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by yodsanklai
3565 days ago
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I had the opposite experience when I moved to the US (coming from Europe). It struck me how people consumed more of everything. Tech gadgets, food... I think in Europe we are a bit more defiant toward consumerism, esp. in more educated environments (but we're catching up!). It reminds me of a cool classic sci-fi movie about consumerism. John Carpenter's "They Live". I watched it as a kid but it started to make sense later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live "Nada quickly discovers the sunglasses have unique properties: they reduce the colors of the world around him to black and white and allow him to see that media and advertising hide omnipresent subliminal totalitarian commands to obey, consume, reproduce, and conform. They also make clear that many people in positions of wealth and power are actually humanoid aliens with skull-like faces." |
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Obviously it depends where you are in Europe. In the UK I'd say we're a lot more towards the American end of consumerism but they still take it much further. Food is the biggest jump for me. I still remember my first time in America and I was out for dinner. My friend suggested we split a meal as the portions were large. I still couldn't finish mine (and I eat quite a lot) and she brought home a doggie bag with enough food for two other people. And this was quite a nice restaurant too where I'd have expected smaller portions.