I’m like any other European raised on the Internet:

  • my English accent is more American (guys is it hard to switch to a British one?)
  • learned English from American cartoons, games and websites
  • I know who the current and previous mayor of New York is for some reason
  • I know the American flavor of the month “thing”
  • Evening news from the national broadcaster regularly covers US news, or social media posts from prominent figures in the US (doesn’t do this for any other country with such regularity)
  • I know the Oscars are happening from media yet completely missed Cesars

People here focus on tech a lot but I think it can’t be understated how much of a cultural grasp the US has on Europe. Being born into it already being in full swing I didn’t really question it. This Wikipedia article states most of the top 50 movies are decidedly American.

I started watching more sports channels to escape the news about US. I yearn for the day where I realize I’ve been living under the proverbial rock and thanks to which I avoided learning about the latest US flavor of the week news. I also read European Corresponded (funded by EU) to get more out of sight news from member states, but US still spills through.

I started unsubscribing or blocking communities which have too much US news. Even those that paint it in a negative light. I just don’t want it to be there.

I started using the “favorite channels” feature on my TV to narrow the channel list to a curated European or my country focused channels. Stuff like niche channels from the national broadcaster (documentaries, science, history, culture) that cover my country mostly. There’s some private channels that broadcast old movies and music from my country in there too. France24, Deutsche Welle, BBC (they love to cover US…). Especially the niche state channels make you think - “damn, my own culture - it’s kinda cool!”. I also started watching arte.tv more, there’s even an app for my old Samsung Tizen OS TV. It’s so refreshing to learn something local.

You can see that my “journey” is kinda funny as I even tried to figure out clothes: https://szmer.info/post/11927959/13610982

I also read the first chapter of “Special Relations: The Americanization of Britain?” by Howard Malchow and it seems promising. It marks the start of the Americanization with the launch of the first satellite (AT&T) which made broadcasting American content easier. I also should read a book about the “change of guard” as the global superpower between the UK and the USA, as I don’t really know the details of how that panned out.

I probably sound like a .ml user. Anyway, I don’t know where I was going with this thread. Just dumped my thoughts. I guess it’s ironic that I’m writing this as an European, an Indian could write something very similar. Guess it’s just our turn to get culturally “colonized”

I guess these Wojaks represent my feelings best:

  • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    4·
    20 hours ago

    Those tropes are very accurate.

    A stark differences I see between the US and the rest of the world is that many of its infrastructures are nakedly profit-based rather than service-based. In the EU, the healthcare systems have their problems, but their fundamental purpose is to provide health. In the US, the healthcare infrastructure’s main purpose is to generate a profit at any sustainable human cost.

    Much of the transportation infrastructure in the EU is meant to help people travel from one place to another. In the US, the point is to make a profit off of providing transportation. Many US states have literally no forms of public transportation between cities hundreds of miles away from each other. Born in Miami? Hope you like it there or have a private vehicle.

    Education in the EU is first a system by which to educate EU citizens, whereas the US educational system is primarily a profit-making venture selling educational services.

    Not the individual healthcare workers, educators or conductors who care about their jobs and helping people, but the US infrastructures themselves seem completely divorced from the idea of citizen service or social compact as anything but a means by which to siphon and accumulate capital.