DO NOT LET SOCIAL MEDIA TURN YOU INTO AN AMERICAN

As an American: Seriously, please don’t

ok well i don't

"Americanization" is a real phenomenon, and how non-Americans should be cautious of it is taught in different countries at school. It's taught in Greece and people from other countries told me their elementary or middle school teachers (using the American grades, to make it make sense to the majority on the site) talked to them about it.

It's common sense here, except for USians, so I'll analyze it a bit more for the dominant demographic here. In a globalized setting, the most dominant culture affects the others and sets the trends. The way our language works, how we think, our levels of politeness and intimacy, and our levels of respect. (flash news, they are going down 😂)

I don't want to imply that there is nothing good in the US. There are plenty of positives in the country. It's just that for the rest of the cultures online it's a constant daily fight to not forget our roots, with the degree US media and brands have permeated our lives. In Greece at least we watch more US American media than Greek media nowadays, and many of our shows are rip-offs of USian ones, with little adaptation to Greek reality and culture.

And to demonstrate the amount of this exposure, a 22-year-old Greek asked me the other day "if something happens we call 911, right?" This might have literally cost them their life, in a dangerous situation! Because all the movies and songs they consumed (not an unusual thing for the Greek youth) were what they knew. And I found a similar comment in this comment thread.

Lots of Americans in the notes failing to understand this post. It's not about not liking the US. It's not about you feeling ashamed or guilty for being American. It's not about you.

It's about American media drowning out native language media all over the world, and workplaces requiring the English language in your repertoire more and more. It's about proper translations and foreign language dubbing of films disappearing because "everyone speaks/should speak English anyway." All of this is leading to the deterioration of native speaker groups of languages worldwide.

In my country, Dutch language courses can't find enough people who want to study the language, while English language courses are overflowing with people who want to study the language. There is even widespread distaste for the Dutch language for being crude or sounding rough or what have you. That's our native language!!! That is our culture in its purest form!!! That is knowledge we inherit from our parents as they did from theirs!!! That is how we learned fairytales and folk stories and myths!!! That is the language that shapes our communication and our way of thinking!!! To hate your native language is to hate yourself at the deepest level.

And yet it's so normalised. Droves of foreigners living in the Netherlands will never learn a word of Dutch, because "everyone speaks English anyway." We are the world's leaders in non-native understanding of English, but it comes at a cost. A grave cost we will continue to pay.

If you're looking to support your non-American friends in any way that is not performatively shouting "I hate being an American" into the void, first of all, unlearn that hatred of yourself and your culture. You are of no help self-flagellating, and there is a difference between holding your country accountable for its issues, and denying yourself your culture because your country is doing and has done bad things.

(I am not going to get into arguments about whether or not US American culture exists. It does, and if you think differently you are welcome to change your mind.)

Secondly, learn about other countries. Learn a bit of Chinese. Take an interest in the Italian political system. Ask your friends about their countries' folklore. Watch documentaries about art from Nigeria. Absorb information that is not fed to you by American media.

And thirdly, quit expecting your non-American friends to communicate in a way that appeals to you. The French and Dutch will always seem rude to you because our way of communicating is far more direct than the way you communicate. People from other cultures may seem vague to you because their way of communicating is far more indirect, and you're not used to that either. Quit being frustrated when you don't get what we mean exactly. Quit assuming we mean the absolute worst thing you could imagine just because you didn't get what we meant the first time. Ask us to explain if you need us to, and learn to accept that we are different from you.

We are already adapting to your culture 100% of the time we are online. It's your responsibility to adapt to us, too. At least do your friends the courtesy of learning about and adapting to them.

We are already adapting to your culture 100% of the time we are online. It's your responsibility to adapt to us, too. At least do your friends the courtesy of learning about and adapting to them.

[ID: Comment by kolodexa: If I was in a dangerous situation my first isntinct would be to call 911, not 999. That's a fucking bad thing. /end ID]

i would rather help 100000 fakers than make life harder for a single disabled person

if making sure that disabled people don’t have to jump through one hundred million hoops in order to receive accommodations means that people start faking disabilities to get those same accommodations, then i think that’s fine. that does not hurt anyone.

Thinking big thoughts about step mom Emily tonight guys.

Emily learning the names of all the comic book characters Henry likes after he asks to play figures with her and she misnames one of them. JJ finding her in her office grumbling at the latest issue of a Doctor Strange comic because come on, he wouldn’t do that Jayje, this is just poor writing and JJ affectionately rolling her eyes whilst silently agreeing (she’s done exactly the same thing, learning all his favourite characters).

Emily always packing goldfish crackers in her car and in her purse because she knows they’re Michael’s favorites, and scrutinising everything she buys for apples on the ingredients because Henry’s allergic, even though they rarely ever eat at her place.

Michael calling Emily “mama” one night, sleepily, after she’s read him a story, and it sitting in Emily’s chest, her throat swollen closed, her heart full and her eyes brimming with tears.

JJ in the doorway, overhearing and having to put a hand over her mouth to stop a sob escaping.

Emily routinely worrying that people are gonna mistake her for the boys’ grandmother, so much so that it’s become a bit at work, and Morgan’s threatened to bribe the teachers at Henry’s school into saying it just to get a reaction out of her. He won’t though because he knows better than to incite the wrath of JJ.

Emily always worrying that she’s not good with the boys and that they’re going to think she’s trying to encroach on Will’s place in their lives, when secretly they both adore her and always have.

fox mulder makes slideshows for scully like eight year old me made powerpoints to convince my mom to get me a puppy

btw, without lesbians the world would be in flames. so remember that

source? it was revealed during my nature walk.

J.J on season 1: *is the one to call Spencer 'Spence'*

Literally anyone else on season 12 onwards:

i love being in bed like yea everything is terrible but at least i’m in bed

Sometimes lesbianism is a femme knight and a butch prince…

There’s no love like the love you feel for the people who comment on your fics

me: if I become the evil overlord I will never harm my minions

[5 years later]

highly throwable imp: hoohoohee

me: hmm

so far my favorite moment in Reykjavík was when I saw this guy just leave his little ginger cat with the id checker outside a liquor store before he went inside as if it was like a backpack or something

beautiful women named excessive heat warning keep messaging me

i think of you so often you have no idea

I don’t have a dick but I do think with it

Sorry but there was no other reason for this shot other than to show miss SSA Emily Prentiss pining over JJ and wishing she was the one kissing her. This is peak lesbian in love pining over her bestie wishing that was her.

Link to tweet

A queen sized bed with no queen to lay beside me... homophobia strikes again 😔

Women of the BAU x Decades

This occurred to me while I was writing up my answer to @unionjackpillow's last fabulous meta prompt, but they also asked "what is a storyline that you think had more potential than depicted in the show and where would you have taken it?"

And this is difficult with Criminal Minds because there are so many storylines that they mention and then never mention again, from serious injuries (Foyet is on a ton of pain medication but Hotch ... isn't?) to rape (both Morgan's and Hotch's, and isn't it interesting that it's them) to childhood abuse ("some people grow up to catch them," seriously?) to an actual exploration of why Morgan would choose profiling in the FBI as a Black man who had been unfairly arrested several times as a kid and as an adult! (Gideon leaves when he loses faith in the profile, faith in his own oversized brain. Gideon's profile gets Morgan arrested and yet Morgan stays.)

So there are plenty that we don't see, and I'll admit that there are plenty of them I wouldn't want to see, because I don't love the way the show's writers handle their own obsession with Christianity and play it into the show, and I'm not eager to find out what they would have done with either historical and current racial issues or how they would have delved into trauma from rape or child abuse.

What I would have liked is a better arc for Morgan's job offer in LoFi/Mayhem, and again in season five. In any long-running show you have to address why the second-in-command doesn't move up to be in command somewhere else, it's a given.

My first experience with this was as a child watching Star Trek: TNG, and it's given a two episode arc where the 2nd in command takes command, proves he can, is lauded by everyone, and then does a little on-screen soul searching and decides he doesn't need to chase the same dreams he had ten or fifteen years ago, that he can be somewhere and be happy with it and reevaluate later if that changes. This is irrelevant except for how it's well done: the issue of a promotion is given time and space and the reasons he doesn't take it are also given time and space and the audience is left feeling both proud of him and emotionally onboard with his decision to stay.

Morgan never gets this. There's mention of a job offer--a job offer three steps up from where Morgan is as an SSA, should run his own team somewhere and then run a smaller field office before being offered all of NY--and then the rest of the two-episode arc doesn't focus on him at all except to have Hotch put him down. We aren't shown his capabilities as a leader (as a quick thinker and team player, yes, as a leader, no), and we never get any discussion as to why he doesn't take the job, especially because after being put down in front of a field office and being told that NYC needs a leader and they're at war and then being put down again, anyone else would have. We never even hear that he hasn't taken the job, only that he doesn't go away.

This more or less repeats in season five - he's offered the job in a way that's a little bit about his capabilities but mostly about Hotch, and there's no discussion as to why it doesn't go to Rossi instead. Rossi asks if he'll be able to give it up again, but there's no discussion of that either, despite the fact that it's mentioned he does a good job.

I brought this up in the other post, but no one in the show ever seems to consider money, and they aren't making that much. It's decent pay with extra money to afford DC and extra for the hours/hazard of it, but SAC earns about $30,000 more a year, and I assume the NYC director job would be well above that. For Morgan and his lower middle class family, that's a lot of money. It's more money to send home to his mom and sisters, more money for house renovations, more to build a nest egg and offer himself the choices he never had as a kid. But he turns it down over and over with no mention of what that's giving up.

I wouldn't want it harped on, but I think they could have done a few episode arc and done it so that Morgan's competencies were highlighted (though that's also something they struggled with sometimes after season one) and his reasoning for turning down a promotion was half explicit and half well acted and implicit with team as family and being happy where he was, and I'm sad we never got that.