Thread: tell me about the british opinion of america

smegheads!

I'm not British, I just love Red Dwarf

You want our personal opinions of americans or our perception of the british opinion as a whole?

My personal opinion is bland, people are people, Britain and America are both westernised societys so the differences between us arent all that dramatic, hence no strong opinion.

As far as my perception of how the majority of brits view americans well....
I hear the term " only in america" a lot when watching american tv with other brits, which suggests to me that the general understanding is that americans are more eccentric, and do crazier things... Ive also heard many comments about americans having therapists to get over their other therapist appointment, which i guess falls into eccentricity. Never really heard people "hating" americans at all. just refering to some as extremists. But to be fair i think some brits are basing this after having watched Jerry springer and Ricki lake. As they are the only " reality" based programmes we really get from the states.Plus we dont hear about normal everyday life in america, just the bad stuff, murders etc lol

Ok, fat rednecks who only care about themselves and kill there own allies in the iraq war, we think the cops eat donuts all the time and you all eat hotdogs and cheetos.
Stereo types i know..

Difficult, as the two categories of people I come into most contact with (from the US) are soldiers and tourists.

They all seem to be a lot more optimistic than a lot of English folk I know, and they aren't scared to voice their opinion to anybody in earshot. Okay so you get the odd one that can be an arse, but that's the same wherever you go in England too.

The vast majority of Americans I have met have turned out to be good, honest people.

America as a country? I've never been there, so I don't think I'm qualified to have an unbiased opinion.

Ric

all is welcome, biased or unbiased. stereotypes, i don't care.

the donut shit is hilarious... cops do eat donuts over here, but it's almost kind of a joke. like they do it on purpose because it makes them seem like they have a sense of humor.

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

Ok, fat rednecks who only care about themselves and kill there own allies in the iraq war, we think the cops eat donuts all the time and you all eat hotdogs and cheetos.
Stereo types i know..

sort of like the british stereotype in america that all of you guys have really bad, yellow teeth and bad hygiene and like to eat stinky smelling cheese and women are generally not that good looking


all countries have stereotypes, i wouldn't call everyone in america a "redneck" because that term was derived from the civil war days when southern confederates wore red bandannas or something of the like, i think the term we used to be called was "yankees". war isn't like a video game, there is friendly fire, it happens in all wars. cops do eat donuts most of the time, most of them are badly out of shape to. and everyone in the world eats hotdogs and cheetos! unless they're living in a 3rd world country, but if we were going to use this against america in general i'd rather say they all eat doritos or something

Originally Posted by lysergic

all is welcome, biased or unbiased. stereotypes, i don't care.

the donut shit is hilarious... cops do eat donuts over here, but it's almost kind of a joke. like they do it on purpose because it makes them seem like they have a sense of humor.

No, they just do it because they're fat.

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

No, they just do it because they're fat.

I suspect it might be the other way around.

I know many nice, intelligent, caring American people, so I really don't like making generalizations. But in general, I would have to say that Americans seem ignorant of other cultures/countries, are far too patriotic, are willing to believe anything their government tells them, ready to go to war over a dirty look, and that's just the people. The government is ten times worse. The government is all of the above, but add greedy, manipulative, and controlling. Also the police force is unnecessarily brutal, the gun laws are just stupid (I still can't get my head around how people tolerate gun crime after Columbine), and they would have been better off under British rule.

Again, this is a generalisation, and I know many, many cool Americans. I'm very sorry if I've offended anyone. Feel free to rant about Britain.

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

you all eat hotdogs and cheetos.

haha I had that for lunch today!!!

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

But in general, I would have to say that Americans seem ignorant of other cultures/countries, are far too patriotic...

Even as an American I would have to agree. Although, culture has been something that I'm really interested in it seems like no one else I know is. If anyone I've talked to wants to travel somewhere, it's mainly for a vacation rather than a cultural experience. I've recently been to Australia, and when I came back I realized how loud we are! We would hang out at the beach in Australia, then when I came home and went to the beach I noticed that everyone was always screaming and yelling and throwing each other in the water, not caring about everyone else around them. And people would get really mad if someone got their order wrong at a fast food restaurant. Whenever I say things like that my mom gets mad at me. But I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking in stereotypes too and people are different everywhere you go and I could have seen a loud group of people in Australia if I had gone to the beach at the same time as them...
but then again maybe not.

and you're right about the government. It's ridiculous. Bush has to be the worst president we've ever had next to Nixon.

hehe ok I'm not even british and I'm ranting about america. sorry.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

The government is all of the above, but add greedy, manipulative, and controlling. Also the police force is unnecessarily brutal

Things could be worse.

Originally Posted by Identity X

Things could be worse.

Freedom is sacrificed, but as a society, China is better.

In my opinion.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Freedom is sacrificed, but as a society, China is better.

In my opinion.

Say that again when you are being harvested for organs.

Originally Posted by Identity X

Say that again when you are being harvested for organs.

That doesn't change anything. As a society, it's very efficient. As a community of free will and human rights, it fails. Depends on what you think is more important. You can't have both.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

That doesn't change anything. As a society, it's very efficient. As a community of free will and human rights, it fails. Depends on what you think is more important. You can't have both.

How do you define a society's efficiency? Is a society ever "efficient" or "not efficient"?

The majority of Chinese are treated as second class citizens living in apalling poverty in the countryside. 60 million men will never find a wife because baby girls are murdered (One Child Policy). 100,000 children (mostly boys of course) are kidnapped a year (One Child Policy again) - and the only way to replace them is having to endure crippling fines for the rest of your life.

Of course I'll leave out the lack of any freedom whatsoever because "that doesn't change anything". But how are the above at all "efficient"?

As an aside, I think there are some superb governments out there, mostly Scandanavian.

Originally Posted by nitsuJ

...i wouldn't call everyone in america a "redneck" because that term was derived from the civil war days when southern confederates wore red bandannas or something of the like...

Actually, the term "red-neck" was meant literally as it referred to the necks of white farmers and their white fields hands who, post-Emancipation, had to work long days in the Southern heat. Typically, they were poor.

Source: I'm a Southerner.

As far as the political climate goes, america is getting really fucking scary. they have done away with habeas corpus because of 9/11 and when something bigger happens; say, a hundred thousand people instead of three thousand, i'm pretty sure we'll lose all our rights.

I think british women are fucking hot.

Originally Posted by Identity X

How do you define a society's efficiency? Is a society ever "efficient" or "not efficient"?

As an aside, I think there are some superb governments out there, mostly Scandanavian.

An efficient society is a society that makes money, has power, and controls its people. In my opinion, anyway. I'm not saying it's a good thing, just that it's efficient as a way of governing people, and getting the most out of them.

Scandinavian governments are better than most Western ones, because they give its people a high quality of life, and they mostly avoid large conflicts. However, they're not efficient in the sense that I mean here.

Snobbish, isolationist, stupid, compulsive, lonely, repressed, ambitious, resilient...

Originally Posted by Omnius Deus

Snobbish, isolationist, stupid, compulsive, lonely, repressed, ambitious, resilient...

Haha. I thought you were talking about me for a second there.

I am not british myself, but I will go on and agree Americans are ignorant of many things, from other cultures and countries, to beliefs and sets of ideas. Also overpatriotic. Though I really think we can blame it all on the manipulative government.

I agree that in China, the situation is stricter, but we must not forget that each country is different, and China in this case is characterised by social contrasts (well any country is). Just because some people in the country live in poor conditions, you can't blame the whole country for it. America is economically rich but has many homeless people. Saying China is a bad country is ignorant and simplistic.

Yes, I know I am filled with prejudice towards americans, but they barely ever prove me wrong, so..

The general impression given off by most of your countrymen is that they are fat (65% of people are according to statistics), uneducated, ignorant, overly patriotic fools, extremely religious and generally unaware of the many countries, cultures, and contributions to the world made outside the US. Racism and generally backwards views are especially prolific in the deep south of the country.

The US Army is mostly full of gung-ho idiots who receive minimal training before being shipped out (in comparision to other armies around the world), apparently think they are in their own personal war film, and who are apparently unable to recognise their own allies (a particular example is where 2 pilots ignore the fact they were never ordered to fire, ignored a message stating allies were in the area, and managed to ignore the standard NATO symbol for friendlies, and launched an air strike against coalition forces).

In addition, the country as a whole appears highly arrogant and overly meddling in other people's affairs, and is a law unto itself. Particularly scary is the willingness of Bush to use torture, breaking the Geneva convention, and generally disregarding the protocols everyone else (including the US) agreed to abide by, when they become inconvenient.

Your president is an idiot, who has managed to ruin your economy and who makes a complete fool of himself almost every time he opens his mouth.

Whilst I have had the fortune of meeting some very nice Americans, and when I went to your country in the past I and my family were made to feel very welcome, the general impression given is not flattering. Sadly the world perception of the US in general is very low, and it's partly because this very unflattering side of the US seems to have a very large voice.

(Please note that these are the general impressions given out from the US according to my opinion and as requested by the author. Obviously there are many people who do not fit into these generalisations)

Not being British, I have something to say about China. While their one-child policy is definitely absurd, I commend them for acknowledging that humans are over-populating the world and something has to be done about it. It may not be the best strategy, but at least they're trying.