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Guys, what if your country of origin has only a partial impact on who you become as a person, and this weird slapfight between the various ex british colonies (or, well, anywhere really) is just really dumb because they're all doing bad things??? I am curious about the sort of broad American stereotypes though, not some australian basement dweller's screed against Amerikkka, but like, just the general ones. Those were cool posts to read.
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Mar 7, 2017 03:11
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Hyperlynx posted:Yeah. I'm dying to visit New York and New Orleans, because they're so drat cool. But I'm not going to, because they happen to be located within the US. Why would that stop you? Out of curiosity. Too expensive?
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Mar 11, 2017 17:51
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I dont think the point is that it was kinder of gentler. I think the point is that most if not all western countries are lovely, and focusing on the US to the exclusion of others to whine about is very well trod, especially when nobody is seriously in here chanting USA! USA! USA! Like, yeah super patriotic USA weirdos are annoying, but in a hypothetical thread dedicated to 'what are the stereotypes of British people in yoir country' you probably wouldn't see a bunch of people talking about how Britain treated Africa or India or whatever, or analyzing Thatcher's impact on the third world. But ask the same question about the US and thats all the thread becomes.
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Mar 13, 2017 17:26
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Jeb Bush 2012 posted:That was, in fact, the actual statement that was actually made I read it as him saying in the 1800's, when the US wasn't realistically an international power, they were more gentle. But yeah dude, literally nobody disagrees that the US has been lovely since its inception. Jeb Bush 2012 posted:hmm I wonder why people focus on the most powerful and internationally active country in the world more than any other, better get all weirdly defensive about it because any criticism of my country's foreign policy is an attack on me personally! I'm not actually being defensive, I'm on board to make fun of America and attack their foreign policy - in fact, I said pretty much all western countries have done horrible things, the US included, and I specifically wasn't diminishing criticisms of the US. It's just not really pertinent in a thread about how people view individual Americans abroad. Like, actually go re-read my post - if this thread was about Britain, we probably wouldn't have to wade through a bunch of shut-ins telling us how awful Britain is, despite Britain also having done horrible things. If anything, people lashing out wildly against the US as a whole is them being really defensive. There are a number of threads where the US' many flaws are pointed out. If people were pointing out flaws of Americans as individual people (loud, don't learn languages, etc.) then they'd be interesting. But talking about how Reagan was a criminal (he definitely was, the US has done some hosed up things) isn't really useful here.
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Mar 13, 2017 18:15
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Earwicker posted:I'm not sure what you are reading but I was responding to a person who described 19th century America as "a damned benevolent paradise compared to say the UK, France, or Prussia/Germany. Ok, fair, I was talking about internationally, but I see what you're saying. The US' hosed up history concerning its native populations is well documented and discussed on these forums. In no way am I defending the united states, I've made that repeatedly clear. I'm just actually interested in what the OP was asking about. These weird slapfights between former British colonies get really repetitive and aren't ever all that insightful.
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Mar 13, 2017 18:20
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Jeb Bush 2012 posted:American foreign policy is a huge influence on what foreigners think of the USA, which is what this thread is about Its a geographic distinction, which seems reasonable. I mean, I guess my point is - I don't disagree with any of the criticisms, I just also don't agree this is a very interesting thread to discuss those criticisms in, so calling me 'defensive' is a dumb and bad critique. But, like calling me sort of pedantic about the location of the discussion would absolutely be true. This thread had potential, instead its been 3 pages of 'did u no about iran contra?!! Lol the pledge of allegiance, they pray to a flag!!!!!!!! ' and that isn't actually insightful, and rolling your eyes at that level of 'discourse' isn't being defensive, its just a reaction to low effort hypocricy.
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Mar 13, 2017 20:38
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Earwicker posted:How is that hypocritical? The US is one of the only modern countries where masses of schoolchildren pledging their allegiance to the state is a thing. I thought it was normal when i was a kid but once I started reading history and travelling to other places I realized that it's really creepy and hosed up. The English obsession with the Queen/Royal Family is about the same thing, really. Nobody takes it that seriously unless they're already going to be weird crazy patriot people anyway. I guess I just don't understand why US citizens get blamed for their government so much more than people from other places. If someone asked an American what they thought about a British tourist, they probably wouldn't start attacking Thatcher. It's just weird to me that there's this level of vitriol, as a lot of it seems to be far more a response to the US' foreign policy, rather than to the American people themselves when that's never really true for anyone else.
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Mar 14, 2017 20:47
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So your argument is that America is more important (impactful?) than, say, England? So the policies of our officials (who are as much under our control as your officials are under yours) reflect more strongly on us?
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Mar 14, 2017 23:15
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deathbot posted:On a world-wide scale, yes! If the Australian dollar disappeared today, America wouldn't feel it much. But the American dollar is probably the most widely used currency in the world and it's the one everyone pegs their dollar to. Anything happens to the greenback - say, insane politics and a debt ceiling - and we all burn. The civil war in Somali is tragic and terrible, but we're not all automatically dragged into it or have to deal with massive political consequences from it. If America goes to war, allies are dragged in or have to deal with political fallout from refusing, and it completely changes the geopolitical landscape of that region and the world. I don't know how to put it in a sufficiently simple yet terrible metaphor. I understand that. I'm asking how its relevant to your perception of individual Americans. We have as much control over our President/Congress as you do over your governmental agencies (potentially less, at least once now the person with less votes has won the presidency because of the oddly designed system) when they do dumb things, which is to say weirdly little despite our governmental system. You don't hold that double standard for any other country, really. Even Russia and China, which have arguably similar effects on the global economy and everything don't color your perceptions of Russian and Chinese people the same way American foreign policy does.
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Mar 15, 2017 01:56
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deathbot posted:Well, I can't say much for Russia since we're about as far as you can get, but it does colour the average Australian's perception of China. Hooo boy should you see our news sometime when it comes to China, esp. foreign property developers and head honchos. But there's plenty of assumptions and stereotypes made about why the average Chinese person comes here, the policies they must support, their attitudes etc. Based on the politics of their home country. American TV just doesn't exactly go into 'The average Australian's thought on China,' and there isn't a thread on it in A/T or I imagine you'd get similar responses. Cool, what is your opinion of an average Chinese citizen? Since you're from Australia yourself. I'd love to contrast it against your earlier post about the average American.
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Mar 15, 2017 02:48
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deathbot posted:
Hey man, I'm sorry my asking questions about your opinions made you feel dictated to. I was just curious why citizens of certain countries are held totally and completely accountable for their worst politicians, while citizens of different countries are given a total pass on anything their government does, because that seems pretty crazy to me! I've been pretty open to hearing your side, and remain so!
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Mar 15, 2017 08:23
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deathbot posted:I didn't mean to sound too salty, it's just this isn't anything unusual. I's amplified by the amount of countries responding because America has its mitts in everyone's businesses 24/7, but any thread asking this about any country with a large influence and some questionable foreign policy would get any least some similar feedback about its policies. It's actually abnormal not to. And it's pretty odd to act like it's the case because everyone's only talking about America... in the thread about our thoughts on America. Its more that I've literally never seen it as a criticism of the population of any other country despite being very interested in these sort of topics. But its cool, just trying to get a better understanding of it. Lotta people got real salty, you were actually pretty reasonable. vvv lol, see? Still salty Yngwie Mangosteen fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 15, 2017 09:16
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Oxxidation posted:You see it more often in
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Mar 15, 2017 23:10
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Or you can spend $5 on reusable cups that you self fill with coffee or loose leaf tea or whatever and just reuse.
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Apr 7, 2017 15:16
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Jeb Bush 2012 posted:the idea of getting a keurig to make tea is so out there to me, an electric kettle costs a fraction of the amount and is vastly better suited for the task Some people get them from misguided extended family because they are 'coffee drinkers'. In fact I don't know anyone who has ever bought one for themselves.
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Apr 7, 2017 19:00
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Wait, do Canadians wear shoes in the house, or do they not wear them? Because almost every person I know has a no shoes in the house rule for the most part.
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Apr 13, 2017 16:32
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Earwicker posted:as do many other European countries, and I don't think the average American - conservative or otherwise - thinks of Europe as being a place lacking in it, places like Italy or Scotland or Switzerland or Croatia are popular tourist destinations for many of us for that reason. but I think that poster's comment is referring more to a 19th century mentality? Yeah, a 19th century mentality used to convince rednecks not to sell off all the public land in America to corporations.
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Apr 18, 2017 21:54
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