Attention European Escapist! Why do you hate your country?

[Stoneface]

Fair enough, although (and dont take this the wrong way now) most of the youtube comments i see are overwhelmingly negative about America. Europe doesn't tend to come up much...well Britain a bit. But almost all the video comment sections end up with people bitching about America or Americans bitching about why the republicans/democrats are evil.

 

[Bonham79]

I'm guessing it's like the kid thing they talked about on Scrubs, you can make fun of your own country because you love it so much and you know the good points outweigh the bad yet if someone was to make fun of your country you have every right to be offended.

I think you're right. In America, there are a good amount of people that dislike it, but it's still home, that's why I think so many get very patriotic.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

First of all.. throwing all Eurpoeans into one pot isn't a good thing to start with. There are as big diffrences between each european country as there is between US and say Canada or US and Uruguay.

I'm from Switzerland and i'm pretty happy with my goverment and our current situation. And that's the general tone in our country.
Actually we're very patriotic and traditional, sometimes to a degree which isn't healthy (minaret initiative anyone?).
But jeah, sofar i'm confident in our direct democracy.

Ahjeah and: We've a great healthcare, only slight problems with obesity and fuck guncontrol, our state gives every male (and the females that voluntarily go into the army) citizen a friggin assault rifle for free.

 

[JochemDude]

Netherlands, what I don't like is the amount of right wing political influence that has been growing over the years. They can go fuck themselves with their corporate bullshit.

 

[thelonewolf266]

I'm a Scot (Which I'm fairly sure is part of Europe) and you'll be heard pressed to find another country so self-deprecating yet so patriotic at the same time. I'm guessing it's like the kid thing they talked about on Scrubs, you can make fun of your own country because you love it so much and you know the good points outweigh the bad yet if someone was to make fun of your country you have every right to be offended.

I've got to agree with you there, Glasgow's a shitehole but I wouldn't want to live any where else and yes we are technically part of Europe despite not being connected to the landmass that most people identify as Europe.

 

[Zantos]

I think it was said best by Andy Parsons on Mock the Week....

"The Scottish hate the British, The Irish hate the British, The Welsh hate the British and the British hate each other".

Brits have a dark and self mocking kind of attitude.

We are the only country in the world to have a book released called Crap Towns and have enough people complain their town wasn't in it to warrant releasing Crap Towns 2 (again Andy Parsons).

Some Brits are known for hating their own country. To some of us it's not national pride that matters it's home town pride.

When someone overseas asks me where i'm from my first word isn't "England" it's Liverpool.

I'm not "British" i'm bloody Scouse and proud.

You can't have them mixing us up with them bloody southerners! I always say I'm from Yorkshire, unless I'm in Yorkshire, then it's Sheffield. I don't really like Sheffield, being from Barnsley and all, but outside the North it's difficult to find people that recognise Barnsley.

OT: Most hated thing about my country? Well as a citizen of The Socialist Republic of Yorkshire, I have to say at the minute it's the weather. It's hard to explain to people not from Yorkshire, the weather isn't bad but it isn't very good either. The technical term is grim.

 

[The Shade of Time]

I'm British, I love my country, it's a beautiful place and I hold a high regard for The United Kingdom. I (sorry for cursing if anyone gets offended.) FUCKING HATE British people as a whole. We are racist, lazy, corrupt, and immoral.

I know that it can be said for most places but it hits closer to home.

 

[Matt Oliver]

snip.

yeah I kind of find it appalling we can call ourselves americans when we have Canada as our hat, and mexico as our "pants".... they are still part of N/A and what about S/A? they don't have anything called like the united states of south america...

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

-snip-

-snip-

As Europeans, we regularly come over to America and tell you what we don't like about it. It's part of our job. We tell everyone what we don't like about everything.

In China? We don't like your silly language.

In India? What's with all this colour and joviality?

In Africa? Where all the water at?

In America? Why you guys so patriotic?

If I can be serious for a second. Americas famous patriotism bewilders most everyone else in the world. I'd hazard a guess it isn't just Europeans. Of course everywhere has it's people who take it all a little too seriously. In the UK, we've got our fair share of annoyingly patriotic douches. But for some reason, in the US. It's kinda spread into ever facet of daily life. And even people who aren't nationalistic feel the need to say things like 'God Bless America' etc.

This is a completely alien concept to Europe. We are all very self critical but it's not without it's reasons. You absolutely NEED to be self critical about your country. It doesn't mean you hate your country or you're a commie liberal socialist who wants to take away everyones guns. It means you care about your country and you don't want to see it get worse.

The people I find that I most relate to from the US are the people who don't make a song and dance about the fact that they're American. The people who just think of it as another country where they can enjoy their lives. Most of the Western world enjoys the same kind of Freedoms the US can sometimes seem to think are unique to itself.

I personally don't think I could live in the US. Not because of the people but the government. We all have our axes to grind with our own government. But there just seems to be a lot more that I disagree with in US policy than most other places. I'd quite like to visit America, but I don't think I could live there. I'm way too vocal about my own countries issues, and that wouldn't change no matter where I was. And as you pointed out, criticism is generally met with hostility in the US. Some people seem to take it as some sort of personal slight.

Is it really that alien of a concept? I know in places like South Korea, there seems to be a very nationalistic attitude amongst the people regardless of the topic that they are discussing. Case in point, there was a Korean-American member of a Korean boy band called "2pm" who wrote on his myspace when he was a teen, that "korea is gay" and as a result, there was outrage and ultimately he was dropped from the group and had to return to America to avoid the backlash. So if South Korea reacts like that, then it makes me think that America's patriotism isn't so unique.

Here is a link on the Korean controversy:
http://sookyeong.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/2pm-jaebum-offends-koreans-with-myspace-posts-plans-for-official-apology/

 

[Zantos]

I know what you mean. If I'm speaking to anyone who lives more than 30 miles away from me, I have to say I come from 'Manchester' which is an outright lie. Being an Oldhamer. But if I said to someone from down south, or even abroad, that I come from Oldham. They'd look at me as if I was speaking a foreign language.

You could just tell them it's where Brian Cox is from. Of course then there's a risk of being exiled and beaten just by association.

I sometimes do that with Michael Parkinson, unfortunately the last two years of freshers coming into uni seem to not have a clue who he is.

 

[Alade]

Don't even get me started, I'm stuck here (Bosnia and herzegowina) for another year and a half, then off to Ireland and afterward hopefully to my favorite country in the world, America.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

-snip-

-snip-

As Europeans, we regularly come over to America and tell you what we don't like about it. It's part of our job. We tell everyone what we don't like about everything.

In China? We don't like your silly language.

In India? What's with all this colour and joviality?

In Africa? Where all the water at?

In America? Why you guys so patriotic?

If I can be serious for a second. Americas famous patriotism bewilders most everyone else in the world. I'd hazard a guess it isn't just Europeans. Of course everywhere has it's people who take it all a little too seriously. In the UK, we've got our fair share of annoyingly patriotic douches. But for some reason, in the US. It's kinda spread into ever facet of daily life. And even people who aren't nationalistic feel the need to say things like 'God Bless America' etc.

This is a completely alien concept to Europe. We are all very self critical but it's not without it's reasons. You absolutely NEED to be self critical about your country. It doesn't mean you hate your country or you're a commie liberal socialist who wants to take away everyones guns. It means you care about your country and you don't want to see it get worse.

The people I find that I most relate to from the US are the people who don't make a song and dance about the fact that they're American. The people who just think of it as another country where they can enjoy their lives. Most of the Western world enjoys the same kind of Freedoms the US can sometimes seem to think are unique to itself.

I personally don't think I could live in the US. Not because of the people but the government. We all have our axes to grind with our own government. But there just seems to be a lot more that I disagree with in US policy than most other places. I'd quite like to visit America, but I don't think I could live there. I'm way too vocal about my own countries issues, and that wouldn't change no matter where I was. And as you pointed out, criticism is generally met with hostility in the US. Some people seem to take it as some sort of personal slight.

Is it really that alien of a concept? I know in places like South Korea, there seems to be a very nationalistic attitude amongst the people regardless of the topic that they are discussing. Case in point, there was a Korean-American member of a Korean boy band called "2pm" who wrote on his myspace when he was a teen, that "korea is gay" and as a result, there was outrage and ultimately he was dropped from the group and had to return to America to avoid the backlash. So if South Korea reacts like that, then it makes me think that America's patriotism isn't so unique.

Here is a link on the Korean controversy:
http://sookyeong.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/2pm-jaebum-offends-koreans-with-myspace-posts-plans-for-official-apology/

I find it hard to gauge places like Korea. You never know what is genuine patriotism and what is forced.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I think that you can find the same level of patriotism that you find in America, in other parts of the world like in the Asian continent.

 

[Total LOLige]

Well I love my country which is England, only thing that's annoying is that people complain too much about immigration. Or when there's a racism row everyone jumps on the band wagon, the tram incident is a prime example everyone is shouting OMG racism! wake up you face racists everyday and probably don't bat an eye lid. It's like people have never seen racism before. When the tram thing blows over, it'll go back to "bloody Polish nicking our jobs" all that crap, maybe a tad hypocritical.

 

[SomeRandomFaggot]

I like Scotland's history/culture but the people living in it..eh..Humans are so weird *Peers out his window throwing feather on the local street urchins* Back! *hiss*

 

[zehydra]

I think you'll find that after all nationalist rallied around the facists the whole concept of unfounded nationalism got tainted.

My major points of disagreeing with Denmark is that I am a republican (anti-monarchist) and I oppose the national-conservatives which ruled us for the past 10 years.

I'm rather fond of France however.

Which is interesting. So since Europe and fascism got a little personal in the early 20th century, I wonder maybe Europe learned its lesson about Nationalism, whereas maybe we(US) didn't.

I think there are a lot of people in my country that would qualify as "fascist", but would never agree to use the label because of the incorrect association of racism with fascism, thanks to the Nazis.

In any case, I'm generally against the teaching of Nationalism, but not totally against the idea of nationalism in the sort of team spirit sense. I don't mind the idea of working for your country, or serving your country, but I am very much against the idea of people mindlessly following lies for the sake of being "Patriotic".

I'm the kind of person who believes that people should be allowed to be proud of what they produce, and what they assist, but it doesn't make sense for them to be proud of something they have no part of, or a very minimal part of.

I can think of two such people right off the bat: Sports fans and Federal nationalists (those who are proud of a country, despite only living and largely participating on the state level or smaller. An example would be a patriotic Pennsylvanian who does really participate on the federal level)

 

[robotam]

Why do I hate my country?
We are most famous for building a big boat that sank and for "The Troubles." We suck.

I'm 18 years old, lived here all my life and still don't know the how to identify my Nationality. Irish, Northern Irish, United Kingdomish?



and the weather's crap. Yeah mainly the bad weather.