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Those damn Americans...
Bingo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am British, and my wife is American. Our boys are too young to give a shit.
My family are constantly bringing up that "only in America" idiom that really pisses me off. I've travelled alot, and travelled alot in the United States. We spend our time between both countries. My wife is from Arkansas, and I find the people there to be incredibly friendly. Sure, maybe 3% of them have passports but why should they need them? Over in Europe it's quite natural... we're so close to so many different countries and cultures it is almost a necessity to have one.
But when family and friends in the UK bitch about small-town America, I hasten to draw the similarity with the UK also. Go to some small down in Derbyshire and talk about the world and people look at you with glazed eyes before they finally gain their voice and proudly announce their next vacation to Ibitha or Malaga, otherwise known as Skegness in the sun.
I'm sick of the Anti-American bashing that goes on. I've spent enough time in both countries to know (at least, to me), that it's bullshit and not warranted. I wonder if half the bashing comes from jealousy and the other half comes from not knowing a goddamn thing.
Sure, there is guncrime in the USA but in England the victim is always worse off than the perpatrator. And there are chavs too.
Sure, the USA has George Bush, but England has... oh... who? Oh dear.. same shit, different day.
I am not saying the USA is the best of the best and I'm not saying that the UK is the dirt of the dirt... there are plenty of European countries who clamour for both titles.
I like America, and I like the UK. I have a foot in both worlds and I hope that by the time my 2 boys are old enough to comprehend it, they'll understand it.
What are your viewpoints?
(PS: Sorry, just wanted to get it off my chest)
Love and peace!
My family are constantly bringing up that "only in America" idiom that really pisses me off. I've travelled alot, and travelled alot in the United States. We spend our time between both countries. My wife is from Arkansas, and I find the people there to be incredibly friendly. Sure, maybe 3% of them have passports but why should they need them? Over in Europe it's quite natural... we're so close to so many different countries and cultures it is almost a necessity to have one.
But when family and friends in the UK bitch about small-town America, I hasten to draw the similarity with the UK also. Go to some small down in Derbyshire and talk about the world and people look at you with glazed eyes before they finally gain their voice and proudly announce their next vacation to Ibitha or Malaga, otherwise known as Skegness in the sun.
I'm sick of the Anti-American bashing that goes on. I've spent enough time in both countries to know (at least, to me), that it's bullshit and not warranted. I wonder if half the bashing comes from jealousy and the other half comes from not knowing a goddamn thing.
Sure, there is guncrime in the USA but in England the victim is always worse off than the perpatrator. And there are chavs too.
Sure, the USA has George Bush, but England has... oh... who? Oh dear.. same shit, different day.
I am not saying the USA is the best of the best and I'm not saying that the UK is the dirt of the dirt... there are plenty of European countries who clamour for both titles.
I like America, and I like the UK. I have a foot in both worlds and I hope that by the time my 2 boys are old enough to comprehend it, they'll understand it.
What are your viewpoints?
(PS: Sorry, just wanted to get it off my chest)
Love and peace!
Bingo on
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Posts
Chavs are essentially the British equivalent of "wiggers" mixed with a dab of hooligan.
Ibitha is a small island of the coast of Spain with lots of clubs, and is a hot spot for British holidaymakers.
Malaga is also in Spain, and is also a popular spot for British tourists.
Derbyshire is a county in England that is in the Peak District. Very rural, and very lovely to drive through, but... the people don't get out much? At least that's the stereotype.
Actually I think it's spelled Ibiza, but pronounced Ibitha... But a popular off-shore sunny destination for brits.
As for Derbyshire, I did use it as an example, but there are many places just like that in the UK where it may as well be Redneckville.
No country is exempt from this, I feel.
Also, Bill Bryson has quite a few enjoyable books that point out a lot of the differences between the US and UK and pokes fun at a lot of them.
Not really. Yes you get backwards and weird areas of the country but they seem quite different to redneck parts of America. I feel the cultures have some very distinct differences that can't be glossed over.
Most nations aren't exempt from this, but some of the really small countries probably manage it. The Vatican is the easiest that springs to mind.
America, compared to the world is pretty good. America compared to other industrialized nations, we usually come in last or close to it on any standard of living rankings, which sucks.
You also get these statistics flying around about how 95% of Americans don't have passports and 1 in 3 are obese and all that sort of thing, which seem frankly unbelievable, and paint a very negative picture of the country (fat trigger-happy fanatically religious xenophobic stay-at-homes) which is almost certainly unjustified (or, at least, not wholly justified). It's certainly not jealousy, as you suggest, that incites America-bashing. It's contempt, borne out of receiving only select, negative information about the people and the culture (the better to titillate the audience - nobody wants to hear about how such-and-such a country has a pretty decent educational system). Or at least, that's how it is over here.
American tourists don't help matters, by the way. Many of the Americans I've encountered abroad have matched the stereotypes uncannily. I got trapped behind a behemoth of a Yank all the way up the stairs of the Notre Dame, and every time he stopped to pant and heave he blocked off the entire bloody stairway.
On the other hand, I do hear Americans on the net talking about the pitfalls of their country in very harsh terms, so maybe some of the stuff is justified after all.
At first, I'd agree... but then I saw the same glazed expression in English Pubs talking about far-away places as I did in the US... There are exceptions, I agree. But on the whole, the concept is just as rife in the UK as it is "apparently" in the deep south. Not all Alabama residents are New Yorkers in the same way that not all Norfolk folk are Londoners.
Not everyone is worldly, and my point is that I'm sick and tired of the European view on the United States on very minimalistic ways. Almost like telling your parents your big brother did something bad that he didn't do, just to get him in shit.
Well, it's my experience anyway
This was great, up until the "individuals" part....
In the UK, I did not ban fox hunting, nor vote for it's abolishment.
In the UK, I did not sign a piece of paper saying that smoking should be barred from restaurants.
In the US, my wife never tried to pull troops out of Iraq.
There's someone representing us. How do you measure that representation?
From my experience the average joe in AR, AZ or a multitude of flyover states just wants to get on with their own life...
Which is strange, because American society always stresses how fortunate everyone born here is. While, for millions of Americans, life could be so much better if the country was properly managed in some categories.
Everything is relative...
I severely doubt this. I heard less ignorant comments and ridiculous patriotism in two years as a farm hand in the UK as I did in two weeks in Alabama. Anecdotal I know but I feel the nature of the US promotes blind patriotism and ignorance of the outside world to a far greater extent then elsewhere.
There's no such thing as a good tourist. Bunch of fatasses here too. But as for the passport thing, there really isn't anywhere to go that isn't a 12 hour flight away, except Canada(no passport, last I checked) and Mexico(who wants to go there?) Europe by contrast, is pretty tiny. I'd love to go to another country, but man is it inconvienant.
On a large scale = foreign policy. As individuals = tourists.
It has been the general experience I have had. I can't write anything I haven't experienced, and neither can you.
I will say this though... If England had a bit more blind patriotism then perhaps we'd be better off... Not sure where that's going, just a random thought.
And yes, there is a bit of ignorance to the outside world in the USA, but I believe there is alot of ignorance in the UK too, even if we are in the EU.
Regardless, I can honestly (and anecdotally) say that American tourists I have encountered tend to be the worst. Lots of them are quite lovely, intelligent, sensible people, of course. But there are a high proportion of others, like the one who I overheard in the Paris Metro angrily inquiring as to why everything was written in French.
I can sympathise with being geographically remote from everywhere, that's a pain.
I agree that we have our fair share of ignorance. Just not to the same extremes as the US due to its geographical size and position as number one currently.
I don't think I could ever, ever consider blind patriotism a virtue.
It's a matter of scale. Sweden may have the same share of idiots as the US, but the American idiots outnumber the entire Swedish population. :P
Do you think that our lack of patriotism and lack of "English Values" has led to a government-supported idea of multi-cultrism that leads to terrorism? Or am I stepping out of bounds here?
I believe (and this is really just my opinion) that the lack of patriotism in the UK has led to a society that is fighting itself. Crap, Ireland breaks for Paddy's day... Many countries go "fuck it, lets get drunk today"... St George? Not even a recognised holiday.
England breeds terrorism in it's own way.
Wow, I went off-topic
It worked for Canada.
London is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Definite benefits.
First you have to make the argument that multi-culturism actually promotes terrorism more than anything else. I'm sure some of the terrorists that america has bred over the years would consider themselves patriots, so I think either way you go, terrorism is going to come from somewhere.
It's true there are certain sterotypical American tourist cases that, if my experience of living in this country is anything to go by, probably occur a lot. But there seem to be far more American tourists who slip by under the radar of people out to look for stupid shit. Remember, it only takes one moron speaking louder english hoping to be understood by a french person to sound like a crowd.
I don't think American tourists are any worse than European ones who stand in the middle of the street and gawk at the Empire State Building.
In general tourists don't care what the locals think of them. they're there to enjoy themselves not act as ambassadors
What's the allure of the Empire State Building now a days anyway? Sure it's the highest building in NYC, but it's far from the highest in the world. People don't come to Minneapolis and gawk at the IDS building. I don't understand.
**watches a few minutes of CNN**
Yup, America is way more fucked up.
Seriously though, it is. I've only been there once when I was a kid and I dont really remember it, but being Canadian I get a huge amount of American media influence, and man is that country fucked up. Its "war on drugs". Its religious fundamentalism. Its enourmous prison population, in private prisons. Flags everywhere, "support the troops" and other meaningless, nationalist bits of rhetoric seem to run that country. The country that is by far the most powerful in the world, has military expenditures greater than the next 10 countries combined, a massive nuclear arsenal, intervening in and bombing and occupying foreign nations, while all the while saying Freedom! Democracy! Justice!
What individual Americans are like I can't really comment on, except that a great many voted for George Bush two elections in a row, which says something scary about them.
Now to be fair the UK is also fucked up in a lot of ways, namely that its a surveilance society and only getting worse. But I really, really dislike the US, so much so that I dont think I would travel there if I can help it.
There's your answer fishbulb.
It's more complicated than that but I don't wanna write a long post about it.
Grass is greener on the other side? A person might not admit it, but I bet subconsciously it comes into play.
Oh and arkansas sucks.
The fact that the majority of people didn't vote is more frightening.
The wilderness parts of America are rather beautiful. Put up with the people here for a week or two, travel out to Yellowstone or some other natural preserve and you'll see some amazing shit.
So you're saying that all the millions of people all over the world who disparage America really secretly long to live there. Sure.
Look, we have 300 million fucking people. And I challenge you to go to a city in the northeast, like Boston or NYC or whatever, and say it's all a bunch of redneck fundies. Talk about a generalization.
Oh, but you've visited here once. My bad. I guess you are qualified to make that judgement.
It's not all bad. Half the country didn't vote for Bush in 2004. Every cloud, silver lining and all that.
Sidenote: Bingo, what part of Arkansas is your wife from?
Well, about a quarter voted against him, a quarter voted for him, and as has already been pointed out, half of the eligble voters didn't vote at all, which is indeed extremely frightning. You will also note that I specifically stated that I can't comment on what individual americans are like, so I dont really know where that redneck comment came from, since I stated or implied no such thing.