The best blog post in the world was written by this person last week. I've taken the liberty of quoting it in full here. Check out the blog Anti-Crapitalist...
High School shootings
Whilst there are shootings and other stuff in other countries I was reading some of the comments in the UK Times and Telegraph online today from US posters. They were full of those “Fuck you English, we don‘t give shit what you think” posts in response to the debate on America’s obsession with guns.
This made me question whether we are in fact wrong to attempt to comment upon and analyse what is an internal matter for the USA, and whether we have any legitimate right to do so at all.
[Or whether it was simply the case that every NRA cardholding, NASCAR loving, pickup driving, shithead in the US had been told to start posting aggressively on UK media sites by the NRA National Executive].
The Europeans certainly can’t help criticising anything that seems to go wrong in America and you have to sit down for a second and think why we do it.
…… I think I have the answer.
The problem with America, and the reason why acts such as this draw criticism in Europe and elsewhere, is that we are fucking sick of watching your fucking films, drinking your fucking shitty coffee, buying your fucking shitty goods and having our lives invaded every fucking second by the constant bombardment of all of this SHITE that tells us you’re the best country in the world and how your so great at fucking everything. We don‘t ask for it. We don‘t demand access to your culture. You just shovel it into everyone‘s face 24 hours a fucking day until we think were part of it and therefore think we have the right to comment.
I don’t want to watch fucking shite like “Friends” on UK TV, or buy fucking Starbuck’s coffee on my street corner. You did that not me. We didn’t ask for it.
And because you impose your culture on us telling us how friggin great everything is, the minute an event happens that proves that all this shite that you produce in the media is just that, shite, we just can’t resist pointing it out. Because we know that your not all living happy shiny lives in La La Land, and that most of what you generate to show the rest of the world how great you are is fucking rubbish.
The US is not the worlds biggest democracy, it’s a country of big winners and big losers, only your stupid enough to let your losers arm themselves and attack the winners.
The US Government proved after Hurricane Katrina that it does not even give a flying fuck about its own poor or dispossessed so what can the rest of the world realistically benefit from interracting with US culture or values.
Cho Seung-hui is just another armed, pissed off, mentally unstable, loser who should not even have been able to look in a gunshop window never mind be allowed to purchase a fucking gun. Even serious mental health problems, which he had in December 2005, does not seem to preclude you from buying a gun in the free-est country in the world.
Its hardly a shining beacon to the rest of the world and we can’t help pointing that out because the "cultural" imperialism you export to tell us how great things are just fucking pisses us off.
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
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4 comments:
Seems strange that you link approvingly to this post when your blog alludes to Bob Dylan, an American icon, in every single entry and you devote numerous posts to extolling the brilliance of the Sopranos, that great American drama.
There are elements of American culture which are great and which are inspiring, as there are elements of French, Italian, German, and British.
I do believe that the point Anti-Crapitalist was trying to make is still valid however, despite my fondness for the all American Dylan and Sopranos.
It's the all-out 'expansionism' of American culture/business fulled by the capitalist philosophy which annoys me.
It is absurd to say that US expansionism is, as anti-crapitalist puts it, shovelling American culture into everyone‘s face 24 hours a fucking day.
American culture is only ubiquitous in this country because there is a huge demand for it, not because we are being forced to consume it.
You wouldn't say that you were forced to follow Dylan round Europe or to listen to Bruce Springsteen. Nor would you say you were forced to watch the Sopranos, the Daily Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm or Family Guy.
The fact is, you demand those products and the US supplies them. It seems to me, and forgive me for second guessing you, that you are only annoyed by American cultural exports which you don't personally like.
The great thing about capitalist philosophy is that its a two-way street. The only reason there is a McDonalds and a Starbucks on every street corner and a Friends rerun on every night is the insatiable demand of the British people for those products.
You like Bob Dylan, they like Big Macs.
american culture?
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