I recently stumbled upon an AOL-hosted web page from 1996 titled The Evil of Pippi Longstocking in which the author claims that Pippi is the Antichrist, the devil, an evil concoction dreamt up by Germans and Swedes to fill the power vacuum left by Hitler’s death. I have to assume that David Nagel’s purpose in publishing his rather idiotic theories were to drum up controversy and revenue from the traffic the angered hordes would bring.
I can’t argue against that motive because that’s precisely the idea behind Richard’s Ramblings — find something interesting or informative to write about, slightly twist it around if it’s fictional, gratuitously sex it up with a sprinkling of bøøbs, bosoms, and breasts (oh, my!), and dish out a few comments designed to heat up the conversation. The extra traffic should increase revenues from click-through ads. Millions of websites have the same revenue model, as do Fox News and Howard Stern.
None of that works without the other side of the equation — the visitors. And, boy, are David’s Swedish readers riled! 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 åsshølë!“
- “I wipe my åss with the American flag and spit in your face.“
Being a citizen of the United States myself, I was curious as to the sentiment of others. So I decided to find some additional opinions by searching the Internet with Google, spelling left intact:
- “The only thing Americans can teach is how to corrupt countries and take their money. All Americans are is greety båstårds.” — I think countries have been corrupting themselves for thousands of years 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. Yes, there are some really bad, greedy Americans that can ruin things for everyone, even on a global scale — but not everyone fits that description. Personally, I have no idea how to teach someone to corrupt an entire country.
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Photo © iStockPhoto.com / Michael Ciranni
“[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. Interestingly, when I lived in Germany as a child, the fantasy car of choice by most Germans was a Pontiac — not a Mercedes or Porsche. I never understood that.
This 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air — the big yellow thing under the half-naked, non-fat girl, who herself was created in the United States — was made possible by the first mass-produced automobile perfected by Henry Ford in 1896. As, too, were headlights (on the car, not the model) by Horatio Allen in 1831, polarizing sunglasses (sunglasses invented by Sam Foster (Foster Grants) in 1929, and polarization by Edwin Land (Polaroid) in 1932), and the digital camera used to take the picture by Kodak in 1975.
You’re probably viewing the picture on either a personal computer (thanks to IBM in 1981) or a cellular phone (Motorola in 1973) over the Internet (sometime between 1960 and 1995, depending on your definition).
American scientists at Dow Corning invented the first silicone breast implants in 1961. The bikini, however, is French, and the fingernail polish is of Chinese origin.
Sadly, according to the OECD, the United States does lead the developing world in obesity rates, followed by Mexico, New Zealand, Chile, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Finland. The WHO also includes United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait in their fattest countries list. And, yes, some Americans are a combination of stupid, fat, and ignorant. So are some members of any other country in the world.
If Microsoft products are used as the sole 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. That the Swedes could read David’s diatribe on the Internet at all is thanks to the United States.
- “Americans are full of shìt. 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, again, the same can be said for every other country.
- “You are all non-sensical inbred morons.” — Actually I don’t personally know anyone who is the result of inbreeding in the United States, 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? The Spanish Habsburgs died out due to inbreeding. Consanguineous marriages were also common in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and India, and 20-25% of marriages within many Muslim and Hindu societies are between first cousins.
- “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 shìt hølë.” — According to Google, it seems that people all over the world are calling just about every country on the planet the “biggest shìt hølë”. And half of them claim that wherever they’re living now is the world’s biggest shìt hølë. I say we just all take a vote and decide once and for all. That’s the democratic way.
- “I thank God that I’m not a stupid åss-fûçkìng American.” — I thank God I’m not a stupid åss-fûçkìng American either. I can’t understand people’s obsession with anal sex. Sorry, I’m not into that. I’m just a regular American of above-average intelligence, eking out a living, trying to fulfill the dreams of my family.
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 these Proverbs:
“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.”
Don’t lump every citizen of a country together under a single label; it just makes you look stupid.
Dyslexia is not an excuse to ignore the entire point of the conversation, and yet you persist… – RDL
It’s kind of funny that foreign people would say stuff like that when we, the Americans, migrated over here from Europe about three hundred years ago, maybe less (I was never good in History). So if that’s what they have to say about us, they better take a very close look at themselves, because guess what, WE CAME FROM EUROPE! The Natives were here first for god sakes. It’s amazing how ignorant and naive some people can be. What I’m saying is, all over the world, every country has their crazies.
People emmigrated 300 years ago. That’s 9 generations, alot of time for people to change attitudes. America is a very wealthy country and this has gone to the population’s head. Arrogance, in terms of how you visage the rest of the world, is a major problem in America.
Americans are brill. They give us great movies and great fashion so stop slagging, Emma.
Whoa, Emma! Listen, what I am saying is EVERYWHERE you go, there is Arrogance. I understand why people in other countries are saying those things about us. I never said I hated them for it! As a matter of fact, I love Europeans a lot more than I do Americans. The fact is, some people need to see it’s not the people, but in fact the government. Then again, people make the government, but the leaders in the government make the devistation (my spelling’s bad). There are Americans around who would rather live elsewhere.
And arrogance enables you to stereotype the entire population of a nation the size of Europe to simple, single adjectives like “homicidal”… One of this generation’s Jamaicans was the homicidal sniper on the East coast. Should I classify Jamaicans as homicidal? And the Young Offenders Institution in West London has suggested a link between dyslexia and crime, that offenders were more likely to be dyslexic than the rest of the population. Should I classify all dyslexic Brits as criminals? As I’ve mentioned umpteen times, I do not believe such classification is justifiable. – RDL
There are alot of very stupid people around the world. The majority wallow in their stupidity believing they are in some way superior. In the former Yugoslavia they have been slaughtering people on the basis of ethnicity for centuries. How sad and sick and depraved are they ? Saddam killed Kurds, so did the Turks. Israel has such a simple thing to do to avoid bloodshed ie withdraw from the occupied territories, but they dont. How stupid. Men of religion use their perverted sense of religion to go and wage war and wreak havoc all over the world. The problem is that the most powerful country in the world seems to be mixed up in so many of those scenarios. When a warlord was refining Heroin for shipment to the US, his whole business was aided by the CIA because he ‘held off the communist threat’. So loads of US civilians died horrible addicts deaths as a result. When Iran was fighting Iraq, the US backed Iraq (Saddam) and then sold weapons to the Iranians in contrvention of the law, and used that money to back a dictatorship in South America. A large number of american citizens dont realise what goes on in the world. They have no idea of even where these countries are. So many people say ‘kill the ragheads’ and then go and attack any brown face they see. Racism is part of the fabric of society in America. Italians, Irish, Poles, Koreans, Jews, Chinese, French, and black, they all hate each other, and take up any excuse to persecute or abuse in order to aquire a sense of superiority. There must be a national sense of insecurity in a country that is always trying to find a new reason to say ‘we are the best’. I mean Chilli dogs and hersheys chocolate ? Baseball ? American Football (where blokes play rugby with cushions on)? There are thousands of people alive and well in the US who were stringing up black men ad raping black women, who told the authorities that they suspected their neighbours we communist sympathisers and lost them their livelihood (very stalinist by the way). There is no body of humanity so large and so powerful in the world that believes what they read in the newspaper. With so many resources, how many people are living in poverty. The biggest industrialised nation in the world that refuses to sign a treaty on the rights of children. And the citizens are largely ‘dont know, dont wanna know’. That is why they give the impression of stupidity. But anyone who thinks they are superior should check themselves, because stupidity and apathy is not restricted to the US. Its a global problem.
Phew, I shold write speeches.
As you say, Paul, stupidity and apathy are not restricted to the U.S. Too many people point fingers at U.S. policy (and it deserves to get pointed at) but decline to point the fingers inward at the residual damage left in the world from their own countries’ histories of “foibles” (if the historical misery inflicted on the peoples of the world by the British Empire, the Australian treatment of aboriginal peoples, and the constant and ever-present African religious and tribal ethnic cleansing, etc., etc., ad infinitum, can be referred to as “foibles”). The human propensity for both great evil and great good knows no national boundaries.
Fingerpointing gets nothing done. If ALL the people in the industrialized world used even half the time they normally spend blamestorming, b*tching and moaning, to volunteer a bit and help make little improvements, the world would be a better place (and a quieter one).
That American citizens are largely “don’t know, don’t want to know” on child poverty is a little unfair. There are certainly such people (and many of them call themselves “Christians,” much to my disgust) and in no small numbers, but on the flip side there are a great deal of us who care passionately.
Child poverty is an ugly stain on all modernized nations (Scotland leads the numbers in Europe, Canada has alarming rates of it).
On a brigher note, looks like Senator John Kerry (Democrat, Massachusetts) is stirring for a 2004 presidential bid. Keep your fingers crossed that we can correct the present untenable situation in a mere two years.
Homo sapiens, the modern product of the family Hominidae. How ironic that the term sapiens is Latin for wise, rational. Finding wisdom or rationality in modern society is akin to finding a fart in a bubble bath.
If the humans of the world want to use “identity” as a qualitative measurement for biological value, then let us more closely examine this process. It is important to establish that the human species can not truly be defined by nationality whereas geography has little impact on genetic structure outside of natural selection. Whether a homo sapien was conceived in Europe or on the hood of a 1979 Cadillac with expired Arizona plates, the product will in fact be Homo sapien. All Homo sapiens can be characterized not only by physiological traits, but also by behavioral traits forgivingly classified as “human nature.” However, human nature is merely a euphemism for violence, fear and intolerance. It is my belief that all humans share a desire to exist above violence and are prepared to use force to achieve it. They might eagerly embrace a society free of fear, but are afraid it is not possible. They might even choose to eradicate intolerance if it were not for those with differing opinions on the subject. Yes, humans are indeed indistinguishable regardless of geography.
Throughout history, it is nigh impossible to find a civilization free from the traits people of one nationality use to dåmn the other. They have all participated in war, selfishness, religious intolerance, and deceit. However, it is worth noting that I failed to produce any real evidence of major Eskimo participation in global decay, but there were nasty rumors of whale skin lingerie and unbridled envy breeding much nonsense and commotion.
So let us not forget, no matter what the “nationality,” the common link is there and all have contributed something to the soured soil from which modern society sprang. Japanese expansion is Southeast Asia, Russia’s Iron Curtain, British Imperialism, African genocide, Middle Eastern violence, Europe’s Third Reich, South American guerrillas or North America’s economic expansion and the resulting greed are all key ingredients to the biological delicacy called Homo Sapiens.
Despite some of the more glaring inaccuracies, I have enjoyed reading this discussion. I take issue at the US gaining its “superpower” status after the American Spanish conflict – regardless that this analysis may come from the University of Queensland, but agree that WWII is overstated as the historical point at which the US departed from the ‘isolationism’ that was a purported hallmark of US foreign policy up to circa 1940 (Central America and Southeast Asia would rightly argue that there was no US isolationism). I think that a lot of the arguments here have been at crossed purposes. I do not like the ‘nation’ of USA, but cannot comment on each American citizen. It is indisputable that successive US governments have sought to impose the US ideology upon other nations with little regard as to whether these nations desired such an imposition. Of course this is not unique to the US, but they are the most persistent offenders of late, and it has to be said that as a nation the US is a little out of control. I think it slightly strange that American citizens should persist in excusing the actions of their leaders when it is patently obvious that the US government, like most governments, is morally bankrupt and extremely dangerous. I think it is this refusal to be critical that rankles with Europeans and non-westerners (sorry Oz, but I kind of bundled you in with Europeans). There are many Americans who are saying, without qualification, that US foreign policy is wrong and dangerous and that the US has expansionist designs (Chomsky, Moore, Biafra, Schiller, Zinn, etc.). Your government has done more to pollute, starve, oppress, exploit and kill (in great numbers) than any other nation in the past 50 or so years. As has been pointed out the rest of the world’s nations have also had a pop at the killing, starving, oppressing game, but the US is currently the world leader and so it is to the US that our attention is turned. Obviously there are caring and compassionate Americans, as there are Syrians, Palestinians, etc. I don’t understand why so many Americans feel the need to defend the indefensible actions of your government. The US government is the moral equivalent of a serial killer, and, yes, the US public is partly responsible for its continued actions. This does not mean that the UK government is on some moral high-ground: Blair is complicit in the barbarism, and the UK public must share that responsibility. Bottom line is most of the world DOES NOT want to be American or live in America and would rather not have to endure the cultural, militaristic and economic US imperialism.
As for the constant, and often erroneous, references to history, both US and European, I suggest that people take a harder look at both histories before sweeping statements are derived from them. As for Americans being stupid? Yes, any American who defends their government is stupid for they refuse to think about what they are defending and that is stupid. The same is true in any nation, but it is the US that is bringing the world to the edge of global war and so the anger and hatred will be more potent when directed against the US. It’s not personal, many people just want the US to go back home and sort out its own considerable problems, rather than spying, starving, bombing, torturing and buying the rest of the world. P.S. I wonder why Americans have so much faith in their military ‘solutions’ when the history of America’s “wars” (whether on drugs or peasants in Nicaragua and Vietnam) are marked by a signal lack of success and an appallingly high body count…
Nice debate – some well thought out points. I feel the American government really should do something about education standards in inner cities. Black youngsters grow up with litle education and little to aspire to. As someone stated – America is a ‘young’ country, so too are americans of african origin a ‘young’ people in that they have few positive role models and little culture, having been robbed of this by slavery (i would not wish to lay blame for this) . Consequently blacks in America have made their own culture which is largely Hip-Hop culture. As a young man I greatly appreciated this form of music but now find much of it distasteful. I digress. Many black youngsters cling to rappers as their role models (many being from broken homes), these rappers usually ill educated themselves have no answers to offer these children – not that they should, being mere musicians. My point is that these people through the lack of positive role models now have a culture where learning and the acquisition of knowledge is seen as unfashionable. This creates a vicious cycle of educational decline. This culture is now spreading, being readily accepted by young black people throughout Europe, who to a lesser extent share the lack of role models. This problem culture is evident in white Americans too, possibly what is needed for the government to react, when it is on ‘their doorstep’ and not some distant ghetto.
Back to the earlier post on the question of “what is an American?”, I wholeheartedly agree with someone who posted this question. Americans nowadays composed of a vast majority of many ethnics in the world. It is the globe in one nation. I used to be a citizen of another nation, but could not stand the stupidity and greedy nature of my own countrymen that I renounced it. Personally, I think America has its strengths and weaknesses; however, its strenghts are much more implicated than its weaknesses. I’m a strong believer in United States Constitution for many reasons.
Could it be jealousy that those people around the globe hate Americans? Personally, I think it is. I’ve been around the world from Asia to Europe and see the states of those countries are in. Lack of water, space, transportation infrastructure, etc… You name it. At the end of the day, I’m wishing once again to be back to America. We are creating our culture since United States is relatively a new country. So there is nothing wrong with that.
Everybody is proud of their cultures and civilization, but cultures are not everything. Americans prefer practicalities. Nothing is wrong with that also.
To someone who said that United States is weakening. I will say to them: “Dream on”. Because as long as the Constitution existed and held sacred among American hearts, it will be far long before this nation collapses.
A foreigner who becomes an American.
Bit busy at the moment, but ‘as long as the Constitution existed and held sacred among American hearts, it will be far long before this nation collapses’ is about as naive a statement as you can get Nick, so I had to say a quick something. Sorry mate, but you have not been paying attention. The only constitutional right that hasn’t been abused is the right to bear arms and thats because the NRA pretty much support half the election campaigns. The constitution has been totally and utterly ignored in so many cases over the past half a century that it has become a bit of a joke to make a romantic statement like that. Wake up and smell the (Starbucks) coffee. I will post examples anon, although if you care to do even the lightest research you will find examples all over.
Cheers
Paul
You seem to agree that the people who run your country are smart people. I would tell you that those people aren’t in the White House. You didn’t elect them; they are oil tycoons. Unless you are suggesting that Mr. Bush is the brains of the operation…
I think it is exremely pathetic to have nothing better to do than to insult Americans! I admit there are some [bad] things that the majority of Americans have done (or supported), but that doesn’t make us all dimwitted!
ANOTHER thing! It hurts me to see English people insulting us. I have supported so many of you on various things and I even wanted to move to England. I LOVE England, but some of its people can be really ignorant! Why can’t we all just love each other and get along?! What have we ever done to you? Just because we beat you in the war that determined our independence doesn’t mean you should hate us. [That’s] the past; this is NOW!
I think you’ll find that the French kicked us out of the US…
interesting stats that came my way.
Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
..29 have been accused of spousal abuse
..7 have been arrested for fraud
..19 have been accused of writing bad checks
..117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
..3 have done time for assault
..71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
..14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
..8 have been arrested for shoplifting
..21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
..84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
Can you guess which organization this is? Give up yet? It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line. Our politicians are only slightly better (excluding the WHOLE front bench and the tories) but just to say, it aint all your fault America, its your politicians. But then thats always the way isnt it? Its not the poor oled Iraqis, just Saddam and his cronies. What a world.
I hate it when people try and generalize a whole country like that, but many Americans are guilty of doing the same thing… it is a sad world we live in.
> Actually, history shows that the United States gained
> its status as a world superpower after the
> Spanish-American War, not after WWII.
Superpower should mean above other powers. I don’t think that applied to the U.S. prior to WWII. That war was a crucible.
If you ever see a book titled, “Dreadnoughts” by R. Mackie, look through the photographs. There is one in there showing a funeral procession — either Queen Victoria’s or her successor’s. Teddy Roosevelt is president. Work out the era from that. He can be seen in the picture riding in a carriage behind the main procession. Being a commoner, he isn’t allowed to ride a horse amongst the myriad royalty. I don’t believe that this would happen today nor would it have happened then if were the U.S. a superpower at the time.
As an aside, images such as this or what I’ve read about President Grant’s funeral make a mockery of modern claims that ‘never before’ has such a sight been seen when referring to someone like Princess Diana.
What I find frustrating about ‘Americans’ is the tendency to go along with politicians who preach thoughtlessness. This is the ignorance which is often used to label Americans. It’s a preemptive strike on thinking. The impending war with Iraq is the example de jour. The issues are complex but any time someone tries to discuss them, they are shouted down and accused of something ad hominem. (e.g. If you disagree, you are old Europe; if you agree, you are new Europe. If the U.N. doesn’t do as it is directed then it is irrelevant, yet it is meaningful if it obeys.) Complex issues are not discussed per se, they are expressed through simple, triumphant, angry emotion.
This impending war might offer something useful, the demise of Saddam Hussein. Fair enough. Is that worth the $50B it would likely cost? That sounds perverse to me. How many tens or hundreds of thousands might die in this quest? What happens after? What happens to the neighbourhood.
All these questions are being evaded. Worse, pap answers like, “We’ll bring democracy to Iraq.” are given. When questions persist, ridicule is returned.
The end result is that nothing meaningful happens. The U.S. has been involved in Iraq’s affairs directly for two decades now, perhaps longer, and what do we have to show for it? That only by vapourising the place can we fix it. That is a mark of terrible failure.
No discussion of cause and effect are permitted. Adherence is the only virtue. Journalists who do ask rude questions aren’t allowed to ask them of anybody who could provide answers. Bush’s father had the gall to use the expression, “Twice before in this century the world was convulsed by war…” Which newspaper or broadcaster responded with a heaping of scorn?
Anyways, enough ranting. All nations have similar problems even though publicly, the U.S. wears a badge of ignorance proudly on its sleeve (hey, you did elect Mr. Bush). There is a difference though. When Canada has such problems, and we do, they don’t cause 100,000 to die elsewhere in the world. We don’t drop bombs on Chinese embassies, shoot down Iranian airliners or start wars which last a decade killing millions because we think some Viet Cong shot at one of our boats. Nobody else suffers for our shortcomings.
Finally, the way the U.S. rejects outright any thought that doesn’t comply is almost guaranteed to invite negative emotions and reactions.
I could go on for a while (e.g. Bush was going to introduce fiscal responsibility to government, he was going to reduce the size of government. The press and the opposition march in lockstep though with nary a peep in protest let alone an idea of their own to present).
So… these are my musings on why the U.S. draws such heat.
President Bush to Meet with Spanish President Aznar in Crawford — President Bush will host Spanish President Aznar at the Crawford Ranch on Feb. 21-22, 2003. President Aznar has personally demonstrated great courage and leadership within Europe and the U.N. Security Council in pressing Iraq to disarm peacefully.
This comment is on http://www.whitehouse.gov, the official website of the American President…. I wonder if anyone can spot the deliberate mistake?
No takers huh? Just for the record, Spain is a monarchy not a republic.
Uh, as far as I’ve been able to determine Anzar *is* the President of Spain. Yes, they have a king, but when Franco died in 1975, Spain demanded liberalization. The 1978 Constitution managed to combine Spain’s democratic ambitions with its royal tradition.
Anyway, where in the original comment does it say Spain is a republic, or is not a monarchy?
The problem is, Spain doesn’t have a president, Aznar is the prime-minister, because a president is exclusive of republics.
Well said, Joao! Inspired work by The Whitehouse.