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Social media are turbocharging the export of America’s political culture

183 points by systemvoltage 5y ago

LAC-Tech 5y ago
It's not a recent phenomena - it's been happening since WWII. The weirdest part is - the stronger someone is influenced by American political culture, the more they'll tell you about how awful America is.
- 3grdlurker 5y ago
  Because people who are ignorant about America obviously have nothing to say of it? I’m not sure what your point is exactly, but you sound like you’re making ignorance of global politics a good thing.
  - LAC-Tech 5y ago
    I'm not trying to make any point at all.
- ergocoder 5y ago
  This is gonna sound strange. High self-criticism is what I admire about US. In my country, the check and balances and freedom of speech are not strong enough. People are somewhat reserve about criticizing their own countries. And you can pretty much guess what is happening...
  - robocat 5y ago
    Self-criticism is my favourite British trait - absolutely no one can take the piss out of the poms like they can do to themselves. It is some sort of reverse pride. I have never noticed much self-criticism in Americans - too many have no clue about other countries so have no point of comparison yet tend to be rather one eyed (overly patriotic) about their own country. By no means all: many travellers tend to be more open minded. My other favourite trait of poms is they recognise and encourage wit at every level of their society.
  - ksec 5y ago
    >High self-criticism is what I admire about US. May be its just me. Never really seen anything like that from Americans.
- aaron695 5y ago
  > It's not a recent phenomena - it's been happening since WWII. Yes, they don't seem to understand their point. QAnon/BLM would always have made it out pre internet, just it would have taken years. Things now are quick. Even early internet ie 2000-2010 it was much slower. The turbocharge really is how quickly it changes and mutates. The feedback loop is what's different.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    QAnon wouldn't made it out because it was so stupid that at pre-internet pace the whole thing would have blown over before it got exported to other countries. Even BLM might not have a chance. In that case you don't even have to guess. You can see to what degree previous black protest were important because BLM is just latest occurrence of something that happened in USA multiple times already.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sms737 5y ago
No country is willingly importing this divisive rhetoric. Aspirational young citizens who repeat the same formula within their home countries and are quickly rewarded with status and power. So the scourge continues. Short-term, this toxic, zero-sum behaviour reaps havoc. Long-term, American culture capital will have been exhausted and the US will have signed its own death warrant.
- jollybean 5y ago
  Oh, they are definitely willingly importing it. If there is ABC movement from a powerful country, then those in the external country will want to use that to further their agenda to the degree that it is aligned with their own. The CIA used to (and still does) try to push some kinds of narratives aboard, most prominently in the 'flower' revolutions in E. Europe, but much of the pop culture one's just happen 'organically'. Particularly in the Anglosphere.
  - lugged 5y ago
    Maybe. In Australia the anti lockdown / anti Vax stuff got shut down quite quickly. Same goes for the BLM protests that tried it on without the right permits. Kind of glad I don't have to put up with the same crap here or the media trying to call it peaceful. I think it has a lot to do with the multi party system. I don't have to align myself with one party or the other party, and all its polarising crap along with it. If one party has too much polarising rhetoric I can just pick a more moderate party.
    - jollybean 5y ago
      George Floyd protests in Australia [1] I'm not saying this is good or bad, but I'm saying all sorts of movements cross the US border in an organic manner. Edit: if you read the headlines in the Guardian or the Daily Mail, they mirror US issues to a great extent, much more so than they do in Germany or France, for example. Definitely the CBC in Canada. It's natural as the cultures are aligned. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests_in_Austr...
throwawaysea 5y ago
This is a serious threat to other countries’ sovereignty but because it is happening in a decentralized, slow-moving manner, it is hard to recognize it as such. The power of US media and culture is overwhelming and if not managed, can drown out other worldviews. In the cases I’ve observed (in countries I’ve traveled to / lived in), it feels a lot like a sort of cultural colonialism (or perhaps cultural genocide), which is leading to a global homogeneity I find both boring and threatening at the same time. It’s especially dangerous because the values and political perspectives of Silicon Valley are used to shape information that other societies receive when social media companies decide to limit or amplify certain ideas. If any other nation did this to the US, we would be complaining loudly about foreign propaganda and influence.
- esyir 5y ago
  I generally agree with that culture is getting generalized, but I despise the trend of diluting terms to associate them with your enemies. Using colonialism and genocide just to exaggerate their badness is just like how "nazi" has gotten diluted to mean "right".
  - throwawaysea 5y ago
    I definitely agree the terms are not exactly the same, but I am not sure what a better term is. In order to not tread on “colonialism” or “genocide”, I prefixed it with the word “cultural”, hoping that strikes a more precise and nuanced balance. Let me try to explain my reasoning. In some countries, explicit colonialism was done away with successful independence movements, but was replaced by softer forms of influence and propaganda that lingered on. For example Western education systems (with textbooks from Western publishers) or significant influence from churches or the introduction of multinational corporations have led to generations of children of former colonial states hearing/experiencing/living one version of history and culture, which isn’t their indigenous history and culture. Because national resources and people’s time are consumed by these structures and influences, there isn’t space for any other influence. This is especially harmful to cultures where their traditions are passed on orally or through daily multi-generational living. Social media takes that further because it is addictive, and is another time sink and intervention into the “information stream” people would otherwise receive. If people living in some country persist but are stripped of their indigenous values and culture and worldviews through these soft mechanisms, they aren’t really the same people that they replaced any longer. Think of Tibet for example, where more overt re-education efforts have changed younger generations and disconnected them from their traditional Buddhist culture. Sure they may be the genetic descendants and inheritors of the past Tibetan people, but they increasingly reflect Han Chinese culture, and not just politically. These cultures go away, potentially for good, when this happens. The culture being replaced by outside powers is what leads me to apply phrases like “cultural colonialism” or “cultural genocide” in these instances.
grouphugs 5y ago
and ecological collapse, it's funny because abraham just got done with like 15 years or more of raping himself. makes sense his children would just follow in their leaders footsteps. there's nothing else they can do
nemo44x 5y ago
Racial essentialism is toxic. America and the Western Liberal ideology (which I cherish) will only survive if we ruthlessly destroy it and similar critical theories which derive from it. Otherwise we will quickly perish into a ward state, at best.
- astrange 5y ago
  America spent more than half its life being "racially essentialist" and most of its policies went irrationally out of their way to specifically make sure that black people and Chinese immigrants had their neighborhoods destroyed. Unless you want to preserve post-Civil Rights America only.
  - zepto 5y ago
    > America spent more than half its life being "racially essentialist" and most of its policies went irrationally out of their way to specifically make sure that black people and Chinese immigrants had their neighborhoods destroyed. Doesn’t that seem like a good reason to be rid of racial essentialism?
    - astrange 5y ago
      Perhaps, but the propaganda about “critical theories” comes from people who either don’t believe in the racist history of America or else think it’s good.
      - zepto 5y ago
        Not in my experience. Obviously such people exist, but the generalization is just an ad hominem.
        astrange 5y ago
        Such people do exist, like the governor of Florida, who just passed a rule that appears to ban teaching that Florida had slavery and said it was to stop "critical race theory" and the 1619 Project.
SubiculumCode 5y ago
Europe has long had bellicose politics, they didn't need the U.S. for that.
buildingmateri 5y ago
Living in an expat destination country currently as an American, I regularly get crap from friends, Australian, British, South African, about the perceived madness of American political culture that's now popping up in their work lives and home countries. Slightly reminiscent of living abroad during Bush-Iraq years as an American where you become a target of blame.
- ehnto 5y ago
  Australians knew more about American politics day to day during Trumps presidency than we did our own politics. It was surreal.
  - lainga 5y ago
    Same in Canada. The CBC was particularly egregious. The "World" section was just the "US Politics" section. I stopped reading; but, of course, like all Canadians, I have kept funding it.
    - systemvoltage 5y ago
      I miss 2010 in America. Politics was mostly an after thought on slow days in social discussions. It was so much more civil without everyone being primed to the teeth on social media with anger.
      - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
        Trump’s presidency brought a lot of underground resentment (across the political spectrum) out into the open. It might turn out to be a good thing that people are having these discussions now instead of covering them up. It definitely feels less comfortable, though.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      To be fair, the rest of the world's activities seemed fairly stable than the random events regularly occurring under the Trump administration.
mc32 5y ago
What's a bit ironic to me is that this extension of US cultural hegemony used to be derided as cultural imperialism back a few decades ago before other cultural exports became vogue (Anime, K-Pop, etc.) when it was the US vs everyone else. But now, many of the people who would have decried this kind of hegemonic influence delight in it. They delight in the fact we can establish norms for communication and discourse not only in the US, but any place that plays nice and does not censor the services for not abiding by local laws and mores (as typical media would have to). But because these new media carry water for them, this time it's okay. Can you imagine corporate policy of SF or Menlo Park sets what people in Mumbai or Seoul can discuss regarding SARS-Cov-2? Or any other issue social media issues a diktat for. I mean, it's quite ironic listening to people on social media talking down "American Imperialism" (for siding with allies in foreign policy basically) and being totally oblivious to the one they are actively participating in.
- dismayedbycorp 5y ago
  > Can you imagine corporate policy of SF or Menlo Park sets what people in Mumbai or Seoul can discuss regarding SARS-Cov-2? You don't have to imagine of course, it already does. Also, last year someone mentioned here that joebiden.info (which AFAICT is just a website with a collection of inconvenient clips and reports on Biden, maybe misinterpreted to fit an agenda in some cases) was censored in Messenger, seemingly worldwide. Crazy stuff.
  - treeman79 5y ago
    Was quite shocking the first time my message got blocked. I am part of autoimmune support groups where plaqunial is a normal treatment. Pre pandemic. Get constant warnings and fact checks about plaqunial. Friends regularly have their post “fact checked” of course always by liberal sources. Full blown 1984 / animal farm these days.
    - gscott 5y ago
      I have stopped posting to Facebook when they would just randomly kill my posts. Just things I thought were funny or sarcastic (all before covid). Now I am just interested in peoples life events. My timeline is devoid of anything.
dominotw 5y ago
In India we had black lives matter movement where they panned the use of 'fair and lovely' facecream.
- tachyonbeam 5y ago
  Here in Canada we've had BLM protests, "defund the police" and "ACAB". I don't really understand. As far as I'm concerned Canada is about as close to a utopia as you can get on this planet. We have one of the lowest crime rates in the world. I'm pretty sure if we "defunded the police", things would only get worse. AFAIK, the "defund the police" chant was supposed to be in response to American police forces buying army vehicles and gear. That is not a thing in Canada. I also get the general impression that whoever came up with "defund the police" has anarchist inclinations. It's basically doublespeak. They keep saying that "defund the police" only means "reform the police", but what they actually want is to dismantle the police, which is exactly what "defund the police" sounds like.
  - trainsplanes 5y ago
    Yeah, some Americans organized BLM protests in Japan too. They think the whole world is an extension of America, while also denouncing American imperialism and the American idea of looking down on the world, while also screaming at anyone who questioned the idea of dragging American problems into a country that didn’t exist. People here, more than anything, were pissed that they had a gathering in the middle of a pandemic and called them irresponsible. Which they were.
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    I’m sure the First Nations people would also agree.
    - tachyonbeam 5y ago
      Nice baiting there Jcowell, well played. No country in the world is perfect. Canada is still near the top of the list when it comes to safety and quality of life. It's true that many first nations people struggle. Canada is taking steps to help them (see accelerated vaccination of native communities) and I sincerely wish them all the best. However, dismantling the police probably isn't going to undo things that happened several centuries ago. In fact, I am no sociologist, but I would surmise that telling cops that all of them are bastards and exposing them to budget cuts will probably make them behave with less kindness, not more. ACAB is the opposite of constructive. In my opinion, it's a toxic message with the potential to make things worse for everyone, first nations included. All of that being said, I'm 100% in favor of body cameras that are always enabled, and stricter limits on weapons use by police.
hypebeast123 5y ago
What's actually worrisome is that political discourse in many less developed nations has started to emulate whatever is regurgitated in the US, which leads people to shift their focus onto issues that are not as urgent or relevant in their own countries.
giantandroids 5y ago
Had first hand experience of this. I maintain an opensource project which is popular on NPM. An issue was raised in our github about we should have a statement of support for BLM in our readme. I said no as politely and diplomatically as possible. I would rather the project remains non-political, they said that made me complicit. The thing is I am from Europe. I think BLM is a very worthy policial movement, as do I also think there are injustices in palestine and the with Uyghurs etc, but we are going to end up with most of our Readme filed with political statements at that rate. What to me as a Euro gives extra merit to US politics than that of the rest of the world?
- BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago
  This behavior looks like proselytizing. They want you to show that you accept and endorse their ideology. And if you don’t, then they have a reason to follow up and apply pressure. In a different time these people would have been missionaries and inquisitors.
- bob120393 5y ago
  >> I think BLM is a very worthy political movement BLM is not what you think it is. Check out http://blmexposed.org http://blmexposed.org
- iagovar 5y ago
  You're not the only one. I've seen this behavior in other projects. The patter was also similar as you described. In my company we had some people trying to get this stuff into our corporate mail, thankfully there was enough pushback to keep the corporate mail corporate. Also, I'd rather worry about stuff in my country than american internal affairs.
- Mediterraneo10 5y ago
  > I also think there are injustices in palestine and the with Uyghurs etc, but we are going to end up with most of our Readme filed with political statements at that rate. I brought this same point up in a discussion once, but the response was that BLM is the number-one pressing sociopolitical issue in the world today, and it was offensive that I would even suggest that other examples of oppression in the world are comparable to the greater oppression that African-Americans face.
i5heu 5y ago
Somewhat off topic but: Is there an frontend for hacker news,twitter or reddit that filters out all the US political and culture stuff? I really can't see more of this failed civilization that has the power to vaporize the earth in hours. I don't want to be reminded every single day.
- sert121 5y ago
  Hews has filters which allow you to do that. [Google Play Store]
- pembrook 5y ago
  It’s astonishing to me how little international competition there is in the social space (outside of China). You’re complaining about US platforms while implicitly acknowledging they are the best place you have to find interesting discussions online. It’s like the internet came along, offering opportunities to build these businesses to anyone in the world at super low cost, and most countries stuck their heads in the sand and said, “nah, this social media stuff is a fad, let’s stick to car manufacturing.” 10 years later the world is somehow under the “control” of US platforms? Huh? Did you know HN/Twitter/Reddit are websites you can just choose not to type into your address bar? Instead of complaining about the world you helped create, why not try changing it by starting a social platform for your local market and in your local language? These are all just simple CRUD apps. There’s about 600 “build a Reddit clone” YouTube tutorials you could follow to build the same thing as HN/Reddit/Twitter from a technical perspective.
  - i5heu 5y ago
    „Don’t complain about hard to change tires! Build your own car!!!“ Do you even know what it means to run a social platform? Germany has had multiple social Platforms before Facebook. StudiVZ Kwick And even local ones like “Team Ulm” They are all dead. Because social platforms live from scale.
    - pembrook 5y ago
      > Do you even know what it means to run a social platform? Hacker news has added no features for like 10 years and has two moderators. TWO. Hacker news doesn’t do “growth.” It doesn’t send re-engagement emails. It doesn’t have an official app. It doesn’t run TV ads. Yet it’s one of the most visited sites on the web. Any below-average software engineer could build and deploy a clone within a single day. How is there not a German, Brazilian, etc. hacker news? It’s mind blowing to me. This isn’t even 1% the difficulty of “building your own car.” In fact, for many software engineers, building an HN clone would be easier than changing a tire. I’m insanely skeptical of the idea you can’t find enough demand for a German language Reddit/HN in a country of 85 million educated people.
dasb 5y ago
It's funny when radical progressivists in my country try to translate the "white male" cliché into our local context, because white (as in caucasian white) people are are less than 5% of our population.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  It doesn't sound difficult to me. It has nothing to do with whiteness and maleness; it's about political power. If there is a group that is a dominant political power, it's the same thing. That's why issues of 'reverse racism' are a different problem: Discrimination is about power, not race. If American Buddhists are discriminatory against Baptists, it's obnoxious but not an issue of oppression or much threat to Baptists, because it lacks power. Of course, that's generalized: It will play out in different ways, in different places, among different people, in different times. In the U.S., it's different in Mississippi and Chicago, different today and tomorrow. > radical progressivists Are they really "radical", or is that merely a pejorative attached to 'progressive'? In what way are they radical? Lots of groups want change, many want big change; the progressives aren't even the leaders in 'big change' these days.
  - peytn 5y ago
    I think GP was saying the opposite, i.e. it’s nominally about political power as you said, but in the local context they’re going after white men who have no political power and ignoring politically powerful groups.
  - trophycase 5y ago
    lmao the "discrimination is about power" is so played out and is used as a tool to justify "reverse" racism (which is just racism). What does a police officer being more afraid during a traffic stop of black people have to do with institutional power? What does people walking home at night and crossing the road when "certain" people are on their side have to do with institutional power? Nothing. This whole "racism = power + prejudice" thing is an intentional normalization of the ability for everyone to be racist to whites (or asians I guess) without having to be held to their same standards. I've rarely ever seen this argument used without a basically overtly racist/sexist comment either preceding or following it.
throw737858 5y ago
Is it a good thing for US? In 90ties we only knew American culture from sitcoms like Baywatch and Friends. Now your political culture turned into Southpark and US is a joke.
- disabled 5y ago
  Yeah, as an American expat, I watch South Park to catch up and learn about what has been blown out of proportion in the US, politically and socially. Because when South Park starts making fun of it, you know things have been taken too far, like next level messed up. Plus, it is a good source of entertainment. I always am fairly aware of the news, even abroad, but I stay off of social media (except HN). I only read actual news from formal print publications. Honestly, the lack of American foreign correspondents reporting abroad (especially in print) makes the US susceptible to a lot of uncertainty, and plausible deniability (such as with Russian propaganda being propagated on social media). With respect to that, the Financial Times does extremely well, but it is not an American news source. But, it is definitely worth getting a subscription to. They also do a lot of reporting about tech, which is typically spot-on. I have only been disappointed once when reading a tech article on FT.com.
jacquesm 5y ago
Especially the worst of it. With Qanon franchises and pro-Trump - yes, even now - factions popping up all over the place. Disgusting.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
akomtu 5y ago
I wouldn't call that woke fundamentalism the American culture: it's popular only among a very loud minority. The good half of America actively despises it (e.g. take a look at the redstate site) and in fact quite a few governors have started banning teaching CRT in schools.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- 3grdlurker 5y ago
  The article makes no mention of “woke fundamentalism”, whatever that means, and there’s a lot of mention about QAnon and All Lives Matter, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Are you sure you read the article?
Animats 5y ago
The US did not create Brexit, the center of much of the UK's political drama. (Although Boris Johnson does look like Trump.)
wolverine876 5y ago
America provides the means by which political culture flows, such as via Twitter and Facebook, but remember that a significant portion (of unknown size to me) of American social media rhetoric is imported. Where did trolling, nationalism, troll farms, hate speech, nihilism, mass-scale disinformation - where did each of those originate? I'm not implying an answer, by the way. I don't know; is there any research? My point is that there is no reason to believe any or all began in the U.S. We know at least about troll farms exporting rhetoric to the U.S., and that many of the ideas and rhetorical styles were more popular in places outside the U.S. before social media (such as inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric). Possibly, whoever exported them to the U.S. also exported them to other places. There is some evidence: We can see the rise of similar politics, especially right-wing populist nationalism, in many countries approximately simultaneously, including India, China, Europe, Russia, South America, the U.S., and many more. That wasn't popular politics 20 years ago.
- Dma54rhs 5y ago
  20 years ago American left wingers had similar ideas than your right does right now, what are you trying to say? Do people think the infamous Russians invented the right wing rhetoric? That is next level history washing and quite frankly misinformation.
  - wolverine876 5y ago
    20 years ago the American left (depending on how far 'left' you mean) was advocating action against climate change, for universal health care, for abortion rights, against tax cuts for the wealthy, for more investment in public education, etc. They certainly did not advocate against immigrants, for nationalism or ethnic nationalism, hate speech, etc. But I'm presenting the facts for your claims, when you should be. Do your other claims have some basis? Also, I didn't say anything about the Russians, though they do operate troll farms and try to influence social media.
    - Dma54rhs 5y ago
      Looks like you have been influenced by disinformation, absolutely not true - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/joe-biden-2006-vote-border-fence https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/joe-biden-2006-vote-...
atlgator 5y ago
I would not be surprised if there is a billionaire and/or large nation state pushing this all over. If you can stir up social issues to stymie productivity, it makes it easy to grow your own economy. Even easier if your country is homogenous and doesn't have a legacy of racism to atone for.
- zthrowaway 5y ago
  I would wager just about every country has a dirty history that can be used for political purposes. I worry about this type of political approach being exported to more cultures, because at some point there will be a breaking point where everyone is too far down the road to reverse and we head into wars.
acd 5y ago
Social media are letting people consume in filter bubbles. Social media is also fueling polarization by slot machine like dopamine rewarding attention seeking like buttons.
fighterpilot 5y ago
https://archive.is/mgeat https://archive.is/mgeat
- 38932ur98u 5y ago
  Thanks.
nickelpro 5y ago
I don't understand HN's problem with this. It's a freemarket of ideas, no one is being forced to follow Americans on Twitter or subscribe to American content producers on Youtube. What even is the alternative being proposed here? Segmenting the internet so people from different countries _can't_ interact with one another? Is that preferable?
- sms737 5y ago
  > Segmenting the internet so people from different countries _can't_ interact with one another? Is that preferable? Oh no, we enjoy interacting with each other. Just segment us off from the Americans and we'll be happy. /s
- slim 5y ago
  You sure it's a free market of ideas ? What do you make of intellectual property ? Content zoning ? Media consolidation ? On social media : what do you make of algorithmically selected content ? Thought bubbles ?
  - nickelpro 5y ago
    People who engage with social media do so freely. If the content wasn't what they wanted or sought out, it wouldn't be popular and successful. Would you rather have it policed? A grand council that determines which algorithms you may enjoy and which are verboten?
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      > Would you rather have it policed It is being policed? What do think algorithmic feeds are?
      - nickelpro 5y ago
        They're content referrers that people are free to engage or disengage with at their leisure. If you don't like Twitter's content you can go use Youtube, or TikTok, or Facebook, or HN. What I wouldn't want is some government agency telling me I'm not allowed to use Twitter for my own good. Or that the content I enjoy on [insert social media network] must change because HN finds it objectionable.
coliveira 5y ago
I think this also has a negative aspect for the US. The current polarization and anti-democratic way of thinking via conspiracy theories is a common occurrence, well-known for people in third world countries. It is just the vitriol that has been long employed by the US around the world to "combat" enemies identified as communists. These tactics are now coming back to bite Americans themselves, imported by the hands of the right-wing movement, who did this for decades outside the US. Now, the democracy in the US is the one in peril due to these same tactics, turbocharged by the internet.
csbartus 5y ago
In my circle / area we are aware of this, but we don't play this game. No resentments, but thanks. US gone too far, Russia gone too far. We don't do politics any more.
OnlyRepliesToBS 5y ago
lol
_Microft 5y ago
... and prudery. Really, you cannot imagine how prudish Facebook's "community standards" are looking from a European point of view.
- estaseuropano 5y ago
  And how intensely it celebrates violence and is a rule of 'who shouts the loudest' rather than a discourse and exchange as you would expect in European politics and media.
freebuju 5y ago
As a non-American I can tell you how dead wrong this notion is. This might have been true in the mid-2000's when social media was still relatively new (and mostly Western). As it cascaded into other parts of the world, the novelty died off. In fact, to the contrary we are seeing more and more localization of content on social media and other digital platforms. A good example here is Tiktok in user generated content that has geographic & linguistic boundaries. Film, music & other sub-cultures have a much more powerful rubbing effect on pushing subtle American culture than SM.
durnygbur 5y ago
Even my parents in their 60s living their entire lifes in now post-Communist country have opinion about Trump's (non) reelection. They're not even actively participating in social media - their smartphones are sucking in toxic content and public TV is broadcasting "news from the greatest ally country". It's so sad watching them bathing in this cesspool, it's like watching your daugther in GirlsDoPorn. Americans you've gone far too far with your brainwashing cultural and political expansiveness. No difference from Russians and Chinese at this point. Feck off with your rainbow BlackRock McDonalds Trump Disney Facebook CocaCola.
- desperate 5y ago
  My bad, I'll call it off right now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
cblconfederate 5y ago
It spreads because its popular to talk about. Cringe subjects get people clicks and views, even if nobody believes what they say. The same reasons it caught on in america. This 'politics' is much more about emotional release than any politics were in the past. In the end it doesn't matter, rich-get-richer keeps going on everywhere, while the commonfolk squabble over pronouns
Popegaf 5y ago
The rest of the world should be aggressively promoting their culture, values and language, just like the US. Japan is doing a very good job of that with the proliferation of weebs, but others are not. Europe barely exports any culture or media - especially in their own languages. Most things EU are regionally locked and if they aren't, they are behind paywalls or accessible through American networks. Were I to try and watch Polish TV shows, it would most likely happen over Netflix or Amazon. It's barely possible to browse their shows in English nor can most services be paid for using non-Polish payment means (except maybe VISA&Mastercard). That's just Europe. I'm sure China has some great shows and movies, probably Russia has too but finding them and accessing them is entirely different issue. Even knowing what exists is difficult. The U.S is at the top of their propaganda game while the rest of the world is acting like a bunch of amateurs.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  I've gotten into Israeli TV recently. You can watch Fauda on Netflix. There are some pretty cool shows out there.
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    Surprisingly, Netflix may be one of the forces to make people aware of other cultures, as they have been busy buying and funding local content all over the world.
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  Don't you have access to satellite TV? For instance ASTRA is full of international TV channels. And in the past, shortwave radio was the equivalent, you could receive radio stations from (nearly) all over the world.
  - Popegaf 5y ago
    I'm honestly surprised that it's still a thing. TV hasn't been part of my subscriptions, household or connection (no TV cables in the house) for more than a decade. I don't know a single person over the age of 60 with a TV subscription or connection.
macleginn 5y ago
"Few outside China get excited about buying Huawei phones or shopping on Alibaba" --- a lot of people do actually.
refurb 5y ago
Used vehicles have gone way up in price before Covid ever hit and trucks were one of the worst culprits. Covid made the price increases worse, but the phenomenon predates Covid by at least a couple years.
nephanth 5y ago
I think a lot of this is due to the language barrier. Like most French people, I learnt english at school, so following English and American media makes sense, whereas following for ex German or Chinese media would be way harder. Similarly, since Americans are notoriously bad at foreign languages, it's to be expected they don't follow a lot of foreign non-English media

183 points by systemvoltage 5y ago

It's not a recent phenomena - it's been happening since WWII. The weirdest part is - the stronger someone is influenced by American political culture, the more they'll tell you about how awful America is.

3grdlurker 5y ago
Because people who are ignorant about America obviously have nothing to say of it? I’m not sure what your point is exactly, but you sound like you’re making ignorance of global politics a good thing.
- LAC-Tech 5y ago
  I'm not trying to make any point at all.
ergocoder 5y ago
This is gonna sound strange. High self-criticism is what I admire about US. In my country, the check and balances and freedom of speech are not strong enough. People are somewhat reserve about criticizing their own countries. And you can pretty much guess what is happening...
- robocat 5y ago
  Self-criticism is my favourite British trait - absolutely no one can take the piss out of the poms like they can do to themselves. It is some sort of reverse pride. I have never noticed much self-criticism in Americans - too many have no clue about other countries so have no point of comparison yet tend to be rather one eyed (overly patriotic) about their own country. By no means all: many travellers tend to be more open minded. My other favourite trait of poms is they recognise and encourage wit at every level of their society.
- ksec 5y ago
  >High self-criticism is what I admire about US. May be its just me. Never really seen anything like that from Americans.
aaron695 5y ago
> It's not a recent phenomena - it's been happening since WWII. Yes, they don't seem to understand their point. QAnon/BLM would always have made it out pre internet, just it would have taken years. Things now are quick. Even early internet ie 2000-2010 it was much slower. The turbocharge really is how quickly it changes and mutates. The feedback loop is what's different.
- scotty79 5y ago
  QAnon wouldn't made it out because it was so stupid that at pre-internet pace the whole thing would have blown over before it got exported to other countries. Even BLM might not have a chance. In that case you don't even have to guess. You can see to what degree previous black protest were important because BLM is just latest occurrence of something that happened in USA multiple times already.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

sms737 5y ago

No country is willingly importing this divisive rhetoric. Aspirational young citizens who repeat the same formula within their home countries and are quickly rewarded with status and power. So the scourge continues. Short-term, this toxic, zero-sum behaviour reaps havoc. Long-term, American culture capital will have been exhausted and the US will have signed its own death warrant.

jollybean 5y ago
Oh, they are definitely willingly importing it. If there is ABC movement from a powerful country, then those in the external country will want to use that to further their agenda to the degree that it is aligned with their own. The CIA used to (and still does) try to push some kinds of narratives aboard, most prominently in the 'flower' revolutions in E. Europe, but much of the pop culture one's just happen 'organically'. Particularly in the Anglosphere.
- lugged 5y ago
  Maybe. In Australia the anti lockdown / anti Vax stuff got shut down quite quickly. Same goes for the BLM protests that tried it on without the right permits. Kind of glad I don't have to put up with the same crap here or the media trying to call it peaceful. I think it has a lot to do with the multi party system. I don't have to align myself with one party or the other party, and all its polarising crap along with it. If one party has too much polarising rhetoric I can just pick a more moderate party.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    George Floyd protests in Australia [1] I'm not saying this is good or bad, but I'm saying all sorts of movements cross the US border in an organic manner. Edit: if you read the headlines in the Guardian or the Daily Mail, they mirror US issues to a great extent, much more so than they do in Germany or France, for example. Definitely the CBC in Canada. It's natural as the cultures are aligned. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests_in_Austr...

throwawaysea 5y ago

This is a serious threat to other countries’ sovereignty but because it is happening in a decentralized, slow-moving manner, it is hard to recognize it as such. The power of US media and culture is overwhelming and if not managed, can drown out other worldviews. In the cases I’ve observed (in countries I’ve traveled to / lived in), it feels a lot like a sort of cultural colonialism (or perhaps cultural genocide), which is leading to a global homogeneity I find both boring and threatening at the same time. It’s especially dangerous because the values and political perspectives of Silicon Valley are used to shape information that other societies receive when social media companies decide to limit or amplify certain ideas. If any other nation did this to the US, we would be complaining loudly about foreign propaganda and influence.

esyir 5y ago
I generally agree with that culture is getting generalized, but I despise the trend of diluting terms to associate them with your enemies. Using colonialism and genocide just to exaggerate their badness is just like how "nazi" has gotten diluted to mean "right".
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  I definitely agree the terms are not exactly the same, but I am not sure what a better term is. In order to not tread on “colonialism” or “genocide”, I prefixed it with the word “cultural”, hoping that strikes a more precise and nuanced balance. Let me try to explain my reasoning. In some countries, explicit colonialism was done away with successful independence movements, but was replaced by softer forms of influence and propaganda that lingered on. For example Western education systems (with textbooks from Western publishers) or significant influence from churches or the introduction of multinational corporations have led to generations of children of former colonial states hearing/experiencing/living one version of history and culture, which isn’t their indigenous history and culture. Because national resources and people’s time are consumed by these structures and influences, there isn’t space for any other influence. This is especially harmful to cultures where their traditions are passed on orally or through daily multi-generational living. Social media takes that further because it is addictive, and is another time sink and intervention into the “information stream” people would otherwise receive. If people living in some country persist but are stripped of their indigenous values and culture and worldviews through these soft mechanisms, they aren’t really the same people that they replaced any longer. Think of Tibet for example, where more overt re-education efforts have changed younger generations and disconnected them from their traditional Buddhist culture. Sure they may be the genetic descendants and inheritors of the past Tibetan people, but they increasingly reflect Han Chinese culture, and not just politically. These cultures go away, potentially for good, when this happens. The culture being replaced by outside powers is what leads me to apply phrases like “cultural colonialism” or “cultural genocide” in these instances.

grouphugs 5y ago

and ecological collapse, it's funny because abraham just got done with like 15 years or more of raping himself. makes sense his children would just follow in their leaders footsteps. there's nothing else they can do

nemo44x 5y ago

Racial essentialism is toxic. America and the Western Liberal ideology (which I cherish) will only survive if we ruthlessly destroy it and similar critical theories which derive from it. Otherwise we will quickly perish into a ward state, at best.

astrange 5y ago
America spent more than half its life being "racially essentialist" and most of its policies went irrationally out of their way to specifically make sure that black people and Chinese immigrants had their neighborhoods destroyed. Unless you want to preserve post-Civil Rights America only.
- zepto 5y ago
  > America spent more than half its life being "racially essentialist" and most of its policies went irrationally out of their way to specifically make sure that black people and Chinese immigrants had their neighborhoods destroyed. Doesn’t that seem like a good reason to be rid of racial essentialism?
  - astrange 5y ago
    Perhaps, but the propaganda about “critical theories” comes from people who either don’t believe in the racist history of America or else think it’s good.
    - zepto 5y ago
      Not in my experience. Obviously such people exist, but the generalization is just an ad hominem.
      - astrange 5y ago
        Such people do exist, like the governor of Florida, who just passed a rule that appears to ban teaching that Florida had slavery and said it was to stop "critical race theory" and the 1619 Project.

SubiculumCode 5y ago

Europe has long had bellicose politics, they didn't need the U.S. for that.

buildingmateri 5y ago

Living in an expat destination country currently as an American, I regularly get crap from friends, Australian, British, South African, about the perceived madness of American political culture that's now popping up in their work lives and home countries. Slightly reminiscent of living abroad during Bush-Iraq years as an American where you become a target of blame.

ehnto 5y ago
Australians knew more about American politics day to day during Trumps presidency than we did our own politics. It was surreal.
- lainga 5y ago
  Same in Canada. The CBC was particularly egregious. The "World" section was just the "US Politics" section. I stopped reading; but, of course, like all Canadians, I have kept funding it.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    I miss 2010 in America. Politics was mostly an after thought on slow days in social discussions. It was so much more civil without everyone being primed to the teeth on social media with anger.
    - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
      Trump’s presidency brought a lot of underground resentment (across the political spectrum) out into the open. It might turn out to be a good thing that people are having these discussions now instead of covering them up. It definitely feels less comfortable, though.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    To be fair, the rest of the world's activities seemed fairly stable than the random events regularly occurring under the Trump administration.

mc32 5y ago

What's a bit ironic to me is that this extension of US cultural hegemony used to be derided as cultural imperialism back a few decades ago before other cultural exports became vogue (Anime, K-Pop, etc.) when it was the US vs everyone else. But now, many of the people who would have decried this kind of hegemonic influence delight in it. They delight in the fact we can establish norms for communication and discourse not only in the US, but any place that plays nice and does not censor the services for not abiding by local laws and mores (as typical media would have to). But because these new media carry water for them, this time it's okay. Can you imagine corporate policy of SF or Menlo Park sets what people in Mumbai or Seoul can discuss regarding SARS-Cov-2? Or any other issue social media issues a diktat for. I mean, it's quite ironic listening to people on social media talking down "American Imperialism" (for siding with allies in foreign policy basically) and being totally oblivious to the one they are actively participating in.

dismayedbycorp 5y ago
> Can you imagine corporate policy of SF or Menlo Park sets what people in Mumbai or Seoul can discuss regarding SARS-Cov-2? You don't have to imagine of course, it already does. Also, last year someone mentioned here that joebiden.info (which AFAICT is just a website with a collection of inconvenient clips and reports on Biden, maybe misinterpreted to fit an agenda in some cases) was censored in Messenger, seemingly worldwide. Crazy stuff.
- treeman79 5y ago
  Was quite shocking the first time my message got blocked. I am part of autoimmune support groups where plaqunial is a normal treatment. Pre pandemic. Get constant warnings and fact checks about plaqunial. Friends regularly have their post “fact checked” of course always by liberal sources. Full blown 1984 / animal farm these days.
  - gscott 5y ago
    I have stopped posting to Facebook when they would just randomly kill my posts. Just things I thought were funny or sarcastic (all before covid). Now I am just interested in peoples life events. My timeline is devoid of anything.

dominotw 5y ago

In India we had black lives matter movement where they panned the use of 'fair and lovely' facecream.

tachyonbeam 5y ago
Here in Canada we've had BLM protests, "defund the police" and "ACAB". I don't really understand. As far as I'm concerned Canada is about as close to a utopia as you can get on this planet. We have one of the lowest crime rates in the world. I'm pretty sure if we "defunded the police", things would only get worse. AFAIK, the "defund the police" chant was supposed to be in response to American police forces buying army vehicles and gear. That is not a thing in Canada. I also get the general impression that whoever came up with "defund the police" has anarchist inclinations. It's basically doublespeak. They keep saying that "defund the police" only means "reform the police", but what they actually want is to dismantle the police, which is exactly what "defund the police" sounds like.
- trainsplanes 5y ago
  Yeah, some Americans organized BLM protests in Japan too. They think the whole world is an extension of America, while also denouncing American imperialism and the American idea of looking down on the world, while also screaming at anyone who questioned the idea of dragging American problems into a country that didn’t exist. People here, more than anything, were pissed that they had a gathering in the middle of a pandemic and called them irresponsible. Which they were.
- Jcowell 5y ago
  I’m sure the First Nations people would also agree.
  - tachyonbeam 5y ago
    Nice baiting there Jcowell, well played. No country in the world is perfect. Canada is still near the top of the list when it comes to safety and quality of life. It's true that many first nations people struggle. Canada is taking steps to help them (see accelerated vaccination of native communities) and I sincerely wish them all the best. However, dismantling the police probably isn't going to undo things that happened several centuries ago. In fact, I am no sociologist, but I would surmise that telling cops that all of them are bastards and exposing them to budget cuts will probably make them behave with less kindness, not more. ACAB is the opposite of constructive. In my opinion, it's a toxic message with the potential to make things worse for everyone, first nations included. All of that being said, I'm 100% in favor of body cameras that are always enabled, and stricter limits on weapons use by police.

hypebeast123 5y ago

What's actually worrisome is that political discourse in many less developed nations has started to emulate whatever is regurgitated in the US, which leads people to shift their focus onto issues that are not as urgent or relevant in their own countries.

giantandroids 5y ago

Had first hand experience of this. I maintain an opensource project which is popular on NPM. An issue was raised in our github about we should have a statement of support for BLM in our readme. I said no as politely and diplomatically as possible. I would rather the project remains non-political, they said that made me complicit. The thing is I am from Europe. I think BLM is a very worthy policial movement, as do I also think there are injustices in palestine and the with Uyghurs etc, but we are going to end up with most of our Readme filed with political statements at that rate. What to me as a Euro gives extra merit to US politics than that of the rest of the world?

BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago
This behavior looks like proselytizing. They want you to show that you accept and endorse their ideology. And if you don’t, then they have a reason to follow up and apply pressure. In a different time these people would have been missionaries and inquisitors.
bob120393 5y ago
>> I think BLM is a very worthy political movement BLM is not what you think it is. Check out http://blmexposed.org http://blmexposed.org
iagovar 5y ago
You're not the only one. I've seen this behavior in other projects. The patter was also similar as you described. In my company we had some people trying to get this stuff into our corporate mail, thankfully there was enough pushback to keep the corporate mail corporate. Also, I'd rather worry about stuff in my country than american internal affairs.
Mediterraneo10 5y ago
> I also think there are injustices in palestine and the with Uyghurs etc, but we are going to end up with most of our Readme filed with political statements at that rate. I brought this same point up in a discussion once, but the response was that BLM is the number-one pressing sociopolitical issue in the world today, and it was offensive that I would even suggest that other examples of oppression in the world are comparable to the greater oppression that African-Americans face.

i5heu 5y ago

Somewhat off topic but: Is there an frontend for hacker news,twitter or reddit that filters out all the US political and culture stuff? I really can't see more of this failed civilization that has the power to vaporize the earth in hours. I don't want to be reminded every single day.

sert121 5y ago
Hews has filters which allow you to do that. [Google Play Store]
pembrook 5y ago
It’s astonishing to me how little international competition there is in the social space (outside of China). You’re complaining about US platforms while implicitly acknowledging they are the best place you have to find interesting discussions online. It’s like the internet came along, offering opportunities to build these businesses to anyone in the world at super low cost, and most countries stuck their heads in the sand and said, “nah, this social media stuff is a fad, let’s stick to car manufacturing.” 10 years later the world is somehow under the “control” of US platforms? Huh? Did you know HN/Twitter/Reddit are websites you can just choose not to type into your address bar? Instead of complaining about the world you helped create, why not try changing it by starting a social platform for your local market and in your local language? These are all just simple CRUD apps. There’s about 600 “build a Reddit clone” YouTube tutorials you could follow to build the same thing as HN/Reddit/Twitter from a technical perspective.
- i5heu 5y ago
  „Don’t complain about hard to change tires! Build your own car!!!“ Do you even know what it means to run a social platform? Germany has had multiple social Platforms before Facebook. StudiVZ Kwick And even local ones like “Team Ulm” They are all dead. Because social platforms live from scale.
  - pembrook 5y ago
    > Do you even know what it means to run a social platform? Hacker news has added no features for like 10 years and has two moderators. TWO. Hacker news doesn’t do “growth.” It doesn’t send re-engagement emails. It doesn’t have an official app. It doesn’t run TV ads. Yet it’s one of the most visited sites on the web. Any below-average software engineer could build and deploy a clone within a single day. How is there not a German, Brazilian, etc. hacker news? It’s mind blowing to me. This isn’t even 1% the difficulty of “building your own car.” In fact, for many software engineers, building an HN clone would be easier than changing a tire. I’m insanely skeptical of the idea you can’t find enough demand for a German language Reddit/HN in a country of 85 million educated people.

dasb 5y ago

It's funny when radical progressivists in my country try to translate the "white male" cliché into our local context, because white (as in caucasian white) people are are less than 5% of our population.

wolverine876 5y ago
It doesn't sound difficult to me. It has nothing to do with whiteness and maleness; it's about political power. If there is a group that is a dominant political power, it's the same thing. That's why issues of 'reverse racism' are a different problem: Discrimination is about power, not race. If American Buddhists are discriminatory against Baptists, it's obnoxious but not an issue of oppression or much threat to Baptists, because it lacks power. Of course, that's generalized: It will play out in different ways, in different places, among different people, in different times. In the U.S., it's different in Mississippi and Chicago, different today and tomorrow. > radical progressivists Are they really "radical", or is that merely a pejorative attached to 'progressive'? In what way are they radical? Lots of groups want change, many want big change; the progressives aren't even the leaders in 'big change' these days.
- peytn 5y ago
  I think GP was saying the opposite, i.e. it’s nominally about political power as you said, but in the local context they’re going after white men who have no political power and ignoring politically powerful groups.
- trophycase 5y ago
  lmao the "discrimination is about power" is so played out and is used as a tool to justify "reverse" racism (which is just racism). What does a police officer being more afraid during a traffic stop of black people have to do with institutional power? What does people walking home at night and crossing the road when "certain" people are on their side have to do with institutional power? Nothing. This whole "racism = power + prejudice" thing is an intentional normalization of the ability for everyone to be racist to whites (or asians I guess) without having to be held to their same standards. I've rarely ever seen this argument used without a basically overtly racist/sexist comment either preceding or following it.

throw737858 5y ago

Is it a good thing for US? In 90ties we only knew American culture from sitcoms like Baywatch and Friends. Now your political culture turned into Southpark and US is a joke.

disabled 5y ago
Yeah, as an American expat, I watch South Park to catch up and learn about what has been blown out of proportion in the US, politically and socially. Because when South Park starts making fun of it, you know things have been taken too far, like next level messed up. Plus, it is a good source of entertainment. I always am fairly aware of the news, even abroad, but I stay off of social media (except HN). I only read actual news from formal print publications. Honestly, the lack of American foreign correspondents reporting abroad (especially in print) makes the US susceptible to a lot of uncertainty, and plausible deniability (such as with Russian propaganda being propagated on social media). With respect to that, the Financial Times does extremely well, but it is not an American news source. But, it is definitely worth getting a subscription to. They also do a lot of reporting about tech, which is typically spot-on. I have only been disappointed once when reading a tech article on FT.com.

jacquesm 5y ago

Especially the worst of it. With Qanon franchises and pro-Trump - yes, even now - factions popping up all over the place. Disgusting.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

akomtu 5y ago

I wouldn't call that woke fundamentalism the American culture: it's popular only among a very loud minority. The good half of America actively despises it (e.g. take a look at the redstate site) and in fact quite a few governors have started banning teaching CRT in schools.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
3grdlurker 5y ago
The article makes no mention of “woke fundamentalism”, whatever that means, and there’s a lot of mention about QAnon and All Lives Matter, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Are you sure you read the article?

Animats 5y ago

The US did not create Brexit, the center of much of the UK's political drama. (Although Boris Johnson does look like Trump.)

wolverine876 5y ago

America provides the means by which political culture flows, such as via Twitter and Facebook, but remember that a significant portion (of unknown size to me) of American social media rhetoric is imported. Where did trolling, nationalism, troll farms, hate speech, nihilism, mass-scale disinformation - where did each of those originate? I'm not implying an answer, by the way. I don't know; is there any research? My point is that there is no reason to believe any or all began in the U.S. We know at least about troll farms exporting rhetoric to the U.S., and that many of the ideas and rhetorical styles were more popular in places outside the U.S. before social media (such as inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric). Possibly, whoever exported them to the U.S. also exported them to other places. There is some evidence: We can see the rise of similar politics, especially right-wing populist nationalism, in many countries approximately simultaneously, including India, China, Europe, Russia, South America, the U.S., and many more. That wasn't popular politics 20 years ago.

Dma54rhs 5y ago
20 years ago American left wingers had similar ideas than your right does right now, what are you trying to say? Do people think the infamous Russians invented the right wing rhetoric? That is next level history washing and quite frankly misinformation.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  20 years ago the American left (depending on how far 'left' you mean) was advocating action against climate change, for universal health care, for abortion rights, against tax cuts for the wealthy, for more investment in public education, etc. They certainly did not advocate against immigrants, for nationalism or ethnic nationalism, hate speech, etc. But I'm presenting the facts for your claims, when you should be. Do your other claims have some basis? Also, I didn't say anything about the Russians, though they do operate troll farms and try to influence social media.
  - Dma54rhs 5y ago
    Looks like you have been influenced by disinformation, absolutely not true - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/joe-biden-2006-vote-border-fence https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/joe-biden-2006-vote-...

atlgator 5y ago

I would not be surprised if there is a billionaire and/or large nation state pushing this all over. If you can stir up social issues to stymie productivity, it makes it easy to grow your own economy. Even easier if your country is homogenous and doesn't have a legacy of racism to atone for.

zthrowaway 5y ago
I would wager just about every country has a dirty history that can be used for political purposes. I worry about this type of political approach being exported to more cultures, because at some point there will be a breaking point where everyone is too far down the road to reverse and we head into wars.

acd 5y ago

Social media are letting people consume in filter bubbles. Social media is also fueling polarization by slot machine like dopamine rewarding attention seeking like buttons.

fighterpilot 5y ago

https://archive.is/mgeat https://archive.is/mgeat

38932ur98u 5y ago
Thanks.

nickelpro 5y ago

I don't understand HN's problem with this. It's a freemarket of ideas, no one is being forced to follow Americans on Twitter or subscribe to American content producers on Youtube. What even is the alternative being proposed here? Segmenting the internet so people from different countries _can't_ interact with one another? Is that preferable?

sms737 5y ago
> Segmenting the internet so people from different countries _can't_ interact with one another? Is that preferable? Oh no, we enjoy interacting with each other. Just segment us off from the Americans and we'll be happy. /s
slim 5y ago
You sure it's a free market of ideas ? What do you make of intellectual property ? Content zoning ? Media consolidation ? On social media : what do you make of algorithmically selected content ? Thought bubbles ?
- nickelpro 5y ago
  People who engage with social media do so freely. If the content wasn't what they wanted or sought out, it wouldn't be popular and successful. Would you rather have it policed? A grand council that determines which algorithms you may enjoy and which are verboten?
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    > Would you rather have it policed It is being policed? What do think algorithmic feeds are?
    - nickelpro 5y ago
      They're content referrers that people are free to engage or disengage with at their leisure. If you don't like Twitter's content you can go use Youtube, or TikTok, or Facebook, or HN. What I wouldn't want is some government agency telling me I'm not allowed to use Twitter for my own good. Or that the content I enjoy on [insert social media network] must change because HN finds it objectionable.

coliveira 5y ago

I think this also has a negative aspect for the US. The current polarization and anti-democratic way of thinking via conspiracy theories is a common occurrence, well-known for people in third world countries. It is just the vitriol that has been long employed by the US around the world to "combat" enemies identified as communists. These tactics are now coming back to bite Americans themselves, imported by the hands of the right-wing movement, who did this for decades outside the US. Now, the democracy in the US is the one in peril due to these same tactics, turbocharged by the internet.

csbartus 5y ago

In my circle / area we are aware of this, but we don't play this game. No resentments, but thanks. US gone too far, Russia gone too far. We don't do politics any more.

OnlyRepliesToBS 5y ago

lol

_Microft 5y ago

... and prudery. Really, you cannot imagine how prudish Facebook's "community standards" are looking from a European point of view.

estaseuropano 5y ago
And how intensely it celebrates violence and is a rule of 'who shouts the loudest' rather than a discourse and exchange as you would expect in European politics and media.

freebuju 5y ago

As a non-American I can tell you how dead wrong this notion is. This might have been true in the mid-2000's when social media was still relatively new (and mostly Western). As it cascaded into other parts of the world, the novelty died off. In fact, to the contrary we are seeing more and more localization of content on social media and other digital platforms. A good example here is Tiktok in user generated content that has geographic & linguistic boundaries. Film, music & other sub-cultures have a much more powerful rubbing effect on pushing subtle American culture than SM.

durnygbur 5y ago

Even my parents in their 60s living their entire lifes in now post-Communist country have opinion about Trump's (non) reelection. They're not even actively participating in social media - their smartphones are sucking in toxic content and public TV is broadcasting "news from the greatest ally country". It's so sad watching them bathing in this cesspool, it's like watching your daugther in GirlsDoPorn. Americans you've gone far too far with your brainwashing cultural and political expansiveness. No difference from Russians and Chinese at this point. Feck off with your rainbow BlackRock McDonalds Trump Disney Facebook CocaCola.

desperate 5y ago
My bad, I'll call it off right now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

cblconfederate 5y ago

It spreads because its popular to talk about. Cringe subjects get people clicks and views, even if nobody believes what they say. The same reasons it caught on in america. This 'politics' is much more about emotional release than any politics were in the past. In the end it doesn't matter, rich-get-richer keeps going on everywhere, while the commonfolk squabble over pronouns

Popegaf 5y ago

The rest of the world should be aggressively promoting their culture, values and language, just like the US. Japan is doing a very good job of that with the proliferation of weebs, but others are not. Europe barely exports any culture or media - especially in their own languages. Most things EU are regionally locked and if they aren't, they are behind paywalls or accessible through American networks. Were I to try and watch Polish TV shows, it would most likely happen over Netflix or Amazon. It's barely possible to browse their shows in English nor can most services be paid for using non-Polish payment means (except maybe VISA&Mastercard). That's just Europe. I'm sure China has some great shows and movies, probably Russia has too but finding them and accessing them is entirely different issue. Even knowing what exists is difficult. The U.S is at the top of their propaganda game while the rest of the world is acting like a bunch of amateurs.

rsj_hn 5y ago
I've gotten into Israeli TV recently. You can watch Fauda on Netflix. There are some pretty cool shows out there.
- dmitriid 5y ago
  Surprisingly, Netflix may be one of the forces to make people aware of other cultures, as they have been busy buying and funding local content all over the world.
flohofwoe 5y ago
Don't you have access to satellite TV? For instance ASTRA is full of international TV channels. And in the past, shortwave radio was the equivalent, you could receive radio stations from (nearly) all over the world.
- Popegaf 5y ago
  I'm honestly surprised that it's still a thing. TV hasn't been part of my subscriptions, household or connection (no TV cables in the house) for more than a decade. I don't know a single person over the age of 60 with a TV subscription or connection.

macleginn 5y ago

"Few outside China get excited about buying Huawei phones or shopping on Alibaba" --- a lot of people do actually.

refurb 5y ago

Used vehicles have gone way up in price before Covid ever hit and trucks were one of the worst culprits. Covid made the price increases worse, but the phenomenon predates Covid by at least a couple years.

nephanth 5y ago

I think a lot of this is due to the language barrier. Like most French people, I learnt english at school, so following English and American media makes sense, whereas following for ex German or Chinese media would be way harder. Similarly, since Americans are notoriously bad at foreign languages, it's to be expected they don't follow a lot of foreign non-English media