Germanic social autism crossed with British stoicism worship.
It's quite a breathtaking sight to behold in person. I oftentimes stop just to watch my countrymen in the wild be themselves for a moment and analyze the shitty little forced attempts at humor that nobody laughs at, the stammering, the awkward gestures, the complete lack of warmth from any and all directions from those who aren't SOs or very close relatives. Even after they've had booze in them, the situation doesn't improve all that much except they're more willing to blurt out all the stupid thoughts they dared not say while putting effort into socializing. Everyone is so afraid to stray from the pack and at the same time desperate to maintain the cold tough guy front (even the women these days) that what results is stilted to all hell. Even the immigrants get americanized in this fashion. It's a society that either drives people mad or toward desperate leaps of greatness trying to reach beyond its bullshit. Often, both.
Anyone who has even the faintest clue of the art of conversation leaves people absolutely breathless in this country, they don't even know how to react half the time. Older Americans from a time when internet wasn't pervasive have a leg up in this regard, which is why all the fucking daddy fetishist weirdos come from this country too. Thus, it is also ripe with con artists and peddlers, shysters and snake oil mongers from every corner trying desperately to sell you shit or on a shit ideology. Those who aren't whole heartedly gobbling it up from all that "information" the Information Age promised them are trying to sell it to you themselves. It's hilarious when it all goes tits up, the bullshit self-justifications they have to tell themselves whenever the world doesn't end when they say it ends or the race war doesn't happen when they want it to or the crystals they ordered for their fibromyalgia get damaged en route and their herbal supplements turn out to be full of lead.
