10
For maybe 4 or 5 years, I haven't voluntarily consumed any USA news, books, or entertainment.
I've made exceptions where it was socially expected of me (e.g. the niece wanted me to see Avatar 3 with her) but only a few per year.
Some changes in my psyche โ
- My mind doesn't ask "Is this Western or non-Western?" as a first reflex. I don't see 'Western culture' as a unit. Some things from the so-called West are weird; some things from outside it are comfortable. (I'm also in China and Africa a few times a year; NoYank isn't the only factor.)
- Lots of world culture I don't get, it's too weird for me, e.g. Nollywood and Bollywood. But other things, e.g. African literature, do feel familiar.
- Yanko pop culture seems MORE strange and exotic to me than many things that are further in time&space. I read 14th-century Tibetan philosophy and it feels normal, homey, human; Anthony Robbins seems too culturally distant to understand.
- NoYank makes me read more, consuming video-form content less. It is very expensive to make film (Seedance might change this) so more film is made by well-capitalised entities. Books are often written by broke people. Film is made by corporations; a book is the self-expression of an artist.
- Related: I am far from any internet addiction. I spend more time on the sports field than on the internet.
- People at the pub talk to me about Republican or Democrat, I roll my eyes thinking "who cares, they're all yanks". They all think they can dictate to us without understanding or respect. If I'd been watching their internal struggles on the news I'd be more conditioned to see the difference.
- Related: culture war shite. I don't make the distinction between [politically correct side of culture wars] and [alt-right side]. The dialectic I make is [people who've had their brains broken by culture wars] vs [normal people].
- Irish casualties of propaganda annoy me a lot. It's mostly ages 15 to 25, vulnerable minds who've been broken. They open their mouth and foreign propaganda comes out; their highest purpose in life is to be a propaganda-repeater, very sad.
- The mad notions of Yanks I meet pop out to me. They make a virtue of lying (if you lie that means you are clever). They will openly sneer at people for being working-class ("OMG, I'm not hanging out with a bus-driver ew"). I look at them and think they're quare fish; those notions might be normalised if I yanked myself silly for hours a day like some people do. And holy shit they are obsessed with race, they can't go three sentences without mentioning race. Both actual yanks and East Yanks with broken minds. It's notable that they can sneer at class so outrageously while also being so hypersensitive to race.