The American fake smile...

[unpolluted]

On the American fake and phony smiles and brief note on the problems of false social and politico-economic mass consciousness

By Fazal Rahman, Ph.D. November 1, 2020

Being of Asian origin and having lived for more than half my life in the US, it has been a personal evolutionary and revolutionary struggle to avoid melting into the largely diabolical melting pot of this system and society, in which various minorities are melted into the melting ingredients of overwhelmingly dominant White culture, behavior, language, and mass psychology.

A somewhat deeper analysis is required of this cultural and mass psychological appearance, which is produced by and rooted in its essence, that is, the history and unique forms of American political economy of capitalism and imperialism. The culture and mass psychology of fake and phony smiles in the US, like most other behavioral traits, are mass produced by its history of successful mass murderous invasion, occupation, and robbery of the whole country belonging to various Native American Tribes and their genocide, followed by similar colonial and neo-colonial operations in rest of the world, generated by the unique forms of American political economy of capitalism and imperialism. Almost all the wealth of this country is the product of such plunders and robberies. Of course, the dominant beneficiaries of such wealth, that is, the ruling class of less than one percent, and their highly paid military, managerial, scientific, and technical elites, have every reason to smile constantly. This culture and mass psychology have also been radiated to rest of the population, in which even the worst victims do that automatically, except in outbursts of collective rage, like in the protests against the racist police brutality. Much of the American mass psychology is schizophrenic and bipolar; one-sidedly focused on financial materialism; dominance of business culture and mass psychology; narrow and specialized technical and scientific knowledge, regardless of the effects of its products on the environment, human nature and human relations, and relations of production; and devoid of any truthful and authentic knowledge in history, philosophy, political economy, and mass psychology, which is substituted by false and misleading disinformation of various official and non-official institutions of the system and society, including the mass media. Phony and fake smiles are very trivial manifestations of much larger problems and deformations of the system.

Such false social, cultural, and politico-economic mass consciousness not only exists side by side with the factual, pragmatic, economic, technical, and scientific consciousness, but absorbs and integrates the latter into itself, molding it to fit into its own requirements. Facts and data never remain neutral within the political economies of capitalism and imperialism. These are utilized in every possible way in the profit and power interests of the latter systems, transforming them into capitalist and imperialist facts and data. For example, discovery of nuclear energy was initially a neutral scientific fact, but was transformed into capitalist and imperialist fact when utilized in the creation and use of nuclear weapons and profit extracting nuclear energy industries. Similarly, discovery and development of high yielding crop varieties is initially a neutral scientific fact, but is transformed into capitalist and imperialist fact by the profit extracting seed and other companies domestically and internationally, through manipulations and exploitations of exports to other countries. There are innumerable examples of such transformations.

[ladislav]

It's interesting that Americans accuse the Japanese of the same thing. The fake Japanese smile.

[Winston]

It's interesting that Americans accuse the Japanese of the same thing. The fake Japanese smile.

But that's different ladislav. The fake Japanese smile is born out of politeness and courtesy only. It comes from humility. It's not from fake optimism or fake positivity like in America. European and Asian travelers dont complain about fake Japanese smiles as much as fake American smiles.

In America there is a religion of positivity in that they believe positivity can solve all problems. But in Japan there is no such delusion. Forced positivity is a form of denial of reality and human nature. The Japanese smile is out of respect and humility. So its not as psychologically destructive or fragmenting.

[kangarunner]

I lived in Japan part time for about 6 months total, Osaka and Tokyo. Japanese smiled occasionally at me but not too much. In SE Asia where literally EVERYONE smiles. And I think the reason for that is strong social cohesion and shared community. In America when people smile it's more like a sales tactic.

[Gali]

Here it is talked about the theory why excommunists don't smile much. Use please translate function in google it is in German.


https://www.welt.de/reise/nah/article21 ... nicht.html

[kangarunner]

It's interesting that Americans accuse the Japanese of the same thing. The fake Japanese smile.

But that's different ladislav. The fake Japanese smile is born out of politeness and courtesy only. It comes from humility. It's not from fake optimism or fake positivity like in America. European and Asian travelers dont complain about fake Japanese smiles as much as fake American smiles.

In America there is a religion of positivity in that they believe positivity can solve all problems. But in Japan there is no such delusion. Forced positivity is a form of denial of reality and human nature. The Japanese smile is out of respect and humility. So its not as psychologically destructive or fragmenting.

Japan is a homogenous country. They are united by the fact that they are all ethnic Japanese and the Japanese way. Contrast Japan with America

Let's be real here. The United States. The "United" States? What is "united" about America? I would say that in no way at all is America a truly "united" country. This American thing of fake positivity and fake optimism needs to be examined more and why. I would say that this "forced positivity" and "forced optimism" is a bridge to from some kind of pseudo unity and pseudo social connectedness with other Americans. Because in America there is no real authentic connection with other people, that we feel the need to force positivity and force optimism. Los Angeles is a perfect example of how artificial America is.

[flowerthief00]

Nah I'm with ladislav. Nobody has the Japanese beat when it comes to fake smiles and fake outward gestures of every kind. Japanese fakeness is a social expectation.

I also do not agree that everyone smiles in SE Asia. Which is not a bad thing. Having everyone smile at me, whether fake or genuine, is not something I require to be happy with my own life.

[kangarunner]

Nah I'm with ladislav. Nobody has the Japanese beat when it comes to fake smiles and fake outward gestures of every kind. Japanese fakeness is a social expectation.

I also do not agree that everyone smiles in SE Asia. Which is not a bad thing. Having everyone smile at me, whether fake or genuine, is not something I require to be happy with my own life.

Americans are the most fake, artificial people in the world. The Japanese people are real, nothing fake about them.

In SE Asia, the majority of people smile and it is genuine.

[WisconsinMan82]

I'm not sure if anybody else has noticed, but it seems like whenever I'm busy, annoyed, or mid-conversation with someone else is when people are most likely to come up with their obviously phony over-the-top greetings. It's like you're ignored when you want to talk to people, but heckled when you don't.

[E Irizarry R&B Singer]

I'm not sure if anybody else has noticed, but it seems like whenever I'm busy, annoyed, or mid-conversation with someone else is when people are most likely to come up with their obviously phony over-the-top greetings. It's like you're ignored when you want to talk to people, but heckled when you don't.

I seriously loathe situations when total strangers don't give any greetings nor salutations before they ask me a question.

e.g. "You got the time?" in lieu of "Good morning | Good afternoon | Good evening" as its precursor.

[flowerthief00]

Americans are the most fake, artificial people in the world. The Japanese people are real, nothing fake about them.

In SE Asia, the majority of people smile and it is genuine.

You can't be serious? I like Japanese people quite a bit, but jeez everything they do and say is like secret code. Nothing is what it appears to be on the surface. The average Japanese doesn't get through the day without telling a socially accepted lie in at least 10 different occasions. It is built into their culture.

With SE Asia...the part that I agree with is that the smiles are more genuine. As to whether the majority of people smile, what context are we talking about? In public settings such as at the supermarket or shopping mall or when walking down the street in the city, strangers avoid eye contact with each other, the same as in any Asian city.

[Winston]

I have a theory about fake American smiles. I think the reason for them is that deep down Americans have an inner asshole inside them. So they have to mask it with a fake smile. If they were genuine good people they wouldn't need a fake smile, they could just show their genuine smile. It's simple if u think about it. American culture brings out the inner asshole in a lot of people. Marcos zeitola mentioned this in his forum post under my "why immigrants come to America" thread.

[Natural_Born_Cynic]

Why do people expect "warmth" from a plastic mannequin or a NPC with a smile on it's face?