u/dreamboat92

As someone who isn’t American, I find it strange when people argue the US has incredible cultural diversity. I am not talking about demographics; it's obviously a multi-ethnic society. I am talking about deep, indigenous, ancient cultural variation the type you find across Europe, Asia, or South America.

​The cultural uniformity is painfully obvious whenever the US hosts a major international event, such as a World Cup or the Olympics.

​Events hosted by old cultures: They showcase ancient, theatrical, and highly varied art forms. Consider the stylized tai chi and ancient calligraphy at Beijing 2008, the samba and Amazonian history of Rio 2016 or the blending of historical opera and cabaret at Paris 2024.

​Events hosted by the US: The ceremonies almost entirely default to a giant industry advertisement. They hand a microphone to the same rotation of pop and rock. It’s always a concert, never a deep theatrical exploration. It lacks artistic variation and defaults to a purely musical display because the deeper folk/ceremonial traditions maybe just don't exist.

​According to the UNESCO World Heritage criteria, countries with ancient, deeply distinct, localized traditions score much higher in "intangible cultural heritage" assets. Probably because the US is historically young and industrialized, its primary cultural export is industrialized entertainment rather than localized folk traditions.

​From an outside perspective, US "culture" is just corporate entertainment. American main events lack artistic variation because they don't have distinct regional folk dances, unique architectural heritages, or deeply varied localized festivals to display so they just produce another pop concert.