How did American Culture Collapse?

This year, a discussion about why American culture collapsed overnight was widespread.
During the decline of an empire, it is common to witness societal and cultural chaos, where truth is distorted, ugliness is glorified, and decadence prevails.
However, the collapse of American culture happened rapidly and fiercely.
It was expected that the American cultural hegemony would remain strong for a few more years, gradually dissipating after the decline of military and technological dominance, as social consciousness lags behind social existence.
Yet, it unfolded unexpectedly quickly and ruthlessly.
In retrospect, culture represents national strength, and values determine discourse power. In the past, American movies like Independence Day, where America single-handedly fought against aliens and saved the world, didn’t seem far-fetched to most people. But now, if a film portrays Americans saving the world, almost everyone scoffs at it, questioning why they aren’t first saving their own cities from filth and misery.
Previously, American science fiction films held a special place in the hearts of many Chinese born in the 1970s and 1980s. Works like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Terminator were frequently revisited, evoking nostalgia for their youth. Even the Alien series had devoted fans who extensively studied them and could write books about the franchise due to their excellent storytelling, aesthetics, and intriguing elements of horror and philosophical depth.
American films used to be incredibly self-assured. Works like Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Top Gun openly projected American ideology, and audiences embraced them because, at that time, America was undeniably powerful and seen as a beacon by many.
During that time, American films shared similar ideologies, such as 12 Angry Men, The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Scent of a Woman, Cinema Paradiso, A Beautiful Mind, Titanic, Whiplash, The Truman Show, and The Pursuit of Happyness. While the stories and characters differed, they all conveyed the message of believing in the power within you. In hindsight, they might seem somewhat formulaic, but they were backed by outstanding scripts, memorable dialogues, and remarkable performances, showcasing the immense industrial strength of the American film industry. More importantly, they embodied correct values.
During that time, American films featured protagonists who were muscular and handsome men, sexy and beautiful women, with soaring spirits, optimistic attitudes, and unyielding qualities. America’s power was so overwhelming that any absurdity in their movies was deemed reasonable. As soon as the protagonist in an American film started delivering a speech, you could immediately sense the aura of a divine mission.
Even the American TV series Growing Pains can be described as highly positive, teaching children to love their families, value kinship, avoid drugs, and refrain from lying, emphasizing a sense of responsibility. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not. Such values could be considered mainstream in any country.
Even the original American Pie series, which focused on sexual exploits, exuded a youthful, sunny, and hormonally charged atmosphere. Such productions are universally appealing.
Gradually, people began to realize that American values were not as effective anymore, and they started feeling conflicted. The narrative of the bright and righteous things couldn’t be sustained, so they began to explore alternative paths, creating the concept of political correctness.
In simpler terms, in the past, American films and TV shows portrayed women as women, men as men, families as families, friends as friends, and love as love without all these unnecessary subdivisions.
What is going on now? In the name of so-called political correctness, intentionally creating all sorts of strange things like LGBTQ, “I have two moms,” “a man taking paternity leave for his boyfriend” and so on.

A few years ago, when The Avengers were still popular, you could already see signs of their desperate attempts. They turned superhero movies, which should have been for children and had a more juvenile tone, into the face of American culture, using a group of American superheroes in tight costumes to represent American values which they couldn’t really uphold. They kept recycling old ideas and exploiting their audience, which only accelerated their downfall. In the end, they produced a series of flops like Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Black Panther 2, and so on.
When values fail and the sense of power is lacking, at least there were beautiful women to attract attention. But now, even beautiful women are absent from American movies. Where is their appeal?
What do they expect people to watch now? Black Panther 2, Mighty Warriors, The Little Mermaid, Romeo and Juliet?

Look at what has happened to Disney, once dominating the world. Look at what they have done to Snow White… she doesn’t even look as good as her wicked stepmother. This is the real ruining of childhood. Now Disney merchandise doesn’t sell, little girls are frightened by The Little Mermaid and Snow White, to the point that they can’t even bear to be called princesses anymore. They want to throw away the princesses toy they used to adore.

When they forcefully insert those unskilled, strange-looking black people, Asians, overweight individuals, and homosexuals on the screen, is it about respecting them or mocking them? In the past, when black characters appeared in American movies, they were handsome men like Denzel Washington and Will Smith, or beautiful women like Halle Berry. What about now?
Today, so-called science fiction films in America have also entered the realm of stupidity. They either keep recycling space operas and superhero clichés or shamelessly engage in human mating. It’s already 2024, and Chinese science fiction films are exploring concepts like space elevators and planetary engines, while American science fiction movies are still stuck with primitive weapon fights.

The collapse of American culture is systematic and all-encompassing, from movies to TV shows, to games, and even to professional sports. For example, NBA fans used to watch games between tough guys like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Karl-Anthony Towns. Then they watched games with individual heroics and ultimate team tactics. But what is it now? It’s all about marketing hype, rule changes, extreme commercialization, star commodification, teaming up, reckless shooting, stat padding, and self-proclaiming “goat.” Excessive commercialization has destroyed competitive sports. What’s the point of watching anymore?
Many of our generation grew up playing American games and cherished titles like GTA, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor. But what about now? Stupid political correctness has started infiltrating 3A games. In The Last of Us Part II, they introduce many minority characters, and the new character Abby kills the main character Joel and becomes the protagonist. In the end, Abby is forgiven by the main character Ellie because of her tragic experience. They completely ruined the whole series. Playing a game now means being criticized by these stupid leftists.

In blunt terms, today’s American culture can’t even provide emotional value anymore.
Although the hard power of the United States is declining, its soft power seems to be declining even faster.
The reason for its collapse and decay at such a rapid pace lies in the spillover of values caused by the infighting between the Democratic and Republican parties, the malignant expansion of Jewish capital in all areas of the United States, and the madness of political struggles throughout the cultural and media production line.
A centipede dies but never falls down. It is difficult for external enemies to kill it. It can only be defeated by self-destruction from within.