Originally published at: Ohioans critique the Polish LARPers who recreated an "American 4th of July in Ohio" | Boing Boing
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the whole thing reminds me of the traveling salesman who critiqued death of a salesman by saying, “those east coast routes were murder.”
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Kudos to the Polish folks for trying to create an authentic American Independence Day experience. I can’t say that the Americans providing pointers on making it more authentic are wrong, especially the bit about fireworks.
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I perused the comments on the LARP’s Facebook page and round a range of reactions to the LARP by Americans, from humor, to praise, to helpful critique. Some commenters seem to not understand that this LARP is intending to depict the “broken American dream.” Some folks are simply delighted by it all and praise its authenticity
I think you underestimate the self deprecative powers of your average MW denizen. Ohioans in particular.
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Quoted for mf truth.
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“where strange things happen and because of that, men in black arrive”
They wanted a friendlier US version because the Polish version of men in black used to be either Gestapo or KGB.
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yeah. these days for many americans it’s not men in black, but men in cbp or ice uniforms 
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Some of the commenters were waaay too picky. The only thing I’d change (as a former Ohio resident) from how they portrayed it is to add a cornhole set. Otherwise, spot-freakin’-on!
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Oh shit! Good call!
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I’ve usually spent 4th of July in Ohio getting ready for the saucer pick-up the next morning. 
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this LARP is intending to depict the “broken American dream.”
It’s a healthy thing that more people around the world are realising that the U.S. is no longer the “Greatest Country on the Earth” but instead just another place where opportunity is limited to the already affluent and where democratic freedoms become more of a sham every day.
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"What most people from outside the United States don’t understand is that the United States is big. Really big. As in almost as many cultures as the entire continent of Europe big.
That old chestnut. That’s simply not true. In terms of area, yes. But the average Louisianan still has more in common with the average Mainer than the average Sicilian with even the average Austrian, even though their countries are neighbours. Let alone Fins and Spaniards, Irish people and Greeks. Or any of the other combinations. And that’s just countries. European countries have just as much internal regional and social variance as the US.
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So many questions…
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Ah, the biggest question is why they go on calling it cornhole, when as everyone knows, it’s Bean Bag Toss !!! 
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Is this getting even for those Polish cultural festivals we have here in the States? I mean things like the Pulaski Day parades and Polka music festivals? Personally, I love to see cultural appropriation and reinterpretation like this. I’m Jewish, so I know that the entire Christian world would have been work-work-work without ripping off the Sabbath and all those other holidays.
P.S. LARPs remind me of Tony 'n Tina’s Wedding, a play based on a stereotyped Italian-American wedding with audience participation and a lasagna wedding feast. I’m only sorry I missed the group’s Very Vicky Christmas Special which had a much more limited run.
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TIL America is like Transylvania for Polish people
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