My heart goes out to the rest of the world....
POSTED BY: kaneman
UPDATED: Monday, July 5, 2010 19:20
VIEWED: 3584
PAGE 3 of 5
Good things about America:
Optimism, patriotism, entrepeneurial spirit, work ethic, melting pot, a culture that gave us the Simpsons.
Bad things about America:
Partisan + reactionary/demagogic politics, insularity, social problems, a culture that gave us the Simpsons...
'American freedom' - that appeal is still lost on me (a bit like Miss Kaneman's 'land of milk and honey' argument). If I was to transplant my life from Europe to the USA, how would my life be different? I guess I would feel some invisible weight off my shoulders, some scales would fall from my eyes, I would be able to see new colours I'd never seen before, or some such...?
Heads should roll
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Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Magons
The map is missing India, they solve our computer problems.
It's also missing Africa. Maybe that was intentional, but really Americans know a fair amount about African, and not just the portion who are African Americans. I think you want to put something here like people are in trouble here.
You also left out the UK, ironically. I think that they fit into the american consciousness, as does Israel " allies.." also, you might want to add in the BP oil spill, that being about the same size as England ;)
ETA: John has a point.
I didn't create the map. I don't have that much time or energy to be thinking about such things.
Here's another that might suit you better.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Good things about America:
Optimism, patriotism, entrepeneurial spirit, work ethic, melting pot, a culture that gave us the Simpsons.
Heads should roll
'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundral.'
If you want to see how much patriotism sucks, view it in another culture. It looks kind of scary at times, everyone shouting how great they are and so on. Pride in one's country is a good thing, but patriotism has been tainted for me. It's a term that people bandy about when they want others to tow the line or they want to get elected.
What I admire about America is the optimism and the 'can do' culture, although I see it in Canadians as well, so I tend to think of it as a North American trait.
Work ethic...hell I think we should all work less. Wasn't that what the technological age suppose to bring us? What a load of rubbish then.
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Oh, and America gave the world Firefly - for that I salute you all.
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It warms my heart to see that some things never really change. Thankee kindly, Kane, for once again stirring up the hornets nest.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Magons
The map is missing India, they solve our computer problems.
It's also missing Africa. Maybe that was intentional, but really Americans know a fair amount about African, and not just the portion who are African Americans. I think you want to put something here like people are in trouble here.
You also left out the UK, ironically. I think that they fit into the american consciousness, as does Israel " allies.." also, you might want to add in the BP oil spill, that being about the same size as England ;)
ETA: John has a point.
I didn't create the map. I don't have that much time or energy to be thinking about such things.
Here's another that might suit you better.
I know you did not make this map, but for the record...America gives more monetary/humanitarian aid to Africa than the rest of the world combined. So showing it as an empty space is wrong. It should say "where our basketball players come from"......
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So you dont find it funny then?
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I think Steinberg's Ninth Avenue map displays this more accurately. Given that our media is NY based there's a lot of this
This is a pretty classic one. I suspect all the Americans have seen it before, but it just occurred to me that Europe actually does not register on the map, except for Russia. I think that's accurate and should be noted. Of course, it's a media world view, not a personal one.
To somewhere around 13% of Americans, of African descent, Africa is pretty big. But also, it does tend to always be in the news here. Usually as a place of human suffering. This is probably a good part of why americans donate so much to Africa.
All americans know where India is, and there are Indian restaurants all over the place. The same could be said of Italy.
Japan and the bomb is a European view, not an american one. It's strange how often the war will come up in a conversation about Germany, and how not with Japan, with whom we fought much more of a war. But Americans never think about the war with Japan, there is far too much Japanese influence post 1945, to the point where Japan has a curious exalted status: buying Japanese is almost like buying american. It might be obvious that anime fans are big on japan, but less so that the NASCAR crowd and rednecks are, or the computer geeks, all for different reasons. They you have the serious nippophiles who take karate and eat miso and have the or own shoji screens.
Thing is that was easy. Making a similar run down on china would also be easy, but how much can I say about brazil?
Canada has a huge impact here, but not a very visible one. People tend not to know when things are canadian, so indefinitely creates the effect that Mexico has more of an impact.
All of this says a lot more about other countries and the degree to which they penetrate the consciousness of America, which largely means through food, media or manufactured goods, than it says about america.
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Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
Hell, I am American, and I hated America until Obama was elected.
You and Michelle Obama got 1 thing in common, at least.
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
Hell, I am American, and I hated America until Obama was elected.
You and Michelle Obama got 1 thing in common, at least.
Could not have said it better....*tip of the hat*
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