Read on Twitter
america exports its cultural values to the rest of the world in a way that is largely invisible to americans because you live in america. whether you agree with them or not, they're values that you are familiar with and engage with somehow because that's the space you live in
your mainstream media is an American space, reflecting and/or responding to American issues
the mainstream media i grew up with was also a very American space, except i don't live in america lol
most of the tv, most of the books - they are american, and if they're not, they're british or australian. it's not that NZ media doesn't exist, it's that the degree to which you are exposed to it is wildly different to an american living in america
and the thing is that it's,,,,a very matter of fact, normal thing? it's a thing you don't really think about that much, especially if you're white, because of course the cultural narrative that america exports is one of white supremacy
and colonisation and whiteness and white supremacy are all well and truly alive in aotearoa, so it is difficult to,,,parse, exactly, the messages of the media that you're getting exposed to
To Be Clear: this is not an issue of oppression that i am discussing. but it is one of,,,,the effects of empire, i guess? of Americanism? like, as a kiwi, i have to care about you. i have to care about america and what happens in america and to america, in some way
i think about america every day. i would wager the space that new zealand holds in your brain is not the same.
so the expectation that i need to engage with everything i encounter online from an american perspective is a difficult one to navigate. because like, i can? do that? i can do that. i have been primed to do that from infancy
but at the same time, i am obviously not american. i have no interest in being american. but i am affected at all times by the american expectation that i navigate a global space as an american - or at least, as someone who puts american interests first
as an example: i try lately not to tweet about like, leaving the house much. i go to a cafe and write, i wander around without a mask, i go visit my mother in a different town, which lol regardless of how interesting those things are to tweet about
and i get a little residual chill of concern just from tweeting these things now, because i don't want someone to glance at my timeline and think, oh that's a covid denier, that's someone who doesn't care about other people, that's an idiot
but i also don't want to have to caveat every tweet i make with like, the daily NZ case count lol
in the reverse: the international, glowing, excessive praise of jacinda ardern, especially in comparison to trump, without thought or concern or understanding for how new zealand politics work or for how the nz left wing might think, feel, react to arden's party and policies
and if you see that and frown and think, well i have enough to worry about, i have all of these political candidates and states and situations to care about and there was an ELECTION this year--
there was an election this year in new zealand, too. i muted the words election, vote, candidate, etc, etc, etc because the space america takes up in my brain and on the internet is too fucking much
i can tell you about the run off in georgia, i can tell you why nevada votes took so long to be counted, i can tell you who beto o'rourke is, i can explain gerrymandering, i can do a quick rundown of the balls out insane american electoral process in about five minutes
idk do i have a larger point? i think the point was just to point out where some of my threads have come from today and why i was suddenly overtaken with uuuuh a white hot fury at the expectation that i donate to an american cause because i had commented on an american issue lol
america makes its issues the issues of the whole world. and i understand that like, marginalised people do not have access to that power or the benefits or resources it provides, but the rest of the world is still subject to that weight regardless
@ brits i recognise that you can empathise but i also need you to understand that you are america 1.0 in this situation and the effects of that linger
