Here Today... Gone To Hell!

This is a question for Non-U.S. users such as Jarmo and others...

What is your general opinion on us americans? Do you think we're more stupid than you guys? Or do you guys look up to us?

Too bad this question isn't open to us Canadians... :P

I know people who hate the Americans simply because of George Bush.
I don't hate Americans, but I do think most of them are too proud of themselves. I've met Americans who also think that US is the best and fuck the rest.

Not saying it's all of you, cos I do know some really nice Americans who are nothing like that.

Okay, I changed it from European users to non-u.s. users.  : ok:

Americans dont know where they live.. or where is Canada :hihi:

Haha, yeah I don't hate Americans or America.  They're people, so naturally you have the good and the bad... the ones that I've spoken with are generally nice.  Except for the ones who call Comcast customer service... haha...  Seriously though, I hate what the American government is doing with the rest of the world, that's all.  America's international knowledge and relations need to improve a little bit, I think.  I don't look at Americans as stupid or smart people, they have a lot of knowledge.  From my experiences though, American media and education are almost entirely focussed on what goes on in the country, or involves the country.  I don't blame Americans for that, it's a major principle of capitalism to put one's nation first.  I just wish people gained more education on what goes on in the rest of the world and were open to different cultures, that's all.   :peace:

Accurate or otherwise, the media portrays Americans as arrogant, naive, greedy, ultra conservative and ultra nationalistic

And scared of everything

I doubt you'll find many who 'look up' to America

Its very easy to forget that its largely the US government that are the idiots - but they are only there because people keep voting for them...

I'll go along with Izzy in that American politicians make the rest of the country look bad and that the media portrays a very negative image of America.  The really scary thing is that a lot of our media coverage comes from America, so really they're doing it themselves.

Americans tend to be full of self importance for me, and think everywhere else is shit.

They aint stupid but alot of people don't like them cos o G W Bush

Hope this doesn't turn into a political thread.  :hihi:

But, as a u.s. citizen that a lot of us aren't too proud of Bush's actions either. His last 2 approval ratings were at 34 and 35 percent.

As an American I am ashamed of our image worldwide and embarrassed of the actions of our govt.  But lets remeber W didn't win by very many votes in either election so it is not like the country just loves W and we are all conservitives.  Although it does look like we are on our way to becoming a facist theocracy.

We may have already arrived....................

No, don't say that. I was just gonna make Espresso.

It is even more pronounced where you live...............you should know that.

You got it. Alot of it has to do with freedoms that went away due to the Patriot Act.  The Government knows how to take away these rights, but American citizens will never get them back.

Yeah, I know a little bit but I don't pay too much attention to politics. Too involved in what a fantastic year of music 2006 will be.

But anybody with a t.v., radio or internet should know that there is something scary about Bush's actions while he has been president. Especially over the last 2 years or so.

Most disturbing was the lack of outrage over the wiretapping.

As long as there is another blond haired girl that has been kidnapped to keep us occupied...........that seems to be the only news we care to hear.

You kind of made my point from my above post.

Media is basically owned by one (church) group in your city. That way, nothing bad can be said about the church.

TV, Print, and Radio all have one common theme: the church. Everything comes back to them, no matter what the story. The (state and local) government can break the law as they see fit on many different levels and even if they are found guilty of it in court, they ignore the ruling and press on (ACLU vs State of Utah comes to mind.)

Sound like anybody else you can think of?

Anyways..........enjoy your music this year.

As a matter of fact, it does remind me of something. No use bringing up what because, as usual, we are on the same page and the same team here.  : ok:

That and Brangelina, Tomkat, and the rest of Hollywood that the supposed "liberal media" bows down to.

I don't really look up to any nationality...

Most countries have something good about them and then some bad things.

I know there are some ignorant Americans, but we got ignorant people over here too.




/jarmo

This bugs me as an American.? We (the world) should be seen as equals.?

americans are fat and lazy

I agree. We should be but we're not. There isn't one country that views all of it's citizens as equals in my opinion.


The most inspiring message of this thread.

Hey I'm not fat!

If the world was a neighborhood america would be the neighbor with the nicest front yard on the block, who stands on his lawn and yells: My Yard is the BEST!!

But the back yard is a dump.

You are only half right.............


LOL..........

Thats a good one!?


Im not fat.?And I'm only lazy on the weekends.

Everyone is lazy on the weekends.  :hihi:

I've had nothing but good experiences with Americans. I mean some of them are full of self importance and are extremely arrogent, but it's no big deal - there are arrogent people here, as well.

I do think that they can be ignorant in regards to world issues, and I also get the impression that a lot of them think that other countries/people do look up to them, and at this stage in time I don't think that could be further from the truth.

Generally though, I like the yanks  :peace:

SLC, wouldn't you say that is happening all over the country now?  Certain media groups are developing monopolies, like Clear Channel, and use their power to control what information is broadcast.  For example, prior to the election, no anti-bush comments were made on clear channel stations.  The head of Clear Channel is close personal friends with the Bush family.  That's just one example. Mergers keep happening, particularly in the media and it seems that soon one organization could control virutally everything.  That's dangerous, but we ignore it.  It bothers me that American's don't get outraged when any of our freedoms are taken away, since that is a fundamental part of being American.  But we just keep handing over our own power and asking the government to decide what's best for us, what we should read, view, think, how to raise our kids.  Its insane.  But I'll stop ranting, else I might get too political.

On topic, I don't get upset when I hear some other country thinks poorly of us.  For one, at times we deserve it (i.e. we elected (sort of) George Bush).  But also because its not like we don't believe in some unfair stereotypes of people from other countries.  Just ask what most American's think of the French, or Mexicans, or Africans.  On second thought don't...then you'll see some real ignorance. 

I do absolutely.

But it is even more so in that city/state I think. It's a good ten years ahead of where we sit now with our media (believe it or not.)

While our federal branch caters to corporate powers that be, the state of Utah caters only to the church. The newspaper that did run none-too-happy articles about the church was consumed in a hostile take over (by guess who?) Now, nobody says anything bad about the church in that valley. Thou shall not fuck with the church.......

If you "complain" about it, or speak up the common reply is "If you don't like it here, then you can leave."

Similar to the Koolaid pre-war Mantra..........

But when major shit goes down somewhere in the world, the fat and lazy always come to help...

... whether they're wanted or not  ;)

Hate Americans... All of them. With no exceptions... You guys.. with your cable tv's and what nots... You make me sick. And McDonalds and Startbucks! Hate you hate you hate you. And indians! you should give them the land... you know. for casinos, and like.. yeah.

People are stupid no matter where they come from. All of them. No exceptions.

some people are just less stupid than others...  :P

haha great reply.  Last year I spent 5 months travelling to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.  In not one of those countries did anyone care that I was American - infact most people seemed to make a few jokes here and there about the US but all in good fun.  Most natives of all those countries said every American they had met was really nice, friendly and extremely polite and courteous.  Infact, and I am just saying this b/c I heard it MANY times from native Kiwis and Aussies, a lot of the canadians travelling were perceived as assholes b/c they went OUT OF THEIR WAY to let people know they were not from the US and to trash it routinely and brag about how much better Canada was.  I thought that was pretty funny.  But I met a lot of very cool Canucks who weren't like that all.

Its obvious our foreign policy and political leaders have helped shaped the worlds view of us.  I don't think we were hated as much when Clinton was the pres.

Well, I dont know you're exact location, but I assure you if the Russians or the Chinese invaded your borders, the first call your country would make would be to the "fat and lazy". : ok:

Its that kind of attitude that pisses a lot of non-US people off in the first place.....yeah, our military kicks ass...too bad its all in the desert though.  If another country called us, nobody would be home to pick up.  Russia is in no shape to be invading anyone these days anyways. (no offense to you ruskies out there). 

Why would that "attitude" piss people off? I think its a good thing that alot of people can sleep at night knowing that there is a country powerful enough to attempt to save them if something horrible happens. Never said Russia would invade anybody. I just used a big power as an example. Even Euro powers would need our help in a catastrophe. They have their own military, and they are good ones, but they will still pick up the hotline to the U.S. when they need to.

 The Balkan catastrophe is a perfect example. The world hadnt seen that type of horror since World War II. It was a bad situation, and Europe(and the US) didnt really know how to handle the situation at the time, and it spread. Clinton(for awhile) let Europe try and deal with it instead, and that did not work at all. When we finally decided to be the leader in the situation, Clinton united France, Britain(and a couple others) behind us, and we went into Kosovo and Serbia and pounded their asses into submission. Russia even threatened World War III over the bombings, but Clinton didnt let that phase him one bit. He even laughed at the russian comments.

Trying to act like the US doesnt help people, or is hated all over the world, is a fucking joke.



By the way, our whole military isnt in "the desert". You believe too much liberal propoganda. If/When the next disaster occurs, we will be there in a new york minute while continuing to fight the Iraq quagmire.

That sure is the truth James  :peace:

dont you mean the disposables?

chinese? like tibet you mean? russians? like afghanistan?

i dont think so

Okay... please try to stay on topic, and don't get political.

Americans... Not America as a nation.

Yeah, our health care sucks, education is embarrassing, the middle class get stepped on, the poor get screwed, while the rich are taken care of.... but if you piss us off we will blow you the fuck up!

We can take over a whole other country in two weeks but we can't find the money to fix a friggin levy. I'm so proud we have our priorities in order.

But it could be worse... we could be Canadians :hihi:

i agree, americans are lazy.

that's why the chinese, indians, etc. come here and are so successful. they are the total opposite. they work their asses off and account for a very high percentage of the population at all the best schools.

(MODS: can i assume the ban on political threads is over??)

i always thought Markus Asraelius was greek .... maybe i'm thinkin of someone else.

anyway.
i'm afraid of americans.

I love America, I love this country, but sometimes I admit the Americans are dumb, it's like " We are American and the rest of the world doesn't exist for us".
Just an exemple about music: Why the hell do the Americans always speak about record sales just in their country? It's incredible, instead of speaking worldwide like everybody, they just speak about their own domestic market. It's quite disrespectfull toward the others, and selfish. We don't exist? Hey, do you think people don't buy records in Europe, South America or Asia? It's like "Appetite sold 15 million copies it's incredible", hey no, AFD sold 27 million copies for me, 27 million copies worldwide of course, it seems natural to speak about a worldwide point of vue for me.

However, I like the way you are proud to be who you are, proud of your country, it's nationalism, but in a good way, it's not the same meaning in Europe where nationalism is seen as a bad thing.

Are you David Bowie?? :nervous: :nervous: I was wondering that same thing. This thread has went on long enough for the mods to see the political tone in it.


EDIT: I just noticed Skeba's warning not to get political. So the rule still applies.

we are all cousins anyways( Im Finnish/swedish livin in the US, grandparents came over  :peace: )

computer=us
cars=us
space flight=us
airplanes=us
and on and on and on

lets just all get along

Nope. You can just try and stay clear of discussing anything too political.

Americans = the American people. Not their politics.

As in,

I've found them to be top quality people.

/

They're total utter bastards!

You should be.

I'm pointing a freedom fry at you right now..............




The majority of people that become millionaires in the USA now are not born here. All you have to do is watch a Mexican work two jobs/seven days a week to believe that. Those who come here, appreciate it more then most of us and take the bull by the horns ASAP.

also americans are racist towards each other.. poor african americans

Classic!


Hey, we hate everyone equally, pal.
 

And it's not "fat" anymore, it's "American".........

"That kid sure is "American" isn't he?"

I dont think our education sucks.. but im from Iowa our standards are quite higher then the rest of the country.. dont blame the federal govt for your state goverments mistakes

Well, it is the US GOVT's responsibility. No child left behind bill (which is a joke), ring a bell?

States with smaller populations usually are better off than the rest of the country.

I hate Bush.

Now on the general public. I've never met a descent American in my life. To be honest i really hate all the ones i've met. they're rude, arrogant and selfish. THAT ISN'T TO SAY ALL OF THEM ARE LIKE THAT THOUGH!!!!! As for the ones i've seen on reality tv shows i think they're far more foolish (ON SHOWS SUCH AS BIG BROTHER) and over the top to the point it's hysterical.

THAT DOESN'T MEAN I DISLIKE OR HATE ALL AMERICANS THOUGH!!

too be honest Americans dont have the best image here in UK. People make fun of them all the time especially the mormons. A lot of us think that Americans think America rocks and everywhere else is crap. Not necessarily true. Also, about way over the top attitude, american history suggest the over the top attitude such as McCarthyism and the Red Scare. it seems to us in America despite it all tries to be ONE NATION it still seems the same people are discriminating against each other such as arguments between Irish catholics and Protestants, there's still slight hostility. I feel there's still far too much discrimination between black and white americans as well. Whether or not it's total truth i do not know but this seems the image i'm getting and many other people.?

I get the impression that majority of Americans aren't very clever as the majority according to Michael Moore didn't know where certain major countries were when given a blank map. I know that there are some good some bad but that really for a lot of people put Americans into perspective for a lot of people.

You know, it is a real shame you feel that way, Sakib.

I know you say you're not talking about all americans, but that post was like the kids who post on the main boards who start out saying "I love Axl, but..." then they procede to rip him apart.

Most Americans do not like Bush, and there is a large percentage of Americans who don't vote because they feel their is no one to vote for in a presidential election. That's why a third party is going to emerge very soon.

Your view on americans is a little warped. What you posted is the reason why a lot of Americans have a warped view of Europe. Like the snobbish, elitist, holier than though attitude they feel is directed towards them. The door swings both ways.

As for judging us through reality TV and a Michael Moore documentary, that really makes me very disappointed. If you think anyone on reality TV represents the whole of Americans you are mistaken. Everyone on those shows are not being real. It's TV for Christ sakes! People are acting so they can become stars! As for Michael Moore; I am left leaning independent, and I can tell you MM is basically full of shit. He has some good points but he fabricates a lot to get his point across. If I made a documentary about Britain I could make you seem anyway I wanted. It's all in the editing :hihi:

And your image of our racial attitudes is really sad. There are as many racist in our country as there are in every other country around the world. I could sit here and argue the great points about this country, but then I'd seem like another flag waving, mindless zombie, the exact image people have of us that offends me... so believe what you want. Just have an open mind. 

When I went to America I was amazed how friendly everyone was.  That was a while ago, but it shows that you can't judge a country's people without going there and meeting them yourself.  I'd love to go again - in fact I will definately go again.

The way America is represented on the telly is really, really annoying.  It's all so damn patriotic, it makes me feel ill.

Well i love america and i would like to emigrate (legally) there i would go tomorrow if my partner was up for it. Ive found most of the american people ive dealt with to be quite normal just the same as everyone else in the world countries are depicted by their governments not there residents and most governments are corupt somewhere down the line (not to be discussed further)   

When people don't vote that is the kind of "leader" we get.


*******

Even with its warts this country is awesome. It is bitterly divided right now and that is a shame. But when you get down to a more human level I think most Americans I come across all want to be good to one another.

I remember being miles out on a hike (at the Grand Canyon) and out of water, sitting on a rock. Wondering if I was going to be ok. A stranger came along, saw me, and offered me his water.  I think most Americans are like that: they want to help if they can.

I do think most Americans are stretched financially as a result of being inside a marketing bubble their entire life. They know no other life. From the beginning we are fed history books that leave out anything bad our government has done and only shows us as fighters for democracy. The news is pretty much the same way, and feeds the propaganda machine and instills a blind patriotism in many.

Arrogance is another issue and I think we have become an arrogant bunch. Doesn't really matter the socioeconomic background, everybody has kind of turned into the king of the world lately. Large SUV sales are kind of a physical example of this "condition" I think. I feeling of grandeur and self importance sitting high above others; ignoring the reality of their finances or the interest rate they paid for the bling bling; retirement savings be damned.

Again I think when they superficial aspects of American culture are stripped away you see a more genuine human emerge. Tragic events such as 9-11 also strip us down and expose who we are instead of who we pretend to be on a daily basis. It was a shame that it did not last after that horrible day.

I hold that glimpses of random kindness and compassion are what most of us are, when those chances present themselves.

you muppet! I didn't say all those things is how i've felt. I've always had bad experiences with Americans. Secondly, i didn't "judge" from Michael Moore and reality tv shows, i'm talking about everyone other than me too. To be honest i've just hit a bad experience with them. I didnt say they were fools

btw, i dont care wot people think of nations simply because i'm not patriotic or prejudice in least for any country

well , stereotypes are always bullshit, so any biased views on any countries are bullshit as well.

however, the way the american governement and parts of the american society act doesn`t make it easy to like america i think.  i know that there are many americans against bush, but he was voted two times..... and people who abstained from voting are responsible for him being president as well, so that`s no excuse imo....

in some cases i think bush is the right person though. somebody should stop the iran from getting the atomic bomb. i don`t think any country can justify that possession, but i think some countries are able to handle it in a more responsible way than others....

i think obeseness caused by unhealthy food is a big problem in your society as well, but since i`m not living in your country i can`t really judge on that...but a friend of mine went to america almost a year ago and you can see what kind of food she seems to prefer over there ;)

another point that i think is different from germany(well, the part where i live of course) is that people seem to be much more cordial, but relationships don`t seem to be that deep...

and people in germany are more into nature conservation, what i really appreciate.  the US behaves very arrogant in that matter (kyoto agreement......energy use in general..), but i think that`s caused by the size of your country....you know, ripping one place off and moving to the next one ( don`t take this one too literally, please)

but don`t get me wrong, i don`t hate america or anything like that. there`re just many things i don`t like....but that applies to my country as well.  my aunt lived in america for several years and i visited her there :peace:

Please, don't use the word "liberal" as if its an insult - typical republican/conservative response when you know you're wrong.  I didn't say the US doesn't help people/countries in need - infact I think we are underappreciated by most of the world with all of the aid we give.  However, my point was that that attitude implies that countries can't defend themselves.  Have you travelled to many foreign countries?  All the ones I've been to have been EXTREMELY proud of their military, even the smaller countries I've been too.  And as for us being "hated all over the world"...never said that we were!??!?  But if you think we are beloved... :hihi: , please.  Infact, towards the begining of the war in Iraq, every poll I saw said that most of the world did think we sucked, in the muslim world it was even higher.  There are plenty of countires who while still taking a hand out from us, still hate our guts. 
And if you really think our military isn't spread thin you are severely mistaken.  If war broke out in Korea, we'd be screwed to help the south out - at least with a troop presence.  Military quotas for new sign ups are WAY down and the militarys image as a career is in the toilet.  And thats not "liberal propoganda" its simply the truth.  I would also assume that a lot of troopers are leaving the military once their service is done (no fact there, just an assumption, I actually hope I'm wrong). 
With Bush banging on the war drums while pointing at Iran, do you REALLY think we could fight another war in the middle east? 

after reading some posts from jameslofton and various other posters, i have to add my opinion about the great, powerful american army.

did it ever occur to you that the american army never won a war against an equipollent adversary?

No. No. No!

We're not getting into politics.

ok   i`ll stop right now

i understand now why politics are banned from this section... :hihi:

America won several wars against Great Britian who were stronger at the time, and won the cold war with USSR. Also the Japanese in WWII. Many opponents could be considered equipollent. Iraq in 1991 was considered the 3rd strongest military, and that war ended within weeks.

jabba2, what part of no politics did you not understand??