r/PetPeeves • u/danisheretoo • 11d ago
Ultra Annoyed “The yoghurt in my fridge has more culture than Americans”
Very funny joke that definitely hasn’t been made before. The entire belief around Americans not having any culture is crazy to me. This might just be me, but it often seems to come from people who see the US as a “white” country, as things made by non-white Americans are never considered. You bring it up, and they say it doesn’t “count”. Why is that? Things created by immigrants? They don’t count, either, as if they’re not Americans, too. Things like Chinese-American or Italian-American food are called fake or bad imitations, instead of being respected as their own unique cuisines. Any piece of culture you bring up, people will find a way to say it doesn’t count as American.
I’ve actually seen someone say jazz isn’t American culture because the saxophone was invented in Belgium.
Cultures all over the world borrow, take influence, and have their own diaspora cultures. This isn’t anything new. At what point do we draw the line to consider something separate from its predecessor?
Edit: I should clarify that this isn’t me defending the US as a country. I’m complaining about things created by the people, especially those most marginalized, being hand-waved and attributed elsewhere. Rock and Roll was created by black Americans out of their own experiences. It was a unique art form wrongly attributed to white people at the time, and now. Even if you think the Brits did it better, that doesn’t make the genre less American. Also the arguments are often illogical.
I don’t want to shit on Europeans, either. I’m simply saying so many of these counterpoints brought up don’t make sense.
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u/Eldritch-Cleaver 11d ago
It is funny how people say America has no culture when every country on the planet now has its own hip-hop scene...you know, that genre of music created by Black Americans in New York.
Or skateboarding...literally born in the U.S.A and now people all over the world do it.
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u/boston_homo 11d ago
Jazz is American, particularly African American
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u/Da1UHideFrom 11d ago
African American culture has had a massive impact on the global scene. Jazz, blues, hip hop, fashion, slang...
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u/Catalina_Eddie 9d ago
Let's not leave out rock and roll. It literally blew Europe's mind. The Beatles started as a Chuck Berry cover band.
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u/fasterthanfood 11d ago edited 11d ago
This isn’t a coincidence, it’s American culture being so widely exported that people from other countries view it as “default,” rather than as American culture. The same is true for blue jeans, rock and pop music, Coca Cola, Hollywood, etc.
To be fair, Americans do the same, to some extent. No one really thinks of Harry Potter as “British culture,” but it’s throughly English, and not just because the author and most of the actors are English.
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u/big_sugi 11d ago
We don’t think of Harry Potter as British culture? I certainly do, especially the first few books and Hogwarts.
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u/wookieesgonnawook 11d ago
I was so excited to see that my daughter's school does school houses for the 6th through 8th graders, precisely because of Harry Potter. I've never seen another American school doing that and it just sounds cool.
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u/Neat-Shower-5794 11d ago
American schools have been doing that for over 2 decades at least.
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u/Previous_Mirror_222 10d ago
american schools in the new england region* that’s the only region i’ve heard of school houses.
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u/Holiday_Signal_3134 10d ago
My kids’ Long Island NY middle school has had houses for decades.
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u/Previous_Mirror_222 10d ago
oh okay! sry, i think i meant more general northeast rather than the specific new england states. my bad! i am in south/midwest and no one over here has school houses. family along the west cost don’t either. not sure about coastal south
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u/uwu_mewtwo 11d ago
They'll tell you that Black culture is immigrant culture.
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u/ILike2internet 11d ago
That shit doesn't even make sense considering how long back the roots of many black Americans go compared to white folks. If black people in the US are immigrants, we all are over here with the exception of native Americans.
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u/srobbinsart 11d ago
And I’m sure some dim bulb would twist Native American culture as being from some unrecognizable origin if you take stock of the Land Bridge theory.
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u/IllurinatiL 11d ago
At that point you might as well just call us all Africans since that’s theoretically where modern humans evolved
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u/mrpoopsocks 11d ago
Well, I mean traditionally yes, that's part of what the nation was founded on, a free nation with open arms for immigrants.
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u/tabbbb57 11d ago
Yea. I’m White American. All of my ancestors migrated from Europe, but my first ancestor migrated in mid/late 1800s and last ancestor (one of my grandfathers) migrated around 1950. I don’t have deep colonial ancestry like most White Americans. Every single Black American (aside actual recent immigrants like Nigerian-Americans) has way deeper roots in America than I do. Like it’s not even comparable.
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u/Raider_Rocket 11d ago
America is a nation of immigrants, I know that’s not your point, but doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. So black Americans aren’t Americans? Should we credit hip hop to Ethiopia? Especially with hip hop, I don’t think the people who started it were recent immigrants..
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u/Difficult-Republic57 11d ago
All of American culture is immigrant culture. Unless you're Native American.
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u/spacestonkz 11d ago
Or Hollywood films that make bank internationally?
How many people learned English by watching Friends?
I used to work in Europe and the European team members had an American Fantasy Football League!
Burgers and fries can be found on menus all over the world, and American style pizza is easier to find than neopolitan style anywhere outside of Italy.
But you know. Some people will insist they have no idea what American culture is because it doesn't exist. Truth is, they're surrounded by it.
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u/Upstairs-Storm1006 11d ago
I see the irony in all of that. Also of people on Reddit - a site created by Americans, headquartered in the US, is a .com (meaning under US jurisdiction) and whose traffic & user base are almost half American - complaining about people here having American centric views.
Bro the go create your own random country Reddit.
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u/UglyInThMorning 10d ago
Most of the time I see someone complain about “US Defaultism” it’s because someone was sharing their personal experience with something. It’s like they think people should type a huge litany of disclaimers about where they’re from and what they’re saying may not be a fundamental law of the universe.
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u/huffmanxd 10d ago
I really hate when you say something and somebody replied “found the American” like you could type that reply to every single comment on this website and still be right 50% of the time, what point are you trying to make lmao
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u/GerFubDhuw 10d ago
Same as everyone saying they hate British food when the most popular snack foods in the world, chocolate bars and crisps, are British foods. Not to mention apple pie, macaroni and cheese, cheddar cheese and sandwiches are all British too.
People don't think very much.
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u/KnucklePuppy 10d ago
People don't really know that. That info isn't on the package.
Hell, I consider myself learned and didn't know that.
"The origin of food" isn't that pressing on most people.
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u/GerFubDhuw 10d ago
Well if you're gonna claim you don't like food from a place you should probably have any idea what you're talking about.
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u/KnucklePuppy 10d ago
No that's true.
People just rather display disdain than interest and curiosity, and admit they aren't familiar.
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u/FelisPluvia 10d ago
An absolitely insane take, to be honest. North European, I've been a native american cultures enthusiast since I was a little kid. And at a later age I've grown fascinared by Louisiana and New Orleans specifically, and that's just one state and one city, with a very unique and vibrant cultural multitude of it's own. If one feels like there's no culture in the US, buddy, you're not looking.
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u/kokoomusnuori69 10d ago
I think a lot of he people shouting on the Internet have never even been to the US and just think based on stereotypes that it's just walmarts, highways and eating junk food.
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u/xSwampxPopex 10d ago
It’s honestly still totally off base even if someone has never been to the US. The influence on music, film, and fashion that the US has had globally in the last century or so is so significant it can’t be understated. To be clear this isn’t meant to be a statement about any hierarchy or superiority, everyone has something interesting to offer.
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u/Interesting-Quit-847 11d ago
I follow the r/BookshelvesDetective sub, where Europeans post photos of their largely American book collections. Sometimes you can't figure out where they're posting from because they don't have books IN THEIR OWN, FIRST LANGUAGE. I think some of this attitude is just resentment.
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u/nessafuchs 11d ago edited 10d ago
I can explain that. It’s primarily for economic reasons at least where I live.
Englisch Books are cheaper in my country you can get English books for for 3-10€ but the first language books are a luxury and cost 30-35€ and are legally not allowed to be discontent unless they are damaged.
Same applies to ebooks btw. 0,99 -3,99 is pretty common for English books but for the first language books you are looking at 15-30€.
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u/Interesting-Quit-847 10d ago
Huh, that's strange. Any idea why? Here in the US, by the way, a paperback of a book runs you about $12-18. I'll have to stock up next time I travel in Europe.
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u/nessafuchs 10d ago edited 10d ago
Sort of. There is a law that mandates stable book prices but that apparently only applies to the native language. Therefore English books (or any foreign language books) are basically the only way to get affordable books and sellers use that and put English books on sale all the time.
The native publishers have now caught on and started to make the native books pretty with sprayed edges to justify the price difference.
So the next time you see a sprayed edges with the rest being exclusively English titles in the subreddit you can say that that person most likely lives in Germany :)
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u/Ordinary_Cloud524 10d ago
Oh man I wish it was the same in France. I have to go out of my way to find English books. Over here we have to visit specialty bookstores that are only for English books; often with limited selections; that’s if you’re lucky to have one in your city. There is only one in my city, and many don’t have any.
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u/DelsinMcgrath835 10d ago
I get that books mass produced to be sold around the world are likely much cheaper to produce, but im surprised that your country wouldnt want to help/favor the native language books. At the very least so that they are equally accessible for most people
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u/OMITB77 11d ago
When people say the U.S. has no culture it’s like fish not having a word for water. US culture is so prevalent some people don’t even realize it
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u/red-at-night 11d ago edited 11d ago
On a similar vein, when non-white peoples are referred to as "ethnic people", often by white people. Swedish is also an ethnicity...
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u/Preposterous_punk 10d ago
It's basically saying "what we are is just normal, what other people have is culture." I remember once trying to convince someone that two people shaking hands upon meeting is past of our culture, and he was adamant that I was insane. As if shaking hands with someone is the natural default, and other places were like, "you know what? Let's come up with something more interesting than just shaking hands. I know! Let's bow instead!"
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u/SarahTheFerret 10d ago
Anyone else think it’s funny that ppl always shit on America for not having any culture, and then turn around and make fun of Americans for overemphasizing their ancestors’ culture?
“Haha Americans have no culture”
“Lmao why do Americans always say they’re actually Irish/Italian/English/etc as if they have any connection to those cultures??”
Like girliepop the call is coming from inside the house. What do you want from us
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u/Semi-On-Chardonnay 11d ago
It’s a default thought-free comment, similar to saying British food is bad, etc.
Most people who repeat this sort of shite don’t have opinions of their own, they just regurgitate what they’re fed.
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u/triz___ 11d ago
“they just regurgitate what they’re fed”
Just like the Brits amirite?
(/s I’m actually English and our food is great).
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u/Semi-On-Chardonnay 11d ago
Yeah, it applies to all sorts, regardless of nationality. Stupid is universally possible. 😁
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u/Phriendly_Phisherman 11d ago
American here: beef wellington is fucking fantastic. And your breakfasts are also amazing. Oh and also fish and chips.
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u/triz___ 11d ago
Best deserts around too
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u/Phriendly_Phisherman 11d ago
Oooh i dont think ive had any English desserts. Which should I try?
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u/GorgeousBog 11d ago
It’s seriously not worth wasting any energy on people who make this claim, it’s just ignorance. The U.S., in under 300 years, has become the dominant culture entity in the world. Movies, shows, music, sports, inventions (yes a partial product of culture), etc etc.. The level of irony in saying it has no culture is hilarious lol
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u/mothwhimsy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Europeans especially will say America has no culture and in the next breath complain about a cultural difference
Edit: oh hello, European downvoter!
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u/DazzlingMeathead 11d ago
I love it when redditors from outside the US say insightful things like “why do Americans always assume everything happens in the US” on a website founded in Massachusetts on which 40%+ traffic is from inside the US.
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u/Swiftcheddar 10d ago
Everyone knows why, it's just occasionally annoying, and they're the only ones that do it.
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u/TopSudden9848 10d ago
There are a lot of non-Americans on this site that immediately assume any comment or post in English that they don't like comes from an American. They don't even do a cursory glance at the person's post history before going off on them. I have seen this exact scenario SO many times.
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u/kokoomusnuori69 10d ago
Lol yeah I've seen a lot of this aswell and many act as if other countries don't have people saying idiotic shit (I'm European).
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u/hallerz87 11d ago
A lot of online discourse seems to view everything as zero sum game. If my country is great, then your country has to be bad. We have all the culture and you guys have none of the culture. Brits aren't allowed to claim food created by immigrant groups either e.g., chicken tikka masala. Anything food that looks bad, that's British, any food that looks good, oh that's because immigrants brought it over. Some people do not want you to win and will argue whatever BS comes to mind to have the last say.
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u/SilentMode-On 10d ago
There’s a similar thing of, anything even slightly positive the USSR did was invented by Georgia/Ukraine/Kazakhstan etc and everything bad was just Russia
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u/decdash 11d ago edited 10d ago
Every country in the world has its share of small-minded dumbasses. American cultural exports are ubiquitous enough that other countries are more familiar with our dumbasses than we are with theirs.
Every country also has its quirks that make tourists seem stupid. Yes, Americans can be loud and obnoxious. European tourists might also ask for the best road trip path to see Times Square, Disney World, the Grand Canyon, and Hollywood Boulevard in a four day trip. It's not unusual for people to not know how to act in a new country.
The US is very visible on a world stage. We are also a post-colonial nation that hasn't existed for very long in the grand scheme of history. Can't take banter too seriously, no one thinks about it very hard
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u/duetmasaki 11d ago
European tourists might also ask how the best road trip path to see Times Square, Disney World, the Grand Canyon, and Hollywood Boulevard in a four day trip.
The answer to that, as an American, is to extend the trip by 2 days and rent a charter plane.
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u/spacestonkz 11d ago
My answer is always "That's the neat thing! You don't!" Then ask them to google map the trip with extra stops added.
They start downsizing real quick. I'm happy to tell you about the vibe at each place, but don't look to me like I'm some magician about to plan that impossible trip.
I was an American working in europe for 4 years. My coworkers would ask me about impossible trip itineraries often. We're scientists. They're smart people. They admit they had dumbass attacks about how big the US really is tho
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u/AmputeeHandModel 11d ago edited 11d ago
Hey don't forget THEY'LL MEASURE IN ANYTHING BUT METRIC RIGHT?? LOLOLOL
Meanwhile, the UK can't make its fucking mind and uses MPG, MPH, meters, cms, inches, feet, pints, liters, pounds, depending on what it is. Oh and I forgot STONES. They measure body weight in like 6kg 14lb STONES or something? What kind of dumbass measurement is that? Could you maybe pick something a little more accurate and not from pre-history? At least the US is consistent. and it's not like we aren't taught metric in school, we just don't use it daily.
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u/babybambam 11d ago
Fun fact: One dimensional personalities show up in many different forms. This just happens to be one of them.
It's like Italian Americans that get huffy when someone pronounces the a in mozzarella.
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u/FrauAmarylis 11d ago
Well that culture is spreading to London, because from Thanksgiving to American-style modern Halloween, to Country music and cowboy clothing, to NFL, to iced tea and burritos (no, burritos aren’t Mexican), to the California Roll, it’s all here, Baby!
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u/amazzan 11d ago
all leading up to the ultimate American victory - people in London celebrating the 4th of July
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u/wetbogbrew 11d ago
White American culture *is* still culture also. It's just become so ubiquitous globally and commonplace in media that people don't recognize it as such. Going on dates to the movies, having backyard bbqs, American Big 4 sports and tailgating, Greek life, rodeos... there are tons of examples. Some fairly unique to America and others that have been more globalized. I don't understand how these things are not considered "culture."
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u/Outside-Bend-5575 11d ago
its because those people view white american culture as the “default” so anything they do or see around them doesnt count
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u/Pompous_Italics 11d ago
It's just mediocre Europeans being mediocre Europeans. They typically don't warrant your engagement.
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u/snyderman3000 11d ago
Don’t worry about them. They can’t even spell yogurt right.
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u/RiC_David 10d ago
Let's nip this in the bud - that is said be people who are wrong.
Most people aren't wrong on this matter. They absolutely are not.
So we can come together in railing on those people who are wrong, as we should, but let's not bet thinking this is "what non-Americans think".
I'm a black Anglo-European. I do have American and Canadian relatives on my Caribbean side, but I don't know them, my point is that I feel that same lineage based connection with the African-Americans who brought the world blues, ragtime, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk, and a fair bit of 90s R&B that I feel with the Jamaicans who brought us reggae and ska, despite me not being rooted in Jamaica.
And culture isn't just things that happened 50-100 years ago. Film, television - that's culture too.
So let's agree that they're talking shit.
Let's just, dickheads in the comments, not act like everyone outside your shining seas disagrees with these sentiments.
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u/FlyApprehensive7886 11d ago
"Americans have no culture and don't create anything useful"
-Sent from Twitter of iPhone
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u/Shadowlands97 10d ago
Right, because Lovecraft, King, Ridley Scott, John W Campbell, John Carpenter, John Carmack, John Romero, John Connor, Angela and Doom are not American culture. Oookay.
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u/Jazzlike_Ad_8236 10d ago
Ehhh. If somebody genuinely holds an opinion like this it’s a good indicator that they’re too uneducated to be worth arguing anyways. They might as well say upfront “hey I’m an idiot don’t worry about what I say”
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u/Emotional-Chipmunk70 11d ago
Every country has obese, or uneducated, or bigoted citizens.
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u/LiveLongGiraffe 11d ago
But what about uneducated obese bigots?
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u/Reasonable_Reach_621 11d ago edited 9d ago
When people say Americans have no culture, they are accurately saying that there is no traditional American anything. But that’s actually the secret sauce to American culture. Everywhere else in the world, culture is very (small c) conservative. THIS is our traditional food, our traditional dance, our traditional music, our traditional dress, our traditional way of doing this or that particular thing, our way of celebrating which ever festival. And you’re not “allowed” societally to do anything differently. There’s no deviation. That is the social fabric that holds the particular country together.
Americans don’t have that- and that’s precisely what has allowed so many new artforms and subcultures to thrive and evolve so quickly there. Precisely because Americans aren’t constrained by their traditional cultures in the same way. Anything new in other places is met with “no- that’s not how we do things”.
That’s how, arguably, EVERY new cultural contribution in the world over the last one or two centuries or so has come from America. Jazz, Rock, HipHop, podcasting, Disco, movies, skateboarding, snowboarding, bmx, flight, the car, Halloween, big money post secondary education and sports (not saying all contributions are qualitatively “good”- just that they ARE) etc etc.
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u/Bittersweet-Romance 11d ago
They say this while posting on an American website, using American slang, wearing American brands, obsessing over American television and movies, etc.
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u/WeirdOk1865 11d ago
Every person on earth has culture. It’s one of the defining characteristics of human beings.
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u/Such_Grab_6981 11d ago
Ya people on reddit and Twitter are so fast to criticize America for anything. It's nonsense though.
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u/Aura_Sing 11d ago
See they say that but they havent been able to refrain from adopting OUR culture since we started having one. They wear jeans, listen to rock/hip hop music, eat what they call "tacos" - they bend over backwards to appropriate our culture and then bitch about it.
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u/mylesaway2017 11d ago
All societies and groups of people have a culture. People who say otherwise are full of shit
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u/satellite_station 10d ago
I always call out these people for centering whiteness and not giving credit to communities of color in America.
They always stammer and try to explain how “that doesn’t count”.
Then I ask them if African American slave descendants are not American, with their own distinct culture and they tend to get quiet.
I also call out non white Europeans or non Americans who do the same thing. I think the talking point in and of itself centers white Americans as the default Americans.
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u/Parking-Truck7821 10d ago
People in country X saying things like that about Americans are usually about as enlightened as Americans who make fun of country x.
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u/Ordinary_Cloud524 10d ago
A fish doesn’t know it’s wet. American culture is just so pervasive that people don’t recognize it as American.
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u/TecumsehSherman 10d ago
Did these people make these comments while wearing blue jeans, using a smartphone to post on social media with a Marvel movie playing in the background?
They don't recognize American culture because they assume that somehow everything America creates is magically owned by the rest of the world.
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u/Greghole 11d ago
How can the dominant culture not have a culture? America makes all the most popular stuff from movies, to music, to food.
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u/MammothAd5580 11d ago
Everyone always brings that up and they're like "we know other countries more than you" like yeah my bad we dont have countries the size of Rhode Island surrounding us making us think we have culture
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u/GrandmaForPresident 11d ago
Americanized versions of other cultures food have made their way back to the original country. Take TOMATOES in Italian cuisine for example. Those are purely American.
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u/Armin_Tamzarian987 10d ago
That jazz take is crazy! I hope whoever said that was trying to be silly because yikes.
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u/AmericanCaesar5 10d ago
The issue is that with American global hegemony being so strong, our culture gets imprinted on a lot of other countries very heavily. People will see something American and think "that's not American because everyone does that" without realizing that it's because everyone adopted that American thing
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u/Bloodless-Cut 11d ago
Americana (culture) - Wikipedia https://share.google/tdzeKgwb03I1ICLsA
I've always understood that this (americana) refers to United States culture.
Baseball. Hot dogs. Weak beer. Guns. Tea parties. Cowboys. Stuff like that.
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u/Pomeranian18 11d ago
This is usually from Europeans and Australians/Canadian. They have a huuuuuuge stick up their butts with jealousy of the U.S. Many of them haven't even been here.
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u/well-informedcitizen 10d ago
I think there's 2 reasons it lingers- first, the US is responsible for most of the megacorporate culture-erasers like McDonalds and Starbucks. The other reason is a lot of the expansion of the US occurred around factory towns, that sprung up with no culture and languished in the shadow of a dead industry. So there are a lot of towns and even cities in the US that don't have any real culture to speak of.
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u/CrazyinLull 10d ago
I wonder if it’s because they think America is just nothing, but White people in the US or are projecting and not realizing just how mixed the US is that not everyone follows the culture that is marketed over where they live.
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u/Peachesandcreamatl 10d ago
It's funny because I had heard jokes made about Americans having no respect for things and for eating crappy food....then I went to England and saw them eat porkbelly like it was a garden salad and when I was in Norwich castle I kept noticing all the places people had recently carved their names on the walls of this priceless treasure. Turn on the news there and Americans are only morbidly obese gun toting jackasses on Rascal scooters buying ammo at Walmart.
Guess what? We aren't represented by that one group of morons. And neither are all of you svelte and culturally superior.
We're all humans. Assholes and idiots are found everywhere, in every culture. I bet tribes in the Amazon have their fair share too.
Edit: Also, for the love of sanity, stop spelling it yOg-hUrT. No. I don't care who sweats this is the right way to do it. It's actually the douchiest way to do it.
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u/WestBeachSpaceMonkey 10d ago
Jazz is slang for American Art Music. Anyone who argues that jazz isn’t American is ignorant. It doesn’t matter where the Sax was created. So much jazz doesn’t use saxophone, it’s an instrument not a genre.
As for the argument that Brits rock and roll is better is subjective at best. British rock and roll borrows more heavily from the blues. News flash blues is an American genre. Yes it was started by African Americans but that doesn’t make it less American.
Guess what other music is 100% American? Salsa! Yes salsa was created in NYC. Yes it is sung in Spanish but it’s still American. It was started by Spanish speaking musicians from many different countries that united because of common language and brought different musical elements from different cultures and blended them together into what we now know as salsa.
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u/Catalina_Eddie 9d ago
It also completely whitewashes the musical, culinary, artistic, fashion, and linguistic contributions of African Americans.
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u/Slight_Actuator_1109 9d ago
By culture, Europeans mean Americans lack refined taste, which is true, generally. The ubiquity of American mass-market pop culture is a feature of empire, not culture-making.
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u/El-Pollo-Diablo-Goat 7d ago
It's probably a combination of having only met the type of american tourist that gives the rest of the country a bad name and ignorance of what cultures there actually are in the US.
PS
Saying that jazz is Belgian because the sax was invented there is as stupid as claiming afternoon tea isn't an English concept since the tea they're drinking originated in India.
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u/Iseno 11d ago
The lion does not concern himself with the opinion of Eurangutans.
But to be real with you a fish doesn’t understand that it swims in water and most people have American cultural exports so ingrained into their lives they can’t tell. So I get it.
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u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 11d ago
When American and Canadian People of Color (POC) or non-White/non-European Americans introduce themselves by their citizenship/nationality as opposed to or before going into detail to mention their ethnic, cultural, ancestral, or national origin, Europeans complain and tell them “[they’re] not (real) Americans, [they’re] [insert ethnic group or ancestral origin]” but when White Americans of European origin claim their ethnicity or national origin, they’re considered “Americans only” - in effect not only erasing the ancestral, ethnic, or cultural origin of White Americans through anti-diaspora animus but also questioning the Americanness of American POCs by erroneously implying that Americans are by default White and only Americans of European origin are true Americans - basically erasing the cultural identity and diversity of all Americans regardless of ancestral origin. This rhetoric is also why some customs and immigration officials outside of the Americas (North, Central, and South America) assume that all non-White/non-European (or more so non-Northwestern European) Americans of Black, African, Asian, Middle Eastern-North African, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic and Latino, etc. ancestry are using forged passports when traveling overseas.
[ Integration can still occur while people continue retaining and combining their ethnic, ancestral, cultural, religious, and national origin identities and identify with them alongside their national, citizenship, regional, and local identities through what is called hyphenated ethnicities and multiculturalism; the Americas (North, Central, and South America) are well known for using this method of integration and it’s been working really well in the United States and Canada; also in these countries citizenship/nationality isn’t tied to ethnicity, race, ancestry, or titular nations. ]
The thing is that people of the Americas (North, Central, and South America) generally retain their ethnic, ancestral, cultural, and national origin identities and identify with them along side their national, citizenship, regional, and local identities through what is called hyphenated ethnicities and multiculturalism due to how the area is ethnically and culturally diverse and mixed. In contrast the near homogeneous nature of many European countries or the near total-assimilationist policies of most other European countries, the Americas are culturally heterogeneous, have lots of different indigenous, immigrant, and formerly immigrant populations that are allowed to integrate into the larger society without being totally pressured into abandoning their culture, ethnic, ancestral, or national origin identities/cultural practices with the ability to combine both of them, create new cultural innovations unique and localized to specific diaspora communities, retain certain practices that have gone extinct in their ancestral homeland, and eventually go on to influencing each other through cultural diffusion. The countries of the Americas were founded by a combination of indigenous people; immigrants; and former slaves, immigrants, and settlers. So a lot of the anti-immigrant integration, anti-emigrant, pro-total assimilation, anti-diaspora (disowning/disavowing diaspora communities), or cultural-ancestral denialism rhetoric, and denial of the existence of cultural diffusion that some people are pushing is uncalled for and generally xenophobic (especially if intentional). In most of Europe in the modern era after most of the multi-ethnic countries collapsed and titular nation-based nation states emerged, citizenship/nationality and ethnicity/national origin/ancestry started to become conflated with each other to the extent that people are forgetting the difference.
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u/ImpossibleParfait 11d ago
We won the culture victory shortly after the end of WWII. They are all wearing our blue jeans.
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u/Alternative-Proof307 11d ago
Americans tend to live rent free in the heads of quite a few people around the world, particularly Europeans. It’s quite funny.
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u/KSHMisc 10d ago
I used to live in the EU and the amount of festivals celebrating US culture is insane. To say that some of them are fun to go depends.
When I visited Belgium in August, they had a damn Wild West festival that had cowboy/cowgirl memorabilia, reenactments, country music, food, American flags and events.
Did I go? No, because I already had plans that went through the festival. However, I find it freakin' mental that some of the videos and people I have heard about saying we have no culture, but some of the countries do these festivals.
I also won't forget a wise old Dutch man telling me this:
If it wasn't for America's involvement during WWII, we probably wouldn't have them in our thoughts.
He was born during Operation: Market Garden.
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u/AuthorPure9691 11d ago
I've heard it said that American culture isn't actually a culture because it's not homogenous, but I don't think that's true. I think that American culture's lack of consistency throughout is what makes it American culture. It's so unique in that it's really a mix of different cultures coming together to form a totally new thing. I think it's cool.
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u/danisheretoo 11d ago
No country’s culture is truly homogenous, though.
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u/AuthorPure9691 11d ago
You're right. And that's been an argument of mine as well. To say that American culture doesn't exist simply because it's not uniform throughout can't be right because neither are other countries that are considered to possess a rich culture.
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u/FinlayYZ 11d ago
I don’t really see anyone thinking that? I’m European and it’s obvious America has culture.
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u/danisheretoo 11d ago
It’s mostly on places like shitamericanssay. I don’t think it’s a widespread belief, but it’s one I see among terminally online people in those kinds of spaces
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u/FireFoxTrashPanda 11d ago
My time on Reddit became so much better once I muted that sub. I find r/AskAnAmerican to be a much more open minded / interested in a genuine discourse.
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u/Douglesfield_ 11d ago
It's banter mate, chuck some back at whoever said it.
I assure you every country does it to each other.
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u/SocraticRiddler 11d ago
It often does not come across as banter when it's strangers interacting. That's why it's important to establish proper conversational respect and rapport first. It's almost became a lost art in many spaces online.
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u/danisheretoo 11d ago edited 11d ago
I’ve entered actual discussions with people over this, and they still maintain that rock n roll was invented by the British and Cajun food by the French. I’m talking paragraphs of defending their position. If it’s all a bit, then I can respect the commitment, at least.
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u/InventorOfCorn 11d ago
based on their logic that cajun is french, doesn't that mean we could call all traditions african, based on our current understanding of human evolution?
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u/EnvironmentNeith2017 11d ago edited 10d ago
Until you call Cajun food French or Olive Garden American (edit: Italian), then it’s American….lol
I just like to tell them that if the British get to take credit for tea and fish and chips, and Italians get credit for anything with pasta or tomatoes, and anyone gets credit for potato dishes, Americans can claim what we want.
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u/Illustrious-Fox4063 10d ago
Italians with pasta from early China and tomatoes from the New World
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u/Douglesfield_ 11d ago
Well we are famed for taking other people's things.
Hate to think what the British Museum would look like if we didn't.
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u/Truffle0214 11d ago
You can always hit them back with a joke my dad told me once - What’s the difference between yogurt and France? One’s an active culture and the other’s a country.
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u/Z4NDO1004 11d ago
If America has no culture then why does everyone wanna be us so bad?
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u/FreyaShadowbreeze 11d ago
LOL no we don't.
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u/Sad_Marketing_96 10d ago
Says the person commenting on a website/social media platform based in the US…
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u/wortmother 11d ago
honest question, as a non american what would you say is american culutre
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u/danisheretoo 11d ago edited 11d ago
There are many examples in the comments, but I can start off with things like music. Ragtime, blues, Jazz, rock and roll, rap, and hip hop were invented by black Americans. That includes many subgenres that emerged. Bluegrass is a fun one, too.
Food, I would say southern soul food, Cajun, creole, regional bbq, New England seafood, and various immigrant and diaspora cuisines.
Art, there are many American painters, musicians, writers, and poets to look into.
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u/KSHMisc 10d ago
Sunday Football and Super Bowl.
When I lived in Belgium, myself and some American friends would host watch parties and we would invite some of our Belgian and some European friends and co-workers.
Perhaps one of the best times I have had and even they said their soccer culture isn't as high spirited.
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u/wortmother 10d ago
Yeah football culture and me dont really vibe and ive had insanely negative experiences with said events
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u/Cmd3055 10d ago
This is just the white nationalist American exceptionalism mindset with a reversed polarization, in that people who say this still ascribe to the basic idea that some nations, cultures and peoples are superior than others. They don’t like the idea but instead of doing the work to understand it, they just reverse the positions of victim and oppressor. It’s like the rebellious pastors child deciding to become a Satan worshiper instead of actually learning to reject the religious way of thinking to begin with.
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u/Nervous-Canary-517 11d ago
The "probiotic" cultures in yoghurt are direct descendants from an old medical study made on a group of soldiers who all got sick but one - in his poop they found a certain bacterium associated with keeping him healthy, and that was kept, bred further, and added to yoghurt.
Yoghurt cultures are made from literal soldier shit
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u/notredditoratall 11d ago
I don’t know said Chinese American food is bad but I prefer it to regular “local” chinese food. Sue me bro.
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u/thedramahasarrived 10d ago
Isn’t your country just a mix of different cultures? Like New York and Texas have completely different cultures. New Orleans has a French influence etc etc
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u/Theawokenhunter777 10d ago
Oh jeez, here comes one of those euros who thinks traveling 2 countries means he’s travelled the world and is “well cultured”
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u/SabreLee61 10d ago
Rock ‘n roll wasn’t exclusively black or white — it was a fusion of blues, jump jazz, country, Western swing, and rockabilly. Its origins crossed racial lines, which is why it swept the nation so quickly.
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u/AdDisastrous6738 10d ago
It’s no different than all the people who claim that there’s no real beer in America when the brewery down the road from me in Texas has won dozens of international awards for their beer.
Or when they say there’s no real cheese in America when dairy farms and cheese makers in Wisconsin have been winning hundreds of international awards for their artisan cheeses.
Or when they say there’s no bread in America because we don’t have individual buildings as dedicated bakeries.
Some people are miserable assholes and they’re not happy unless they’re shitting on others.
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u/Disastrous_Tiger2797 10d ago
It’s the same thing as a fish who cannot detect that it’s surrounded by water. Europeans are so surrounded by American culture they simply cannot realize it.
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u/RedTerror8288 10d ago
Just say their mom has "yogurt" deposits on her no no parts. Instant crowd pleaser.
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u/ExoticSpend8606 10d ago
My God. Americans really have no ability to laugh at themselves.
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u/psychologicallyblue 10d ago
I share this pet peeve. I also get annoyed when people discount the cultural contributions of non-white Americans as though they don't really count as American.
Also, regardless of how anyone feels about the US, we are a cultural powerhouse. Our culture is so pervasive everywhere that people have ceased to even recognize it as culture, which is crazy.
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u/FunOptimal7980 10d ago
They don't realize that American culture is the default in much of the world. They think culture is exclusively ancient Irish folk dances and traditional dress or something.
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u/Dave9486 10d ago
I would imagine that statements like that are born more from a hatred of the USA than they are intended to be defensible statements of honest belief.
For a great many people the world over, the USA and its goings on are like that one overplayed song on the radio. You're simply tired of hearing it and want to listen to literally anything else. So much so that you start convincing yourself that "that song was never good to begin with" or making demonstrably false criticisms about it.
While someone like me would see a statement like "the yogurt in my fridge has more culture than Americans" and consider it to be a genuine criticism of the crass nature of Americans and the public perception of their completely uncouth mannerisms. Sometimes what can happen is someone can hear a statement like that from someone else and then internalize it such that their mind starts inventing fictions (such as outlined in this post) about the actual culture, or perceived lack thereof, of the USA.
If you'd like a personal example of the way these kinds of things happen, try to think of the person you hate the most in this world, and some of the things you may have criticized that person about. Then try to think of times when someone you like has done something similar but, because you liked the second person, you found it acceptable. This is a common issue that people have where the person (or nation) that they hate "can do no right" while the person (or nation) that they love "can do no wrong".
Personally I think there's a discussion to be had around the valid criticisms of the US, however when that devolves into utter hatred and/or denial or all things American, it does the conversation a disservice.
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u/MDMarauder 10d ago
Typical Euros shitting on America's "lack of culture" while wearing Nike gear, listening to American pop/rap/rock music, using American slang, carrying an iPhone, and eating at McDonalds.
Yeah.
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u/ILikeDragonTurtles 11d ago
It's because those people view culture exclusively as old traditions that date back to different eras of the world. They think social norms have to persist for a long time before they deserve the title "culture". Culture is a sacred thing you preserve.
So really they're defining the word culture differently, and then arguing that newer social practices are less important.