yet another anti-American thing to piss me off

[alexist]

Lars von Trier, this time. He was spouting off about the flaws of America and American society, yet he's never even visited the US!

How can he claim to have any real understanding if he hasn't visited? And how can he really think that the perception he gets from the media is an accurate reflection? Hollywood isn't America. The New York Times isn't America. How can you know what American society is like if you've never experienced it?

Comments

"about a place he's never seen..."

[rainfx.livejournal.com]

But you could argue he has seen it, through the eyes of the worlds media - accurate or not, it's what the majority of the world sees. Perhaps he's not so much making films about America per se, but about the America as portrayed by TV and Hollywood.

I wouldn't bet the rest of the world is smart enough not to take Hollywood at face value, though.

I read another quote from the Guardian (yeah, yeah) - "my perception of the US is based on a lot more information and images than the Americans had when they made the film about Hans Christian Andersen - the US is a much bigger part of my consciousness than Denmark ever was to the people who made that film. " So in many ways, he's only really doing what Hollywood has been doing all along...?