united states of america 'love' or 'hate'

[not on facebook]

the yanks well what can you say.

i could go on all day and put up a 10mile page thread about
the good/bad basically about the yanks.but for sure the bad would far outweight the good.

have the usa got MOST of us by the balls to the extent that
the main players on planet earth are dancing to the yank
tune?

20+ years ago i took uncle sam as a close and helpfull generous friend,but now iam begging to differ.the more i look
at the americans way of life,way of thinking,the more i get turned off by them.i now find myself at a crossroads with them.

so lets have your fealings/thoughts on united states of america

'little miss america' this really gets my goat and brings
out all the bad in the yanks and their way of life.

to counter balance above 'help'

[Mike_F]

I reckon like anywhere else there ar egood and bad things to say. Generally speaking I find a lot of Americanisms excrutiatingly irritating, but then I have met many a great American person on my travels whilst finding myslef losing faith in British society on a daily basis when I see or hear things like the moronic woman who set up the \"Raoul Moat Legend\" group on Facebook.

Looking on the flipside, if I were an American visitor to the UK, the standard of customer servie and the horrible, vicious chav underclass would put me right off the place.

A lot of British people don't necessarily agree with government policies and the like and I'm sure the same goes for Americans too. The majority of people in both nations just want to get on with living their lives as happily and successfully as possible. I think the main issue with America is that the extremes are more extreme than they are here because there's such a broad spectrum of people and cultures in what is effectively a nation of immigrants.

At one end of the scale you've got the loonies who dress their kids as barbie dolls, marry off their pets and squander grossly inappropriate sums of money on 16th birthday parties, then at the other end you've got gangsters living in poverty. The drive form Miami airport to the Miami Beach area is a real eye opener as you pass shacks that woldn't look out of place in Haiti (after the eathquake!) the enter an area packed with opulent hotels and stunning art-deco architecture.

we have the same thing here but the scale is much narrower.

[coventryrover]

Their governments policies..by and large hate.

Americans that I have actual met....love

Right wing born again American christianity....loathe to a point where I'd nuke em all

USA as a physical country.....love

US sports....hate, too much stop-start

US music....by and large love

US film  .... see music apart from sequel after sequel.

There you go, a critique on a whole nation

[Filo]

What gets me about the yanks is their hypocrisy, the uproar they are causing over the BP oil well is a perfect example. They are all clambering for BP to be sued to the b*llocks! But go back a few years and look at the disaster in Bhopal India, a disaster that caused many deaths and deformities and what nationality was the company that ran the chemical plant in Bhopal, yep, you got it, American. How much in damages did this American company pay to India and the people of Bhopal?

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I really liked my 3 months over there.  Met some great people and liked a lot about a lot of the culture.

Sadly, some of them live up to the American stereotype.  Found that frustrating how many of them no little about anything outside of America.  Not all are like that and I met some very nice people who I've kept in touch with.  The big surprise was how many of them like our country.  They love the football culture and our music is hugely popular over there.

I think as many of them dislike their politics etc as we do.  Obama isn't hugely popular and I can't say I like him much either, particularly the way he's handled the BP fiasco.  He's going to regret his style in that he doesn't seem to want many friends, he must remember that traditionally our two countries have been the closest allies and I'm not sure it benefits either country losing that.  I don't see Cameron being much of a fan of the American administration either, he certainly will stand up to them and Obama seems to be a guy who doesn't like people saying no to him, that's an aspect of America I don't particularly like, they hate not getting their own way and think they can do whatever they want.

[Mike_F]

It's all about scale again, Cov.

For every Goodfellas there's a Romi and Michelle's Highschool Reunion. For every Johnny Cash there's a Jonas Brother.

It's bound to happen.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Filo wrote:

What gets me about the yanks is their hypocrisy, the uproar they are causing over the BP oil well is a perfect example. They are all clambering for BP to be sued to the b*llocks! But go back a few years and look at the disaster in Bhopal India, a disaster that caused many deaths and deformities and what nationality was the company that ran the chemical plant in Bhopal, yep, you got it, American. How much in damages did this American company pay to India and the people of Bhopal?

Exactly my frustration with the Americans, particularly when you see how much of BP's shareholding is American.

[Mike_F]

Filo wrote:

What gets me about the yanks is their hypocrisy, the uproar they are causing over the BP oil well is a perfect example. They are all clambering for BP to be sued to the b*llocks! But go back a few years and look at the disaster in Bhopal India, a disaster that caused many deaths and deformities and what nationality was the company that ran the chemical plant in Bhopal, yep, you got it, American. How much in damages did this American company pay to India and the people of Bhopal?

I read a great analogy recently. It went along the lines of:

I walked into a McDonald's in Doncaster, England the other day, walked up to the English staff member and ordered a Big Mac. When I bit into it I found half a mouse. I went to the toilet to be sick and the door fell on my head. I'm now writing to the Government to demand a statement condemning America and its evil globalised corporations, despite the fact that the branch that caused the problem was built by British builders, operated by a British franchisee, and staffed entirely by British workers.

[coventryrover]

God!!! You always have to pick gaps dont ya:)

You'll be suggesting American christian rocks is shite too

[Wellington Vaults]

I get the impression that whilst there once may have been a \"special relationship\" between us and the Yanks, this is rapidly on the wane.  Yes, they may appreciate our arse-licking attitude towards them, but if we do stand-up to them, their attitude is that we can go whistle.

They don't need us, but if we are willing to let our troops die in support of their non-sensical foreign* policy, thats OK by them.

*And by foreign, as the average Yank is reluctant to leave their own state, this is bound to be self-centred.

[Filo]

On the BP oil spill, the blow out preventer, supplied and made by an American company failed, yet the American Government have deemed BP totally responsible for the oil spill If the explosion had never happened and that field was yielding millions of barrels of oil a year you can bet your life the Americans would have taken their cut, they issued the licence for BP to do the exploration, they knew the consequences if something went wrong, but they don`t want to take a share of the blame, even though America is the biggest consumer of oil based products in the world!

[Filo]

Mike_F wrote:

Filo wrote:

What gets me about the yanks is their hypocrisy, the uproar they are causing over the BP oil well is a perfect example. They are all clambering for BP to be sued to the b*llocks! But go back a few years and look at the disaster in Bhopal India, a disaster that caused many deaths and deformities and what nationality was the company that ran the chemical plant in Bhopal, yep, you got it, American. How much in damages did this American company pay to India and the people of Bhopal?

I read a great analogy recently. It went along the lines of:

I walked into a McDonald's in Doncaster, England the other day, walked up to the English staff member and ordered a Big Mac. When I bit into it I found half a mouse. I went to the toilet to be sick and the door fell on my head. I'm now writing to the Government to demand a statement condemning America and its evil globalised corporations, despite the fact that the branch that caused the problem was built by British builders, operated by a British franchisee, and staffed entirely by British workers.

Quality, and a perfect analogy  

[Mike_F]

Wellington Vaults wrote:

I get the impression that whilst there once may have been a \"special relationship\" between us and the Yanks, this is rapidly on the wane.  Yes, they may appreciate our arse-licking attitude towards them, but if we do stand-up to them, their attitude is that we can go whistle.

They don't need us, but if we are willing to let our troops die in support of their non-sensical foreign* policy, thats OK by them.

*And by foreign, as the average Yank is reluctant to leave their own state, this is bound to be self-centred.

America is subject to a terrorist attack: They declare war on terrorism and the axis of evil. We send our troops to join in.

Britain is subject to a terrorist attack: The U.S. government sends off another cheque to Sinn Fein.

Simplified I know but that sums up my opinion of their foreign policy. Those members of the general public trying to be as happy and successful in their lives and as good to others as they can be are unrepresented on both sides of the pond.

[Sheepskin Stu]

The influence the US has on the internet cannot be overstated.

[Pintolager]

Forget the Political slant on America, having been over there myself, I actually like the country and most of the people - they are a very friendly set of people by and large and like as been mentioned above, there is good and bad everywhere...especially in this country. The Yanks love the Brits and seem to love our accents and in my experience would try and help you whenever possible. I think it was Mike who mentioned standards of customer service in this country and how bad they are generally and the US beats us hands down - in fact I have only once experienced worse customer service and that was in Moscow, but you can forgive the Russkies because of their history!

I would certainly go back to the Staes one day.

[jucyberry]

From a personal point of view, my aunt was a G.I bride, and I absolutely adore my uncle. He is part native American, was a fire fighter on the oil rigs until he retired, was in a big rig fire whilst in service. from there he became a despatcher for the Tuttle sherrifs department. One of my big dreams is to go over to see them one day.

The only other American contact I have had recently is on an american dboard of  a slightly dodgy nature.. lol

Common sense tells me that these aren't your typical yanks, well, I hope they aren't anyway.. They hate everything and every one, most seem to be southeners..They hate having Obama as president, hate the Mexicans, muslims, welfare, I think they even hate women in their own perverse little way..
you name it, they bitch about it... It's like watching bugs in a petrie dish...lol You know me I'm an observer.

I don't like the way we seem to be embracing all that is tacky about the states... I really don't like the whole prom thing that has sprung up in the past few years..

Thats on a superficial level. Most of all I detest the way they have dragged us into their misbegotten war against the East. Their combination of blood and oil lust will destroy us all..Armageddon might well come from the East, but it will be helped on it's way by our 'friends' in the west.

[Thinwhiteduke]

Most people who hate America / Americans have never been there.

Thats all.

[I-was-there1976]

I hate it when they shout \"get in the hole \" when Tiger is driving 595 yards away from the green


I hope we stuff their fat faces in the Ryder Cup

As a country ive got about 10 other countries in my to do list before the US of A

Ive got a facebook friend from New Hampshire who has a great personality and i know a lass in Donny who is from Virginia. She is also a very nice person


Im sitting on the fence

[not on facebook]

from picking through the bones from above posts  it seems
america is top draw country to visit for a holiday but maybe not to live there.

i have never been interested in going to the states as iam happy enough trawling around europe.

alot of things have been said about the yanks that i agree with,it seems that if they deploy their troops enmass in the long its for their own good with oil and terrorists been main goals.

when the ira as at its peak and well before the yanks suffered
any terror attacks on home soil british government tried to get the yanks to denounce the ira,lots of money was been collected back in the states and sent to the ira to fund its needs.

the reason why no president would denounce the ira was the possible loss of votes which sums up the yanks.

after twin towers uncle sam woke up and smelt the coffee.

drug problem in usa,they keep looking across at mexico as thats where the main supply routes stem form,why dont the yanks do more on home soil front in the war on drugs.

as for the usa football team i cant just get my head round that one,now thats one team that does not warrant a starting
place of any sorts in world football.

[CusworthRovers]

I've never been to America, and never met a yank. I just get the feeling that America or the global system stemming from USA is trying to dumb down the rest of the Western World (and then the rest of the planet) through TV, Film, Internet etc etc.........that said if they didn't do it, somebody else would.

Our whole culture, vocabulary is changing and we are heading towards the 51st State of America.

That said, I still love 'Friends' and I've now moved from Team Edward to Team Jacob in the Twilight series.