Right now the next-generation HD disc formats—HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc—are battling it out for access to your wallet. These two companies (Toshiba and Sony, respectively) have paid off a number of studios to release movies exclusively in one format or the other, as well as big-box retailers to stock those discs in high-traffic areas. The rumored list of companies on the payroll of either company is pretty long: Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks, and Target, for starters. Not surprisingly, apparently both sides are actively courting Wal-Mart and Warner Bros., too.

So, that’s business. But then there’s this whole legion of movie and technology fans that have lined up behind one format or the other. You’ve got the HD DVD fanboys and the Blu-ray fanboys. They bicker about this stuff. They accuse the other side’s company of acting improperly. They send angry e-mails to opinion blogs and rehash the same arguments again and again.

How weird is that? Despite how entrenched both Sony and Toshiba are in the US economy, and the fact that a US citizen is the CEO of Sony, both companies are Japanese. People are ultimately siding with one Japanese company or the other. “I want Japanese Company B to win over Japanese Company A. I hate Japanese Company A because of some perceived and likely imagined impropriety on its part.”

When I thought about this this morning it hit me how global our economy is. People don’t see these companies as Japanese. Gamers want the Wii to beat the PlayStation 3, or the Xbox 360 to beat the PlayStation 3, or the PlayStation 3 to beat one or the other. They’re not siding with Microsoft over Sony or Nintendo because it’s based in the US and the others aren’t; nationalism or protectionism don’t influence these kinds of reactions at all.

Just 20 years ago, people were concerned with these things. Now, not so much. Wal-Mart used to be popular. Then Sam Walton (whose autobiography is entitled “Made in America”) died and Wal-Mart did away with that image he worked to cultivate. Now geeks spend time on message boards arguing about which multinational Japanese electronics conglomerate is their favorite.

That’s strange, isn’t it? It’s not just me?