Fear of America.
- Thread starter Nerf Ninja
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The more I think about it the more i think it's probably an engineered xenophobia from a British media standpoint that's basically trying to belittle America. I'm glad I put this thread up because it has helped me work through a few things for myself and It's nice to see mature responses from everybody.paragon1 said:
I can't say I'm cured of my Americaphobia but it's nice to know that most of the people are still cool.
The thing you've got to understand about America is that we've got two kinds of people.
Well, no, that's not at all true, but another thing you've got to understand about America is that we see only two sides to everything, pick a side, and defend it with the best mental battlements we can build with our head buried firmly in the ground, but I digress: lets say we've got two kinds of people.
There's the progressives who see the difficulty that America faces now and want move forward into the 21st century on the back of new ideas, and then there's the conservatives who see the difficulty America faces now and think the solution can be found in the 1950s... probably because they were alive during the 1950s, when we had a fairly awesome post-WW II economic boom [http://economics.about.com/od/useconomichistory/a/post_war.htm].
We flip-flop between these two ideologies every 4 to 8 years depending on who's been voted into power.
When the conservatives are in charge, they throw us into wars to try to recreate the WW-II boom (which has failed during each and every attempt but made their buddies in the arms and oil industry rich) and fearmonger a war on anarchists/communists [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_scare]/drugs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs]/terrorists [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror] or whatever else they think will terrify the voter because a scared voter is a conservative voter. Eventually people get apathetic towards this approach, begin to question why it is that legislation that seems to be favoring the rich doesn't do what everybody said it would do [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics] and start to vote progressive.
When the progressives are in charge, all of a sudden we're faced with the fundamental problem that change is hard. It's unexplored territory, after all, and getting it right the first time is not always feasible. People get discouraged and start pining for the good ol' days, or scared that the people in the oval office are incompetent. On the other hand, if a candidate happens to be really good at instilling the right kind of change, it seems tragedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_assassination] or disgrace [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton#Sexual_misconduct_claims] befalls them, which is either a sign of incredible dirty dealing or God's will depending on who you ask. Either way, the ball is back in the conservatives' court now, and the cycle continues.
This, of course, is a gross over-generalization. However, as far as that goes, it's not an unusual pattern you'll manifest in any democratic country: rich conservative elite versus the liberal middle (and increasingly becoming) lower class, the former having reason to keep things as they are and the later having reasons to want to see things change. Considering how badly they're outnumbered, it's mostly a game of the former seeing how many of the later they can delude so they can hold on to their bloated pocketbooks. You also can't really use words like "Republican" or "Democrat" to describe them because they'll tend to switch depending on which sheep's clothing they find to be more attractive.
I guess we should feel fortunate things haven't devolved into (another) civil war. If I were in charge, I'd probably kill the whole system and convert us to a ruthless dictatorship until the masses remember why a democracy is a supposed to be a good thing again. Maybe set a "you must be this smart to vote" restriction, but then that really wouldn't go over well because everybody wants their voice heard even if they know they're dumb as bricks.
Well, no, that's not at all true, but another thing you've got to understand about America is that we see only two sides to everything, pick a side, and defend it with the best mental battlements we can build with our head buried firmly in the ground, but I digress: lets say we've got two kinds of people.
There's the progressives who see the difficulty that America faces now and want move forward into the 21st century on the back of new ideas, and then there's the conservatives who see the difficulty America faces now and think the solution can be found in the 1950s... probably because they were alive during the 1950s, when we had a fairly awesome post-WW II economic boom [http://economics.about.com/od/useconomichistory/a/post_war.htm].
We flip-flop between these two ideologies every 4 to 8 years depending on who's been voted into power.
When the conservatives are in charge, they throw us into wars to try to recreate the WW-II boom (which has failed during each and every attempt but made their buddies in the arms and oil industry rich) and fearmonger a war on anarchists/communists [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_scare]/drugs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs]/terrorists [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror] or whatever else they think will terrify the voter because a scared voter is a conservative voter. Eventually people get apathetic towards this approach, begin to question why it is that legislation that seems to be favoring the rich doesn't do what everybody said it would do [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics] and start to vote progressive.
When the progressives are in charge, all of a sudden we're faced with the fundamental problem that change is hard. It's unexplored territory, after all, and getting it right the first time is not always feasible. People get discouraged and start pining for the good ol' days, or scared that the people in the oval office are incompetent. On the other hand, if a candidate happens to be really good at instilling the right kind of change, it seems tragedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_assassination] or disgrace [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton#Sexual_misconduct_claims] befalls them, which is either a sign of incredible dirty dealing or God's will depending on who you ask. Either way, the ball is back in the conservatives' court now, and the cycle continues.
This, of course, is a gross over-generalization. However, as far as that goes, it's not an unusual pattern you'll manifest in any democratic country: rich conservative elite versus the liberal middle (and increasingly becoming) lower class, the former having reason to keep things as they are and the later having reasons to want to see things change. Considering how badly they're outnumbered, it's mostly a game of the former seeing how many of the later they can delude so they can hold on to their bloated pocketbooks. You also can't really use words like "Republican" or "Democrat" to describe them because they'll tend to switch depending on which sheep's clothing they find to be more attractive.
I guess we should feel fortunate things haven't devolved into (another) civil war. If I were in charge, I'd probably kill the whole system and convert us to a ruthless dictatorship until the masses remember why a democracy is a supposed to be a good thing again. Maybe set a "you must be this smart to vote" restriction, but then that really wouldn't go over well because everybody wants their voice heard even if they know they're dumb as bricks.
I feel the same way. I'm actually a bit afraid to fly because of being suspected a terrorist and having clip emptied into me before they realize I'm unarmed.Nerf Ninja said:
Believe me, if I get my way I'll be over in five years or less. Hopefully less, like, next week would be awesome.copperflyingace said:
Tell me about it. I walk with such a determined passion to get the heck out of town that normal people walk to avoid me. I get very suspicious of anyone walking behind me, even if their intentions are purely innocent, i.e. they're parked in the same car park, haha. I suppose it's the same in any country, but I'd feel so helpless to do anything, if I were put into that kind of situation, for fear of ME getting into trouble for daring to defend myself.Nerf Ninja said:
Really? That's interesting. Is this a BBC thing or what? Oh, and I just thought of something else that might help you out. If you see our politicians saying something that seems batshit insane, just remember that most of us don't think like that. Most of us won't even be aware they even said, much as it saddens me to say that. Rule of thumb, politicians are usually more extreme in their stances than their constituents.Nerf Ninja said:
No we are not scared of anything anti american. I personally am friends with three exchange students who are studying here for a year. Two are from Germany and one is from Finland and we get along great. Its just that while under president Obama there have been 2 terrorist attacks on our country and we the general public of America are just a bit overwhelmed by that fact. We are just demanding a more through check in our airports so that we can all feel safe agian. Dude and if your english i would get over her because seriously you will get some mad action from the girls over here you would be like a god to them.
I carry a set of lockpicks around school and practice at my desk in full view of the teachers, they think its cool.Nerf Ninja said:
Don't worry too much about "security procedures" friend, nobody really cares that much about security, remember, Americans are lazy
Even though I'm American, I sorta agree, though I don't think it's all of America, just too many people in America who are the paranoid ones. If I may quote the first Men in Black movie: "A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it".
To be honest I couldn't say it's one particular news output but more the general feeling you get from watching any item about "America and American security" it always makes it look (to me) that you're all so frightened of the big nasty man that you're going to get him first and not worry if someone else gets hurt in the crossfire.paragon1 said:
we're not exactly blameless on that front ourselves though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
This man was falsely identified as a terrorist on the london underground and was shot seven times in the head. I guess that's kind of what I'm worried could happen if I went to America as I don't particularly look like a wholesome individual. last time I went I got searched a lot, I think because I had long hair and a beard.
HA! A particularly overweight god with male pattern baldness.incinerate94 said:
I did have to slow down my speech when I went as the area I'm from people speak very quickly stringing their words together, which was difficult to understand for Americans. This did have the rather pleasant effect of making me sound a bit Hugh Grant though.
