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What is "American" culture?


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In other threads the discussion of "assimilation" has come up. Many (in general, not just the board) have a viewpoint that if Muslims are to come to the US they need to accept our culture. Or if immigrants come from the south, they need to be willing to adjust to our culture. It's a "no-brainer" that people are more comfortable around people that have common beliefs and life experiences. But what is the "American" belief, or "American" life experience that people new to the US need to hold to be "allowed"?

 

Hard work ethic?

Belief in God?

Watch R-rated movies and tell dirty jokes?

Eat red meat?

Not eat red meat?

 

Myself, I don't think the United States has a culture to assimilate to outside of respect for the laws and democratic process: this isn't a discussion about illegal immigrants. This is a discussion about people who have gone through the legal refugee process, the legal immigration process, and the people that have been here for 4 generations but still cherish religious and cultural rituals of their ancestors.

 

 

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I don't think there is one sweeping "American" culture. I spent this week in Southern California, my first time vising the state, and it was just a week full of culture shock. That may be beside the point.

 

My cab rides to and from LAX were driven by individuals who were clearly first generation Americans from the Middle East or South Asia, and they cheerfully told us about the area we were visiting. They learned our language, have kids in our school, and are contributing to our society. I don't need anything further from individuals wishing to come to our country. Don't care if they bring their religion, music, food, and rituals with them, all the assimilation necessary for me is to learn our language and weave themselves into the fabric of our society.

 

I feel those strongly calling for assimilation into our culture likely can be thrown in the same arrogant, close-minded group that has no interest in being exposed to anything to new, let alone something as wildly new as someone from a drastically different upbringing.

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It is not a question of people being 'more comfortable around one another' although there is a small element of that. Assimilation might simply be described as the adoption of the American way of life with its respects for our laws, our freedom and love of individual liberty and responsibility and self sufficiency and independence in one's personal life and in a limited Constitutional government and its fundamental individual rights. To immigrant into the United States is to become an American and to respect and abide by our laws and to carry your own weight and not be a burden on others. In other words, America is a nation of immigrants which, for the most part, came here to be free and make their own life in a society and nation where the government is controlled by the people and not the other way around.

 

Even before the Declaration of Independence and subsequently the Constitution were drafted, the settlors who came here came to escape the tyranny and repression of the monarchs and other government and quasi governmental structures in place around the world. The yearning to be free to live and let live without the heavy hand of civil authority crushing and demoralizing and literally taking the very fruits of their labors without just and equitable cause.

 

The respect for the rule of law and living in peace with one's neighbors is at the core of American culture (atleast it has been until recent times anyway). The essense of American culture is expressed in the Bill of Rights and Constitution and brilliantly clear and concise words for all to know and accept and appreciate. This is at the crux of the current political disagreement today as the radical left has basically ignored or distorted and attacked these very core values and ideals that have made and kept America as the greatest nation and society in world history. While far from perfect, America is the best thats ever been and or will be and it is a terrible thing to waste. America and the social glue that holds it together cannot be taken for granted. We are unquestionably weaker and shakier than at any time in the past 100 years in this regard. The past 20 or so years have seen unprecedented and uncontrolled immigration by many millions of people whose motivations for coming here are NOT in line with those of the prior 100 years. When immigrants come here to live and take from society without contributing back by accepting and affirming the values and principles by which we all have mutually agreed to live, then a serious threat to our future results.

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Do you care to elaborate on how the radical left ignored, distorted, and attacked the very core values and ideals that make America great?

 

How are the immigrants of the past 20 years any different than those who came before? You say they are just taking, not contributing. Care to back that up with evidence? You say they don't adhere to American values, which apparently are just following the law according to your post, how so?

 

Screw it. Just look to the last sentence of my first post.

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They learned our language, have kids in our school, and are contributing to our society.

 

What is "our" language?

 

 

 

Even before the Declaration of Independence and subsequently the Constitution were drafted, the settlors who came here came to escape the tyranny and repression of the monarchs and other government and quasi governmental structures in place around the world. The yearning to be free to live and let live without the heavy hand of civil authority crushing and demoralizing and literally taking the very fruits of their labors without just and equitable cause.

 

And to get rich off of slave labor.

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We need to have a single language that unifies us all. I have no issue with immigrants bringing their language and passing it on to their descendants, bringing and keeping their culture alive in their new home is part of what makes this country great, but I believe everyone needs to fluent in a single unifying language - which is clearly English in the US.

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We need to have a single language that unifies us all. I have no issue with immigrants bringing their language and passing it on to their descendants, bringing and keeping their culture alive in their new home is part of what makes this country great, but I believe everyone needs to fluent in a single unifying language - which is clearly English in the US.

 

 

 

I don't disagree. I'm just saying that usage of "our" makes me really uncomfortable. I don't think you meant it this way, but the implication can very well mean that people who speak English as a secondary language or not at all are less American.

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This is at the crux of the current political disagreement today as the radical left has basically ignored or distorted and attacked these very core values and ideals that have made and kept America as the greatest nation and society in world history.

Shocking that I read much of what you said (and agreed with it) until you jumped off the cliff here. At least you stay true to yourself.

 

And where is your proof that "millions" of immigrants are coming to this country in unprecedented numbers to be a bunch of free-loaders? Sounds like a truck load of propaganda to me.

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To me, American culture is:

 

  • Guns, guns, guns. Can never have too many.
  • Giant, over-stuffed, food
  • Football
  • Independence (in the personal freedom sense)
  • Rampant, insatiable, greed
  • Tendency to believe "We're #1" (in everything, while ignoring all evidence to the contrary)
  • ​More focused on celebrity/entertainment than politics (generally speaking)
  • Not so gradual decline in middle class prosperity
  • Economy which has moved from a manufacturing base to service industry
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