The Self-Destructive American TV Culture
Why Americans are passive and refrain from developing discussions
A recent study showed how 50% of people in the USA get their news from TV, with a smaller percentage from social media and other news media, respectively. In other countries, the share was different, with the Scandinavian countries significantly different: about 15% from TV and 50% from social media.
As some will know, I feel that Substack Notes works badly, as it allows for some people and posts to thrive, while others are ignored completely. There are, occasionally, some of the non-thriving people who complain, and at even rarer occasions their complaints are being heard and answered by others with a “just keep on, sooner or later your posts will be read by some” – which then comes true for some of them, but not for all.
When Substack was first established, only people from the USA were invited to take part in it. Later, when the Americans had established a functioning culture on the platform, with their idols and paid VIP participants who could lead the way forward, while the other participants were watching, other parts of the world were accepted in waves. Some would have their own language implemented on the platform, allowing for them to build up a parallel culture, completely out of sync with the English-language one, while others had to subscribe to the English version, which, as mentioned, was already established.
Entering into an established culture isn’t easy. You may have notices how many companies, when hiring, are requiring the new hires to be “a good fit” for the existing company culture. It is never expected that the culture will take in what the new people can bring, adjusting to give room to all of it – no, the new ones just have to fit in from the start. It is even a specific discipline in the Human Resource sphere (now often called something like Humans and Culture, but still being the same thing) – methods and mechanisms, and tests, that can determine if you fit in. Most don’t, so it is a brutal sorting mechanism. The older the company, the worse.
Entering into an established social media culture is similar, and I will, a bit harsh, claim that most newcomers do not fit in. The existing people there will not want to take in what the newcomers can bring, they will instead feel that if the new ones behave exactly like the existing, then they may be allowed to be there – but they will not be allowed to shake the bag or rock the boat in any way; just to silently slip into the mass of anonymous watchers, who can admire the established idols and paid VIPs.
For Americans, this is natural. They are, apparently, used to just watching the TV, not participating actively, and they do not understand at all why people from other countries might want to be heard – why can’t they just read the posts from the VIPs, like everybody else?
Americans find it annoying when anybody speaks up to suggest a more open and inclusive way of using the social medium, and with the new mechanisms for blocking people at hand, it is easy to get back to status quo after such an interruption of the peaceful and uneventful existence on the platform – just block the noise, just rule out the attempts to create room for the newcomers.
This is then enforced by the different topics, the newcomers want to talk about. In the cultural sphere, there are very many things that are, by large, unknown to Americans – if it isn’t promoted by American companies, it doesn’t exist. The fact that the world is 20 times bigger than the USA doesn’t seem to have much influence on an American’s curiosity. Actually, they prefer to block everything that isn’t American.
Foreign languages? Block. Unknown musicians? Block. History? Block. Science and rational thinking? Block.
The American unparticipating TV culture leads to non-participation in other aspects of life as well, and to building a wall around the Americans that keeps anything else out.
Substack is dominated by Americans. They were here first, they own the place, they decide what fits in, and they don’t want their boat rocked.
But all of this may be a bit strange to read for the one who knows how engaged Americans can be: I mean, TV shows like Oprah Winfield and Dr. Phil displays how enthusiastically participating the audience is. People are not just watching, they are shouting, standing up at times, having a fight in between each other, and much more of that. It may be theater, of course, but if it would be completely unrecognizable for the TV audience, they probably wouldn’t accept it as real.
On the other hand, the USA is also the land of show wrestling. A parody of a sport, where nothing is real or genuine. Which counts for boxing as well, mostly fixed games there, I could probably include politics as well, American brands which are in reality from China, and many other aspects of the American society. All fake.
Americans don’t want real. They don’t want genuine. They want to watch. And what they watch should express the emotions and the level of action they don’t have themselves. It reminds them about how great everything is, even if it is only on TV. They also don’t want anyone to question if this is good. Of course it is! It is the national standard culture, the one we watch every day, have watched all our lives, and hope to grow old watching, they think.
So, they want everybody on their platform, Substack, to obey to that simple principle of not introducing anything real, not to interfere when the VIPs are talking, not to expect anything, not to question anything, and not to introduce anything new.
Stability!
So, we from Scandinavia, who get 15% of our news from the TV, and I guess an even smaller percentage of our lives in general, we do not fit in. We will not be let in, because our expectations are different, and hence, we are not wanted. We can still watch, the most generous Americans think, but we shouldn’t disturb them in enjoying their culture.
Why is this behavior self-destructive?
Because it stops development, making it impossible to adapt to changed conditions, and therefore allows for events and external developments to overrun these people, take them by storm. There will be no resistance, as it is more interesting for the Americans to just watch it all on TV, without taking part in it.
Their potential wish for action will be saturated by watching those, fake, actions being taken by others, on that same TV. It’s all one big Oprah Winfield show for them, which they enjoy while the world is on fire.
Enclosing themselves around a stable definition of what their culture is, will allow for the sand to gradually float in and stop the traffic to the harbor, eventually ending all inflow of any new inspiration.
Social media is not a new invention for the Americans: it is a continuation, on a new platform, of an old paradigm, the passive watcher of news and other entertainment.
They will not be able to separate true from false, and indeed, they will not even care, because it is more important for them to be part of the official truth, even if it is fake. They live in a lie, thereby becoming unable to react correctly, even if they should one day decide to actually do something, because they have no idea what the real world looks like.
They will be fighting windmills, at best.
Do you agree?
I am half American... And I agree 😉