10 Things Most Americans Don?t Know About America

[Texas Joker 52]

In 2010, I got into a taxi in Bangkok to take me to a new six-story cineplex. It was accessible by metro, but I chose a taxi instead. On the seat in front of me was a sign with a wifi password. Wait, what? I asked the driver if he had wifi in his taxi. He flashed a huge smile. The squat Thai man, with his pidgin English, explained that he had installed it himself. He then turned on his new sound system and disco lights. His taxi instantly became a cheesy nightclub on wheels? with free wifi.

That was the one bit that really stood out to me. Not because it was in a foreign county (Though, seriously, it would have surprised me less if it did happen in America, though fuck if I've ever heard about it here), but because I didn't know you could have working disco lights in a taxi, ALONG with free wi-fi.

That is quite possibly the most awesome Taxi ever.

Spoiler: Since disco lights were mentioned...

[youtube?v=_Vj092UgKwQ]

 

[Starke]

3. We Know Nothing About The Rest Of The World

For all of our talk about being global leaders and how everyone follows us, we don?t seem to know much about our supposed ?followers.? Here were some brain-stumpers for me: the Vietnamese believe the Vietnam War was about China (not us), Hitler was primarily defeated by Russia (not us), Native Americans were wiped out by a plague (not us), and the American Revolution was ?won? because the British cared more about beating France (not us). Notice a running theme here?

(Hint: It?s not all about us.)

Honestly, on that point they're kind of very right. At least from an American foreign policy angle. US intervention in Vietnam as early as 1945 was based on a political theory called "The Domino Effect", you can look it up if you're so inclined. The short version is: Once a country turns communist, (specifically Soviet Autocracy, but no one in a policy capacity during the Cold War seemed to understand that was something very different), adjacent countries will also turn communist, and then those adjacent to them.

At the time it was feared that should South East Asia fall under Soviet influence, and yes, they believed it was Soviet influence, not Chinese, that it would set off a chain reaction of communist states that would propagate until hit hit the "bulwarks" of Australia and... I think Iran, though it may have simply been "the Middle East". (I can dig up the detailed quote if anyone cares).

There was of course a critical distinction that the US missed at the time. China and the Soviet Union were not really one and the same. So, while it was actually Chinese support that they were afraid of, they threw it under the umbrella with the Soviet Union.

The Vietnamese themselves did have bigger issues though. Starting in the 20s or 30s, they engaged in one war to expel foreign invaders after another. Up to WWII it was the French, during WWII, the Japanese invaded, and from 1945 to ~1954 (IIRC), it was the French again. It was only after the French finally had their nose bloodied enough that they finally staggered off.

Bonus points, in that Vietnam had been invaded, historically, by China about once a century, which gave them a pretty solid background for being annoyed with, and repelling foreign invaders.

The rest of those facts though, have about as much relation to reality as Charlie Sheen on a good day.

 

[Sectan]

Was I the only one reminded of this when reading through that?

I'm 'Merican and I just LOVED that clip. I wish someone would actually say that on live television.

 

[DJjaffacake]

Shnip

I'm calling Poe on this post. The phonetic spelling of a thick American accent is the clincher.

 

[Elate]

Honestly, that was all a load of crap. People were nice to him because he's a tourist, people are /always/ nice to tourists in nearly any country.

The rest? most of that applies to every first world country too..

The only glaringly obvious one is the health care, and if Obama gets his way, that will be fixed.

 

[Gluzzbung]

Almost everybody I know (American) know all of these things.....

He did say about exceptions and not to flood the comments with them, so congratulations on reading the article. (Also, working on your grammar might be advisable, Almost everybody I know (American) knows* these things)

From the perspective of an Englishman, I was quite fascinated by this as the entirety of Britain is subjected, also, to propaganda about how awful the rest of the world is and how we should all give to charity because we're significantly better off than the rest of the world. There's poverty in every country and a few pounds every month won't change that because it's not a problem that can be solved by just clucking our tongues and giving a donation.

Also, I found it quite interesting that most of the things highlighted are less of an issue with the government or the economy (although they are often linked to the problems) but are problems grown more out of culture and the information that is forced into Americans as they live with the system.

 

[Eddie the head]

[
You cry very very easily. That's one thing I've always found incredibly fascinating. Of course this is going by TV depictions of American people so for all I know it was probably set up to get the people who cry easily on camera to begin with, in which case I'm horribly wrong.

EDIT: I'm really drunk so I kinda skimmed over the OP....and by "skimmed over" I mean "skipped altogether" so my bad if this has already been brought up.

Lets see the last person I knew who cried was. . . Umm . . . Not on TV? My 9 year old cousin that was 5? 6? Years ago? I wouldn't say we cry a lot.

 

[Kurt Cristal]

I don't want to live in this country anymore.

But in all seriousness, this reaffirmed a lot of my suspicions. I've always had this sillu idea in the back of my head to visit (and later move to) another country. But it's not a silly idea, is it? I now more than ever would like to visit other countries, and really feel out the culture. On my hit list are the Netherlands, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Hong-Kong, Singapore, and Macau. They sound like fun and I already know just smidge about each, but I'd love to know more. So congrats topic, you inspired me to travel more.

 

[Reishadowen]

A corollary to this list:
Not every American is George W. Bush.
Not every American mortgages their house seven times to buy luxury cars.
Not every American eats McDonald's every meal until we resemble their purple mascot.
Not every American is a redneck.

Overall, I sensed some undeniable truth in this list, especially the part about relationships, but it felt more like a personal tangent and venting the old, "Everything that's wrong with this country!" blurb.

A final note, and to the paranoia: September 11th and the following threats terrorists in the middle east declared gave us a pretty good reason to be on guard. If another country paraded in the streets, shouting for the death of your country on a weekly basis, you'd be a bit unsettled yourself.

 

[The White Hunter]

The guarded emotions are probably something we inherited from our British forefathers and with an extra helping of homophobia. I remember a rather nasty incident - in Brooklyn I think - where two brothers from Ecuador had their affection mistaken for romantic affection and were beaten (one of them to death, IIRC).

Not just from your British forefathers, 'excessive' dispalys of affection are not done in most of Northern Europe (UK, Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia), though we seem to be getting more open about stuff like that.

Yeah generally in northern Europe it isn't so common, I've been around Germany, Switzerland and Sweden and never really experienced very openly affectionate people, very nice people, but not openly affectionate. I've also met alot of eastern Europeans who also didn't really express too much open affection.

Whereas when I've been to France, Spain and Greece I've noticed people are alot more openly affectionate and much less guarded as people. Those were the most alien places to me. being from a relatively poor and sparseley populated area of northwest England, they differed the most from my homeland (which I sorely desire to gather the funds to leave).

Here in the UK I can definitely say open affection is very uncommon to see outside of closed circles. Or it's a different kind of affection, my relatives in the highlands laud you with cake and coffee and whisky when you visit it's crazy i have to diet whenever we go...

 

[masticina]

Every country has its whoes and issues

But well yeah it is nice if one KNOWS their weaknesses. Acknowledges them and fixes them.

To keep the peace I will not begin about abstinence only education, just a symptom of a much much bigger issue.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Soooo...it's an OP that's about how America is makes blatant narrow-minded generalizations about the rest of the world and dictates how everyone else should behave...by making blatant narrow-minded generalizations about Americans and telling them how they should behave?

Classy.

 

[ElPatron]

Generalisations.

Generalizations as far as the eye can see.

From sea to shining sea.

Yeah? Congratulations on your reading comprehension. Now why do I get the feeling you somehow think that generalizations are inherently evil?

Generalizations and anecdotal evidence are worthless. Everyone has them, and everyone has different life experiences.

Now, this is not inherently evil. The problem is that the author was trying to disprove generalizations... with more generalizations. Not really impressive

I thought this would be something informative. . I was wrong. Instead it's just another article knocking on Americans, in a more disguised manner than some others.

So admitting that America has a few problems and that many things are often exaggerated and fed to the populace is hating America?

Wow.

Today my worst nightmare is to be arrested by the police(and beaten)

That doesn't happen if you're white. If you're not white, keep one of those traffic cameras on your car and sue the state for police brutality AND racism.

Also, if you don't want to be beaten don't reach for a gun or any kind of weapon if the police is around, and don't do drugs. Sounds simple enough, right? Let's not mention that the police can't just stop and search you on the street so you should be fine.

Just watch this.

 

[ElPatron]

Not every American is a redneck.

What you mean is: not everyone in the world lives in the countryside.

Your rednecks are. just. like. any. stereotype.

I mean, don't the British have something about shepherds shagging sheep? In my country we all think they are slow and lazy (AH! European Mexicans! They even have the Latino mustaches & tan !).

It's not bad being a redneck. Some people are proud, some people are stupidly proud and some have popcorn bags as fire alarms and half a 55 gallon drum on top of burning logs as their jacuzzi. But that doesn't mean that they are all bad people that will burn the homosexuals and shoot Obama for being a Muslim.

I think it's more fair to say "Not everyone American is a Wall Street yuppie destroying the world from his office in NYC". I fear them, not the rednecks.

 

[Something Amyss]

If you're not white, keep one of those traffic cameras on your car and sue the state for police brutality AND racism.

Unless you live in a state like Massachusetts, in which case filming the cops is illegal.

 

[Something Amyss]

I thought this would be something informative. . I was wrong. Instead it's just another article knocking on Americans, in a more disguised manner than some others.

Gist of Article: "America, you need to get over yourselves."

Your response: "Someone's bashing America!"

I think you may be proving the point here, at least a little.

 

[ElPatron]

Unless you live in a state like Massachusetts, in which case filming the cops is illegal.

Another reason not to like Massachusetts? Wow, they are really trying hard to rustle my jimmies.

 

[Olas]

This is just a list of common American stereotypes, none of these are new to me nor are any of them true for more than half of us.
America's a big place, within it's confines are nearly every earth biome, every type of city, culture, and lifestyle, nearly every extreme is represented here somewhere. The United States is less like a single country and more like a miniature continent. Some of us are conservative, some of us are liberal, some live in slums, some in suburbs, some of us love our country, and some of us loath it.
I don't see the point in making such sweeping generalizations.