Are Escapist members anti-American?

[MikeOfThunder]

I find most of the bashing is actually Americans being anti-american. Damnit people! Take some god damn pride in your country!

Don't blame you man, if i were American i would be pissed off about all this negativity. Everyone concentrates on the bad. America has actually achieved a hell of alot for the free world aswell! Don't forget that!

 

[letsnoobtehpwns]

I'm American and very patriotic.

 

[Desert Tiger]

Stereotypes are wrong until proven right in the court of the media.

 

[G1eet]

So why all the stereotyping and white-washing of my entire country?

Given the Escapist IS an American magazine, I'd say that you just have to look a little closer. Fondant regularly rips into South Africa, Saskwatch and Purple Rain into Australia and myself into England.

What's more appropriate is that there are a lot of confused people on the Internet that correlate anything American to Dubya Bush and Cletus from the Simpsons.

There's also the Internet Dickwad Theory, which tends to make up a lot of these arguments.

That's a very sound explanation.

I too am an American, and I dislike how many people on here tend to ***** and moan and point fingers whenever anything related to this side of the pond comes up in a discussion (especially on morals, or religion).

Although I do agree the government has made some pretty bad fuck-ups in recent years.

 

[SadakoMoose]

Americans are just as bad about it.
When was the last time you heard an American make a newfie joke?(Canada)
Or one about Southerners? (UK)
or french speaking Belgians?

I should practice what I preach...(to get attention)

You know you're from Newfoundland when...

- You only know three spices - salt, pepper and ketchup.
- You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
- The mosquitoes have landing lights.

- What sign do they put on the bottom of Belgian swimming pools?
- "No smoking".

And, since I don't usually get British humor:
Blah blah, no indoor toilets, blah blah funny accent, blah blah nearly illiterate.
"Wahahaha"

 

[Monshroud]

Just to preface: I am an American and I love my country, now that that is out of the way. The U.S.A. is a very interesting experiment. Remember that we are a county founded by religious people who were too uptight for Europe, our people who are way more conservative in their views. We also were successful at it. We slaughtered the natives, and drove back the English who tried to claim the land for themselves. We are also a very young country compared to the mass majority.

Our country is not even 300 years old and yet we have somehow become one of the leading super powers. We try to spread democracy to other countries and yet our own people don't understand the political process. We get offended by a swear word on TV or the sight of a breast on a statue. Our constution talks about the separation of church and state and then we protest when the 10 commandments are going to be removed from a government facility. We don't exactly have our proverbal shit together here. We are a country that has more people vote for a pop-star than the people who will run the country and yet we are telling other countries how they should act and govern their people.

Also seeing how the U.S is only a small fraction of the global population, we are kinda outnumbered.

 

[Xanadu84]

I love my country. Sure, Bush was stupid, but I agree with the war. Do any Americans disagree with us going into WWII for pearl harbor? Then we should go to Iraq for 9/11.

The Japanese Navy and Airforce attacked Pearl Harbour.

Militants attacked the Twin Towers, not the Iraqi government.

More importantly, it was an Afghanistan based organization with a lot of Saudi funding, that had nothing to do with Iraq whatsoever. In fact, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were pretty much mortal enemies.

When your the most powerful, you do the most stuff. When you do the most stuff, you make the most mistakes, and do the most BAD stuff. Therefore, its easy for other countries to point the finger at America at large and shout, "Shame on you", when the only reason why their country isn't doing the same is because they lack the capacity to do so. It isn't America, its people. And before long, America and the EU and all the other countries in the world are going to unite in perfect harmony, to say what a bunch of assholes the Chinese are.

 

[lwm3398]

I love my country. Sure, Bush was stupid, but I agree with the war. Do any Americans disagree with us going into WWII for pearl harbor? Then we should go to Iraq for 9/11.

The Japanese Navy and Airforce attacked Pearl Harbour.

Militants attacked the Twin Towers, not the Iraqi government.

Militants who were there because they were loyal to Saddam, no? We went there to help the Iraqi people to get the Taliban out and get them on their feet. I like to think we went there as liberators, even if they thought we were there to kill them all, regardless of loyalties.

EDIT: I might also say we failed pretty badly.

 

[Scolar Visari]

A fair share of them are, yes.

Now I, personally, couldn't care less about "my" country.
But I am a little fucking sick of all the stereotyping that goes on - stereotyping that wouldn't be alright if it were directed elsewhere, I imagine.

It's a little like how it's only okay to discriminate against white males.

Right on the head bud, right on the head.

If someone went around and made duplicates of all the anti-America threads but, replaced America with England or a European country then everyone would be shouting troll, and trying to destroy his argument. However because it's the cool thing to blame America for your country's/the world's problems it's tolerated.

That's bullshit. The UK and Australia get it just as much, theres even a thread about Australians being ungrateful on the front page and nobody is bitching about it, there have also been 3 about the UK in the last day.

Also England is a European country, it's not a good idea complaining about stereotypes then putting yourself into one (The idea that Americans know nothing about any country except their own.)

That said I agree with Max.

I'll have to disagree with you about how the UK and Australia get just as much shit as the U.S.. That being said I think we can both agree that "Why is [Insert Country here]?" threads contribute nothing to the escapist.

Now about the whole England being a European country thing. There is actually a kind of funny story behind that. It was in another thread a couple of months ago, and I referred to England as a European country and some guy flipped shit on me. Ever since then I've just kinda kept the two separate in case something like that happens again.

 

[G1eet]

I love my country. Sure, Bush was stupid, but I agree with the war. Do any Americans disagree with us going into WWII for pearl harbor? Then we should go to Iraq for 9/11.

The Japanese Navy and Airforce attacked Pearl Harbour.

Militants attacked the Twin Towers, not the Iraqi government.

More importantly, it was an Afghanistan based organization with a lot of Saudi funding, that had nothing to do with Iraq whatsoever. In fact, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were pretty much mortal enemies.

When your the most powerful, you do the most stuff. When you do the most stuff, you make the most mistakes, and do the most BAD stuff. Therefore, its easy for other countries to point the finger at America at large and shout, "Shame on you", when the only reason why their country isn't doing the same is because they lack the capacity to do so. It isn't America, its people. And before long, America and the EU and all the other countries in the world are going to unite in perfect harmony, to say what a bunch of assholes the Chinese are.

On the contrary. I think the U.S., the E.U., and the Chinese will unite into a super amalgamated global force. Maybe even the Indians; they're on the fast track to superpower status as well.

 

[Legion]

I love my country. Sure, Bush was stupid, but I agree with the war. Do any Americans disagree with us going into WWII for pearl harbor? Then we should go to Iraq for 9/11.

The Japanese Navy and Airforce attacked Pearl Harbour.

Militants attacked the Twin Towers, not the Iraqi government.

Militants who were there because they were loyal to Saddam, no? We went there to help the Iraqi people to get the Taliban out and get them on their feet. I like to think we went there as liberators, even if they thought we were there to kill them all, regardless of loyalties.

EDIT: I might also say we failed pretty badly.

Sorry but you have just embarrassed yourself pretty badly there.

1: The militants were mainly from Afghanistan, Saddam Hussain was president of Iraq.

2: The Taliban were from Afghanistan, the Al Queda are from Iraq.

See what I mean? The sad thing is that most Americans who support the war cannot tell the difference and that is why they receive so much scorn when it comes to the Middle East; they don't seem to know who they are fighting or why.

 

[Croaker42]

Im american. IMO you can bash on me(american) as much as you want. Because honestly I dont care.
1. Its on the internet. (Oh no someone insulted me on the internet.......LOL)
2. Americans are fat and lazy. (Dont forget happy about it. Anyone who isnt makes threads or attends therapy.)
3. U.S. Gov is stupid. (No Kidding.)

All I can say is we need to live life the way we want to. Take everything said by any govt with a grain of salt and just enjoy yourself.

 

[lwm3398]

Sorry but you have just embarrassed yourself pretty badly there.

I'm pretty good at that. And- Ya know? Fuck it. I don't need to be proved wrong anymore.

I need to stop talking politics.

 

[kickin wiing]

A fair share of them are, yes.

Now I, personally, couldn't care less about "my" country.
But I am a little fucking sick of all the stereotyping that goes on - stereotyping that wouldn't be alright if it were directed elsewhere, I imagine.

It's a little like how it's only okay to discriminate against white males.

My thoughts exactly, Max.

 

[rainman2203]

I suppose I do my share of America bashing, but I'm also American. Does that entitle me to anything? Not really. I get the Anti-American feel from posters every once in a while, but its not a big deal. I dislike many of my fellow Americans, but that doesn't make the whole country a wash. There's a reason why the US is *arguably* the greatest country in the world- there are a lot of awesome people out there who transcend stereotypes and have done or currently are doing great things.

On a side note, I'd be just fine with letting the south secede. Florida's not that nice anyway.

 

[silence9123]

All Canadians watch hockey and pronounce aboot and sorry awkwardly. (forget Quebec or Newfoundland)

All "Quebecers" also watch hockey and say sorry all the time. We've fallen under the influence...

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I hate America's government, but I'm an anarchist, so I hate pretty much all government, except for Putin's.

The American people I don't really have much of a problem with. I like most of the Americans I've met.

And I'm a filthy red! Oh noes!