The USA is not necessarily a reflection of the world

[Finite]

27 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

 Imagine if a videogame company made a series of deeply satirical games about the US which deliberately poked fun at it

This has actually happened.

Grand Theft Auto is a British videogame franchise that originated in the UK and has become the largest and most profitable videogame franchise in history. It has earned more money from its GTA games than Hollywood and the music industry did in the same space of time.

For me, the funniest thing about GTA are the Americans who play them, they think the games are of American origin, because they're "so realistic" and "about them", while blindly not realising that they and their culture are actually being mocked by a foreign game franchise for profit.

The same videogame company also produces the very popular Red Dead Redemption franchise, which is basically the same kind of game as GTA, but is set in the 19th century "Old West" era.  😜

That's fine. You have GTA we have Austin Powers.

[Solo Alpha]

Couldn't resist .. 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Solo Alpha said:

Couldn't resist .. 

 

Bowie's: 

 

[Solo Alpha]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Bowie's: 

 

I was very much reminded of that song on January 6th tbh ...

 

[Coffee Pancake]

(and yes, I do live here)

[Solo Alpha]

8 minutes ago, Finite said:

That's fine. You have GTA we have Austin Powers.

Since when did Mike Myers become American ?

 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Coffee Pancake said:

(and yes, I do live here)

Gotta be honest. It took me WAYYYYYYYY too long to see this video. Completely aware of the memes and themes, but never sat down to actually watch it until about a month or two ago (in fairness, I don't watch many music videos anyway), but once I did? Dayyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuum. 

[Finite]

8 minutes ago, Solo Alpha said:

Since when did Mike Myers become American ?

 

haha good point. he's not but the movie is.

[Ceka Cianci]

*set's something on the table that smells and looks amazingly delicious..Then looks around at all the Americans that really want a bite, but not enough to cross that front line*

I'm always curious, Do people on the other side of the pond put pineapple on their pizza too or is it just the MAJORITY  Americans over here, that do it?

 

 

hehehehe

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[CaithLynnSayes]

America is hilarious to me. Even though i live in Central Europe (like, smack dead in the middle of it), i do follow an awful lot of the trends and hoopla's happening in 'merica, and i find it hilarious. For example, the hysteria that started from 2016. Then 81 million "legit" votes. notecards that instruct the chief how to enter a room and whom to ask a question too and when to leave. etc etc etc etc etc....

Sadly though, some of the absolute bunkers Idiocracy ideas are being picked up here. That does baffle me to be honest. So, despite me really not wanting it because the world is smaller now because of the internet, America does tend to have a lot of impact and influence on the rest of the world. Or at least the part where i live.

[Solo Alpha]

52 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

*set's something on the table that smells and looks amazingly delicious..Then looks around at all the Americans that really want a bite, but not enough to cross that front line*

I'm always curious, Do people on the other side of the pond put pineapple on their pizza too or is it just the MAJORITY  Americans over here, that do it?

hehehehe

It's usually called or sold as Pizza Hawaii over here (well any baked bread coated with pineapple actually... ) and yes .. it' s considered delicious.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Solo Alpha

[Solar Legion]

I see this is going about as "well" as can be expected, considering some of those posting in this thread ...

Along with quite a few very expected and a pawful of unexpected posts by a few users - some who should know better.

[Silent Mistwalker]

[Dyna Mole]

Once again, please stay on the topic of the thread, which the proposition stated by the OP:

"I am aware that Linden Lab is an American company and that a rather large part of the user base is American. However, users of Second Life come from all over the world and the world is a very diverse place. This is what i often do not see reflected in discussions about real life topics on this forum."

 

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Dyna Mole said:

Once again, please stay on the topic of the thread, which the proposition stated by the OP:

"I am aware that Linden Lab is an American company and that a rather large part of the user base is American. However, users of Second Life come from all over the world and the world is a very diverse place. This is what i often do not see reflected in discussions about real life topics on this forum."

 

Thanks, I was trying to figure out the relevance of the thread topic to SL, and forgot to..read the original post!

[Persephone Emerald]

8 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Regarding the title of the Original Post: 

I thought the USA was a "Melting Pot" of people from all over the world, and in that respect, shouldn't the USA exactly "reflect the world"?

It's more like a jambalaya.

I was at first going to say it's more like a stew, but "jambalaya" means a mixture and includes influences from multiple cultures, as well as being a little spicy (or fiery). We've got people from a bunch of different cultural backgrounds here, all trying to survive and thrive, competing with each other, and yet ultimately creating something wonderful and exciting, something that's better than the sum of it's parts.  Sometimes it seems too hot, but it's never boring. The individual flavors are still distinguishable, as they might not be if they all blended together too much. Every cook's version of what's "best" is going to be unique for them too.

 

SL could be described in similar terms too.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Solar Legion]

6 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Thanks, I was trying to figure out the relevance of the thread topic to SL, and forgot to..read the original post!

There is no relevance.

[Love Zhaoying]

I'm trying to find a specific discussion point in the original post.

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

I am aware that Linden Lab is an American company and that a rather large part of the user base is American. However, users of Second Life come from all over the world and the world is a very diverse place. This is what i often do not see reflected in discussions about real life topics on this forum. 

Understood. The world is big, and other countries certainly exist.  Indeed, a lot of Second Life users are from other countries than America.

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Often what is happening in the USA is presented as almost being the current state of affairs in the world. In a lot of instances this is not the case.

Thank goodness for that!

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Whether it be subjects like LGBTQ+ rights, abortion laws, the way different social groups treat each other, these all differ a lot around the globe

This is a good thing in some cases. In other cases, I wish those other countries were more like the U.S. (for human rights, etc.).

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

I understand that Americans can be very vocal about their opinions, but i also see them turn a blind eye on how things work in the rest of the world. 

Yes, Americans tend to be very insular, and I forgot what other term applies here.

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Maybe this is because events in the rest of the world are not really covered in their media or  the rest of the world is not really addressed in education. I do not know the reason.

Personally, I listen to the BBC news every morning about 3am my local time. It does cover a lot of international news. The rest of the morning, on every hour and starting about 7am or 8am my local time, I listen to NPR news which also does cover a lot of international news. 

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

I just see a lot of discussions on these forums drown in American "facts" and the rest of the world's view is left out.

Agreed, agreed.  I do see a lot of discussion about "Britain" vs. "America".  And opinions about America.

So..since I'm American, I'm not sure what to offer.

Could you be more specific about what you would like to see discussed about "opinions" and "how things work in the rest of the world"? Was it opinions about this bit?

15 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Whether it be subjects like LGBTQ+ rights, abortion laws, the way different social groups treat each other, these all differ a lot around the globe.

Sorry, I am having trouble formulating exactly what you want to discuss. It does not seem Second-Life related but that's just in my (American) opinion. If it is a call to "general discussion by people from other countries about their opinions", that's fine by me.

[Amanda Crisp]

13 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Your country doesn't even have an actual real name, the "United States of America" is just a description of what it is and where it is on the planet. 😜

Actually our “country” was organized out  of 13 mini-countries (Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia), which all have names.  “United States” is a description, not actually a name.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

10 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Thanks, I was trying to figure out the relevance of the thread topic to SL, and forgot to..read the original post!

There is no relevance.

I finally figured that out when I dissected the original post above. Luckily, Dyna Mole drew my attention to it.  Too bad we've been off-topic so much, as tends to happen especially with "General Discussion".

[Solar Legion]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I finally figured that out when I dissected the original post above. Luckily, Dyna Mole drew my attention to it.  Too bad we've been off-topic so much, as tends to happen especially with "General Discussion".

Feh, we'd have been "off topic" if there was an actual topic to be had here.

[Persephone Emerald]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Yes, Americans tend to be very insular, and I forgot what other term applies here.

The other term is ignorant - not stupid, but not knowing much outside of their own experience

Edited July 10, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@Amanda Crisp

The thirteen colonies were not mini-countries, they were English commercial settlements set up to harvest raw materials  and ship them to England where they would be processed into goods for international trade. The colonies were there only for business, not to build new countries.

As businesses, they were not eligible for representation in the English parliament as they were not part of England proper, they were initially only privately owned overseas business enterprises instead.

To have give these trading colonies represented in England's parliament would have been as weird and ridiculous as giving McDonalds and Disney their own representatives in todays US Congress.

The thirteen colonies were also used as penal colonies which gave English prisoners the choice of starting a useful new life elsewhere, rather than being executed or rotting in an English prison.

The thirteen colonies were managed by trading companies based in the City of London which had special licences from the Crown which guaranteed trading exclusivity and military protection. They later became Crown Colonies after companies failed and were liquidated.

Other such British trading companies include the East India Company, whose the United States "borrowed" (stole) to become the first US flag, the Grand Union Flag, in 1777.

And the US also stole the tune for their national anthem from a London-based private gentleman's club called the Anacreon Society who had a song called "Anacreon In Heaven", which they sang at their meetings.

Edited July 10, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

Oh noes!  Now people from the UK even keep talking about America.

Make it stop!!     😆

[Rowan Amore]

7 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

@Amanda Crisp

The thirteen colonies were not mini-countries, they were English commercial colonies set up to trade goods harvested in the America's to trade back to England. They were there for purely for business, not to build new countries.

The thirteen colonies were also used as penal colonies which gave English prisoners the choice of starting a useful new life elsewhere, rather than being executed or rotting in an English prison.

The thirteen colonies were managed by the Virginia Company, a trading company based in the City of London which had a special licence from the Crown which guaranteed trading exclusivety and military protection.

And why we fought the Revolutionary war.  States have always had some autonomy since then.