Anti-Americanism

exactly that my point i hung out with your average americans those u mention arnt your average joe on the street are they?

amercians girls i liked..american guys however is a different matter, there are some that need to take their heads out of their a** and take a look at the real world once in a while!

 

Nope. If that's your view on it, why did you even mention Russia? To point out that it was Capitalism that made America what it is? In that case my point was that it was a little more than just "communism" that made Russia what it is today. Same goes for many African countries.

I was making an assumption. Yes, I know what assumption is the mother of. Assumption is the mother of all things Grieg will reply to.

In fact my remark there was rather daft as it is one of the main reasons people dislike America (no, I'm not acting as their spokesperson again, they just fired me! ).

 

Roel wrote:

Russia naturally came to mind when ricky seemed to be pointing to the large area, abundant natural resources and large population as the source of America's wealth.
Russia (and Africa) has all those things as well do they not?

At least I'm consistent

You can be an honorary member

 

so pleasant

things vary from town to town- maybe he was in Philadelphia...

I thought the working class Brits in Oxford were assholes..They protected their grimey lttle council house tenaments like little gangstas..

If you made the mistake of walking through there, some redneck 'bovva boy' would wanna bash ya...

Once my brother and I went out to a pub, he met a bird..

He says: meet me at the train station later near the Mini factory and we will walk home or catch a bus.

so I come around the corner and their is this big 'dumb' yank there, surrounded by bovvas in their Doc Martins ( 1970/1971) .

These guys did not look like M.I.T. Nobel laureates either...LOL


So this stupid yank was telling them he was a Rhodes scholar from some town in Arkansas, named Hope.. and he was gonna be president of the United States one day.


I phuckin took a swing at one of them and kicked another in the balls...

So I walked home with the big dumb yank..

Later, I caught up with him here in DC, in a Georgetown bar and later I worked on Capitol Hill for Senator John L McClelan (D-Ark) and I met him again.

He was about to be elected Attorney General of the fine state of Arkansas..

So yes, I am 1/2 Brit and I know a few other yanks that have run into a few really stupid blokes

true story


No comparision

 

Cheeky monkey wrote:

Careful, you are in danger of running out of ways to be insulting. Nobody is likely to take such broad generalizations and silly stereotypes seriously anyway, or are they?

 

LOL-

These bovvas did not remind me of my cousin who went to Eaton- if thats watcha mean...

 

Anti-Americanism really disgusts me for the main reason that the vast majority of Americans are really good people. Some of my best friends live in the States. My dad lives in America and I have lived there many years in every corner of the country.

Except the Conservative Christians (which I despise) Americans are really good people and it is sad and unfair that they are labeled as war/oil hungry tyrants trying to get the better of the world. It makes me sick you know? There is alot of pride in being an American, I can respect that but the fact is that Americans are labeled the same as the government they are subscribed to which is rather unfortunent. And the shallow, at times ridiculously stupid media in the US (which is also in any country with a TV station) does not help either their image either.

Any mistake Bush makes reflects on the image of the people, and most of Americans are much better than Bush. And if these delusional, lunatic terrorist groups had any idea of the way the majority of people feel in the US they would not attack or attempt to attack the US.

 

America is amazin, 200 channels on cable and nothing to watch

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

 

Reality show after reality show and then some golf, and maybe some over worked sitcoms and then more reality shows. Seems easy to me...

 

I'd say that the vast majority of all the people in the world are really good people. In my opinion generalization doesn't have to be pure anti-something-ism. In some cases it may in fact be a sign of stupidity (and repeating stupid stereotypes). Real anti-anything-ism, however, is really disgusting, here I agree.

So why is it fair to call Conservative Christians "not really good ppl"?

This is the fate of most countries. And the argument for that is that the goverment decides the realtions of USA with country X, not the "ordinary" ppl. And ppl in country X will notice and feel the actions of the government, not the opinions of average New Yorkers.

 

In a democracy a country's opinions can in fact be measured by the outcome of its elections if the government has a sizeable majority. But with the rise of populism everywhere, increasingly the outcome of the elections reflects only the opinions of the people on the day of the election itself...

 

If this was true Bush would not have been elected president in 2000...

Of course you are right, but I only mentioned the Americans in this case because the whole subject is on Anti-Americanism.

Past experiences I'd rather not discuss, and just because its my opinion.

Yes, and country X will most likely, because they know no better, place as much blame on the citizens of the US than the actually US government itself. Does this make sense? Any gov't is a representation of its people, and to blame, lets say the current Iraqi conflict, on the American public is a gross misinterpretation, considering public support for the war even before it started was lower than 50 %, especially when the US was going to do it with little support from other nations. And as far as I know the US people were not allowed to vote on whether their country was going to war with Iraq or not, it was Bush and a large following of Republican Congressmen who got the nation in there.

Now many of you may say that you do not feel this way towards the US. Thats all fine and dandy but the fact is that much of the world does and its an injustice to the American people.

I'm out!

 

It seems as if there has always been a kind of a cold attitude both ways across the Atlantic. I believe that it has to do with Europe envying the US industrial revolution, superceeding the European one in many ways, and the US envy the Europeans for their cultural heritence.

It quickly becomes a them vs. us mentality, because the geographical seperation means that a relatively low percentage of the population with travel across the Atlantic to find out for themselves. This, combined with a poor, biased media coverage (as all media coverage is), strengthens the stereotypes.

The ignorance of the masses, led like sheep by doubious interest organizations, is dangerous.

From this side, it seems that anti-americanism is more or less politically correct. Media coverage, referring to the US negatively, is perceived as natural. In addition, environment organizations use references to the US as an illustration of all things bad (in one example, a Danish television ad for an animal organization referred to millions of Dollars being spend on importing illegal animals - not Danish Kroners, but Dollars, as in DOllars being a natural sign of evil). Politicians (at least the lefties, which are predominant in many countries, and which are more leftish than the US lefties) are very negative to all things American as well, especially US companies (there was a case a couple of years back, about Coca-Cola and McDonalds not paying taxes in Denmark, because they transferred their profits to the US to avoid the more than 30 % Danish coorporate tax - however the debate never mentioned, that the companies still employed Danish labour, lowering unemployment and increasing taxes from saleries and sales tax - because all companies, and especially US companies, must be bad).

Christian

 

Just me being picky again

Nope - at least, the American girls I met & socially interacted with for any length of time (admittedly only about 15, including my ex-girlfriend) are incredibly high-maintenance.
Having said that, so are an increasing number of British girls, but there are still many gems out there...

I suppose it depends on what you are used to / expect in a woman.

£500 fine if you are caught littering in Luton - although there is a lot more litter here than in Virginia (the bit I went to, anyway).

(very picky - I'm sorry, I just could not help myself. Sorry. )

You mean Eton?
Congratulations for him anyway! Good school...

 

*Puts on Moderator Hat*

Cheeky, please remember that this thread is supposed to be aboutthe reasons for, and the effects of, anti-Americanism, and not a chance to bash America.
I reckon from your posts that you seem to be trying to point out that many Americans, in your experience, live up to the stereotypes*, but you could simply say that, rather than make posts that do sound rather insulting.

Cheers,
Ricky

* Obviously some people do have to conform to a stereotype, otherwise there would not be a stereotype...

 

it is never my intention to insult anyone...i neva had any perceptoins of american stereotypes before i went there...all i am stating is the impression i took away with me, if that upsets some ppl im sorry, but it dosnt change my opinion.

every country has ppl who live up to a certain sterotype and you can bang on all day about english lager louts etc and i wont take any offence because alot of it is true.

it is a discussion, i dont know why ppl get so upset???

 

I think it is mostly that you have a rather blunt way of writing...

 

I talked with my sister last night, she reminded me of some other stories, she said 'the bovva's' were xenophobic anti- Americans..

Some of them however would look for a fight without me ever saying a word. She said it was the way we dressed gave us away.

I thought- I doubt it , to this day I still mostly wear Brooks Bros. Shetland cardigans (sweaters) made in the U.K.

The good wool helps them last longer...

I have never seen such territorial based B.S. here.

Later we moved as the Oxford place was available only for the summer, the kids in the destination village were not like that, but in Banbury, a few miles away, they were. So we, including the locals, only went there in twos or threes.

My mother decided to take me out of the USAF base school and enroll me in a local pricate school. The first day, at lunch, I had to fight the whole form in the school yard.

I did very well and they tossed me out that day.

Yeah, what a bunch of stereotypical schoolboy English bullies. They were good training for moving to Texas. At least the Texas would try to come up with a reason for hostility. Hey thar where' dya get that sweater..LOL

It was entirely different when I finally ended up in Bethesda Chevy Chase, an affluent suburb of Washington..

 

Few Random Thoughts

Being the more powerful country and most hated and / or moaned about is a package deal. Like or lump it.

As a nationality you always seem to rise to any criticism when a ignoring it would probably better serve you.

Personally I always think the idea that Americans don't know what’s going on beyond their own borders and therefore are stupid is over stated. I'm probably better clued in than most but that’s only because my job bores me to :cry: and reading the BBC news site is one of the means by which I stay sane. Most people I think do have a very local leaning in their world view.

Personally I will admit to some anti American tendencies. Every time my computer acts up you Americans are roundly blamed.

 

Yes, it would have been - only tourists ever buy those!

Swift 'divided by a common language' moment - cardigan & sweater are different things. A cardigan is basically a sweater that buttons up down the front, not unlike a coat.

I must stop being so darn picky...