Born in the USA Was a Protest Song

A lot of quintessentially American things are anti-American

"Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen in general, "Rambo," Mark Twain, "Monopoly," MTV, et cetera

The arc goes:

US system is bullshit
Someone points it out in an artistic work
People love it and the thing they made gets popular
System goes "hey we love that you're buying this please do it more" and promotes it under a guise of it not being directed squarely at them, with some skillful edits
Thing gets even more popular with more exposure, in its edited (backwards) form, to the point that the original is often semi-forgotten

Being against the bullshit is an American trait. Unfortunately, the bullshit has become more powerful than the against, hence all these problems we have now.

Rambo: First Blood was a critique of a system that has failed its war veterans. The sequels abandoned all that 70s new-cinema moral ambiguity, making Rambo into a Reagan-era anticommunist superhero, a sort of James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.
- The same goes for Karate Kid...
  I loved how it portreyed Miyagi as a sad man who lost wife and child to the internment camps, while he was serving the US and his medal is a bitter reminder of that fact.
  In Cobra Kai is was "War Medal fuck yeah ! Miyagi best veteran, we must protect the patriotic legacy !"
- Rambo was a masterpiece. The sequels were fanatic patriotism porn.
- James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.
  😘👌
This Land is Your Land is also not the patriotic song people think it is. At least, not in the way people think it is.
- There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn't say nothing; This land was made for you and me.
- This land is my land
  This land ain't your land
  I got a shotgun
  And you ain't got one
  If you don't get off
  I'll blow your head off
  This land was made for only me
- This land was made for you and me 🎶🎵🎶 (terms and conditions apply)
Americans criticizing America is not anti-American.
What happens is the first part of the artistic work is setting up the propaganda and lies that the protagonist is raised into, which the conservatives love and see as validating.
Then the conservatives either stop reading or otherwise fail to see the part of the tale where the hero gets abandoned and harmed by those he thought he was working with/for.
MTV?
- Not really “anti American” but not completely establishment friendly. They had Rock the Vote, Beavis and Butthead, Monty Python including the nudity, Jon Stewart got his start there, they had Liquid TV and weird nonsense on the air, at a time when most TV was pure Tom Brokaw and all why bombing Iranians is cool all the time.
  Compared to now, it looks super establishment friendly, but for the landscape of television at the time it was pretty anarchistic. Now it is the narrative of course. 😕

'Born in the USA' did not 'fail to convey' what it was about. It was just wilfully misinterpreted.

I think what many people don't understandt, is that two nostalgic emotions can co exist in an individdum, although they seem to have contradicting implications. so you can be bitter about your life expieriences, but still be filled with happiness about "home".
there is some psyscological explanation for this, i forgot what it was

Not the point of this post but I think starship troopers did an excellent job of skewering the military, government, and the whole propaganda machine.

Yeah it's not the movies fault that people have zero media literacy
- Paul Verhoeven did a beautiful job of critiquing fascism. I can't help it that my fellow citizens are stupid other than to vote for more money in education.
  I'm doing my part.
Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!
I think it may not have conveyed what it was trying to do when it was in theaters, but my friends and I (millennials so we saw it as kids) watch it as a ridiculous satire. One of my favourite movies I think. Sadly, I love Hackers, but that is not a satire, they were trying real hard.
- I love hackers too, friend. In fact I'll say I love it because they were trying so hard lol.

Not quite the same, but London calling was similarly used for tourism ads among other things

& the 2012 Summer Olympics 😆

Not exactly the same thing but megahit Gangnam Style is a critique of bourgeoisie culture in South Korea and the trendy Gangnam district. It'd be like if there was a song called Times Square about what a commercialized pile of capitalist shit that place is, with a funny dance and music video.

i didnt know that, makes sense, thanks, thats really interesting, and totally surprising.

The MI doesn't want any bone spurs either.

In Italy we have "vieni a ballare in Puglia" by Caparezza.

The title means "Come dance in Puglia" but the song lyrics are a criticism of the working conditions in the Italian region, where health regulations are not respected and people keep dying on the job while they are asked to smile and dance for the tourists. The song makes sense when you replace the word "dance" with "die".

Though it's a tarantella and very catchy, so it's used as a funny song for tourists ¯(ツ)/¯

https://youtu.be/EDCHk6JhFzQ

Yes, it's probably a quite global phenomenon.

"I am from Austria" by Rainhard Fendrich includes a line saying "I know the people, I know the rats, the blatant stupidity". So it's quite obviously critical of Austrian society, and was written with the purpose of uniting Austrians against Naziism.

Of course the rightwing parties are stupid enough to use it.

Now I'm wondering if the AfD plays Rammstein's Deutschland...
- Not that I know, but I remember that the "peace advocating" Germans used "Imagine" in their protest - the protest that wanted Germany to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia as not to warmonger

do other countries [...] both political parties

No, other countries tend to have 0, 1, or way more than 2 parties

What's a country with 0?
- Vatican city
- Dictatorships like Cuba and North Korea might say they have parties, but they also call themselves democracies or republics.
  Can't remember if we still have any royalty that are actual heads of states without an elected ruling body upholding their decisions, but those would have zero parties if any still exist.
- Take this list as what you will
  Personally I view it as flawed as for most listed countries the lived reality is a single party system, often theocratic in nature. But do think it's feasible to imagine a country with a high degree of self autonomy free of foreign influence operating as a precolonial society would, and political discussions aren't as involved in factionalism and are more focused on individuals with ideas for the collective
- Dprk maybe?
Hehe, 'democracy' with two right wing parties still amuses me.

Say what you will about Neoliberals (and I do, to a fault), but at least you never hear the excellent Love me, I'm a liberal played at DNC rallies 😁
I love Lee Greenwood, too.

I think Starship Troopers is understood well as a satire of fascism(and an awesome bug-shooty movie), while I have heard every 4th of July parade unironically blasting pro-war songs alongside born in the USA.

There’s also a first person shooter that goes from early access to release soon. I’m a huge fan
- oh what! i didn't know about that one, thanks!
  I've actually watched all the companion movies and tv shows-which mostly suck-but have enough ST attitude and creativity that they're still fun.
  especially when the original actors show up.

We have one called "Westerland". It's a song - played by people visiting Sylt, an island where mostly elitist live and rich white people go on vacation. In one verse, they sing "And every person next to me is as dumb as I am.". The irony is lost to them as the chorus is "I want to be back in Westerland".

Nobody should use songs by Die Ärzte in earnest for that kind of purpose - they're tinged with irony and sarcasm as a matter of principle. I love the band for that.

I think its universal, really. Americans just feel like its worse here cause we're, well, experiencing it here. Most people are idiots, thats just how it is - we just see it more because the internet lets us interact outside our personal social bubbles.

Its like that meme about expertise, take your concept of "knowing nothing" and cut that in half then you'll be close to most peoples level.

Unfortunately, it really isn't. The absolute disregard for reality is a very American thing. There are always outliers everywhere. But the whole country of the US is an outlier in the global stage with the only comparison being North Korea. For how its people inside feel and think they're perceived versus are. And it's the same style of nationalist propaganda that sustains it.
- The absolute disregard for reality is a very American thing.
  Have you ever even read about Eastern Europe? No it's not. By far.

To be fair, what group of 330M+ is?

Immanuel Kant superfans

Pretty sure they meant “ironically”.

Heh heh heh not for pendants like you and me. What was that ~~Jacqueline Onassis~~ ~~Sarah Mclaughlin~~ Michael Jordan 90s song about irony? Total buhubujis.
- This makes my eye twitch nervously.

Wow I have not given this song a proper listen

You should. It's potent stuff. About how the military-industrial complex chews up young men and then leaves them damaged and destitute.
- Bruce originally recorded a demo for the much more somber-sounding Nebraska album, before changing it up and making it the title track of the next album instead.
  The Nebraska demo is haunting as fuck.
that is apparently a common theme.

Never underestimate the ability of fascist and conservatives to misread media and to try to appropriate shit critiquing them into somehow something that glorifies them.

Mel Brooks got it right when he mocked nazis in ways that made them look so ridicules that they couldn't appropriate his stuff for their purposes.

That's probably because he fought in WW2, so he knows a thing or two about them.

My entry is Putin having Gruppa Krovi played for soldiers in Ukraine. Gruppa Krovi is a song protesting the war in Chechnya, which was another idiotic war started on lies from Putin, with the sole aim of strengthening Putin politically.

question for Aussies : do they use "The band played waltzing matilda" similarly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGlpxviu8PY

I lived in Australia from 10 years old to 12. I somehow picked up that Waltzing Matilda was a sad song about how shitty world war 1 war. And also that the Brits where shit about it, somehow burning through the lives of their allies. Oh yeah, and now the crippled vet's homeless.
I remember someone explained it to me. And other kids. Because Matilda isn't slang for backpack we still used.