Oh, for sure! My point is just that America has a lot of factors that exacerbate the reasons those feelings happen.
Americana is a good example, IMO. It's more a stereotype used in country songs idealizing a conservative, rural America; but it's not something actually practiced or related to by most Americans. Heck, it's often actively opposed!
Several positive aspects of US culture belong to non conservative areas: NYC, Hollywood, NASA, Silicon Valley, etc. Culture is not just ancient low tech practice.
American culture is so globally ubiquitous we don’t even recognize it when we do it.
E.g, despite animosity between China/US, Chinese citizens are fond of US culture (and vice-versa):
Japanese culture likewise has some negative aspects too: grope issue on trains, monoethnic culture where almost no other races can live as real equals, innovation and risk being actively discouraged, etc.
> Several positive aspects of US culture belong to non conservative areas: NYC, Hollywood...
Regional cultures aren't national culture, I'd tuck this alongside subcultures in my original comment.
> NASA, Silicon Valley
Have internal business cultures, of which the vast majority of Americans have never participated in.
> Culture is not just ancient low tech practice.
I didn't say it was. I'm also not saying the US doesn't have ANY culture. I'm just meandering on the topic that cultural fetishism can be appealing to Americans because of how our own culture has grown to be and how immature it still is.
Japan and France have American cultural fetishists too.
> Japanese culture likewise has some negative aspects too
I acknowledged this in my original comment as well.
It’s not clear you have a point you’re trying to make anymore.
> I'm just meandering on the topic that cultural fetishism can be appealing to Americans because of how our own culture has grown to be and how immature it still is.
You’ve already been replied to that some from other cultures love American culture. Japan took Whisky, baseball, and jeans from the US and knocked them out of the park.
Are you trying to say that Americans fetishize cultures more than others? Or are you saying the American culture has no appeal? It’s not clear and I don’t see you really supporting either view well.
Exactly, I'm just having a meandering dialogue, not trying to have a debate. I don't mean to bother you.
The root of what I'm getting at is just modern America has a diffuse and immature national culture. There's nothing like 1,000 years of dynasties, the legacy of Greece or Rome and their Gods, etc. The culture folk have is usually from a subculture or region, and even those may be ephemeral/inconsistent due to how often we move around cities for employment.
On top of that, as someone else mentioned, much of our culture gets immediately re-exported and blends into a worldwide "default" kind of state. Japanese baseball and whiskey and jeans. They no longer invoke a feeling of "being American". The parts that don't get exported are often things we don't want to actively associate with.
Combine all that with the lack of time a national identity has even had to foment. Compared to, say, the French, who will make signs like "Je suis circonflexe".
So many Americans are (in my opinion and experience) extra susceptible to seeing nations with a legacy and living traditions and national identity and feeling we are missing out.
By this standard, most of the cultural elements you mention aren't national culture either. I'll bet Mexican restaurants outnumber gun shops in the US.
Immigrants (like me) to the US adore US culture.
Some positive examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_(culture)