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Most Europeans generally like the U.S. while acknowledging that its not perfect. I find that those among them that are particularly racist or misogynistic tend not to like the U.S. much at all because they feel restrained by our "political correctness" -- much like the author of this article. I feel that's a good thing that people like that feel uncomfortable here.
Truly silly and with a kind of uncritical tunnel vision. The same sort of list could be made under the title "17 Cultural Reasons Why this American Never Wants to Live in Europe."
The cultural intolerance is the sad thing, the lack of awareness of your own culture as a choice rather than a superior given. A sign of true ignorance and lack of sophistication.
So he thinks that we actually like the over the top commercials for hair gel or skin moisturizer or whatever?
And he also thinks that when somebody says something along the lines of "if you don't drink, you can't really be Irish" that it's not a joke? And we're the oversensitive ones?
Actually, I kind of liked his blog. It's his opinion of the US. I could see his point in a lot of the things he brought up and IMO he wasn't bashing us, just stating what he personally does not like. The US is not for everybody.
And I personally am a gun totin, flag waving, proud American who feels that this awesome (hehehe) country is the best there is, even with our problems. And I do acknowledge we have our share just like any other country. But I live here and if I didn't feel that way I'd be living someplace else. I feel anyone should be able to feel the same about their own country. Nothing wrong with that thought.
I found none of those to be true in my case or any of my friends cases. The one exception would be saying awesome, but discrediting an entire nation of human beings because of a commonly used term which "erks" you is beyond idiotic. Aside from the awesome thing and perhaps the heritage thing (I don't see anything wrong with wanting to know your history) that list is literally just a list of the worst traits of the U.S, which is absolutely pointless because you can do that with every country in the world.
Some of the stuff I agree with...other things are overly negative and region specific.
Other times he's just plain crazy. For example, saying he was more nervous walking through San Francisco than Recife? Is he ****ing nuts? As you can see by my location, I live in São Paulo, which is the safest major city in Brasil. Recife is probably the most dangerous along with Belo Horizonte and then Rio. To compare the feeling of safety in an American downtown versus a Brasilian downtown is ridiculous...and then to blame it on the fact that people can legally buy guns in the US is just a cop out.
I have no problem with people criticizing the US. It's got tons of faults including an overwhelming amount of ugly, generic cities, mostly crappy food, overly ignorant people (though this is true of every country), Occupy Wall Street, etc...but a lot of this stuff is just too picky.
- A problem with the word "awesome".
- Americans stereotyping foreigners (as if the reverse isn't true).
- Smiling for no reason?! Jesus everywhere!?! I'm guessing this guy never came to Boston. Or maybe I'm just missing something
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