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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Why do they hate us?

Discussion in 'Archive: The Senate Floor' started by The1, Jun 9, 2002.

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  1. Kit'

    Kit' Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 1999
    But then your anger should be directed at your own country. Australia has a rich history dating back thousands of years. I don't see why someone in Australia would get mad at America because their kid knows the American president and not the Australia PM.

    A lot of my anger is directed at the Australian History Education Syllabus. We are taught (numerous times) about Australian History both colonial and pre-colonial. The issue is more about kids not believeing that Australia has an interesting history or culture because they are not Americans or in America. Maybe that is the fault of Australians for not making the history interesting enough, but at the same time kids are bombarded every day with American ideals, life-styles and culture through television and movies.

    I'm not asking America to play by a different set of rules, I am just saying that many people from different countries feel that Amercians culture is really shoved down their throats until they feel they have to change. This may be the fault of their own culture, people and themselves, but it is percived as the faults of Americans, because that is whose culture it is.

    The thread asked why people hated Americans, and I answered the question with points that I felt were valid because after talking to many Americans and Australians on the issue, these were the points that they brought up the most. Therefore they are valid points, because Australians feel that way about Americans (not hatred, more a sigh of resignment and dislike) when these points are raised. You are right, maybe it is their own culture, but because they percieve that it is the fault of Americans and not their own people, they end up blaming Americans (either rightly or wrongly) for the fact that it happens.

    Kit

    Please excuse this post if it is confusing, I just woke up :D
     
  2. HavocHound

    HavocHound Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2000
    >>i dont hate Americans, but have a dislike SOME, for their "we are so high and mighty, and better than everyone else" opinions.<<

    Humility can be so liberating.

    >>You cant say every country hates you, because as English we are seen as your biggest Allies. In England we generally tend to think that the average American is pretty dum and has a low IQ i.e. people on Jerry Springer "i just slept with ma uncle Joe"...
    Also we think the way you speak is weird. I mean you pronounce the word Route as Rowt, and dont know how to spell some words correctly (coloUr, mUm) but IMO that has just happened due to regional dialect (LOL, ive probably made many spelling mistakes here anyway). However we definately do NOT hate you.<<

    So who of us would you say are the Naboo and who would you say are Gungans? Either way, I get to be Jar Jar. [face_mischief] ;) :p

    ~~~~~

    On a more serious note, you can't judge the people of any nation by the tendencies of the governments of the countries from whence they hail. There is no true representation of any people by any government. Government represents government. People represent people. There can be no reconciliation due to the nature of the State. This goes for the whole wide world.
     
  3. Yodave27

    Yodave27 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2001
    Ok, I hope I didn't sound like I was jumping down your throat, because I wasn't.

    I understand where you're coming from, but I don't agree with it.

     
  4. HavocHound

    HavocHound Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2000
    >>It's the group over the individual while in the US, it's often the individual over the group.<<

    That's what makes us better than those oppressive society types. Group over individual = oppression. Individuals who cooperate out of own free will = freedom. This is why we say "DON'T TREAD ON ME." We are guardians of the downtrodden individuals of the world. We are a stake in the heart of tyranny.
     
  5. HavocHound

    HavocHound Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2000
    >>And you can't criticize leaders in power because that isn't patriotic!<<

    Actually, that's a misnomer. America is the Flipside. Therefore, it's unpatriotic NOT to be critical of the "leader" (who's duty is to represent the People anyway). In the ideal America, authority exists to serve, not to rule. Therefore, to be a patriot is to be a guardian of the underdog.
     
  6. Yodave27

    Yodave27 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2001
    And you can't criticize leaders in power because that isn't patriotic

    If that were true, SNL wouldn't be on for 26+ years.....
     
  7. HavocHound

    HavocHound Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2000
    >>You try to build yourself up to be a superior race to everyone else.<<

    In regards to Independence Day, it was the aliens who thought they were superior. And, being guardians of the downtrodden, we found a way to make them suck death.
     
  8. KansasNavy

    KansasNavy Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 10, 2001
    Everybody should learn to take a joke and go with it. Australians, Britiish, French, and Americans are always going to be portrayed in a demeaning manner. Deal with it. It doesn't mean the whole world hates you (except for the MidEast). I make fun of all sorts of dialects at the expense of people's nationalities. Mexicans will always seem like janitors. Canadians are lumberjacks from the norte woods. British will always be like tea-sipping gentlemen wusses. Austrians and Germans will always be the over-steroidized weight-lifters, and Australians the crocodile hunters. Americans will be the dimwitted yuppies and trailer trash, and Russians as fat drunks. The French will always be Euro-trash collaborators.

    What I'm saying is to learn to laugh at the stereotypes. I guess it's only funny when it's not you ;) .
     
  9. HavocHound

    HavocHound Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2000
    But I don't wanna be a yuppie. :( I hate yuppies (or at least yuppyism)! I'd much rather be portrayed as a trailer trash redneck.
     
  10. Darth_Dagsy

    Darth_Dagsy Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 18, 2000
    Uhh, so we have covered what America does to deserve hatred from some countries?

    Lets now take a look at a nice source of the hate...Europe.

    Why does the EU even exist? To give the Europeans a superpower that they have lacked for many years. Germany, France, Britain...all used to be superpowers...now they have faded. With that has gone the European self-esteem. They no longer have the economic clout, the political clout, the military clout to make themselves heard.

    Naturally they hate those that are bigger and better, ie, America.

    Why the EU? To give Europe that status that it has lost.
    Why bash America? Because it feels good to take down the big oppenent, in your own small, little way.

    It isnt always about what America does.
     
  11. Yodave27

    Yodave27 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2001
    Listen to Dagsy we should.
     
  12. DarthTunick

    DarthTunick SFTC VII + Deadpool BOFF star 10 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2000
    yes we should.
     
  13. Darth Mulacki

    Darth Mulacki Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 4, 1999
    no, we shouldn't.

    -Mulacki
     
  14. toochilled

    toochilled Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 2000
    I get annoyed at the constant dichotomy and contradiction in the phrase 'truth, justice and the American way'.
     
  15. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    Why the EU? To give Europe that status that it has lost.

    Tsk tsk tsk. Dagsy, I never thought I'd see you make such uneducated comments. Do you know why the EU started? Well, let's start at the beginng. the Benelux

    This stands for: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg.

    These 3 countries got together to form an economic block to be able to compete with biggere economic powers. (France, Germany, Italy etc) Eventually other countries started joining and the United Europe for Steel and Coal (freely translatd to English here, I only know the dutch term) was formed. This was again, economic coöperation. The EU started out as nothing more then a trade block formed by the European countries to be able to compete with the rest of the world. Eventually we started adding politics as well but I'm not gonna type out the entire history here.

    The EU was not formed to give us back our prestige but even if it was. Why can 50 american states band together but 15 European countries cannot? What's wrong? Scared that Europe might one day also become a world power to be reconed with? (maybe in a 100 years or so...)

    Also, "America is the only country activily doing anything in the ME"

    WRONG! I suggest you look up what other countries have been doing instead of making foolish comments like this.
     
  16. darth_boy

    darth_boy Jedi Grand Master star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2001
    I totally agree. We respect the American culture, but many Americans dont even attempt to care about other peoples. In any US film ive seen, the English all speak like the dam Queen. 99% of are not like that and its dam annoying. How would you feel if we thought that every American is a member of The KKK? exactly, because 99% of you are not like that
     
  17. darth_boy

    darth_boy Jedi Grand Master star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2001
    Also i hate the way YOU stereotype Middle Eastern people.
     
  18. AJA

    AJA Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 1998
    As I said before, I think we need to take steps to remove ourselves from the position we've found ourselves in. The best way to do this IMO would be to allow countries like Russia, Germany, and Japan to resume their positions as world powers. As long as we are the sole subject of scrutiny for every back-biting, petty individual who's looking for someone to blame for problems they created themselves, we will continue to be in a position to be attacked. Other countries clearly don't want us exerting our influence on them, and we don't want to anyway, so we should pull back in earnest, and give them someone else to worry about. I think it's the right thing to do both tactically and ethically.

    I understand that the track record of the Germans, Japanese, and Russians is not stellar, but it seems to me a reasonable path. If they were to get out of hand again, we'd have to fight them again, but at least we'd still be around to do it. As it stands now, it seems everyone is gunning for us, including the nations which we have erroneously presumed to be our allies.
     
  19. Red-Seven

    Red-Seven Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 21, 1999
  20. AJA

    AJA Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 1998
    When something goes wrong in the world, we're blamed for not doing anything about it. When we do something, we're accused of meddling. This is a situation which cannot continue. What I think many people don't realize (including many Americans) is that when something goes wrong around the world, it's not always because we didn't do something we should have, or because we didn't properly assess the situation to start with, but rather that there are things we are not capable of doing. As long as there are people who sit around looking at us to handle every significant problem while simultaneoulsy sniping at us at every turn, the world is, IMO, headed toward a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.
     
  21. Sarajevo

    Sarajevo Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jun 6, 2002
    Howdy, I am only 14 and I don't have a great understanding of how the world works so if what I say is stupid, one-sided, or uneducated please forgive. I live in southern Arkansas. For those of you who dont know, that is about as middle-of-nowhere as you can get.(to bad the gov't figured that out and decided to put a load of chemical wepons next door) :mad: My contact with foreign people is nonexistant so I can't ask their oppinion on this. Anywayz, if people dont like the U.S. why do you see our movies, eat our food, accept our money and aid, and buy our products? ?[face_plain]
     
  22. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    1. We don't accept any aid from the U.S. Actually, it was the U.S who last asked us for aid a month after sept. 11 (even though they didn't need it)

    2. We continue to see your movies because uhm...let's see, Hollywood makes the biggest movies?

    3. Eat your food. Hahah, right, you mean McDonalds? I almost never eat there, I hate that food. Aside from that I usually eat Belgian food and Asian food. Sorry.

    4. Why do you buy our products? We can't produce everything ourself can we now? We don't buy everything from the U.S.

    (anyway, I don't really hate the U.S. just pointing a few things out.)
     
  23. Obi-Zahn Kenobi

    Obi-Zahn Kenobi Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 23, 1999
    1. American attitude
    -"We're the greatest, the rest of you arn't fit to be our slaves."


    Hmm. I don't see that much. Although we are the greatest... [face_mischief]

    2. American foreign policy
    -"Let's go assert our dominance over some far off country that doesn't support us. That'll be fun."


    That is teh suck. Clinton caused that stupidity. To Clinton: [face_plain]

    3. American economic dominance of other countries, particularly Canada
    -"Let's go build a thousand new McDonalds restaurants in Canada. They arn't the 51st state yet, so we're doing something wrong."


    What?

    A. I have no wish for Canada to be annexed by the US. I doubt most Americans do.

    B. We econimacally dominate you because we are the freest nation in the world(At least we were at one point in time) and we have economically expanded to the point where we are the dominant nation.

    4. Certain aspects of the American ideology
    -Too capitalist and conservative for me.


    To each his own. Just don't live here.

    5. American actions throughout history
    -I could write a book on this, but I'll just stick to a few major things: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, nearly every city in Germany, Mylai, etc.


    I once wrote a paper on the justification of the nuclear bombings and got an A+. It was my rough draft...

    It's called war. I dare to say that we saved more Japanese lives than we took.

    However, both bombings were unfortunate. I wish that there were some other way than firebombing and nuclear bombing those countries.

    In war, people die. Get used to it.

    Also, the Vietnam war was stupid and it was politically micromanaged. Don't blame America. Blame Lyndon B. Johnson. He destroyed this country.
     
  24. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    You might be able to justify Hiroshima but there is no way in hell that you can justify Nagisaki, Nagisaki was bombed to show to Russia that America had more then 1 bomb. Show of power so to speak.
     
  25. Maveric

    Maveric Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 1999
    No, Nagasaki was bombed because Japan did not surrender after Hiroshima. We showed Japan that we had another bomb, Russia saw the first one and realized what it was (they were working on the technology as well.
     
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