do europeans really dislike americans?

[tomcat360]

English relatives wayyyy far back. As in like 1600s. Been here since. I'm just rather objected to what is considered "american"

Ummm... Would this be a good time to point out that you've just described pretty much all of America?

After all we DID colonise your country about then?

*quick wikipedia check*

Starting in 1583

Yeah....definately didn't just point out all of America.

1583 is from Raleigh's Island, which was the first attempt, which went horrible. People went for supplies and came back to find everything was gone/destroyed.

Then Jamestown in 1607. Which was barely successful, but it was successful enough to still be the first successful establishment in the Americas (by Europeans of course)

However, the 1600s were sketchy, nobody was used to malaria, or Natives, or heat/humidity, etc. Lots of people died, not many people came.

The immigration began to go up in the 1700s, but not really.

1800s, now we've got irish and german immigrants. Now the population takes off. You see all those people's pictures from Ellis island, and all the people that have very common names most likely went through there and lost their names.

So no, I didn't sum up that much of America, instead I summed up about 8.7% (wikipedia ) of the current population, and that includes everyone who's come from there since. So I summed up more like 3% of the population.

And that's anyone who is "english", wether that be 100 or .001 %.

Anyways, friendly rant over.

So yeah, I think that when people see big, fat, loud, obnoxious people they say "eh, I bet they're American" but when they see the Americans that aren't total dicks they don't think anything of it.

[gdude335]

i am half french half american
i live in america and go to a french school.
heres a little story on how some people can be idiots:
Im hanging out at the skatepark talking to some friends, these two kids show up on foot.
they ask: what school do you go to?
i answered the french school in the city, explained why and then there like:
all french people are g*y followed by many insults to me and to the french i will not post for fear of geting banned
anyways i ask them why they hate the french so much
they answer: i met this french kid once and he was g*y
then they said they were gonna kick my ass and one guy pushed me off my bike and i decided to just leave because i wasnt gonna fight for such a stupid reason!
Also the aamerican education system can be so pro american.
heres an example:
so we are studying the relationship the indians have with the french and the british.
We read a speach quoted from an indian leader.
he said teh french treated them like there brothers and gave respect while the british did not.
then we watch this movie on the war and this and we hear.
The french TYRANTS (this was to the indians)
saying the french treated the indians much worst than the british while the british treated them better.
a bit controversial no?
now who will you believe? a famous indian who was alive and experienced thsi at the time or some people who made a movie with overused patriotic music?


For the past summers ive been going back to France to visit the familly
i whent to this camp thing and everybody has always been really cool about me being american. They were more curious than anything about the place!

I am not saying the french are better than the americans.
most american kids i have met where really cool about me being french.
Some of my friends got sh!t in France because they where american.

this is all from a 15 year old point of view and the people i was talking about all had 3 years difference maximum.
i also live in california (san francisco to be exact) which i heard is much fifferent from the other states.
(83% of the people in my area voted for kerry!!!!)

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

libby, i dont think tomcat is an 'unamerican' american at all. if youve been here, youd know that many of the costal cities and even some midwest cities have a huge population of people with the opinions of tomcat. or you could go to any university. to tell you the truth, i havent really experienced a place where conservative republican attitudes were a majority and overwhelming.

[libby]

Im comparing him to other Americans who use this site Hawaii......Mostly when you read posts you can get a gist of what nationality people are and the way Tomcat writes, his sense of humour, seems very unamerican, its in no way referring to his political views. Also the differences i'm referring to aren't particularly tangible and I wouldnt expect another American to pick up on it. Maybe other Brits dont pick up on it, but it sounds like Stone Fox agrees.

I've met hundreds of Americans on my travels and lived with them in halls of residences in both the UK and NZ, I guess the ones i've met aren't particularly typical of American citizens as they had actually left the country. Some of them were absoloutley fantastic and are life long friends, some of them were weirdo's and some of them i strongly disliked. The Americans I didnt like were all from Texas funnily enough. On the outside they were bubbly, friendly and warm. Get into a discussion on politics, religion, education, science, gay rights and you would be shocked. They weren't just conservative, they were a) brainwashed and had clearly only read propaganda relating to their views rather than real literature and b) borderline fascist.

Im not saying thats typical of Americans i met, for every small minded bigot i met an equally liberal and forward thinking person.

I won't judge America until i have travelled round it personally (although that doesnt really appeal) but i do not like the person that AS A COUNTRY you have chosen to represent you and I dont like most of your foreign policy.

Saying that, im also not a huge Blair fan and I dont think a whole lot of our foreign policy either.

Countries suck, neoliberal politicians suck, men suck, life sucks.

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

Did you know in American schools they teach that the second world war started in 1943?


For ten points can anyone name me any historical movies that are 'based' on true stories but hollywood filmed them with Americans/America saving the day rather than the true and historical saviour/saviours?

i disagree with that. i like ww2 films where i think americans were heros, but we also have lots of disgruntled films trying to portray the situation invietnam.

i definetly would not call america the heros in the following movies

platoon
full metal jacket
born on the 4th of july
apocolypse now
tigerland
the fog of war
deer hunter
that movie starring micheal jay fox where his fellow soldiers kidnap rape and murder a vietnamese girl which i cant remember the name of
good morning vietnam
slaughterhouse five

these movies do have american heros but do not portray the americans as heros.

i think i deserve more than 10 points.

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

i meant to say the films to not portray AMERICA as heroic or something like that.

libby, youre probably right. and i dont really know how hawaii compares to the rest of the US., but i feel that i dont really know what "true" americans are like, i only know my family (liberals) and locals to havaii(relatively new to the country in the past 100 years, and mostly asian)

[Jimi]

good call libby about the texan ultra-conservatism and scary views on politics and religion.

Have any americans seen Borat? I though that movie highlighted the worst parts of the culture, but unfortunately it is these unsavoury parts that get broadcast to the world, propagating the stereotypes.

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

(you guys are right, this was a stupid comment, but atleast im not a queer english drama queen)

[drowningbitbybit]

i doubt he was popular in UK much before he became popular in the US.

Demonstrating, yet again, the arrogance of the USA

[el_timmo]

have any americans seen borat? you must be crazy. the same guy does ali g, the spoof on american hip hop culture. america made borat. i doubt he was popular in UK much before he became popular in the US.

ahem... what? You have to be joking!

[rich r]

Hmmm.. I wonder if I come across as a typical American.

gdude - Sorry about your school grounds incident.. but I don't think that's a representation of Americans, but general teenage bull that goes on. Instead of being fat or nerdy or some other common easy thing to differentiate and make fun of, you happened to be French, and it was just something for them to pick on. I doubt it would have been much different if you were British, or even an American from the south.

As for the history stuff - I'll agree that a lot of it is revisionist history. As for the relationship with native Americans - remember there we many different tribes. The French got along with some, the British others. So, both accounts are probably correct - just from different tribes (I believe the French were aligned with the Huron, the British with Narragansett, and the Huron and Narragansett. The Narragansett were dominated by the Pequot before the Europeans arrived, so they generally like the English more than the Pequot, who ended up decimated)

I don't think you could portray any of the Europeans as having been 'nice' to the native population. Maybe in degrees of 'not as bad as those other guys.'

One thing is that we learn much more detailed American history and less detailed world history through our mid and upper grades. So most Americans, if they don't take world histories in university, are more ignorant about the world than other countries. Which is a shame. But then, we don't have generations of monarchs to learn about. Although we do consider the American Revolution to be a bit more than the footnote in English history of "that mad King George just gave the colonies away" it seems to be.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

have any americans seen borat? you must be crazy. the same guy does ali g, the spoof on american hip hop culture. america made borat. i doubt he was popular in UK much before he became popular in the US.

HAHAHAHAHA, I am Canadian, and even I know the answer to that. It is NO!!!!!!!!!!! He got his start in the UK. All these characters were used in his shows well before he started comming to the US. HAHAHA, I love his show, have you guys seen the episode when he interveiws David Beckam and his wife? Classic...hahahaha

[sal]

i doubt he was popular in UK much before he became popular in the US.

Demonstrating, yet again, the arrogance of the USA

Not to mention the ignorance!

[Stone Fox]

I give up on this thread, it's just getting on my tits.

I think though, that we've established one thing. We don't dislike America, or Americans, we dislike Americans like Hawaiisucks, who is less of an American then an American't.

Oh, and who said Americans can't be humerous:

http://www.foulmouthshirts.com/religiousshirts.htm

[drowningbitbybit]

we dislike Americans like Hawaiisucks

I think I consider that the final word.

*leaves thread, locks door on the way out*

[tomcat360]

Yeah, I think I'm done here as well before someone starts throwing rocks at me when I make a typo

[Milo]

Rather have the usa as friends than the middle east

[el_timmo]

whole new ball park there bro

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

you stupid arseholes pay attention to my wording on that comment. "much before" i know he was popular in the UK before in the us. boy, you guys sure get your panties in a bunch over a stupid overstatement. it was a reaction to the understatement of someone thinking americans dont like borat, which is a HUGE understatement, considering that movie was sold out in theaters for about 4 days when it came out. but of course europeans wouldnt think so because having no sense of humor about themselves, they think we cant laugh at our own culture. i mean look at this. as soon as somepne suggests something as simple as that, you guys get so defensive and make it personal.

and i could also say you fellas are the pefect examples of arrogant europeans thinking youre better, acting all snobbish like.

[Broosta]

Hi , just came back to this thread , couldn't be assed to read it all tho - too long. Did catch the end bit and can imagine the rest! But if anyone has not yet seen Borat they should, and the good news is that you can all see a free illegal copy streamed here http://movies.peekvid.com/s4059/ .

Peace out bruddas and sistas .