Americans

[Nyoibo]

Your school must be the exception to the rule then, granted its been 16 years since I was in an American school, but while I was there the curriculum was severely biased towards American history, pretty much to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Compared to other countries school systems it's certainly self centred.

[McDreidel09]

I must have rebelled with it then. I could place almost every other country on a map, but can't find most of the states on a map worth crap!

[AFPheonix]

That's odd, we had World History in both junior high and high school, and in public grade school we focused on a different country every year to learn in depth about. Even in kindergarten we got to learn about China.
I suspect it's dependent on the teacher and the school district.

[Lace Neil Singer]

We English hate you Americans cuz you keep sending that bitch Madonna over here to annoy us. -.- Keep her over there, dammit.

[Flyndaran]

We English hate you Americans cuz you keep sending that bitch Madonna over here to annoy us. -.- Keep her over there, dammit.

But she sounds so english... she must be from there then...

[AFPheonix]

We English hate you Americans cuz you keep sending that bitch Madonna over here to annoy us. -.- Keep her over there, dammit.

You take back Oasis and we'll talk :P

[Lace Neil Singer]

We don't want them either! XD

Canada? XD

[BroomJockey]

Canada? XD

Err, no. We have enough crappy music originating here. We don't need to import it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, Celine Dion is crappy but Bryan Adams had some good songs.

[BroomJockey]

Well, Celine Dion is crappy but Bryan Adams had some good songs.

We've also got Jan Arden, Craig Cardiff, Terry Clark, Leonard Cohen, Nelly Furtado, Diana Krall, Chantal Kreviazuk, k.d. lang, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morisette, and I could go on. The point is, keep your crap singers to yourself

[anriana]

America, FUCK YEAH.

American culture dominates. We have the largest (or one of the largest - is Bollywood bigger?) movie industries - I'd hate the country if my main exposure to it was Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter 19.

[Slytovhand]

Actually, Anriana, the problem isn't really Harry Potter or Spider-Man.. it's Independance Day.

(and yes, last I heard, Bollywood was bigger).

[Kalli]

As an Australian, I have an aversion to America and Americans (No, I don't hate you all, just explaining my view on America) because of 4 main characteristics I view as typical of Americans:

1) Arrogance.

The amount of self-centeredness some Americans appear to have is staggering. When watching movies or TV shows, for example, (and admittedly these media comprise about 90% of my assessment of Americans), you get the feeling that Americans think they are the center of the world, and that everything else is secondary, and that everyone looks up to America as the pinnacle of life on earth.

This behavior has also been observed by myself since the invention of Teh Interwebz, which of course has allowed me to interact with many Americans, most of whom display an arrogance that not even they realise they are displaying.

2) Entitlement

CS.com has been the best example of this phenomenon to date. Now don't get me wrong, I realise that all over the world people are selfish and entitled, but it does seem to be extremely prominent and tolerated (expected) in the US. You have only to read 1 or 2 Customers Suck stories to see these examples of how the general attitude of consumers is that they deserve everything, they deserve it now, they expect it, and they deserve compensation if they don't get it.

Another glaring example of this is some of the ridiculous lawsuits that go on over there (again, yes I know this happens here too, but it happens much more in the states and I'm fairly confident in saying they pioneered ours, as well). The fact that you can sue someone for leaving a knife out which you cut yourself on when you were trying to break into their home is just insane, and it's not even the most presumptuous lawsuit I've heard of, just the one that's foremost in my mind at the moment.

3) Raging Righteous Christianity and Patriotism

This one might get me into the shit because some Americans (republicans?) seem to think that being good, Christian, and in love with the flag makes you better than those of us who would happily use our flags to pick up dog shit or light a fire on a Sunday morning while thinking "LOL, CHURCH".

I roll my eyes and sigh every time I'm watching a movie and someone craps on about God or America with uplifting music in the background, or sings the national anthem, or salutes someone etc. Vomit.

Being so in love with your values that I'm surprised some of you aren't fucking the ground while licking the bible does NOT make you superior, it just makes you an example of #1, and the following.

4) Glaring stupidity and tolerance of it.

OK. I understand that some people are not gifted with as much intelligence as others, but the truth (as I see it), is that most of the stupidity displayed is not rooted in lack of intelligence, but in laziness. Why should you have to think for yourself or show any initiative when you can just complain or sue if being stupid causes you to be anything other than entitled to everything everyone else in society gets? It's not only not punished, it's REWARDED.

Darwin would be fucking horrified.



***Disclaimer****

When I say "You" or "Americans", I'm not referring to anyone on this board or anyone in particular at all, I'm referring only to those who fit the respective description. If this DOES happen to be you and you are about to hit the reply button to spray me with as much venom as you can, don't bother, I don't care. Just sharing what my views are.

[anriana]

Being so in love with your values that I'm surprised some of you aren't fucking the ground while licking the bible does NOT make you superior.

I love you.

[Flyndaran]

I love you.

Ditto... with one qualifer.
In america you can sue for anything no matter how ridiculous. Winning is another matter completely. Though since here we also have to pay to defend ourselves from nuisance lawsuits, we all end up losing.