Discussions
American Question?
Posted by DOUGGOFFdotCOM • 12/19/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
This is a question strictly to get some good topics to write about and not intended to offend anyone.
What do we do as Americans that make other countries laugh at us?
Or if you are from another county, what makes you look down on Americans?
User Comments
-
I think it's the fact that we're so supremely confident that we're superior to everyone else while we go around mucking things up beyond repair.-
Madame X, your'e American? We assumed British, a case in point perhaps? A compliment :0) -
You didn't notice the Chicago references?
-
-
The fact that you are on a quest to spread democracy and end up supporting people like Musharraf.-
And so many other dictators down the line...
-
-
It's our arrogance but it is also how we are portrayed. I think a lot of people see Bush and equate him to all of us. Bible beating, arrogant, dumb, insensitive to rest of the world and the environment, and oil hungry.-
Well, in fairness, Kevin, tens of millions of us opted to re-elect him. You can hardly blame the world for drawing conclusions about our values and priorities from that.
-
Yes but remember the whole Florida voting issue with old Jeb? He should have never been elected in the first place. Another reason why we are laughed at, our voting system sucks!
-
"Bible beating"... his faith is one to be greatly questioned... I have not seen evidence of his biblical faith, but certainly that of his oath amongst his brotherhood society at Yale (please don't taser me!).
-
Well, do the math. Bush only won a plurality of the votes. Now lets add the votes that apathetic Americans didn't cast. We could add those to the Bush tally too, I suppose.
-
I didn't vote for him...
-
He quotes his faith all the time...
-
quoting and being are not the same
-
That is like half of so called "christians" out there... don't get me started. The religious right makes me want to vomit.
-
me too
and I follow Jesus
-
-
No offense to anyone...
One of the things people laugh at... (I have lived in several countries and usually Americans never learn the language of their host country... I am not saying it is a rule though!)
-- From the stupid stereotype that Americans know nothing: I have had Americans that admit not knowing anything excusing themselves as "Dude... why do you ask me that... I am American, I do not know") again... this has happened to me no more than 3 times... I know many brilliant Americans.
--- Americans think USA is superior to all countries (also not a rule... but happened to me a couple of times)
---- Americans in CANCUN... a complete shame!
Now, I am most certain that all countries have the exact same problems or even worse... but the fact that you are Americans put you under the microscope... everyone is very attentive to what you do or don't do.
On the good side... Americans are known for being very polite and nice when visiting other countries -
How about having a president having an orgasm during office hours?-
Come on, you know that was classic!
-
Now that one was a bit below the belt!
Oh my, did I just say that?! -
HAHA Good one!
-
Clinton's sex life did not lead to any deaths that I am aware of.
-
-
For many of my friend's overseas, that makes them laugh at us, a sad, depressed, miserable little laugh, is how horribly informed most Americans they meet are about the world outside our borders.
I've had a friend from Reykjavík who was visiting Philadelphia and was told by an American tourist also touring Independence National Park that people like him from Iceland and from other countries should be grateful that the US set an example by becoming the first nation without dictatorial rule by a king. When Agust pointed out that Iceland's current parliament can trace its roots back for a 1000 years, the American told him he was mistaken.
And geography, Americans are anecdotally known Internationally as being HORRIBLE at geography.-
Oh how true this is! Like geographically challenged people who thing NEW England is the one "across the pond"!
-
You should see some of the results on my map quizzes. (What are high schools teaching their kids? Why do college instructors have to do so much remedial work?)
-
-
Damn it, I almost made it to level 12, I just needed some 5000 points extra. My total score is 499847, does anyone do better?
-
I didn't have enough points to advance to level 4....that's very sad. Guess I should brush up on my world geography...:( -
You can start with your SiteMeter map if you have one. All kinds of interesting names can pop up, though in my case precious little for Africa, South America, and Central Asia.
-
-
There's a certain cultural pressure here in some cases to NOT know things-- that being smart and knowing things is being arrogant, or elite, instead of just being a good idea.-
Yeah when some how "Liberal Intellectual" became an insult, you can tell something is wrong.
-
Oh yeah, Jenn. That's a tough one sometimes in the classroom.
-
Is this an issue of conformity to dumbness?
While in undergrad I worked on most of my projects alone. In grad school, several years later, we worked on team projects all the time. Why? Is this under the guise of preparing for the work force or a technique to squash independent thinking and one student from shining above his peers? -
I don't know if it's so much a conformity to dumbness as a lack of intellectual curiosity-- and then a need to feel better about oneself and one's standards by trying to negate those who see things differently.
-
-
The British often perceive America as an educated West and East but everything in between behaving like sheep that need herding. NOT our opinion, we believe most people, Dubai, UK, US or wherever are creative, resourceful and whole...
The perception the US get and the rest fo the world about the US? Simple...
5 letters,
M
E
D
I
A -
The British often perceive America as an educated West and East but everything in between behaving like sheep that need herding. NOT our opinion, we believe most people, Dubai, UK, US or wherever are creative, resourceful and whole...
The perception the US get and the rest fo the world about the US? Simple...
5 letters,
M
E
D
I
A -
TRUE... though I have also met very capable Americans overseas
Now I live in Germany and most Americans living here are well informed, except the guys in the army though... no offense but they just go around on their big cars, getting drunk without a clue about Germany and its culture.
Apart from them... the Americans here seem to be adapting really well-
But wahts more important - the minority who spoil or the majority who are? What's your focus?
-
"Apart from them" --- No offensive stereotyping here, huh? I knew plenty who I was not proud of. But I knew others who got on quite well in their local environment. I was one of them.
-
-
The USA has many stereotypes across the different countries around the world.
In Latin-America, the USA is considered as arrogant because people from the US have laid a claim on the entire continent: just look at how you call yourselfs, Americans, as if you own the entire continent.
Europe mainly looks down upon some of the values you guys have: no health care, poor schooling, biased newsprogrammes(FOX), very religious,...
The Arabs mainly see you as hypocrites. Approving Isreal to occupy Palestine, saying you spread democracy but support the royal dictators of those countries.
I don't really know how Asia and Africa look at the USA.-
Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan, and the Sinai was never a consequence of U.S. foreign policy as these things occured before Israel and the U.S. became allies (Israel was more closely allied with the U.K. and France at the time). If anything, the U.S. has played both sides if the Middle East conflict. These occupations were a consequence of Arab belligerance.
Anwar Sadat understood this and so he was visionary enough to negoitate peace with Israel and so the Sinai was returned to Egypt without a shot being fired-- for this, extremists in Egypt murdered Sadat.
Syria has refused to negotiate a lasting peace, with Israel (prefering to fund attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas) and so the Golan remains in Israeli hands 40 years later.
The West Bank and Gaza were reoccupied at times in the last seven years because with the exception of Abu Abbas, few Palestinian leaders have been willing to enforce the peace treaty that was signed in Oslo. International law allows Israel (or any nation) to strike back at terrorists operating in another country if the local authorities are unwilling to do anything.
The Arab world can fairly blame the U.S. for a lot of things: backing of dictatorial regimes in Arab countries, selling military hardware to these regimes, only being interested in oil, stupidly invading Iraq, destabilizing the region, et cetera. However, the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is primarily the fault of the Arab world, though it is right to blame Bush for not playing the positive role that other U.S. presidents often tried to play.
-
-
American question? Now you've gone and stepped in it. Think I'll get out of here before things begin to stink. I can think of all sorts of problems with the country and its image, but I also have bad memories of being overseas and dealing with dolts who felt that I had to answer for whatever problems they had with the country, simply because I happened to be member of its armed forces at the time.
-
One more thing that gets my goat: polite Germans who feel compelled to ask where I learned such good German---as if it were a freaking miracle that an American could speak their language.
-
Sorry for that... I will rephrase that... Apart from a very selected group of soldiers who just go around on their big cars, getting drunk without a clue about Germany and its culture... (even some soldiers complain about that)
My apologies, I really didn't mean to offend anyone.
-
-
My experience, having lived in a foreign land with many Europeans (and my twin sister who is married to a wonderful British husband now living in the UK) is that Americans are imbeciles when it comes to our OWN foreign policy. Our media and education have continued to instill in us a history of our nation based on incorrect stories.
Let's begin with the childhood song "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.." you know, the one where he "discovered" America! -
I feel we are not considering the basics - The great difference with Americans and people from other places can be simply put as - In US you have a social freedom - u can dress in anything, speak any language, sing any song do whatever you like - but freedom of mind is limited due lack of a cultural history. While in most other countries - we do not have the social freedom - but there you have the great freedom of mind and creativity.-
Interesting distinction, though I suspect the U.S. is less unique on this count than you might think.
-
-
Why do non Americans think Americans are a people who sprung out of the earh and are not tied to them (Europeans) by blood and name.
Language also.
This English Language didn't just happen overnite speaking to the English.
I have friends in Ireland, and London...
I finally had enough of the BS from the friends also. I made it plane and clear how i felt and when i did, it was silent and no more American Jokes :)they laugh at us because they hate what they created and are good at faking it. -
I think if we did knowledge quizzes to all countries with the exact same questions... I doubt Americans would be even near the bottom.
The problem is that you are AMERICANS!! you have the most powerful country in the world and therefore you are under the microscope...-
We are not the most Powerful.. only because we have the capability to kill more people and life on the planet 100 times over. That's not power thats madness, and not only mad but ignorance of the rest of the world to hold us up like we are MOST POWERFUL ....
Stop telling young americans they have it easy, they get arrogant and stuck on themselves and they wont do anything...
We are Dumbing Down.... -
@ claudiorodval: I think you're on to something. The USA is impossible to ignore. So is the frequent gap between its ideals and reality.
-
-
Perhaps it's stereotypes coming into play here? just the fact that the usa is so vast compared to UK, it obviously gives rise to many more sterotypes, the behaviour of which will always be blown out of proportion for the amusement of others.
I'm sure there are plenty of 'educated' americans just the same as there are plenty of 'uneducated' brits. At least they have a space program! And because the country is so vast, there is a greater percentage of those that can afford to travel hence we get cultural un-awareness when we have visitors. Admit it - when was thelast time you read about a tiny greek island before visiting it?
We all have funny stories I'm sure - i have one which i'll share - I was visiting Windsor and an american family were discussing whether the Queen was in residence. Overhearing them, I offered the fact that the household flag wasn't flying so she wasn't. They then treated me to their itinery which included london in the morning, windsor in the afternoon before visiting scotland via the lake district later that day and off to europe tomorrow - i was just amazed!-
amazed that they were breezing through all of it so quickly or ???
-
-
I really do not think so... I think young Americans or at list those that travel and have education know what the problem is... I think they are up to the challenge, they are aware of American's fame and they usually are the opposite of what we all know as the American Stereotype
-
Tell me what the American Stereotype is? As far as I can tell, this country is divided...
keep in mind this is not one nation ok -
That's why it is a Stereotype...
It is what the media tell us, mixed with gossip, a bit of the truth, from time to time some dumb asses making the fool out of themselves in a foreign country and making the news, then you have the image that some comedians like to explode... like Ali G or Borat. (I am sorry but usually good things are not part of stereotypes... they are not juicy enough)... Mix it all together and you have the American Stereotype... I do not agree with it, but that is because I know better... but people that don't, believe what they are told
-
-
Duh Bya aside, It has been my experience that most foreigners perceive us as a poorly-educated-Cowboy-market forced to buy whatever they are selling
becuase we are incabable of making it ourselves.
Our cultural icons are people made famous in the last "fifteen minutes" and we have no sense of our own history.
Most of my Asian Software brethren talk down to me and don't understand why things have to made so simple for "United Staters" (There are multiple countries in the Americas and we don't even acknowledge or maybe we don't know that)
If you want to talk humor here's some jokes I have heard,
How many United Staters does it take to clean up New Orleans?
Answer: None, they don't know how.
How many United Staters does it take to invade Iraq?
Answer: One, apparently.
How many United Staters does it take to answer the phone?
Answer: None, nobody's home they're at the movies.
How many United Staters does it take to treat a sick child?
Answer: It depends on his credit score.
Yes real jokes from real non-citizens. If it wasn't so sad, it might be funny.-
Someof us do know our history, and being an American by birth is just not enough for some of us
"and we have no sense of our own history."
Yes some of us do. Millions of us do.
-
-
As for Borat... I never thought the guy was funny so I never watched any of his movies, when people I know thought it was soo cool.
-
I believe that many Americans are really good hearted people. However, our government, and I blame George W. Bush and our Congress, is making us the laughing stock of the world. The citizens of our planet simply did not like our government's "imperialistic" actions, which makes us look like the bad guys. A while ago our President blurted out World War III. If Mr. Bush decided to be committed to this idea, I wonder what side we would be on. Since most nations view us badly, I think we would be the bad guys. This is why, I think, we are the laughing stock of the world and why the world hates us.-
I think you made the best point so far!
-
There was a headline from, I think, a British paper after the 2004 election:
"How can 56 Million People be that dumb?" -
Agreed. We've been shoving our power all along... tied to our heritage "across the pond".
I wish we'd stop our bullish and global human rights abuses NOW.
-
-
I honestly did not expect this many responses. Thank you all!
-
Since you all were so helpful with your responses I figured I'd share this story.
So this guy, a vendor of ours, comes into our office a few minutes ago. He is from Columbia and his English is not the best, however he is funny as hell. I asked him the same question and, in his accent, said the following.
"Americans are only worried about three things. Coca-Cola, McDonalds and calling 9-1-1"
I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard. And even though his English is bad, I still got his point!-
Yup, food and fear.
-
And multi-national domination. In Latin America, Coca-Cola and McDonalds are used interchangeably with the word America.
One thing with both companies, especially Coca-Cola (& Pepsi) is their branding and PR strategy! They have convinced people in Latin America (at least Central America) that it is vogue to have their logo painted on cement block and/or adobe homes. So when one travels the breathtaking natural beauty of Guatemala, isolated homes and stores greet you with the logos of these corporations... while people walk around toothless and with decayed teeth because of the high toxicity of the sugar in the soft drinks (and lack of toothpaste).
Disgusting. -
One of the main reason most of those people drink Coca Cola is because the water sources they have are polluted and they would get sick of they drank water. That's the reason why people drank so much beer in Europe during the middle ages and the industraliazation. Water made you sick, beer didn't. Same now goes for poorer countries: Water makes you sick, Coca-Cola doesn't. Advertising really doesn't matter all that much on consumption level, but it does on market share.
-
I humbly disagree, having lived in remote villages around Guatemala. Bottled water is plentiful. The poor have a belief that drinking Coca-Cola somehow Americanize's them. (I am reminded of villages around San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico where FORMER Catholic Churches have become places of idol worship - the locals bring sacrifices of candles, fruits, chickens, etc and drink vodka and coca-cola, having been indoctrinated to believe that both will bring them into a higher state of consciousness, power and wealth).
The same phenomena of associating Coca-Cola with status is true in Albania and in other developing countries. These powerful entities have done a magnificent marketing campaign, while adding more sugar to their secret recipes and creating addicts in the process.
Another reason for decayed teeth is because children and adults drink light coffee with loads of sugar in it... and often they don't brush their teeth.
Getting clean water to the poor is another passion of mine. Want to help?
-
Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for broadening my perspective.
I would love to help a little.
-
-
Stupidly
I still wonder how we let the son and grandson that was a partner to Hitler run our country.-
Thanks for violating Godwin's Law
-
-
My whole blog is basically about that. Seriously, this isn't just a shameless plug. I live outside the US now, and I've been exposed to alot of different cultures in my part of Costa Rica. I live in Escazu, which has been called the "Miami" of Latin America because of all the different foreigners here. Kinda like a big open air tropical episode of Babylon 5 sans the sanctimoniousness and B grade computerized special effects.
cultureshock-survival.blogspot.com/ -
we rock so hard everyone else is just jealous!
Team America, F--k Yeah! -
Thanks for violating Godwin's Law
you mean trading with the emery act.
Million died because of Preston, an count the numbers that died because of his off spring.
Texas alone leads the country in death by Bush, never mind the world.-
I don't like either member of the family but to drop a Hitler reference debases your argument.
Godwin's Law (from wiki)- Godwin's law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)[1] is an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states:[2][3]
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Godwin's law is often cited in online discussions as a caution against the use of inflammatory rhetoric or exaggerated comparisons, especially fallacious arguments of the reductio ad Hitlerum form.
The rule does not make any statement as to whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that one arising is increasingly probable. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact. Although in one of its early forms Godwin's law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,[5] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki talk pages.
Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics.[3]
-
-
Plain simple truth OUR Government! nuff said lol-
Who does "our" refer to here? And to which "truth" are you referring?
-
-
Plain and simple truth, George Bush!
South Africa has its fair share of caricatures of dictators running caricatures of banana republics and I am not convinced that our president is smarter than your president. It is a neck to neck race, but I think Dubya might just be smarter than Mbeki by a Rubix cube. I mean at least Dubya is sort of clear about where AIDS comes from. Our president has the excuse that he landed the job by Affirmative Action. Nobody takes anyone seriously if they got the job due to BEE. However, with this new Zuma jackass as a prospective president I would rather live in America than South Africa any day. Any takers? -
there are certain groups and classes of south africans who will never see anything positive in a black president. apartheid may have ended, but racial prejudice did not.-
Nelson Mandela happened to be black. All ethnic classes and groups accepted him as president of South Africa. The difference is that Nelson Mandela is a world class leader, an educated man and did not stand trial on curruption charges. So much for the 'peepz just hate on da prez coz he is black yo' theory. Besides, we are discussing Americans on this thread.
Politics aside....
Kristilinauer I perceive the stereotypical American to be exactly as they are portrayed in Team America, with no strings attached. However, I have personally met 6 Americans in my life. The first was a college girl, who was a bit bossy but far smarter than what I had had given Americans credit to at that point since most we see about Americans here is how they sue each other for ridiculous things. She was very respectful of my culture, which is rare for foreigners because most of them see my culture as that of dicators. We got along quite well.
The other 5 were university students. They landed here as exchange students and I was the first to buy them drinks. They were actually quite shy, but that may just be because I look a little scary. Judging from my first hand experience of Americans, they were not really obnoxious or loud, they were quite well behaved.
-
-
Politics aside....
I've done a great deal of traveling overseas and lived overseas for a bit, and I noticed a couple of things...
Americans as a whole are very egocentric. No matter what country we visit, we expect those people to bend to our rules, expectations, and social mores. We refuse to respect the culture of our host nation.
Americans tend to be very loud and obnoxious. I could always spot Americans on the street. They stuck out like a sore thumb because of how loud they were.
(Please realize I'm speaking in general terms. I realize that there are individuals who do not do this, but I'm speaking of Americans as a whole.) -
sometimes ( actually allot) I wish i never knew the English Language
-
on the surface, it is accurate that all South African "ethnic classes and groups accepted [mandela] as president of South Africa." but is it also accurate to say that they all supported him for the same reasons? do "most" white south africans, and the wealthy classes, love mandela for the same reasons that black south africans, and the working classes, love him for? do westerners love mandela for the same reasons that africans love him for? i know we are discussing "americans" here, but who brought the issue of south african presidents to the question? are these questions always monolithic?
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
