Americans

[con-amca]

Why do so many people in Britain dislike Americans so much? I have worked with them, mixed socially with them, visited them in their homes, and always I have found them very much the same as us. They are friendly, generous to a fault, and most of them (that I have met) are very much Anglophile. The only exceptions have been a few, a very few, of Irish descent, and perhaps that is understandable. Perhaps the most striking difference is their use of the language. But we can scarcely complain of that - after all, we soon latch on to their phrases and sayings and use them ourselves. Perhaps the faults, imagined or otherwise, of their politics and government are to blame. But do not forget that they have twice in the twentieth century come to our aid in world wars. We welcomed their soldiers then, and many of us fought alongside them. They were on our side during the Falklands war too, and provided much intelligence, albeit covertly for the most part. I for one find it very sad, and largely unreasoning, that there is so much anti-Americanism in Britain today.

[naomi24]

I like them, and in my experience a lot of them dislike their president and their government just as much as many of us do.

[pastafreak]

this ex-pat agrees wholeheartedly with you naomi----whenever I am in touch with my brother inNY he asks what I think of "our crazy president" ...not a lot I admit! Maybe that is why we are HERE! The many yanks here don't always represent the opinions "over there"....I know that my ideas and view of the world has changed drastically since i arrived so long ago. but i was married to a brit which probably contributed to my changing world view...many americans are rather isolated and see the rest of the world revolving around them.

[angeldraws]

I guess it's because so many of them are 'up their own back-side'!!! I personally can't stand their 'aren't we great' attitude that's often portrayed on TV, their dramatisation of trivia, their over-enthusiasm for their 'god,' their self-righteousness, arrogance, sometimes stupidity, but most of all i can't their president. T W A T is meant to be The War Against Terror - but i think it aptly describes their leader!!
Just my opinion - and only because you asked - yet if i met a yank individually, i would probably really like them....it's just that 'Americans as a whole' thing.

[pastafreak]

well,angeldraws...I'm one of them and I don't like any of that rubbish either.....and i am certainly NOT up my own ...! I can be seriously embarrassed by my fellow countrymen! my english ex-husband warned me that it would be like that...he spent 11 years in the states being embarrassed by brits--so there! We are not all the same so don't believe everything u see on the telly. I certainly don't believe that all brits are polite and curtsey (do you?)

[naomi24]

Well, from angeldraw's response you can see why people have this negative perception of Americans. They don't actually know many (if any!) Americans, but they know all the TV programmes!

[Lonnie]

I love the Americans, I think, on the whole, those people are jealous of them, as a nation, they're the worlds top power, a position we were in not so long ago.

Marvellous people, whose up for britain becoming the 51st state?.

[pastafreak]

oh no, Lonnie,you don't want to do that...stay as independent as possible! should do what the italians do and keep your country as free as you can of 'outside 'influences....accept that people of other ethnic,religous or cultural traditions will settle here...but hang on to those things that are "english"......hah!...should never have let macdonalds in-its the beginning of the end!!!

[shanx]

i agree with caz,i think you have to have a happy medium and draw the line,some times i agree with america and sometimes i feel they go over the top,but there again its the same in this country,please dont judge me by this comment i have a son in law english, daughter in law scotish, and i am welsh love them both equal,and treat them the same,but when i go to london to visit i feel hostility because we are welsh why

[ReinaLuna]

pastafreak!
Each time I read a post from you, I like you more, girl!! :o)
I think as an American yourself, you said everything, the bad impression the yanks can give is exactly this "arrogant" behaviour, which is usually a GENERAL image we have from USA people.

For example in Brasil we dislike Americans (again, in general, because I made friends with Americans many times already) because of their stupid questions such as "do you have monkeys walking your street?" and nonsense like that... they don't seem to learn in the school that there is a world out there apart from the USA. Thing is, ALL Americans I knew personally and had a closer contact were exactly the opposite of that! They were in university, they were interested in knowing more about us, and quite friendly.

So, I think the problem here is the very old one: STEREOTYPES... each country has one... some guys will follow it and make you think the stereotype is so d*a*m*n right, whereas others will be so nice and different, that getting to know them is a beautiful surprise!

[pastafreak]

yeh....stereotypes!!! like all brasilians live on the beach....the women are 6ft tall amazonians who live in bikinis....or italian men are bottom grabbers.....or the most current one-that all muslims are terrorists! stops us from learning what people-individually and as nations-are REALLY like

[Lonnie]

pastafreak, that was tongue in cheek, I agree with the independence bit, would you like to pass that on to our goverment?,

[jake-the-peg]

I work with Americans and Europeans on a daily basis.

I have to tell you there is significant minority who are desperately trying to live the bumptious, overbearing stereotype.

I guess that begs the question of how prevalent a trend has to be before it stops being a stereotype!

Culturally I've always felt closer to most of my European colleagues than my American ones.

Politically I think you do have to remember that The Americans have sometimes been on our side and sometimes not - Suez is a significant case in point when they threatened to sell the pound wholesale if we didn't withdraw.

But what has caused the major degree of anti-american feeling is mostly the incredible arrogance in which the US has consistently decided to interfere in other countries internal affairs - I could give you a long, long list but Vietnam, Iran-Contra, and Iraq are a few highlights.

I certainly don't think anti-americanism is unreasoning but I do think it's sometimes poorly considered - after all most of these happened under republican administrations and so laying it at the door of the American people in general is a but like blaming all of Argentina for the Falklands crisis

[angeldraws]

Just to clarify - i did say 'most' - not 'all'.....
Also, when i made reference to TV, i did not mean fictional programmes - i meant news/documentary programmes - sorry for any confusion.

I would like to add that the question was referring to Americans - and had the same question been asked regarding Brits/English, whatever - then i probably would've made much the same comments as Pastafreak & caz made about Brits - they're not all polite, we don't much like those who have no respect for others let alone themselves, i agree (tho' not with the 'hate' part).... Personally, i am ashamed to be British - there goes MY patriotism! - but that was not the question.
Please re-read the last paragraph of my previous reply.

[Octavius]

Perhaps it is because they always manage to re-write history to make themselves the heroes, as is evident from many Hollywood films (particularly war ones) and their modern-day attempts (yes I know we do it /did it for hundreds of years blah blah) to Westernise the whole world to the democratic ideals of the American dream (globilisation / McDonaldisation / Starbucks-isation etc etc).

I have nothing against Americans, some of the accents are annoying, but then to me so is scouse and novocastrian.

[Bellringer]

Octo! You mean Geordie.
As to Americans, my step-son married an American and after several visits I can only approve of 'most' of their way of life. I wish most of us were as patriotic and as law abiding. the steets are clean and everyone is polite and friendly to each other (this is in the south). My daughter-in-law even appreciates my sense of humour.
Someitmes loud they may be, but by and large nice to know.

[con-amca]

(1)

It seems that the dislike of things American is directed
not towards the man-in-the-street, but to the last couple
of administrations, and to the current president in
particular. This must be because of the Gulf and Iraqi
wars and their aftermath. For much the same reason
Blair and his government are disliked, but their are other
factors with Blair and his ministers.

These include their handling of affairs affecting the
British public in general: the economy, the NHS, the transport system, the armed forces, the police, the
justice system. All of these have been adversely
affected, not to say almost ruined, by ten years of New Labour, despite heavy taxation. The latest addition to
this sorry inventory is the pensions scandal.

The irony is, of course, that none of this would have
happened under Old Labour - or at least, not to this
extent - and that the only alternative, David Cameron's Conservatives, shows every sign of carrying on where
Blair leaves off.

continued>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[con-amca]

(2)

Bush led the Americans into an unpopular war (though
was it unpopular to begin with? Or has it become
unpopular because everything went wrong?) I think it
fair to say that not many people in Britain know
anything of the Bush administration's handling of the
American economy and institutions. Perhaps their
record in this respect is very good. Would one of our
American friends like to comment on this?

We have criticisms of some ordinary Americans -
their arrogance, their ignorance of the world outside
the U.S. (monkeys in the streets in Brazil), their
"dramatisation of trivia" (cf. our "celebrity"-worship),
their self-righteousness (though this might be a
manifestation of national confidence - not a bad thing).
I'm not sure what is meant by "up their own backsides",
and I don't think I want to know either. It sounds pretty
awful! But having said all that, their are some nasty
criticisms to be directed at some of us British. And I
don't think I need to go into any detail.

On the whole, at least among those ABers who have
responded (I thank you for that), most don't seem to
dislike the American people. Which is how it should
be - they are not so different from ourselves

[ReinaLuna]

I just remembered something I don't like from Americans... it's silly, I know, but it irritates me a lot. The fact they call themselves AMERICA.
I mean, the official name of the country is United States of America so why when you ask "where do you come from?" they can't answer as "United States"? or USA? no, they will say "I am from America."
Enough that their nationality is already called americans, which is geografically wrong.
I am a south american so, AMERICA is not only USA, is the whole continent, but they usually seem to forget about that...
A friend of mine who's been in high school there for 2 years said they only study their own history, their states, etc - so it might be the education system that lead the "Americans" in general to know nothing about other countries...