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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32408 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 28, 2025

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while in Germany the counterparts to those are largely considered an extremely basic and plebeian pastime.

I think there are a few examples like this where "Euro" things are high-status in the US, but in actual Europe they're working-class signifiers. US soccer fans are generally either Hispanic or upper-middle class, with the implied perception of looking down on "American" sports like football (US), baseball, and basketball. Cycling is, or at least used to be a few decades ago, I hear, similar: fancy road bikes are expensive status symbols in America, while in Europe it's often less gear-driven and professional cyclists are often from lower-class backgrounds more like basketball in America.

I think there is probably some general pattern of status versus foreign-ness: the lower classes aren't well-traveled enough to know what goes on in foreign countries, and the tourist class doesn't always grok the cultures they visit to understand the actual class dynamics at play there.

I have spent a lot of time in Europe and to this day I find European social class completely opaque and confusing. The "poor/sketchy" people in most of Europe dress more nicely than the "rich/respectable" people in America, for starters. There are so many specifics of etiquette that fly over my head as an American. That is why traveling in Asia is easier than in Europe in some ways- no one expects you to speak the language or know what's going on if you're white in Asia. If you're white in Europe they don't understand why you don't get the vibe/speak the language/whatever and you make them uncomfortable.

As a broad historical pattern going back millennia, I should observe that upper classes almost always adopt technologies, cultures, and other aspects from foreign countries before the lower classes do, partly but not entirely due to increased exposure. I'd imagine there are some lower-class American things that seem high-class in Europe as well, but haven't been to Europe so don't know for sure.

Faux-gangsta was a hot trend amongst upper-class children when I was growing up.

Faux-gangsta(we would probably call it ‘thug’) codes as upper-middle class kids that would piss their pants/cry/run away in the event of an actual fight here, too. Obviously there’s people that are like that for real but the difference is so obvious that they’re not the same vibe.

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