Quote: (07-09-2011 10:45 AM)Luckystar Wrote:
Quote: (07-09-2011 04:13 AM)Entropy4 Wrote:
"You're not one of them, you're different,"
News flash, Entropy4...they don't just say this to Americans or Brits. They routinely say this to people of other backgrounds - Africans, Muslims and others. It's ignorance to the highest degree. As if you are ok, now that you have conformed to their values or culture. Insidious ethnocentrism, arrogance, and intolerance. It's inherent at so many levels.
For the record, I'm not trying to bash Europeans. I just don't believe they are any classier.
Dude, really man. Give it a rest. Expecting the whole world to view life through the same rose tinted, idealistic, liberal glasses you do is asking a bit too much.
Its this sort of arrogance that pisses so many of them off, and its why they have no time for your bullshit.
Who are you to tell them that they should not be angry about mass migration? Who are you to tell them that they should not be proud of their culture, which in most cases has evolved over hundreds of years? Who are you to say that the ethnic pride they feel is wrong? Just because you have different view on things does not automatically make their views ignorant, and just because you come from a culturally diverse place does not mean they do. People are a product of their environment too.
As a system of belief, yours seems to be grounded strongly in the civil rights movement which is only a whopping 60-70 years old in your own back yard
Compared to their own values and culture, you are a blip on on the radar. Show some damned respect for that or stay the fuck at home.
Americans have developed a reputation for being loud, obnoxious, OPINIONATED and ignorant. Its not fair to paint every person from the USA this way, but they are a fairly large majority who are. Just the way it is. Every nationality carries a generalisation or stigma of some sort and its generally because its true.
Despite the position you are trying to take, I suggest you develop a little more tolerance. Or you could just continue doing things the way you are and wondering why the hell no one has any time for an American tourist shouting their mouth off again.
1 - dont provide opinions on politics or social norms unless ASKED, and even then be delicate. Culture differences need to be respected and you need to keep a frikken open mind too.
2 - if someone is critical of your country or countrymen, put it down to ignorance on their part. Laugh it off and tease them a little, and if they become aggressive, then its time to lay it down.
3 - your shit stinks too, and the world is not going to respect you more because you come from a certain place. Dont mistake interest and politeness for adoration
4 - contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of the world does not want to move to America. As it turns out, the USA ranks lower than Canada, Australia, all the Scandinavian countries and few countries in western Europe when it comes to standard of living these days. Also, just because a country may seem third world, it does not mean that the quality of life is worse either. Middle class people in many 3rd world countries have the sort of lifestyles we in the west cant achieve until we are almost upper class. All first world countries have people queuing up to move there either legally or illegally, its not phenomenon unique to the USA.