More myths laid to rest? 
Well those poor sods do have a lot to worry about what with the empire crumbling and the social order going to shambles.
Look at some of the examples posting on here. Obviously have a lot of dull edges still. Cut them a little slack if they muck up some fine points.
[quote=“Chewycorns”]More myths laid to rest?
[/quote]
Most of that is true, but anti American sentiments mostly come from the left in Britain, and they won’t trust the Telegraph because it is a right wing paper.
Anyhow, the US doesn’t need to worry about being hated in Europe in the long run. Bush will go and his successor will be less unpopular abroad. Also the Russians are invading places, and people are really much more scared of Russia/China/Islamists than they are of the US, even if hating the US is fashionable. The current French and German governments are much more pro US than their predecessors. Post Blair, I’d expect a bit of diplomatic distance between the UK and US, but that is temporary and mostly cosmetic.
But not a word about the utter twattishness of your average North American? What a stupid poll.
the Russians invaded Georgia? but i was in Atlanta just last week, and i saw NOTHING. Nothing, i tell you.
George should DO something.
[quote=“urodacus”]the Russians invaded Georgia? but I was in Atlanta just last week, and I saw NOTHING. Nothing, i tell you.
George should DO something.[/quote]
George is anxiously awaiting his copy of My Pet Goat II. People are really going to be angry when they find out how McCain and his Georgian lobbyist engineered the whole thing to improve his chances in the election.
Also a lot of anti-US feeling is based on what they see on TV. TV has been saturated by such wonderful US shows as
America’s Dumbest Criminals , so the feeling is that the US MUST be full of idiots.
I remember as a child watching stuff like Dukes of Hazzard and thinking “I don’t want to go to America, policemen cannot drive very well, I could be killed”
But there again a large population does mean a large number of tools. Per capita probably about the same.
What people do though is confuse hatred for a leader with hating the people. People bang on about how they hate China but what they really mean is they hate the Chinese government.
bang on, funky one!
Heh. Bunch of geniuses in the land of Monty Python, Benny Hill and Mr. Bean.
So it’s true that American’s eat a lot of waffles then?
I love the bit about America not directly selling weapons. Come on the way it works is that the US sell to a middle man (Cash Instruments Associated for example) who then sells on to the bad guys. OF course this doesn’t show up as a US transaction; thats kind of the point. I do lovet he fact that teh French sold 13% though, they supplied the Argentines with missiles to take out British ships in thefalklands crisis aswell.
Hey ho, we don’t hate Americans anyway. We just wish they’d stay at home and not bother us. 
No way. They win the prize per capita, it’s not even close. How else do you account for the popularity of American “football” and NASCAR and country music? I rest my case.
For me personally hatred is a strong word, but I would use dislike in a loose, general sense. I have several American friends who are wonderful, but I find being in the United States, or, more recently, often being surrounded by American tourists in the town where I live, to be grating. I think it’s the accent, the louder voices, the sense of entitlement and the prickly passive-aggressiveness that does it for me. Give me the Swedish any day.
The average, middle-class Americans that I have come across are hard-working, honest, generous, good Samaritans who would help a fellow stranger in need. IME, this is one of the pillars of American society. I may be idealizing a bit, but they exist in many communities.
On the other hand, what seems to stand out negatively in America (besides your punks, a-holes, racists, idiots that exist everywhere) people with self-entitlement (and consequently don’t work hard) or who don’t appreciate how good they have it in the USA or who are totally ignorant about the world, people who spend more than their paycheck and who live beyond their means, and really fat people (and the power of the food industry).
Mind you, I haven’t been to a lot of Europe other than as a tourist, so can’t comment on the Brits, etc.
I think most of the hatred comes from an odd caricature of fat gun totin’, SUV driving morons. What’s strange about it is the people who believe this would be rightly offended if any other culture was stereotyped in the same way, especially as most middle class Americans are highly decent people.
Agreed, jack. these are the exact same people who stand out in the Australian stereotype, the British, the Polish, the Chinese, etc.
but while these more vocal people determine the stereotype, another question is how prevalent are they in the populace? and yet another would be, is the country’s attitude to others driven more by the louts than the moderates?
We could of course take Amercanian foreign policy over the years as a guide to their attitude to others?
Interesting thread.
I agree that misconceptions are universal. Every country has them. People, who don’t travel much outside their own country/state; are always going to base their viewpoints on the media, news, and tourists. Even people within the same country can be pretty ignorant about the other part of their country. (Or try to ignore the bad parts of their country and look only at the “rich” part.) People who travel and communicate internationally are smart enough not to believe in many of the stereotypes.
Reminds me of the time I was in Holland eating some delicious ice cream with my Mom. I was minding my own business next to a bench and two boys came passing by on bicycles shouting, “Hello Americans!” (I’m Asian but how they could tell that I’m from the US, guess it must be my plain clothing.) I’m not saying they’re ignorant. I just get the feeling that they were fooling around that day. Had nothing better to do but to poke a bit of fun at the tourists which is typical of boys their age.
I think some people forget that a lot of themselves do share similar traits and beliefs with each other around the world. It’s only the culture and how they were raised which brings up different conceptions of how they perceive other countries.
I really didn’t like it when there was this negative animosity between all those anti-US/anti-French Fry people. I mean… I was rolling my eyes when watching it on the news. Both of those people on both sides don’t really know much about each other.
And now, this whole Georgia/Russia thing is getting out of hand. There are good people on both sides, but with their medias showing off different reports, peace between both countries is currently just a dream. Also, their leaders have both did some bad things, but they’re not ready to admit anything. Which then leads to their own people backing their own leaders for believing what they’ve done has been just. (And poor South Ossetia never asked for any of this to happen. They just wanted to be free.)
As for US/British misconceptions; on the web, I found plenty in a lot of forums. Which is fair enough if they want to keep pointing fingers at each other. sighs
Another misconception. “Freedom fries” only happened in the cafeteria in Capitol Hill, and in the minds of the foreign media. I will believe that somewhere in America some Mom & Pop restaurant somewhere changed the name of French Fries to “freedom fries” for about a week, but I have never seen it. Freedom fries did not happen in the sense that the worldwide media portrayed it. I can say equivocally that every American I spoke to during the time period that the freedom fries urban legend was reported to have taken place thought it was a stupid and idiotic attempt by capitol hill to drum up a controversy.
It’s really hard to make Americans hate Europeans, actually. Most of us still see Europe as the place where at least one grandparent, or at least great-grandparent, came from.
Anyway “all those anti-french french fry people” is a funny misconception. Trust me honey, there never were any.
^ Funny. I recall the whole thing spreading to my high school’s cafeteria. There were some people calling the fries, “Freedom Fries” and sprouting anti-French stuff. I really felt like I wanted to bop them on their heads at that time but thankfully, that fad did only last a week or two.
One time I was in Paris with some French classmates staying for a few days in the supposedly upper-class 16th arrondissement at their place. As we were walking out to the car in an artistic market of some sorts, a prick came up to me and said “American, coca-cola, farmboy, and patted me on the stomach” in a patronizing manner. Instead of decking him as I should have, I laughed and said “France, Petain, and Laval.” That sure shut him up. 