America Is Losing the Fight for the Teenagers of the World

[donbosco]

"The second Trump administration has overseen a dramatic erosion of America’s cultural power, in part because it has undermined the notion on the global stage of America as a paragon of cool. In September, at the United Nations, Trump boasted of the United States as “the hottest country anywhere in the world,” but it goes without saying that if you have to say you’re hot, you’re not. Alongside the administration’s hard power losses — the destruction of the world’s most enviable alliance network and the country’s educational and research capacities — America’s global cultural dominance is diminished every day that Mr. Trump is in office."

By Stephen Marche

Mr. Marche is the author, most recently, of “The Next Civil War.” He wrote from Toronto, where he lives.

Opinion | America Isn’t Cool Anymore

Pop culture exports have long been a potent source of American soft power. What happens when the U.S. is no longer the global capital of cool?

www.nytimes.com

 

[donbosco]

A friend of mine wrote this in response to the article above...

"This is so true. I live in Mexico City, of course, and it really does seem that very few Mexicans, from my age to much younger, want to visit the US anymore. Over and over, you hear people saying, Que país de mierda. (I heard those very words several times yesterday at a children's birthday party, including by a Mexican journalist with half his family living in Texas, who used to go all the time and now absolutely will not. ) They really regard it now as the world capital of uncool, of dreck, of racist cruelty and hostility. It doesn't mean that some Mexicans don't go, for whatever reason, but, honestly, I am not exaggerating. [Mamdani will probably make NYC a destination for young people again, we'll see, well, unless it gets invaded by ICE and National Guard terror, which certainly seems possible.]

 

[Rock]

Sad. Just one of the thousands of things that are a casualty of Trump.

 

[donbosco]

"What did those Soviet teenagers love about Chubby Checker so long ago? What did they hear when they listened to “Let’s Twist Again”? They were encountering personal freedom and openness to the world; that’s what American greatness represented to them. But to global eyes now, American freedom has become a self-parody — a freedom policed by masked agents who don’t identify themselves. The sense of openness has crumbled. As a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent told The Times, “The border is everywhere now.” Who around the world would want to pretend they’re living in that country?

There is a seed of hope. The borders may be closing, but the lines remain open and global culture continues to flourish. The teenage bedroom of today has been conquered by difference: different languages, different traditions, different voices, different faces. There’s “Squid Game” playing on the TV, the Icelandic-Chinese singer Laufey singing in kids’ earbuds, and a poster of Blackpink on the wall. Lux, the new album by the Spanish flamenco-pop star Rosalía and produced with the former collaborators of Justin Bieber and Kanye West, contains lyrics in 13 languages. Stephen Miller can rant all he wants about it, but ICE cannot arrest it. The Russians who threw Chubby Checker bootleggers into jail learned the hard way: You can’t deport music."

 

[tarheelbillie]

A friend of mine wrote this in response to the article above...

"This is so true. I live in Mexico City, of course, and it really does seem that very few Mexicans, from my age to much younger, want to visit the US anymore. Over and over, you hear people saying, Que país de mierda. (I heard those very words several times yesterday at a children's birthday party, including by a Mexican journalist with half his family living in Texas, who used to go all the time and now absolutely will not. ) They really regard it now as the world capital of uncool, of dreck, of racist cruelty and hostility. It doesn't mean that some Mexicans don't go, for whatever reason, but, honestly, I am not exaggerating. [Mamdani will probably make NYC a destination for young people again, we'll see, well, unless it gets invaded by ICE and National Guard terror, which certainly seems possible.]

Trump will try to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship. Given the “new America”, I would think he will try and succeed. Trump’s Gestapo likely has already been assigned. Mamdani disappears and shows up in Eswatini.

 

[altmin]

Very interesting thread. I can tell you Canadian adults basically see the US as a joke to be pitied at best, but for the most part to be disassociated with (and at worst absolutely hated right now). I can imagine that is trickling down into the next generation.

 

[Centerpiece]

I figured this out in 1985 when I abandoned my job, my car, my belongings, my B.S. from Western Carolina University and fled to Europe to busk on the streets of London, Paris, Amsterdam and Zürich.

At 26 years old I knew the jig was up and America was total bull shit.
Trickle down my arse. Fuck Reagan.

My ass may be back in western NC now, but my heart and head is still in Europe where the people learned a long time ago about Fascist motherfuckers.

Today’s teenagers have figured it out too.

Go west young man. But go way, way west. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand or Tasmania should do just fine.

 

[C-Money]

American pop culture has been going downhill since 2010.

 

[donbosco]

I also remember the sense of things in the 1980s as I backpacked around Central America -- to be safe and well-received many from the USA sewed Canadian flags onto their backpacks. That region was full of "sandal-istas," i.e., young folk who had gone to Nicaragua to pick coffee and otherwise show solidarity with the revolutionary victory over the Somosa regime (Daniel Ortega certainly turned that dream into an embarrassment). I avoided Nicaragua and stuck to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. I did sort of have a research mission that did not encompass Nicaragua.

Reagan's policies in the region was popular with the various ruling classes around the region but not with the budget wanderers. I tried to remain flexible and managed to travel a bit in both circles. Never did the Maple Leaf thing -- often Euros would damn me just for my nationality but most did not. Hell, I got damned by Californians for being a Southerner more than once! I spoke fairly good Portuguese (Thank you Dr. Fred Clark and UNC0 when I arrived and set about to learning Spanish with a great deal of determination and did so fairly quickly (though I still study to this day).

I'll go back down in a week with my family for a Thanksgiving respite -- I hope -- but the airport issues threaten to 86 things.