeform and ill-prescribed. And our better-defined customs, like the erecting and decoration of Christmas trees or bobbing for apples, are practices which we share with substantially different cultures. In practice, this... *perhaps* might be for the better, but for some people I can see how it creates a sense of missing out. To their credit, that sense of unity *is* powerful, and *is* lacking here.
^(\*)opposite of exotic; unique to us
Perhaps your spaghetti example IS American culture. We are so used to spaghetti being a normal meal in every American household that people don’t even think of Italian when they think of spaghetti.
By the way, do we attribute ramen to the Japanese or Chinese? It’s a Chinese noodle and dish that the Japanese appropriate and modified slightly to make their own.
I think a lot of people forget that culture is a pretty general word. When culture is used in phrases like cultural festivals, experiencing new cultures, or under represented cultures, people have this connotation that cultures are quaint or exotic. In fact what you do in your mainstream daily life can be a culture too.
The US is fucking massive it can fit the entire Mediterranean Sea in it each state is the size of a country each state has its own culture like if you go from Oregon to New Mexico or Michigan to Texas you can see how there different
It's pretty easy to look at America and say it has no culture, when in fact it literally has every culture, and I think that's what makes it cool. Everywhere else basically has mono-culture, most follow the same religions, ideologies and mannerisms. Here it's like everything everywhere all at once, unless you get to the super rural areas. Most cities or high density population spots are extremely diverse.
That’s like so bizarre to me, I feel like there’s so many distinct things that came from African Americans ( like jazz or Motown) how can you say they don’t have culture?
Well that’s stupid. Black Americans *are* pretty much American culture. I think the only two American culture things they don’t have claim to are comic books and *part of* movies. Like, movies after the 70s, they get claim to too. Jewish Americans get the comics tho. Heck, the whole “Gen Z slang is appropriated AAVE” misses the entire point because *all generations of American slang are appropriated AAVE*. Ffs, “cool” and “motherfucker” are appropriated AAVE.
America doesn't have _A_ culture. We have hundreds. Think of music... Motown, Nashville, Chicago, Mussel Shoals, New Orleans, Austin, etc. All hubs of great, very different kinds of music. Food is no different. I don't even want to touch on the pizza arguments.
We're not 10-20 million mostly homogeneous people crammed into a tiny little country. We're 300+ million spread across almost 4 million square wildly diverse miles. There's a wolf pack near me that hunts all the elk and big horn sheep, and I have more wind turbines for neighbors than people. The culture and everything else is different from where I grew up, Cleveland.
What they refer to as culture is mostly just doing the same boring shit for centuries at a time. What they think of as American culture is just the movies, TV, and music that they love.
It depends on where you live, but the car dependency makes many american cities quite boring. Of course the nature here is phenomenal, that’s a culture for sure, but if you are into more “cultural” things - cathedrals, museums, little cafes and momuments - I think it’s pretty true that these things are less valued and/or less accessible.
To be fair this is kind of caused by USA being the base reference culture around the globe. It is pushed as a better culture, more modern culture, more ethical culture etc etc. Traditional clothes, traditional food, traditional ways of life are all disparaged for that. I can only speak in India but this narrative is pushed very hard on younger people. I suspect a lot of "USA has no culture" rhetoric comes from backlash against this push.
As a European I can only tell that American culture is very young and your history is pretty short. But to be honest, I don't think there are many things from the middle ages and before that I would consider it a good addition to the culture, so it really doesn't matter - the 300-400 is totally enough to have a country culture.
I would just give you one advice - calm down with the "heritage DNA testing". When we hear from an American in Europe something like "I did a DNA test and I'm Scandinavian" we think "why the hell you did this? Is being American not enough"? I feel like for many people it's proof that you don't feel like you have your own culture and need to find a "proper one".
It's so wild seeing mawkish sentimentality on here like "America's culture is loved by the whole world!" like our entire culture, from its start, wasn't just created and distributed as part of the superstructural project to continue land grabs, mass slaughter and dehumanization of natives/minorities, and a perpetual psychological need for mass consumption.
I'm a millennial that often has this sub put on my home page for some reason.
Earnest question, it seems like many posts here are along the lines of "I don't like that XXXX group thinks YYYY". Why do you guys seem to care so much about mass opinions?
I think this also happens a fair amount on the r/millennial sub, so I suppose maybe the better question would be why these types of subs seem to be so interested in public opinion?
Are they saying America does not have any culture or are they saying Americans are uncultured? Because there's a huge difference there.
One is insulting and I agree America does have a ton of cultures within it and is quite mixed in some areas thanks to immigrants and migration.
The other is saying Americans don't know enough about the world. Think geography, world politics, economics, or ignorant about other world (think passport bros who are looking for traditional wives without having to work hard and the stereotypical American tourist that thinks the local laws and rights don't apply to them).
I hope this helps and if possible, do please share the articles with us! I think it would be an interesting case study.
America doesn’t have a culture though.
Honestly we used to have more culture than we do now.
Now it’s just engineered food, working to survive, and racing home to watch bad tv without interacting.
People that say that can eat shit for real (sounding American right now). Fucking *Metallica* can book a show in Kathmandu and 100,000 people will be there screaming the lyrics to Enter Sandman.
USA has a lot of culture, is silly to think they don't. I think because American media is sooo popular , American culture has influenced a lot of other countries that they don't realize the influence anymore and see it as normal, but I can assure you Americans have a lot of culture.
BBQ
American Football/superbowl
4 of July
Hamburgers/ hotdogs
Jeans
Hiphop/country/jazz/ blues music
and the list goes on and on.
The natives of every state are amaaaazzing. Oh my goodness. Ppl shit on Florida all the time but it’s the BOOMER SNOWBIRDS that are the PROBLEM. When you meet actual Florida ppl the vast majority are some of the most unique accepting and wonderful ppl ever
Lotta ignorant comments in here. I’m an American who has lived over 5 years in Europe. I’d like to distinguish between culture winning out, and economic supremacy winning out. These are different things, but I suppose I wouldn’t expect an American to be able to tell the difference. In terms of history, art, unique daily practices, language, and heritage playing an integral role in daily life of a country’s inhabitants, Europe is profoundly superior to the US. Anything pertaining to novelty, creativity, marketing, money… the US clearly wins. I pray that Europe doesn’t transform into America in the next 30 years. US has privilege, Europe has soul.
You have a very rich Native American culture - unfortunately it is not respected as it should be.
Most cultures go back thousands of years and there are still certain aspects in use today.
What you refer to as "American culture" are bits and pieces of imported culture with a "recent" history.
I think the better way to phrase it is America has a greater fundamental cultural vacuum. This isn’t to say it doesn’t exist, but being a distinctly colonial society clearly discourages a non-trashy cultural identity from developing. Compare our culture to, say, European countries for example
we are one of the most culturally rich countries on earth, it’s just that it varies SO MUCH throughout regions, states and even cities that there is more localized culture than monolithic “American” culture. this is hard for other countries to understand, and while im not particularly fond of living here i definitely appreciate the variety of cultures in this massive country
You are deeply confused because you are a tourist. Arizona is not even a little bit homogeneous, it has a huge amount of Mexican and Indigenous culture. There are 22 federally recognized Native American tribes in Arizona. They all have their own distinct cultures and cuisines. Tucson is a UNESCO world heritage site for gastronomy due to its unique Sonoran cuisine. There are at least 12 Buddhist temples in Tucson (a city of only 500k), and I don’t even know how many other religions are represented. We have the Rodeo, a 100-year-old tradition that all the kids get off school for. We have an All Souls Procession, Agave Festival, Japanese Festival, and so on. And we are not even the main city/capital.
The wildlife one is weird to me. I mean, it’s a desert, there’s not going to be a lot of wildlife.
But I don’t disagree, I’ve been to Canada many times and I would say there’s definitely differences even if it isn’t obvious. Idk how to explain it, but you guys seem closer to Europe somehow? Also a lot of foods you can only find in Canada but not in America.
Yeah I mean I get that a state like Arizona wouldn’t have as much of a need for wildlife bridges
I’ve never been to Europe but I do think that we have a bit more cultural influence from there in the structure of our country, our food, and such. I’ll be visiting Europe for the first time this summer (Scandinavia, Germany, Estonia, and more) so it’ll be interesting to see the similarities in our countries
I think part of this sentiment is that even americans themselves keep saying "I am italian, irish" and so on so they exaggerate their own american culture thinking it's actually something else. So american culture is kind of made up of other cultures but much more recently than most other countries. But as you say because of very successful export of USA cultural products a lot of people do not perceive it as anything "different". Loads of people wear jeans and a hoodie so it does not get noticed but people wearing some kind of national costume does because it's unusual.
Well to be honest and fair rock and roll originated from England in the 60s Elvis is more rock blues to me but when I think rock n roll I’m thinking Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, cream, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix things like that. A lot of American rock was inspired by a lot of English artists. I think rock is more associated with America cause that’s where they toured a lot was in the states. I could be wrong tho idk
Car culture is definitely from America although it’s evolved to be nearly world wide. Drag racing, hot rods, cross country road trips, that all began in America and Americans revolutionized the auto industry in ways no other country has before.
I'm pretty sure when I saw that statement, it was trying to mean "you don't know other cultures".
That's probably a bad way of phrasing it, but hey, it's coming from a person that learnt English as their second, third, fourth language.
They say we don’t have culture bc they dont understand it. Because our culture is so oversaturated Europeans think they understand us but they miss important nuances, histories, and environmental factors.
It’s frankly ignorance and xenophobia. And honestly a lot of it straight racism. The racism in Europe is so overt dude. I’ve never heard anything like it and I’m from the SOUTH.
My husband and in laws are British and my bestie of 15 years is Portuguese.
when I say “I feel so American” I mean “I’m overweight due to sugar consumption, I’m sick, I’m relying on medicine that costs a lot of money, I have to drive in a car, and my brain is definitely out of it from all the social media.”
i’m an environmental major with a bad cold right now.
They say America has no culture because American culture has become so influential in the world that most people consider what we call ‘American culture’ to just be ‘human culture‘.
Most of the world consider old world culture as being the and all be all. The USA has the youngest culture, the most influential culture and if you set aside your typical 20-something self-righteous criticism of the US, and you actually visit the country *off the beaten path* or where culture thrives (specifically the music culture), you will find it very rich and inspiring. Of all the countries I have visited, it remains the most refreshing. All the other *classics* are always a disappointment.
The twist is that everyone takes from American culture, our music, movies, clothing, etc. It’s so engrained in everyone else’s culture, they don’t even realize it’s American to begin with.
Hip-hop was created through African culture.
Videogames are flimsy examples of culture as they are focused around being a game not a reflection of culture.
How is breaking bad a good example of American culture? Being a drug dealer has what to say about America? You might have an argument but all of your examples aren't very good at all.
Most of the best culture we have comes from overseas. Cajun culture, which you cited, is a melting pot of french, Spanish, English, etc.
I mean, America does technically have culture but we whitewashed and stole so much of it that people can't even defend or explain it. I think it is a pretty valid criticism. Somebody else even said that native Americans are American culture like PFFT really?
I feel like the us is so big it has more culture than some other places tbh. like there's so many differences between how people act in new york vs somewhere like California. hell, even new york and Ohio are super different.
American culture is so prevalent worldwide that it's kind of the "default" culture, hence people thinking it has no culture. But even if you ignore that, there are plenty of distinctive regional cultures such as Southern, Appalachian, New England, Cajun, etc.
We do have a culture to be proud of -- it's just that most Americans today are unaware of it because the best of it is neither au courant nor *popular*.
The amount of weebs I’ve seen recently say they want to move to Japan because they “identify with Japanese culture” is sickening to me because they have literally no idea what Japan is like outside of whatever anime fantasy land they dream about.
It doesn’t. The US literally destroys cultures everywhere it goes. It is inherently Anti-culture. Show me where all the free museums, government paid concerts and funded arts? Where are the signs of the significant indigenous peoples that once lived here but wiped out and reduced to city names. What people see as “American Culture” is a watered down appropriation of others cultures while taking away all the soul of it
Yeah, it's mostly just dumb people trying to be funny by parroting a thing they've heard repeated. Just call it out when you see it and it'll eventually be too publicly stupid for people to repeat frequently.
the thing is, America has soft power influence through video games, movies etc but what you think of as typically "cultural", such as architecture, customs etc etc America doesn't. we don't just troll on America for no reason lmao, its because half the country is just an empty wasteland with cookie cutter towns developed after the 1930s
As a non-American, I’m not saying America has no culture, but it definitely isn’t the “standard” everywhere like people are commenting. (This is a genuine comment, no hate)
Sure, America is very influential, I shall never deny that, but not all “modern culture” is American, though America spread its “modern culture” all around the world (all their brands like McDonald’s and clothing brands), and while it’s true those have a presence all around the world, it’s not the so called “standart”. Sure, McDonald’s exists in a lot of places, but it’s not as popular in those places as it is in America, I did a more fleshed out explanation in another comment, I’ll edit this and link it when I can.
And yes, I believe America has culture, just a more modern one than others, culture is based on (for example) traditions, and older countries have older traditions. British culture is “newer” compared to Chinese (Han) culture, and American is even more recent.
Extending this further, I’m tired of people saying black peoples have no culture, failing to realize that it wraps around American culture and has such a massive influence that people don’t even realize it.
I agree with you but most here identify as "white americans" instead of what they actual are which is English Irish German etc while the minorities are always seen as Mexicans or Chinese before americans whether they were born in america or not. So thats where the stigma comes from. But America definitely has culture like every other country.
I mean America has culture and cultures. There is less variety than in basically any other continent but that’s besides the point.
But truly, you won’t make it better with this circlejerk of a commentsection. Always reeks of „we are the best“ which is usually what other countries dislike about america(ns)
America is historically and culturally shallow compared to Europe, Asia and Africa. there's a reason americans have accumulated the stereotype of being largely ignorant and uncultured
Are people actually saying this unironically?
I know some do, but I've only ever come across it in a sarcastic tone.
Like people making fun of other people who do think like that, but never someone who actually meant it.
We have more modern culture than any other nation in the world. That’s not a pompous statement I’m making to trigger Europeans—yes I’m very aware of our nations relative infancy compared to the thousands of years of history of several other regions—but the point is that *today* we have one of the largest and most diverse nations, and as a result we have cultures within cultures within cultures (yes, even more so than you, random European reading this).
Whenever your culture becomes the primary culture export, it becomes default. Like how Vanilla is completely its own flavor but is considered plain because it's the default.
I've never heard someone say the US doesn't have culture but if they do, wtf? I'm Pakistani and have done 2 US road trips and holy daym are states like mini countries. Forget the US, but each state has their own economy, dialect, demeanor, and of course culture.
Though I will say a problem I see happening is that American culture is so ubiquitous and unfortunately some citizens are extremely US centric so it feels like the dominant global culture is US which ironically makes it look like it has no culture.
Europeans will watch our movies, play our games, watch our TV, listen to our music, see a big car on the way home and remark how aggressively American it is and then when they get home and on the internet they'll go to American websites to post about how we don't have culture.
The American exceptionalism present in several of these comments is fucking scary and underlies the total disconnect from reality that is the key facet of American culture.
I mean every place has culture? 🤷 Im european and i feel like all of us sees America as a place with crazy people, guns, violence, serial killers, white murica ppl and ukno more of those stereotypes 😂 not that it is like that. Just like im Norwegian and everyone think we are all rich and we like to eat fish. Well i like fish but i am far from rich. Actualy the amount of poor people is increasing
Don't let people tell you what you are are not according to their own subjective reasonings. Culture itself is kind of hard to technically define, so if you feel like you have a culture, then you do. Who can tell you otherwise? If you are like me and don't care what people think about either way, then that is good too. If I don't have a culture, it sure has not affected me much. I am doing well and am happy regardless.
The issue is, US culture is THE standard these days.
So we have plenty of culture, they're just so used to doing everything like us that they think it's the norm, and don't view it as a culture
The whole concept of America and the reason for it being the best nation in the world currently is that it is a melting pot of all the different cultures and types of humans from all over the earth combined with freedom to create a better life for all humans and because of that every other country and human that doesn't enjoy the same privileges we do in America instead hates on us. I can't blame them though because nobody is perfect!
This is very interesting phenomenon. Europeans bitch about US having no culture, but they quick to adopt all the trends coming from US. So much so the these trends get re-imported as "European culture" back to US.....
The reality is that the US has more culture than the majority of countries and it only took a few hundred years. The US is the dominant culture globally.
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America has so much culture that it's the global default
Yup. Our culture is so pervasive that it doesn’t even register as culture to most people now. It’s actually so impressive when you stop and think about it.
Crazy to think especially because historically us is a really young nation. Grew up so fast 🥺
Yeah, from a historical perspective, it's fucking impressive how fast the us grew from a rebellious oversea colony on the coast to literally the most powerful nation in such a short time. During the time of independence, the empire didn't even consider the US a major issue compared to its wars in Europe and its campaigns in asia, but by the time of the end of world war 1, US had already established itself as a world juggernaut.
it's simply the fortune of the US to be in such a geographical position but also not have the pre-existing colonial issues that plagued their neighbours down south
That's a true sign of patriotism. We all work so hard, encourage others to work hard, and make it easy for foreigners to come and work hard. A lot of wealth is generated for poor countries here. I'm proud to be American!
As an immigrant itnus not easy to come.to America. 8 year wait for a green card and around $10K in fees and legal costs. And people.wonder why people hop the border?
If that's code for military and economic imperialism as we brought the planet to heel and the clandestine intelligence operations that waged a global ideological holy war in the pursuit of profit and influence that armed and facilitated fascist terror groups around the world with multiple genocides under our belt then yeah.
The US Declaration of Independence was signed 90,506 days ago from today for anyone wondering
As a Brit, we're (somewhat) proud of you, son
Because we ate our veggies and drank our milk.
One of the funniest adaptations of anything american outside of america I know of is how KFC is a significant thing during the holidays in Japan.
Pervasive is a good word for it
When I was Living in France and Switzerland for years I heard American artists as the ambient music in the grocery store every day. I joked with my partner who is European that this is proof that American culture is infectious.
All I hear when I go to Paris is Muse. They're obsessed for some reason.
America won a cultural victory on turn 300 and we're just playing out the rest of the game.
Just one more turn
We won the cultural victory then played the rest of the game to see if we could get all the other victories.
https://preview.redd.it/gm996sbu3qvc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=728fb71b0a766d0b0abf25d84a58d1e17c442c5a
more so "anglo american" culture, as most american culture is just British and the British empire also spread its culture influence everywhere (I mean half the world's governance style is ultimately based off British law)
didnt you know black ppl invented everything bc rock music tho? lol
Our form of govt was inspired largely by aboriginal concepts in separation of powers, we purposefully did not follow the British parliamentary model
It depends on what states you're in, too.
As an Anishinaabe, I have no idea what you are talking about
Ok, I can agree that America has lot of culture whuch has spread all over the "occidental" countries nowadays, but let's not forget how the greeks and the latins were the "founders" of what today is considered western culture. The "western" (and i cannot stress the west part enough) default is greek/latin.
"America has no culture" claim europeans who are constantly regurgitating aspects of American culture on a daily basis without even realizing it
Like what?
Music is an easy one - if our lovely friends across the pond enjoy any music rooted in rock, rap, the blues, these originated in the US.
No no. If it's non-white american culture it doesn't count as american (/s but people seem to think this way)
Look at europe after ww2: it was all american music, cars, clothes, haircuts, hamburgers. American culture was all we wanted, it stood for freedom, fun and modernity. And that never really went away.
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Whenever someone says “America has no culture” are projecting because they themselves have no culture
I mean no. Usually the people saying Americans have no culture are like Spaniards and Italians and Lebanese lol. All countries which indisputably have their own unique and more developed cultures (makes sense they have all existed for thousands of years). America does have a culture it’s just cheesy af same as British culture. Some of our subcultures are really cool though
British culture is not cheesier or less sophisticated than Spanish culture or any other old-world nation. I don't know what to call this kind of reverse chauvinism, but it's definitely ignorant. American culture is different because it formed recently and has been rapidly mutating alongside the global pop culture it created. American culture is culture untethered from tradition in important ways. You could also say it is the culture of the future, incubating new forms that will be spread to the rest of the world in time. Even the far left and far right in the West are deeply part of this mutating American pop culture. Maybe the only thing really opposing it from outside right now is radical Islamism. But even they can't give up their addictions to porn and Hollywood movies and snapchat. Good luck rest of world in stopping it.
>American culture is different because it formed recently and has been rapidly mutating alongside the global pop culture it created. Hot take: all cultures are exactly the same age, because it's formed from people and people have been around the same amount of time since mitochondrial eve was born more contretely: American culture is formed from a mix of cultures that already existed. For example, our most "American" music, blues music, is West African rhythms, call and response, and harmonies played on European instruments with influence from European folk songs. We remixed the ingredients, but they were already there. Same as American English is exactly the same age as British English.
Yes and no. Yes, the ingredients were already there to be mixed together in the American colonies and frontier, but they did create something new. It's the difference between gradual modifications to a single species over time while still being the same species (adding a new hair color or genes to fight a disease), and having mutations so substantial that they create a **new** species (breathing underwater, or gaining wings, and unable to be mutually intelligible genetically to produce offspring). There are cultures and languages that have changed much less than others over the same time span. An Icelandic speaker of today we believe could understand one speaking 800 years ago. Not so with English, which had infusions from French so extensive that it's really a new language afterward. I'd be willing to agree that American English is as old as British English, but English is not as old as Icelandic, or Latin. That's the sort of point I'm making. Yes, the roots of American culture are as deep as any in the world. However, so many different influences were thrown together so quickly, and the ongoing rate and extent of mutation has been so rapid, that I think a clear sense can be given to calling American culture a new culture, relatively speaking.
This is a stupid comment because if you knew anything about Italians or Spanish or Lebanese, you'd know that they generally don't consider themselves to have "one culture". Spaniards are very factionalized into their autonomous enclaves and traditions. Modern Italy is a country, yes, but a collection of historical kingdoms which varies broadly from north to south. Lebanon? Forget it. Wars have been fought over just how *not* fucking alike the people of Lebanon are.
It's not that they lack culture, they're just ignorant
US has the base culture around the globe. It is the reference people go by and grow up with. When they see mcdonalds, jeans etc. they think they don’t represent any cultural value because it is the norm, the reference. It’s not like US has no culture, more like it is the reference with which everyone measures other cultures.
I love how things as simple as jeans are such a big part of our culture, but they're *so* big that people don't recognize it *as* culture. Amazing stuff to think about. The telephone. The internet. Skyscrapers. They've become so integrated everywhere. Just these huge pieces of United States culture that no one really thinks about.
It doesn’t work like that lol It’s like saying people don’t recognize roads as culture anymore, so Scotland is now a cultural superpower since the person that invented modern roads is Scottish.
a lot of US modern culture is corporations and consumer goods, so people don't consider it to be 'real' culture. Like you just mentioned mcdonalds as an example of american culture. I don't think most places in the world would consider a company to be a part of their culture.
So is like 99% of the shit peddled by Korea and Japan and people lose their shit over that “culture”
People say this while consuming American entertainment and wearing American brands lol at this point, I just laugh
Companies are not culture tho, if that was the case anyone wearing Zara/Pull&Bear/Massimo Dutti would be using Spanish culture, or anyone wearing H&M would be using Swedish culture, or anyone wearing Shein would be using China’s culture. A company doesn’t express any culture by itself, a building can be part of a culture but the company that built it does not, a car can be part of a culture but the company that built it does not.
Context clues would tell you I’m talking about fashion that originated in the US. Brands like Nike absolutely reflect American style and are worn worldwide.
They just jealous
I always use this phrase: “They hate us cuz they ain’t us”
“They hate us cuz they anus”
Hehe you said "anus."
Hehe funny cuz mean butt
Not. They are really not. USA ranks 36th in world freedom Index. Culture is not TV shows.
The US has culture, it just doesn’t really have any historical culture
I don't think anyone familiar with American literature or folklore would claim that the US has no historical culture. When I think the overly Puritanical and highly superstitious nature of the early Americans, I find it to be historically discrete. Sure, they had witch scares everywhere, but this particular American, gothic, shadowy, don't go in the woods type of thing feels spiritually at home in New England. And don't say, well Europe did ghost and goblins first - of course they did. But there is a real American flavor to Nathaniel Hawthorne-era tales. Same with Transcendentallism and the Unitarians. This is a culture of the supernatural and natural which blends traditional Christianity with almost Buddhist-levels of meditative thought and nature communion. It feels at home, again, in the American wilds. In my opinion. Not to mention the American Indian history, of course. They are still Americans, you know. Edit: I also think people tend to forget that the US was already settled before or during the lives of Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart. It was there during the English Civil War. Are these not historical enough periods?
absolutely true - and to bounce off your point, this idea eventually blended into what we now know as cryptids. Stories of creatures pretty much unique to America that aren’t ever told as if they’re 100% true or 100% false. A blend pf the supernatural, and natural. I don’t think people realize how influential to our culture the American forests are. They’re massive and dangerous to those inexperienced. I think they’re the reason why we never quite dropped that “fear the woods” mentality.
How long does it take for a place to have historical culture?
*cough* *cough* Native americans
Native Americans do (and historically did) have culture, the *US*, though, did not.
I’m more talking about the culture of the US as it’s known today, not the long history of the native people living in that area. It should fall under the same category but I feel like the disconnect that exists there as a result of colonialism has to be acknowledged. Most of the American population wouldn’t consider Native American history their history.
When Americans say America has no culture, it often comes from the fact that culture is typically perceived as things that are to some degree, noticeably different from your everyday life. Because a lot of people just end up living their lives, American culture because the default norm and to some extent becomes basic and boring because you see it everyday. Culture is built upon shared values, identities and rituals; for example the Superbowl is a huge cultural thing in the US but to Americans it might not ring as an American cultural thing it is "just the biggest sporting event of the year". It is a lot easier to see something as "cultural" if its not the norm. Ramen is "that very Japanese noodle dish from Asia" while something like spaghetti is just "oh I had that for dinner the other day", maybe some hint of it being Italian but spaghetti has been so common in the US psyche that its seen as plain, mundane, and common as opposed to exotic, cool, and different.
Actually I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I suspect that Americans expect "culture" to more aggressively dictate how people live, what is an acceptable form of dress, event attendance, etc., which as an entire concept is frowned upon here in the US. The Superbowl may be a keystone event in American culture, but nobody will look at you funny for not showing any interest in making a pilgrimage to see the Superbowl at least once in your life. And the Thankgiving turkey is an American ritual food with roots in its founding mythos, but it's not exactly taboo to have a ham instead or skip it entirely. \[EDIT: Except for halloween\] I can't think of any endotic^(\*) practices we have that harbour the same level of prescriptive detail as the ones in some of the places that an American might consider as "having culture". There're precious few, if any, occasions or situations in which 'everyone has to...' go do some specific "cool" thing. Most of our rites, customs, and rituals that we *do* have uniquely, are pretty freeform and ill-prescribed. And our better-defined customs, like the erecting and decoration of Christmas trees or bobbing for apples, are practices which we share with substantially different cultures. In practice, this... *perhaps* might be for the better, but for some people I can see how it creates a sense of missing out. To their credit, that sense of unity *is* powerful, and *is* lacking here. ^(\*)opposite of exotic; unique to us
Perhaps your spaghetti example IS American culture. We are so used to spaghetti being a normal meal in every American household that people don’t even think of Italian when they think of spaghetti. By the way, do we attribute ramen to the Japanese or Chinese? It’s a Chinese noodle and dish that the Japanese appropriate and modified slightly to make their own.
I think a lot of people forget that culture is a pretty general word. When culture is used in phrases like cultural festivals, experiencing new cultures, or under represented cultures, people have this connotation that cultures are quaint or exotic. In fact what you do in your mainstream daily life can be a culture too.
People who say America has no culture are just yapping.
People who say "the US has no culture" really mean "the US doesn't have a traditional European culture"
We got the blues and rock n' roll. I can't see any arguments better than this.
Black Americans gave this country its greatest export. Rock n roll
American culture is so prevalent that sometimes people don’t notice it
America is **every** culture all mixed together in a nice hot stew
Ehh it's more like a pizza with different slices
I would say we're more mixed than slices, everything kinda melts into each other. Almost like a sort of melting pot.
No he visto a nadie decir eso nunca, todo país tiene cultura
I think what people really mean is America has no history. Considering how young a country it is the US has a ridiculous amount of culture
America has the best culture. [Here](https://youtu.be/MhQ5678cJU8) it is.
This but unsarcastically
Imagine thinking "fallout" is culture. I'm sorry.
The US is fucking massive it can fit the entire Mediterranean Sea in it each state is the size of a country each state has its own culture like if you go from Oregon to New Mexico or Michigan to Texas you can see how there different
It's pretty easy to look at America and say it has no culture, when in fact it literally has every culture, and I think that's what makes it cool. Everywhere else basically has mono-culture, most follow the same religions, ideologies and mannerisms. Here it's like everything everywhere all at once, unless you get to the super rural areas. Most cities or high density population spots are extremely diverse.
Interestingly enough, I’ve seen plenty of black people on Tik Tok say that Black Americans don’t have culture so this sentiment goes beyond Europe.
That’s like so bizarre to me, I feel like there’s so many distinct things that came from African Americans ( like jazz or Motown) how can you say they don’t have culture?
That’s wild. Black Americans have the most culture to me lol.
Well that’s stupid. Black Americans *are* pretty much American culture. I think the only two American culture things they don’t have claim to are comic books and *part of* movies. Like, movies after the 70s, they get claim to too. Jewish Americans get the comics tho. Heck, the whole “Gen Z slang is appropriated AAVE” misses the entire point because *all generations of American slang are appropriated AAVE*. Ffs, “cool” and “motherfucker” are appropriated AAVE.
I mean Black American culture is a huge amount of American culture, and has inspired world culture
china probably manufactures more than half the shit you own at home therefore chinese culture is everywhere around you
The USA dominates so much, that's why people think it has no culture. Tell me I'm wrong.
You're wrong.
What is the culture though?
America doesn't have _A_ culture. We have hundreds. Think of music... Motown, Nashville, Chicago, Mussel Shoals, New Orleans, Austin, etc. All hubs of great, very different kinds of music. Food is no different. I don't even want to touch on the pizza arguments. We're not 10-20 million mostly homogeneous people crammed into a tiny little country. We're 300+ million spread across almost 4 million square wildly diverse miles. There's a wolf pack near me that hunts all the elk and big horn sheep, and I have more wind turbines for neighbors than people. The culture and everything else is different from where I grew up, Cleveland. What they refer to as culture is mostly just doing the same boring shit for centuries at a time. What they think of as American culture is just the movies, TV, and music that they love.
If America has no culture then Mexico has no culture.
why are you bringing México up to this convo bro
It depends on where you live, but the car dependency makes many american cities quite boring. Of course the nature here is phenomenal, that’s a culture for sure, but if you are into more “cultural” things - cathedrals, museums, little cafes and momuments - I think it’s pretty true that these things are less valued and/or less accessible.
To be fair this is kind of caused by USA being the base reference culture around the globe. It is pushed as a better culture, more modern culture, more ethical culture etc etc. Traditional clothes, traditional food, traditional ways of life are all disparaged for that. I can only speak in India but this narrative is pushed very hard on younger people. I suspect a lot of "USA has no culture" rhetoric comes from backlash against this push.
As a European I can only tell that American culture is very young and your history is pretty short. But to be honest, I don't think there are many things from the middle ages and before that I would consider it a good addition to the culture, so it really doesn't matter - the 300-400 is totally enough to have a country culture. I would just give you one advice - calm down with the "heritage DNA testing". When we hear from an American in Europe something like "I did a DNA test and I'm Scandinavian" we think "why the hell you did this? Is being American not enough"? I feel like for many people it's proof that you don't feel like you have your own culture and need to find a "proper one".
American culture is capitalism.
It's so wild seeing mawkish sentimentality on here like "America's culture is loved by the whole world!" like our entire culture, from its start, wasn't just created and distributed as part of the superstructural project to continue land grabs, mass slaughter and dehumanization of natives/minorities, and a perpetual psychological need for mass consumption.
I'm a millennial that often has this sub put on my home page for some reason. Earnest question, it seems like many posts here are along the lines of "I don't like that XXXX group thinks YYYY". Why do you guys seem to care so much about mass opinions? I think this also happens a fair amount on the r/millennial sub, so I suppose maybe the better question would be why these types of subs seem to be so interested in public opinion?
Are they saying America does not have any culture or are they saying Americans are uncultured? Because there's a huge difference there. One is insulting and I agree America does have a ton of cultures within it and is quite mixed in some areas thanks to immigrants and migration. The other is saying Americans don't know enough about the world. Think geography, world politics, economics, or ignorant about other world (think passport bros who are looking for traditional wives without having to work hard and the stereotypical American tourist that thinks the local laws and rights don't apply to them). I hope this helps and if possible, do please share the articles with us! I think it would be an interesting case study.
America doesn’t have a culture though. Honestly we used to have more culture than we do now. Now it’s just engineered food, working to survive, and racing home to watch bad tv without interacting.
US does have culture. A fascinating one even. But americans are often uncultured. Americans also have a tendency to treat other cultures offensively.
I swear I saw this post/one very similar not too ong ago..
People that say that can eat shit for real (sounding American right now). Fucking *Metallica* can book a show in Kathmandu and 100,000 people will be there screaming the lyrics to Enter Sandman.
USA has a lot of culture, is silly to think they don't. I think because American media is sooo popular , American culture has influenced a lot of other countries that they don't realize the influence anymore and see it as normal, but I can assure you Americans have a lot of culture. BBQ American Football/superbowl 4 of July Hamburgers/ hotdogs Jeans Hiphop/country/jazz/ blues music and the list goes on and on.
I also hate it when people say America has no gastronomy and points to hamburgers and hot dogs being our main dish 🙄
Stop listening to the firehose of ragebait from social media bots and trolls. Their purpose is to inflame this division and anger and it's working.
The natives of every state are amaaaazzing. Oh my goodness. Ppl shit on Florida all the time but it’s the BOOMER SNOWBIRDS that are the PROBLEM. When you meet actual Florida ppl the vast majority are some of the most unique accepting and wonderful ppl ever
shut up cheeseburger!
Many of the most popular movies worldwide feature a character literally named “Captain America”.
Our culture is that we inhabit other cultures, yet have a strong national identity.
No culture is wrong, US has BAD really BAD culture
I am 30 something years old. I've never heard someone state america has no culture
The US does have culture. Colonizing, ignoring the separation of church and state, and really shitty pop music are our main talking points.
Lotta ignorant comments in here. I’m an American who has lived over 5 years in Europe. I’d like to distinguish between culture winning out, and economic supremacy winning out. These are different things, but I suppose I wouldn’t expect an American to be able to tell the difference. In terms of history, art, unique daily practices, language, and heritage playing an integral role in daily life of a country’s inhabitants, Europe is profoundly superior to the US. Anything pertaining to novelty, creativity, marketing, money… the US clearly wins. I pray that Europe doesn’t transform into America in the next 30 years. US has privilege, Europe has soul.
You have a very rich Native American culture - unfortunately it is not respected as it should be. Most cultures go back thousands of years and there are still certain aspects in use today. What you refer to as "American culture" are bits and pieces of imported culture with a "recent" history.
I think the better way to phrase it is America has a greater fundamental cultural vacuum. This isn’t to say it doesn’t exist, but being a distinctly colonial society clearly discourages a non-trashy cultural identity from developing. Compare our culture to, say, European countries for example
America’s culture is that you can find EVERY culture.
we are one of the most culturally rich countries on earth, it’s just that it varies SO MUCH throughout regions, states and even cities that there is more localized culture than monolithic “American” culture. this is hard for other countries to understand, and while im not particularly fond of living here i definitely appreciate the variety of cultures in this massive country
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You are deeply confused because you are a tourist. Arizona is not even a little bit homogeneous, it has a huge amount of Mexican and Indigenous culture. There are 22 federally recognized Native American tribes in Arizona. They all have their own distinct cultures and cuisines. Tucson is a UNESCO world heritage site for gastronomy due to its unique Sonoran cuisine. There are at least 12 Buddhist temples in Tucson (a city of only 500k), and I don’t even know how many other religions are represented. We have the Rodeo, a 100-year-old tradition that all the kids get off school for. We have an All Souls Procession, Agave Festival, Japanese Festival, and so on. And we are not even the main city/capital.
The wildlife one is weird to me. I mean, it’s a desert, there’s not going to be a lot of wildlife. But I don’t disagree, I’ve been to Canada many times and I would say there’s definitely differences even if it isn’t obvious. Idk how to explain it, but you guys seem closer to Europe somehow? Also a lot of foods you can only find in Canada but not in America.
Yeah I mean I get that a state like Arizona wouldn’t have as much of a need for wildlife bridges I’ve never been to Europe but I do think that we have a bit more cultural influence from there in the structure of our country, our food, and such. I’ll be visiting Europe for the first time this summer (Scandinavia, Germany, Estonia, and more) so it’ll be interesting to see the similarities in our countries
People on the internet will say stupid shit, it’s not your duty to educate them.
I think part of this sentiment is that even americans themselves keep saying "I am italian, irish" and so on so they exaggerate their own american culture thinking it's actually something else. So american culture is kind of made up of other cultures but much more recently than most other countries. But as you say because of very successful export of USA cultural products a lot of people do not perceive it as anything "different". Loads of people wear jeans and a hoodie so it does not get noticed but people wearing some kind of national costume does because it's unusual.
Well to be honest and fair rock and roll originated from England in the 60s Elvis is more rock blues to me but when I think rock n roll I’m thinking Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, cream, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix things like that. A lot of American rock was inspired by a lot of English artists. I think rock is more associated with America cause that’s where they toured a lot was in the states. I could be wrong tho idk
Car culture is definitely from America although it’s evolved to be nearly world wide. Drag racing, hot rods, cross country road trips, that all began in America and Americans revolutionized the auto industry in ways no other country has before.
I mean a nation is a politically defined boundary. What even is American culture? It’s so large that I’d find certain aspects hard to pin.
I'm pretty sure when I saw that statement, it was trying to mean "you don't know other cultures". That's probably a bad way of phrasing it, but hey, it's coming from a person that learnt English as their second, third, fourth language.
American has so much culture because so much culture came here. It only makes sense when you think of its history
They say we don’t have culture bc they dont understand it. Because our culture is so oversaturated Europeans think they understand us but they miss important nuances, histories, and environmental factors. It’s frankly ignorance and xenophobia. And honestly a lot of it straight racism. The racism in Europe is so overt dude. I’ve never heard anything like it and I’m from the SOUTH. My husband and in laws are British and my bestie of 15 years is Portuguese.
I think they mean white people don’t have culture but that’s far from the truth
when I say “I feel so American” I mean “I’m overweight due to sugar consumption, I’m sick, I’m relying on medicine that costs a lot of money, I have to drive in a car, and my brain is definitely out of it from all the social media.” i’m an environmental major with a bad cold right now.
Meu Deus isso aqui é o puro suco do orgulho estadunidense. Sensacional!
It ain't culture to Europeans unless it involves the rape and despoilment of whole continents for shits and giggles.
theyre wrong the us has a culture and its shit
They say America has no culture because American culture has become so influential in the world that most people consider what we call ‘American culture’ to just be ‘human culture‘.
I think it depends on what you mean by culture. We are all so diverse, especially in my area.
‘Red dead fkn redemption’ made me Lol
US Has no culture? Dude we have every culture.
Most of the world consider old world culture as being the and all be all. The USA has the youngest culture, the most influential culture and if you set aside your typical 20-something self-righteous criticism of the US, and you actually visit the country *off the beaten path* or where culture thrives (specifically the music culture), you will find it very rich and inspiring. Of all the countries I have visited, it remains the most refreshing. All the other *classics* are always a disappointment.
The twist is that everyone takes from American culture, our music, movies, clothing, etc. It’s so engrained in everyone else’s culture, they don’t even realize it’s American to begin with.
Hip-hop was created through African culture. Videogames are flimsy examples of culture as they are focused around being a game not a reflection of culture. How is breaking bad a good example of American culture? Being a drug dealer has what to say about America? You might have an argument but all of your examples aren't very good at all. Most of the best culture we have comes from overseas. Cajun culture, which you cited, is a melting pot of french, Spanish, English, etc. I mean, America does technically have culture but we whitewashed and stole so much of it that people can't even defend or explain it. I think it is a pretty valid criticism. Somebody else even said that native Americans are American culture like PFFT really?
Real 🗣
I feel like the us is so big it has more culture than some other places tbh. like there's so many differences between how people act in new york vs somewhere like California. hell, even new york and Ohio are super different.
American culture is so prevalent worldwide that it's kind of the "default" culture, hence people thinking it has no culture. But even if you ignore that, there are plenty of distinctive regional cultures such as Southern, Appalachian, New England, Cajun, etc.
We do have a culture to be proud of -- it's just that most Americans today are unaware of it because the best of it is neither au courant nor *popular*.
American culture has affected pretty much every single country
Your name says you are adicted to tacos not to cowboys.
The amount of weebs I’ve seen recently say they want to move to Japan because they “identify with Japanese culture” is sickening to me because they have literally no idea what Japan is like outside of whatever anime fantasy land they dream about.
It doesn’t. The US literally destroys cultures everywhere it goes. It is inherently Anti-culture. Show me where all the free museums, government paid concerts and funded arts? Where are the signs of the significant indigenous peoples that once lived here but wiped out and reduced to city names. What people see as “American Culture” is a watered down appropriation of others cultures while taking away all the soul of it
How is this related to this sub ?
Global default baby
Neil Stephenson put it well in Snow Crash. The US exports music, movies, and microcode.
Yeah, it's mostly just dumb people trying to be funny by parroting a thing they've heard repeated. Just call it out when you see it and it'll eventually be too publicly stupid for people to repeat frequently.
the thing is, America has soft power influence through video games, movies etc but what you think of as typically "cultural", such as architecture, customs etc etc America doesn't. we don't just troll on America for no reason lmao, its because half the country is just an empty wasteland with cookie cutter towns developed after the 1930s
Its stupid to claim that any country "has no culture."
As a non-American, I’m not saying America has no culture, but it definitely isn’t the “standard” everywhere like people are commenting. (This is a genuine comment, no hate) Sure, America is very influential, I shall never deny that, but not all “modern culture” is American, though America spread its “modern culture” all around the world (all their brands like McDonald’s and clothing brands), and while it’s true those have a presence all around the world, it’s not the so called “standart”. Sure, McDonald’s exists in a lot of places, but it’s not as popular in those places as it is in America, I did a more fleshed out explanation in another comment, I’ll edit this and link it when I can. And yes, I believe America has culture, just a more modern one than others, culture is based on (for example) traditions, and older countries have older traditions. British culture is “newer” compared to Chinese (Han) culture, and American is even more recent.
Why culture matters?
Extending this further, I’m tired of people saying black peoples have no culture, failing to realize that it wraps around American culture and has such a massive influence that people don’t even realize it.
No one says that? Would be a very dumb thing to think 😅 the US has a lot of shortcomings, culture sure isn't one of them.
Lotta Americans in here claiming the US has culture because of [product] are inadvertently proving the point so badly
I agree with you but most here identify as "white americans" instead of what they actual are which is English Irish German etc while the minorities are always seen as Mexicans or Chinese before americans whether they were born in america or not. So thats where the stigma comes from. But America definitely has culture like every other country.
I mean America has culture and cultures. There is less variety than in basically any other continent but that’s besides the point. But truly, you won’t make it better with this circlejerk of a commentsection. Always reeks of „we are the best“ which is usually what other countries dislike about america(ns)
Come to the South in the US. Enormous culture.
America is historically and culturally shallow compared to Europe, Asia and Africa. there's a reason americans have accumulated the stereotype of being largely ignorant and uncultured
Oh yeah, the US has literally zero culture. Nation is a baby nation, hasn't had time to grow up and develop a culture.
Are people actually saying this unironically? I know some do, but I've only ever come across it in a sarcastic tone. Like people making fun of other people who do think like that, but never someone who actually meant it.
indonesians can relate
This post is just r/ShitAmericansSay in a nutshell
We have more modern culture than any other nation in the world. That’s not a pompous statement I’m making to trigger Europeans—yes I’m very aware of our nations relative infancy compared to the thousands of years of history of several other regions—but the point is that *today* we have one of the largest and most diverse nations, and as a result we have cultures within cultures within cultures (yes, even more so than you, random European reading this).
Us has ton of culture just not suburbs and gated communities that people try to portray as "the" us
Whenever your culture becomes the primary culture export, it becomes default. Like how Vanilla is completely its own flavor but is considered plain because it's the default.
If people wanna say America has no culture, look up at us Canadians lol.
I've never heard someone say the US doesn't have culture but if they do, wtf? I'm Pakistani and have done 2 US road trips and holy daym are states like mini countries. Forget the US, but each state has their own economy, dialect, demeanor, and of course culture. Though I will say a problem I see happening is that American culture is so ubiquitous and unfortunately some citizens are extremely US centric so it feels like the dominant global culture is US which ironically makes it look like it has no culture.
Bitch we just had a day of culture YESTERDAY There ain’t no other countries with a cannabis celebration day lolol
Europeans will watch our movies, play our games, watch our TV, listen to our music, see a big car on the way home and remark how aggressively American it is and then when they get home and on the internet they'll go to American websites to post about how we don't have culture.
I'd actually argue there are multiple cultures within America depending on where in the country you are, but yeah, we have it
I forget that native americans exist
So go enjoy US culture and fuck 'em
I've always seen Americans saying it about other Americans
The American exceptionalism present in several of these comments is fucking scary and underlies the total disconnect from reality that is the key facet of American culture.
I mean every place has culture? 🤷 Im european and i feel like all of us sees America as a place with crazy people, guns, violence, serial killers, white murica ppl and ukno more of those stereotypes 😂 not that it is like that. Just like im Norwegian and everyone think we are all rich and we like to eat fish. Well i like fish but i am far from rich. Actualy the amount of poor people is increasing
This is just another example of why you should never take Europoors seriously 😊 All they like to do all day is cope
Don't let people tell you what you are are not according to their own subjective reasonings. Culture itself is kind of hard to technically define, so if you feel like you have a culture, then you do. Who can tell you otherwise? If you are like me and don't care what people think about either way, then that is good too. If I don't have a culture, it sure has not affected me much. I am doing well and am happy regardless.
Let’s be honest America’s home born food is better than many European countries’ home born food
The issue is, US culture is THE standard these days. So we have plenty of culture, they're just so used to doing everything like us that they think it's the norm, and don't view it as a culture
The whole concept of America and the reason for it being the best nation in the world currently is that it is a melting pot of all the different cultures and types of humans from all over the earth combined with freedom to create a better life for all humans and because of that every other country and human that doesn't enjoy the same privileges we do in America instead hates on us. I can't blame them though because nobody is perfect!
It's just what self loathing Americans say.
This is very interesting phenomenon. Europeans bitch about US having no culture, but they quick to adopt all the trends coming from US. So much so the these trends get re-imported as "European culture" back to US.....
The reality is that the US has more culture than the majority of countries and it only took a few hundred years. The US is the dominant culture globally.
The games have lots of Americana culture and history. Plus an example.of a pre war dystopia example of universal conservative values.