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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   43235 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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Listen to American music, watch American shows, go see American films - obviously you're going to play American games as well

Games is the software sub-sector where the US is least dominant (Nintendo exists, for example), so this isn't the story.

You're right, I was probably thinking more about American presence as gamers contributing to the creation of an American internet culture that a lot of other stuff was built upon.

Before social medias like Facebook ate everything there were localized social medias in other countries (at least Irc-Galleria in Finland, built on site where IRC users could post pics about themselves and evolving to a generalized social media for some time), but it was easy for many people to move to American sites since they already had American contacts from, among other things, using Internet forums.

Also, is the American Music industry that disproportionately successful? Especially compared to Britain. For something like movies America clearly is dominant but for music it doesn't feel as clear to me.

Perhaps things have become lopsided since I greatly cut down on listening to new music some time in the early 10s.

Canada has some protectionist policies on media (Canadian content requirements, probably some tax breaks but I don't know specifics) that I believe are generally credited with why they punch above their weight in music and TV production.

The UK has state-sponsored premier TV and radio networks that manage similarly, I think. Less clear on the specifics, but preference for British actors on British projects (the Harry Potter movies, for example) are accepted. I can't say I've heard of an American movie getting grief for casting non-Americans, except maybe in very specific roles. I was (slightly) miffed that Masters of the Air cast an almost exclusively British cast to play American flight crews, but I haven't seen anyone else care.

I can't say I've heard of an American movie getting grief for casting non-Americans

There was a fuss about black British actors playing characters who were ADOS blacks in American films - but it isn't clear to me if that was an actual thing or if it was just Samuel L Jackson and his sycophants.

Even the Tuskegee airmen portrayed in Masters of the Air were played by British actors. That part felt particularly weird.

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