Those Stupid Americans…
I was reminded the other day of how hated we Americans are. An admittedly stupid website was reporting that Pippi Longstocking is a Satanic character, and the visiting Swedes (Sweden being the country of Pippi’s origin) let their opinions fly:
- Another stupid American; the world is full of them!
- You’re probably a stupid American áššhølë!
- I wipe my ášš with the American flag and spit in your face.
Being an American myself, I was curious as the sentiment of others. So I decided to find some additional opinions by searching the Internet with Google, spelling (or lack thereof) intact:
- “The only thing Americans can teach is how to corrupt countries and take their money. All Americans are is greety báštárdš.” - I think countries have been corrupting themselves for centuries without the help of the United States. Also, most people worldwide work hard to better themselves and provide as much as possible for their families. Americans included.
- “[The] US is the laughing stock of the world. American cars suck, American people are stupid, fat and ignorant, your technology sucks.” - Yes, spoken out of prejudice and ignorance, Americans can be conceived as being the laughing stock of the world. So would whichever country happens to be in the economic and military lead at the time. Some American cars do suck, but the Yugo hasn’t won too many awards that I’m aware of. Oddly, the fantasy car of choice when I lived in Germany as a child was a Pontiac. Yes, some Americans are stupid, fat and ignorant. So are some members of any other country in the world. If Microsoft products are a measurement of our technology, then, yes, it sucks. But I haven’t seen any other countries that provide the number of major innovations that have stemmed from America in the last hundred years.
- “Americans are full of šhìt. ignorant, yet stuppied people. they are bvery norrow minded and veyr materiolistic.” - I already agreed that sum Amurikanz ar bvery stuppied. But not all — the first spell checking software was invented at UC Berkeley in 1972 by an American.
- “You have a handful of smart and educated people who drive the country, and then you have this humongous blob of utterly clueless people who are hardly able to make a living.” - Can’t really argue with that. But the same can be said for just about every other nation in the world.
- “You are all non-sensical inbred morons.” - Actually I don’t personally know anyone who can be accused of resulting from inbreeding, although it may be common in certain areas of the country such as Tennessee (pronounced “Ken-tuck-ee”, if you’re from Tennesee). You think inbreeding didn’t occur within the European and Asian royals of the past?
- “Americans are generally loud and stupid.” - Yeah, I hate American tourists, too. Again, I’d qualify that as “some”, rather than generalizing the population as a whole.
- “U.S.A is the biggest šhìt hole.” - Seems that lots of people on the Internet are calling every other country on the planet the “biggest šhìt hole”, too, based on results from Google. I say we just all take a vote and decide once and for all. After all, that is the democratic way.
- “I thank God that I’m not a stupid ášš-fûçkìng American.” - I’m glad I’m not a stupid ášš-fûçkìng American, too! I’m just a plain American of average intelligence, eking out a living, trying to live my dreams.
I’d rather be considered a stupid American than have to resort to pointless name-calling in a vain attempt to gain national stature. I am hardly a Bible-toting born-again Christian, but I find it difficult to disagree with: “The proud and haughty man, ’scoffer’ is his name; He works in the arrogance of pride… When pride comes, then comes shame, But with humility comes wisdom.”
If I pick apart the above sentence structure, I am lead to believe that Stephen is asserting that a person being a typical American leads to the forgone conclusion of that person being stupid. I started to call myself a typical American, and then realized that I have no idea what a typical American is. Perhaps I am not a typical American after all. I cannot even justifiably qualify myself as a typical Californian, or a typical San Josean, let alone put myself in the unenviable position of representing an entire country. I think it is inappropriate to judge a body of diverse people based on a single person, or even the perception of an average person. Perhaps Iraqis should be judged by the actions of Saddam Hussein, or Afghanis and Saudis by members of al Queda? - RDL
(No, I didn’t read all those comments first, so forgive me if I’m repeating…)
About Pippi; I myself am a young (20yo) Finnish student and though I didn’t spend my childhood reading Pippi, I know some other books written by Lindgren and also the theme behind Pippi. There is no reasonable way someone could in any way call Lindgren a satanist or Pippi as the antichrist. For one reason, Pippi’s names are different in swedish. Maybe the writer of that page got too scared of Pippi’s strong nature and independency? Or maybe he’s just a over-enthusiastic Christian…
September 11: Of course it was a terrible act and it had a tremendous impact on US, but did it really touch other countries? At least in Finland, it was all over the papers; Attack against the Western civilization (and I do think that Finland is a western country), a declare for war… And from what I’ve heard, major part of the Americans asked “Why us?” Now… Is that something you really have to ask? Since the dawn of United States, you have been meddling with things that actually don’t concern you. Just because you dominate world trades, technology, every day consuming, movie markets etc. doesn’t make US the world dominator.
During summer I heard this unbelievable news from the radio. United Nations made this new “law” about bringing soldiers (FROM ALL COUNTRIES) who have done different kind of crimes during wars, to be judged in Haag. The United States said that if any of their soldiers are brought to Haag and convicted, these convictions aren’t legal and the US will not act by them. How on Earth does the US (not all the citizens, but most of the bigshoes) think they can have this special right to decide what’s legal?
But ummm… anyways… I found this site when looking for web design articles (as I’m studying to become a graphic designer), and I came across the GODDESSY article… So someone has actually paid for her designing? Unbelievable…
Sir, as a Finnish-born teenager with plenty of travelling experience I found some of the attitudes on this page sincerely shocking. Before you accuse me of having no experience of American life, I would like to point out that I did live there and have travelled to many parts of the country. Seven years ago, while living in Italy, I idolized many Americans. I spent my time in an American school and found the work challenging yet fulfilling. When told that I would be moving to America, I looked forward to it with great enthusiasm. At first I enjoyed the size of the place and all the luxuries. I went to school, did my work and made friends. It was, however, all too obvious that the state school was moving too slowly. I used to be a “B” student, but here I was getting ridiculously good results. Eventually, I discovered that people were not interested in politics or morals, but would much rather discuss television and food. So much so, in fact, that it drove me crazy and I was taken out of the school by my parents. I tried the other schools in the area, and found them to be exactly the same. My parents decided that the education I was receiving was ridiculously poor and so I was shipped back to England to take my qualifications. Arriving as someone who had grown a strong dislike towards the American way of life, I thought I would find little sympathy, but all of my friends felt that americans are stupid. In fact, the stupidity of George Bush and how he was voted in is a frequently recurring topic of conversation. You see, the difference between the majority of Americans and myself is that I crave knowledge, understanding, philosophy, culture and art, none of which most Americans seem bothered by. It’s far too evident that America will collapse. I fully accept that there are intelligent Americans and that millions flock to America, but the fact of the matter is that you have no social credibility any longer. You lack art and sophistication. Raucous, that’s how you’re perceived. Perhaps you can prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Corruption, ignorance, poor education, laziness and greed ruined your country long ago. America has done many great things, but it has done so much wrong, too! You can keep your Bush and bland television shows with lifeless interviewers. I’ll stick with my beloved “Have I got news for you” and Jeremy Paxman.
I’m going to go out on a limb and agree with you on some points. Public education in the United States up to and including high school is laughable at best. However, lack of an education on par with a few other countries cannot logically reflect on intelligence, nor does a difference in values. In some respects I’d like to garner your opinion of me as to whether I’m a typical American or not. But it would be a bit unfair because, admittedly, I’ve been exposed to more of the world than most and attended schools in Europe for five years. So, I’m not exactly your typical American, whatever that is. And, thankfully, television networks in the United States have not adopted England’s Beat the Crusher, a game show oozing with class and sophistication… - RDL
Americans are hated because successive US governments abused the unprecedented power they gained after WWII e.g. Guatemala 1954, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam (1955-1975), Indonesia (1958, 1965), Italy (1948), Grenada (1983), Greece (1967), Nicaragua (1980s) (a complete list would take entire web pages). Not to mention the fact that American military had invaded Mexico 13 times, Dominican Republic 6 times, Haiti 5 times, Nicaragua 5 times as part of the Monroe Doctrine. Recently, US successfully violated every international law by tearing the province of Kosovo out of Serbia (Kosovo has been part of Serbia since the Medieval eras)!! US sanctions against Iraq that killed one million children was done under the assumption that starvation would be the incentive for the Iraqis to overthrow Saddam Hussein! I wouldn’t blame the Soviets for their paranoia of the United States because US troops invaded Russia in 1918-1920 in a bid to kill the infant communist country. Each time the US governmentt said that the reason they intervened was to “save” these countries from either communism, banditism, or terrorism. This is typical bûllšhìt as the racialist notion of white man’s burden used by the former Imperial powers last century. How would you feel if you were a Vietnamese farmer that had his house destroyed by US napalm, saying that the US did this to save him from communism? Americans are too ignorant of the outside world and always eat the propaganda their government gives them. Just look at how Americans react to the WTC attack (the terrorists hate us for our freedom and liberty). They think that the US is the best country in the world and other countries can’t survive without American help. Until the US stops being a serious international bully, America will still be universally despised!
Actually, history shows that the United States gained its status as a world superpower after the Spanish-American War, not after WWII. Your University of Queensland offers some excellent courses in world history including HIST2006, HIST2408, and HIST3402, which would give you greater insight and understanding into the roots of the American nation as well as some worldly perspective of some of the political mistakes of other great nations, including Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the radical right-wing politics of Western and Eastern Europe over the last two centuries. - RDL
As a well-educated, bilingual, well-travelled, politically left-leaning, geographically inclined American (yes, there are one or two of us), I always read such posts with amusement. I like the sentences that begin, “You Americans…”
Who do you direct these comments to? All 287 million of us? To which “kind” of American are you directing comments that begin “you Americans”? Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, native American, naturalized citizens from Europe? Men and women? Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Christian, Sikh or Pagan? Gay or straight? Conservative or liberal? For we are all Americans, we share radically different views, different levels of education, different politics, different religions, different ethnicities… we even speak English differently.
Grouping us into “You Americans” is as naive as saying… “All Europeans are alike… you know… Swedes, Turks, Italians, Greeks… they all think alike… I mean, they’re all Europeans, right?” Hollywood may portray a neat package of what “an American” is like, but Hollywood is fantasy, and too many non-Americans watch a Bruce Willis movie and become experts on what Americans are like. Based on one holiday visit to New York City… everyone becomes an instant expert in defining “The American Experience.”
Simplistically generalizing a whole people into one stereotype is a form of racism… anti-Americanism based on stereotypes is the only form of socially acceptable racism left to the world. It betrays ignorance… though it may seem fashionable and elite. Like people of all other countries, we can’t be summed up in a phrase, an editorial, a slur, or any kind of sound bite. Let’s rid the world of stereotypes… whether it be toward Muslims, ethnic minorities, homosexuals… or Americans. They are all equally destructive to progress.
Just because I’ve been to Stamford, Connecticut, and now read comments by a Stamfordian doesn’t mean I or anyone else can judge the inhabitants of the city as a whole, now does it?! At least YOU get the point of what I’m saying! - RDL
Errr… Tracey, Europe is a group of nations, America is one nation, does that help? If you don’t understand the difference, I suggest a basic education might help.
Errr… Stephen? Ever heard of the European Union? Tracey can finish this one… - RDL