To older burgers

The United States had a culture. They had one of the best in the world, actually, between the Great Depression and WWII. The men were hard working, the women were intelligent, and the children weren’t coddled and materialistic. Notice how this is when the USA was in a state of isolationism. They preserved their culture. Meanwhile, Germany was rolling over Europe and Britain and France are begging for US aid. America, being, isolationist, refused.
Then the Japanese attacked and Britain cheered the attack on American soil.
When the war ended, the US had a choice: become isolationist again or act as the leader over war-ravaged Europe. America made the choice that was good for Europe but bad for it. The United States sacrificed its culture to become a superpower. The United States sacrificed its culture to help Europe rebuild, and in the meantime it became a world power as most of Europe was devastated by war. Europe is the reason America has become what it has. The next time a European whines to you about the superficiality, stupidity, and arrogance of American lifestyle encroaching on Europe, remember that Europe is the reason that the United States abandoned its culture and morality.

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A style of clothing is a legitimate form of culture.
In the same way a kimono is an item of Japanese culture, blue jeans are uniquely American, even if everyone else is wearing them, too. Actually, American culture–like Western culture, generally–has become so ubiquitous and popular abroad as to become invisible, like how fish don’t notice they’re swimming in water. Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans all wear Western-style clothing. Think of the standard business suit and how it is the descendant of 18th century Italian formal wear. In any case, tools can be considered culture. In the same sense that the katana is a weapon and an item of Japanese culture, the Colt semi-automatic pistol is a part of American culture, too.
America has traditional food. The hamburger is much mocked, but is clearly identified with the United States, just as much as kimchi is associated with Korea or sushi with Japan. Americans created their own styles of music that are as unique as anything developed anywhere else. As a US citizen that grew up overseas, I find this whole idea that “Americans have no culture” or “white people have no culture” completely baffling. Everyone has culture, because the way of life and habits of people everywhere are inevitably different in ways that identify them–and that itself is culture.

I can second this as well. The close-knit sense of community trust is long gone. In my Midwestern neighborhood, kids going out on their own (or at all) and mass activities like trick-or-treating are going the way of the dinosaur.

imo the internet and digital entertainment may have a role in this, in additon to the usual culprits

I feel a strange sense of pride that we're such model immigrants. Not in recent history or in the UK, though, but the causes for migration are different nowadays than a hundred years ago (lack of money vs lack of money + lack of liberty back then).

I think I've read something similar earlier ago, about how a nation's or culture's exclusivity is the price it has to pay for being successful because others will imitate them and want to be a part of them, think Romans and surrounding barbarians or the Chinese and their immediate neighborhood (sure Japan and China hate each other right now, but China basically loaned the entire writing system to Japan and Korea). Maybe it's a universal phenomenon?

United States of America during the 80's and 90's was the LEAST racist place on the planet. Nobody wanted to be a racist and people would not tolerate it. Now that the blacks and spics are taking advantage of that, killing our cops and abusing our women… it might be a different story. The difference between now and then, big league, is technology. Kids become addicted to the screens at a young age, are exposed to stuff they shouldn't be and become little monsters. It makes them lazy and almost unable to function irl situations.

We gave them their chance. They pissed all over it.

This is an important story because it illustrates the loss of trust in the US, which is directly related to the loss of wealth.

I'm of a similar age, and my brother and I would eat breakfast and dissappear into the woods behind our house for the entire day. Nobody worried about us unless we were late for dinner. Why? Because there was at least one person home in every house. The neighbors would take care of problems and contact our parents if someone got hurt, and our parents would do the same for the neighbors. Nobody locked their doors because no houses were left unattended while both parents worked. The moms were ALWAYS home, because they could afford to be home. There weren't burglaries because even if one house on the block was empty, the neighbors in the other houses always had an eye on the kids playing in the street and would notice a stranger going into the neighbor's house.

Now suburban neighborhoods are ghost towns during the day because the parents are at work and the kids are in daycare. Bus drivers are non-whites who don't give a shit what happens to little white kids. And neighbors, instead of watching each others kids and having block parties, don't even know each other's names.

By losing our money, we lost our lifestyles that were based on trust. Our financial insecurity manifests itself in social insecurity and high crime. It's that simple.

in many ways the culture of America is reflected in the cowboy
the iconic self reliant nature, able to work alone or coordinate in groups to achieve a common goal.

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Freedom and security. Back when I was growing up, we could go out as kids and us and our parents didn't have to worry about something bad happening to us from members of our wn community. Think of the Sandlot movie, It, and etc. We could go out, in some random location play, and even shoot with a lot more skill than a 35 year old liberal in the city.

This freedom and security was also prevalent in many of our schools. However because of the interventionist polices like the drug war, lack of enforcement in immigration laws, liberal welfare policies, created an influx of immigrants that didn't immigrate here because they wanted to be American, but because they were desperate to flee their country and created ghettos and colonias that bring in people that do not want to assimilate into American culture and contribute to society like someone who is driven wants to make something of himself and become American. These areas create higher crime and attack our freedom and security through erosion of our community cohesion. Many illegal immigrants went through some serious shit before getting here and sometimes it bleeds through in their actions with others. For instance Coyotes or human traffickers who "help" people navigate to America usually rape not just women, but even children. That trauma isn't going simply go away in a forgive and forget kumbaya session liberals think it will.

1/3?

Men are generally defined by their ability to provide for not just themselves but for a women and future children. If jobs are getting fleeced by globalism, you are going to see a lower quality of life and it is going to effect the culture. There are even men that make it, but then fleeced by the courts if their relationship fails. But yes, we were expected to be competent and learn to be independent. Out fathers taught us shit we needed to know so we wouldn't be screwed if we got stranded with a vehicle, or be always asking how to do things. We knew how to shoot a rifle around 5 because we were taught, know how to change oil in the car before 10, use construction tools and metal working tools before 15. Around 15 a lot of us had to learn not just how to drive but use stick shift. A lot was expected of us but we rose to the occasion because many other kids were learning these skills too and we didn't want to be "useless, spoiled kids". I appreciate the shit I learned and I know a lot of other men do.

There was a lot MORE egalitarianism and FAR less class disparity before. Now the disparity has become larger and larger because of various policies attacking economic stability and bad monetary policy attacking the value of our purchasing power. We used to have a "Soda war" between Pepsi, Coca Cola, and even RC cola where prices were .50 a can to even .25 cents a can in some areas. Basically the US dollar could go a LONG way. So even if we got paid say 5.50 an hour, we were able to do a lot and it was a decent wage where the average was around 4 bucks for an entry level or part time job.

For instance a student could save up to pay for college tuition for a semester with a summer job for instance. Now, that same semester can run 5,000 or up dollars (low end 4 grand) and the quality of education has completely fallen off a cliff. It isn't just the classes you now need to take and behavior of the students you see, but an associates degree back before government subsidies would almost guarantee you a job and a Bachelors degree would grantee you a higher salary and a path for management. You also didn't have to take any demeaning classes.

You could have a visit the doctor and pay just 5 dollars. Our health care was the bomb.

I don't blame the principles of America for the problem. I blame the cultural marxists, european socialist lovers, international/federal reserve and other banking cartels taking an ax to our money. Basically the reason we are so screwed is because we veered so far off how things worked before and put too much faith in government largess, government solutions, ridiculous foreign policy running up our debt and credit.

America was settled by people seeking freedom from persecution. It was founded on freedom from usury. The wilds were settled in the pursuit of freedom and welth. We were the first County in the world where an individual was a king in their own rite as long as they did not infringe on the freedom of others.

FREEDOM

It is what America was founded on, and today we have to watch what we say, who we say it to, how we say it. Our society is focused on conformity of consumption, forcing us into molds and reducing our freedom.

There is a little tidbit to help your research.

Very well written and pretty much my story as well. Even in a city with a reasonable population +/- 50K, people in the local neighborhood could spot a stranger instantly and act accordingly.

Children were allowed to roam freely on bicycles for miles with no fear of problems. I just don't see that anymore and feel sorry for the kids. I'll pass through well heeled suburbs quite frequently at all times of the day and there's nobody around. Adults or kids.

The difference between the US and Mexico were vastly different from the onset. US colonials' government involvment was laxed as fuck and colonists self governed and the crown left them be. Mexico however had the Spanish government along with the Catholic Church heavily involved in all walks of life. The reason America worked was because people in America learned how to take care and govern themselves in the frontier and in larger populated areas.

For a foreign school project, I would avoid the racial aspect to maximize the redpills.

Could actually be some non-burger wanting us to write his school paper for him.

I have some thoughts on the topic of nostalgia.

This is true. And also part of the problem. To look at why nostalgia worship has gotten progressively worse with each passing generation (at least it seems that way) is to look at how society is moving forward and what exactly those changes are.

The Media
There was thread on pozzed media a little bit ago where an user made an interesting point
This disconnect between generations could be a started point for current nostalgia worship. And this disconnect stems from the media and things Americans consume.

A pet peeve of mine is when a millennial says things like
Implying media was any less pozzed in 1998. Implying you aren't feeling the effects of a cultural disconnect that comes from getting older. Your parents felt it. Your grandparents felt it. And now it's your turn to deal with it faggot.

Deep down we all know
Deep down we all know our society is heading into madness. The nostalgia is a want for simpler times when you were young, naive and the world was a bit saner.

Most people don't look as far back as 1953 America for their nostalgia fix. They go back to their childhood or young adulthood. The obsession with nostalgia is a corporate gimmick made to feed into those emotions. You can thank Edward Bernays for that.

I would go into the infantilization of adults through propaganda, government policies and the media but that has little to nothing to do with your OP. But everything to do with why Americans are so obsessed with childhood cartoons like pics related.

A 90% White population.

This is primarily the result of: 50+ years of de-industrialization/associated job losses, ending of segregation and the entirely predictable ensuing crime wave and finally mass immigration of non Whites.

Yes, it was a given that non-Whites were subpar. Everyone understood this. Progressives were tolerated but openly mocked as cock-gobbling Communists.

As de-industrialization occurred and millions of low wage beaners moved into the U.S. it became fashionable to deride physical labor as passe and beneath the dignity of White men. That was a noticeable change in how some came to view class.

It's become a completely jewified, bankrupt and corrupt shithole filled with millions of third-worlders we didn't ask for. This didn't happen overnight - I'd say the Vietnam war was the first major, visible indication that things were going very wrong here. It took another 40 years for the cancer to finally metastasize.

America and the West is (or was) so wealthy they can endlessly engage in obsessing over corporate branded, kike pop-culture rubbish. It gets old seeing this faggotry after a few decades.

The brainwashing was of a higher effort filled quality. The people making it actuaply cared.

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As much as it's chastised as a mere meme, it's pretty true tbh.

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Norman Rockwell pictures. Horatio Alger's "Strive and Succeed". etc.
Once upon a time America had a strong and positive sense of itself as a culture with value and merit, largely based on the cliché small town/WASP virtues; hard work and 'can do', standing by your word, common decency, etc. (((Certain groups))) seem determined to make that admirable ideal risible, if they can't entirely destroy it with their 'ironic cultural deconstructions'.
Yes, the crackahs are reactionary these days. But that's because - in many respects - the America that tamed a continent, largely abolished absolute poverty, and built the largest middle class (civic-minded home-owners) in human history WAS better than the current dindu-riddled, beaner-infested, kike-manipulated wreck that Great Society (((enlightened reform))) created.

As a younger burger, I actually really appreciate this thread too, a window into the glory that I never saw and only imagined. Thanks y'all.

Just to add something, we do live in a certain kind of golden age but we don't realize it.

The internet has given us a really powerful tool but it's also used as entertainment and for social media. This gives us greater exposure to the stupidity of people but it also gives those who want it access to nigh limitless information.

You can see a dichotomy developing here and one of them is pure golden age material. Lemme explain in terms of personal experience.

Contrast this with
This is encouraging!

So again, we live in something of a golden age but it's tarnished by exposure to average people and base culture. Just like any great change, society's best are exploiting the new tools to their fullest while the rest just consume and treat it like a product.

And yeah, there's a bit of a technocrat in me. I know technocracy is not ideal but I still have a fetish for scientists and engineers running things. That's part of my love for the 19th century and the computer revolution/information age: garage tinkerers can become multi-billionaires in both ages. Intelligence and ambition are, or at least can be, rewarded handsomely and these people can change society for the better.

In Europe, railroads were projects of governments, be that national or municipal. There were private investors, but governments led the way with railroads as public infrastructure. In the USA, men of vision and ambition created our railroads, it was private and for-profit.

Same for telegraphy- where singular companies dominated in Europe, operating as contractors to the government, the USA had a score of telegraphy companies with many setting up of their own accord.

Though there's a strong anti-intellectual current in our culture, we have always been eager to embrace new technologies and exploit them for commercial gain. It's the weirdest dichotomy. We idolize our wealthy titans of industry, even investment bankers and quants are somewhat idolized simply because of wealth… and yet we aren't really an intellectual-friendly culture. We seem to immediately forget that a huge proportion of our self-made billionaires were scientists or engineers before becoming businessmen.

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Burger is a pretty apt maymay. Accurately describes normies, and from personal experience in flyoverland many people eat ground beef daily. Though rarely with buns or even bread.

I was briefly in the military and came to the same conclusion, all the men in my family and some of the other old guys I knew did too, around 2006-8 or so.

Don't bother interacting with it, that thing is a bot. It always spam ">Burger meme" with a random bait image each named with 3 random characters.

Looking forward without understanding the past means you're not learning from your past mistakes and what made the past good.

You really just have to point to how good things were, using statistics and such, and let readers draw the connection that people from cultures who don't value those things (shitskins) are taking it (or have already) away.

I would think too about how the economy has shifted from manufacturing to services and how that has affected people. It's lowered wages, made workers replaceable as they don't usually depend on skills, and it's taken away the sense of accomplishment.

People in service industries don't finish the day thinking they made a ton of cars or widgets or whatever. They think about the people they had to deal with and they're not actually making or accomplishing anything. This has led people to seek that feeling of accomplishment elsewhere, like in social media where feeling like accomplishing something is extremely easy in a world of upvotes, likes, and retweets. Think how coming home after building things all day differs from sitting in a call center or customer service position, and what effect that would have on people.

I'm not doing your homework for you, but you can easily look at what was different here decades or centuries ago and use those differences to draw conclusions based on how people behave differently now and how culture has changed.

I remember as a child I watched those movies where the children get out into the woods, get up to no good, build a treehouse, and pick on the fat kid, etc, and you wouldn't see a parent or a consequential authority figure until the last 10 minutes of the movie. You could tell the directors wanted their audience to sympathize with the children in the movie, but it never quite clicked because that wasn't our childhood. Ours was school, then nightly busywork, wait until dinner, wait until bed, play video games or on the computer in the meantime because you don't have to be somewhere unsafe to do that. Across the street from me there's a family who's slightly more liberal with their children. Their kids are 11 and 12 and are allowed to play play in their family's yards and the yards of the people adjacent to them - for Yuros, that's about 9 yards and house lots they're allowed to play in. That family has apparently gotten a talking-to from a neighbor who saw a news story or something about a family getting sued out of their retirement because another family's child got hurt on their property, and afterwards the number of lots the children could play in went down to 8.

I'm not an oldfag, but that's the biggest difference I can see - everybody now has a place they're implicitly expected to be at all times or something along those lines. There's no wandering left in America. There's always the threat of something somebody can get your life ruined for hanging above you, even if you're not aware of it, and it's easier for everybody's nerves to just default to sitting at home all night and sitting at work all day.

Great, kikey went full retard yet again and anchored this thread. It was really interesting to read about better days but I guess we can't have that with shit mods who just censors what they don't care about.

fug, I've replied to 2 bots in one day. Time to take a break

Good to know, polite sage for off topic.

My childhood was the early 2000s. I remember getting a small taste of the general freedom of going outside and playing, the basic mutual trust you older anons are describing. I would often go out at night playing hide and seek with my friends. We'd hide in neighbor's yards, they wouldn't care.

Tell me what it was like anons. I want to hear your stories. Tfw grandpa died and never got to ask about his life experiences and how things were for him. Don't take old people for granted anons

Every Holla Forums idiot cultural marxist, democrat, cuckservative, and liberal over 35 is partly to blame for the theft of your best years. Those years are magic because you are new to the world and shit is magic instead of science and reason. Having daily adventures when you are a kid is the BEST fucking time to have an adventure with your friends. I don't blame your parents because I don't know them and frankly they may have known the neighborhood situation better than you realize.

Got one in a school environment, back when we were in Kindergarden we would have PE, but it was a rural area school and obviously fences were unnecessary expenses. P.E. was like an hour or something. When we weren't doing the average PE group thing like dodge ball, kick ball, football or whatever, we'd have days around once a week or once two weeks where the Coach would chill and let us hang by ourselves. Main rule was "go play, but don't leave campus", so guess what that meant for us in a school with no fences. Either go off campus far enough to a point where you could still make out the outdoor school bell, or learn how to tell time and be back in an hour or get in trouble.

So obviously we booked for an hour. Boys gotta do our boy thing. Well one day the WHOLE class, even the girls decided to go to the same area. A field area with a bunch of piles of sand/dirt and by the train tracks about a quarter of a mile from school. I guess word got out that people were having fun over there for a couple of days and word spread. We had the biggest fucking "war" battle ever which was basically us throwing sandy dirt rocks that would bust on impact into a sandy poof. It was fucking beautiful, we had like three huge groups out of maybe 50 kids teamed up tossing shit to hit each other. Generally everyone knew the ground rules, no rocks, no hard or really big chunks, and no tattle telling. No one got hurt on that day, but other days with smaller groups of boys, yeah some kid would get beaned. Casualties and collateral damage were expected though, no one ever said dirt war wasn't hell. (It was the fucking bomb though). I even remember a girl who was sweet on another kid faked getting hurt to get the boy she liked to kiss her boo boo on her cheek when not too many kids were looking

This is great stuff. I can see a lot of these developing naturally, too if you just talk to them about when they were growing up. "Wow, you used to play hide-and-go-seek on the playground. Teachers would NEVER let you do that today, they'd be too worried that kids were doing drug deals."