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Australia's Gun Problem

Ranb said:
It appears you do find it to be funny. When there is a seller there is always a buyer. Why are your countrymen buying this American stuff then?
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You appear to be conflating two separate lines of argument from me. You're quoting one post and replying to another.

Giz said:
You really hate that your fellow countrymen have the freedom to partake or abstain from American culture.
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Abstaining from American culture would in practice result in abstaining from all culture.

Do you really have no clue how all-pervasive American pop culture is in the English-speaking world? Seriously - Australia tries to have a film industry, but it is never anywhere near the quality or quantity of the Hollywood movie-making factory. Heck, "Hollywood" is a euphemism for the movie industry in general, to the extent that the biggest non-English movie industry shamelessly corrupts the word to describe itself - "Bollywood" - even in Hindi.

We can't help it. Either we consume American culture, or we live our lives in the outback without contact with civilisation. Our two biggest fast food chains are McDonalds and KFC, followed up by Domino's and Burger King. If I wanted to go to the movies today, I would have to make a choice between 14 American movies and one Australian movie (Gallipolli, 1981, which is only on because of ANZAC day and which may be the last Australian movie that was actually good). When I install Microsoft Office on a computer, the spellchecker defaults to "optimize" and "color". For that matter, every piece of software I have on my computer came from America. When I go home tonight I'm going to play an American videogame or perhaps binge-watch a few episodes of an American TV show.

Back in the 80s, we actually had to legislate for a minimum of Australian content on our television stations. That's how all-pervasive American culture is. We had to legislate. So don't go deluding yourself that we can somehow insulate ourselves from American culture.

Either we consume American culture or we don't consume culture at all.
 
arthwollipot said:
You appear to be conflating two separate lines of argument from me. You're quoting one post and replying to another.

Abstaining from American culture would in practice result in abstaining from all culture.

Do you really have no clue how all-pervasive American pop culture is in the English-speaking world? Seriously - Australia tries to have a film industry, but it is never anywhere near the quality or quantity of the Hollywood movie-making factory. Heck, "Hollywood" is a euphemism for the movie industry in general, to the extent that the biggest non-English movie industry shamelessly corrupts the word to describe itself - "Bollywood" - even in Hindi.

We can't help it. Either we consume American culture, or we live our lives in the outback without contact with civilisation. Our two biggest fast food chains are McDonalds and KFC, followed up by Domino's and Burger King. If I wanted to go to the movies today, I would have to make a choice between 14 American movies and one Australian movie (Gallipolli, 1981, which is only on because of ANZAC day and which may be the last Australian movie that was actually good). When I install Microsoft Office on a computer, the spellchecker defaults to "optimize" and "color". For that matter, every piece of software I have on my computer came from America. When I go home tonight I'm going to play an American videogame or perhaps binge-watch a few episodes of an American TV show.

Back in the 80s, we actually had to legislate for a minimum of Australian content on our television stations. That's how all-pervasive American culture is. We had to legislate. So don't go deluding yourself that we can somehow insulate ourselves from American culture.

Either we consume American culture or we don't consume culture at all.
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I'm going to disagree with two things in the bolded. First, we've produced several excellent movies since then*. Second, that movie is a history raping POS on a par with Braveheart.

*A short list: Crocodile Dundee, Evil Angels, Muriels Wedding, The Castle, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Babe, Shine, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Ten Canoes, Lantana, Little Fish, Mao's Last Dancer, Animal Kingdom, Balibo and Beneath Hill 60.
 
Damien Evans said:
I'm going to disagree with two things in the bolded. First, we've produced several excellent movies since then*. Second, that movie is a history raping POS on a par with Braveheart.

*A short list: Crocodile Dundee, Evil Angels, Muriels Wedding, The Castle, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Babe, Shine, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Ten Canoes, Lantana, Little Fish, Mao's Last Dancer, Animal Kingdom, Balibo and Beneath Hill 60.
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Well we're probably going to have to disagree on that. For the record, this is a list of 15 of what you believe are good films since 1981. 15 in 34 years. That's approximately one every two years.

How many good films has America produced in that time? I'd say that there are probably 15 American films produced per year that could be considered good.
 
arthwollipot said:
Well we're probably going to have to disagree on that. For the record, this is a list of 15 of what you believe are good films since 1981. 15 in 34 years. That's approximately one every two years.

How many good films has America produced in that time? I'd say that there are probably 15 American films produced per year that could be considered good.
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It was not meant to be an exaustive list, rather a refutation of your assertation that the last good film made here was Gallipoli. In any case, many Hollywood films these days are filmed in Sydney at Fox Studios.
 
Damien Evans said:
It was not meant to be an exaustive list, rather a refutation of your assertation that the last good film made here was Gallipoli. In any case, many Hollywood films these days are filmed in Sydney at Fox Studios.
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You're nitpicking on a very minor point, and furthermore one that is dependent on subjective taste.

My point is that we are utterly flooded with American culture. Simply declining to partake as Giz and Ranb have suggested is so far from being an option that it can only indicate complete cluelessness on their part about the all-pervasiveness of American culture in the English-speaking world.
 
Comparing the American and Australian film industries is a touch silly.
 
nvidiot said:
Comparing the American and Australian film industries is a touch silly.
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Yes, it is, isn't it? There's really no comparison at all.

Regardless, my point (remember that?) is that we cannot simply choose not to partake of American culture. Unless we want to isolate ourselves from pretty much everything civilisation has to offer and live in a cabin in the woods. Oh look, another American film reference. :rolleyes:
 
arthwollipot said:
You're nitpicking on a very minor point, and furthermore one that is dependent on subjective taste.

My point is that we are utterly flooded with American culture. Simply declining to partake as Giz and Ranb have suggested is so far from being an option that it can only indicate complete cluelessness on their part about the all-pervasiveness of American culture in the English-speaking world.
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It's not cluelessness. I am aware of the pervasiveness of American culture.
I am also aware that it is pervasive because your fellow citizens have a taste for it. Why are they wrong and you right?
 
Giz said:
It's not cluelessness. I am aware of the pervasiveness of American culture.
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The first time I walked at the gate at CFAY, Yokosuka, Japan, I saw KFC, McDs. , Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, etc. stretching down the street. I thought this was because the base was right there. I was wrong.
I am also aware that it is pervasive because your fellow citizens have a taste for it. Why are they wrong and you right?
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We offer things for sale, we don't demand people buy them. The Chinese caught on to that idea.
 
arthwollipot said:
Abstaining from American culture would in practice result in abstaining from all culture.
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Hyperbole is not going to make for a meaningful response at all.

arthwollipot said:
For that matter, every piece of software I have on my computer came from America. When I go home tonight I'm going to play an American videogame or perhaps binge-watch a few episodes of an American TV show.
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Video games? Binge watching any TV show? Sounds like you are a willing consumer of content no matter where it is from. "Deal with it" as in doing something about it appears to be something you are unwilling to do.

Ranb
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
The first time I walked at the gate at CFAY, Yokosuka, Japan, I saw KFC, McDs. , Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, etc. stretching down the street. I thought this was because the base was right there. I was wrong.
We offer things for sale, we don't demand people buy them. The Chinese caught on to that idea.
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The first time I was in Hong Kong I was walking about with a few shipmates. I thought they were acting rather bizarre. Every once in a while one of them would say, "Hey, look at her, she's cute". I looked and they were staring at a white girl. I thought, "why are these jokers ignoring the beautiful Chinese girls (some with pleasant English accents) and only noticing the white girls? The icing on the cake was them finding a McDonald's to eat at. I wandered off on my own to find food of a more local flavor.

Ranb
 
Ranb said:
Hyperbole is not going to make for a meaningful response at all.
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It's not hyperbole. It really isn't.

Ranb said:
Video games? Binge watching any TV show? Sounds like you are a willing consumer of content no matter where it is from. "Deal with it" as in doing something about it appears to be something you are unwilling to do.
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Oh, believe me, if there was content from elsewhere, I'd avidly consume that. In fact, I do avidly consume the small amount of content that's available that isn't from America (ETA: British comedy is usually a lot funnier to me than American comedy). My point is that the vast majority of cultural content does come from America. Your contention that I, or even that we as a country, could simply abstain from consuming American culture is beyond absurd.

That's why we have a problem with American gun culture. Because we can't avoid it.
 
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Ranb said:
The first time I was in Hong Kong I was walking about with a few shipmates. I thought they were acting rather bizarre. Every once in a while one of them would say, "Hey, look at her, she's cute". I looked and they were staring at a white girl. I thought, "why are these jokers ignoring the beautiful Chinese girls (some with pleasant English accents) and only noticing the white girls? The icing on the cake was them finding a McDonald's to eat at. I wandered off on my own to find food of a more local flavor.

Ranb
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Last time I was in Hong Kong a Big Mac Combo meal was $13.45.

HK$, of course.
 
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