Thursday, May 18, 2006

axis of ungratefulness

Thankless human bastards
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5 comments:

Tecumseh said...

It's all Bush's fault! If only Jean-François (the sire of Louisbourg Square) had been elected President, they would sing hosannas to the US. Yeah, right.

5/18/2006 8:29 AM
The Darkroom said...

i think the point of the article is precisely that it isn't just anti-bush. traveling americans have much to do (IMO) with this.

5/18/2006 8:53 AM
Tecumseh said...

Oh, yes, The Ugly American: an old story. There is something to it, I must say, but mostly it's a canard.

5/18/2006 12:12 PM
Mr roT said...

The dumbass French in Italy are worse than any drunk college idiot from the US I have seen. The Germans? Fuggedaboutit.

5/18/2006 3:29 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...

Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.

Well, I'd agree that Americans can be rude. Yet I wonder if those who were asked to comment on Americans actually know America?

For example, I had a chat with a Norwegian exchange student some months ago. It was his first time in the States, and I asked him what his initial impressions were in contrast to what he thought at the time we were chatting.

He said he initially believed in similar things: that he thought Americans were rude, and this country was taking horrible advantage of the rest of the world.

However, after a time in America, he said he was completely shocked by the hospitality he was encountering within America, and he was also amazed by how different the people were in various regions.

We all tend to have some type of myth established as to what the unknown is like, and that usually stands in pretty stark contrast to the reality of any situation.

5/20/2006 8:55 AM

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