What is American culture?

To the rest of the world

cheeseburgers and ignorant

but that's okay because to the rest of the world Canadian Culture is maple syrup and being America's irrelevant hat

 

Air & Naval superiority.

 

Individualism. Id say that manifests in not only in our politics, but also our love of automobiles, and the kind of unique culture every region/state has.

Id also, piggy backing off that, add a relative comfort with diversity. Id say we also place a lot of emphasis and value on being the underdog. Although that might be more well spread than Im aware

 

Modern entertainment, capitalism, balls (yes, great big ones), and leadership.

We do what we want to do and we do it well.

 

As American as apple pie



America's favorite pastime

 

It's a double edged sword. Our past has been marked with the lowest common denominator rising up and standing up for their rights, and in turn when history jumped to their side, all Americans benefitted, even the bigoted ignorant ones.

What happened recently is the commoditization of a person's own dignity and the belief that any attention, good or bad, was considered profitable. Make no mistake, that shameless mindset works as society grew into the scale of hundreds of millions and the technology afforded instant communication. Moderately famous and decently attractive? Leak a sextape then jump on those 15 minutes. And as people notice, then they begin to emulate and worship while legitimizing the feat of talentless and soulless hacks making millions for no reason other than being in the spotlight.

In a sense, that intellectual decay is bred from the success of previous generations. We take for granted the optimism that each future American generation will on the whole outperform the one before it. This feat is uncommon in history or the rest of the world, and it took a lot of American hard work and ingenuity that only politicians can speak of but probably don't know first hand themselves.

Even now as our political system is inept, frozen and corrupt, most Americans have the optimism to carry on because our culture and history has been one of solving problems. We attract immigrants who left their homeland despite their genius potential or work ethic because it was an idea, and gradually but surely their culture is integrated with the whole. That is a weird acceptance other countries would like but can't because of rigidly locked social and land structures.

Having a ****load of land makes a lot of difference in all of this. Got fired? Move to another city or 3,000 miles to the other coast. Think rent is expensive? Drive longer and it's not as bad. Other nations don't have any of that. Buying property is different. Starting a business is different. Having the land and resources makes a lot of these things happens.

But again, it's a double edged sword. With abundance comes waste. I'm not going to claim it's downhill from here, but we have to nut up if we want to continue the good things we have.

The ingredients to make it happen is there, it's just there needs to be a compelling reason to make it happen.

 

Guns and fat ppl according to British people

 

LOL. Non Americans posting here means they like Basketball, not that they want to be American. The arrogance and ignorance displayed by your post show a lot that people dislike about America. I would never want to move to America, and I would never want to be an American ( I am also not saying that the USA is worse than my country, but there are differences and the disadvantages of the USA are more important to me than the disadvantages of my country). I love living in my country. Is it perfect? Ofcourse not, be neither is any country.
But if you want you can ask me a few questions about my country. You show me why the USA is much better than my country, and tell me why I really want to be an American. I live in The Netherlands.

Do not worry the anti-intellectualism is happening all around the world, it is actually becoming a problem in the Netherlands.

I do not think that the USA is viewed much more negative than the other countries. It is just that Americans in general brag about how great their country is, and people just push back and remind them of the bad things. On top of that you notice the negativity versus the USA much more than the negativity against other countries. The stereotypes of other countries are just as bad:
France: Arrogant and weak
UK: Blend and Boring and a bad fashion sense
Germany: Aggressive and no humour
Russia: Alcoholic unfriendly
Japan: Yakuza and crazy


I think there are both positive and negative views on American culture. Let me first state that these views are not applicable to all Americans, there is a big difference between someone from Texas to someone from California. Even in States people are individuals and are different. But to generalize.
Negative:
Fat
Gun Loving
Arrogant
Ignorant
Conservative Christian
Greedy
Huge corporations/brands (Coca Cola/McDonalds)

Positive:
Multi-cultural
baseball
Basketball
Movies
Specific music (Rap, country, Jazz)

It is clear that the America culture has had an influence on the entire world, some are positive some are negative.

 

blindly believing america is #1 in everything

 

The pinnacle of materialism and consumerism. A consequence of not having that many things to worry about in life.

 

American culture was/is a mingling of various immigrant cultures into something different, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. Rock & Roll, Tex Mex, and Creole being examples. Adding to that was abundant land and resources which allowed immigrants to move up the ladder quickly. Adding to that was post WW2 America, which turbo charged our economy and shifted Americans away from ethnic identity and more towards social mobility. These type of things can be found in other countries (British/Indian), but everything in America is magnified due to size/wealth.

 

To give a specific example, 1960s LA, young Jewish couple eating tacos in their car, while listening to Jazz, after a trip to a drive in movie theater where they saw a Rock Hudson Doris Day romantic comedy. That's American culture.

 

There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other cultures, and the Dutch.

 

Tipping

 

British cuisine is easily the worst in the world.

 

Just go read all the thread titles in the Hangout and D&D, and you'll find an excellent example of American culture.

 

OMG, you are not kidding! No wonder they drink so heavily, the food is total garbage and they act like it's some tasty meal! According to my UK mate; "you're all C*nts, unless you prove otherwise!" They like to go on about how fat everyone is in the US, when they should be looking at their county and what a epidemic binge drinking is for a large % of the population.

 

LOL @ mostly played by Hispanic and Spanish-speaking players.

 

If by "mostly" you mean 27%, then you are correct.