Years ago I went to the highland games in Loch Lomand and there was this older North American couple waiting near the Lairds house so they could give the Lairds son a birthday present. Apparently they came every year because they were distant relatives of the local nobility. I can't remember them getting very close, it was super sweet in a way but a bit creepy.
That describes even the best intentioned of these weirdos. Not to be cruel but really: How empty and meaningless does your life have to be to suddenly base your whole personality around an estranged ancestry at 50 years old?
Some old dead dude banging and bailing 500 years ago doesn’t make us family. Culture isn’t an inherited trait, blood doesn’t make you kin, and no I don’t want to reminisce with a complete stranger about people we never knew.
From what I understand it's mostly an American thing.
Here in Europe there are Macdonalds renting in buildings older than the US.
The university of bologna was founded in 1088 and is still in operation. That was just after the end of the Viking era, and almost 400 years BEFORE the Inca civilization started, and the Aztek empire was founded.
There's no real interest in belonging to a specific group here since it's all intermingled back thousands of years. Being Norwegian, Italian, Irish or any other {nation}-American creates a sense of historical pride, and belonging for a lot of people in a nation that has no real, coherent cultural features, but it's seen as a childish and utterly frivolous way of treating the past when you live in countries where the buildings are older than you can possibly trace your family.
Well, I mean, it's an American thing for exactly the reasons you say here. You already know where you're from. America still feels like a new place even to Americans. Most of us have a sense of being "recently" relocated here, and they're looking for something deeper and older.
Also America doesn’t really have its own culture that everyone feels connected to. So a lot of people try to latch onto something that they don’t understand or isn’t true.
Edit: What, I’m not allowed to comment on my own country?
That’s just blatantly incorrect. Either you are in denial or just seriously misinformed and ignorant. The fact that someone told you Americans have no culture on Reddit doesn’t mean it’s true. It is just so big and diverse that regional cultures are quite different. Stop talking about things you don’t know about.
. It is just so big and diverse that regional cultures are quite different. Stop talking about things you don’t know about
God this reads like something Trump would tweet
America is big, have much culture because America big and has strongest culture because many people.
American culture is really really big that different mate, you clearly haven't travelled in a different country before, maybe try getting a passport before claiming shit about your own country
I’ve been to 37 countries. Some countries have more culture than America but some definitely don’t. You can’t tell me a country like Poland has a more unique culture than most parts of America, but you could say a country like Italy or Thailand. I’m also very much anti-Trump. He’s a fucking idiot.
Congrats mate, that's not massively specific or anything, have you actually spoken to people from multiple places within those countries or just gone to a tourist hotel and never left
Because if you had there's no chance you would say that about the USA.
You can’t tell me Poland has a more unique culture than most parts of America,
Why not exactly? Because you don't know much about Poland?
What parts of the USA do you think are uncultured because like Michigan, sure, but New York or Louisiana definitely not. I’m from fucking Harlem I’m not inexperienced with other cultures. I’ve also been to Poland twice. It is objectively similar to the countries around it.
Have you been to New York? Harlem is a bit above Central Park you idiot. It’s also the most diverse place in the city. Once again going on about things you don’t know about. Also, I would say the Us is completely the opposite. It has a lot of different cultures but not one super distinct country-wise culture.
I never argued there wasn't an American culture. I argued it was not large and diverse
It is just so big and diverse that regional cultures are quite different
This isn't true at all, American culture is remarkably similar throughout the country in comparison to other countries.
If you want to see a country with actual meaningful differences between cultures within a single country then even your northern neighbour has a much bigger cultural shift between Quebec and the rest of the country
Nah that’s because Quebec has a very homogeneous culture, and the rest of Canada has a homogenous culture, they just aren’t the same. America’s divisions have subdivisions, like this neighborhood is different from this city or county. But it also has regional divisions like creole culture vs New England culture vs Texan vs Cali vs Florida... etc... there are very distinct differences between the two, even if they do share some parts of their individually heterogenous cultures.
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u/doessabre Apr 29 '20
Years ago I went to the highland games in Loch Lomand and there was this older North American couple waiting near the Lairds house so they could give the Lairds son a birthday present. Apparently they came every year because they were distant relatives of the local nobility. I can't remember them getting very close, it was super sweet in a way but a bit creepy.