Exploring Anti-Americanism
POSTED BY: Khyron
UPDATED: Monday, April 30, 2007 03:01
VIEWED: 18266
PAGE 4 of 23
Quote:Foolishness.
Originally posted by Causal:
Yeah...one of the guy in my class proudly sports a "Support the Iraqi Resistance" banner on his MySpace page.
Quote:Again, that wasn't the UK or the US perpertrating it, it was peeps from within their own country (wasn't it? Work is keeping me busy- my current events knowledge is a little limited past couple weeks...).
But just a couple of weeks ago, a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad market killing about that many. Where's the international outcry over that?
oh, the pain Chrisisall
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Quote:No other country in the wold has the likes of Superman, Batman, Spider-man, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four! NOW YA GOT ME ALL PATRIOTIC!!!!!
Originally posted by Causal:
Don't forget comic books!
YEAH!!!!!
Who ya gonna call, Eiffel-Tower-Man?????
That French poof!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
What ??
SignyM cites facts and you cite ---- self-hatred? Where's the connection?
That's what happens when someone is totally incapable of believing that they are anything but a perfect, shining example of what everyone else should be.
Reminds me of the parents who insist their kid is a perfect little angel, even after said little angel has rolled another kid for their lunch money.
Remember that rant about how we've divided ourselves into camps along political/ideological lines and how we don't even listen to each other any more? Yeah. That's what we're doing here.
Maybe you are....
But I think, in this issue at least, that there is merit on both sides of the argument.I don't think America is evil, or as bad as a lot make it out to be.
But we have problems, and to say that those who have a issues with America do so strictly out of bigotry is just burying one's head in the sand. We've earned at least some of the animosity toward us.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
3) What do you mean by "rank ignorance"? Most Americans are extremely insular about other places and cultures. Looking at some of our recent discussions about guns, violent crime, mental illness, incarceration rates etc it becomes very clear that most Americans think that the whole world is pretty much like America except where it's worse.
We only have two neighbors, and one of those is nearly identical to us, culture-wise (though I think they might disagree on that score). So we're not really exposed to much difference of necessity. I think I would be more upset about our ignorance if the average American went out of his way to stay ignorant. But I don't think that's the case. I think it's the case that it's harder to get an international perspective in the U.S. than in, say, Switzerland, where you can be in any one of half a dozen different countries with no more effort than half a day's train ride. In the U.S. it takes some extraordinary effort to visit another country. Heck, it takes 2+ days just to drive across Texas, let alone to another country! We're like small-town dwellers. Maybe it's true that they've never been to an opera or an art museum. But to do so, they're going to have to make an extraordinary effort (unlike a New Yorker, who can just hop on the subway). That said, if you're going to try to talk about international issues, you'd better do your homework. (And just my two cents, but given that gun control in the US is a matter of the interpretation of the US constitution, I don't know how much international perspective is required.)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
Maybe you are....
I don't think America is evil, or as bad as a lot make it out to be.
But we have problems, and to say that those who have a issues with America do so strictly out of bigotry is just burying one's head in the sand. We've earned at least some of the animosity toward us.
I agree with you on the merit-on-both-sides thing. I think what upsets me is when people stroll into a thread and say things like, "That person is just a ________________, I'm not listening to him," or "Of course you'd say that, you're just a ____________." I see a lot of that, especially in the animosity between Geezer and Rue. He pushes her buttons, she insults him, and then it goes along like that for a while. And don't neither of them listen to the other, because they've already got each other pegged as morons. And I think that it's sad that we assign people into little ideological categories and then give ourselves permission to ignore them because they're a Republican/Bush-supporter/Liberal or what have you. That's a classic genetic fallacy, with a dash of ad hominem thrown in for good measure.
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"I do like the conceit that you display in thinking you can describe all the 300 million people ..." As do you, and the author of the piece:
about the French (In their heart of hearts, many French people still believe that to be true.); about everyone not American (A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion); about intellectuals, specifically of the French persuasion (The kind of anti-Americanism fostered by French intellectuals down the centuries revolves around intense dislike of what America is - not what it does.) and even about the US (The US represents, I suppose, a set of ideas about human conduct which makes approval or disapproval of its behaviour much more important to Americans).
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"He pushes her buttons, she insults him"
Where have I insulted him? Is it an insult to point out to a person that their argument is fatally hobbled? Besides that, all I did was ask for the connection between the facts SignyM posted and Geezer's 'self-hate' repsonse. I'd consider all of this in the spirit of a debate.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
"I do like the conceit that you display in thinking you can describe all the 300 million people ..." As do you, and the author of the piece:
about the French (In their heart of hearts, many French people still believe that to be true.); about everyone not American (A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion); about intellectuals, specifically of the French persuasion (The kind of anti-Americanism fostered by French intellectuals down the centuries revolves around intense dislike of what America is - not what it does.) and even about the US (The US represents, I suppose, a set of ideas about human conduct which makes approval or disapproval of its behaviour much more important to Americans).
Not to get all overly philosophical on you, but it seems like the trouble is that one can't accurately talk about a large group of people without some amount of generalizing. The danger to that, of course, is that there will obviously always be people who don't fit the generalization. But if one doesn't engage in some degree of generalization, how can one ever talk about a large group?? It's a quandary.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
That's a classic genetic fallacy,
The transgenic in me is offended!
Oh, uh, did you mean 'generic'?
Never mind.
Dark Chrisisall
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Quote:Irish peeps fight a lot, drink a lot of beer or ale, and like potatoes. The steroetype is true, and holds FOR ALL OF THEM MICKS!!!!
Originally posted by Causal:
one can't accurately talk about a large group of people without some amount of generalizing.
I should know.
Irish Chrisisall
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