Basically just something people say that indicates a position indirectly, like how seperatists from a given region might always say they’re from [region] and not [country] or how trump supporters call AI “SI” now.
Basically just something people say that indicates a position indirectly, like how seperatists from a given region might always say they’re from [region] and not [country] or how trump supporters call AI “SI” now.
one shibboleth i noticed is that any mention of “race” strongly indicates that the person speaking is American, especially if it’s conflated with nationalities. “I’m [number]% [nationality]”, any use of “mixed race”, and stuff like “I can drink a lot of beer because I’m German” or “this recipe offends me as an Italian” are dead giveaways (and quite racist in my humble opinion)
After the big protests in France there were a million bots posting racist stuff on Reddit. They kept referring to “liberals” but none speaks like that in France. Liberal is the word you’d use to describe corpo-centrists like Macron, never to describe leftists.
It was kind of like the 3 fingers meme from inglorious bastards.
Need to give Zelenskyy a few more drones to take out Russian datacenter troll farms.
Then go donate!
Then the gestapo would arrest me for “funding terrorism” while themselves funneling millions to both Russia and Ukraine.
Yeah. "Liberty’ and “freedom” here is also defined differently than in the USA. Probably thanks to the french revolution and Napoleon spreading it.
Here it is “liberty/freedom OF” while in the USA it is “liberty/freedom TO”
“I know pasta, my great grandmother was Italian”
Yeah, how do you know your great grand mother wasnt the worst fucking cook in the village? Maybe her food was so bad that her family had to get on a boat and move half way around the world where nobody knew about how shit her cooking was.
Hey, it’s obviously extraordinary any way, they compare it to normal american food.
I think it’s because immigrants wanted to preserve their culture when they came to the US, and that got passed down but was diluted over the generations, so you have people who have a very specific pride and identity that has deviated from the original.
In many cases the “original” deviated even more. It’s not like culture has been static in Europe for four hundred years.
? I’m talking about a scale of only a few generations and the USA hasn’t been around for four hundred years.
I’m talking about the timeline of European colonization of the Americas, which is the point of immigrant cultural divergence. And I’m actually off by over a hundred years, as the oldest continuously-settled Euro city in the West is Santo Domingo since 1496.
But even a shorter timeline an awful lot changed in Europe through the 1900s. A lot of “traditional” cuisine came after WWII.
That timeframe is a much larger cultural gap than what I was depicting, but regardless, it was not meant to imply that other countries remain stagnant.
Someone who’s family came from India two generations ago might still identify as Indian even though they never have been there, for example.
I hadn’t heard this theory before, but it does actually make a lot of sense.
I think a lot of the nationality stuff is because Americans are desperate for some identity of heritage. America is made of immigrants. Most people have no idea where their ancestors came from, unless it was relatively recently. If you’re in Germany, almost everyone around you is German and you have a shared identity. In America, no one knows where you’re from. American can be considered an identity I guess, but it doesn’t have much history. The history it does have is the lack of a homeland, and stealing it from others.
So yes, I guess it’s a dog whistle (usually those are intentional though), but I don’t see it as racist.
Seconding this. Its not racist at all, but a deep cry for some kind of uniqueness and being special because of the hyperindividualism of USA-culture. Europe is seen (and often treated) by US-americans as a theme park, an attraction.
To build on your example: inside germany, when you ask where one is from, you’ll get the culture/region. Saxony, bavarian, swabian, baden, franconian, hamburger, holsteiner, frisian. Or often even just the city lol No german, unless outside of germany and speaking to someone not german, will say they are from germany or german. And even then, though that is mostly bavarians, they might just say their region/culture.
US america doesnt have this past and sense of identity and belonging that even just your city in europe has. Except maybe NYC.
Portsmouth UK, proud harbor city and its identity is tied to everything seafairing. Has been since its inceptions by the romans. Same with Kiel, Hamburg, Lübeck (there ofc without the romans lol)
What identity does Portsmouth USA have? As faar as i know, none.
Even when i, a german, were to move to france or ireland, i still will be german/swabian at heart. No matter how long i lived somewhere else. Or where my long ago ancestors came from.
To touch on the Portsmouth VA USA (more associated with the larger Norfolk area) thing, I’ve lived near there. It actually also has a strong connection with the navy too. The largest navy base in the world is in nearby Norfolk, there’s a massive shipyard, and a ton of military. The history is obviously not nearly as old though.
The military thing actually removes some of its culture though, because it means a lot of people aren’t from there. They’re just there for a few years while stationed there and then they’re gone. I’ve never really thought about this, but could this be a deliberate attempt by the US military to destroy a sense of culture for military personnel, to ensure their only loyalty is to the government?