It’s actually a good question as when I was growing up and I heard about American ‘culture’ I wondered what the heck were they talking about.
Over time as I have lived around the world for over 50 years I have come to a greater understanding of what ‘culture’ means. It doesn’t necessarily mean ‘high’ culture like symphonies or even traditional cultures like Thai or Chinese or Japanese.
Culture really is important when it can dominate and US culture dominates. The entire world does this:
Every country of the world has Coca Cola, an example of American culture.
These are some of the “Disney” brands all promoting American culture around the world.
Look around you, US culture dominates the world. Like it or not, it is ubiquitous and there are dozens of more including; Google, Apple, Microsoft, even Tesla on EVs.
Does America have a ‘culture’. No, America has dozens of cultures and they control just about everything you do. There are exceptions like in China which has cut off American culture on many levels. But still the Chinese want the NBA and Disney and Coke or Autodesk and so many other brands. They may block Google but they can’t stop Coke.
Yes America dominates the culture wars and every American gets the benefits and frankly very few have earned it.
Americans sit and complain all the time when their culture dominates others and wipes them out in many cases.
So please don’t ask such a question again. Look around you, I am in a Starbucks in Thailand with a Thai friend who insisted on getting some kind of beverage there. Using the wifi just like everywhere in the world.
That is not just culture, that is cultural change and dominance so much so that the world has adopted the US approach if not the products everywhere.
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