/lounge/ - Lounge

i know that feeling you describe. even if you are not american you still grew up with american media, as a matter of fact most of the media you have consumed in your life is most likely american. there is a certain aesthetic to the american lifestyle that gets portrayed in the media like the architecture, fashion, the people, devices and all of these things and even eurofags grew up with all of this to an extent even if they have never even been to the united states. its a mixture of nostalgia, aesthetics and mental images/concepts.

I can vaguely understand the feeling but really it comes down to grass is greener effect. Many Americans envy Europe for being more beautiful, traditional and orderly in many ways. It seems Europeans are attracted to America's openness, prosperity and opportunity.

For both sides the external projection of the society hides its inner rot and shared mundanity. I don't know the extent of it for parts of Europe but America today hardly bares a resemblance to bygone decades which is where most of the nostalgic and inspiring images of it come from. Today I see it more as an economic zone with a common set of draconian laws rather than a nation.

>>300237
ESCAPE THE MYTH OF AMERICANA, NOWHERE IN THE US LOOKS LIKE THIS ANYMORE AND IF IT DOES IT'S BASICALLY A GHOST TOWN.

THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER, THERE'S PLASTIC IN THE WATER,

>>300239
This is why the so called modern nationalists of today are so ridiculous. Pretty much everyone across the world grew up watching american cartoons, listening to american music, watching american movies, etc. It's no wonder some people are more familiar with american history, customs, laws, etc than with their own. The USA is the center of the world, whether people like it or not.

Even my father, who grew up and lived in communism era Eastern Europe grew up being inspired by american culture and fashion. He rode a motorbike and had an american flag on it, he dressed like some biker, had long hair, etc, so like someone from 60s or 70s american movies.

Capitalist USA managed better what the communist USSR wanted to do, to unite the world under one single culture.

>>300277
as much as I hate america, as a wiz who hates neighbors, theres something to be said about the wide open spaces. I look at what is supposed to be the most luxurious places in Europe, the Riviera, and the houses all on top of each other on a hill, looks like 3rd world hellscapes from India to me.

>>300291
Europe is extremely varied. The richest places are actually switzerland and norway where even in the biggest cities you can get to a beautful mountaintop in a short amount of time. I would post pictures but this site is FUCKED and OPPRESSES VPN users

>>300237
>that feeling
Not at all.

America is a dystopian hellhole. Controlled entirely by the intelligence agencies, ultra rich people, corporate monopolies, the controlled press and the satanist.

If you have the impression that America is any remotely as you describe is because you have fallen victim of their own propaganda, which serves exactly the purpose to convince gullible foreign to migrate there and make them believe that American live style is nothing but the soulless nightmare it really is. This propaganda probably was developed to target people like the father of >>300290. They saw that it was useful, and keep going until today. But now is hard to maintain that fake propaganda because many people can see how hellish America really is.

People who travel to that place lose their culture, their history and eventually their identity. Many people inside America have realised this and try to retake some of their heritage, that's the reason of the existence of so many in groups like British-american, Italian-american or whatever. But the power of that dystopian place is too great, its completely designed to make people lose as much identity as possible, because that is how the government, corporations and people who control the place want it. Easy to change, easy to manipulate.

It would be a net positive for the world, and even many people who live inside America if the dystopian system that exist there lose its influence over the world.

>>300237
yea

"hiraeth" is a welsh term that is often described as a feeling of homesickness, nostalgia, or longing for a place or time that may no longer exist or never actually existed

>>300294
well the most recent COD map is based on a Swiss resort, so I've been spending a lot of virtual time there

>>300296

You completely missed the man's point, he didn't say the USA is actually great but that the myth and idealization behind it has been very effective to foreigners from other cultures who further have this romantic fantasy about it.

>>300290
>Pretty much everyone across the world grew up watching american cartoons, listening to american music, watching american movies, etc.
Funny, lately I have been thinking how bad this is. You grew up watching american university movies and then feel sad that the university in your countries are nothing like in those american movies. There are more examples like that.
It's the same with anime now. Kids watch them thinking HS is going to be the same with clubs and whatnot, but find out their country(in most cases) have nothing like that.
For some reason, as a kid, you should not be allowed to consume anything from foreigner countries. But this would never happens, anyway. I just find it bad that most people know more about some foreigner country than their own.

>>300317
American culture was always 'cool' and looked superior to everything else in the west. Many western countries seem like American hybrids already in a lot of ways.

That 'feeling' OP describes can be marketed so successfully that Europe emulates it by having the same fashion, music, companies and speaking fluent english on top of their native language. The internet adds to this even more since its all controlled by american companies and all the content is dictated by american content creators as well. On the internet europeans have to talk english or they will miss out on so much stuff and most people that are not full boomers can talk english in europe.

I agree that this is bad and it's all just marketed propaganda when you boil it down. European countries have lost their sense of identity quite some time ago and American culture just took over that missing spot.

>>300319
>most people that are not full boomers can talk english in europe.
no

America is a shitheap - either overpriced or being completely destroyed. This country is mindfucked beyond all repair. No other country is this insane.

Don't believe anything from Hollywood or the culture industry. They're trained liars. It's not the hellscape you might have heard in all places, but no one gives a shit in America and they haven't given a shit since the late 1990s. The rulers have done everything humanly possible to run it into the ground and fuck off to Europe or China.

I think America is nice because there is plenty of uninhabited space you can run away to. Granted, most of that space is in the desert, but all the better because you know it won't be turned into an urban shithole because there's nothing desirable in the desert aside from solitude, and sunlight for solar farms.
Looking at posts from places like South America or India makes me feel for them. I wish I could share my relatively leisurely lifestyle with them, without also letting in a bunch of their niggardly countrymen.

What time period in what country do you think would be the best time to live as a ((hikki)NEET) mage, if not for USA circa 1980-20XX? Seeing as BBSes, video games, and the internet proper evolved exponentially from the 80s onward, it would have been potentially amazing to experience the whole time period through the eyes of a simple genX/late boomer living in the proverbial basement of a mom in denial that her son will never give her grandkids, much less get a job, so she keeps sustaining his lifestyle of gaming, watching TV, and creative endeavors to be shared online. Imagine.
I do acknowledge that what I envision truly is a dream, and only a select few in the entire world have lived it, much less consistently enjoyed it, but it's close enough to what I would describe as the best, most carefree period of my life.

Soliloquy aside, I think the U.S gets a disproportionate amount of heat in international shitflinging. There are indeed places in the U.S that aren't the uncultured, corporate shitholes that make up 30% of the country. Another 50% is empty space or farmland, but the remaining 20% are breddy gud places to live, with the denizens not being totally dysfunctional normaltrash.

>>300344
>Granted, most of that space is in the desert, but all the better because you know it won't be turned into an urban shithole
haven't they done so in the southwest?

USA is the most normie country in the world, therefore OP is ultra normie.

i don't understand how living in a country full of extroverts is good for the average wiz.

>>300346
you don't understand it at all

Maybe the corporate American culture was cool a few decades ago. Not sure if it's just childhood nostalgia, but I find corny 80s commercials and programming comforting. However, especially after realizing what it truly is, I appreciate all the little regional cultures a lot more. It's a bit unfortunate that the emptiest, tackiest culture is the one projected onto the rest of the world.

you guys are focusing on the content of his feeling, what the feeling is in relation to, rather than looking at the actual feeling itself. ie instead of understanding hunger you talk about wanting fast food, mcdonalds, how many burgers you could eat

this is the closest word we have for the feeling, if we can borrow words from other languages >>300297

>>300345
Only because those areas were already adjacent to places like L.A, Vegas, Phoenix, and places that have been settled from a time when it was prudent to have a town every 20 or so miles along a commonly traveled path, because it was about a day's travel by foot or wagon.
Many of those are now either ghost towns or mere hamlets.

>>300317
I'm probably one of the few people who actually like american globalism despite its flaws. I'm not talking about mcdonald's or burger king first of all but about the capitalist feeling of liberty and how the USA mixes it with patriotism nicely. And the aesthetics and entertainment is what I refer to, also. Thanks to american globalism I could grow up watching Terminator 2 and Tim Burton's Batman movies on VHS for example. And thanks to globalism generally I could spend my teenage years reading weird yet interesting visual novels or watching anime and those things defined my personality too.

Without american culture and globalism my childhood and teenage years would have been so boring. My country simply doesn't have good or exciting escapism, it's always the classics from the 19th century getting remade ad infinitum and some half-assed attempts at trying to emulate western or eastern entertainment (and failing miserably at it).

As a NEET who spends most of his time watching movies or playing games I don't have a problem with globalism.
Back to capitalism and globalism, many people cry about it but when you compare it to the alternatives (nazi Germany and Soviet Union) I can say confidently that the best side won in WW2. I think many americans here don't appreciate their country because they are used to it and can't imagine what it would be like to live in some totalitarian or even semi-fascist/communist banana republic. They take freedom as something granted when it really isn't like that.
I also don't have a problem with a "single world language" like english. It makes things easier since everyone speaks english basically and you can find english translations for almost everything.