Cos I'm just an anti-American foreigner, baby

something something something don't say maybe

from JoeUser Forums
If recent reports are to be believed (and considering the source it would be remiss to engage in even a moment's doubt) I am anti-American.

It's an interesting idea. I'm certainly anti- a lot of things. It's plausible that I would be against Americans. After all, I'm critical of their foreign policy, their domestic policy - damn near everything about their political system bugs me in some way, whether for incompetence, insanity, bloodymindedness or that oh-so-American obsession with mythical 'rights' to the exclusion of all else.

But is that really all there is to America?

I hadn't thought so. But apparently it is. American film, TV, music, style and a certain charming naivete are, I suppose, not included in the American concept of self.

You see I have a confession to make - I really, really like American culture. Don't get me wrong - the gun fetishes and the curious obsession with unintelligible gangsters and trailer trash don't really make much sense to me outside of the arena that was Jerry Springer. I find it practically impossible to imagine a place in which such people could flourish. I mean it's like with a nature doco - you see rats or some other odd creature doing weird and/or disturbing things, and the only way you can explain it is "It's a rat, it's not doing this in my world". That's how I feel about Jerry Springer Americans. They just don't seem fully human, if you understand what I'm saying - I couldn't imagine seeing them on the street, for example, or going to the supermarket, or sitting next to me in a pub.

So maybe that's a symptom of my anti-Americanism. I dunno. But what is clear is that there is lots of American things I love. South Park, for one, and the society that despite seemingly espousing a deep and bitter loathing for everything South Park represents (subtlety, humour at the expense of prats etc) nonetheless will fight for its right to keep going. I like Fox News. It's so unbelievably absurd. I mean, have you seen the opening for their show about blogging, with those two chicks slamming their fingers on the keyboard in a highly embarrassing attempt to seem 'wi' it'? 24 hours of solid gold all day every day. Oh, and whilst 90% of American live TV shows are awful the remainder are brilliant and more than make up for their crippled and loathsome brethren.

Then there's American music. The US has so many amazing bands. I won't bother to list them.

American styling - So many of the things I use in daily life are based off American designs and concepts. It would be impossible to describe just how much.

So if culturally you like a nation, but politically you think it is, at best, a dangerously unthinking barbarian, does that make you anti-it? I guess so.

It's a shame, but I suppose I should look on the brightside - if I can be anti- the things and places I like, then it's going to be much easier to put together the amalgamation of prejudices and loathings that make a truly masculine man.

And that is all anyone could ever want.

politics
20,559 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
PS. I'm also anti-the-way-this-site-doesn't-convert-carriage-returns-even-though-it-specifically-says-it-is-going-to-which-is-annoying.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Heh, I think you rock, Cacto.

Who did you piss off? LOL.

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Jerry Springer Americans AREN'T real in the sense of making up even a significant portion of the population, cacto. That's WHY he presents them, as a freak show so the rest of us don't have to feel sorry for our lives.

Getting your view of America from our pop culture is like us getting our view of Australia. It is at best a distorted view, and it presents things as the presenter wants them to be seen, not as they necessarily are.

Yes, there is violence in America. But even the murder rates that astound foreigners take place disproportionately in the inner cities, and most are drug/gang/mob related. Most Americans don't go to sleep fearing for their lives.

I wasn't too crazy about the exchange towards you, and didn't comment. But I must add, as an aside, you have jumped to some pretty strange conclusions that have kind of prejudiced a few folks against most anything you post (I don't think I even need to list them here...lol!) You don't understand our culture, that's fine. But it would be appreciated if you'd study it more before you belittle it.

That's just my two cents. If ya ask me, you overpaid
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
oh, and the line breaks thing seems to be a firefox thing. Mason says he doesn't have that problem, but as for me, when I'm typing at home in firefoz I have to remember to use html tags.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Heh, I think you rock, Cacto.


I think you're a bit of alright yourself, Tex.

Who did you piss off? LOL.


Drmiler for sure, but maybe modman too. I doubt it though. I was sort of driven to write this one because Modman on calling me anti-American acted like it was something I might consider an insult. It threw me a bit, I'll admit that. I've never seen any particularly good reason to pretend to be pro-American, or any reason to be offended when someone says I don't love what are, when we get right down to it, a bunch of foreigners.

I still love you all though, and not just because American culture sans the Jerry Springer experiment, the guns and the hippies is as often as not awesome.

But I must add, as an aside, you have jumped to some pretty strange conclusions that have kind of prejudiced a few folks against most anything you post (I don't think I even need to list them here...lol!) You don't understand our culture, that's fine. But it would be appreciated if you'd study it more before you belittle it.


I don't need no education, I don't need no thought control...

Gid, take it in the spirit it was offered - jokingly and in full knowledge that trailer trash and gunnuts are a tiny, tiny proportion of your population. I was just pointing out the bits I don't like. Oh and just to add to that short list, I don't like NFL. Stopping for adbreaks? How could any sports fan tolerate that? And baseball's as bad as soccer - hours later and the scores have barely changed. Baseball practically approaches cricket on the alcoholic-beverages-necessary-to-watch-a-full-game meter.


That's just my two cents. If ya ask me, you overpaid


For your opinion Gid I'd pay at least 2.4c. And not a penny less.

oh, and the line breaks thing seems to be a firefox thing. Mason says he doesn't have that problem, but as for me, when I'm typing at home in firefoz I have to remember to use html tags.


Really? Damn. The only browser on Macs that works for JU is Firefox. Oh well, it's not like I write a lot of articles anyway.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
In addition, you (along with the UK) still haven't figured out how to drive on the left side of the road like the rest of the damned world.


I think you meant right side of the road - we, in accordance with the fundamental laws of civilisation, drive sinister, unlike those barbaric Americans and Europeans, who follow their baser instincts by driving on the right (as commonly believed the left side of the brain is associated with reason, the right with creativity and instinct). Coincidentally much of Asia, in accordance with Taoism, drive all over the road - only they truly understand that all directions are paths on the same Way.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Cacto and LW I am loving this tongue in the cheek stuff


This ones for the Aussie


This ones for the Yankee


Disclaimer: the above cartoon is not meant to belittle the army blokes and their families, just The "Bushman".
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
...I can't name a single Aussie rock band,...


AC/DC
INXS
Midnight Oil
Jet
Little River Band
 

 To name a few.  
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Point well taken cacto. I stand corrected. I sit ashamed, I sleep... well you know..

I have said this before and will say it again, despite all the head butting we do, we do it with basically no cruelness, no personal attacks, on and on.

We may not agree on much but I sincerely do respect you as a man, as a writer and as a fellow human.

with, love {yeh don't get all excited}

MM aka elie
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

Getting your view of America from our pop culture is like us getting our view of Australia. It is at best a distorted view, and it presents things as the presenter wants them to be seen, not as they necessarily are.

You mean all Australians aren't a bunch of ignorant blokes who catch crocs? I mean, the ones that aren't thieves?

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

Poison5:

If you want to smear something, there's always a way to do it.

Australia, after all, has the most successful track record of any nation in the world of actually successfully commiting racial genocide.  The American Indians, Rwanda, heck even Hitler are pikers by comparison to the blokes in Australia.

Does this mean that Australia is a vile, evil country? No.  But if you want to distort history and cherry pick what "truths" you want to see, you can make Australia out to be a pretty horrific place. 

Just as your ignorant depiction of Bush in that cartoon (who had actually met with Cindy Sheehan before she went totally nuts) is a distortion. Or the vilification of the liberation of Iraq by US troops is a distortion.

To me, Anti-Americanism can be identified when you see the US do something that is objectively non-evil and turn it into an evil thing.  If you see the removal of Saddam and the attempt of creating a democratic state as being a villainous thing then yea, you're anti-American.  You can be against the "war in Iraq" and not be anti-American.  But if you think that what the US is attempting to do there is evil and wrong or "terrorist" then you're probably anti-American. 

 

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Poison5:

If you want to smear something, there's always a way to do it.


You read far too much into my post, I answer only in jest in line with the tongue in the cheek attitudes herein. I am intent on smearing nothing only jesting light heartedly. If my pics offend you then please accept my apologies.

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
Dangerous barbarians are the engine of history.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think we'd all be less Anti-Anything if we could just be more open minded to other ways of life...and not take our ways as the end-all, be-all.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Aussies are a cruel people, slaughtering bunny rabbits and toads for sport


but i like killing toads...
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
You mean all Australians aren't a bunch of ignorant blokes who catch crocs? I mean, the ones that aren't thieves?


If you ask any Australian they'll tell you that no one got sent to Australia for stealing anything other than bread. It's a matter of national pride that we weren't real criminals, honest, guv'.

As for the crocs, well, everyone needs a hobby. And you've got to admit it's more manly than prancing around in skintight lycra pants and body armour a la NFL.

If you see the removal of Saddam and the attempt of creating a democratic state as being a villainous thing then yea, you're anti-American.


I think you can question the motives of the US without being anti-American. The entire American school of international political thought is based on the idea of self-interest and only doing what is directly beneficial to the US. If the US did anything else it would be a surprise. Oftentimes it's beneficial to the world, but that's not necessarily the case.

Australia, after all, has the most successful track record of any nation in the world of actually successfully commiting racial genocide. The American Indians, Rwanda, heck even Hitler are pikers by comparison to the blokes in Australia.


For sure. We reduced a population in the millions to under 200,000 (there are no good records of aboriginal population pre- their addition to the electoral rolls in the 60s, but estimates say they dropped that far). The entire native population of Tasmania was put to disease and the rifle. Early white and asian Australians were not nice people.

Dangerous barbarians are the engine of history.


Progress is just a way of making bad things happen faster. (you got a cliche comeback there?)



but i like killing toads...


I've always preferred an oversized PW. You just don't get the loft to clear the fence with anything else.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think we'd all be less Anti-Anything if we could just be more open minded to other ways of life...and not take our ways as the end-all, be-all.


I dunno. Truly open-minded people tend to be a bit boring. I think it's a human flaw to find interest in conflict. If we got rid of it I think humanity as a whole would waste away.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
I've always preferred an oversized PW. You just don't get the loft to clear the fence with anything else.


My own preference is a cricket bat, i figure they are about the same size as a cricket ball. and it makes a satisfying noise if you middle it. But I have nothing to do with what happened to Baz:

WWW Link

And aborigini, too!


yes but they tend to jump out of the way when you swerve at them with your car, unlike toads which will even wait patiently for you to reverse after missing them the first time.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
The entire American school of international political thought is based on the idea of self-interest and only doing what is directly beneficial to the US.


tell that to all of those people we help when there is a natural disaster

like indonesia and the tidal wave a couple of years ago

did you know that the carrier group that showed up there
was ordered there by the group commander(this would be the admiral in command on the carrier) before the fleet order came in


think you can question the motives of the US without being anti-American.


yes



Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
tell that to all of those people we help when there is a natural disaster


Huh? What does that have to do with the articles published in the American Political Science Review or any of the other journals which push neo-realist, neo-liberal or neo-conservative viewpoints, each of which is predicated on the necessity for self-interested action?

I'm talking about thought-worlds, danny, not actions. I would have thought a young gentleman with your self-stated 'high IQ' would understand that.
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
? What does that have to do with the articles published in the American Political Science Review or any of the other journals


sorry i misunderstood thought you were talking about americans not journals sorry

i missed part of your statement
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top


sorry i misunderstood thought you were talking about americans not journals sorry


I was talking about intellectual thought, something you are apparently extremely fond of. Journal articles are merely a way of measuring what American policy-makers are being taught to think.
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top

Australia, after all, has the most successful track record of any nation in the world of actually successfully commiting racial genocide. The American Indians, Rwanda, heck even Hitler are pikers by comparison to the blokes in Australia.

I would have to say that New Zealand is in the running for that title as well.  But I think it is less an Aussie thing than an English one as its colonies seem to have the worst track record in their HISTORY.

No civilization is pure.  Some of the native North American tribes practiced a pretty good form of genocide as well.  Along with the Mayans, Incans, Aztecs and Toltecs.

But more to the point, I think that looking at Hollywood (if that is an indication of American "culture") is like the aliens in Galaxy Quest.  You will make a BIG mistake about America from films.

Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
And here I was ready to take "Quigly Down Under" as the final word on what Aussies are like. ;~D

I like meatpies but hate vegimite, so I guess we're both in a cross culture, love/hate thing. :~D
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top


I would have to say that New Zealand is in the running for that title as well. But I think it is less an Aussie thing than an English one as its colonies seem to have the worst track record in their HISTORY.


Really? Didn't the white settlers sign a peace treaty with the Maoris which pretty much gave them political rights from the offset?