Personally, I dislike most flag waving as differentiating themselves from us.
Bzzt! And guess what one nation is considered “distasteful” and “rude” and “hegemonic” 
to ever display any of their own national pride? Foreigners are offended when Americans display the same national pride that Canadians and Europeans take for granted when they shove their flags in other people’s faces. So yeah, the double standard is grating. Americans can’t display any pride in their country’s accomplishments without being sneered at as “typical Yank arrogance!”
In short, it’s the double standard and hypocrisy that pisses some Americans off. Why should you be able to get away with your crass & crude flag-waving nationalism and we can’t? Life is so unfair.
Damn those Canadians for not wanting to be American ! What’s wrong with them !? (Some of them even speek Frunch. :shock:)
Je deteste la salle indifference entre les deux pays de Quebec et les Untied States. Let’s tie them up again! C’est miuex, c’est fair!
That said, let me say this: hogwash that article!
Isn’t it basic flag etiquette not to display your country’s flag when in another’s territory, unless the host country’s flag is also displayed above your own?
[quote=“jlick”]Isn’t it basic flag etiquette not to display your country’s flag when in another’s territory, unless the host country’s flag is also displayed above your own?[/quote]When has the US ever done that ?
How many Americans do you see abroad waving the Yanqui flag all over their backpacks, and in expat pubs? Why is it always the minor Anglophone countries with a post-colonial inferiority complex in regards to their two bigger brothers (U.K. + U.S.A.) that are always the most aggressively nationalistic, flying the Kangaroo Jack and Maple Leaf everywhere they go?
Why would I want to fly the American flag, anyway? My country’s accomplishments speak for themselves; no American has to advertise how great America is - everybody knows all about the U.S.A. In fact, the rest of the world is smothered in America and its accomplishments and culture. So waving the flag and loudly boasting about what a great country the U.S. is, that would be…piling on a bit too much. No point throwing on another stick on the woodpile when the other guy’s being crushed to death by the weight of your country, eh? That would be rude. Especially in a place like Taiwan where many Taiwanese still have these “streets paved with gold” fantasies, when you talk to many Taiwanese about America you have to gently let them down by explaining how in reality America has lots of problems.
When you’re a 6’5 musclebound gorilla you don’t go around boasting about how tough you are. That would cause massive resentment and everybody would try to gang up on you to take you out behind your back, especially if you’re small, relatively unimportant country with no substantial power of your own. It’s “Small Man, Big Mouth” syndrome at work.
Tee hee, mod lang…that was funny. No offense to anyone out there who wants to distinguish themselves from Americans and the British because they are tired of people mistaking their accent as being either American or British, but despite my strong dislike for blind, maudlin patriotism (especially of the American kind), the 6’5" gorilla metaphor was spot on.
I posted this story when it happened last Spring.
American hockey kids given ‘enemy treatment’
Canadians barrage U.S. children with insults, burn flag as team goes to ‘unfriendly territory’
A road trip for a group of U.S. peewee hockey players to a tournament in Montreal turned into a foray into enemy territory as the boys were barraged with anti-American insults and witnessed protesters trashing the American flag, reports the Globe and Mail.
The paper said the 11- and 12-year-old boys from Brockton, Mass., had been looking forward to the trip, which soured soon after their “Coach USA” tour bus rolled into downtown Montreal on March 20.
Hundreds of college students were marching through the streets in an anti-war demonstration and seized upon the bus as a target for its anti-U.S. venom. Several demonstrators made obscene gestures toward the bus, and an American flag was dragged through the street.
At another demonstration, the Americans watched as a crowd cheered when a protester waved the Iraqi flag, and booed the U.S. flag. Next, the Stars and Stripes were doused with kerosene and ignited.
“It went up in a puff of smoke and flames, and the crowd went wild. They were all cheering,” said parent Bill Carpenter.
Damned peewee hockey hooligans.
anybody ever read 'the sneetches" by dr. seuss?
I like my American friends. The trips I have made into the US of A have only been to some of their more fabled ski towns (Stowe, Park City, WhiteFish, Montana and Carrabassett County, Maine to name a few). The lads and ladies I cut thru aspens and firs, carving downwards thru forests of silver snow have been some of the coolest folks I’ve ever met. I enjoy meeting Americans on their hometurf. They are proud, friendly and funny. And they are so different from us. Vive la difference.
I’ve also had the opportunity to deal with thousands of Americans in my various capacities in the Canadian tourism industry. Americans travelling are not the same ones I met in small mountain town, America. They tended to be mostly arrogant, and ignorant about anything non-american, but we tended to ignore it cuz they were fond of tipping in USD…that was always nice…
I would wear a Canadian flag on my pack so I wouldn’t get targetted by some quack-job with a penchant for post-mortal virgins and a pipe bomb strapped to his nuts… Allah AkBar screaming from his throat.
I remember hearing a story about how sales were booming for these fake passport covers you could buy to make any passport look Canadian. Good enough to hopefully pass a frenzied glance by our above-mentioned terror freak with a swiss army knife at a flight attendant’s throat.
Its a fucked up world and Americans are trying to do something about it. Right or wrong, wmd or none…they are trying…and the blood of their young is spilling…some of those locals I drank with in Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont could be watching a lone truck speed toward their checkpoint in Tikrit right now…sure wish we were both dropping Doc Dempsey’s right now. But we are not…we are outraged at the futility of the future…no matter where you sit on this roadmap…that truck could be speeding toward you…just because…just because…
I wish all my American friends would wear a maple leaf casually, as an accessory, a Roots ball cap or something, so Mohamed don’t bring his mountain of pain their way. If it makes him think of a more attractive target than some simple Canadian with an inferiority complex over his big brothers, so be it…I’ll still have that friend…and we’ll slash some powdies again one day.
My suggestion for a truly international flag:
At least Canadians can show pride when they go abroad and hence the patch on the bag. Americans restrict their patriotism within the homeland and hence the flag on their home. People show patriotism in many ways whether subtle or bold. So what? To each his own.
Some Americans actually put the Canadian flag on their bag so they can get better treatment when they travel (particularly in Europe)- can anyone else back me up on this? It is true.
er… i don’t know about putting the maple leaf on their bags, although that would be a smart move… but when i was in Germany on business earlier this year, i met a group of americans who said that they were telling everyone they were Canadian to avoid getting lynched/looked down upon/made to wear silly leather trousers…
I think the problem is that you are seeing the USA as an expat. I have been a US expat 25 years of my existance. Expats are special in that they learn to see they country for the way it really is, or at least for the way that their host country portrays their home country. Your basic american whom has never left america would be glad to a “pile on” a little more of the patriotism to show everybody just how great they are. They are taught to do this by the system. One could say they don’t know any better.
Damn… good shit man.
Mr. Robinson, in my experience many US expats here are disillusioned hippies or conspiracy nuts who blame their home countries for the bully that gave em a knuckle sandwich after math class every Tuesday behind the dumpster. Anyhow, I’ll be damned if I sit back and listen to anyone diss a patriotic American.
Woa 
There was a well known case a few years ago where a Candian in Florida was ordered by U.S. officals to remove his Canadian flag unless he flew an American flag above it.