Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonlitSunshine
@Big3:
We get these broadcasts of people making ridiculously bigoted and self-obsessed comments, and we get broadcasts from Television Networks like Fox News which, while I realise many people think is a joke, is still on the air. We can't help having a rather negative view of a country that seems to revel, on a national scale, in its lack of knowledge and understanding of other communities. And I truly do apologise and feel sorry for those of you who don't, because you have to deal with that **** and the consequences first hand. I also apologise if I lash out with exaggerations, but sometimes it's hard not to get frustrated when some of those you are arguing with seem dead set on solidifying this negative image.
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Then I'd worry about having a Fox News of your own. If those are the only images you see of us, I'd almost be inclined to ask if what sells on the Irish News is Anti-American sentiment. As for Fox, they've been under extreme pressure since 2005 and are being forced, due to a failure of sponsorship, to be more reasonable. What passives for Conservatism these days has driven itself off of the rails for
A. Fear of a black man &
B. Morons pandering to that fear, without actually having it. Sounds odd, but they've out crazied all but the fringiest outliers and have dismissed most of the middle of the American political spectrum. All because they don't know what the real concerns of these people are (as unfounded as they are).
America has a lot more virtue than anyone really gives us. Americans, as a group, might not know a whole lot about other cultures, but I don't think its fashionable to make wild, stereotypical assumptions about other groups anymore. I don't feel we're often returned the same courtesy. We also don't have a culture. An American isn't as easily identifiable as say, a Frenchman, or a German. This is one of the reasons its easier to have stereotypes about us. As a nation, we're generally anti-unification. Blame England, or Hitler, or our political system, but Massachusetts isn't the same as Georgia, or Oregon, or Arizona.
In our early days, guys like Thomas Jefferson said phrases like "My country" and meant Virginia. Even though we don't say that anymore, we still conduct business that way. Phrases like "Real America" or "Where I come from" still show massive fault lines in the American psyche and landscape. We're as distant a people as one Federal System has ever seen.
All I ask is that its kept in mind when discussing "Americans."