When you look at it, it’s fairly unnerving just how much our culture – especially popular culture – is dominated by America: from fast food restraints on our high streets, to crappy sit coms on TV, to the websites we use daily on the web, American culture is everywhere. Of course, no cinephile can possibly ignore the fact that the vast majority of the films we go to watch are American. Here in the UK I suppose we tend to think of Americans as our jovial friends across the Atlantic, and there’s no denying that we now have a long history together. Yet there’s also no denying that, this week, America launched an entirely unprovoked attack on Iran. I’m obviously no fan of autocratic theocracies, but surely there is no justification for what the US is currently doing or for what is now happening in the Middle East.

The actions of America this week have made the situation there far worse. In attacking Iran out of the blue, America has set a very nasty, dangerous precedent. There is no denying that these are the actions of a bully, and frankly bullies deserve to be treated as such. To be honest over the last couple of days I’ve began to notice just how ubiquitous American culture is, and whereas that may previously have been met with jocular acceptance, it is now tinged with revulsion. Naturally I know that not all Americans will approve of what their government is doing, but I’m afraid what has unfolded this week has given the facets of their culture I encounter so regularly a jarring taint which I can no longer ignore. Due to their President, Americans no longer seem like amicable burger eaters, but arrogant loud mouths who think their opinions outweigh all others, and who think they have a right to do whatever they like simply because they are American. Their entire culture has now been tinged with an unnerving, unsettling darkness. Even Star Trek, a television program which I’ve always loved, now seems like a brash, arrogant vision of an Americanised future: a future not of a united humanity exploring space, but one where the yanks simply got to dominate and bully over everyone else.

I really, really hope this doesn’t last. Americans should be our friends, and their culture should be as welcome and as entertaining as any other. After all, where would we be without The Simpsons or the occasional Cheeseburger? Yet because of what Donald Trump embarked upon this week, the US no longer seems like the friendly, outward looking place it once did. What they are now doing is totally unacceptable, and a dark blight on their nation’s history. I suppose we can only hope that they soon come to their senses; but I’m afraid for now their entire culture has been tinged with an unnerving darkness I cannot ignore. It has lost my respect, and I can’t see it being restored any time soon.