Patriotism is a very good thing...unfortunately though, most Americans take it a bit far...

America is thesuperpower at the moment and this goes with the territory.

Yes there is envy and resentment just as some Americans are arrogant or jingoistic and ignorant of the rest of the world. The US does help out other countries which is good but it also had some disasterous foreign policies. American tourists can be really arrogant and rude but then so can the French, German and British and the Aussies are starting to get a very bad reputation for being the same way.

So in short you're just like the rest of the world and when you're at the top of the tree you act like they act in the same position.

I didn't say all. I know plenty of good citizens of America and I'm sure you're one of them, but alot seem to mix up patriotism with arrogance. Like says "I live in a great country" compared to "We're better than everyone" which is what alot of the world hears.

The Truth: Around 80% of Americans are materialistic, senseless, greedy, and arrogant bastards. 5% of the remaining 20% are hillbillies, but the other 15% are generally kind people with a lot of common sense and wisdom. I was disgusted with a friend who said that he wanted to drain Loch Ness to find Nessie, saying killing every creature living there was of no matter, that we need to do it the American way. Yet later on, he said he could never harm an animal, something he could never do. I find that very depressing.

I'm an American, whoohoo, I hate my country. There needs to be no justification of how "Great" we really are, and we take the blame because of a newly corrupted and mindless government and general population where the Supreme Court is the only thing holding us together.

On the other hand, the USA has done many great things, and we've helped a lot of people, and shown that at times we can actually be a great country. The thing is, the people are still the same, and are still mislead. The country is suffering.

On the note of labeling, it's not going to stop until most of the world is a little bit more tolerant and wise. And if some radical says its not going to be until everyone converts to Christianity and praises Jesus or that type of crap, that is absolutely wrong -- We have to fix our own human problems before even dreaming of religion.

Infact, the quality of life in Canada is known to be greater, since the media hasn't brutalized Canada and no one thinks to blame the Northern part of our world.
This country is NOT great, never has been, but has the potential to be.

Have you met most americans in order to be able to make that assumption?

Most americans, have been raised to believe a certain way. Conditioning from birth, Every "great" nation has done. If you want to be powerful, then you have to create a illusion of freedom that is in reality not there at all. Freedom is a concept, a abstract idea. Its not a physical, Viable thing. It exists in our heads, You can say "Im not free to say that" But yes, you are. You may be punished, but you can still do it. Freedom comes at a price, and if its personal than thats the way it is. If your not willing to suffer for freedom, then you dont deserve it in the first place. I would love oh so much, for america to be this big freedom fighting force. Then I would go straight into the army, but its not. I dont agree with its foreign policys, or the way it handles its problems. So Im doing my best to continue what there seems to be left to fight for-Our constitution, the Bush Mangled Banner.

I watch enough NBC, CBS, reality TV, sitcoms, talkshows, American television and American movies to make that assumption.

Whether you'd like to admit it or not, most that appear on the above represent a large portion of your country.

Do you really think that the bulk of the americans are accurately represented by television?

By using that same methodology, I can assume that all Australians wrestle alligators and like to (As Paul Hogan put it)"put a shrimp on the barbie..." for visitors to the country?

Have you been here? Lived here? I think you would find that TV does not do a good job of representing the people of the country, it is sensationalistic; it looks for extremes in everything.

I would hope that you could see more of the country before making such decisions...

I think the US is in a proccess of learning a hard but valuable lesson that most super power countries have all gone thru. That is there is a fine line between patriotism and rampant nationalism and the balance needs to be right.

Here in the UK we are now going back the other way and anything that smacks of patriotism is condemned and people made to feel ashamed of it. This is also wrong, when you deny a people the right to celebrate their culture it causes a nationalist backlash and gives ground to extremist parties who play on this.

I'm an American studying international studies and relations. I'd like to think that the U.S. has roughly the same percentage of "nice" people as every other country. Granted, some of the things the government has done were wrong and some of them were most definately self-serving. Unfortunately, all nations that are economically powerful do these things. I'm not saying that makes it right, but it does happen everywhere. For all people living outside the United States, the average American may not know a great deal about the "outside world," but that doesn't mean they have anything against it...not that ignorance should be an excuse. (By the way, I have been to British Columbia and it really is gorgeous). Burocracy aside, all the U.S. really is is a country made up of people that were political dissidents, religiously persecuted, conviced of crimes (like Australia), or came to find land or jobs. At this point in history, our nation happens to be a huge economic power, which is probably where the supposed arrogance comes from. I think if everyone from every country and culture was able to learn more about others, it would make the world alot less grumpy. And trust me, American's aren't all jerks ... i'm not anyway

And i'm not convinced that American TV accurately portrays the American population. It's entertainment (sometimes very tasteless too) and should be judged as such. While it may portray some social mores, it still is fiction. As for CNN and NBC, they cover real stories of course, but the "headline" stories are a very small part of what really goes on. (Thankfully, I've never met anyone that should be on Jerry Springer)

American TV portrays everything but the normal american. even right down to the media.

I live in America and I agree with him. People here drive the biggest SUV's with the flag all over the damned things and "GOD BLESS AMERICA!" stamped all over the backside of it.

And then those who buy Hummer suvs so they can show they "support the troops" ... those people make me sick to my stomach...

Television in general is a sort of 'self worship' IMO. It is interesting to me that the vast majority of Television consists of 'people' doing things....and yeah, usually unrealistic things. I don't really get the fascination we have for looking at other people on the tube.

Amen to that.
Same goes with what these people do with their lives. Why is it such a big deal that two people who've been on TV break up? Who cares?

I think it's pretty safe to say that American TV is not exactly a very good portrayal of its people. If nothing else most of us are overweight and not nearly that attractive. But the fact we keep watching all these ridiculous Reality Shows is a bad enough sympton.

And if you think most young women are like those two Hilton bimbo's they put on fox... *cringes*

Ok.. who the hell thought that was a good idea... oh wait.. Fox...

Who the hell thought Hilton was a good idea!? No sane mind that's for sure.


I blame America for the attrocities thrust upon me by the likes of indescribable idiots such as that woman.
How do you people respond to these accusations?

It's hot.




*snicker*

hahahahah god!

Hmmm something interesting..??? Are Americans becoming lazy ??? or do they fear going to work ????

That's not just the states, that's everywhere.
Why bother to work? they get free money if they're unemployed anyway from the government. It's practically encouraged everywhere, which is why it's increasing.

Or maybe, instead of calling us all lazy, LuQy, you could look to other explanations, such as outsourcing? Unemployment rates fluctuate. I could find countries with much higher ones.

And then there's the whole outsourcing problem.

NOT where I live dude.. Maybe you should take a good look at this..?????


Clever..!! aren't YOU..???

Exactly. Ever since America adopted NAFTA (HUGE mistake for the citizens of this country), we've watched as our engineering and technical jobs have floated away to countries that don't have nearly the same labor laws or expectations. It's easy to be out of work when the jobs are leaving.



Thanks for the positive options there, LuQy. Are you being judgemental??? or just narrow minded???

*edited ridiculous mistake*

HEY I was being honest...!!! I know about outsourcing etc.. BUT that ain't the real reason or major problem, I was asking a genuwine question because of all the TERRORISM stuff the government leads you to believe.. and after what happened on 9/11 I thought you guys might have well defined opinions on this matter..!!!

And I suppose that 30% of the Americans just became incredibly lazy in 1929?

Have you ever taken an economics course? Do you know how macro-economics works? Many factors go into unemployment.

The uncalled for jabs at "Americans" that you seem to be spilling out in your threads is inflammatory and leads to pointless bickering.

Stop it.

This is your last friendly warning.

Ugh, now i remember why i was ignoring this fool.

And then again the unemployment figures shown are a year old. A lot has happened in the last year in the US as far as job growth goes.

LuQy,
I have concluded that you are one of those people who hates America. Have you ever even been here?

And if you'll look at the numbers on the charts, our HIGHEST level of unemployent is almost exactly level with the UK's LOWEST rate.

*Edited for clarity*

More like because there aren't many jobs avalible? That ever cross your mind?

Especialy with no skills, the jobs I can do are going to people with a degree in whatever because people would rather a person with ont, then train someone who doesn't... Going to college is an excersize in running around... finacial aid going to people who can accually afford to pay ther bill... meanwhile people like me get the shaft...

lazy? More like just fricken tired of being told "No" every step of the way to get back into the workforce.

No, have you read up on the wall street crash ???

Nope I've not studied macro-economics and I'd love to know, I am serious and genuwine in wanting to know the reasons for this rise in unemplyment, because as far as I am aware; there is a substantial rise in obesity and this is increasing within the USA, if you graph the two stats you'll end up with a positive correlation between unemployment and obesity.. not that I am saying obesity is wholly responsible for unemployment...

Look, I'm only stating the facts, I leave open end questions for people to reply to respond to, just like the comment I made about Australians on this thread... It's about my personal views and I'm sorry if my opinions hurt other people BUT I can't help holding such opinions if that is what my brain leads me to believe..!!!

OK

Thanks I appreciate you warning me BUT I really didn't intend to cause hostility... This is a genuwine problem occuring in USA and some other developed countries BUT the statistics don't lie....

Cause we painted our selfs as the helper of the world to those counties that have started to slack a little cause America will just fix it for us. But when we stop helping the world is like "NO WAY, I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID THAT!" If other countries wouldn't be so concerned about what we are doing and focus on what they SHOULD be doing it would be all good. Blaming America is an easy way out for those goverments. Most other countries will post horrible stuff about America in the media. Frankly as an America, I believe we are helping to much of the world for nothing. We give tens of billions of dollars away each year and all for what? So some little kid in ANOTHER country can grow up healthy while on our own soil we have homeless people and kids that need it more. America should just tell most of the world screw off and select a few countries that would still recieve aid for right reasons.

Wow.. that's the biggest load of buffalo chips I've ever read so far.

You are intensionaly insulting americans. no matter *how* you put it.

hahahah, that's true!! well not exactly, but it's still funny too see.

There is a correlation between poverty and obesity. Why? A few reasons: Because healthy, low-fat foods tend to be more expensive, whereas fast food is extremely cheap and easy to come by. Many empoverished neighborhoods are not the sort of places where people are interested in taking a jog around the block. There are many more I could list, but that's not the point of this thread.

But no, fat people are not just stopping going to work.


Oh, and sorry but this is driving me nuts: genuine. Genuwine is a rap artist.

im American. Id like to say i look forward to a world with more Friends.No more like a big world family, where we(as a people of earth) celebrate global holidays instead of national ones. Id like us all to stand up together and show, all the indecent people like terrorists, that were not going to take their mayhem, that they are not going to change the way we live, but WE are. It seems to me racial hatred has spawned in to continental raceism. Americans dont want to be in a war, just as much as the rest of the world, but after 9/11 the UN didnt want to support the bombing of afganistan. SO america's take on it was, well we dont need ur permission to protect our country and were going to send them a message.
Wouldnt you? u know muslims, jewish, chineese, japaneese along with americans
died that day? IF it happend anywhere else on earth , i would proudly stand up with the people of brittan,canada, scotland, argentina, mexcio, france, anyone's country who was attacked, Id look at u , id see the fire in ur eyes. english children coverd in dust, a spanish mother crying in the street as she holds HALF of her son. Id see it in ur eyes, just like u would have seen it in mine when the muslims were lighing my flag on fire, smiling, shooting guns in the air celebrating the death of innocent americans. You would wanna fight back too, u would. Id be there with u,
id bleed with you id cry with you.
Ill tell u this, i would never want to be a leader in a politcal power, such as the presidency of america. It is the lonlyest job in the world, one former president compared his job to a cold pitcher of spit being poored on him everyday for four years. YUCK!
id like to see world patriotism for a change, i think it would be a good thing.
LOL I guess "I have a dream..." that maybe one day the people of the world will stop putting others down, and start picking them up. That the people of the world will have a unifyed voice so powerful that we will pave the road map for peace not our world leaders. Someday the people of the world will speak, and there will be a tremendous sound, and that sound will change the world for the better.

It's not so much the people of america, it's who controls the politics of america.
*coughbushcough*

YES maybe they're a year old BUT they are the latest stats.


If that's what you have concluded then I have no qualms whatsover, that is afterall your personal opinion and maybe some others feel the same way, BUT as long as I know I don't hate ALL Americans then I'm happy with that just because I seem to despise a select few doesn;t mean to say I'm being stereotypical or generalising all Americans.... The reason why I asked the question I did was because I wanted an American opinion and so had to question it so that it appeals to the general public..!!

I still haven't gotten a statsfactory answer from an American as to why they feel the need to bestow such horrors as Paris Hilton on the world. *shudders*

What do you expect from califonia besides the ipod?

At least someone who's good to look at!
If that's californias finest, they're in trouble!

Let's not forget that some place won't hire you if you're overweight. *is subject to that*

Another factor is depression. That goes along with the being told "No" all the damned time thing... as well as overweightness. Experiance in that as well... it sucks, but I deal with it.

and no, I don't go to fast food places.. blick! After three years working at a McDonalds.. never will eat there again...

Because it's from FOX. The joke among network TV...

that would explain americas unemployment rate.

even simspons(which airs on fox)makes fun of fox.fox is another reason america gets bad raps.

What? People refusing to work at fast food joints? I did my time in that joint.. I don't want to go back man... you don't know what they do to you in there.. *shudders*

WHY has no Americans yet commented on FEAR ??? I mean I don't know many Americans personally BUT isn't this increase in unemployment anything to do with 9/11 and growing concerns over terrorism ??? I mean the economy was battered by a sudden slide in stock prices, lost vast numbers of transportation and tourism jobs in the aftermath of 9/11, had its confidence shaken by several high-profile corporate governance and accounting scandals, and lost a lot of ground to imports because of terrorism....??

For me personally fear of terrorism doesn't affect my daily life. We've gotten conditioned to the idea that we are under High/Medium/Low terrorist alerts...me going to work or not going to work won't change anything if we get attacked.

So much of what happens in this country, from the high profile scandels to the screw ups of its leaders, is so far removed from the common person, or should I say so far out of his hands, that it often just pushed to the back of the mind.

What do you expect us to say, LuQy? Yes...we live in terror of the evil we have sown over the world being thrown back in our faces? Yes...we wallow in our corpulent opulence like the captitalist pigs that we are? What? What do you and all the rest of the world expect us common Americans to do? Beg forgiveness for something MOST of us had nothing to do with? We can't make our government DO anything, no matter what is said about democracy. And we who disagree can't all flee the country.

It's just cool to bash America on a global scale right now. As I've said before, we've done things worthy of scorn as a nation but I wish the fact that I was an American wouldn't automatically label me as a fat, uneducated snob by the intellectual elitists of the planet who supposedly preach tolerance and acceptance.

*sniff* I'm proud to have Jenn as a neighbor.