What do you think of Americans?

[sonic youth]

is arkansas part of the bible-bashing south?

[ibelieveinmrreeves]

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.

[spacey]

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.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

is arkansas part of the bible-bashing south?

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

[pumbaa]

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.

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

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 . 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.

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?

[pumbaa]

is arkansas part of the bible-bashing south?

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

[axs]

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.

[millom red]

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).

 :goodpost:
Says it all realy

[pauld]

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.

[flammableBen]

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.

[pauld]

It's sort of like the Milton Keynes of Countries. It's also quite big.

  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.  

[Whits]

they like high fiving

[Bob's Orange]

Their sitcoms are utter garbage.

[pauld]

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?

[janaage]

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.