• 32 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: April 13th, 2024

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  • I think American history is just as valid as European - it doesn’t matter that the former starts later. It’s not my intention to ponder which culture is better, but to observe that there is in fact a lot of the American bits around us here in Europe. Then we can figure out which parts on our side make up an European identity.

    If you have any thoughts about how the lengths of the respective histories affect the lifestyles on both sides please share. I also see that it’s your first interaction on Lemmy so welcome :)


  • I’m trying to point out that “buy from EU, stop buying American” is part of a bigger picture, and you can go farther if you like.

    If you’re annoyed about the US, just stop consuming their media

    Sure I can and I’m doing it like I described, it’s just the organic exposure for other people who do “default” things (TV, cinema etc.) will still be high. I guess I’m just observing that this culture’s presence is so strongly felt, even though it’s country is across the pond. Globalization, satellites and underwater cables make this possible of course, but why is the exposure by default built in into so many aspects of our lives? Sure you can change your habits and look the other way, but the apparatus will still be working in the background.








  • Different to what most people are doing, but I’ve been thinking about dressing more European. So many popular casual clothes come from the US: bomber jackets, duck chore jackets, baseball caps, most sneakers, jeans. The last two alone are permanent parts of “default dude uniform”.

    So I now e.g. have:

    • a harrington jacket (ironically the name comes from an American show, made in China from UK brand) - it’s an English golfing jacket by origin
    • a Shetland sweater (made in Shetland)
    • a tartan wool scarf (made in Scotland)
    • some corduroy and moleskin pants for the winter (Made in Bangladesh, UK company)
    • wool balmacaan-style overcoat from Italian tweed made in Portugal
    • chukka boots (Made in England).

    Also eyeing a French chore coat.

    You’d think doing this would be really easy given how the US came to be. Say, a suit is European, but wearing one every day is not as common as before. The overall theme in the west is that democratization is cool, while tradition is not. But when I think Europe, I think tradition. Hence the suit is European, but it’s not “cool”.

    Corduroy and shetland sweaters are pretty “grandpa” as well. But I guess this is the arduous process of re-learning an identity after being fed American culture all the time while growing up. You just don’t know what’s yours.

    As you can see by the items it’s all clothes that come from the UK. Again, it was easiest to pick the UK because it was the purveyor of European style, back before, you know.