Quiet Stranger said:
Here you go. I don't personally remember seeing it though, but there was a period during the game that I went out to get more drinks. But I do remember vividly that they paid for a spot last year or the year before.
So, apprently a Super Bowl 48 commercial is pissing people off...
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Here you go. I don't personally remember seeing it though, but there was a period during the game that I went out to get more drinks. But I do remember vividly that they paid for a spot last year or the year before.
Not really, we're a rogue British Colony. Basically a bunch of Christians didn't like the policies of other Christians in The British Empire so they came to the US and established a colony. As much as that's romanticized as the beginnings of the USA, in reality the Brits and other European powers showed up shortly afterwards and began carving the place up. Sentiments with the natives were friendly for the most part until most of the known tribes decided to choose a side (France) in European on European fighting, and when France lost it changed the entire landscape for them leading to their eventual conquest and near eradication many years later.DuctTapeJedi said:
The USA became the USA largely due to political disputes with Britan. Basically America wanted representation in the British government equal to it's resources and contribution. Something the existing power structure wouldn't allow for since the colonies would wind up having more power and a say in policy than more established interests. Not to mention the (more or less correct) belief that given it's resources, and space to expand, that if these trends were started the one time colony would basically become Britan and the empire's entire seat and focus of power would change. The politics get complicated, but there is a bit more to it than either side wants to present nowadays. Basically to a lot of Britons at the time the colonies were just that colonies, and we shouldn't buck the established system and social order, especially seeing as we were dependant on The Empire for protection (and Britan had already fought wars for the colonies, like the aforementioned French and Indian War). From the American perspective the bottom line was that we had all of this stuff The Empire was sucking up for it's war efforts and expansion, and it was levying high taxes, without giving the colonies any real say in what decisions were being made on high. Honestly if this had been worked out peacefully the entire world would probably be literally ruled by The British Empire in a global government right now.
A big point to understand about The American revolution is that it was in part set into motion by radical fringe intellectuals from Briton. Guys like Ben Franklin have been heavily tied to the underground, occult societies, and similar things going back years before the war. If your familiar with the organization in Marvel called "The Hellfire Club" that's based (loosely) on a real group Ben Franklin was tied to. Beyond him it's more or less a matter of record at this point how heavily freemasonry was involved as well given all the symbols that have been found all over the place, records, etc... which means of course there were doubtlessly interests and finances coming in from that direction as well... to the point where some people have even suggested that The USA could be almost defined as a nation founded by and fore freemasons and intended to be run behind the scenes by a secret theocracy (not that it happened mind you, just speaking for intent).
The point I'm getting at here is that as much of a nationalist as I am, I made no real illusions about high flown good or evil, or high principles existing outside of hype to sway people. When you get down to it, like always, everyone on all sides of defining the country, either a founding father or opposing from Britan, was kind of a self-interested jerk. As wonderful as something like "The Constitution" sounds in principle, when you look into what it actually means, going by the interpretation of the people who created it... well let's just say you have it wrong.
As far as the immigration thing goes, I think it's one of those cases where hype overcame intent, the original idea was for the USA to become a sort of haven for the kinds of free thinkers and radicals of the day (nothing like the ones we have today) who were being persecuted by society at the time.
In short, I very much doubt our founding fathers would approve and might even find this rather offensive. Of course also understand that might not even see some of the people speaking those languages as being actual people or fully human. A lot of these guys were racist slave owners.
On a *personal* level I don't find anything especially wrong with it in of itself. That said I'm actually someone who is into hardcore immigration enforcement (as I've pointed out before) and do believe that barring some kind of disability that prevent coherent speech in general, anyone living as a permanent or long term resident of the US (citizen or not) should be required to be able to both clearly speak, and understand, English. If they know other languages as well and choose to use them on their own time, so much the better.
But then again also understand that I, the utterly evil and sadistic Therumancer, believe not only in the need for a world unity (one global government and culture), but also a single language of humanity, which should probably come about first. Simply put I think so many problems would be solved if there was some way you could communicate that would guarantee any non-disabled person on the planet could understand what you said, and speak back to you. At the end of the day I don't care if the language is Esperanto (it worked for "The Stainless Steel Rat"), just that there should be one. Honestly I think English, which is already used for most high end global business, is well on it's way here (and might even survive in this context even if the major English speaking powers were to go extinct tomorrow), and we might see it happen in a decade or two. Ironically though where many countries wind up teaching English as a mandatory second language apparently (or strongly encourage it) the some English speaking countries don't even push the issue on their own citizens which is why we wind up with discussions like this... but I imagine with some adjustment that will be dealt with (I for example have long been a believer that classes should not be provided in languages other than English, with English lessons provided to the exclusion of all else in cases where it is not known... but again, that's another discussion entirely).
America, the land of immigrants/melting pot or the greatest bastion of racism. Surprising the country is known for both.
I am a first generation immigrant in the United States. I wasn't born here, but I grew up here.
My dad used to tell me the Statue of Liberty was a giant welcome sign to incoming immigrants.
I wonder what those "patriots" think when they see the green lady.
I am a first generation immigrant in the United States. I wasn't born here, but I grew up here.
My dad used to tell me the Statue of Liberty was a giant welcome sign to incoming immigrants.
I wonder what those "patriots" think when they see the green lady.
Well that really depends whether your world view sees challenging god as good or evil. For me idea of unified world with one language striving for technological peak of utopia would be the only way for humans to truly advance.Lieju said:
As for your second point, isn't that the whole reason why former Yugoslavia turned into a slaughterhouse?
OT: Funny thing, my american friend told me that though U.S. has no official language, it was really close to having German as one.
Yes, but in the Bible the moral clearly is that challenging god is bad, and that he doesn't like people all being united. Which is why it's weird using it as a justification as to why people should speak just one language.kuolonen said:
People speaking different languages was hardly the only reason for it. Different kinds of ethnicities and world-views will cause friction, of course, depending on how much they clash, but it doesn't have to result to genocide.kuolonen said:
And people can speak more than one language.
Well...since it IS on YouTube...Quiet Stranger said:
Click here to see what might get someone fired for sneaking this in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k0JEc0arOQ]
Ungh, the Superbowl in general was very...strange...with commercials. A mixture of extremely strange patriotism and Americanism set along side the Coke ad just felt...weird. The whole huge 'Support our troops' thing was odd along with the reading of the Declaration of Independence, before we even got to the national Anthem. I'm one of those very patriotic, very proud in America types and I found it unsettling.
As for the Coke ad specifically, America the Beautiful is one of those very few things that we feel is American Culture. So much of America's Cultural background has been adpoted by the rest of the world and just taken as background. Other countries can talk about their culture and see it as being radically different from their neighbors. French Cuisine and German Cuisine aren't something people confuse. English literature and Russian Literature are very different and so on. American Cultural developments have been greatly adopted, from Burgers to T-Shirts, to TV to Sunglasses and musical styles, it's become that benchmark.
American culture is a very nebulous thing, there's so little that is purely American. Californian Culture is different from New York Culture which is different from Texan culture. Because of that seeing 'America the Beautiful' sung in a language other than English isn't about it not being English, it's more about taking one of the few things that EVERYONE in the US tends to agree is 'quintessentially american'. It rubs people the wrong way because that's something that you change if you want to become a part of, not 'we're changing this to the way we do it'.
As for the Coke ad specifically, America the Beautiful is one of those very few things that we feel is American Culture. So much of America's Cultural background has been adpoted by the rest of the world and just taken as background. Other countries can talk about their culture and see it as being radically different from their neighbors. French Cuisine and German Cuisine aren't something people confuse. English literature and Russian Literature are very different and so on. American Cultural developments have been greatly adopted, from Burgers to T-Shirts, to TV to Sunglasses and musical styles, it's become that benchmark.
American culture is a very nebulous thing, there's so little that is purely American. Californian Culture is different from New York Culture which is different from Texan culture. Because of that seeing 'America the Beautiful' sung in a language other than English isn't about it not being English, it's more about taking one of the few things that EVERYONE in the US tends to agree is 'quintessentially american'. It rubs people the wrong way because that's something that you change if you want to become a part of, not 'we're changing this to the way we do it'.
It's good they're doing it to push forward through the controversy. Coca Cola is pretty huge anyways (Globally), so I find that they did a appropriate add that fits what they stand for. People are always going to complain because it is not their way, but If they realized how diverse people in America actually are, than they should shut up about it.