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I have to admit I fell for that propaganda as well, but realized when seeing the US from across the pond that Americans are very arrogant. It can be hard not to be when you are told as soon as you old enough that you're so lucky to live in the greatest country on earth.
I don't hate America. I lived there for 48 years. But I'm so very grateful that I don't live there any more and never will again. I love visiting, my family is all there. I love being a tourist. But as a resident. No thanks.
Do you mind telling us what part of the US you lived in?
Tis interesting to me how much bloviating and bragging Brits have gotten away with since the London Summer Olympics. Seriously, take a look at some articles in British newspapers, or on line forums. I have generally noticed a marked increase in British jingoism. Claptrap talk like London is the greatest city on earth, Royal Family, blah, blah. Yet, does someone like Sophie chime in on that? Not on your life. She loves the UK even more for it. There is something to this whole "slam Americans for being proud of their country", yet no one else in any other country is to be called on the carpet for overly jingoistic sentiments.
You should see the twisting of statistics that Brits went thru this past summer to prove how many medals they won vs their population, etc., about how they were the greatest sporting nation on earth. It was actually sickening. I'm proud of my country when it does right, and critical when I think it can do better. But I guess we are only to be ever humble and recognize our failures so as to please Europeans.
Guess what? An amazing American man named Neil Armstrong passed away this past summer. He walked on the fu.. moon. I'm proud as hell about that fact. Any European that thinks Americans shouldn't be proud of an achievement like that can just ****!
It's amazing how quickly you have changed your tune from proclaiming your admiration of the UK, to how annoying Brits are and how jingoistic they are. This has been occurring for the past few months and I am not the only person to notice this bizarre transition.
Listen, we've had a great year of optimism, we've had articles and TV specials talking about how great Britain is and how well we've done, rather than how Britain fails, how it is awful, how it lags behind everywhere else, and it's something new to us, we're not used to it, so it's understandable that some people may have gone a bit overboard with the patriotism, but I must admit I haven't noticed it anywhere, not least on this forum.
Rest assured that next year, it will be totally forgotten about and we'll return to our usual self-loathing selves, and all the achievements of 2012 will be a thing of the past and it will be back to Panorama specials of Broken Britain. We're already back to doom and gloom economy is in the sh*tter, because, you know, this is probably the reality, and these aesthetic achievements in the long-run mean nothing to anyone.
Last edited by dunno what to put here; 12-07-2012 at 12:42 PM..
There's nothing wrong with being proud of your country's achievements and I don't think that is what bothers many people about patriotism in the US. The problem starts when Americans become overly jingoistic and state they are the best. By that, they declass all the other countries which themselves have much to be proud of (for the most part). You're hardly going to find this attitude elsewhere in the Western World, only in the US. This attitude is also one of the main reasons for people not being too fond of America.
Oh yeah, and just for the record: I didn't base my opinion on watching American TV shows.
When you add up all the positive qualities, the U.S. tends to be better at a lot of things that matter to people and inspire people around the world. This is part of the reason I think Americans still think they live in the best country in the world.
Ask yourself this - If your country were the center of the world's economy, technological innovation, higher education, politics, culture and entertainment, then would you not also believe that you were living in the best country in the world? Do you see how it would be rather difficult for a foreigner to convince you that your country actually sucks?
Having said that, the reality is that many other countries are doing pretty well these days too, and not everything in America is that rosy. This realization is coming to Americans, albeit slowly. That's how change is.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 12-07-2012 at 01:03 PM..
quote- "Rest assured that next year, it will be totally forgotten about and we'll return to our usual self-loathing selves, and all the achievements of 2012 will be a thing of the past and it will be back to Panorama specials of Broken Britain. We're already back to doom and gloom economy is in the sh*tter, because, you know, this is probably the reality, and these aesthetic achievements in the long-run mean nothing to anyone"
the reason United Staters are constantly having to remind the rest of the world that they are the greatest peoples on Earth is that the rest of the world are forgetful and can't be trusted to keep these important things straight in their minds....you want some fries with that?
Ask yourself this -If your country were the center of the world's economy, technological innovation, higher education, politics, culture and entertainment, then would you not also believe that you were living in the best country in the world? Do you see how it would be rather difficult for a foreigner to convince you that your country actually sucks?
There is a difference between knowing the things that may be better in your country and shoving that down everybody else's throat. That just leads to people not liking you. You can know or feel that way but you should stay humble and be able to see things in perspective. Many of the blessings of our modern era also have foundations in other parts of the world, yet you hardly hear people from those countries brag about it. First car? German invention. First computer? German invention. First 'TV'? Oh, also a German invention. First antibiotic? British. Paper money? China. Dynamite? China. Aspirin? German. Light bulb - British. I could go on but I'm sure you get my point. Saying that your country is "the center of the world's blabla ..." can come accross as very braggy and arrogant. This is exactly the attitude that many non-Americans despise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer
Having said that, the reality is that many other countries are doing pretty well these days too, and not everything in America is that rosy. This realization is coming to Americans, albeit slowly. That's how change is.
Many countries are doing pretty well indeed and there are a few that are doing much better than America when it comes to the average joe. Obviously, as the largest 1st world country, the US is number one in many absolute numbers, but what matters more is relative numbers. If not, the United States will be a much worse place to live than China in a couple of years.
I don't know what the hell's going on with the quote settings, but here's a response to tom77falcon's comment:
"Tis interesting to me how much bloviating and bragging Brits have gotten away with since the London Summer Olympics. Seriously, take a look at some articles in British newspapers, or on line forums.I have generally noticed a marked increase in British jingoism. Claptrap talk like London is the greatest city on earth, Royal Family, blah, blah. Yet, does someone like Sophie chime in on that? Not on your life. She loves the UK even more for it. There is something to this whole "slam Americans for being proud of their country", yet no one else in any other country is to be called on the carpet for overly jingoistic sentiments."
Let's crack into the "hating America" nitty-gritty nutshell for a moment, shall we?
What must be understood is that American patriotism (no matter how mild, extreme, situational or even non-existent) is an infinitely unjustifiable, defacto thought-crime as far as most of the world beyond the U.S. is concerned. Any American who begs the question of "why do [they] hate/dislike America?" simply doesn't understand the fact that "they" always have and always will hate us to one extent or another. There's no political or economic cure for it--distaste for the U.S. is something that has very deep, rigid intellectual origins that, strangely, predate even our independence and have gained footing all over the world for the last two+ centuries.
Also, I notice that disdain for the United States is one of the very few things that can unite the entire world--us (the "global community") vs them (Americans). Oddly, that sentiment in itself breeds a sort of "globalist nationalism" that manages to exist in tandem with other variants of nationalism (provided, of course, that these sub-nationalisms exist under the strictest of pro-globalist, PC intellectual guideleines).
So yeah, that's where I'll stop for now. Rip into me as you will, everyone.
quote- "Rest assured that next year, it will be totally forgotten about and we'll return to our usual self-loathing selves, and all the achievements of 2012 will be a thing of the past and it will be back to Panorama specials of Broken Britain. We're already back to doom and gloom economy is in the sh*tter, because, you know, this is probably the reality, and these aesthetic achievements in the long-run mean nothing to anyone"
Yep!
People here don't even like patriotism. Whenever I see or hear British patriotism, I cringe, I can't bear to watch such adverts or read such news articles, I just hate it. It's just the way I was raised I guess, but I cannot stand British patriotism.
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Many of the blessings of our modern era also have foundations in other parts of the world, yet you hardly hear people from those countries brag about it. First car? German invention. First computer? German invention. First 'TV'? Oh, also a German invention. First antibiotic? British. Paper money? China. Dynamite? China. Aspirin? German. Light bulb - British. I could go on but I'm sure you get my point. Saying that your country is "the center of the world's blabla ..." can come accross as very braggy and arrogant. This is exactly the attitude that many non-Americans despise. 