@mammal, thanks for the clarification. I looked up the Frankfurt school because I had no prior exposure to it, but I still can’t help but disagree with your connection between products and culture. Yes, we export a lot of mass-produced stuff that people identify with our culture, and that in itself is an aspect of our culture, for better or worse, but it is not what I immediately identify as the sum of our culture, and while I do agree with you on some level that we are “hostile” to culture, I don’t think that cancels out or negates our cultural contributions to the world, which is suggested by your previous assertion which implies that the US is entirely culturally bankrupt.
For instance, when I think of British culture, I don’t automatically think of BP, or 18th and 19th Century imperialism, or the Prudential Assurance Company. I think of Shakespeare and Anglican architecture, and the Magna Carta, and so on. Similarly, when I think of “American” culture, I think of the blues, Mark Twain, Southern Gothic writing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on, not McDonald’s or Jesus Camp. Sure, these things are aspects of our culture, just like the British examples I mentioned, but I don’t think of them as dominating or negating the more timeless examples that we’ve also produced. Maybe I’m just thinking of this in a different way, but that’s how I approach it.