Thetownend.com

Doing a little bit of research for a colleague on reasons why American citizens are hated throughout the world. I agreed to provide some input based on the opinions expressed from a socially diverse cross-section of British society aka TEF  :wink:

Don't hold back now, will you  :mrgreen:

An insular, ignorant society who feel they have a right to run & police the world (FUCK YEAH!) would sum up my views

i'll withold judgment until i visit the states next year but every yank i've ever met has been decent.

They seem okay really. I hate the way they've ruined the English language though. I blame the way the lead the world on weak leaders of other nations who let them call the shots. I love Putin.

Very hypocritical. Preach against religious extremism, when really some of the chaps in the states are just as bad. But thats ok, they're christians, not muslims!

They are politically apathetic (biggest election turnout ever was 47%), and yet they all seem to complain about Bush or whoever is in charge! They are the ones with the power to change it.


Not to mention sports!!! They change a sports name then call themselves world champions because no one else plays it.

You want cheese with that?

From my trips to the US - although Americans provide excellent service in restraurants etc it all comes across as a bit false and lacking in sincerity (have a nice day!) but some of the women are stunningly gorgeous - particularly on the beaches of LA

I have met many a yank, and despite being a friendly, honest and generous bunch...

THEY ARE IMMATURE, LOUD MOUTHED, PARTISAN PRICKS.

I work for an american company. The Americans I work with are generally sound.  They are well educated and as mostly as knowlegeable about the world as us. I like them.  

But I have also met the other kind. Barely been out of their own state let alone anywhere else in the word, yet are of the opinion there way is the best and only way. I guess we have our fair share of people like that too (ignorant).  

Another thing annoyed me, at the St Paddys day parade in NYC primary school age children walked through with "England out of Ireland" banners. Can childern really be expected to understand the complexity of that situation. I'm not sure I do.

Economically I don't like the way thier McCulture is slowly devouring ours. It started with fast food, now the legal service is going 'so sue me'  about everything,  and so on.

Politically it has already been said. They act with their self appointed mandate to police the world. 'My way or the highway'.

Oh, and they showed up late for World War 2, only when their own interests were under attack did they get directly involved (thankfully).

And they call football 'soccer'.

And most of their sports are based on girls games (Ice hockey - bloke field hockey, basketball - bloke netball, baseball -bloke rounders, US football - girls rugby).

Fully agreed,

I dont know why people have such a harsh view on americans, and most of it is based on stereotypical views.
OK not every single america is nice, yes there are arrogant ones, etc etc.... but on a general level, some of the nicest people i have met are americans.
All my times in the states i have always been made to feel welcome, they are a friendly bunch and know how to have a good time.
People put their views accross on american people based on the people it is run by, i would love to introduce you to some of the americans i have met, and you will soon change your mind, i guarantee it.

I hate the way they miss off the 'h' in herb or herbal.

I think Las Vegas is great

I think the top educated people (In business)are frighteningly switched on and committed

I think the average American is way behing the average European in terms of global awareness

My wife's pet hate. Good call  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

guess that makes you an ignorant prejudiced prick.
and a hypocrite! :wink:

Ive never really met any bar the occasional one in the Pub or something.

They seem alright,isn't it to big a place for them all to have the same traits? I like to think that they dont have a middle class, you are either a Hill Billy or a High Flyer.Thats obviously nonsense but Im comfortable believing it so there.

I both loath and admire the whole "America America" Flag worship thing.

Americans are like Australians except for the lack of humour, like the British except for the lack of etiquette, like the French except for the lack of je ne sais quoi, like the Italians except for the lack of culture, like Canadians except for the lack of humility, like the rest of the world except for the lack of history.

Having said that like Sonic said, most of the Yanks I have met have been quality.

I love that "America! America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!" song.  Shame it's about the US really.

 :goodpost:  That is the one thing I utterly hate loathe and despise about America and its citizens.

Apart from that though, you can't possibly generalize about any nation, least of all one with a population of approximately 301,139,947. There's bound to be fair few 'a' holes in there amongst them, a fair few good guys as well. And a fair few who are just as boring as fuck. There will even be those who do not fit into any of those categories.

Personally, as far as the ones I have met are concerned, I think they're as good as gold. Although it has many, many faults, I love the place and it's my favourite country in the world to visit.

I missed out the (generally)  :wink:

Ive always found the Yanks no problem, i find them extremely friendly and polite, although i did have a conversation with a couple of complete pricks in Vegas.

on personal experience alone I love America, individually.  It's only when they combine and act as a Nation that they become collectively idiotic.

Got family from America and they are all great, really generous, love England etc.  Been to Florida and love the place and people.

new york new york its a wonderful place how ever im waiting for the rain to wash away the scum into the sewers

Not really met enough Americans to generalise, but those I have met have been decent.

One thing I don't like is the tendancy to heavily associate with ancestors' nationalities. For example a 4th generation American saying "I'm Irish/Italian/Puerto Rican/etc" when clearly they're not.

Thanks for all your input so far. Interesting that a significant number are basing your thoughts on first hand experiences, rather than pandering to the general media portrayal. Its very difficult to generalise as there is such a wide spectra of people in the country. More would be welcome though.

If we're to believe the media's stereotypical American then you'd think they're all fat, arrogant wankers. But that's completely wrong.

I have family in America and they're the most down to earth nicest people I've possibly ever met.

have been 7 or 8 times and it did my head in, never going back again.

I think the Top Gear episode where they drove some cars from Florida to New Orleans sums the Americans up, and they were attacked and when they gave their cars away in New Orleans, one person tried to sue Top Gear for $20k as they were told the wrong year of make, despite giving the car away for NOTHING.

And to sum them up...It was bad enough voting for George W Bush in as President once...But to do it twice !!!

Fantastic. One episode of Top Gear has managed to 'sum up' a nation of over 300 million people. Well done!

"Oh, by the way Marge, that was sarcasm!" to quote the great Homer J.

The voting thing is a different issue and worthy of its own thread.

It does sum up a significant number of the population though i.e. those that live in the bible-bashing south, love NASCAR etc. That said, I live in the bible-bashing north and its no bloody different really. There's a little bit of redneck in everybody!

Anyway, Bush is comedy gold, so leave him alone. Not as if there was a viable alternative really...

Not as nice in general as the Canadians, but far nicer on the whole than the English and yes I am english

Yes, of course it does. But it's just totally crass to say, "Oh well, that's Americans for you then." You know as well as I do that it's such a huge, diverse country that you just can't make broad, sweeping statements about it.

Question for you Coxernator or whatever your calling yourself today :wink: . Do you like living in America? Do you feel at home there? Do you feel that you have genuine friends there? Do you want to come 'home'? Where do you feel at home? And so on and so forth.

is arkansas part of the bible-bashing south?

I've not been to the US, though I met loads of Americans in europe whilst bumming around, and they were all really friendly people. But what I will say, is this 'have a nice day' malarky bothers me. A guy I work with came in one day full of beans for no apparent reason and was laying it on thick, 'sir' this and 'madam' that, and to cap it all, 'have a nice day' at the end. It made me cringe, lots. Thankfully I was just finishing.

I don't like how they say yoghurt, Oregano, leisure or aluminium. However Bill Hicks was the funniest man ever to walk the Earth.....but he was never that popular in America so I'd have to mark them down. On a positive note they gave us MC5, The Stooges, Sam Raimi, Lou Barlow, Michael Moore and The Simpsons......but then again there's Michael Bolton. All in all I'd say they're a mixed bag.

I would say it's Bible Belt v Cletus the slack jaw'd yokel

Exactly. I get a little fed up with blind sweeping generalisms that all Americans are fat, loud and arrogant, whereas in fact that isn't the case at all. Its such a diverse society, some good, some bad.

What I was trying to achieve by asking the question was to judge whether people just conformed to the media stereotype - I was actually surprised that so far the majority have used first-hand experience rather than conform to that media stereotype.

Answering your questions in order: Yes. Yes. Yes. Sometimes. In my home, which is currently in America.

Does that help?

Ifs its not New York or the New England states, then yes it is...

the americans that a) travel and b) are under 40 tend to be decent souls, the rest are apathetic, racist, fearful and generally ignorant people.

 :goodpost:
Says it all realy

Whenever I see stuff like "What do you think of Americans?" I always shudder a little as the answers are often based on generalisations derived from meeting a small unrepresentative sample (often tourists or students) and/or the conduct of the American nation in foreign policy terms (although much of what has been posted in this thread has been refreshingly free of that). But it makes me shudder because I think by the same token "My God, people the world over are going to judge me on the basis of Tony fucking Blair and the kind of twats who wreck other people's perfectly nice cities on stag weekends" and both make me cringe.

For the record, I've worked with a lot of Americans, currently working for a US company, and have largely found them to be more courteous, helpful and less arrogant than their British counterparts (including me). One guy I worked with closely at my last company was a US religious fundamentalist, lived in Texas, home-schooled his kids for religious reasons, hard-right Republican, all the textbook stereotypes. Couldn't have been nicer, pleasure to work with, great sense of humour, tolerant to a fault. Although he did decline our invitation to go out on the lash when he came over for week's visit to the UK ;-)

Erm, there was a point to this somewhere and I've forgotten what it was now. But they're a lovely lot except for the ones who aren't. Think that was probably it, or something like it anyway.

I've thought about this a bit so I didn't just take the piss.

 America was started as a sort of artificial Nation of loads of people looking for a new life, then after some history I don't know much about, soon became independent. It's only a few hundred years old which is pretty young in terms Nations. It's sort of like the Milton Keynes of Countries. It's also quite big. And it's also pretty fucked and soon (<50 years) to be over shadowed by China in the terms of world superpowers.

Not sure how that effects my perception of the people. But that's my perception of the USA.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: That's a terrible thing to say about anywhere - by far the worst example of anti-Americanism I've ever seen. al-Jazeera got nothing on you.  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

they like high fiving

Their sitcoms are utter garbage.

Hmm, I take it you've not seen the IT crowd then? or My Family? Or anything with that bloke who used to be the thick one from Father Ted in it?

My Family is not as bad as you think.  

I think we should find out what Americans think of us, that may take this thread to a whole new level.

Nope. I was forced to watch 'Everybody loves Raymond' the other day. What a crock of unfunny shit.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Thats fucking hilarious that show.

After taking a cocktail of LSD, Windolene and a Mum roll on deodorant, I have reached the following conclusion..

It doesn't matter where you're from. Some people are good, some people are bad. Disliking people because of their nationality is insane!

Groundbreaking stuff I'm sure you'll agree.

It probably best to dislike everyone.

Agreed.

I have a latent dislike for most people.