In Poland, there is a LARP group that roleplays as contemporary Americans
twitter.com
twitter.com
> Larp 4 th of July is a morality drama about the lost American dream. It is a story about hope, about a small homeland, about searching for one's place in the community.
> On July 4, 1776, the United States of America declared independence. Newcomers from the Old Continent wanted to create a new state in America, built on democracy, freedom and equality. For decades, millions of people driven by the American dream were drawn to this beautiful country to finally become somebody, regardless of their birth or social class.
> More than two hundred years later, many Americans are living under different conditions than the nation's founding fathers imagined. Barely making ends meet, they strive to be family members and worthy Americans, despite poverty and exclusion. Though they live on the margins of society, their home - a small town cluttered with caravans and cottages wobbling in the wind - is for them the essence of 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'. This is a story about them.
edit: didn't register that this was an autotranslation...
I did fantasy LARP in my late teens till my early thirties. And when organizing cons we would often have an underlying subtle theme that aimed for societal issues.
But this shoots our meager things way out of the water.
[0]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DTQg-17wEJCFQqK4I9xfyEQgI5a...
...
This is America
Don't catch you slippin' now
Don't catch you slippin' now
Look what I'm whippin' now
This is America (Woo)
[...]
Grandma told me
Get your money [...]
It's called the yellow Sun effect. Superman, an alien who is born for the red Sun of Krypton gets superpowers under the yellow Sun of earth.
As an immigrant, everything feels an easy mode (once you've paid your dues). The other side of this is that when you are from here, you grew up on easy mode, so it just feels like 'normal mode', which gets difficult the moment things go a bit difficult.
I have seen 2 BD apartments in NYC with 3-4 Asian families living there, and they still would rather be there than back home. While you think there's little opportunity (probably because those 3 families purchased that 2bd apartment for $700k which you want for your 2.5 kids family, and you can't afford it), whereas for them its opportunities everywhere.
But the second generation is not going to be made of the same stuff, they tend to be soft. And in extreme cases end up being either statists or right wing because they find that they are more afraid of new entrants spoiling their easy lives by association.
It's a weird case of pulling up the ladder behind you, and I never understood any of this.
I have some acquaintances who do a very involved War in Vietnam LARP with several dozen guys going out to Polish mountains for a week or two to pretend they're U.S. Military. It's very important to them, lots of attention to detail, lots of rules on how to stay in character.
It's fascinating to see Americans' reactions to these things. I don't think collectively Americans seem to notice the extent to which their culture has inundated the world, especially places like Poland where USA obsession is rooted in the 1980's and 1990's.
I now understand Rammstein's Amerika better.
Northern Italy is pretty similar, for example LeBron had lived there for a while and was an AC Milan fan, there’s commercialization of everything, a feeling of “you don’t really live if you’re not shopping”, that sort of stuff.
Again, the US holds its own Europe-related inferiority complexes, that’s why I think this cultural dynamic between Western Europe and the States is pretty interesting.
Does it? Most of the folks I know here think of Europe as quaint, and have never actually been there or want to go. We do seem to think that Europe has the skin and hair care advantage though, as pretty much any upscale products in those markets are branded as being European.
Every US political discussion on just about any topic always has very vocal group shouting some variation of "why can't we be more like Europe?" Often these people have a very naive or outright incorrect view of how things actually are in "Europe", but they definitely seem convinced that things are much better there.
> McDonald's is Home, condensed into a three-ring binder and xeroxed. “No surprises” is the motto of the franchise ghetto, its Good Housekeeping seal, subliminally blazoned on every sign and logo that make up the curves and grids of light that outline the Basin.
> The people of America, who live in the world's most surprising and terrible country, take comfort in that motto. Follow the loglo outward, to where the growth is enfolded into the valleys and the canyons, and you find the land of the refugees. They have fled from the true America, the America of atomic bombs, scalpings, hip-hop, chaos theory, cement overshoes, snake handlers, spree killers, space walks, buffalo jumps, drive-bys, cruise missiles; Sherman's March, gridlock, motorcycle gangs, and bungee jumping. They have parallel-parked their bimbo boxes in identical computer-designed Burbclave street patterns and secreted themselves in symmetrical sheetrock shitholes with vinyl floors and ill-fitting woodwork and no sidewalks, vast house farms out in the loglo wilderness, a culture medium for a medium culture.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is mixed in. People love to see the mighty fall. I was surprised how much of the throwaway news filler in Europe is about random Florida-man stuff.
Although, to me, it seems like the main motivational force for this is "nostalgie de la boue", a desire to participate in trashy low-life culture. It has positive connotations too; a temporary freedom from mores and responsibilities of civic life. Mardi gras, music festivals, St Patrick's day, ... they all are an opportunity to let loose.
I'd guess that that's mostly because the Joe from Florida is both far, far away (so they can publish unverifiable bullshit) but also culturally adjacent and his exploits or misfortune more relatable than, say, a guy from Uruguay or Vietnam. Also you wouldn't believe how many trash articles start with "American scientists".
(I've actually never been to Poland, got the sense hosteling in the EU that folks have a very warped view of Americans... we usually just have a few bottles of Yuengling and watch Die Hard, not shoot an AR-15 in the air and launch salvos at our neighbors.)
This is funny, except for the one getting faux arrested.
(I used to read about your not so secret police during in school suspensions, because I'm autistic.)
Now however they can be bought in the grocery store. Still overpriced but reasonable enough.
[0]: Of course, you don’t dispose them, but that’s their league.
Detected at one fail at least though, these are clearly Europeans: https://i.imgur.com/lw0ujOG.jpg
And today probably even more so from youtube/twitch/tiktok/etc.
https://www.chido-fajny.com/2017/10/polish-lektor-one-weirde...
BUT... it is slowly changing in Poland. Movies and cartoons for kids and a lot of these aimed at kids and adults are dubbed nowadays.
Depending on the content it can sometimes come close to the original, it's definitely very different from a single person reading all lines in a neutral tone (which I personally consider absolutely horrible, and I'm very glad that Germany only uses that for interviews on the news)
Yeah UK news is the same - someone speaking over the original audio which is audible but played at a lower volume. At the risk of introducing yet another tangent here, there's a funny twist to this. A few decades back the UK bizarrely had rules that Gerry Adams' (leader of Sinn Fein) voice could not be used on media broadcasts[0]. So you'd see footage of him with another guy's voice dubbed over it[1]. This was even parodied in comedy news show The Day Today[2] to great effect :D
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988%E2%80%931994_British_broa...
Maybe, but the issue is, that they now sound like German actors. Who suck. I’m German and I almost didn’t watch Dark because I expected it to be as unnatural sounding as any other German show. I’ve heard that it’s because actors here learn acting for theater instead of for TV, but I’m not sure if that explains it (amongst other things, because Dark did not have that issue).
IMO the best dubs are from the Nordic countries, those often speak English well enough that they just dub themselves, and that really shows in the quality of the dubbing. Israel is another country where I’ve heard great dubs by the actors themselves.
This is good news, I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to watch a film that way. Czech versions supposedly have relatively good translations and dubbing, though I've not tried to watch anything other than The Simpsons. Interestingly there's a TV comedy about those responsible for the dubs: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/11104009943-dabing-stree...
Canada has a thriving American larping community too: Alberta. Also Vancouver, but that is mostly US celebs pretending to still be in america, which is cheating imho.
What's up with that? Why would anyone do that?
Also, historically southern Alberta was settled by Americans while central/north by Ukrainians, Germans, and Brits. Where I grew up rural west of Edmonton was more blue collar and small mixed farms and predominantly Ukrainian descent, and the whole stereotype of country music and cowboys didn't reflect my reality. It was more perogies and polka than rodeo and yee-haw. Though that stuff sorta came into the picture later.
It does seem like a city improved these days. I like going back. I'd personally move back if my kids weren't tied to their schools here. I'm not afraid of winter!
But mostly you don't see them, they stay at home watching those with the opposite weight disorder so they look good on the interface between the famished and the gorged...the TV. I went to a lot of castings and the women who really got work looked skeletonized, you have to look bad to look good on TV.
The expression is "Give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you will feed him for a lifetime."
For the person on the other side, if they are familiar with the idiom, they will fill-in the rest of it, and realize that they are being taught a useful skill that will help them in their life.
Being allergic to fish myself, but one who loves fishing, this one never really worked for me, but it works for most people.
You know, EU and US have many cultural differences, but the commonalities are more important. We are freedom loving societies and we created the Western world together. When you look at the big picture, comments from people like you, who want us divided, are really rounding errors.
Maybe that's what you see when you look at those pictures? That makes you the bigoted one.