Does America wonder WHY?

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Lucky

Lifer
Nov 26, 2000
13,126
3
0
Originally posted by: BennyD
whao whao whao, where did blame come into it?

i mean if there was a tragedy here, and thousands of people died, it would spend about 10 minutes on the news, only to be overtaken with stories of a man hit by a car in america



So your media sucks, how is that our fault? Maybe that's indicative of how important your media thinks america is.
 

loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
1
81
Originally posted by: BennyD
whao whao whao, where did blame come into it?

i mean if there was a tragedy here, and thousands of people died, it would spend about 10 minutes on the news, only to be overtaken with stories of a man hit by a car in america
That is so exaggerated it is as good as a lie. And once again, why is this our fault? Oh and what about Princess Di? We had to hear about her death for ages, overshadowing the death of Mother Teresa, even!
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: AnthraX101
They are also envy our freedom. The rare one also feels we are being oppressed by a tyranical government. :)

AnthraX101

They don't envy our freedom, they find it immoral.
They interpret the teachings of Mohammed as saying that it is immoral to allow your neighbors to commit sin, much like how many "Fundamentalist Christians" also interpret the teachings of Moses in the same fashion while ignoring the teachings of Jesus which state to the contrary.

 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
We had to hear about her death for ages, overshadowing the death of Mother Teresa, even!
Mother who? Wasn't she one of those Hip Hop Wenches who died in a plane crash?
 

bmd

Golden Member
Feb 17, 2001
1,043
0
0
Originally posted by: BennyD
whao whao whao, where did blame come into it?

i mean if there was a tragedy here, and thousands of people died, it would spend about 10 minutes on the news, only to be overtaken with stories of a man hit by a car in america
Somehow I seriously doubt that. If someone flew planes into / blew up the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and a couple huge office buildings in Europe killing thousands, I'm sure the American media would be all over it.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
They don't envy our freedom, they find it immoral.
Well I find their hygiene disgusting but I'm not going to fly a plane into one of their Mosques
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Originally posted by: BennyD
Seriously, if the US of A isn't the most important, what country is?

yes, you need attention, but i'm talking about much deeper issues.

eg. i watched the olympics last time i was in america, and whenever another country came higher than the highest american, they did not show the awarding of the medal.

i was quite confused by this and i phoned someone from the network and they said that showing another country winning gold would anger too many people in america.

that is the attitude i am talking about, it has been engineered by the american govornment and tv networks, and now everyone is too sensative for anything to be done about it.

also, america's dead are concidered more important than any others.
surely that is going too far.

You may want to do a search on this board before making that statement about the Olympics. There were a lot of us that were posting with regards to NBC's Olympic coverage regarding that very issue. I have never heard one of my countrymen express any outrage regarding showing other countries medal ceremonies. Perhaps the person you spoke with at the network was an ass and not really a true representative of a country of 280,000,000 people. I certainly know better than to judge England based on a few obnoxious posts on this board.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
If someone flew planes into / blew up the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and a couple huge office buildings in Europe killing thousands, I'm sure the American media would be all over it.
Not to mention the American Public demanding that our government and our military help the Euros punish the cowards who were behind it.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
They don't envy our freedom, they find it immoral.
Well I find their hygiene disgusting but I'm not going to fly a plane into one of their Mosques
Entirely different issue unless you're defending hygiene for God. :p

Seriously though, some people believe they "envy" our freedom. That's an appealing but very inaccurate view. If they envied our freedom, they would want some for themselves instead of trying to destroy it, don't ya think? No, they see freedom as an evil. They are so misguided in their concepts of God that they believe the permission of free will to be a sin in and of itself, despite their own scripture to the contrary.
 

Parrotheader

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 1999
3,434
2
0
I don't care nor have time to get drawn into yet ANOTHER one of these threads (this exact same topic pops up almost every day.) People can cite whatever political and socioeconomic differences they want as a major reason for this perceived growing anti-Americanism. That's fine. That's been discussed too much already as it?s covered so heavily in the major media of all nations.

At the end of the day though, talking head new bites for the masses aside, the biggest reason that all of my foreign friends cite for most of this anti-American sentiment comes from people who hate to see American pop culture creeping into their countries. This perceived subjugation of their own country?s culture by American pop culture understandably irritates a lot of people. They see it increasingly on a day-to-day basis and it gets under some people?s skin after awhile. But in a lot of instances, America is not trying to force feed its culture down anybody?s throats. It just so happens that a lot of people from other countries, particularly younger people who are growing up in a smaller world thanks to modern communications and technology, happen to like staples of American culture. In fact, while the news and media might rail against American policies and polls might show popular disfavor of Americans and/or the country?s politics, a lot of these same countries continue to absorb and adopt large snippets of American culture with open arms. It seems their brains might not find favor with some of our country?s actions, but their hearts seem to love what America has to offer.

I know it?s not as simple as that. But nobody ever seems to give the seemingly smaller things like this the weighting it deserves. I personally understand why somebody would hate to see another culture creeping in on their own. That?s one of the biggest problems facing the Middle East right now. But at the same time, I?m not going to apologize for the popularity of my freedom-loving culture as it might very well be the common link that one day helps us all get along a little bit better.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
the biggest reason that all of my foreign friends cite for most of this anti-American sentiment comes from people who hate to see American pop culture creeping into their countries.
Now that I can understand. Hell I'm American and NStink, Britney Spears, Eminem and Christopher Lowell piss me off!:)
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,931
6,793
126
You have to understand that American males are under a lot of pressure and a good way for them relieve that stress is to sound off about how wonderful American women are making Her. The men are being bumped off center stage, and so those whe can see their grip on the reigns of power slipping need to start a mens sport of some kind to reinflate their sense of importance. War and agression and boasting are the obvious choices and voila. But confident Americans even American males who have adapted to the changes, unlike their American Taliban single counterparts, and have formed stable and compatably equal relationships with women, aren't like that. They realize that America is a great place, systemically so, and that much of it's success in the world isn't really a matter of superior people, although we can build good solid, and maybe even superior winning attitude here, which does contribute mightily to superior people at least in terms of how they perform, but we also have built a structure in which that attitude can succeed. There are places in the world, multitudes of them, where the best of attitude and talent can garner only meager rewards because there is no viable channels in which to direct positive energy.

So the fact is that everybody loves what is good about America and would like that to be the way it is where they live, and nobody wants or likes what is wrong with America which is plenty.

It is, therefore, a pity that ideas and real dialogue on these matters can't take place, even here on this board, without everybodies inferiority complexes comming out and turning everything into a contest of nationalities, my country is better than your country. I don't think there is a country in the world that doesn't have its great points and its bad points. There is one truism that remains glaringly obvious to me, that everybody all over the planet feels absolutly worthless, doesn't know it and doesn't want to know it. War and agressive conflicts of all kinds are nothing more than an attempt to keep that realization at bay while at the same time trying to afix, as the cause for those feelings, some other guy. Nobody brags or boasts about anything unless he's hiding his feelings of inferiority. Everybody, even instinctively, realizes that when you feel good you are generous and giving. So my fellow world citizens, learn to love yourselves.

We are all the same.
 

UltraQuiet

Banned
Sep 22, 2001
5,755
0
0
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
You have to understand that American males are under a lot of pressure and a good way for them relieve that stress is to sound off about how wonderful American women are making Her. The men are being bumped off center stage, and so those whe can see their grip on the reigns of power slipping need to start a mens sport of some kind to reinflate their sense of importance. War and agression and boasting are the obvious choices and voila. But confident Americans even American males who have adapted to the changes, unlike their American Taliban single counterparts, and have formed stable and compatably equal relationships with women, aren't like that. They realize that America is a great place, systemically so, and that much of it's success in the world isn't really a matter of superior people, although we can build good solid, and maybe even superior winning attitude here, which does contribute mightily to superior people at least in terms of how they perform, but we also have built a structure in which that attitude can succeed. There are places in the world, multitudes of them, where the best of attitude and talent can garner only meager rewards because there is no viable channels in which to direct positive energy.

So the fact is that everybody loves what is good about America and would like that to be the way it is where they live, and nobody wants or likes what is wrong with America which is plenty.

It is, therefore, a pity that ideas and real dialogue on these matters can't take place, even here on this board, without everybodies inferiority complexes comming out and turning everything into a contest of nationalities, my country is better than your country. I don't think there is a country in the world that doesn't have its great points and its bad points. There is one truism that remains glaringly obvious to me, that everybody all over the planet feels absolutly worthless, doesn't know it and doesn't want to know it. War and agressive conflicts of all kinds are nothing more than an attempt to keep that realization at bay while at the same time trying to afix, as the cause for those feelings, some other guy. Nobody brags or boasts about anything unless he's hiding his feelings of inferiority. Everybody, even instinctively, realizes that when you feel good you are generous and giving. So my fellow world citizens, learn to love yourselves.

We are all the same.

Take off your shoes. It's time.

 

Ryan

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
27,519
2
81
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Europe MADE America. Where did most Americans come frm originally? Europe, European settlers. You are descended from Europeans mainly. I am European and wish this wasn't true, as I am happy being fairly healthy, thin, having the confidence to walk down a street, or go into school without worrying that someone may pull a gun out and start shooting people. I am happy we have out "bad tasting" food, because at least it's more healthy than American junk (crap) food. The only thing I am envious of from my side of the Atlantic, is the abscence of Tim Hortons donuts, and they're in Canada anyway. I personally am thankful for relatively free healthcare, and a good education system, especially because it teaches me how to spell words like humour, armour and colour, and would allow me to be taught the word niggardly without risk of my teacher being sacked from teaching. And at least we have proper English as our language rather than American English, I mean, what the hell is that? If it's English, let it be English, if not call it some other crappy name which is indicative of its links to America, like Fatish.

I'm glad that I have perfect, WHITE teeth, and I'm glad that my girlfriend shaves her body hair.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
Take off your shoes. It's time.
Don't tell me you actually read that whole thing. I usually get to the second sentence of one of Mooni4es p0osts and I feel like I'm having a bad acid flashback from my days as a Hippie in the early 70's.
 

BennyD

Banned
Sep 1, 2002
2,068
0
0
why does everyone think that i am blaming americans?
blaming them for what?
i don't think it's any one persons/peoples fault
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
So in conclusion, The world hates Americans because of Martha Stewart and Christopher Lowell. Can't argue with reasoning like that!
 

cmdavid

Diamond Member
May 23, 2001
4,114
0
0
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
If someone flew planes into / blew up the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and a couple huge office buildings in Europe killing thousands, I'm sure the American media would be all over it.
Not to mention the American Public demanding that our government and our military help the Euros punish the cowards who were behind it.

exactly... i know well that if any country which is a friend of ours or even gives the US any respect were to experience any kind of tragedy like the US did on september 11th that we (the US) would be the first people to help that country out... we'd also be the first country that country came to for help if they wanted to go to war...
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,931
6,793
126
DaveShomer Quote: Take off your shoes. It's time
------------------------------------------------

You see, my European and International friends, in America, you never know when you will be purged. :D
 

Extrarius

Senior member
Jul 8, 2001
259
0
0
Two Things:

1) I hate it that everybody calls the 'terrorist nations' Islamic. Sure, many if not most of the common people are Muslims, but the people in charge of the terrorism are no more Islamic than they are Catholic. They might call themselves Islamic, but they do so in fallacy.

2) After reading this thread, I've decided that I'm ashamed to belong to the human species. It seems to me that, in general, a randomly chosen (non-human) animals has a good chance to have more intelligence than a randomly chosen human. There are, of course, some extremely intelligent humans, but there is a much, much, much larger percentage of morons.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,931
6,793
126
Jesus, Red, You remember the seventies. Everybody I know that old doesn't remember a thing.
 

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Europeans can say what they want about America and Her culture. The POPULARITY of HOLLYWOOD proves entirely and simply the WORLDS infatuation with America.

It also proves that MOST anti-americanism is JEALOUSY.

you notice i didn't have to use the most powerful, most important, richest nation on earth, most natural resources argument here at all, even tho they are all true. :)
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,860
6,396
126
Originally posted by: atrowe
Originally posted by: BennyD
r u joking?

me....not know sarcasm......but i'm british :p

but seriously, if u think that is sarcastic humour, i feel sorry for you.


You spelled humor wrong.

Umm ,no, you spelled "humour" wrong. :D