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Come on, come on!
America is a great country with wonderful people.
You can't judge a country for a few idiots that you may encounter here and there.
I've seen enough whereever I travel to form terrible impressions of those places, but I don't jump to conclusions based on a few examples.
Snap out of it.
You can't judge a country for a few wonderful people that you may encounter here and there.
I'll give a recent example. I'm walking down a busy road when out of nowhere someone tosses a drink at me. Add to that random people in passerby cars who scream things just for the hell of it. Such behavior would be unthinkable in my home country (by the way I'm from a small European country). I also know bored suburban teenagers who have nothing better to do on weekend nights than to go out and vandalize people's property. Most of them do drugs, which also seems to be the norm in this country. I've never encountered such a high degree of inconsiderate idiocy as I have in this country. What is it about your society that produces such degenerates? I expected Americans to be a civilized people.
I think your thread is offensive and generalizing which is not a very smart thing to do.
While you have your right to your opinion based on your own experiences does not make your assessment correct as a whole.
You stated that teens in America “Most of them use drugs and it seems to be the norm in this country”
How do you know?
I have several links stating that our country is not the only on having issues with drugs pertaining to our youth.
My point? Before coming on this forum and posting a thread filled with generalizations it would be best to do your homework and realize that this is an issue EVERYWHERE not just in our country..
I'll give a recent example. I'm walking down a busy road when out of nowhere someone tosses a drink at me. Add to that random people in passerby cars who scream things just for the hell of it. Such behavior would be unthinkable in my home country (by the way I'm from a small European country). I also know bored suburban teenagers who have nothing better to do on weekend nights than to go out and vandalize people's property. Most of them do drugs, which also seems to be the norm in this country. I've never encountered such a high degree of inconsiderate idiocy as I have in this country. What is it about your society that produces such degenerates? I expected Americans to be a civilized people.
LOL. You described teenagers in a paragraph. I really doubt teenagers in Europe are any different.
My perception has changed somewhat. In my day to day dealings with ordinary Americans I acknowledge that the majority of them are good natured people, but there's still a large subset of the population that could be classified as "degenerate". Most of these are young people. Thats one thing I've noticed, a huge difference in attitude between the young and the old. It seems the young population here is lost, they've become so apathetic that they lack values and live hedonistic lifestyles. Everything they know comes from the mass media which has created what I'd call an mtv culture. Rampant consumerism is also to blame. It also seems like many Americans live in their own little worlds and have little connection with their own society. A friend of mine doesn't even know his neighbors. Despite these flaws though, the United States is still great compared to many other places in the world.
I'm surprised your perception changed.. especially from some of these responses. But I do think you targeted the main culprit of our present degeneration in society.. our young people.
I'm at a toss-up as to the root causes. My gut feeling is that it's a combination of all the materialistic technological "gifts" to society; parents that want more; want to give their kids more (and be their friends vs parents) and have to or prefer to devote their time and energy to jobs.. leaving the kids on their own babysat by Iphones, Ipads, Ipods and Internet.
It wasn't that long ago that society was concerned and worried about our "lock-box" kids left alone while parents worked. No one mentions that dilemma anymore; it became normal. Too many unacceptable things over the last few decades have become "the norm"... acceptable behaviors. And younger generations scoff at any criticism of it. It's become a snow-ball effect.
I tend to agree with the responder that mentioned our downfall began in the 60's with the "me first generation". We seem to have gone downhill from there.
Another mentioned our MTV culture carried such great influence on other countries. I'm sorry for that.. we should be the last people to follow. Unfortunately, our media has become so sensationistic in it's broadcasts (and commercialized) that it represents the worst of us.. all picked up by younger generations elsewhere.
If the US is considered great compared to other nations (and I'm an American) then we're in a sad state of affairs worldwide. The "trend" is definitely going downhill.
I have my own theory on that and I hope that I don't offend anyone. But the U.S. was founded and populated by rejects and screwballs of one sort or another. Understand that when people left the land where their ancestors had lived for centuries and sometimes thousands of years there had to be a good reason for leaving. Most people don't just take up and leave for some unknown place not knowing what might be waiting for them without something being wrong. Either the community where they lived rejected them or they just couldn't fit in somehow but either way it was a screwed up person and there were millions like that that moved to the U.S. O.K. bring on the flak.
I'll give a recent example. I'm walking down a busy road when out of nowhere someone tosses a drink at me. Add to that random people in passerby cars who scream things just for the hell of it. Such behavior would be unthinkable in my home country (by the way I'm from a small European country). I also know bored suburban teenagers who have nothing better to do on weekend nights than to go out and vandalize people's property. Most of them do drugs, which also seems to be the norm in this country. I've never encountered such a high degree of inconsiderate idiocy as I have in this country. What is it about your society that produces such degenerates? I expected Americans to be a civilized people.
Many people in the US are very alienated. In many ways, ours is a very aggressive, competitive, me-first-and-****-you kind of culture.
I have my own theory on that and I hope that I don't offend anyone. But the U.S. was founded and populated by rejects and screwballs of one sort or another. Understand that when people left the land where their ancestors had lived for centuries and sometimes thousands of years there had to be a good reason for leaving. Most people don't just take up and leave for some unknown place not knowing what might be waiting for them without something being wrong. Either the community where they lived rejected them or they just couldn't fit in somehow but either way it was a screwed up person and there were millions like that that moved to the U.S. O.K. bring on the flak.
People had all kinds of reasons for coming here. Some for freedom. Many came and got greedy.
Many people in the US are very alienated. In many ways, ours is a very aggressive, competitive, me-first-and-****-you kind of culture.
That is just one part of it. I would say another part is that any kind of dysfunctional culture has been allowed to incubate and then it has turned into a monster, and now such culture is become part of the pop culture.
Let's face it, if the truth is very important to you then you would be asking yourself about the general demeanor of humans everywhere, not just the US. There is no shortage of complaints from around the globe describing the type of behavior you posted, it is everywhere, it is a human thing and not an American thing. Youth, most of us know only too well the rudeness of todays youth, worldwide. Your initial post didn't really bring anything new to the numerous threads that have been centered on rudeness, is modern day rudeness a fact? Yes. Is it possible that these kids have been influenced? Yes. Do we condone these acts of rudeness? No, we don't. Individuals are rude, individuals are thoughtless, and individuals should never be brought to the fore to represent an entire nation.
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