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One of the most prominent customs of Americans is that we pretend to have no culture or customs on a national level. Of course, we actually do project a cultur
by mbg721 5y ago
One of the most prominent customs of Americans is that we pretend to have no culture or customs on a national level. Of course, we actually do project a culture, and whenever that becomes apparent, many Americans are unhappy, because that culture isn't aligned well with their personal values.
- tomc1985 5y agoDo people really believe that? Like, every fourth AskReddit thread seems to ask questions specifically of Americans. Which means someone thinks we're different enough to make a thread about it (over and over again...), ergo we have our own culture. Maybe I've just traveled to much, and I have certainly rolled my eyes at some of my less informed countrymen, but I have a hard time believing people could think that our culture is somehow a baseline. I agree that we project our culture a ton, and I really wish we wouldn't. It's so annoying to try and share something cultural with a foreign friend only to find out they already know and have opinions about it because they saw it on Friends
- spiralx 5y agoMy take is that a lot of USians will vociferously defend the differences in regional cultures within the US - East vs. West, coastal vs. flyover, state vs. state and so on - as both a conscious and an unconscious response to questions of national cultures and norms. When someone claims the US is "too big" or "too diverse" (and isn't using the latter as a dog whistle) you see some of this implicit balkanisation of the US into incompatible units. Of course the consistent reaction of Americans to the use of terms like "USians" is a big giveaway to the fact that there's a national identity and thus culture. As, I guess, is the habit of down-playing of any such thing lol.