The Ubiquity of US Culture

 

 We are nearing the end of our European trip (Danube Christmas river cruise) with a short stay in Budapest.  It’s a day shorter than planned as Lufthansa cancelled our Christmas morning flight to Munich so we are on the train tomorrow.  We have been walking around both sides of the river here and in Vienna and I’ve noticed kids from all over Europe wearing US themed clothing.  Little Eastern European girls in “I ♥️NY” hats.  And lots of clothing that sort of simulates US stuff – a 40ish guy had on a “Camp David Auto Repair” jacket with a big trademark logo. And I haven’t seen a single Che Guevara shirt.  I guess you need to be in the US to find young people that stupid.

I can never quite put my finger on why the American stuff is so prevalent.  Is our popular culture so ubiquitous that it’s popular with all these freedom loving Hungarians?  Jeez, wait until they find out about Buc-Eees.

Today it finally snowed – big, wet flakes so it really feels like Christmas.  Apparently the entire city shuts down tomorrow so it’s probably good that we are getting out of town.

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  1. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Nice picture!

    • #1
  2. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Stad (View Comment):

    Nice picture!

    The captain actually timed our Budapest arrival so that the sun was rising behind the parliament building.  Vienna was beautiful but Budapest is even better, IMHO.  

    • #2
  3. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    Tex929rr:

    And I haven’t seen a single Che Guevara shirt. I guess you need to be in the US to find young people that stupid. 

    In 1956, Hungarians found out the hard way what Socialism is all about…

    • #3
  4. John H. Member
    John H.
    @JohnH

    Tex929rr:

    I can never quite put my finger on why the American stuff is so prevalent.

    American stuff is fun. It’s that simple!

    I have been seeing this sort of thing for decades. I wish I’d evolved a phrase better than “inept iconography” but that is going to have to do. Of it, my favorite misapprehensions of America are flags, on T-shirts or jacket shoulder patches, that show the right colors, maybe even the right stripes, but get the stars wrong. Oh, they’re five-pointed. But the number of them is anything but 50. I don’t think many foreigners understand the one-star-one-state formula. 

    Anyway, it’s common. With specific regard to the inauthentic flags, I think the first one I saw was while standing in line at the Odessa (Ukraine) railway station, in 1992.  Kind of weird, in a place where the freight trains were still marked as Soviet.

    • #4
  5. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Our young people haven’t experienced communism…. Yet.

    • #5
  6. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    Tex929rr: can never quite put my finger on why the American stuff is so prevalent.

    Rock’n roll is one reason.

    • #6
  7. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Took a short video toward the chain bridge while riding up the funicular.

     

     

    https://youtube.com/shorts/PgYaqZVY-vE?si=8hX0SzSEBeTfFIa

     

     

     

    • #7
  8. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Our young people haven’t experienced communism…. Yet.

    • #8
  9. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    We watch on the Acorn TV streaming service a lot of shows filmed in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In several of those shows, I have been struck by how often certain characters (especially teenagers) are portrayed wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts with logos of colleges in the United States or names of U.S. cities or other U.S. geographic locations. I have wondered whether the costume designers do that because they are trying to appeal to an anticipated U.S. audience, or because that really is what the “kids” wear in the country from which the show originates.

    When we were in central Europe for our river cruise a few years ago I noted that the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson vehicles sold in Europe still carry those names of cities of the southwest United States. 

    • #9
  10. Charles Mark Member
    Charles Mark
    @CharlesMark

    Mrs Mark and I are going to Budapest next week. It’s one of Europe’s major party- towns, but we will soak up the culture and scenery as befits our age and station. A night-time cruise on the Danube beckons, and maybe a warm drink or two. 

    • #10
  11. Charles Mark Member
    Charles Mark
    @CharlesMark

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    We watch on the Acorn TV streaming service a lot of shows filmed in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In several of those shows, I have been struck by how often certain characters (especially teenagers) are portrayed wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts with logos of colleges in the United States or names of U.S. cities or other U.S. geographic locations. I have wondered whether the costume designers do that because they are trying to appeal to an anticipated U.S. audience, or because that really is what the “kids” wear in the country from which the show originates.

    When we were in central Europe for our river cruise a few years ago I noted that the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson vehicles sold in Europe still carry those names of cities of the southwest United States.

    Irish kids wear American brands – including clothing with university or sporting logos- because they like them. There’s no other agenda- although I’ll be discouraging my offspring from association with certain institutions in future. A&F and Hollister were wildly popular about 10 years ago, but they have  faded in favour of other US brands. The A&F store in Dublin closed about a year ago. 

    • #11
  12. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    This propensity of wearing U.S. themed clothing isn’t limited to Europe.  I haven’t been to Asia, but YouTube videos are available showing walkabouts.  You can see Western paraphanalia, including American, in Chinese cities as well.  And given the Chinese goernment’s present hostiiity towards the West, it’s kind of surprising to me.

    It’s also significant that mixed in with store signage with Kanji characters, are plenty of English ones too, including American branding.

    • #12
  13. genferei Member
    genferei
    @genferei

    America is so overwhelmingly powerful in the cultural space that, paradoxically, it recedes into the background. Wearing a ‘Harvard’ or ‘Lakers’ t-shirt or sweatshirt means literally nothing, where wearing the logo of a local institution or team would carry some sort of valence. (There are other things that are a bit like that – I don’t think wearing an Oxford or Man U shirt means anything to a non-Brit, by and large.)

    The ‘soft power’ the US wields, because it is in the hands of a profoundly anti-American establishment, has more pernicious effects: wokism has infected the world, and the bizarre pseudoscientific version of racism peddled by the Democratic Party for a century and a half has come to characterize all discussions of ethnicity and culture, no matter how disconnected from slavery. When the New York Times sneezes, the world catches cold – and the Times sneezes a lot…

    • #13
  14. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    Ekosj (View Comment):

    Tex929rr:

    And I haven’t seen a single Che Guevara shirt. I guess you need to be in the US to find young people that stupid.

    In 1956, Hungarians found out the hard way what Socialism is all about…

    Yup. I have a good friend whose parents were 56-ers. They fled  first to Austria then to Illinois.

    • #14
  15. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Tex929rr: can never quite put my finger on why the American stuff is so prevalent.

    Rock’n roll is one reason.

    Film is another and has been for a long, long time. If you watch Fritz Lang’s “M” carefully, you will see Mickey Mouse merchandise in a shop window in Berlin. And Goethe’s generation featured several cheerleaders for the American Revolution.

    And thanks for the photos of the Danube. Ulm is also built on the Danube and we have walked the length of it from Ulm to Neu Ulm a couple of times.

    • #15
  16. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    The nice family that sat down across from us on the train to Munich (boarding now)  was from Romania and the 30ish mom has a Nirvana sweatshirt on.  I introduced myself to the Polizei in the station and traded patches with the sergeant.  They are currently walking the train  aisles. 

    • #16
  17. John H. Member
    John H.
    @JohnH

    I thought I’d mentioned earlier on these pages my visualizations of overseas T-shirts. I had, but back in 2013 anyway what fascinated me was different from the OP. And not really complementary to it. In Brazilian informal dress over the decades, language shifts and logic shifts: neither has been the case in Europe, in my experience. Brazil is far more enthusiastically imitative of America and yet it still does quite a few things its own darn way.

    Well, just had to re-share! And as that post is confined to the Member Feed, any casual visitor to the Main Feed may be sufficiently piqued to subscribe. I’m workin’ for you, Ricochet!

    • #17
  18. Eb Snider Member
    Eb Snider
    @EbSnider

    Have you seen any Crocs? or people in PJ’s out in public?

     

    These two things I’ve noticed among American youth more recently. I’m amazed or amused at the places boys and young men wear Crocs, including the gym and in parks. A kid even trying to play basketball in them who kept having issues when the Crocs slipped off his feet. Crocs seems to be one thing Idiocracy got right. I get casual, but seems a bit too slouchy for my taste.

    • #18
  19. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Eb Snider (View Comment):

    Have you seen any Crocs? or people in PJ’s out in public?

     

    These two things I’ve noticed among American youth more recently. I’m amazed or amused at the places boys and young men wear Crocs, including the gym and in parks. A kid even trying to play basketball in them who kept having issues when the Crocs slipped off his feet. Crocs seems to be one thing Idiocracy got right. I get casual, but seems a bit too slouchy for my taste.

    No crocs, no PJ’s,  even on the boat.  Yes, I find crocs and flip flops strange to wear other than very casual (home or beach) situations. 

    • #19
  20. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    Eb Snider (View Comment):

    Have you seen any Crocs? or people in PJ’s out in public?

     

    These two things I’ve noticed among American youth more recently. I’m amazed or amused at the places boys and young men wear Crocs, including the gym and in parks. A kid even trying to play basketball in them who kept having issues when the Crocs slipped off his feet. Crocs seems to be one thing Idiocracy got right. I get casual, but seems a bit too slouchy for my taste.

    It’s not just the yout. In bank the other day and in walks a mom with teen and pre-teen daughters. All are wearing flannel PJ bottoms and slippers. No male at home? No male that will put the foot down and say no anymore? Or?

    • #20
  21. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    At Denver for our last leg home.  Some observations:  the ineptitude of American flagged carriers has spread to Europe.  Lufthansa in Munich was noticeably bad, as was the security setup (and this was on Christmas Day).    The Lufthansa flight crew was as good as on our first flight.   German passengers deplaning in Denver were surprisingly rude.  I basically faked to clothesline one so my wife could get into the aircraft aisle.  Overall this was a smoother trip than the other way.  The Lufthansa O’Hare gate personnel were particularly bad on the way over.  Props to Viking for the first class cruise experience (again).  

    • #21
  22. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Tex929rr (View Comment):

    At Denver for our last leg home. Some observations: the ineptitude of American flagged carriers has spread to Europe. Lufthansa in Munich was noticeably bad, as was the security setup (and this was on Christmas Day). The Lufthansa flight crew was as good as on our first flight. German passengers deplaning in Denver were surprisingly rude. I basically faked to clothesline one so my wife could get into the aircraft aisle. Overall this was a smoother trip than the other way. The Lufthansa O’Hare gate personnel were particularly bad on the way over. Props to Viking for the first class cruise experience (again).

    A great many years ago I was in Mauritania, don’t recall when:  but Air France didn’t trust airport security (duh) so they made all the passengers go through their own belongings, under watch, before we were allowed to board.  Made sense to me, as one could purchase a kris knife at the airport store – after passengers went through airport security!

    • #22
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