A lot of quintessentially American things are anti-American
“Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen in general, “Rambo,” Mark Twain, “Monopoly,” MTV, et cetera
The arc goes:
- US system is bullshit
- Someone points it out in an artistic work
- People love it and the thing they made gets popular
- System goes “hey we love that you’re buying this please do it more” and promotes it under a guise of it not being directed squarely at them, with some skillful edits
- Thing gets even more popular with more exposure, in its edited (backwards) form, to the point that the original is often semi-forgotten
Being against the bullshit is an American trait. Unfortunately, the bullshit has become more powerful than the against, hence all these problems we have now.
Rambo: First Blood was a critique of a system that has failed its war veterans. The sequels abandoned all that 70s new-cinema moral ambiguity, making Rambo into a Reagan-era anticommunist superhero, a sort of James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.
The same goes for Karate Kid…
I loved how it portreyed Miyagi as a sad man who lost wife and child to the internment camps, while he was serving the US and his medal is a bitter reminder of that fact.
In Cobra Kai is was “War Medal fuck yeah ! Miyagi best veteran, we must protect the patriotic legacy !”
Then in the remakes, they replaced him with Mr. Han (as in Han Chinese), for the same reason why superhero films have scenes set in Shenzhen: because if you don’t angle for a piece of the Chinese market, you’re failing in your fiduciary duty to your shareholders.
Rambo was a masterpiece. The sequels were fanatic patriotism porn.
James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.
😘👌
This Land is Your Land is also not the patriotic song people think it is. At least, not in the way people think it is.
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn’t say nothing; This land was made for you and me.
This land is my land
This land ain’t your land
I got a shotgun
And you ain’t got oneIf you don’t get off
I’ll blow your head off
This land was made for only meThis land was made for you and me 🎶🎵🎶 (terms and conditions apply)
I don’t think Woody Guthrie cared about the copyright. You go ahead and play that song as much as you want. :-)
I noticed that a large number of children’s shows, especially Christmas shows, are about evil corporations trying to take over and ruin something or pollute the world. These shows are then shown by evil media corporations which show commercials by other evil corporations.
Americans criticizing America is not anti-American.
What happens is the first part of the artistic work is setting up the propaganda and lies that the protagonist is raised into, which the conservatives love and see as validating.
Then the conservatives either stop reading or otherwise fail to see the part of the tale where the hero gets abandoned and harmed by those he thought he was working with/for.
MTV?
Not really “anti American” but not completely establishment friendly. They had Rock the Vote, Beavis and Butthead, Monty Python including the nudity, Jon Stewart got his start there, they had Liquid TV and weird nonsense on the air, at a time when most TV was pure Tom Brokaw and all why bombing Iranians is cool all the time.
Compared to now, it looks super establishment friendly, but for the landscape of television at the time it was pretty anarchistic. Now it is the narrative of course. 😕
To MTV’s credit, they also did a lot to normalize homosexuality with The Real World.
‘Born in the USA’ did not ‘fail to convey’ what it was about. It was just wilfully misinterpreted.
I think what many people don’t understandt, is that two nostalgic emotions can co exist in an individdum, although they seem to have contradicting implications. so you can be bitter about your life expieriences, but still be filled with happiness about “home”.
there is some psyscological explanation for this, i forgot what it was
Not the point of this post but I think starship troopers did an excellent job of skewering the military, government, and the whole propaganda machine.
Yeah it’s not the movies fault that people have zero media literacy
Paul Verhoeven did a beautiful job of critiquing fascism. I can’t help it that my fellow citizens are stupid other than to vote for more money in education.
I’m doing my part.
My critique of Starship Troopers is that it’s not a good satire of fascism if the people it needs to reach don’t understand it.
If you have to make it such that even those people understand it, it becomes unwatchable to the rest of us.
What, you didn’t like Dr Strangelove?
To be fair, though, I did really like Jojo Rabbit, and I don’t think that one’s been latched onto by them in nearly the same way. Could be wrong, though.
The thing that’s really difficult for them is that Jojo Rabbit never makes them look cool. Hitler throws a tantrum because a little boy doesn’t like him, then he gets kicked in the balls.
i would buy that for a dollar!
YES! Another Verhoeven banger! Straight from Old Detroit.
see you at the party richter ;-)
verhoeven was over the top.
Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!
I think it may not have conveyed what it was trying to do when it was in theaters, but my friends and I (millennials so we saw it as kids) watch it as a ridiculous satire. One of my favourite movies I think. Sadly, I love Hackers, but that is not a satire, they were trying real hard.
I love hackers too, friend. In fact I’ll say I love it because they were trying so hard lol.
Yeah man, like rigor mortis, habeas corpus
Not quite the same, but London calling was similarly used for tourism ads among other things
& the 2012 Summer Olympics 😆
Not exactly the same thing but megahit Gangnam Style is a critique of bourgeoisie culture in South Korea and the trendy Gangnam district. It’d be like if there was a song called Times Square about what a commercialized pile of capitalist shit that place is, with a funny dance and music video.
i didnt know that, makes sense, thanks, thats really interesting, and totally surprising.
The MI doesn’t want any bone spurs either.
In Italy we have “vieni a ballare in Puglia” by Caparezza.
The title means “Come dance in Puglia” but the song lyrics are a criticism of the working conditions in the Italian region, where health regulations are not respected and people keep dying on the job while they are asked to smile and dance for the tourists. The song makes sense when you replace the word “dance” with “die”.
Though it’s a tarantella and very catchy, so it’s used as a funny song for tourists ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, it’s probably a quite global phenomenon.
“I am from Austria” by Rainhard Fendrich includes a line saying “I know the people, I know the rats, the blatant stupidity”. So it’s quite obviously critical of Austrian society, and was written with the purpose of uniting Austrians against Naziism.
Of course the rightwing parties are stupid enough to use it.
Now I’m wondering if the AfD plays Rammstein’s Deutschland…
Not that I know, but I remember that the “peace advocating” Germans used “Imagine” in their protest - the protest that wanted Germany to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia as not to warmonger
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do other countries […] both political parties
No, other countries tend to have 0, 1, or way more than 2 parties
What’s a country with 0?
Vatican city
Dictatorships like Cuba and North Korea might say they have parties, but they also call themselves democracies or republics.
Can’t remember if we still have any royalty that are actual heads of states without an elected ruling body upholding their decisions, but those would have zero parties if any still exist.
I’d put Russia, China, Iran and Afghanistan before Cuba.
Russia and China still have ruling parties even if their head has almost complete control. If Putin or Xi were removed, it would be through the party selecting someone else. North Korea is basically a monarchy.
I mean that’s how most states with a parliamentary system work, if Keir Starmer were removed, it would be through the ruling party selecting someone else too.
North Korea does have parties, some of which have seats in congress, but they’re small enough to be irrelevant.
Cuba has one party, but since every member of the party above the lowest level is elected, it functions as a more democratic apparatus than most multiparty systems, as evidenced by the overwhelming referendum they had on their constitution.
China is similar but more complicated.
Also while it does have only one party, there are factions within the party that are the functional equivalent of parties.
Take this list as what you will
Personally I view it as flawed as for most listed countries the lived reality is a single party system, often theocratic in nature. But do think it’s feasible to imagine a country with a high degree of self autonomy free of foreign influence operating as a precolonial society would, and political discussions aren’t as involved in factionalism and are more focused on individuals with ideas for the collective
Dprk maybe?
Hehe, ‘democracy’ with two right wing parties still amuses me.
To be fair, if it’s a banger from the late 60s to early 80s with even a hint of American symbolism there’s an 80% chance it’s a protest song. They get the boomers riled up
Say what you will about Neoliberals (and I do, to a fault), but at least you never hear the excellent Love me, I’m a liberal played at DNC rallies 😁
I love Lee Greenwood, too.
I think Starship Troopers is understood well as a satire of fascism(and an awesome bug-shooty movie), while I have heard every 4th of July parade unironically blasting pro-war songs alongside born in the USA.
There’s also a first person shooter that goes from early access to release soon. I’m a huge fan
oh what! i didn’t know about that one, thanks!
I’ve actually watched all the companion movies and tv shows-which mostly suck-but have enough ST attitude and creativity that they’re still fun.
especially when the original actors show up.
Traitor of Mars was great at showing more of a power armor and a slightly less subtle message of the political problems.
I usually skip the 2nd movie when I feel like watching Starship Troopers.
did you watch those wacky TV shows too?
The actors are doing the voices for at least one of them, I think Casper Van Dien did both.
I have them on my Plex, I haven’t started them beyond the Invasion movie.
I think its universal, really. Americans just feel like its worse here cause we’re, well, experiencing it here. Most people are idiots, thats just how it is - we just see it more because the internet lets us interact outside our personal social bubbles.
Its like that meme about expertise, take your concept of “knowing nothing” and cut that in half then you’ll be close to most peoples level.
Unfortunately, it really isn’t. The absolute disregard for reality is a very American thing. There are always outliers everywhere. But the whole country of the US is an outlier in the global stage with the only comparison being North Korea. For how its people inside feel and think they’re perceived versus are. And it’s the same style of nationalist propaganda that sustains it.
The absolute disregard for reality is a very American thing.
Have you ever even read about Eastern Europe? No it’s not. By far.
it is human nature.
We have one called “Westerland”. It’s a song - played by people visiting Sylt, an island where mostly elitist live and rich white people go on vacation. In one verse, they sing “And every person next to me is as dumb as I am.”. The irony is lost to them as the chorus is “I want to be back in Westerland”.
Nobody should use songs by Die Ärzte in earnest for that kind of purpose - they’re tinged with irony and sarcasm as a matter of principle. I love the band for that.
To be fair, what group of 330M+ is?
Immanuel Kant superfans
Pretty sure they meant “ironically”.
Heh heh heh not for pendants like you and me. What was that
Jacqueline OnassisSarah MclaughlinMichael Jordan 90s song about irony? Total buhubujis.This makes my eye twitch nervously.
