So, apprently a Super Bowl 48 commercial is pissing people off...

[Something Amyss]

Of course this is bad. We're Americans. One of the cardinal sins in America is acknowledging other people exist!

As long as people here speak English, I don't care what other languages they also speak.

Why should they speak English?

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

We're immigrants who hate immigrants.

That's our thing.

So people are complaining that this is un-American? Nothign wrong with liking your country, or even loving it, but they're going way too far when they act as if "un-American" equals "bad."

We're a very insecure nation.

It's really dumb that people freaked out about this version of the song. It's not even the national anthem, and even if it was it would be silly to get upset, but still.

The Star-Spangled Banner is sung in Spanish all the time.

The problem is that people are lazy and are perfectly fine not learning English and it's not socially acceptable to require them to.

Maybe you should learn to speak Spanish. Maybe we should require you to speak Spanish.

I'd also like to point out that a nation where a bunch of different languages is spoken isn't exactly a good thing. There's a reason why the punishment in the story of the Tower of Babel was many languages suddenly coming into existence.

The reason is because it's a fairy tale designed to explain why the different peoples of the world spoke different languages. If anything, we've demonstrated how stupid the story is because we've managed to go into space with multilingual, multinational teams. Thing about it: from the perspective of the people who made the myth up, we have actually achieved what the Tower of Babel set out to do. Well, except God doesn't live in a dome in the sky, and the sky isn't a solid object, and even back then people of multiple cultures could communicate somehow.

The real moral of the story should be that communication is a threat to God. Because it is.

 

[JonnyHG]

So dear Escapist, what say you on this matter?

Do you care? do you agree with the haters?

or do you think the haters need to shut up?

I have one question. Is this uproar caused by people from the internet, or real people?

 

[axlryder]

I mostly offended by the BS sentimentality that gets slathered all over these commercials for a fucking soft drink.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm not accusing you, or saying that you need to fix it.

Just so we're clear....

If a woman is called a slut by a bunch of people, and third parties get the impression that she is a slut, is it the fault of the woman in question? Is it her duty to "fix it?"

What about black people or Muslims? Both are actually told the same thing in our nation: you need to 'fix it.'

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm not accusing you, or saying that you need to fix it.

Just so we're clear....

If a woman is called a slut by a bunch of people, and third parties get the impression that she is a slut, is it the fault of the woman in question? Is it her duty to "fix it?"

What about black people or Muslims? Both are actually told the same thing in our nation: you need to 'fix it.'

Uh...

...I JUST SAID I was NOT telling him that he needed to fix it.

And, as I mentioned, I'm part of a group that's been told to "fix it" even though we can't (because the WBC is more interesting than us). Sometimes, there's nothing to be done, and that's just reality.

 

[Something Amyss]

...I JUST SAID I was NOT telling him that he needed to fix it.

Sorry. Misread. If it makes you feel any better, I only have one good eye right now.

 

[lacktheknack]

Sorry. Misread. If it makes you feel any better, I only have one good eye right now.

No harm done. And ow. D:

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

Oh look, "Americans" getting mad at other people trying to incorporate "America" into their culture.
More reasons why people hate us.

 

[Multi-Hobbyist]

The only people that are upset are the tosspots we shouldn't care about in the first place. Stubborn, uncultured and unsophisticated .... individuals (for lack of a better word) who refuse to adapt with changing times and acknowledge that diversity is a thing. But, they have their own channels, radio stations and websites, so my usual advice of "Don't feed the troll(s)." is pretty moot. "Forget that the commercial was more a symbol of unity, no let's all concentrate our rage into misguided hate." Christ, my own father was guilty of this the other day. It's shameful and quite simply, hilariously ignorant.

Man, the idiots in this country are always making the rest of us look bad.

You got that right.

 

[KazeAizen]

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

It is our thing. Then somehow Fox news happened and it all went down hill from there.

 

[Nathan Josephs]

in new zealand we pride ourselves on our multiculturalism . we don't cry about it like its some huge travesty.

 

[KazeAizen]

What I don't get, was the point of the commercial. America the Beautiful sung in several languages across several countries...BUY COKE! I just don't get it. It's like saying, oh hey here's some fish swimming around...BUY PEPSI!

Its the Super Bowl. They are allowed to do these out of left field weird commercials for something trivial. Like little mini movies that only debut on the Super Bowl.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

I thought the ad was lovely, a bit overly soppy, but still lovely.

Boy, I will never understand America. From a british perspective, It's a tad hypocritical that people are angry about a song that's more about the beauty of the American land than anything else is being sang in words other than the ones you stole from us, you seceding, tea-wasting, monument-building yanks! Gosh darn you all!

In a serious tone, I half expecting bajoes to be playing when some of the complaints about this were thought up.

Though some people in Britain could do with learning that multiculturalism isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Chris Moses]

Oh? So native americans can't sing?

The Spanish, that have been in America just as long as the English have, can't sing?

What about the French, Danish, Portugal, Russia, and all the other countries that had a hand in the colonial era and American history? Ever?

That half of America was taken from Mexico? After Mexico lost a war? And therefore unamerican?

At this rate, the only "american" thing that these people like would be the Northwest US. Not the west, not the south, not even middle America.

Which means only 1/4th of America is American. Everything else has a long historical "unamerican" population that come from other countries.

I really have to wonder if the people offended by this know anything about American history at all. Hell, even the north east would be too "polluted" because of the massive influx of foreign refugees from WWII. So their "America" hasn't existed in 70 years.

IIRC Oregon and Washington used to belong to Russia... so not even the NorthWest.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Is it pissing people off or is Faux news getting people all pissed off about it? There's a difference.

All I'm saying is that the only really American language are the ones spoken by native Americans.

There's this too. Next year Coke should have an ad with the anthem sung in different native languages.

Or they could send everyone who complained a blanket infested with smallpox.

Everyone wins!

 

[Marik2]

This kind of thing happened here in San Antonio when a kid dressed in a Mariachi outfit sang the Star Spangled Banner for the Spurs and people were saying all these racial slurs that a Mexican is not American and blah blah blah.

*sigh*

 

[Something Amyss]

Is it pissing people off or is Faux news getting people all pissed off about it? There's a difference.

Except the latter provokes a good chunk of the country to get pissed off about it.

 

[mecegirl]

What I don't get, was the point of the commercial. America the Beautiful sung in several languages across several countries...BUY COKE! I just don't get it. It's like saying, oh hey here's some fish swimming around...BUY PEPSI!

No. It wasn't across several countries. It was all in America. It was supposed to show how diverse the American population is.

 

[-Dragmire-]

The problem is that people are lazy and are perfectly fine not learning English and it's not socially acceptable to require them to.

I assume that you are speaking from the perspective of someone who is not "lazy" and totally willing to learn a new language if required.

Sorry, your post just really rubs me the wrong way.

 

[mecegirl]

Eh, I'm from the camp that the United States should have one official language that everybody speaks.

It's no benefit to me to go to a store like Target and have to run around finding somebody that can actually speak English.

The problem is that people are lazy and are perfectly fine not learning English and it's not socially acceptable to require them to.

The U.S. does not have an official language. Some states do, but not the entirety of the U.S. It seems almost like an accident that English is the predominant language considering the French and Spanish influence on some of the original colonies. And sometimes I wonder if the hatred of Spanish among some in the U.S. is left over resentment passed down from colonial times. Like Oh Noes! They are speaking the language of our main competitors! We must hate them!