Why are people so pre-occupied with America

Kylta

I personally have no interest in America, but an awful of irish people seem to have an interest in America and I curious to as why?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

It's not just here. The US dominates global culture.

JohnnyFlash

Social media outrage culture.

Your man Zuckerberg should be blasted into space.

Ubbquittious

It provides good distraction for the Chinese who are up to much worse human rights abuses

clintondaly

So you are preoccupied by Irish people who are preoccupied by America

5555555555

Celebrity worship. Social media zombies.

Huntergonzo

It's caused by constant media reporting (both mainstream and social media) and also people's programmes disappering off platforms like Netflix because someone is 'offended'.

thomil

In addition to the points made above, you’d better keep up to speed on a country that can basically park an air base of your coast and bomb your country into the stone age, or simply air drop an entire division onto your heads at minimum notice. While China is certainly gearing up to replace the US in that regard, they’re nowhere near that capability yet, and also have nowhere near the cultural or social impact on the western world that the US have.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Social media outrage culture.

Your man Zuckerberg should be blasted into space.

5555555555 wrote: »

Celebrity worship. Social media zombies.

People often say that Irish obsession with the US began because of social media, but that's obviously not true. It goes all the way back to the 19th century.

tonycascarino

I like America, but unlike many here I am able to distinguish that Ireland and the USA are not the same country. I cannot understand why anyone here would have any reason to dislike Trump for instance as he as done nothing to us or why anyone here would get carried away by this BLM rubbish all because an African American criminal got killed by a cop. Nothing to do with us.

salmocab

Whilst a lot of it is beyond boring we get a lot of our entertainment from the US and share a language by and large which makes it easy to digest. They are our next door neighbour and whilst it’s a long way away Lots of Irish have family and friends there along with lots of us working for American companies. Our economy is probably exposed to theirs due to the amount of multinationals we have. Unfortunately we also live in a time where the cult of celebrity is never done ramming someone down our throats and American media excels at this.

odyssey06

Kylta wrote: »

I personally have no interest in America, but an awful of irish people seem to have an interest in America and I curious to as why?

There's lot of Irish in America.
They speak English, therefore we absorb their popular culture in books, film, toys, hobbies, music and TV. The US in the late 20th century was seen as 'the place where it happened'.
US politics was always seen as important in Ireland, Irish politicians in the past would have tried to involve the US as an honest broker in the Troubles in N Ireland.
We have a lot of major US companies based here.

However, I don't think US influence on Ireland has grown since say the days of Reagan in the above spheres.
The internet has brought the world closer together, if you follow US websites, you are exposed to a lot more of their content than when it was 'mediated' through Irish outlets.
Another thing that has changed is the amount of space devoted to US politics in Irish news and media. I could be wrong on this but, for example, I don't remember US primary elections getting the amount of coverage they get now on RTE. We now seem to be exposed to the minutiae of US national politics, as if they are stories of major importance to Ireland, usually with a very pro-Democrat liberal agenda.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

odyssey06 wrote: »

Another thing that has changed is the amount of space devoted to US politics in Irish news and media. I could be wrong on this but, for example, I don't remember US primary elections getting the amount of coverage they get now on RTE. We now seem to be exposed to the minutiae of US national politics, as if they are stories of major importance.

Primaries have grown in importance over recent decades. Candidates used to be picked in a much quieter fashion closer to the convention.

I've heard Americans make the same complaint about now being bombarded with election news over the course of years. It's not a change unique to Ireland.

whisky_galore

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

It's not just here. The US dominates global culture.

For now.

John_Rambo

History books, bonds and ties mainly.

odyssey06

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Primaries have grown in importance over recent decades. Candidates used to be picked in a much quieter fashion closer to the convention.
I've heard Americans make the same complaint about now being bombarded with election news over the course of years. It's not a change unique to Ireland.

You could be right on the profile of primaries in the US, but what seems curious to me is that its higher profile also jumped across the Atlantic to us.
The coverage it gets in mainstream Irish news seems totally out of proportion to its actual impact on our lives.
Compare the amount of (non Brexit related) coverage of EU institutions which actually make far more decisions that impact us than the US federal government.

You could say US politics has a celebrity factor as much as a politics factor.
Maybe the people crafting the news today grew up watching the West Wing.
Maybe it's an outlet for those people to express their opinions on US politics.

quokula

It's the world's largest economy, the home to the largest number of Irish diaspora by far, they speak the same language as us so therefore we are much more likely to consume movies / tv shows / media from there than from other similarly large countries like China or Japan who produce content in a language very few of us understand. Our economy is hugely influenced by their's thanks to the amount of American multinationals based here.

And they are generally the most influential country in the world in so many ways that affect our lives, politically, economically and culturally. Just in terms of posting on this thread, with the exception of a very small number of people, everyone accessing this website will be doing so through operating systems and web browsers developed by Google, Microsoft, Mozilla or Apple, all of whom are American.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft to name but a few, working for US companies, emigration by Irish people to the states, television, film, books, and that is just the start.


It would be more surprising if they was no interest in it.

Harry Palmr

whisky_galore wrote: »

For now.

Well the Chinese sure won't be taking over unless they decide to speak English as first language and no one else is going to be as dominant on a global scale.

whisky_galore

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Well the Chinese sure won't be taking over unless they decide to speak English as first language and no one else is going to be as dominant on a global scale.

You realise language can be translated?

It's kind of funny when Western countries were falling over each other and pretty much stealing PPE from each other all manufactured by...guess who?

rossie1977

Is this a serious question?

Because the vast majority of the TV programs and movies we watch, products we buy, news and media we consume, websites we visit, companies we work for are either American or have strong links to the US.

You cannot escape the USA, its in your face 24/7, 365 days a year.

Rodney Bathgate

whisky_galore wrote: »

You realise language can be translated?

It's kind of funny when Western countries were falling over each other and pretty much stealing PPE from each other all manufactured by...guess who?

Guess who gave the world the pandemic?

odyssey06

rossie1977 wrote: »

Is this a serious question?
Because the vast majority of the TV programs and movies we watch, products we buy, news and media we consume, websites we visit, companies we work for are either American or have strong links to the US.
You cannot escape the USA, its in your face 24/7, 365 days a year.

Certainly we consume a significant amount of American content, but I think vast majority overstates it.
We also consume a huge amount of Chinese & UK products & EU products (especially cars, food, wine, cosmetics).
Just the UK soaps alone would mean the vast majority of TV we watch in this country isn't American. And that's just for starters.

I don't think using google and gmail means that the USA is in my face.
If you use Facebook or Twitter you may not even be following any American content on it.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

odyssey06 wrote: »

Certainly we consume a significant amount of American content, but I think vast majority overstates it.
We also consume a huge amount of Chinese & UK products & EU products (especially cars, food, wine, cosmetics).
Just the UK soaps alone would mean the vast majority of TV we watch in this country isn't American. And that's just for starters.

I don't think using google and gmail means that the USA is in my face.
If you use Facebook or Twitter you may not even be following any American content on it.

We don't consume much media that doesn't come from the US, UK or possibly Australia. We use a lot of Chinese products, but Irish people would have very, very little exposure to Chinese culture.

Church on Tuesday

Friends

mr_fegelien

It's funny that many Irish people consume American media (Netflix, American TV Shows) yet so few watch CNN International. Technically it's actually the UK version but still American based.

Am I the few people who watch CNN International? I'm technically not Irish as I was born in East Africa and lived in the States for some time.

odyssey06

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

We don't consume much media that doesn't come from the US, UK or possibly Australia. We use a lot of Chinese products, but Irish people would have very, very little exposure to Chinese culture.

I don't even think the vast majority of imported content - except movies - is American.
And I don't think the vast majority of TV shows we watch is American.
Look at the top shows in the TV viewing figures in Ireland for domestic and UK shows, or the top selling books.
Certainly the vast majority of imported content is from the 'Anglosphere', but not specifically America e.g. the BBC, the Premier League, Home & Away, Harry Potter, to give some random examples.

And your China example goes to show we can consume the products without having to be exposed to the culture.

odyssey06

mr_fegelien wrote: »

It's funny that many Irish people consume American media (Netflix, American TV Shows) yet so few watch CNN International. Technically it's actually the UK version but still American based.
Am I the few people who watch CNN International? I'm technically not Irish as I was born in East Africa and lived in the States for some time.

I think people would watch Sky News more, probably largely because it was one of the channels on the old analogue lineup with NTL \ UPC \ Virgin Media.
Or BBC News 24 now.

CNN wouldn't register really.

Rodney Bathgate

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

We don't consume much media that doesn't come from the US, UK or possibly Australia. We use a lot of Chinese products, but Irish people would have very, very little exposure to Chinese culture.

Not so sure about ‘chinese products’. Maybe products manufactured in asia by US companies. Samsung phones are no longer made in China, obviously some components will be. An iPhone may be manufactured in China but it was designed in the US, and most of the components were designed in US / UK etc, not China.

Personally I own very few items that were manufactured by Chinese owned firms.

The Nal

tonycascarino wrote: »

I cannot understand why anyone here would have any reason to dislike Trump for instance as he as done nothing to us

Agree to some degree but what the POTUS does can have a massive effect on Ireland.

The 2008 crash fúcked this country up yet it was American made. Dell pulled manufacturing out of Ireland and we lost 5% of all exports.

The GOP for some weird reason tend to treat environmental policies with total disdain. A constant game of the Dems implementing regulations and the GOP rolling them back. Of all the things leveled against him, many of them flimsy, Trumps environmental policies are indefensible and fairly abhorrent.

And look Bush's mental foreign policy (and his Dads which was excellent) and see how it can impact the world.

Etc etc.

odyssey06

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Not so sure about ‘chinese products’. Maybe products manufactured in asia by US companies. Samsung phones are no longer made in China, obviously some components will be. An iPhone may be manufactured in China but it was designed in the US, and most of the components were designed in US / UK etc, not China.
Personally I own very few items that were manufactured by Chinese owned firms.

Samsung aren't American either though.
But I don't think such products are the real reason we spend so much focus on America.

Do Irish people follow Japanese culture because of the Playstation?
Or South Korean culture because they drive a Hyundai?
I think if you worked for Hyundai or one of their suppliers you would.

Lots of people here enjoy French wine and French cuisine, but it doesn't usually inspire them to pay more attention to what's happening in French politics (even if we ignored the language barrier),

mr_fegelien

The Nal wrote: »

Agree to some degree but what the POTUS does can have a massive effect on Ireland.

The 2008 crash fúcked this country up yet it was American made. Dell pulled manufacturing out of Ireland and we lost 5% of all exports.

The GOP for some weird reason tend to treat environmental policies with total disdain. A constant game of the Dems implementing regulations and the GOP rolling them back. Of all the things leveled against him, many of them flimsy, Trumps environmental policies are indefensible and fairly abhorrent.

And look Bush's mental foreign policy (and his Dads which was excellent) and see how it can impact the world.

Etc etc.

The GOP's tend to be religious conservatives who have a track record of climate skepticism.

The Nal

mr_fegelien wrote: »

The GOP's tend to be religious conservatives who have a track record of climate skepticism.

Its not even climate change. I get can understand that, and disagree with it. Its pollution, deforestation, the destruction of habitats, unnecessary killing of animals etc in favour of industry thats fairly revolting.

odyssey06

The Nal wrote: »

Agree to some degree but what the POTUS does can have a massive effect on Ireland.
The 2008 crash fúcked this country up yet it was American made. Dell pulled manufacturing out of Ireland and we lost 5% of all exports.
The GOP for some weird reason tend to treat environmental policies with total disdain. A constant game of the Dems implementing regulations and the GOP rolling them back. Of all the things leveled against him, many of them flimsy, Trumps environmental policies are indefensible and fairly abhorrent.
And look Bush's mental foreign policy (and his Dads which was excellent) and see how it can impact the world.

The US has the largest footprint but in terms of impact here - aside from the US multinationals and finance - it doesn't dwarf that of China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Canada, Australia combined. Together they huge impacts on prices we pay, on the environment, foreign policy (e.g. Russia in Ukraine).

Yet you would think that from its level of coverage here given to global affairs.

bocaman

Cultural ties, immigration etc. The U.S. won both the cultural and cold wars. We've absorbed U.S. culture for years via television, music and cinema. The place to go to make your fortune is the good old U.S. of A. so its no wonder we're besotted with the comings and goings of our American cousins.

For Forks Sake

mr_fegelien wrote: »

It's funny that many Irish people consume American media (Netflix, American TV Shows) yet so few watch CNN International. Technically it's actually the UK version but still American based.

Am I the few people who watch CNN International? I'm technically not Irish as I was born in East Africa and lived in the States for some time.

The only reason anyone watches CNN International is whey they're in a non-english speaking country, and it is literally the only english language channel on the tv in their hotel/apartment.

biko

Most of the music and films you like are from there.
Even the language we speak and write is influenced by it.

Also, it's a pretty nice place to visit.

whisky_galore

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Guess who gave the world the pandemic?

No one is going to bring them to account.

Australia tried that and got burnt.

rossie1977

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

We don't consume much media that doesn't come from the US, UK or possibly Australia. We use a lot of Chinese products, but Irish people would have very, very little exposure to Chinese culture.

I bet 9 out of 10 Irish people on the street wouldn't be able to name the Chinese leader or 3 Chinese cities most likely.

The Nal

rossie1977 wrote: »

I bet 9 out of 10 Irish people on the street wouldn't be able to name the Chinese leader or 3 Chinese cities most likely.

Thats where you're Wong

ILoveYourVibes

Kylta wrote: »

I personally have no interest in America, but an awful of irish people seem to have an interest in America and I curious to as why?

We weren't like 8 yrs ago.

But right now its a car crash that you can't look away from.

The Tetrarch

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

But right now its a car crash that you can't look away from.

This.
We are rubber-necking to see what the idiot in charge will mismanage next.

rossie1977

odyssey06 wrote: »

Samsung aren't American either though.
But I don't think such products are the real reason we spend so much focus on America.

Do Irish people follow Japanese culture because of the Playstation?
Or South Korean culture because they drive a Hyundai?
I think if you worked for Hyundai or one of their suppliers you would.

Lots of people here enjoy French wine and French cuisine, but it doesn't usually inspire them to pay more attention to what's happening in French politics (even if we ignored the language barrier),

We get the Americanised version of the PlayStation not the Japanese one.

How many French musical acts do we listen to or when was the last French movie we went to cinema en masse to watch. What French TV programs do we consume. What French sport do people watch in Ireland.

odyssey06

rossie1977 wrote: »

We get the Americanised version of the PlayStation not the Japanese one.

How many French musical acts do we listen to or when was the last French movie we went to cinema en masse to watch. What French TV programs do we consume. What French sport do people watch in Ireland.

Sony are a Japanese company. Their products are in huge numbers of Irish households. I used them to illustrate the point that the source of the product doesn't mean anything in terms of interest in the source country.
As I did with France - enjoying its output does not lead to interest in its domestic politics (even though through its role in EU it can have an impact on us).

And if you want to talk about TV and sport it is Britain we are closer to than America, Coronation Street, Eastenders, the Premier League, horse racing, Wimbledon.
Boards.ie had a slowdown last night because the Premier League was back. It doesn't do that for the Superbowl or the playoffs in basketball or baseball.

rossie1977

odyssey06 wrote: »

Sony are a Japanese company. Their products are in huge numbers of Irish households. I used them to illustrate the point that the source of the product doesn't mean anything in terms of interest in the source country.

Again we get the American versions of these products not the Japanese ones.

And if you want to talk about TV and sport it is Britain we are closer to than America, Coronation Street, Eastenders, the Premier League, horse racing, Wimbledon.
Boards.ie had a slowdown last night because the Premier League was back. It doesn't do that for the Superbowl or the playoffs in basketball or baseball.

We are close to the UK but their culture is not in our face like the US culture is. You picked a few things out but far far more American products/services etc influence our lives than British ones.

Our version of Santa Claus is based off Coca Colas ad. Irish kids could identify Ronald McDonald or John Cena before they could Boris Johnson.

cj maxx

biko wrote: »

Most of the music and films you like are from there.
Even the language we speak and write is influenced by it.

Also, it's a pretty nice place to visit.

It has everything you'd want for a holiday.
Gambling, go to Vegas.
Sun/ sea Florida California or for more exotic Hawaii.
Mountain climbing,hikes, sling Rockies or Alaska plus desert and vast plains. The US has everything given its huge size

Hoop66

Films & Television and more recently social media content.

They are and have been the dominant world culture for the last 60 years or so, whether we like it or not.

People worry about what's happening there politically because it almost always affects the rest of the world too.

Figel Narage

Yeah it's pretty cringe how everyone cares about their social issues and everything so much. I think Michael Collins had a quote about Irish people who were more concerned about things going on in England then their own country as poor British people and fake gaels or something along those lines. I understand America is huge and such a domineering presence but for God's sake we're from Ireland and live here. Different country, different laws, different culture.

cj maxx

biko wrote: »

Most of the music and films you like are from there.
Even the language we speak and write is influenced by it.

Also, it's a pretty nice place to visit.

It has everything you'd want for a holiday.
Gambling, go to Vegas.
Sun/ sea Florida California or for more exotic Hawaii.
Mountain climbing,hikes, sking Rockies or Alaska plus desert and vast plains. The US has everything given its huge size

odyssey06

rossie1977 wrote: »

Again we get the American versions of these products not the Japanese ones.
We are close to the UK but their culture is not in our face like the US culture is. You picked a few things out but far far more American products/services etc influence our lives than British ones.
Our version of Santa Claus is based off Coca Colas ad. Irish kids could identify Ronald McDonald or John Cena before they could Boris Johnson.

It's a Japanese product from a Japanese company.
It's not a demonstration of US culture in our faces.

Christmas cards and Christmas trees come to us as traditions via the UK.
The British cultural influence is so deep and pervasive people don't register it anymore as British.
In the products we consume and how we shop and live our lives, we are much more like the British. We shop in Tesco, Boots, Marks & Spencer. There's times our high streets could be mistaken for UK ones.
We import more goods from the UK than US, we import more from the EU than from the US.

I don't even know who John Cena is, not sure how it is relevant.
How many Irish kids could identify Michael Martin or Paschal Donohue?
Politics is not their strong point.

Irish kids could identify a huge number of athletes from the English Premier League namely footballers. More than that, they follow English football teams regardless of the current playing staff composition.

America has a deep and huge influence for sure, but to suggest it represents the vast majority, or even the only significant player, in terms the impact or influence on us from the outside world is not valid which is the point I was rebutting.

cian68

tonycascarino wrote: »

I cannot understand why anyone here would have any reason to dislike Trump for instance as he as done nothing to us or why anyone here would get carried away by this BLM rubbish all because an African American criminal got killed by a cop. Nothing to do with us.

Lots of world leaders have made decisions that have had really horrible impacts on people's lives outside of Ireland. You really can't understand why Irish people would hate someone for things that happen outside of Ireland? It's basic empathy for other people. Being solely invested in yourself and your own country would be insane.