Views on America
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It's getting harder to find someone to vote for here too- but the scenarios are not as drastic!
Before Santorum pulled out, I'd offered my living room to a handful of friends. I couldn't make them stay in a country with him at the helm!
There isn't much choice anywhere right now. I figure you just have to go for the 'Not Crazy' one.
And here in the UK, you don't vote for some one that looks like Wallace (from Wallace and Gromit)0 -
No hard feelings over here :P I want to visit America some day!
Ditto
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I like shopping in the states does that count?0
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Let's just say that an Ethiopian line taxi will comfortably seat fifteen Ethiopians, but would struggle to seat ten Americans.0
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absolutely love Oregon, good friends there and I have found the people I have met very friendly and helpful.
on a side issue I believe Matt Groening has revealed where he based Simpsons Springfield.
Springfield Oregon :happy:0 -
Personaly I want to live in America - I want to do loads more research though so i know where best to go! One thing I dont like no NHS there
xxx 0 -
I have a lot of friends in America. I love them to bits. As individuals they're amazing women.
But, err... (damn it, I hope I don't offend anyone right now) monitoring your political situation scares me so bad. Religion has no place in politics and I'm fortunate to live in a country which has separated Church and State.
I just can't get over that you don't have Universal Healthcare.
I can't get over the abortion bill in Virginia.
I can't get over the fact that the bill to allow employers to pick and choose what healthcare to cover only marginally got kicked out (we're talking like 4 votes between them).
I can't get over the fact that someone like Rick Sanitorium could run for president and spread his hateful views on gays, coloured people and women, and name it all as a religious virtue.
And although I love Barack Obama, I can't get over the fact that your President acts more like a celebrity than he does as a ruler of a country.
But your people. I love your people. For the most part. Everywhere has bad eggs. Just your politics I cannot abide.
This! There are lots of individual Americans who are lovely, but the system itself just seems so messed up.
As someone from a "1st world" country, it actually seems completely barbaric that you have to pay for health care in America. I have never in my life met anyone that thinks paying for healthcare is a good thing. In Scotland, and presumably the rest of Britain, the NHS (national health service) is one of our most valuable things.
Also, the guns thing, that is **** scary. I'd never seen a gun in my life till I went on a school strip to the American embassy in London, and it terrified me, can't imagine living somewhere where the police all carry guns and people can actually buy them legally.
And the uber religion - Americans always seem to be terrified of the dangers of fundamentalist Islam yada yada, but don't seem to realise that fundamentalist Christians probably do more harm - as far as I'm aware, the muslim religion doesn't affect laws on a daily basis.
I never met a racist person until I was 16/17, I have yet to this day meet a real homophobic person (beyond ewwww that's gross in highschool), and yes our laws (at least in Scotland, I understand it's more entwined in England) are LAW and not RELIGION. The religious argument has no place in politics.
I think the reason America is so internationally disliked is that it always seems so "big headed", marching into national affairs and acting like king of the world, when it's still internationally regarded as er "stupid". Again, not individual americans, but the stereotype of the dumb american is still very very much alive, and I dunno why, if it's the system, or if it's the steady stream of "only in America" stories (ie people suing mcdonalds for getting fat etc).
It's like, I get it, you're uber capitalists, but you need to find the balance between socialism (GASP! OMG I SAID IT!) and capitalism - when you have people in the ghetto starving and turning to real proper dirty crime for money, or people literally dying of illnesses because they can't afford health insurance, the capitalism has gone too far. If you want your world where you can chase your dreams and become rich, you need to understand it is not possible for EVERYONE to do this - there will always be waiters and street sweepers and people on minimum wage with no health benefits - and to have a truly complete society you need to take care of these people.
Massive rant there, I just have quite strong views, and I wanted to put them carefully so I didn't offend any of the good Americanos :P
And finally, my biggest issue with America... THE PHRASE IS COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T! COULDN'T!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw 0 -
Religion has no place in politics and I'm fortunate to live in a country which has separated Church and State.
I just can't get over that you don't have Universal Healthcare.
I can't get over the abortion bill in Virginia.
I can't get over the fact that the bill to allow employers to pick and choose what healthcare to cover only marginally got kicked out (we're talking like 4 votes between them).
I can't get over the fact that someone like Rick Sanitorium could run for president and spread his hateful views on gays, coloured people and women, and name it all as a religious virtue.
And although I love Barack Obama, I can't get over the fact that your President acts more like a celebrity than he does as a ruler of a country.
But your people. I love your people. For the most part. Everywhere has bad eggs. Just your politics I cannot abide.
Absolutely 100% agree with this - as an outsider, they just make me shake my head and think "what on earth are you doing? What happened to progressive society?". Oh - and guns - but i'm happy to agree to disagree, I know it's a sore subject
for a country that is supposedly secular, politics seems to be influenced by religion in scary amounts!
I am from the UK, and we are not secular - but religion has by and large been separated from politics. Which I am exceptionally grateful for, based on the stuff I see coming out of the US.
The US appears to me to have a much bigger consumerist culture (I have visited a few times and am always blown away by the immense amounts of advertising) and I am amazed at how much more 'processed' everything seems to be. But aside from this outside impressions on the culture, the people i've met have always been lovely Apart from one guy who would be quite accurately described as an overly patriotic arrogant jerk, but you get those everywhere
Edit: Person above me has just written everything a lot better than me - and I agree with her too :happy: Also, the whole Israel/Palestine thing - not good. It appears from the outside that the US just unilaterally supports Israel in everything, despite the fact they are clearly doing so much wrong to so many people. Maybe they don't always support them, but that's how it seems. I don't think I could live in the US - but I do love visiting it and I don't think I know anybody who actively 'hates' America.0 -
our craft and microbrew beer has gotten better. unfortunatly, people still think all we do is drink coors light and budweiser. i won't touch that stuff.
Here in the UK, Bud is seen as *the* American beer; my ex-boss, an American, put me straight on that!
People assume we Brits are polite, but last summer I had the greatest time in Southern California; people were so friendly and helpful to us as tourists - not just workers, but passers-by. I live near Oxford, a popular tourist destination in the UK, but you just wouldn't get locals here going out of their way to welcome visitors the way the Californians did.
So the bad rap you get is unjustified, and from an international point of view may be down to the previous administration's foreign policies. :noway:
So, I've *never* met an unfriendly American. (Not been to New York yet, tho ) 0 -
I have a lot of friends in America. I love them to bits. As individuals they're amazing women.
But, err... (damn it, I hope I don't offend anyone right now) monitoring your political situation scares me so bad. Religion has no place in politics and I'm fortunate to live in a country which has separated Church and State.
I just can't get over that you don't have Universal Healthcare.
I can't get over the abortion bill in Virginia.
I can't get over the fact that the bill to allow employers to pick and choose what healthcare to cover only marginally got kicked out (we're talking like 4 votes between them).
I can't get over the fact that someone like Rick Sanitorium could run for president and spread his hateful views on gays, coloured people and women, and name it all as a religious virtue.
And although I love Barack Obama, I can't get over the fact that your President acts more like a celebrity than he does as a ruler of a country.
But your people. I love your people. For the most part. Everywhere has bad eggs. Just your politics I cannot abide.
The politics has gotten out of control, but unfortunately that's what citizens of other countries see and that's what effects the way we interact with foreign countries, so for the OP, that can be part of the problem with other countries looking at us like "What are you doing over there?" I won't say hate.. but I know my friends in New Zealand are like "Yeah.. you guys just need to come here and get away from all that insanity"..
We supposedly do have separation of Church and State..... *sigh* In theory....... In practice... Not so much. I guess the point is, the Church or a church or any church doesn't run the country. But if a highly religious person and we have plenty of them, reaches office, then they are free to push that onto the american public.
I recently re register to vote and placed myself as unaffiliated. I can't side with the Republicans anymore, but I can't fully support the Democrats either, so now I am neither. Even when I was Republican I voted split ticket, some R, some D depending on how I felt the job would get done. My views lean towards Libertarianism, but I decided to just go unaffiliated.
I get the Obama celebrity thing, but I dont think it's his fault. I think the public made him that celebrity, as the first Afro-American president, and he is going to embrace that. He's a polititcian.. if the people love him he's gonna milk it for all it's worth, so if the people want him to be the "people's president" and walk around no tie, sleeves rolled up, shaking hands at a manufacturing plant, he's gonna do that. I assumed there was no way Obama would get re-elected.. but the Republicans can't get out of their own way! Ah well....
Enough about this, it's starting to stray off topic... but this is what other people see, so I can get the OP's point.0 -
I live near Oxford, a popular tourist destination in the UK, but you just wouldn't get locals here going out of their way to welcome visitors the way the Californians did.
The difference between the North and the South here in the UK, in terms of attitude is noticeable too. I'm from the North (in a town in between Hull and Lincoln), and people, for the most part, are so friendly. People will stand up on a bus for an elderly lady or a pregnant woman. If you ask someone for the time, they don't just walk past you and ignore you. Just silly little things like that.
I went to London last week for research. Sprained my ankle, falling down the tube station stairs. It ballooned. I had to stand up for the 30 minute journey from Victoria to Kew. People saw me struggling, and not a single person thought it'd be appropriate to stand up.
That's just my observation though 0 -
I'm Australian, and I have quite a few American friends (irl)... I love them, they are beautiful, smart, funny, and always awesome fun to go out with!
And I'm not going to make any generalizations about the whole of America, as anything I would say would pretty much be just a few stereotypes of what some people think about Americans, and is not generally true. Like 'all Australians do is drink pi**' which is only kinda true haha!
Thank you for not putting us all in a stero type.0 -
In my experience there is both good and bad in America, and like anywhere you get really nice people and horrible people. I could write many points, but the big ones that spring to mind right now:
GOOD
Love the amount of space available in most places.
Lots of products are relatively cheap - gym equipment, clothing, cars etc
BAD
Healthcare can be a nightmare, sad that (not all but many) people think that poor people are there through their own fault and deserve no coverage etc...
Work culture is like slavery (high paid slavery) the hours expected from people are immense and the amount of vacation time is minimal. Employees have minimal rights.
Blind patriotism - There is a lot of good stuff that is American, but sometimes others do it better, it's ok to admit this, but yet there are a fair few people who believe America is best at everything. This also leads to the same people perhaps having a blinkered view of the world.
Food - processed crap is everywhere, cheap and in large portions, proper food is much harder to come by and more expensive.0 -
I live near Oxford, a popular tourist destination in the UK, but you just wouldn't get locals here going out of their way to welcome visitors the way the Californians did.
The difference between the North and the South here in the UK, in terms of attitude is noticeable too. I'm from the North (in a town in between Hull and Lincoln), and people, for the most part, are so friendly. People will stand up on a bus for an elderly lady or a pregnant woman. If you ask someone for the time, they don't just walk past you and ignore you. Just silly little things like that.
I went to London last week for research. Sprained my ankle, falling down the tube station stairs. It ballooned. I had to stand up for the 30 minute journey from Victoria to Kew. People saw me struggling, and not a single person thought it'd be appropriate to stand up.
That's just my observation though
No, this is my observation too. I had a graphics teacher who came from Grimsby, he had a real culture shock in Oxford. I personally try to be a friendly, outgoing southerner; I get some surprised looks! (Sometimes people are pleasantly surprised, sometimes suspicious. It's weird!)
PS - Sorry you had a bad experience in London. :frown:0 -
The US is the best idea this planet ever had.0
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The US is the best idea this planet ever had.
That was a comedy ironic post in response to mine, right?0 -
I live in America and I think there are a lot of things we can improve on (don't get me started). That being said, I do like living here. I know I am lucky to live in a country like this and I would never complain about it. However, I would also love to try living in a different country sometime. I've always kind of wanted to move to Canada. Or England...
Every country has it's own problems but I wouldn't mind getting away from ours for a while 0 -
Monitoring our politics scares us too! Your right about the universal health care thing. What's up with that?I have a lot of friends in America. I love them to bits. As individuals they're amazing women.
But, err... (damn it, I hope I don't offend anyone right now) monitoring your political situation scares me so bad. Religion has no place in politics and I'm fortunate to live in a country which has separated Church and State.
I just can't get over that you don't have Universal Healthcare.
I can't get over the abortion bill in Virginia.
I can't get over the fact that the bill to allow employers to pick and choose what healthcare to cover only marginally got kicked out (we're talking like 4 votes between them).
I can't get over the fact that someone like Rick Sanitorium could run for president and spread his hateful views on gays, coloured people and women, and name it all as a religious virtue.
And although I love Barack Obama, I can't get over the fact that your President acts more like a celebrity than he does as a ruler of a country.
But your people. I love your people. For the most part. Everywhere has bad eggs. Just your politics I cannot abide.0 -
I'm an American living in the Netherlands (for the last 8 years actually). I also lived in Wales for a short time in 2004. The world doesn't hate America. Sure, they don't love us as much as we love ourselves but I have yet to run into somebody who just hates the entire country as a whole, and I'm sure anybody who would, has a very skewed idea of what it is to be an American. An individual is not the government (which is what people tend to dislike). An individual is not the military. Even within my family and group of friends back "home" we are so diverse in every aspect of our lives, from religion, to race, to work ethic... you cannot just lump any group together and say "this is how you all are". That's just ignorance.
That said, now that I have lived in a socialistic country I have a very hard time seeing myself living in an uber-conservative America anytime in the near future. The worries I had over healthcare (can I afford it, will it be "covered", how much is my deductible, the list goes on) back "home" don't exist here (granted the NL is 1/47th the size of the US, which people tend for forget when comparing systems). I have heard Dutch people call America a first world country functioning in third world way, due to the horrible healthcare issues and they truely are an atrocity.
The work/life balance here is a huge improvement over the American way (I worked in the American system from age 16 to 27). I work hard just like I did in the US but I get fairly compensated in both salary and vacation time (5 weeks a year from the start of when I work, not something I have to build up and this is for everybody, from fast food workers to CEO's) and the mentality around work is different. You work to live, not vice versa. It was a big adjustment for me in the beginning, truely.
In the Netherlands we pay some of the highest taxes in Europe (and you can't really compare "europe" as a whole, it's made of up very different countries and cultures) but many of our tax monies go to social programs that help everybody. For example when you have a child you get a quarterly "allowance" for that child from the government. You can't live off of it (not even for a week) but it's something, you know? We usually buy my daughter clothing for the next season when we get her allowance and put a chunk in the bank for her.
I've also had almost every single foreign person that I know who has visited the US, say that, no matter what city they visited, Americans are some of the friendliest people they have ever encountered. Our customer service is superior to most places and just hospitality in general is above the call of duty.
So yeah, America, it's nice and great and I love going home to visit but I'm not as blind as I used to be. When you've never lived anywhere else, I can see how you can say "it's the greatest place ever and I would never live anywhere else" but it's just because of that fact in itself, you've never lived anywhere else and tend to think that what you have is as good as it can be. It doesn't mean you don't love your country and it's people when you live elsewhere.
p.s. I am now both an American and Dutch citizen and hold two passports.0 -
Blind patriotism - There is a lot of good stuff that is American, but sometimes others do it better, it's ok to admit this, but yet there are a fair few people who believe America is best at everything. This also leads to the same people perhaps having a blinkered view of the world.
THIS. This is maybe my least favorite thing about living here. So many people are like THIS IS AMURICA EVERYTHING WE DO IS RIGHT. Um, no it's not. It's fine to look to other countries for examples of how we could improve! After all, we often expect other countries to look to us for the same reason 0
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