Sorry but no, as a fellow Brit I refuse to allow our country to take responsibility for America being created.Dandark said:Yes you are all evil monsters that we British foolishly released upon the world but the day soon approaches when we take back our colonies with musket and impractical hat!.
Honestly I'm surprised that a Brit had the crassness to go up to someone and insult them like that. Didn't they get the memo that you're supposed to be strictly polite to the people you hate and insult your closest friends? That's the done thing.Frankster said:Unless you are the secret monarch of the USA who rules behind the scenes and the rest of your class was part of your high council, then that guy is a twat and had no right to speak to you like that.
I've heard this one brought up before and its always made a lot of sense to me.beastro said:What people today view as American pro-war mentality is simply their unrealistic desire to have one war settle one dispute and then have the matter be dropped so they don't have to spill anymore blood over it. It's silly and the biggest curse from both Vietnam and WWII where they learned bad lessons in both from both Victory Disease and being overly traumatized by war.
Or just that the question was direct about whether the US was seen as violent or not. If the same question was asked about the UK, I would answer, "Fuck yeah". In the city/suburbs hearing sirens every 10 mins you would think we were the crime capital of Europe. Then there are football hooliganism who are both violent and racist (see Chelsea Paris story). Also the drinking fights that happens when people decide to binge drink and don't know when to stop. And lastly, the UK history itself with fights between the Irish, the Scottish, people from Liverpool, the French, the Spanish, the world pretty much. Yeah, violence is in UK's history and the US may have taken some of that from their parents.kyp275 said:it's rather amusing how many in this thread wrap themselves in the clothes of moral superiority while using the logical reasoning long used by racists and bigots to justify their views on those "vile, barbaric Americans".
But please do carry on.
Not to mention that Midsomer place that has all those increasingly weird and elaborate murders.Parasondox said:Or just that the question was direct about whether the US was seen as violent or not. If the same question was asked about the UK, I would answer, "Fuck yeah". In the city/suburbs hearing sirens every 10 mins you would think we were the crime capital of Europe.
Yeah that place is a no go zone. I do not know why people still choose to go to Midsomer. Damn Brits!!thaluikhain said:Not to mention that Midsomer place that has all those increasingly weird and elaborate murders.Parasondox said:Or just that the question was direct about whether the US was seen as violent or not. If the same question was asked about the UK, I would answer, "Fuck yeah". In the city/suburbs hearing sirens every 10 mins you would think we were the crime capital of Europe.
And you might have a point if I weren't able to simply pull all these from this thread alone:Parasondox said:Or just that the question was direct about whether the US was seen as violent or not. If the same question was asked about the UK, I would answer, "Fuck yeah". In the city/suburbs hearing sirens every 10 mins you would think we were the crime capital of Europe. Then there are football hooliganism who are both violent and racist (see Chelsea Paris story). Also the drinking fights that happens when people decide to binge drink and don't know when to stop. And lastly, the UK history itself with fights between the Irish, the Scottish, people from Liverpool, the French, the Spanish, the world pretty much. Yeah, violence is in UK's history and the US may have taken some of that from their parents.kyp275 said:it's rather amusing how many in this thread wrap themselves in the clothes of moral superiority while using the logical reasoning long used by racists and bigots to justify their views on those "vile, barbaric Americans".
But please do carry on.
People here are also admitting their own nations faults, so it's not all, "vile barbaric Americans". Careful how you use the terms "racist" and "bigot", now.
The rest is generally a mixture of "Well, I don't know/never been there/from the movies/I heard somewhere" + "yea, America is terrible" with the occasional sprinkling of "MY people would never do that!". Tell me, how is that any different than the typical "Eww, don't you know what those (insert race/ethnicity/religion) people are like??" line from bigots?- "I refuse to set foot on US soil, as far as I'm concerned everyone has guns, and guns kill people. And people there (as far as I hear) are violent and intolerant."
- "I think you're bloody psychopaths. I won't even go to America because I'm afraid I'll get shot. Your cops are racist, state-sponsored murderers and half your people think a gun is more important than a child's life." Blah blah blah goes on to compare the US with child rapists and killers
- "It seems a culture that glorifies power. Be it through threat of violence, oney or other means. With a decent bit of paranoia throw in that others seek to take said power for themselves"
- "When I was in America, I was extremely aware that every single cop is a bloody threat and if I act strange, they will shoot and kill me without a single worry." This after proclaiming how he never felt threatened by cops in China, ironically is actually a state apparatus that regularly kills/imprison/disappears political dissidents. Why don't you try to advocate for the Falun Gung in China, let's see how non-threatening those cops are while they're breaking your legs, or worse?
- "The collective American conscience has a gun fetish, invades other countries for business profits, kills a black person every 9 hours, and only cares about the rich."
Ahhhhhh shit. I can't defend all of that. I see what you mean. Getting examples about a country from movies and other parts of media doesn't paint the picture of what the american people and culture are like. If that were the case, I would assume everyone in India sang every 10 minutes and break out into a dance sequence. Damn, Bollywood is fun.kyp275 said:And you might have a point if I weren't able to simply pull all these from this thread alone:
The rest is generally a mixture of "Well, I don't know/never been there/from the movies/I heard somewhere" + "yea, America is terrible" with the occasional sprinkling of "MY people would never do that!". Tell me, how is that any different than the typical "Eww, don't you know what those (insert race/ethnicity/religion) people are like??" line from bigots?- "I refuse to set foot on US soil, as far as I'm concerned everyone has guns, and guns kill people. And people there (as far as I hear) are violent and intolerant."
- "I think you're bloody psychopaths. I won't even go to America because I'm afraid I'll get shot. Your cops are racist, state-sponsored murderers and half your people think a gun is more important than a child's life." Blah blah blah goes on to compare the US with child rapists and killers
- "It seems a culture that glorifies power. Be it through threat of violence, oney or other means. With a decent bit of paranoia throw in that others seek to take said power for themselves"
- "When I was in America, I was extremely aware that every single cop is a bloody threat and if I act strange, they will shoot and kill me without a single worry." This after proclaiming how he never felt threatened by cops in China, ironically is actually a state apparatus that regularly kills/imprison/disappears political dissidents. Why don't you try to advocate for the Falun Gung in China, let's see how non-threatening those cops are while they're breaking your legs, or worse?
- "The collective American conscience has a gun fetish, invades other countries for business profits, kills a black person every 9 hours, and only cares about the rich."
Malicious? Outside of a few, no. Ignorant? Absolutely.
From where I stand the behavior of many in here is no different than one who after reading a few news reports and a couple movies about urban crimes decided that African Americans are all violent criminals or all Latinos are gang members. That is the level of ignorance displayed in here.
I live in the US. I've lived in a few cities(not huge ones) but have mostly lived in small towns. You're pretty much as safe as any other country if you stick to small towns. Worst crime we've had here in my town this year was someone using counterfeit money. It's mainly big cities like NYC or Chicago that give a bad rap for the rest of the country. Not to mention school shootings. US does have it's issues, but it's not like the wild west here or anything. I do agree there needs to be stricter gun laws, but the perception that it's too dangerous to travel here is a bit much. Yeah, gun violence can happen anywhere in the US, but it's uncommon in smaller towns.Elvis Starburst said:Oh yeah. I'm flat out freaked out to even go to the US, lest I run the risk of going to a place that's slightly worse than another and get my face shot. But there's a lot more to the US than violence that makes me not wanna go there ever. Now, relax with any pitchforks you might have. Yes, I am certain you folks have some amazing people, just like any country would. But, after seeing and hearing plenty of things, I'm afraid it's left a rather un-impressive perspective on the country itself. Your government is doing absolutely fuck all to improve that perspective as well. And the wars. And the gun control. And the... etc etc etc
With regard to the first two points (Anti-Sex, Pro-Guns/War), I think you're making the assumption that U.S. citizens are wholly represented by Christian Conservatives. From what I've seen living the vast majority of my life in a political swing state (or "purple" state; one that doesn't consistently vote for Democrats or Republicans) - most of us around here think those people are completely bonkers too. They're just the loudest voice in the country right now. This is partly because they themselves are extremely loud and obnoxious, but also because they're such easy targets for the opposition to take jabs at - meaning that pretty much everyone is constantly putting their bullshit at the forefront of the news. I wouldn't even say that they're representative of the Republican party as a whole, though it does spend an awful lot of time pandering to them (because their party is ridiculously fractured, and needs them to be able to compete with the considerably less fractured Democrats).Pluvia said:Hmmm Americans tend to demonise sex. It goes beyond "not putting it on display", they tend to react badly to their children even being taught about sex (compared to European countries) for example. They have a very love/hate relationship with it.
Violence on the other hand, well their 2nd Amendment is about giving everyone the right to carry around weapons designed for killing, and their culture is very pro-war. I did hear about one strange thing recently though.
Apparently, despite being pro-war, when soldiers are killed in an American war it isn't headline news over there.
Honest to god, I am scared to visit your country!chuckman1 said:snip
The news is kinda the problem there. There's no such thing as journalistic integrity these days. Televised and especially print news are hurting for profits, so they only run stories that are 'shocking' (or pandering; most "news" produced in my country now has a huge amount of political bias - it's not just Fox doing it) because that's what gets higher ratings. It's crazy manipulative, and creates a pretty unrealistically negative image of the country as a whole.omega 616 said:... but the news that comes out of your country and the actions of your government make me fear you!
I don't know about that. When you have a war that's been going on for like 10+ years, hearing about casualties becomes routine, unless its someone you know or from you hometown.Pluvia said:I wouldn't really say that soldiers dying is routine and not out of the ordinary. War isn't ordinary. People dying in some foreign land in the name of your country isn't ordinary. If soldiers died here in the UK their faces were all over TV and newspapers, because war isn't mundane.Zetatrain said:Should it? I mean soldiers dying in war is routine and nothing out of the ordinary. And whether or not your culture is pro and anti-war, the mundane and ordinary typically isn't headline worthy (at least on a national scale).