Subject:
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Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Aug 1999 21:45:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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1856 times
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Simon (and all Europeans and Americans of similar thinking);
Simon Robinson wrote:
>
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jesse Long writes:
> In Europe, when we see that people are poor or suffering due to a brutal
> dictatorship or starving or having their human rights abused, our instinct
> is to say 'how can we help? What can our Governments do to help?'
Oh, yes, Europeans reactions to the whole Yugoslavia breakup has been stellar,
hasn't it? Or is it that Europeans screamed for America to spend our own troops
and money on it? Give me a break.
> People
> here may sometimes complain that they'd like lower taxes but that's
> always tempered with a recognition that we need to pay taxes in
> order to pay for maintaining a reasonably fair and stable community.
Oh yes, American cities and communities are crumbling under non-socialism. >:(
> We may use our cars lots but we generally recognise that something needs
> to be done about the resultant environmental problems etc.
Like what? The same people that are harping on global warming are the same
people who were preaching global cooling 20 years ago, and when they found that
that it wasn't politically moving, they switched to global warming. This endless
debate on global warming has a lot of scientists on both sides of the argument,
but I will throw out this fact. Mt. Peunitubo (SP?) in the southern Asian belt,
which erupted in the not too distant past, spewed out more CO2 than the entire
history of the industrial age. Think about that!
> We may not
> like it when politicians cheat on their wives but we recognize that doesn't
> really have any bearing on how good they are at their jobs.
Is everyone totally ignorant? I could care less if Bill Clinton has sex with one
hundred interns, because he is a morally bankrupt individual that doesn't stand
for anything. The entire incident revolved around him lying under oath in a
federal case, which is called perjury, which happens to be a felony in this
country under federal law, and he was caught. Under the law, he is therefore
unfit to be President. (In the Constitution, the president can not be a felon.)
> What we see coming from America on the news is a constant stream of
> 'We don't want to pay for this' or 'this is none of our business'
> or 'We don't want to help other countries'.
Um, we only give out billions of dollars every year to our allies, we send out
millions of dollars in aid (private and public funds) and we are greedy? Maybe
the American taxpayer is sick and tired of spending billions of dollars
overseas, with receiving hostile and even insulting messages back.
> Not only that, but we see reports
> of kids being sentenced to death,
Um, do you have specific examples, or is this another vague generalization? We
do not kill people because they are innocent. If you are tried as an adult,
where most kids that do heinous crimes are between 12-17, you pretty much know
what is right and wrong. If you do the crime, you should also be prepared to
suffer the consequences. Every murderer killed because of his crimes, is one
less murderer out of the publics way.
of guns being everywhere because
> Americans expect the right to have them.
Please, Please, Please read our Constitution, would you?!?!?!? This is the
biggest misperception in the universe. Under the second amendment of the
Constitution, "gives the citizens of the United States the right to bear arms."
We don't expect it, we were given it by the Founding Fathers. I suggest to all
of you who do not know our system of government, please look up the Constitution
to the United States, and our Bill of Rights, to see how our governments was set
up originally and how the citizens and such had certain inalienable rights. And
you wonder why Americans have such a poor perception of Europeans. From this
post, you don't know a whole lot about our country. It is relatively easy to
find on the internet, I have one myself in my suitcase.
> Of American churches distorting
> the Christian message into a right wing propaganda tool.
So, if a church has right wing members, it is a crime or something? Is being a
right-winger wrong, just because I have a different worldly view than certain
left wing socialists, liberals, communists, marxists, etc.? Maybe Christians are
tired of a secular approach to society, which has caused more poverty, more
depression, more out of marriage births, more drug use, more crime ridden
cities, etc.? Is this wrong? Well, I guess that's that, I am an evil right wing
conservative Christian, that dares to say there is a higher standard to life
than what the government dictates. Sue me. Is it a crime I attend church weekly,
where most of the people are common sense people, hence "right wingers?"
Maybe, just maybe, there are some things in the Bible that are totally
contradictory to today's leftist thinking. Maybe there are left-wing
atheists-extremists as well?
There are lots of liberal socialist left-wing churches in America as well. But I
am sure you wouldn't know that, either. Distorting the Christian message? How?
Do you have examples? Please be specific.
Of anti-gay
> and anti-any-minority-group prejudice.
Again, examples, or what does this mean? Being gay or homosexual or a minority
does not guarantee you special rights and privileges that discriminate others.
Period. Everyone is equal, under the law.
> Perhaps some of that isn't really true, but all those images do add up to
> create a very poor impression of Americans.
Ah, none of this is true. But as with most Americans, you seem to suck up
whatever the media says for truth, without researching it on your own. Try it
sometime, you might be surprised how off the media can be.
> Now like I say I am generalizing.
You are, very wrongly, I might add.
> I also think it's really a political
> thing. From Americans I've known personally I'd say that when it comes
> to *personal* life, most of you are very caring people. Possibly
> more so than people in the UK. But when it
> comes to politics, it's different. I've seen debates here on lugnet, where
> many Americans are saying about how they don't want to pay any taxes.
> In the political culture in America, I guess that sounds reasonable. But
> seen from a European perspective those postings just make you
> look incredibly selfish.
Just because spending taxpayers money on socialized programs does not mean it is
being generous to the "poor". Do you know that 7 out of every 10 dollars that
goes into the U.S. Welfare programs goes to run it, the bureaucracy? Is this
compassion? Selfish? See above quote. Just because we think the Federal
government has grown out of the bounds of the Constitution, and that is a
monstrosity that needs to be contained, we are selfish? The government is for
the People, in the constitution, not the bureaucracy that it is today. I think
European Governments are quite selfish and arrogant myself. My mom came from
Germany, and migrated here in the 60's. She told me some interesting tales of
life over there, I was there twice myself.
>
> That is IMO the reason why a lot of Europeans
> have such a poor view of Americans. It's got nothing to do with
> America's power or history, or the two World Wars, etc.
>
> OK - so how many people have I offended? <grin>
You only have shown me some people's misperceptions on America, offended me, no,
I am used to leftists saying how evil America is, but mostly from America
itself. I see their opinions are international, which to me, is very sad. :(
I really think some Europeans (I know there are exceptions) have a very
distorted view of how things are over here. Without being here, without being in
the political process, without seeing the actual debates, etc. and relying on
the media to give a picture of how this country is, and without seeing what a
positive impact that the United States has given this otherwise corrupted world,
I can see how people think like this. this post is a sample of supreme
ignorance, and I am not implying you, Simon, specifically, but as most Europeans
I have debated with.
I am sorry if I ruffled up some feathers here, but I refuse to sit and be silent
when so much information is 1)wrong, 2) misperceived, and 3) lacking in facts.
If you need further clarification, please feel free to e-mail me personally or
post it here, or to talk to Larry P., our resident expert in all things. I wish
you all a good night, and build some Lego's!
Sincerely,
Scott Sanburn
--
Scott E. Sanburn
CADD Operator, CADD Systems Administrator
Affiliated Engineers, Inc. Ann Arbor, MI
Work Page:
http://www.aeieng.com/
Home Page:
http://www.geocities.com/~legoguy712/index.html
Lego Page:
http://www.geocities.com/~legoguy712/legoindex.html
“The more people I meet, the more I like my Lego collection.”
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Message has 6 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep
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| (...) I've just seen some very strange answers to this question. Jesse, I think what you've written comes closest to the truth. Eric Kingsley was pretty close to the mark too. Coming from the UK, I think that yes it is true that *in general* many (...) (25 years ago, 25-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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