NoYank. Remove All American Media And Culture From Your Life

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Remove All American Media And Culture From Your Life

Anti-imperialist comm to help you in your personal journey of cultural anti-imperialism.

American culture has spread all over the world, it has dumbed down and impoverished our variegated pre-colonial and non-capitalist cultures. Every time you yank yourself, a bit of their culture worms its way into your mind. Sometimes it's explicit propaganda like Top Gun, but sometimes it's subtle: the contempt shown for the poor, the celebration of selfishness, the value-system of their empire.

All inputs enter the mind, are absorbed, and blossom as thoughts and deeds. Mass-produced culture dulls you and makes you a boring, mass-produced personality. And nations are losing their personality by letting one imperial power do this to them.

That the empire is doing this as a more-or-less deliberate tool of influence doesn't need stressing.

Stop doing this to yourself. Don't watch their television. Don't watch their films. Don't read their stupid news and politics: ABC and CNN and NBC and the rest. Don't be so fucking boring. You don't have to be boring and stupid. Turn off your TV. Pick up some of your country's classic books, or listen to African funk, or go to a storytelling night.

Examples of posts that are welcome

Give recommendations of internationalist media. Discuss alternatives. 🎶🎥📺🎮📰
Bookclubs for anti-imperialist books or just any non-american books
Complain about americanised people and culture.
Talk about your motivations. Share your personal journal of de-americanisation.

founded 2 years ago

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frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml

Introduce niche subjects with long form specials, translations, subtitles and more (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml to c/noyank@lemmy.ml

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I like the premise of this community and I believe it is a good remedy to US defaultism.

It bugs me in the Internet whenever someone is not from the US has to introduce "a thing" in their culture with a thin veil of shame. We never see Americans having to "explain" what Halloween or Thanksgiving is, even when they are knowingly facing a global audience.

So, very well done for starting this, and I would like to just contribute some brainstormed ideas.

A community like this could host long form 'specials' such as (an example) "Introduce others to a niche topic of your culture."

Now what could that be:

That could be a band/genre
Some TV show with a cult following
An influential pop culture figure that keeps off the spotlight
A type of slang unique to your culture
A set of weird or memorable customs

Additionally, people could contribute things like subtitles or translations, so others can discover media from each other's countries that would never be available through mainstream streaming.

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[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I could do this for Irish folklore.

I like your idea.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We never see Americans having to “explain” what Halloween

ahem

Hallowe'en is Irish.

[–] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair enough. When you see it introduced in like, Eastern Europe, it is due to American cultural imperialism, not Irish. At least so I think.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It's interesting how things get americanised then spread in a changed form

people might know the Arabian Nights tales (Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba) from americanised versions, but they're distinctively Arabian

[–] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Also

zines,
different newspapers
satirical acts
political leanings of public figures
links between demographics and attitudes people take for granted

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

This is something Quebec suffers from within Canada. Canadian English culture is extremely close and influenced by American culture. Quebec, being francophone and being neither English Canadian nor European French is unique. But nobody cares. Nobody gives a shit about learning it. Learning the intricacies of its language, which is VERY different from France French. And it's pop culture icons and music and literature and everything.

When they call for the preservation of their culture, they get criticized for being bothersome for being different in the monocultural English culture of North America and get told to fold over and give up.