Americans

[theLeeHarvey]

Dezi, I should have made clearer what I was saying. Basically, I meant that nobody elsewhere in the world is automatically better than an American as some people obviously think, Vagrant. What I meant to say is that there are morons everywhere. I fully realize that not everyone in the US is the same, but the majority of US citizens are just the same as any European, Asian, African, Middle Eastern or whatever country's citizens. People are stupid. We are a dumb species by default. There are exceptions, but the vast majority of the world's population is made up of idiots.

 

I like you have a strong love for my country and I too see the shame in the things that are happening currently.

 

I also take pride that the world sees us as a lot of "Cowboys with guns". There is a saying in my family, "Slaves are unarmed." We as Americans do in fact enjoy more personal freedom than most of the world's other countries and we have the ability to keep it that way thanks to our constitution and the amendments (something which I personally think our current president would love if he could take away from us), Freedoms I personally served for as well as, like you, previous generations of my family. I apologize if I offended you Dezi, I don't doubt your commitment to our country and what it originally stood for.

 

Now, with that said, I am out of here.

[ResidentWeevil2077]

The plain and simple truth - common-sense isn't so "common" anymore...

[Echo Icehand]

Can somebody give me the real reason people think Americans are complete idiots? Don't come back with a clever comment that points out my spelling or grammar and any of that asorted bs. I don't revise anything I'm typing because I don't find it very important on forums. Just give me your honest opinion.

 

 

:nuke:

:bomb_ie: :bomb_ie: :bomb_ie:

 

General absence of morality, sponsoring of genocide out of xynophobia, general self obsessive behavior.

 

:bomb_ie: :bomb_ie: :bomb_ie:

:bomb_ie: :bomb_ie: :bomb_ie:

:bomb_ie: :bomb_ie: :bomb_ie:

 

:devil:

:whoops:

[Vagrant0]

Dezi, I should have made clearer what I was saying. Basically, I meant that nobody elsewhere in the world is automatically better than an American as some people obviously think, Vagrant. What I meant to say is that there are morons everywhere. I fully realize that not everyone in the US is the same, but the majority of US citizens are just the same as any European, Asian, African, Middle Eastern or whatever country's citizens. People are stupid. We are a dumb species by default. There are exceptions, but the vast majority of the world's population is made up of idiots.

Funny, I don't think I ever said anything of the sort... Quite the contrary, in my first post I made it rather clear that if America was circling the drain, as some would claim, then almost other country is also headed down that road. It's that old "pot calling the kettle black" saying, which I'm sure you're probably familiar with. Every country has its share of idiots, we just happen to give ours 24/7 internet access and a Twitter account.

 

 

I also take pride that the world sees us as a lot of "Cowboys with guns". There is a saying in my family, "Slaves are unarmed." We as Americans do in fact enjoy more personal freedom than most of the world's other countries and we have the ability to keep it that way thanks to our constitution and the amendments (something which I personally think our current president would love if he could take away from us), Freedoms I personally served for as well as, like you, previous generations of my family. I apologize if I offended you Dezi, I don't doubt your commitment to our country and what it originally stood for.

 

Now, with that said, I am out of here.

It's not a matter of being unarmed, it's a matter of not exercising that right because one feels that they are more confident in the principles for which they live, and their own intellect to get them through any incident than any gun might. A gun doesn't mean anything, any mindless thug can walk around with a gun and be menacing. But a person with a good mind and a willingness to use it can be much more powerful. The pen is mightier than the sword, a gun can kill one person at a time, while an ideal can kill thousands with a single act. Or haven't you been paying attention? The war has changed, the old weapons don't have the power they once did. The average American has more to fear from the small sects of crazy militants than it does from the real military, the government, or any foreign terrorist. When you have a bunch of grown men playing soldier with automatic weapons in the rural areas of the country, it's only a matter of time before some group decides that it's time to "reclaim" their state (probably encouraged by one of those media outlets). It's sentiments like that which encouraged the whole "clinging to their firearms" comment a few years ago. You believe that owning a weapon seems to infer some power over the government. You probably (given your user name) also like to believe that the government is inherently evil, hostile, or is only out to remove your freedoms. But again, you don't seem to have been paying much attention. We lost more freedoms under the previous president (self-proclaimed Cowboy from Texas) than has even been suggested by the current administration (Obama has not once mentioned anything in the sort of taking away guns, ONLY FOX NEWS HAS). There was also an increase in "black" operations during both the Bush terms than there have been in the last 10 years prior... Which is why there is so much fuss being raised against those CIA papers. Like it or not, you, like almost everyone is being lied to, and manipulated in order to serve the interests of whichever group they happen to pay more attention to, both right and left, and certainly the extremes. I personally tend to stick to the middle and try to wade through as much BS as I can stand. The ultimate truth with the government is that it is, and will always be self serving. If it screws over it's own people, it will only end up destroying itself in the process. Without taxes, trade, and domestic production, the country cannot function. Taxes, trade, and domestic production are only possible when a government has the support of the people. An instruction to have every worker, officer, student cease normal activity in defiance of a government act, however brief, would have much more impact than any militant who would decide to "liberate" a small town... It would also have a much clearer and more concise message, and purpose than someone just shooting up main street. The only reason why the Civil Rights marches of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, worked was because the demonstrators choose to be non-violent, even when being physically attacked by police. The images captured of unarmed crowds being shot, hit with fire hoses, and having dogs set on them helped to solidify the movement and draw sympathy, while making the police look like the bad ones. It is not that I cannot arm myself, it is only that I see arming oneself as being counterproductive. We live in an era where wars are not won with guns, bombs, and ammunition, but in the minds and hearts of the people. But I guess you didn't notice that either.

[imperialforce]

Some excellent and reasoned points being made here, so Ill throw in my little contribution and away while I still can :)

 

The problem America has is a simple one; Image. The America that America chooses to present to the world is not the America in which Americans actually reside. Yes, as a nation it suffers under the lash of relentless corporate capitalism, but then so do most non-3rd World nations at this point in history. No, the issue is that the "average joe" from Britain or France has never met, seen or indeed heard of their American counterpart. Instead they are fed a steady diet of Superbowl, Pepsi vs Coke, The Hills, Bill O'Reilly, MTV without the M, Mission Accomplished and etc which presents an extremely narrow aperture through which to view the American nation.

 

In addition, it's scientific fact that people devote more effort to remembering negatives than positives, and so the overbearing, morbidly overweight tourist with four cameras and a barely intelligible drawl exclaiming "Haw Quaint", "Yew hayve teevee ovur heyer?" or "Everthuns so smawul" will naturally garner more attention than the polite, well spoken one(especially as we generally mistake any such American for a Canadian :P).

 

America is the architect of it's own demise in terms of international perception, in part because of the way it presents itself, and in part due to the attitude that seems to prevail amounting to "Well who care's what you think, we're AMERICA".

[DeathWarrior]

I say that the majority of the whole world is stupid in the way, and the smart people are a minority. Part of that minority happens to be at least most of the people on this forum. Not only Americans, but people of all other nationalities, because they all think of each other as radically different or stupid. Not all Americans are stupid, fat, capitalistic people (well at least I'm not) and same goes with what Americans (or even other nations) think of foreigners. Not all British drink tea or have bad hygiene, not all Frenchmen are cowards, and so on and so forth. It's probably to do with nationalism-people who think their country beats all others on the planet. It's the dumb people who make their nations look bad, and those who actually know something about the "opposing" nation have to deal with it. I'm not your typical American in that at least I try to become as educated as many foreigners are, I have and Advanced Studies Diploma and I successfully passed an AP Test (which are taken internationally). Might possibly not be enough to equal to a foreigner, but at least I try my hardest to. I have interests in many nations, including places like Germany and even Russia, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be dissapointed to see some place I've never been to before.

[MajKrAzAm]

The nuances of the curriculum that American schoolchildren are taught is largely unknown to most American citizens, let alone pollsters in Western Europe or the Middle East. Why is it then that I have to read about studies of what the rest of the globe thinks about Americans? How is the average Somali supposed to answer this question? Not to mention how one collects samples in say the Congo or Namibia.

 

It is because polls are so expensive to conduct that they lean towards asking broad, blunt questions loaded with assumptions – designed to produce a result – what pollsters euphemistically call a ‘fixed choice’. Polling was originally designed to influence public opinion and to frustrate organized labor movements. It was employed by the European right for these very reasons. It is not simply out of coincidence that pollster rhymes with huckster.

 

The obsessive self-pitying nature that Americans have towards world opinion polls has allowed for the type of poll that now asks Americans what they think the rest of the world thinks of them. Can anything be more absurd? There was a point when large swathes of Pakistanis believed that Jews were tipped off about the World Trade Center attack, and yet still turned up to work on time – presumably to loiter around before the detonators went off – and then bailed out.

 

Now, let me remind you that the last time the world said that they like the United States was in the days after September the 11th, just after the country had been violated by the scum of the earth. Now I don’t exactly know how masochistic public opinion has become but this is too high a price to pay for being popular – even for the non sequitur of being thought of as smart or cultured by illiterate mobs in the third world or liberals in the West.

 

I'd say yes, Americans are stupid, look at who we elected for president this last time.

Well, the question of George Bush’s intelligence got to the point where even stupid people could make jokes about him

[ResidentWeevil2077]

The obsessive self-pitying nature that Americans have towards world opinion polls has allowed for the type of poll that now asks Americans what they think the rest of the world thinks of them. Can anything be more absurd?

Well at least the US woke up to the world around them for heaven's sakes :rolleyes:

 

I'm still peeved Americans still know little about Canada though - we live next door to each other, we can see what each other does practically, you would think your neighbour would at least know where you dump your garbage... :whistling:

[Nexus Set]

If the international perception of Americans is that of being stupid, then I think the most grievous exporter of this image can be summed up in three letters -- MTV.

[0borderline]

I don't think the amount of 12-year old Americans on Xbox Live helps the general opinion. Quite a lot of my friends dislike Americans due to the amount of times "Oh my god, do you know the queen?" has been said on Xbox Live. Me personally, I don't think Americans are stupid, but it's hard to keep that opinion when you're being insulted over Xbox Live by an 11-year old American because you shot him.