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 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
Your understanding of the US and its culture is a bit lacking.

Maybe your understanding of European cultures is lacking.

Excuse me? Where have I made blanket statements about Europe? I recognize that most of the nations are very culturally distinct. You're the one in here throwing around blanket accusations. Bet you didn't know I was born in Europe did you? Greece to be exact. Did you know I've served side by side with the Spanish Air Force? I'm actually very cognizant of European culture.

Not that it has anything to do with the discussion. All that was said is that we Americans do not see ourselves as culturally identical to Europeans. And that all of a sudden means we don't understand European culture? All while you attack ours, and in your attempt to sum it up, completely white washing entire aspects of our own culture. Yet you sit there and attack people for not "knowing" your culture.

 djones520 wrote:


What occured in the 1800s was hardly genocide. The majority of the damage was caused by the Spanish, French, British, et al.

Backwards. By the 1800's, surviving Native Americans had immunities to most diseases save small pox which was sporadic in that period at best. The 'plagues' had run their course throughout the 16th and mid 17th centuries (estimates range from a fatality rate of 50% to 90% of native populations). But this had run it's course by the 1800's. If there's any irony, Europeans suffered a similar fatality rate during the same time period from Malaria alone EDIT: Mosquito Empires is a very very good book on that subject. If you've never engaged in environmental history before, it's a gem

Throughout the 1800's the US did commit a willful genocide of Native Americans. An infrequent, unorganized one, that tended to come and go. But it happened. Pretending it didn't is delusional and ignoring one of the darkest parts of American history.

 LordofHats wrote:

 djones520 wrote:


What occured in the 1800s was hardly genocide. The majority of the damage was caused by the Spanish, French, British, et al.

Backwards. By the 1800's, surviving Native Americans had immunities to most diseases save small pox which was sporadic in that period at best. The 'plagues' had run their course throughout the 16th and mid 17th centuries (estimates range from a fatality rate of 50% to 90% of native populations). But this had run it's course by the 1800's. If there's any irony, Europeans suffered a similar fatality rate during the same time period from Malaria alone

Throughout the 1800's the US did commit a willful genocide of Native Americans. An infrequent, unorganized one, that tended to come and go. But it happened. Pretending it didn't is delusional and ignoring one of the darkest parts of American history.

Pretending that what we did was genocide is just trying to throw a guilt party. The actions of our government and people were reprehensible, undoubtedly. The closest true attempt to "erase" the Native Americans though was when we took a page from Australia (or maybe they took it from us, or maybe other countries tried it in their Imperial days), and took their children in an attempt raise them as white in an attempt to make them forget their own culture. Even that was a limited effort that never gained much traction.

Genocide is a concerted effort to erase a people. We never did that. We fought wars with them, we forcibly relocated them from their land, we even at times created situations that led to starvation, but it was never a policy to just destroy them, erase them from the earth.

 djones520 wrote:
Pretending that what we did was genocide is just trying to throw a guilt party.

It was a genocide and has nothing to do with a guilt party. Lets try and be a leg up on Turkey on this one, kay

We spent a good part of the later half of that century taking land, and killing anyone who didn't like us taking their land. When we got tired of fighting overland, we just starting coraling all the naysayers into reservations and killing them if they didn't stay on their side of the line. It was a genocide. Genocides don't have to be executed with the expressed purpose of 'erasing' a group to qualify.

The closest true attempt to "erase" the Native Americans though was when we took a page from Australia (or maybe they took it from us, or maybe other countries tried it in their Imperial days),

Pretty common procedure throughout history. Ours was laughably ineffective. Bringing up another Turkey reference, the only greater failure of such a program probably belonged to the Ottoman Empire and their attempt to spread "Ottomaness" (yeah they had no idea what Ottomaness was either).

 djones520 wrote:
Where have I made blanket statements about Europe?[…] You're the one in here throwing around blanket accusations.

So, what were those statements? That you never cut cultural ties with Europe? Did I miss that long time period when books and ideas stop flowing between the USA and the rest of Europe?
Or the fact most people in the U.S. are descendant of either European immigrants or African slaves? Is that somehow inaccurate?

Maybe just saying “You are wrong” without saying how I was wrong was not the best argument ever.

 djones520 wrote:
we took a page from Australia (or maybe they took it from us, or maybe other countries tried it in their Imperial days), and took their children in an attempt raise them as white in an attempt to make them forget their own culture.

Yeah, but we said sorry...

That counts, right?

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Americans view ourselves as distinct from Europe

Which is a joke. The U.S.A. are a bunch of Europeans that crossed an ocean, and then never, ever cut ties, culturally, with the rest of Europe, along with some slaves from Africa whose culture was completely destroyed, and who had to create a new one that was therefore hugely inspired by their European masters. And a very few natives. Those do have a culture that is not European, I give you that.

That's incredibly naive. Come over here and see for yourself. We share very little with Europeans.

Not sure if this is joke or serious.
If it is serious, it is on the same level of nonsense with the "Russia is not part of Europe" thing that Russian nationalists keep saying. There are large differences between the cultures of the US, Russia and Germany for example. But all those three cultures are still distinctively European when you compare them with true non-European cultures such as those of Africa and Asia.

So, what were those statements? That you never cut cultural ties with Europe? Did I miss that long time period when books and ideas stop flowing between the USA and the rest of Europe?
Or the fact most people in the U.S. are descendant of either European immigrants or African slaves? Is that somehow inaccurate?

Maybe just saying “You are wrong” without saying how I was wrong was not the best argument ever.

Japan and the USA have strong cultural influences on each other. Does that mean that we're culturally identical with them? You seem to be trying to start a flame war claiming that the US and Europe are culturally identical, ignoring the fact that significant portions of US culture are based not on anything in Europe, but on virtually everywhere in the world. Heck, Hispanics are projected to outnumber everyone else in California combined in the next decade, so much of the west coast and midwest culture is based more on latin America than Europe. Not to mention that you've made the statement that culturally, there are a lot of different groups within Europe. Germany is not the same as France which is not the same as Italy which is not the same as Greece which is not the same as... If you ever take a roadtrip to America, you'll find exactly the same thing. Culturally, there is a world of difference between the deep south and New York and SoCal and the midwest and so on. And considering that cultural schisms are what lead the colonies to break away from Britain in the first place, I don't know what you're being so argumentative about.

In some parts of America, there are strong European influences. That is not the same as saying that America is basically just a rip-off of Europe.

 DarkLink wrote:

So, what were those statements? That you never cut cultural ties with Europe? Did I miss that long time period when books and ideas stop flowing between the USA and the rest of Europe?
Or the fact most people in the U.S. are descendant of either European immigrants or African slaves? Is that somehow inaccurate?

Maybe just saying “You are wrong” without saying how I was wrong was not the best argument ever.

Japan and the USA have strong cultural influences on each other. Does that mean that we're culturally identical with them? You seem to be trying to start a flame war claiming that the US and Europe are culturally identical, ignoring the fact that significant portions of US culture are based not on anything in Europe, but on virtually everywhere in the world. Heck, Hispanics are projected to outnumber everyone else in California combined in the next decade, so much of the west coast and midwest culture is based more on latin America than Europe. Not to mention that you've made the statement that culturally, there are a lot of different groups within Europe. Germany is not the same as France which is not the same as Italy which is not the same as Greece which is not the same as... If you ever take a roadtrip to America, you'll find exactly the same thing. Culturally, there is a world of difference between the deep south and New York and SoCal and the midwest and so on. And considering that cultural schisms are what lead the colonies to break away from Britain in the first place, I don't know what you're being so argumentative about.

In some parts of America, there are strong European influences. That is not the same as saying that America is basically just a rip-off of Europe.

Most of Latin American culture also came from Europe, and many Hispanics are of European descent. Just so you know.

Also, American culture can never be a "rip-off" of European culture, because there can be no such thing as a "rip-off" when speaking about cultures. American culture is a natural development.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Also, American culture can never be a "rip-off" of European culture, because there can be no such thing as a "rip-off" when speaking about cultures. American culture is a natural development.

Yes, absolutely. It's so ridiculous when people talk about stealing or ripping off culture. You can't steal culture because culture doesn't belong to anyone. You don't own culture, you participate in it, and it is possible to participate in more than one. It's similar to how language doesn't belong to anyone. Both culture and language will continue on, and evolve, with or without you.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Most of Latin American culture also came from Europe, and many Hispanics are of European descent. Just so you know.

A lot of Latin American culture came from Europe, and a lot of it comes from Latin America, but if we're arguing over the exact percentage of which cultures influenced which other cultures then it's kind of missing the point.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Also, American culture can never be a "rip-off" of European culture, because there can be no such thing as a "rip-off" when speaking about cultures. American culture is a natural development.

That was pretty much my point.

@the US / EU comparison:

It's different. The US were founded by Europeans, yes, but then quickly developed a vastly different culture. It's fully understandable as those people had to fight for their freedom and thus disconnect from the UK, let alone found an entire country long after Europe did. Whereas the US quickly develope their "Can do!" attitude, that focused on targetting the individual and his achievements, greatly valueing those, Europe, at the same time, became more and more socialist, leaning towards making the "whole" appear more important than the individual. Differences then became even clearer with the rise of capitalism in the US and an actually free market. Europe has since then be strongly influenced by the US and European culture rather follows US culture than the other way around. TTIP etc. are a very good and important step for a better Europe that is currently negatively influenced by leftists.

 DarkLink wrote:
Japan and the USA have strong cultural influences on each other. Does that mean that we're culturally identical with them?

Can I point to millions of years during which Japan developed their own culture, far from any US influence? Can I point you to the Japanese language not being from Europe, the Japanese alphabet not being used in Europe, the Japanese food being very different from European food, using different ingredients and all that, the Japanese religion (Shinto) not having been practiced at any sizable scale in Europe ever, the Japanese mythos and festivals, …

Say, for instance, what is the staple food for the U.S.A? Is it pizza, burgers, hot dogs?
Pizza comes from Italy, Hamburger reference Hamburg by its very name, hot dogs are also linked to Germany. Notice how French fries are made out of some ingredient that did not exist in France and was imported from America. That is just how isolated from Europe the U.S.A. were…

What about, say, festivals? Is Halloween not directly linked to European traditions? I bet it is. What about independence day? Oh, that is all about being free from the U.K.! Christmas?

Maybe language? Oh, no, not really. Religion? Darn it!

The thing is, the reason why European cultures are relatively close to each other is that ideas were able to travel from one to the other because of geographical proximity. As soon as the U.S.A. were created, the means to have idea travel from Europeans living in Europe to Europeans living in America were already there, and they have been through all of the U.S.A. history. As a result, the U.S.A. have a culture that is different from all other European cultures (but this is true for every other European culture too!), but still very much a European culture. Meanwhile, Japan has been isolated from European cultures from its creation up to, basically, the 19th century. During this whole time they developed in a direction completely different from what Europeans countries did, because there really was no exchange of ideas due to geographical distance.

 DarkLink wrote:
You seem to be trying to start a flame war claiming that the US and Europe are culturally identical

Not “culturally identical”. That would imply them being on the same level. Or, in other words, the culture of one country being put on the same level as dozens of different cultures. What I am actually saying is that the U.S. culture, which is different from the French culture and the German culture and the Spanish culture and the Hungarian culture and the Finnish culture and…, is part of the wide family of European cultures. But I get that people from the U.S. have troubles with the idea of their cultures being considered one among many, and they prefer being special snowflakes. That is why you consider it insulting to say that the U.S. is culturally part of Europe. But take a moment to think about it: if some European wanted to insult you, why would he call you a European? Do you really believe European consider it an insult to be called European?

 DarkLink wrote:
Heck, Hispanics are projected to outnumber everyone else in California combined in the next decade, so much of the west coast and midwest culture is based more on latin America than Europe.

Hint: where do you think the word “latin” comes from? Is that something out of Africa? Or Asia? Is the Latin language something used by South America's native people?
Though I am not sure, but maybe Latin American countries did a better job at incorporating cultural elements from native people and therefore are actually less European than the U.S.

 DarkLink wrote:
If you ever take a roadtrip to America, you'll find exactly the same thing.

To quite a lesser degree. Last time I checked, you all spoke the same language (with some place being a bit more Spanish-inclined, but how can you even compare that to the many, many European languages?), had the same festivals, eat largely similar meals, have relatively similar religious denominations, …
But yeah, you do have cultural differences.

Let me ask you. Can you point me to some cultural aspect of the U.S.A. that sets them apart from the rest of Europe. Something that all the European cultures have in common, but that is different in the U.S. ?
Keep in mind that even if you do manage to find one, it is still going to be a weak argument, as I can very easily do this for an obviously European country: Greece has a unique alphabet, that is not found in other European countries.

 LordofHats wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
Pretending that what we did was genocide is just trying to throw a guilt party.

It was a genocide and has nothing to do with a guilt party. Lets try and be a leg up on Turkey on this one, kay

We spent a good part of the later half of that century taking land, and killing anyone who didn't like us taking their land. When we got tired of fighting overland, we just starting coraling all the naysayers into reservations and killing them if they didn't stay on their side of the line. It was a genocide. Genocides don't have to be executed with the expressed purpose of 'erasing' a group to qualify.

The closest true attempt to "erase" the Native Americans though was when we took a page from Australia (or maybe they took it from us, or maybe other countries tried it in their Imperial days),

Pretty common procedure throughout history. Ours was laughably ineffective. Bringing up another Turkey reference, the only greater failure of such a program probably belonged to the Ottoman Empire and their attempt to spread "Ottomaness" (yeah they had no idea what Ottomaness was either).

Just to throw my 'historian' hat into the mix, yes, America did in fact try to erase Native culture. This was my area of specialty back in college.
We created boarding schools to send Native youth to where they were given "Christian" names, forbidden to speak their language and taught that their cultures were bad. It created whole generations that turned away from their native culture. Only recently have Native Americans began reestablishing their cultural identities in a positive, non stereotyped way.
I can link an article about the whole thing if you like.
I'm the last person to believe in white guilt or cis-male whatever crap. But yeah, The US government did attempt to commit genocide and wipe out the Native culture.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Say, for instance, what is the staple food for the U.S.A? Is it pizza, burgers, hot dogs?

I don't think pizza, burgers, and hot dogs really count as a staple food. It's well-known fast food, but not a staple. That'd be like calling Döner Kebap a staple of German food.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Let me ask you. Can you point me to some cultural aspect of the U.S.A. that sets them apart from the rest of Europe. Something that all the European cultures have in common, but that is different in the U.S. ?
Keep in mind that even if you do manage to find one, it is still going to be a weak argument, as I can very easily do this for an obviously European country: Greece has a unique alphabet, that is not found in other European countries.

Native-American cultures, language, alphabet (in the case of Cherokee) and cultural influence (particularly in the west, but seen in place names nationwide). Jazz. The 2nd Amendment. Cajun culture in Louisiana. I'm sure there are more things I'm forgetting.

 Hordini wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Say, for instance, what is the staple food for the U.S.A? Is it pizza, burgers, hot dogs?

I don't think pizza, burgers, and hot dogs really count as a staple food. It's well-known fast food, but not a staple. That'd be like calling Döner Kebap a staple of German food.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Let me ask you. Can you point me to some cultural aspect of the U.S.A. that sets them apart from the rest of Europe. Something that all the European cultures have in common, but that is different in the U.S. ?
Keep in mind that even if you do manage to find one, it is still going to be a weak argument, as I can very easily do this for an obviously European country: Greece has a unique alphabet, that is not found in other European countries.

Native-American cultures, language, alphabet (in the case of Cherokee) and cultural influence (particularly in the west, but seen in place names nationwide). Jazz. The 2nd Amendment. Cajun culture in Louisiana. I'm sure there are more things I'm forgetting.

Don't forget African-American culture, it's very US specific.

 Hordini wrote:
I don't think pizza, burgers, and hot dogs really count as a staple food.

Tell me what would the U.S. staple food be, then.
But really, do you believe that the U.S. food sets them apart from the rest of Europe, in the same way the Japanese food sets them apart from Europe?

 Hordini wrote:
Native-American cultures, language, alphabet (in the case of Cherokee) and cultural influence (particularly in the west, but seen in place names nationwide).

Yeah, those certainly are not European. Certainly people in the U.S. that live by Native American culture are not just Europeans abroad. Now, the average U.S. citizen? That is a completely different story.

 Hordini wrote:
Jazz.

We do have Jazz in Europe. Because, you know, when it became popular, it crossed the borders, as the U.S. and the rest of Europe have never cut their very close cultural ties.
Let me ask you, for how long exactly was Jazz popular in the U.S. and not in the rest of Europe?

 Hordini wrote:
The 2nd Amendment.

That was a joke, right? You do not actually believe your views on gun control makes you unique, do you? You do realize in Switzerland most citizen are expect to keep an assault rifle at their home to be ready to defend their countries if need be. And that they do have neutrality as a constitutional principle. And that they have direct democracy. They sure are way, way more unique on the political front and the gun-control front than you are. And they are still very much Europeans.

 Hordini wrote:
Cajun culture in Louisiana.

Those guys that speak French, you mean? How un-European of them! Just like the French, the Swiss, the Belgians, …
Really, they totally set the U.S. apart from the rest of Europe: they have minorities that speaks French!

 d-usa wrote:
Don't forget African-American culture, it's very US specific.

Would you care to develop that idea?

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
Don't forget African-American culture, it's very US specific.

Would you care to develop that idea?

Based on your replies above, it would be a waste of time considering that it appears that you have no idea what "culture" actually means.

Okay, then you win. The U.S. are indeed a special snowflake. Congratulations for being so unique and different!

Hot Dogs as we know them today were invented in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

Likewise, the Hamburger was also invented in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger

Lots of different claims to the origin of the Hamburger exist, but they all come from the US. Multiple people appear to have come up with the idea simultaneously, and the idea was popularized at the 1904 Worlds Fair(which was held in St Louis) The name supposedly originated from some sailors who were from Hamburg and named the nameless dish after themselves.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Okay, then you win. The U.S. are indeed a special snowflake. Congratulations for being so unique and different!

You mean just like everyone else?

Is it really so hard for you to accept that we have our own culture?

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 DarkLink wrote:
Japan and the USA have strong cultural influences on each other. Does that mean that we're culturally identical with them?

Can I point to millions of years during which Japan developed their own culture, far from any US influence? Can I point you to the Japanese language not being from Europe, the Japanese alphabet not being used in Europe, the Japanese food being very different from European food, using different ingredients and all that, the Japanese religion (Shinto) not having been practiced at any sizable scale in Europe ever, the Japanese mythos and festivals, …

Say, for instance, what is the staple food for the U.S.A? Is it pizza, burgers, hot dogs?
Pizza comes from Italy, Hamburger reference Hamburg by its very name, hot dogs are also linked to Germany. Notice how French fries are made out of some ingredient that did not exist in France and was imported from America. That is just how isolated from Europe the U.S.A. were…

What about, say, festivals? Is Halloween not directly linked to European traditions? I bet it is. What about independence day? Oh, that is all about being free from the U.K.! Christmas?

Maybe language? Oh, no, not really. Religion? Darn it!

The thing is, the reason why European cultures are relatively close to each other is that ideas were able to travel from one to the other because of geographical proximity. As soon as the U.S.A. were created, the means to have idea travel from Europeans living in Europe to Europeans living in America were already there, and they have been through all of the U.S.A. history. As a result, the U.S.A. have a culture that is different from all other European cultures (but this is true for every other European culture too!), but still very much a European culture. Meanwhile, Japan has been isolated from European cultures from its creation up to, basically, the 19th century. During this whole time they developed in a direction completely different from what Europeans countries did, because there really was no exchange of ideas due to geographical distance.

 DarkLink wrote:
You seem to be trying to start a flame war claiming that the US and Europe are culturally identical

Not “culturally identical”. That would imply them being on the same level. Or, in other words, the culture of one country being put on the same level as dozens of different cultures. What I am actually saying is that the U.S. culture, which is different from the French culture and the German culture and the Spanish culture and the Hungarian culture and the Finnish culture and…, is part of the wide family of European cultures. But I get that people from the U.S. have troubles with the idea of their cultures being considered one among many, and they prefer being special snowflakes. That is why you consider it insulting to say that the U.S. is culturally part of Europe. But take a moment to think about it: if some European wanted to insult you, why would he call you a European? Do you really believe European consider it an insult to be called European?

 DarkLink wrote:
Heck, Hispanics are projected to outnumber everyone else in California combined in the next decade, so much of the west coast and midwest culture is based more on latin America than Europe.

Hint: where do you think the word “latin” comes from? Is that something out of Africa? Or Asia? Is the Latin language something used by South America's native people?
Though I am not sure, but maybe Latin American countries did a better job at incorporating cultural elements from native people and therefore are actually less European than the U.S.

 DarkLink wrote:
If you ever take a roadtrip to America, you'll find exactly the same thing.

To quite a lesser degree. Last time I checked, you all spoke the same language (with some place being a bit more Spanish-inclined, but how can you even compare that to the many, many European languages?), had the same festivals, eat largely similar meals, have relatively similar religious denominations, …
But yeah, you do have cultural differences.

Let me ask you. Can you point me to some cultural aspect of the U.S.A. that sets them apart from the rest of Europe. Something that all the European cultures have in common, but that is different in the U.S. ?
Keep in mind that even if you do manage to find one, it is still going to be a weak argument, as I can very easily do this for an obviously European country: Greece has a unique alphabet, that is not found in other European countries.

The thought that you think Latin culture is Spanish is downright funny. Spanish culture is an overlay over a thousand tribes in Central and South America. More people than Europe when it was obliterated.

Talk about your own culture. Don't talk about ones you don't know about.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Hot Dogs as we know them today were invented in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

Indeed. Based on sausages that were invented in Germany.
“The sausages were culturally imported from Germany and popularized in the United States”.
Compare this to, say, sushi. Were sushi made out of something from Europe?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Is it really so hard for you to accept that we have our own culture?

I am wondering if I am not expressing myself clearly or if you just skimmed over my messages without reading them.
Let me quote myself:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
What I am actually saying is that the U.S. culture, which is different from the French culture and the German culture and the Spanish culture and the Hungarian culture and the Finnish culture and…, is part of the wide family of European cultures.

Does that seem to you like I am saying that the U.S. does not have their own culture? Because I am pretty sure this is explicitly saying that the U.S. does have a specific culture. Tell me, is that not clear from what I wrote?

The differences between US culture and any European culture are far greater than the differences between any two European Cultures.

We're a different culture group than Europe. We have more in common with Canada.

Sure, we are descended from European culture. But we are now something completely different.

The biggest problem is that we have people pretending that there is such a thing as "European culture". There are a lot of different cultures in Europe, and quite a few of them share different similarities, but pretending that Europe is some sort of anarcho-syndicalist commune where people take turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week where all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs and that it has a singular culture is asinine. That's where the whole "the US is a European culture" fails because there is no such thing.

The second problem is that people seem to be confusing "culture" with "something someone does", such as taking the US gun culture and declaring "the Swiss have gun ownership, Switzerland is a country in Europe, therefore gun culture is European culture" when "gun culture" is so much more than "legal gun ownership".

Saying "the US is no different than European culture" is just as stupid as saying "German culture is no different than European culture" and "Italian culture is no different than European culture".

US culture is a culture that has developed from assimilating cultural habits that originated in Europe, in Africa, in South America, and from Asia. Through the years these influences have spread throughout our country and changed, and became a US culture that also incorporates multiple sub-cultures.

 Grey Templar wrote:
The differences between US culture and any European culture are far greater than the differences between any two European Cultures.

Well, that certainly is your opinion. I disagree. I think that, for instance, the U.K. culture is way closer to the U.S. culture than to the Albanian, or Greek culture. Actually I think this misconception from U.S. people that they are very different from Europeans and that Europeans are similar to each other comes from the fact many of them do not know that much about many European cultures, especially those that are not from western Europe.
But at least, it seems you now have a better understanding of what I was arguing about.

Also yes, you are very similar to Canada, and I would argue that Canada is just as European as the U.S., for similar reasons. Just like France is much closer culturally to Belgium than they are to Greece or Albania, again.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The differences between US culture and any European culture are far greater than the differences between any two European Cultures.

Well, that certainly is your opinion. I disagree. I think that, for instance, the U.K. culture is way closer to the U.S. culture than to the Albanian, or Greek culture. Actually I think this misconception from U.S. people that they are very different from Europeans and that Europeans are similar to each other comes from the fact many of them do not know that much about many European cultures, especially those that are not from western Europe.
But at least, it seems you now have a better understanding of what I was arguing about.

Also yes, you are very similar to Canada, and I would argue that Canada is just as European as the U.S., for similar reasons. Just like France is much closer culturally to Belgium than they are to Greece or Albania, again.

Well unless you've actually been to the US I can't put much stock in your opinion.

I've actually been to Europe. UK, Germany, and France. France was just 2 days to be fair.

Britain and America have more in common with each other than either does with Continental Europe.


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 Grey Templar wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The differences between US culture and any European culture are far greater than the differences between any two European Cultures.

Well, that certainly is your opinion. I disagree. I think that, for instance, the U.K. culture is way closer to the U.S. culture than to the Albanian, or Greek culture. Actually I think this misconception from U.S. people that they are very different from Europeans and that Europeans are similar to each other comes from the fact many of them do not know that much about many European cultures, especially those that are not from western Europe.
But at least, it seems you now have a better understanding of what I was arguing about.

Also yes, you are very similar to Canada, and I would argue that Canada is just as European as the U.S., for similar reasons. Just like France is much closer culturally to Belgium than they are to Greece or Albania, again.

Well unless you've actually been to the US I can't put much stock in your opinion.

I've actually been to Europe. UK, Germany, and France. France was just 2 days to be fair.

I've visited Orlando, Florida on holiday ad nauseam, and have visited Gettysburg, Manhatten NYC and Washington DC precisely once each, but that doesn't give me any special insight into American culture. Have you actually lived in Europe for any length of time?

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Tell me what would the U.S. staple food be, then.

BBQ

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:


Also yes, you are very similar to Canada, and I would argue that Canada is just as European as the U.S., for similar reasons. .

So very wrong there... So very very wrong... anyone who thinks Canadian and American cultures are that similar has no clue about one, or both, cultures or is judging "culture" on very simplistic terms like "do you eat hamburgers?"


The simple fact is, that differences WITHIN any culture are usually just as pronounced if not more so then any differences *between* cultures.

Everyone very much is a special unique snowflake, very much like everyone else, everyone is using everyone "else s" culture because culture doesn't belong to anyone, it "belongs" to those that practice it.

Gives you more than if you'd never been here at all.

I don't pretend to know a bunch about European culture, but I know its very different than the US. Politics alone shifts us way apart.