Belonging To Night
David2074
Belonging To Night
David2074
Belonging To Night
Americans don't have a habit of that. The perception that America has a habit of that is why they are perceived as having have that habit.
Untrue.
Unfortunately many times we have earned our reputation for arrogance.
On the presidential level we've had things like George W Bush telling other nations what they should think and declaring they are either "with us or against us" (as in, they couldn't possibly be our friend but just disagree with us).
On a more personal level, I've traveled to many countries and a number of times seen Americans acting in ways that embarrassed me. Mocking locals because they didn't speak English even though the American was in their country, acting condescending towards the 'foreigners' and customs they didn't understand and so on. Obviously not all Americans (I didn't act that way) but enough of that goes on to get a reputation. I've even had locals in different countries compliment me that I didn't act like "those other Americans". Americans certainly don't have the monopoly on acting like assholes but there are enough out there that at least some of the reputation is earned.
From a military standpoint for many years we have been the most powerful nation in the world. Whether our status is declining depends on who you talk to but historically we have made decisions that affected smaller countries who had little or no say in those decisions. We are also the only country to have every dropped nuclear bombs on another country. The fact we both had them first and were willing to use them adds to our image of at least us thinking we are the number one nation in the world.
I'm not arguing for Americans being arrogant.
I'm saying our reputation is largely based on our own actions and didn't just materialize on it's own because some other country said it.
I still like America best but I'm not all, "America is great and you guys suck!". Frankly I've been to some very nice countries that had some aspects I liked better than America. It's too bad we can't pick and choose what we like about various countries and create our own little utopia. I miss some of the countries I've visited and would like to return.
Stereotyping and generalizing Americans based upon a few of your personal experiences isn't an accurate or fair assessment to make for how America and American's actually might be. Every country has those who are arrogant, those who are patriots, and those who are nationalists, and America is probably one of the least patriotic countries there is anymore due to a lot of anti-American sentiment that is coursing through the actual American population.
I was neither stereotyping or generalizing.
I was responding tor your own blanket statement that "Americans don't do that" (act like they are the best / #1) and that "The perception that America has a habit of that is why they are perceived as having have that habit".
I was stating from experience that
1. I know for a fact quite a few Americans do act that way. and
2. Enough Americans do it that in many countries they have a reputation for it based on the personal experiences of various shop keepers and other locals I spoke to.
I never said it was a majority or all but for you to say Americans don't act that way and it's all just perception is simply untrue.
Also, my experiences are more than just a 'few'. I've likely lived a lot longer than you, I've been around the world about three times, been to almost every continent except the Artics and seen a lot of countries. The American actions and perceptions they created were almost universal. You can also see it here in the states the way some Americans act towards just about any foreigner. There are a lot of good people in every country I've been to including America but unfortunately the rude and arrogant ones are the ones people remember the most. To dismiss the views of other countries who say America / Americans think pretty highly of themselves as having no basis in fact is just being in denial.
A few are arrogant, sure, but generally Americans do seem to have a self-loathing and apologetic attitude when it comes to being citizens of their own country. But when people usually say that Americans act like their arrogant, it seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black because a lot of other countries are generalized as being arrogant and patriotic.
In most of these cases, it ignores the individual personalities that exist in these countries, and instead lumps everyone together into a single category, which basically amounts to people perceiving something to be a certain way.
self-loathing and apologetic attitude -
That has not been my experience. Possibly that has changed some; it has been quite a few years since the majority of my travels. I know if I were traveling abroad right now I wouldn't deny my citizenship but I certainly wouldn't be shouting it from the mountaintops thinking it would make me better liked. On the other hand, I was like that back then too.
There's an old joke to the effect of "tell them your a Canadian" because a lot of countries don't hate Canada as much as the USA.
Other Countries -
I totally agree but that wasn't the subject of this thread. Many countries are very nationalistic but they can be so whether or not America has an overinflated sense of itself. Some of it might even be in response to America. As in, they get tired of America more or less running so many things around the world and decide to trumpet their own pride of country.
individual personalities -
Certainly there are good people in every country, even the countries we love to hate.
I'm not a huge muppets fan but years ago I saw the muppet movie and there was the rat chef whose philosophy of life was, "People is people". I was amused how often that came to mind in my travels. I'd be places where I didn't speak the language, the customs, clothing, food, buildings etc were very different but at the end of the day you could tell most people wanted pretty much the same thing. Kids wanting attention or a toy, parents doting on their kids, people working to get by or enjoying simple pleasures. In other words, pretty much the same basic day to day desires and wants you see in America. Treating people with basic respect and kindness went a long way towards enhancing my own experiences and sometimes resulted in a local going out of their way to share some good part of their country with me.
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