Americans

[rebalious]

All aboard the national stereotype thread!

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=1638792

[Kendo 2]

@rebalious

Oh HEY-YELL no! Not this cowboy. With my reputation, the Nexus local villagers would hunt me down with torches and pitchforks if I posted there.

[Balagor]

Politicians often got an itch for sticking with the most popular opinions. We got those in DK too ;D

[Maharg67]

I'm far from stupid,i didn't vote for him and I bust my butt to get what I have. perhaps you see Americans that way, but those I know of family and friends are all hard working people who shun handouts and freebies at any cost. My family has fought for this country for three generations and we know what is happening to it and we do all we can to change what we can. Frankly other countries and its people see only what the mass media wants it to see. The Iraq war portrays violence and accusations yet fails to show all the good our troops have done. Don't judge a people by its government or its agendas.

 

I love my country and its people,does it need change,yes, but not the kind our current president wants, free this and that onlty opens the door to poverty and strife.

 

An example of what is puzzling about American attitudes. (Not all Americans and not all Americans with all issues).

 

As an Australian it puzzles me that Americans are so against some kind of national health system, an intigrated welfare system and are so quick to claim that it is socialist. In truth it was a conservative, Bismark, the great Statesman, who was one of the first to push for various social reforms for lower classes. Many of those in history who did the same could not really be called socialist, many were moderates in the centre and a few were conservative. A bloated welfare state is not what anybody wants but the opposite means suffering for many in times of economic down turn especially. I hear constant jeering by many Americans about those 'Canadians' who want the government to do everything for them but what I know of Canada doesn't go with this at all. You could just as easily say the same about Australians but you would be wrong; many Australians like private health cover but can no longer afford it as the fees go up and the coverage is often too dubious in results; they are forced to join the public health system, which is in trouble but better than nothing.

 

Americans are often the first to say that you are the ones being attacked but are too often the ones to make ignorant claims about others.

 

The suffering in America of poor people is well known and not just through the mass media. Indeed the truth is most often found in less popular forms of media than in the more popular forms of media broadcast. In Australia the popular news and other such shows focus more on the main political events, celebrities and sports than what is really going on 'anywhere'. This is a norm through out the world though more so in some than others. China is far less open with the truth than the USA is.

 

As for a pride in not accepting charity, many around the world, and not just in America, have been forced to change attitudes because changing world forces make it impossible for lower class families and individuals to survive on their own resources. In the Great Depression millions tramped the roads (in desperate search of income or just help) of the USA but the same happened in Australia. Australia had no welfare system as it does now and in later harsh times our people suffered less because of our welfare system and were better able to return to work when our economy became richer again. At the time of the Great Depresssion the governments of both nations were forced to instigate big work programs to employ many people, bringing relief to many families. These programs could easily have been attacked as being 'socialist' and some did attack them as such.

 

It is not about being socialist or not, it is about doing what has to be done.

 

Americans are not stupid, or at least no more or less stupid than anybody else in the world! The American system, all twisted and in trouble, the ideas that are often foisted upon Americans, are often more than just stupid, they are destructive and self-destructive. Then again, it is far from the only system that can have such claims made against it be it Australian or Communist Chinese or some dictatorship in the Third World.

 

The superiority game, the hate or blame game, are not needed. I just hope for positive change for all of us.

 

PS: I come from a 'skilled' working class background and I am an ex-Commie, along with many millions of others, which is why I find many claims of 'socialism' made by many Americans to be quite laughable. Worst example was a very conservative rally sign which accused the Obama of being both socialist and fascist, not knowing that in truth socialists and facists have always been hated enemies of each other, being extreme left and right wings opposed to each other. From the point of view of somebody who was a dedicated socialist before shifting views, Obama is not socialist.

 

Please do not flame me as I am very sensitive to heat.

[Kendo 2]

Ehem. I don't want to hand over my earnings, my property or my freedom for the sake of leftist ideals. Obama IS a socialist and is pushing for 'Social Justice'. He admitted it!

 

And anyone who agrees with Reich Fuhrer Obama's tripe needs to be the first one on the receiving end. If you're for it, then YOUR earnings and YOUR property need to be redistributed to those who 'need it more than you do.' Your house, your car, your tech toys, the computer you're using to read this, all of YOUR stuff needs to be aportioned out FIRST. Let's see how the people who support the ideal like THAT.

 

I refuse to put on a yellow windbreaker, stand in formation and goosestep to 'Obama Über Alles'. I'm not a sheep and neither is anyone I know, African-American, Hispanic, and us good ol' boys. None of us want what Washington D.C. has to offer. Those yoyos in the Capital will be in for a big shock if the day ever comes and they really want to push it. The census takers have already had a taste of that when they came creeping around and INISTED that we must be accounted for. One of my neighbors introduced one of these smart-mouthed kids the business end of a Lacy dog. We are law-abiding citizens of this counrty and it is none of their damn business who we are or what we do. THAT is not the job of the U.S. Government and it never will be, at least not in Texas. We don't retreat. We reload.

[Balagor]

Well said @Maharg67 kudos

In DK we have that health care system that some Americans fear. Perhaps they fear the change, just like Russians feared Perestrojka.

Anyway our healthcare system has been so for generations, everybody pay health care throug taxes. Everybody from administrating directors to the homeless in the street, will get aid when needed. The first thing theparamedics look for, is your injury, not your insurance card.

 

Administration of all hospitals become far more cheaper, since they don´t need a huge department to write bills, find the proper insurance company, wait for lawsuits, etc.

Only one huge administration for each county, that distributes financials for wages, rentals, purchases, etc. This is way cheaper, and you will get much more "doctors work" for the money.

 

Research is done in hospitals and centers close to hospitals. This is not controled by a "commie" goverment. Our goverment is leaded by conservatives for the moment. We are topclass quality in the western world. Foreign doctors and professors are atracted to research in our centers, and ours doctors/professors travel world wide to gain knowledge.

 

By the way we have had communists represented in our goverment, just after WW2. They were represented until the -80´s. Some fear commies, some fear others. Let the people vote.

[Kendo 2]

EDIT: Keeping my mouth shut and letting the words of others do the work for me. :thumbsup:

[Balagor]

Well actually this thread got a little of topic, the last few posts. It is after all about is America stupid, and sterotypes.

Somehow I just came to think of sterotypes. We do have them in all contries, they are never a majority, actually only a very small minority.

But they do get heard around, wether they are lefters or rigthers. We do not hear the quiet middle so much.

Approaching a land from a distance, you will always hear the loudest sound first. That perhaps will creat an image of what that land looks like.

[WaLkAwaY]

I once took a Ethnic Sociology class the teacher was very against white people and America which was ironic as she was white and American, I strongly believe she actually felt bad for being white and for being American possibly even hated herself for it. She and I got into it over the topic of capitalism. It basically boiled down to because I will never have need for money (inheritance and investments) and I work to break up boredom that, that some how makes me a capitalist. Neither myself or my parents ever earned money from the backbone of others and it was a pretty insulting thing for her to claim, then again I found the entire class insulting actually and it was going to be my favorite class when I signed up for it. I ended up getting a "B" but the teacher actually asked that I not take one of her classes again... I responded with I don't think she would ever have to worry about that and it pissed her off even more, which showed me that she was just trying to be petty which goes against her socialistic liberal views. Go figure. I should mention that the majority of my money is in accounts outside the US and everything I make from my current job (about 5000$ a month) I give to privately funded research projects and some choice charities.

 

I never get involved in political or religious debates as I don't know enough about the topics to make intelligent comments, I am neither right, left, liberal, conservative, democrat, republican or independent and it always ends in a stalemate and ends badly. I did feel that I needed to comment on the whole Socialism thing however. Oh and as far as National health care is concerned I don't know a lot about it but I do know that the person that invented/implemented the current Socialist health care system in the UK came to America for her health care needs when it was discovered she had cancer. This is probably due to the fact that possibly under a socialistic health care system the better doctors would move to areas outside of said health care system so they could make more money? Also I have friends who live in Canada and they all agree that the system is atrocious and the wait even worse.

[Kendo 2]

I once took a Ethnic Sociology class the teacher was very against white people and America which was ironic as she was white and American, I strongly believe she actually felt bad for being white and for being American possibly even hated herself for it.

 

You're on to something there. If some Americans have a sense of self-loathing on that level how can we expect the rest of the world to think highly of us?

:unsure:

You've probably made the most profound post in this thread. Its a frightening prospect for Americans of all backgrounds who are proud of who they are, who have served this country and have a sense of national pride. For the time being this is still the land of the some-what free and Americans have the right to be as stupid and as wrong as they want to be. Myself included.

I guess the best thing for a guy like me to do is stay in my little corner of the world, do what I can to change things I don't like on election day and defend my way of life to the bitter end. I have the basic organic right to be free and somewhat happy.

 

@SWAT_WaLkAwaY I gave you kudos for making me think.