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| Thread: Why the hatred? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 · NEXT» |
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Blu
Hired Hero
The Ultimate Party-Pooper
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posted December 04, 2003 11:54 PM |
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Why the hatred?
I seriously don't know about you or your opinions, but lately i've been noticing some very harsh comments agaisnt America. I don't plan to give a history lesson but if America was never formed the entire world would be different. We were the first in flight, we also discovered electricity, invented the telephone, and was the first mass producer of automobiles. These are very ecomonic inventions to various countries and regions. Honestly I know we may have some terrible president like Willian Harrison and many other but is there really anything that America has done that has made you very upset? If you have an answer post it here.
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hamsi128
Promising
Supreme Hero
tosser tavern owner
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posted December 05, 2003 12:11 AM |
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bort
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Discarded foreskin of morality
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posted December 05, 2003 12:14 AM |
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Quote:
we also discovered electricity
I'm sure there were some very crispy cavemen who, for a very brief period discovered electricity, right after wondering what those flashes in the sky were.
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Delfontes
Known Hero
Sorcerer Extraordinaire
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posted December 05, 2003 12:35 AM |
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Quote:
We were the first in flight
Also suspect... Zepplins, as the name implies, weren't US inventions. They flew long before those two brothers did...
Also there is evidence of other flights that may or may not have proceeded them. One of the stipulations for donating their plane to the Smithsonian museum was that they could not acknowledge any other claim of "first" flight regardless of evidence.
Here is one account of an actual first flight:
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html
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Celfious
Promising
Legendary Hero
From earth
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posted December 08, 2003 12:20 AM |
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Ok bsbsbs
Who really cares what someone other than yourself did?
If what your forefathers did make you to proud then mabey you should wtfu.
1 obvious reason why, is many of any cultural forefathers did Bad things, that we are ashamed of. Many more than 1s that did good things.
Christians and musilims have been at eachothers neck for along time well perhaps some of them are truly justified by "god". If a suicide bomber legitly feels hes doing good, then god would probably say to him when he awakens in the way of no dust, that materialistic things like christianity or islamic (ect) are merely paths to god and in no way are men here on earth to know for sure what the materialism (such as jesus) means. We're not here to have fact.
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privatehudson
Responsible
Legendary Hero
The Ultimate Badass
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posted December 08, 2003 12:30 AM |
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I couldn't list all the things the US has done that I find suspect as I'd end up with severe RSI long before I finished as I would with my own country. Not too many of them have annoyed me though as they happened long before I was born. What does annoy me is Americans (or anyone else for that matter on their own country, but since this is about the US...) acting like America is saintly and has never done a thing wrong, nor will. They're the ones that need a history lesson.
Perhaps what you need to understand is that people often have a reason for criticising the US and to them that reason is extremely valid. Acting all hurt and offended because someone doesn't like you is silly, understanding the reasons for that dislike and realising they may have a point from their perspective will get you much further.
Oh and btw the Japanese reckon the country which the modern world owes most to invention wise (and you'd assume such a hi-tech nation would know) is the UK, not America. 
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted December 08, 2003 04:42 AM |
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But the real question here is, why is most of it against the US? Do people gang up on UK, Lithuania, Germany, etc.? No they don't, it's almost always the US. Why is that?
The US is very young compared to most of the rest of the world, that's true. So that would lead some people to believe that Europe or Asia would have more "Great Blunders in History" to make fun of, right? So why don't those come out? I know PH brings up some of Britain's historical blunders from time to time, and that is good. I don't remember some other "bashers" of the US doing that.
Blu does bring up a good point, why the hatred? He didn't do as well at bringing up historical fact maybe, but the question was good.
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privatehudson
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The Ultimate Badass
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posted December 08, 2003 05:25 AM |
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A lot of it is the fact that you're young and the biggest. People expect things of the most powerful nation, just as in the 19th Century people expected Britain to do things to further humanity, they expect the US to do the same. Most of the problems people might have had with the likes of the older nations tend to be way way into the past, before the current generation was born. Many of the problems people have with America are in the here and now. People expect, America does not always deliver, and sometimes downright doesn't care or just acts anti-benevolent. People remember that more because right now they look to the US to do such work. But the other countries DO get flak, whenever the US is called to question a common defense is "well france are mercenary bast***s!". People expect the US to do more, just as they expected the Empire to do more, and the Roman empire, and Alexander and so on. If you take on the role, you pay the price of criticism.
I'd guess another factor would be that if a topic is specifically about what the US has done wrong, or the US/UK holding itself up as the world's police (ie attack iraq?), no-one's going to jump off topic to discuss other countries. If someone starts a topic people generally stick to it. Also an awful lot of people on forums tend to know more about english and american history in general than say chinese or Japanese history, so it's easier to criticise as more people are likely to understand what points you make.
What bothers me more is why you get so defensive about it, you're the big cheese now, people will do this, you either, weed out the automatic haters of the country and listen to the remainder and see if they have a point or stop listening. If you don't see threads about other countries then make them! You have a mouse and keyboard right? If it upsets you do something about it
Whether you like it or not with power comes the responsibility to use that power wisely, and if you don't then others are entitled to air their views on it, sometimes these views you would not otherwise hear. It's important to see the other side of the story to that portrayed in our media, otherwise you end up with an often blinkered view of the world.
I repeat, there's nothing to stop you from airing your views on any country in the world should you choose to, this would balance things out.
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tigerangelz
Known Hero
Angelic Tigress
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posted December 08, 2003 03:24 PM |
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Quote:
But the real question here is, why is most of it against the US? Do people gang up on UK, Lithuania, Germany, etc.? No they don't, it's almost always the US. Why is that?
The US is very young compared to most of the rest of the world, that's true. So that would lead some people to believe that Europe or Asia would have more "Great Blunders in History" to make fun of, right? So why don't those come out? I know PH brings up some of Britain's historical blunders from time to time, and that is good. I don't remember some other "bashers" of the US doing that.
Blu does bring up a good point, why the hatred? He didn't do as well at bringing up historical fact maybe, but the question was good.
Well said, and Thank You, Wolfman.
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Khaelo
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Underwater
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posted December 09, 2003 03:49 AM |
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ack, not again!
Another thread about USA bashing? Hasn't this territory been covered before? At this rate, someone might accuse Americans of having a persecution complex. Unless, of course, that would be bashing on the US, too. 
Seriously, countries that are large and highly active, as the US is, attract attention. Not all attention is good -- some will love you, others will hate you, most will be somewhere in between (or just won't care either way!). This isn't new. In fact, it's kind of a staple of interpersonal/international relationships.
As far as I can see, there isn't a trend of overly criticizing the US on this forum. I do think that certain Americans wear sensitive filter-glasses when reading political commentary here, making them see an illusion of excessive US-bashing. There's a line somewhere between appropriate critique and inappropriate bashing, and I think the filter-glasses blur out that line and take all critical comments as bashing, removing even the possibility of appropriate critique.
Granted, I tend to spot American hyper-sensitivity more quickly because it's a personal pet peeve (my own filter-glasses at work  ), and since I'm American myself. But I really don't think people are as rabidly anti-US as these threads would have one believe.
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted December 09, 2003 04:17 AM |
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Well said, and Thank You, Wolfman.
So, I did good then, right?
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privatehudson
Responsible
Legendary Hero
The Ultimate Badass
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posted December 09, 2003 05:01 AM |
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Quote:
Granted, I tend to spot American hyper-sensitivity more quickly because it's a personal pet peeve (my own filter-glasses at work ), and since I'm American myself. But I really don't think people are as rabidly anti-US as these threads would have one believe.
Even better put, some people read what they want into comments here or take it in a defensive way because they wish it to be that way. Sometimes this is done I imagine to make the argument easier, for example it's easier to dismiss someone who is making a valid point if you accuse them of (in this case) US bashing, or general bias than it is to actually counter their points or accept they may have a point.
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binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted December 14, 2003 07:47 AM |
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PH
Quote:
A lot of it is the fact that you're young and the biggest. People expect things of the most powerful nation, just as in the 19th Century people expected Britain to do things to further humanity, they expect the US to do the same...........
Excellent post PH. I agree completely. Any person/company/nation that is high profile is open for criticism. The US is very high profile, so we will get a lot of criticism. And we deserve a lot of it because we are far from perfect. But then there is no such thing as a perfect nation.
I'm an American and, even with all it's flaws, I'm proud to be an American. Are other countries better? Heck if I know, I never lived in another country.
Quote:
What bothers me more is why you get so defensive about it
Does criticism of my country bother me? Of course it does. That's only natural human reaction no matter where we are from. Getting "defensive" is also a natural reaction which all humans share.
There's a difference between being bothered by something and getting defensive. "Getting defensive" is somewhat of an idiom meaning "defending before listening to the criticism". That's not a good thing to do because refusing to look for truth is a road to stagnation. That's not saying that criticism is necessarily truth. It's simply saying that we, as individuals or nations, should listen first...really, honestly listen. A person or nation can only grow and improve through recognizing truth when it is presented to us. If the criticism has merit, we should accept it and act upon it. If not, we can defend or ignore.
To be honest, I was feeling defensive myself about the US bashing. Yes it hurts to see my country criticized. You know what hurts even more? I happen to agree with much of the recent criticism. I'm not feeling quite so proud of my country after certain recent un-named events. But I'm still an American and I truly believe it's a good country and has a lot of good people.
The US is a very diverse nation. We have large numbers of immigrants from around the world, both past and present. Possibly more than any other nation on earth we are a cross-section of those people. Possibly a criticism of Americans is a criticism of ourselves...no matter where we are from. If born into a different environment, in a different nation or culture, would any of us really be so different from those currently born into that environment or culture? I believe not. I believe we are all much the same.
Who invented the airplane? The human race did.
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Sir_Stiven
Honorable
Legendary Hero
banned
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posted December 14, 2003 12:47 PM |
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Quote:
Even better put, some people read what they want into comments here or take it in a defensive way because they wish it to be that way. Sometimes this is done I imagine to make the argument easier, for example it's easier to dismiss someone who is making a valid point if you accuse them of (in this case) US bashing, or general bias than it is to actually counter their points or accept they may have a point.
well said.
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Aquaman333
Famous Hero
of the seven seas
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posted December 14, 2003 08:14 PM |
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OK, so we're on top, that attracts criticism, I understand that. That, owever does not explain all of the insults, such as insulting our intelligence, which seems to be very popular, the attacking of our culture, and past times, American football seems to your favorite, and all of the other blatently racist comments dotting almost every political topic in The Other Side.
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privatehudson
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The Ultimate Badass
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posted December 14, 2003 08:26 PM |
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They exist about more than just the US though, such as those who made comments about Islam and Arabs being the same thing and so on. You see more insults on the US or feel more comments are insults because you are american and want to see it that way, it says nothing about how they were meant and so on.
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted December 14, 2003 08:32 PM |
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British Bigot!
British Bigot!
British Bigot!
British Bigot!
British Bigot!
British Bigot!
I mean that in the best possible way, and it has nothing to do with British people.
note the sarcasm
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privatehudson
Responsible
Legendary Hero
The Ultimate Badass
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posted December 14, 2003 08:34 PM |
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I decline to reply directly to that on the grounds that I have a mentality higher than a 10 year old
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted December 14, 2003 08:40 PM |
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Good
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Vadskye91
Promising
Supreme Hero
Back again
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posted December 15, 2003 06:48 PM |
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You know, the reason the US is gettin' bashed is because it deserves it!
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Knowledge is power...
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