"A style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world."
I think the expressive power of art is one of the reasons it's such a quintessential human activity.
When it comes to writing about the U.S (as a non-American), I think people start to get annoyed when it comes off as "The United States is the Most Important place in the world, everything revolves around it." Obviously, many Americans try not to fall into that, but some don't really care and sometimes they are loud.
One of my big issues with education (much of it influenced by America, sorry lol) is that we focus so much on debate and arguing our point from the perspective of win/lose. We don’t really learn how to discuss things peacefully and without getting emotionally invested of going around to hear different perspectives. The Socratic method is a really cool tool, but we aren’t encouraged or even given a chance to turn it off and focus on forging rapport with people in order to live peacefully together and not dominate each other.
On the other hand you have traditional cultures where having different ideas is the taboo and people default to shutting down other’s opinions. The default mode dominates anything outside of the norm.
From both kinds of upbringings, you end up with people who are either really good at or really eager to shut other people down.
Add to this the fact that so many parents and teachers and bosses in both worlds are emotionally unstable and “being an adult” to them just means hiding their own instabilities, and everyone just becomes so reactive towards others.
There’s definitely a place for debate and disagreeing and it’s helpful to be able to “formulate a sound argument” but I don’t think it’s healthy to be in this mode all the time or to default to it.
With a lot of social or political issues now, I find that both sides have valid points but neither can hear each other because they only focus on the contradictions and how they feel threatened.
Like it’s true that America gets way more attention than other countries and that the framing online often defaults to American culture…and that can be alienating to a lot of people or make them feel like they have less power in the discussion. I don’t particularly like how America centered so many conversations are. It doesn’t mean every single American is to blame or that they shouldn’t have America centered conversations.
This is what happens when people around the world pay attention to something. Like that’s what being a Taylor Swift or a Lebron James fan in Africa or Asia contributes to. My answer to that has always just been to take more of an interest in different niches and things happening outside of America. It doesn’t really matter that I am American, anyone taking an interest in the rest of the world is good for the rest of the world.
I find pop culture EVERYWHERE to be distasteful and shallow and so I just don’t engage with it. If I try to fight the existence of Taylor Swift her fans will just slaughter me, and what chance have I given them to discover an alternative in just complaining about Taylor Swift. I can just relate to them that I like Bon Iver who she has a song or two with. Like I don’t go around complaining about K-pop, I just talk about Leenalchi as something really awesome from Korea.
It’s fine to complain too, but doing it to the whole internet indiscriminately will just tire you out or get you more and more frustrated.
SORRY! It’s early and I’m on a train and tired as hell and didn’t have energy to formulate my ideas I ended up ranting hahahaha. I will write something about this at some point and try to make it more coherent. Thank you for waking my brain up before work hahahaha
There are a lot of things that I’ve come to realize about America as a Middle Eastern (Mainly) which is ironic, really, considering the propaganda surrounding middle easterns and muslims. It often feels like America is trying to shape us into one mindset and one thing to make themselves look better. Where I grew up in America might play a part with my perspective as well. I fully plan on leaving America in the future but not completely.
What about you? where did your grandparents come from (if its not too personal!)
“so many parents and teachers and bosses in both worlds are emotionally unstable and “being an adult” to them just means hiding their own instabilities” I completely agree with this, instead of addressing the issue they suppress it in order to contain the “I’m and adult and I’m mature” facade. They may feel that keeping those issues and emotions in will make them feel composed in some sort of way.
Living in america as a non american made me realize how odd America is structured. In my home country it was completely glorified and It was always in the discussion of peoples dreams. After living here for most of my life I didn’t think that it was worth my happiness at my own home country. The “American dream” can go beyond lines of what I’m saying here but it’s definitely something I want to discuss on here in the future.
I am not a big fan of taylor swift but I often felt the pressure to like her or else I am not a true american. it’s definitely a struggle to form your own opinions and values in a place that criticizes it in the most disrespectful manner especially as someone who struggles to find my identity between my ethnicity and the place I grew up in. It always felt like it had to be a black or white input and no in between.
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to your post about this topic, you seem very passionate about it and I’m glad I got to see a different perspective of this subject.
Not a true American if you don’t like Taylor swift? What happened to individualism and freedom, America? 🤣 is the groupthink that hardcore? I know plenty of people who would never listen to Taylor swift though and I grew up in America. Are you sure it’s not just that her fans are terrifying? 😆
It’s interesting, I grew up with people who left horrible situations to come to America (my grandparents included) and they brainwashed us into thinking that the rest of the world was shit. Obviously the world is much more complicated than that, which is why I left, so I could see it for myself.
I appreciate America more and more that it seems like it might be falling apart or at least losing its monopoly on power, but I could never stomach American Exceptionalism.
Honestly I think “identity” gets too much attention because politicians and corporations want to put us in boxes and there is still a lot of old trauma that is trying to heal itself and so much of that is about race and gender so people love to pull those strings cause it’s easier to get people interested. I hope everyone can just feel free to be whatever they are without always needing to define it.
I’m curious where you come from, if it’s a secret I’ll drop it but if not then where? Also I’m always open to talking about this stuff with someone who isn’t looking to argue, happy to just learn your perspective. Feel free to reach out any time
I wonder if it’s about trying to look better or if it’s about hiding their ugly history of proxy wars with the Soviet Union. I had no idea how modern and liberal large portions of Syria and Libya were at one point for example. That stuff is kept from us. I didn’t know there were Christian Arabs.
Something about stereotypes though is that many groups tend to stick together, regardless of whether it’s racial or religious and that often leads to a lack of understanding. I never understood this, I feel it with my parents and people with my background too, which I can share about in private if you want. Im more interesting in people with different stories from myself.
I think the expressive power of art is one of the reasons it's such a quintessential human activity.
When it comes to writing about the U.S (as a non-American), I think people start to get annoyed when it comes off as "The United States is the Most Important place in the world, everything revolves around it." Obviously, many Americans try not to fall into that, but some don't really care and sometimes they are loud.
if there was no music, film, or literature. I'd die. I swear on everything i would .
One of my big issues with education (much of it influenced by America, sorry lol) is that we focus so much on debate and arguing our point from the perspective of win/lose. We don’t really learn how to discuss things peacefully and without getting emotionally invested of going around to hear different perspectives. The Socratic method is a really cool tool, but we aren’t encouraged or even given a chance to turn it off and focus on forging rapport with people in order to live peacefully together and not dominate each other.
On the other hand you have traditional cultures where having different ideas is the taboo and people default to shutting down other’s opinions. The default mode dominates anything outside of the norm.
From both kinds of upbringings, you end up with people who are either really good at or really eager to shut other people down.
Add to this the fact that so many parents and teachers and bosses in both worlds are emotionally unstable and “being an adult” to them just means hiding their own instabilities, and everyone just becomes so reactive towards others.
There’s definitely a place for debate and disagreeing and it’s helpful to be able to “formulate a sound argument” but I don’t think it’s healthy to be in this mode all the time or to default to it.
With a lot of social or political issues now, I find that both sides have valid points but neither can hear each other because they only focus on the contradictions and how they feel threatened.
Like it’s true that America gets way more attention than other countries and that the framing online often defaults to American culture…and that can be alienating to a lot of people or make them feel like they have less power in the discussion. I don’t particularly like how America centered so many conversations are. It doesn’t mean every single American is to blame or that they shouldn’t have America centered conversations.
This is what happens when people around the world pay attention to something. Like that’s what being a Taylor Swift or a Lebron James fan in Africa or Asia contributes to. My answer to that has always just been to take more of an interest in different niches and things happening outside of America. It doesn’t really matter that I am American, anyone taking an interest in the rest of the world is good for the rest of the world.
I find pop culture EVERYWHERE to be distasteful and shallow and so I just don’t engage with it. If I try to fight the existence of Taylor Swift her fans will just slaughter me, and what chance have I given them to discover an alternative in just complaining about Taylor Swift. I can just relate to them that I like Bon Iver who she has a song or two with. Like I don’t go around complaining about K-pop, I just talk about Leenalchi as something really awesome from Korea.
It’s fine to complain too, but doing it to the whole internet indiscriminately will just tire you out or get you more and more frustrated.
SORRY! It’s early and I’m on a train and tired as hell and didn’t have energy to formulate my ideas I ended up ranting hahahaha. I will write something about this at some point and try to make it more coherent. Thank you for waking my brain up before work hahahaha
Taylor swift fans are something for sure!
There are a lot of things that I’ve come to realize about America as a Middle Eastern (Mainly) which is ironic, really, considering the propaganda surrounding middle easterns and muslims. It often feels like America is trying to shape us into one mindset and one thing to make themselves look better. Where I grew up in America might play a part with my perspective as well. I fully plan on leaving America in the future but not completely.
What about you? where did your grandparents come from (if its not too personal!)
“so many parents and teachers and bosses in both worlds are emotionally unstable and “being an adult” to them just means hiding their own instabilities” I completely agree with this, instead of addressing the issue they suppress it in order to contain the “I’m and adult and I’m mature” facade. They may feel that keeping those issues and emotions in will make them feel composed in some sort of way.
Living in america as a non american made me realize how odd America is structured. In my home country it was completely glorified and It was always in the discussion of peoples dreams. After living here for most of my life I didn’t think that it was worth my happiness at my own home country. The “American dream” can go beyond lines of what I’m saying here but it’s definitely something I want to discuss on here in the future.
I am not a big fan of taylor swift but I often felt the pressure to like her or else I am not a true american. it’s definitely a struggle to form your own opinions and values in a place that criticizes it in the most disrespectful manner especially as someone who struggles to find my identity between my ethnicity and the place I grew up in. It always felt like it had to be a black or white input and no in between.
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to your post about this topic, you seem very passionate about it and I’m glad I got to see a different perspective of this subject.
Not a true American if you don’t like Taylor swift? What happened to individualism and freedom, America? 🤣 is the groupthink that hardcore? I know plenty of people who would never listen to Taylor swift though and I grew up in America. Are you sure it’s not just that her fans are terrifying? 😆
It’s interesting, I grew up with people who left horrible situations to come to America (my grandparents included) and they brainwashed us into thinking that the rest of the world was shit. Obviously the world is much more complicated than that, which is why I left, so I could see it for myself.
I appreciate America more and more that it seems like it might be falling apart or at least losing its monopoly on power, but I could never stomach American Exceptionalism.
Honestly I think “identity” gets too much attention because politicians and corporations want to put us in boxes and there is still a lot of old trauma that is trying to heal itself and so much of that is about race and gender so people love to pull those strings cause it’s easier to get people interested. I hope everyone can just feel free to be whatever they are without always needing to define it.
I’m curious where you come from, if it’s a secret I’ll drop it but if not then where? Also I’m always open to talking about this stuff with someone who isn’t looking to argue, happy to just learn your perspective. Feel free to reach out any time
I wonder if it’s about trying to look better or if it’s about hiding their ugly history of proxy wars with the Soviet Union. I had no idea how modern and liberal large portions of Syria and Libya were at one point for example. That stuff is kept from us. I didn’t know there were Christian Arabs.
Something about stereotypes though is that many groups tend to stick together, regardless of whether it’s racial or religious and that often leads to a lack of understanding. I never understood this, I feel it with my parents and people with my background too, which I can share about in private if you want. Im more interesting in people with different stories from myself.
My grandparents were Eastern European
Omg I apologize for such a long comment, I just went into stream of thought 😱