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He/she summed it up quite nicely. I believe that a lot of Americans are very unhappy as a result and are completely trapped. I don't call it a free country at all. Americans fear government to the point of ridiculousness, but the government isn't the oppressor.
Yes, indeed they do. If you wander over to the Politics forum it is on full display. But sadly I think many Americans have bought into this hatred of government. Americans hate taxes also. It is a very difficult society to govern.
Sometimes I think the only real solution is to dissolve the country apart, and let states re-unite along lines of similar govt philosophy. The current system isn't working.
There are a lot of ignorant people in the US, but you find that in a lot of different countries. It's really not that unique. The US is one of the largest, by population, countries in the world. It's frivolous to kind of group everyone in the same boat unless you've lived here. There are a lot of ignorant, stupid people here, but there's also a lot of very well educated, well cultured people here as well. The problem is that a lot of people let their very small opinion of the US rule what they think even if they've never been to the US or their dealings with the US has been a few Americans they met in their countries, or what they see on the news. Not everyone is a ****ing idiot here and/or ignorant. It's certain groups of people, but I can assure you there are millions of people who are fine and know all about different cultures. Most of my friends, including me, travel all around the world on vacation to experience other cultures and learn about them. The average frivolous American who travels goes to Cancun, Mexico, Nassau in the Bahamas, Paris, and Rome. If you're outside of those places, you'll probably be less likely to run into ignorant ones.
Also, about the "best in the world thing," again, same as above. There are people who are well educated who know that is waning. While the US still does have the largest economy in the US, it's kind of stuff that's been fed to us since the end of WW2 when the US became a super power. Kind of in the same way any other country is fed to believe their country is the greatest. Still the largest economy, but the average citizen knows about Japan and China in the least, and a lot of others know about Germany, France, UK, India, etc.
So yes, are there a lot of ignorant people? Yes, but in all honesty there's a lot of educated people too. The southern hillbillies are usually the ones you see on TV in your countries doing stupid ****. Regular, everyday stuff is not going to make the news. So unless you've lived in the US in an area with good diversity, I wouldn't be so quick to say certain things.
Last edited by marothisu; 12-04-2012 at 11:16 PM..
There are a lot of ignorant people in the US, but you find that in a lot of different countries. It's really not that unique. The US is one of the largest, by population, countries in the world. It's frivolous to kind of group everyone in the same boat unless you've lived here. There are a lot of ignorant, stupid people here, but there's also a lot of very well educated, well cultured people here as well. The problem is that a lot of people let their very small opinion of the US rule what they think even if they've never been to the US or their dealings with the US has been a few Americans they met in their countries, or what they see on the news. Not everyone is a ****ing idiot here and/or ignorant. It's certain groups of people, but I can assure you there are millions of people who are fine and know all about different cultures. Most of my friends, including me, travel all around the world on vacation to experience other cultures and learn about them. The average frivolous American who travels goes to Cancun, Mexico, Nassau in the Bahamas, Paris, and Rome. If you're outside of those places, you'll probably be less likely to run into ignorant ones.
Also, about the "best in the world thing," again, same as above. There are people who are well educated who know that is waning. While the US still does have the largest economy in the US, it's kind of stuff that's been fed to us since the end of WW2 when the US became a super power. Kind of in the same way any other country is fed to believe their country is the greatest. Still the largest economy, but the average citizen knows about Japan and China in the least, and a lot of others know about Germany, France, UK, India, etc.
So yes, are there a lot of ignorant people? Yes, but in all honesty there's a lot of educated people too. The southern hillbillies are usually the ones you see on TV in your countries doing stupid ****. Regular, everyday stuff is not going to make the news. So unless you've lived in the US in an area with good diversity, I wouldn't be so quick to say certain things.
Well, that's not much of an achievement, is it?
I don't think there are many countries where people are fed to believe their country is the greatest, certainly not to the extent of the US. If you said that in my country, people would think you're a bigoted nationalist. It makes no sense to me to say that one country is "the best" when it is clear that other countries are better in certain aspects (no country is perfect, after all).
Don't get me wrong, I don't think all Americans believe their country is vastly superior to the rest of the world - in fact, I don't even think most Americans do - but it is one of the few places I can think of where this kind of belief is "institutionalized" and acceptable.
We're just a bunch of normal people living a normal life, idk why people have to put this negative light over us like we are living in some crazy third world country.
Because you think you're the best. Factually, that isn't even true
I don't think there are many countries where people are fed to believe their country is the greatest, certainly not to the extent of the US. If you said that in my country, people would think you're a bigoted nationalist. It makes no sense to me to say that one country is "the best" when it is clear that other countries are better in certain aspects (no country is perfect, after all).
Don't get me wrong, I don't think all Americans believe their country is vastly superior to the rest of the world - in fact, I don't even think most Americans do - but it is one of the few places I can think of where this kind of belief is "institutionalized" and acceptable.
I'd say throughout history there are many nations that are fed to believe their nations are the greatest or are among the greatest. Listen, as an American, I hate over patriotic people. They **** me off. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but the ones who are over patriotic here are the ones who are from a certain generation. They are usually from the WW2 generation or they were actually for the Vietnam war. As you start to get to people who were in high school or college during the Vietnam war (like my parents), you start to see kind of a more realistic approach to things. Nowadays, the overly patriotic ones are usually the less educated ones in more rural areas. However, this is not the norm in reality. It's what you see on your TV, newspaper, whatever, but it's not the norm.
Many people in the country are like me in that we do believe certain aspects of the country are good, while others need improvement and other countries are definitely greater in certain aspects to us. I have lived in and visited a lot of places here. I've lived in both small city midwest and big city. I spent my time between Minnesota, Los Angeles, and NYC growing up, went to college in a small city in the midwest, and now live in Chicago. Here's what I've seen..when you say
Quote:
but it is one of the few places I can think of where this kind of belief is "institutionalized" and acceptable
In my opinion it's regionalized in its acceptance. For example, in the small cities in the midwest I lived in, it was completely acceptable to be extremely patriotic. At sporting events, "USA! USA!" could break out. It's the small city/town type of mentality. In a lot of those places, people might be educated about engineering, farming, math, etc but they are not very worldly. They are basically regurgitating crap they were taught growing up by their parents, teachers, etc who were also fed the same ****. The only people they grew up around were of their own heritage usually or maybe one other (i.e. where I grew up, everyone was either German or Norwegian). They never had a chance to travel outside of their states and people weren't moving into their cities at all, and if they were it was from surrounding towns. In college, I couldn't believe how many people had never even traveled outside of their state. Absolutely ludicrous.
I remember growing up in elementary school, every morning we would face the flag and recite the pledge of allegiance. Starting in maybe the mid 90s, that no longer existed. Thank god too..I always found that creepy and cultish. It was still customery to put your right hand over your heart during the Star Spangled Banner (the anthem). Starting in the George W. Bush years, maybe before, that basically started to phase out. You'd see more and more people just putting their hands behind their backs and not really caring totally. Even my grandfather who fought for the US in World War II in Europe in some of the bloodiest battles in history started telling me to not join the current military because of how far things had led astray between the time he was in it and recently.
Now, on that same token, being as how I live in Chicago (10 million people in the area) and have spent plenty of time in NYC and Los Angeles (amongst other large cities here), I'll tell you that you will not find people chanting "USA! USA!" at many sporting events in these cities. If you went out in my neighborhood chanting "USA! USA!" you would get a lot of strange looks and people would think you're a ****ing moron - unless it was July 4th or something. On average, people have a bigger opportunity to travel the world and interact with people from all around the world in their own back yard. I have friends from all over the place. Growing up in Minnesota, if someone was from Mexico..it was a big deal. In a city like Chicago, NYC, or LA..that's an after thought. People go out of their way to actually learn about that here. I live in an area here that gets a lot of tourist traffic. Trust me, I've seen it before. There have been overly loud hicks as we call them, shouting patriotic crap. You know what happens? A lot of stares at these people and saying nothing. Nobody joins in on their crap, because on average the people are more in tune of what's actually happening in the world. Not to mention, these people sound stupid and look like fools.
So really, the whole overly patriotic thing only happens in certain areas and regions in the US. They are usually less populated areas where the people have lesser of an opportunity to interact with peoples from all over the world and of different cultures. They turn to stereotypes, what they read, what they see on TV, etc to form their opinions and are generally less educated. In the cities, however, on average people are a little more educated about these things, and while they might be proud of the country they live in, they don't emote it too much and are a lot more realistic about what's going on in the world to be overly patriotic usually. That is my observation.
Last edited by marothisu; 12-05-2012 at 08:04 PM..
The U.S. is basically an immigrant nation. Most immigrants who come to the U.S. do so because of its greater economic opportunity, and that's what drives them to succeed generation after generation.
So, it's obvious that Americans would work harder than people in many other countries because achieving success is the reason people come here in the first place. It's woven into the culture.
What the heck is "success" when you live your entire life like a slave, toiling from morning to night?
A moment to pause and think may address this problem, but then again, there ARE no pauses.
Now, on that same token, being as how I live in Chicago (10 million people in the area) and have spent plenty of time in NYC and Los Angeles (amongst other large cities here), I'll tell you that you will not find people chanting "USA! USA!" at many sporting events in these cities. If you went out in my neighborhood chanting "USA! USA!" you would get a lot of strange looks and people would think you're a ****ing moron - unless it was July 4th or something. On average, people have a bigger opportunity to travel the world and interact with people from all around the world in their own back yard. I have friends from all over the place. Growing up in Minnesota, if someone was from Mexico..it was a big deal. In a city like Chicago, NYC, or LA..that's an after thought. People go out of their way to actually learn about that here. I live in an area here that gets a lot of tourist traffic. Trust me, I've seen it before. There have been overly loud hicks as we call them, shouting patriotic crap. You know what happens? A lot of stares at these people and saying nothing. Nobody joins in on their crap, because on average the people are more in tune of what's actually happening in the world. Not to mention, these people sound stupid and look like fools.
I would add some other U.S. cities to your list. For example, I live in the Washington, D.C. area. This metro area is diverse and international, so you normally wouldn't see people chanting "USA! USA!" even though this is a political capital and there are a lot of rallies and demonstrations and such. But the average resident here doesn't care about being patriotic. They would look kind of weird and out of place (and even unsophisticated) if they showed that.
I think it's the same in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle among other cities. Most major cities in the U.S. are pretty liberal. The rural areas tend to be more conservative.
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