White American culture provides nothing but consumerism to fill the void in us all, so they look to others instead of looking within themselves
Ever been to a "contemporary museum"? Not like a modern art gallery, but a museum with artifacts from now. I've never been so overcome with a feeling of monotonous dread.
That's a really cool concept but yeah that sounds like a really depressing museum trip...
Reminded of Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell paintings. Just the glorification of American consumerism and corporate pastiche.
The museum of our era is PMC failchild "art galleries" on the bottom floor of a 5 over 1.
I got really high and went to one with a bunch of glass sculptures and almost shattered like $400,000 worth of abstract garbage lol
Yep. They turned our general store into an arts and crafts consignment that's mostly just prints of bears, mountains, and bad photography in booths that you have to rent.
Reminds me of the quote from a high ranking person in Iran. I can't find it, but he basically said that they would have to bomb a McDonald's because the US has no other significant cultural sites.
There's some irony in the colonizer eventually depending on the colonized to provide them with culture and meaning
It's pretty impressive, in a way, how capitalism managed to completely divorce European descendents from European culture in the course of only 200 years
There has never been anything as effective as that in completely subverting and diluting culture, and not only that, of a culture that is supposedly valued
Real radioactive material in the storage closet stuff
We can and should joke about "white" culture but I've thought about this, and how european-americans really don't have cultures because of capitalism and, ironically, white supremacy. If traditions had stayed and people not made to mold themselves into essentially the culture of bourgeois English settlers, there'd actually be a culture to be part of. You kind of see it with new immigrant communities, at least up to a century ago with European migrants. Sure it'd all be like dumb clothes, silly dances, and questionable food on strange holidays, but hey, there's a community with historical roots and connections, which I'm guessing white folks would not mind right now.
Of course maybe being colonizers and being divorced from a cultures native geography would mean it's death regardless.
America is a settler colonial state, that was primarily settled by people from settler colonialist states (Ulster Scots and Barbados plantation owners)! We never had a chance.
A lot of Europeans find it weird how white Americans still identity with their European ancestry. Like saying they're italian or irish or whatever. I don't have any real connection to the countries my family came from but it still interests me to learn about them. Of course at this point I'm such a mutt it doesn't really matter. I know my grandpa drank scotch because he knew we're part scottish, I do the same. There's some polish on my mom's side and we would have pierogi at family gatherings, so I eat pierogi pretty often. I don't do these things because I'm scottish or polish though, I do them because they remind me of my grandparents. I think that's a good enough reason. Start your own traditions, build your own version of culture and pass it along to whoever you can. It's fine.
i mean i sometimes feel like an imposter even though i have czech citizenship cause i cant spell czech words worth a shit
also i feel like a lot of 'cultural appropriation' in most cultures is frowned upon because you have no connection to the culture. this is a bit different from liberal cultural appropriation because they just say 'never do it'. but if you learn the language, understand the customs, and are polite, most cultures i think of are super down for more people getting into and carrying on their traditions.
Yeah I have a challenging relationship with cultural appropriation. I mean obviously the pic in this post looks pretty fucked up, but I don't think it's necessarily bad for people to explore cultures outside of their personal backgrounds or even adopt some of the aspects they find interesting or develop some kind of meaning with. It's good to call out when people do it in bad taste, but I think there's a lot of shaming people for genuinely absorbing parts of foreign cultures and expressing it.
I think my biggest gripe is when white people become yogis or whatever to cash in on the popularity of an otherwise shit upon culture.
Yeah that's a tough one. Especially since that path seems to be a lightening rod for people with trust funds trying to find themselves. I suppose their hearts are often in the right place but it's often very superficial and exhausting.
The Mongol Empire comes to mind. They lost all traces of their Mongol roots within a couple of generations and just assimilated with the culture and religion of the subjugated cities they ruled over. But I guess yak milk and yurt life isn't very compelling once you've experienced a bustling city.
Colonizers identify as supposed "natives" of the lands they colonized very, very quickly. The "Scots-Irish", "Afrikaners", "Canadiens", and on.
If they grew up in the Midwest this type of person would be leading a praise band and selling essential oils to keep minorities away. Wtf is up with these neo-hippies. Aren’t they afraid that maybe mixing prayer and healing practices from cultures that aren’t their own might anger the metaphysical forces in those cultures?
That's exactly it. They think they are already saved, and simply must worship in a fulfilling way. Everyone else just has to learn from them.
How about you learn the land you're on and do some work starting with that? Support indigenous people. Celebrate them. Don't cosplay. Don't fucking record your honky ass doing this do you literally have no self-awareness or shame? Lemme tell you I do and boy howdy it can be crippling but I'm not doing this dumbass shit.
Capitalism colonized european indigenous peoples first and stole our identity and culture and replaced it with capitalist consumerism. So of course white people grope around for some type of cultural identity.
Making fun of white people for this is not helpful. Using their search to critique capitalism and colonialism is.
Destroy civilization.
I think this is a really good take. Like yeah these people are cringe but I can understand why they reach for indigenous peoples traditions and beliefs.
It's a similar thing with white Americans getting really into whatever European culture their great great whatever grandparents came from. American culture is so bereft of purpose and interest and meaningful history that yeah, why not reach for something else.
So of course white people grope around for some type of cultural identity.
In a better world, this would be a symptom of egalitarian class struggle.
In this world, it's just a couple of trust-fund brats promoting their Etsy store full of cheaply sourced kitsch jewelry.
:cringe:
That's fake Native American shit and they're singing something about ho'oponopono which is Hawaiian for reconciliation
edit: I just looked it up and the whole song is just English and Hawaiian and they're clearly not pronouncing the Hawaiian quite right, why, why, why, why :whywhywhywhywhy:
