Your opinion of my country (USA)

[Ask The Geezer]

>>Violence however is freely shown without hesitation in the U.S.

Fake violence is freely shown in the US. Hollywood violence. Real violence is not shown at all. In Mexico and the Central American countries I've been to recently, shootings and assasinations are shown with the bodies, brains, blood and gore right there. All they show here is the spot it happened, and after the bods are gone and the blood washed away.

[gerbick]

the news shows enough real violence.

[XU1]

Gerbs, one of those sheilas looks like a bloke in drag.

Tony

[swampy]

personal views on the part of your country I have visited:

- The TV is crap, it has too many adverts. There are five minutes of
TV and then 10 minutes of adverts.

- There is a huge market for pharmacutical drugs in your country. Every other advert is for some sort of wonder drug for anything from heartburn to a runny nose. Drug stores (pharmacists) are HUGE. You must rattle with the amount of pills you take.

- For a country that prides yourself on being free you sure have to cope with a lot of red tape. I'm 33 and I had to show my ID in virtually every bar I visited and even when buying cigerettes once.

- Americans that I met didn't "get" the English sense of humour, you're too "nice", no one seems to take the mickey out of anyone else to the same degree that us Brits do. We have a lot more nasty and self mocking sense of humour.

- You seem to respect and be in awe of authority a hell of lot more than any other country I have visited. "Yes sir, no ma'am" etc.

[Ultima Designs]

The United States is the most astounding country in the world. I wouldn't rather be from anywhere else. Our country still has a sense of moral clarity and moderate but not extreme religious influence while so many other countries are turning toward secularism. We stand up for our friends and we are tough toward our enemies. People of so many backgrounds get along - Jews and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, and so many others...

I could go on and on...

Oh, and we have a Republican majority in the House and Senate and an amazing Republican president.

[XU1]

Originally posted by swampy
33 and I had to show my ID in virtually every bar I visited

Mate that was the bartenders trying to flatter you....so that you could give them a tip.


Tony

[SubwayDesigns]

Originally posted by Ultima Designs
The United States is the most astounding country in the world. I wouldn't rather be from anywhere else. Our country still has a sense of moral clarity and moderate but not extreme religious influence while so many other countries are turning toward secularism. We stand up for our friends and we are tough toward our enemies. People of so many backgrounds get along - Jews and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, and so many others...

I could go on and on...

Oh, and we have a Republican majority in the House and Senate and an amazing Republican president.

I'm not against patriotism or anything. There's one thing I really can not understand at all.

President Bush ruined US foreign relations. He's keeping prisoners in Guantanamo that have not received a fair trial (and this from a country that supossively defends democracy and freedom). He's destroying civil liberties (Patriot Act) and education (they're actually reducing the school year's length in some places, because of lack of funding).

You know, if he loses the election, I wouldn't be surprised if he declared martial law. Ok, that might be overly pessimistic. If he does though, I'm renouncing to my american citizenship

My point is, I don't really care how much he did for the country. Based only on the above reasons, I don't see how anyone could vote for him. And to people who think dealing with terrorism without impeding on civil liberties, etc... would not work as efficiently, I answer that that's just a price to pay. You can't preach democracy and invade countries in its name if you don't apply the rules of democracy in your own country.

So that's my view of the US. I'm a dual swiss-american citizen. I agree however that the anti-american sentiment around Europe is sometimes unreasonable/exagerated. To me, America is just a country of extremes. You get the best with the worst - you just have to know what to choose and what to ignore (Chipotle and AOL, respectively).

Ok, this is the first time I post my view on politics Don't flame me back, I don't mean to offend anybody.

[swampy]

Originally posted by Ultima Designs
[B] People of so many backgrounds get along - Jews and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, and so many others...

That's another thing I noticed, in the workplace all creeds and colours were present, mixing quite happily.

However, I didn't see much evidence of this socialising in many bars. people seemed to socialise with their own ilk.

We were stopped from going in a certain R 'n B bar as it "wasn't our type of music or crowd" until the bouncers heard that I was English.

[XU1]

Well I was there in March and will possibly go again this year for work.

There's not much I dont like about it (yeah the politics is another issue) Most people I met were very friendly (like in Australia) The country side is wonderfull, the bars are great, I like the fact that people still call you "sir" and are polite, I like the fact that most of Americans Love their country (not like the half A**ed take off we inherited from the English here in Australia)

And another thing I like....Americans will go the extra mile to embrace other cultures but won't do so if it means sacrificing or belittling their heritage or history.

Something the Australians and Poms can learn from. the Australians are very quick to sell out their heritage in order not to "offend" other people of other nations...yet ironicaly no one from the "other" nations has ever made a big deal of it.

And the respect and awe you have for authority does your country proud.

Thats another thing we are lacking in Australia that we inherited from the Unionists of England.


Tony

[ViRGo_RK]

You seem to respect and be in awe of authority a hell of lot more than any other country I have visited. "Yes sir, no ma'am" etc.

What place did you visit?

Try new york next time

[hurricaneone]

As you may have read, I am English but lived in the US for 17 years, from the age of 14 to 31.

What I found was that although on the surface, the vast majority of Americans are open and friendly, dare to venture any deeper into that psyche and you will find an insular, xenophobic core that is wary of outsiders (you've been here so long and you're not American? Why???) and views other countries, even those supported openly by the government, as second-rate lollipop regimes.

Even those individuals that have managed to scrape togther a decent education are hyper-sensitive about any criticism of their precious country and if anyone feels that Americans are badly done to by the rest of us, that they are overly criticized, don't be fooled. From within the safety of their own borders, they deride peoples and countries with free abandon, taking every stereotype and throwing it back in your face until you can't wait to get out.

Christ, it's half the reason why I left. If I'd had to endure the 'they serve beer warm in England?' crack again (delivered like I'd never heard it before) I would have had to severely mutlilate the fool asking the question. Once and for all you idiots, we have refrigerators

[edit]

I would like to add though, that if you manage to pry an American out of the country, they are, on a one-to-one basis actually quite pleasant, one of my best friends while I was last living in London ('96 - 2000) was an American. Don't take that as a sign of weakness, though. The chance that I'd go back to the US for anything other than a vacation is 0.

[Ask The Geezer]

What you call warm beer, we call piss.

[hurricaneone]

I was weaned on Budweiser.

Need I say more?

[Ask The Geezer]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
I was weaned on Budweiser.

Budweiser = Percheron piss with the foam farted off. No wonder your in a foul mood.

[ViRGo_RK]

Sorry your stay in America was so unpleasent. But to be honest, it kind of sounds like a description of the CL.

[PAlexC]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
dare to venture any deeper into that psyche and you will find an insular, xenophobic core that is wary of outsiders (you've been here so long and you're not American? Why???) and views other countries, even those supported openly by the government, as second-rate lollipop regimes.

Where were you in the U.S. though? What you described sounds like the mid-west or south. You're far less likely to find that kind of attitude in the notheast.

[TallGuyLittleCar]

Originally posted by swampy
you're too "nice", no one seems to take the mickey out of anyone else to the same degree that us Brits do.

A friend of a friend from the u.k. brought up that point to me. In particular he was mentioning that in traffic nobody seems to yell at oneanother or flip them off and what have you. I merely answered his question by opening the armrest of my automobile to display the handgun I carried with me at the time.

Sure you may not get actually shot for rudeness, but somebody may put coins on your head if you fall asleep.

[hurricaneone]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
Budweiser = Percheron piss with the foam farted off. No wonder your in a foul mood.

I've had my share of microbrews, of which there are many in the surrounding counties of Philadelphia, where I lived.

No foul mood - that's almost 20 years of personal analysis, boiled down into three, easy-to-swallow-yet-hard-to-digest paragraphs.

Originally posted by ViRGo_RK
Sorry your stay in America was so unpleasent. But to be honest, it kind of sounds like a description of the CL.

It wasn't actually unpleasant, you make the best of what you have and avoid those people who piss you off.

The guy who opened the thread just asked for an opinion, so I duly obliged.

[Ask The Geezer]

Yes, but you said, "What I found was that although on the surface, the vast majority of Americans are open and friendly, dare to venture any deeper into that psyche and you will find an insular, xenophobic core that is wary of outsiders"....

But thats true of even our neighbors. I mean our next door neighbors. Open and friendly on the surface is all anyone gets, unless they are really, really close friends. It's called privacy, and "venturing any deeper", without being invited is called "nosey".

[hurricaneone]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
Yes, but you said, "What I found was that although on the surface, the vast majority of Americans are open and friendly, dare to venture any deeper into that psyche and you will find an insular, xenophobic core that is wary of outsiders"....

But thats true of even our neighbors. I mean our next door neighbors. Open and friendly on the surface is all anyone gets, unless they are really, really close friends. It's called privacy, and "venturing any deeper" is called "nosey".

Better I said 'collective psyche', then?

You make it sound like I would see people in 7-11 and five minutes later be delving into dark recesses of their minds.