American-British Q&A

[mikev7.0]

I have a question for American's, how many of you have visited the UK?

I have not, but I hope to someday.

I have a question: What do British folk call:

[image=http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/lays-potato-chips-regular.jpg]

Your image is kind of broken for me, but upon entering the image URL directly; we call them 'crisps'.



My question from the UK to people in the USA;
Not sure if it's been asked here before or if it's changes recently, but what is some Americans' problem with public healthcare and calling things 'communist' or 'fascist' as a kind of knee-jerk reaction to anything (which rarely relates in any way to what communism or fascism actally is)?


EDIT;

Also how do I post a picture? It's relevant to a question.

[ img ] [ /img ]
Use those tags without spaces, and but the image url in between them. Like this (You can see it through a quote);

Our problem with calling things Communist or Fascist has to do mostly with our media. Our two sides love to use extreme and shocking words (true or not) to make the other side look as undesirable as possible. Both sides are guilty of this. (Consider our movies. More shock value than actual content. For example count the swear words. Pretty soon though that's going to bow to the law of diminishing returns.)

Most of us also do not have a problem with public healthcare. The rich however (who make a great deal of money from the current system) have a big problem with it. The real problem is that they can not see the mounting logical support behind the theory that it's just going to cost them more in the long run anyway. The old guard is stubborn and they have lots of fighting cash. The progresive side of the arguement? Not so much.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

I have a question for the Brits. It's sorta random, but I gotta know. I have heard through out the food industry British food is god aweful bland. Every chef I've met or person who has visited said it's just bland, especially pastries. Is it true and is there a specific reason? and is that way Indian food and whatnot is super popular there? lol

 

[Nyquisted]

Also, a question for you americans, do you acknowledge that we are your ancestors?

Nope my ancestors are the Russian, Polish, Czechoslovakians, and the Hungarian. I don't have any ounce of British blood in my veins.

My question: what in the hell is Marmite and why do people in the UK go batshit for it?

Hmm, your question seems to have been overlooked.
Marmite is a yeast-based savoury spread which is pretty well known in Britain.
It has a powerful smell and taste, probably best described as salty.

However, I wouldn't say we're all crazy for it.
Marmite's official marketing slogan is 'Love It or Hate It', and it's been the butt of a few jokes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6fco14Gi0

Personally I find it repulsive, but I do know a few people who like it.

As to why it's so well known, I think because it's quintessentially British; i.e. odd.

 

[JDKJ]

Do all Americans make up facts and expect others to be dumb enough to swallow them unthinkingly? When you get to acting like I ain't got no sense and I'm a sucker is when you bring out the rude in me. I guess I could just go, "liar, liar, pants on fire" but that's childish and I''d rather be rude than childish.

So I guess that's a yes then? Damn. Here I was thinking Britain was full of nice people. But I guess since it's just full of assholes I have no reason to visit.


Way to make your whole country look bad, bro. But hey, I guess simply saying "Well here's a safety study as to why we drive on the left", you know just like that other guy that answered my original question, is too difficult when you can go off on a tangent and be a complete arse. I genuinely hope you're proud of yourself.

Lastly, we have nothing further to discuss, so if you would, please kindly stop quoting me and leave it be. I'll certainly be ignoring every post you make.

Actually, I'm a former British colonist living in the States. There's a chance you'll run into me at your local Starbucks or mall. I'll look out for you. You'll be easy to spot. You'll be the one pullin' fake facts outta your ass.

 

[DocMcCray]

Do all Americans make up facts and expect others to be dumb enough to swallow them unthinkingly? When you get to acting like I ain't got no sense and I'm a sucker is when you bring out the rude in me. I guess I could just go, "liar, liar, pants on fire" but that's childish and I''d rather be rude than childish.

Sorry about the sloppy edit job.

To answer your question, it is a very, very vocal majority who take the whole freedom of speech thing way too literally. There is usually not a whole lot of emphasis on fact-finding and so many times do like to either make up facts or quote something they've "seen or heard" as fact without checking to see if there is any truth to it.

Plus, god forbid these screeching monkeys ever admit to being wrong. Even if proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I read through an interview with Larry Flynt (creator of Hustler magazine and major free speech advocate) and he mentioning rather profound. In short, he said that freedom of speech isn't meant for those that agree with you, it's meant for those that disagree with you. Meaning you can't stifle those you disagree with. But conversely, you don't have to agree with them either.

I do believe the US has a higher ratio of people who create false statics and expect people to believe them. Hell, they get on cable news shows as "experts" all the time. But that isn't to say we don't have those who aren't willing to have civilized discussions.

 

[mikev7.0]

About when did video games become widely available in the U.K.?

... Since when was the UK on Mars? The same time as the rest of the world.

So in the 70's then when Nolan Bushnell invented pong? You had Atari then? Commodore and Texas Instruments were companies from the States. Who made your first computers or did you import them from here? That's why I ask because whenever I've heard people who say they are from the U.K. talk about it it seems to have started in the late 80's which here was the video game renaissance.

To the best of my knowledge the world no more started gaming at the same time than they started with home computers at the same time. Both began in the States. First with the military, then the census bearau, then the Advanced Research Projects Agency, then Apple and Microsoft got involved and BOOM! I'm paraphrasing of course but these events and projects were not globally simultaneous.

 

[MikailCaboose]

A slight question, though this works for Canada too.
What do you think when you hear "z" pronounced like "zee" and not "zed"?

 

[JDKJ]

It's safer

Thank you. That's all I wanted to know. Though, I do disagree with regards to changing gear, as with how numb modern power steering systems are you can steer a car by blowing on the wheel. If one's left hand isn't able to keep the wheel in position for half a second one probably needs to get it looked at. And buy an automatic. I've certainly never had trouble keeping my wheel pointed right with my left arm, but that may be because I drive with my left arm anyways due to the interior layout I'm presented with.

You may wanna do a more accurate count. Right-hand drive may be the minority. If so, the Americans are the odd ones.

Let's see how many countries I can name that drive on the right:

US
Canada
Mexico
All of Europe except the British islands
All of Africa
All of South America
All of Asia except for Japan(Wouldn't mind asking them why they drive on the wrong side of the road as well)
Russia

...Yeah. You guys drive on the wrong side of the road. 3/4 of the world's population drives on the right, wheel on the left of the car. Or at least they're supposed to.

Again, just because there's no law against doing something doesn't make it a practical thing to do. There's no law against being a practicing homosexual but many homosexuals remain in the closet because coming out of the closet will have negative consequences for them.

Still don't see why they should be afraid of a few people QQing. Big deal. Someone doens't like an opinion.

Think elected politicians from Bible Belt states. If they are gay, they probably ain't rushing to announce the fact. Even though there's no law that says they can't be gay. Because they know that their Bible-thumping constituents will quickly vote their ass outta office.

And rightfully so. They shouldn't be lying to their constituents just to get elected to an office that pays them from those constituents' tax money! I've got nothing against gays but I'd vote their ass right out too on that standpoint.

"All of Africa," my ass. I've driven in South Africa and it was on the left-hand side. From where are you getting your facts? The Almanac of Bullshit Facts?

I have another question.

Are all Britons pedantic and rude? Because that's the vibe I'm getting from you. I'd like to believe they're for the most part nice people but you're making it awful hard.

your right most countries do drive on the right more so the left but in the past most countries actually drove on the left and so did quite alot of america but most adopted right after finland changed theres. you are though also wrong about some places like you said all of africa thats actually wrong i give you a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg this explains it all red are right and left are blue. also i am english most of us don't seem like assholes.

If you thumb through wiki some more, you'll see where there are 163 right-hand drive countries to 76 left-hand drive countries, a split of approximately 66.6% to 33.3%. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic That doesn't sound as if left-hand drive is the oddity that some would have me believe it is. It sounds as if a third of the world's countries are left-hand drive.

 

[alandavidson]

I have a question for American's, how many of you have visited the UK?

I have! I loved it.

 

[JDKJ]

Do all Americans make up facts and expect others to be dumb enough to swallow them unthinkingly? When you get to acting like I ain't got no sense and I'm a sucker is when you bring out the rude in me. I guess I could just go, "liar, liar, pants on fire" but that's childish and I''d rather be rude than childish.

Sorry about the sloppy edit job.

To answer your question, it is a very, very vocal majority who take the whole freedom of speech thing way too literally. There is usually not a whole lot of emphasis on fact-finding and so many times do like to either make up facts or quote something they've "seen or heard" as fact without checking to see if there is any truth to it.

Plus, god forbid these screeching monkeys ever admit to being wrong. Even if proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I read through an interview with Larry Flynt (creator of Hustler magazine and major free speech advocate) and he mentioning rather profound. In short, he said that freedom of speech isn't meant for those that agree with you, it's meant for those that disagree with you. Meaning you can't stifle those you disagree with. But conversely, you don't have to agree with them either.

I do believe the US has a higher ratio of people who create false statics and expect people to believe them. Hell, they get on cable news shows as "experts" all the time. But that isn't to say we don't have those who aren't willing to have civilized discussions.

We had a President who made up non-existent weapons of mass destruction so he could invade another country that was minding it's own business.

But that doesn't mean I have to suffer a fool who tries to play me like I'm an idiot. If there's one character flaw I have, it's the inability to suffer fools gladly. I'm working on my suffering skills, but will admit to having made very little progress on that front.

 

[Thaa'ir]

My question from the UK to people in the USA;
Not sure if it's been asked here before or if it's changes recently, but what is some Americans' problem with public healthcare and calling things 'communist' or 'fascist' as a kind of knee-jerk reaction to anything (which rarely relates in any way to what communism or fascism actally is)?

This assumption is incorrect, although very widespread among Europeans. If all Americans had such a problem with health-care, there would be no debate about the issue.

 

[JDKJ]

A slight question, though this works for Canada too.
What do you think when you hear "z" pronounced like "zee" and not "zed"?

I think of Zed in "Pulp Fiction" and the Gimp down in the basement.

"Zed's dead, Baby. Zed's dead." -- Butch

 

[Thaa'ir]

To Americans, do you guys actually understand the stereotypical, dry, British humour? I know a lot of Americans are actually pretty smart, I just wonder if this is a stereotype with basis or not.

The gun culture...having just been to the Gun Store in Vegas and talking to the ex-military lady instructor, I'm changing my mind about guns. I can see why people would like to have a gun, for safety. My question is, then, would you guys prefer to be in a gun-happy country where anyone (that hasn't been institutionalised) can have a gun, or one like the UK where the threat of gun crime/danger is smaller (on a scaled down basis, obviously. Illegal guns still exist here)?

And my final question...does anyone actually think that Two and Half Men and Everybody Loves Raymond are funny???

For my part, I do...it just doesn't amuse me. Personal tastes I guess.

Europeans usually fail to consider the other reasons for our 2nd Amendment. It was specifically put in place to ensure that the population could arm itself in the case of a tyrannical takeover and revolt. Other reasons included repelling invasions and self-defense.

I suppose I must think about that. On the one hand, liberal access to guns is dangerous. On the other, invading a country of 300 million people where guns are widely available and a significant portion of the adult population is armed and given basic training in gun use sounds...horrible.

And to that last, I haven't seen either of those shows. Well, ELR I haven't seen since I was like...12.

 

[Bloodysoldier]

What? no canadians? TT_TT

I have a question for our American cousins who live in America's Hat (Canadians)
Why not merge with America already, we promise to fix the internet for you?

 

[JDKJ]

To Americans, do you guys actually understand the stereotypical, dry, British humour? I know a lot of Americans are actually pretty smart, I just wonder if this is a stereotype with basis or not.

The gun culture...having just been to the Gun Store in Vegas and talking to the ex-military lady instructor, I'm changing my mind about guns. I can see why people would like to have a gun, for safety. My question is, then, would you guys prefer to be in a gun-happy country where anyone (that hasn't been institutionalised) can have a gun, or one like the UK where the threat of gun crime/danger is smaller (on a scaled down basis, obviously. Illegal guns still exist here)?

And my final question...does anyone actually think that Two and Half Men and Everybody Loves Raymond are funny???

For my part, I do...it just doesn't amuse me. Personal tastes I guess.

Europeans usually fail to consider the other reasons for our 2nd Amendment. It was specifically put in place to ensure that the population could arm itself in the case of a tyrannical takeover and revolt. Other reasons included repelling invasions and self-defense.

I suppose I must think about that. On the one hand, liberal access to guns is dangerous. On the other, invading a country of 300 million people where guns are widely available and a significant portion of the adult population is armed and given basic training in gun use sounds...horrible.

And to that last, I haven't seen either of those shows. Well, ELR I haven't seen since I was like...12.

Like most knives, the right to bear arms can cut both ways. There are more than a few gun-toting crazies in Arizona and Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border who have decided that they're being invaded by illegal immigrants and therefore have a right to shoot those illegal immigrants -- even though the immigrants aren't armed or threatening.

Perhaps that's why the Second speaks of "a well regulated militia" being necessary to the security of a free State and not "a bunch of loony hick ranchers taking the law into their own hands."

 

[Mr Scott]

To Americans, do you guys actually understand the stereotypical, dry, British humour? I know a lot of Americans are actually pretty smart, I just wonder if this is a stereotype with basis or not.

The gun culture...having just been to the Gun Store in Vegas and talking to the ex-military lady instructor, I'm changing my mind about guns. I can see why people would like to have a gun, for safety. My question is, then, would you guys prefer to be in a gun-happy country where anyone (that hasn't been institutionalised) can have a gun, or one like the UK where the threat of gun crime/danger is smaller (on a scaled down basis, obviously. Illegal guns still exist here)?

And my final question...does anyone actually think that Two and Half Men and Everybody Loves Raymond are funny???

For my part, I do...it just doesn't amuse me. Personal tastes I guess.

Europeans usually fail to consider the other reasons for our 2nd Amendment. It was specifically put in place to ensure that the population could arm itself in the case of a tyrannical takeover and revolt. Other reasons included repelling invasions and self-defense.

However most of the crazy gun-toting criminals have committed federal offences and are readily caught.

I suppose I must think about that. On the one hand, liberal access to guns is dangerous. On the other, invading a country of 300 million people where guns are widely available and a significant portion of the adult population is armed and given basic training in gun use sounds...horrible.

And to that last, I haven't seen either of those shows. Well, ELR I haven't seen since I was like...12.

Like most knives, the right to bear arms can cut both ways. There are more than a few gun-toting crazies in Arizona and Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border who have decided that they're being invaded by illegal immigrants and therefore have a right to shoot those illegal immigrants -- even though the immigrants aren't armed or threatening.

Perhaps that's why the Second speaks of "a well regulated militia" being necessary to the security of a free State and not "a bunch of loony hick ranchers taking the law into their own hands."

 

[ShogunGino]

This may sound like a dumb question, but as an American, what does "taking the piss" mean? I've heard it said several times, and several times it seems like it contextually means different things, and I've never figured out what.

Also, as an animation fan, does the U.K. enjoy any domestically made animated shows? I rarely see anyone talk about an animated show that came out in the U.K.. The only one I can recall that was imported here was a show I used to watch when I was very little about a white bear called "Rupert".