Originally posted by mike2119Support your armed forces; feed a military vehicle some hay…
Hmm, can't spell "Croatian" and insulting others...not very bright at all stupido! I am sad to say that an idiot like yourself has a bit (phew, just a tiny bit!) of the same origins as me...SAD!!! Anyway, I will not tolerate you calling me a dimwit you American loser...so, I suggest you don't; capish! Oh, and you seem to suck in chess too; Poor you, I guess it's not easy being inferior but don't give up! Ciao, Mike2119
Don’t you have some maple syrup to make or something? Hockey game you should be watching?? Eh? What's that all aboot???
P-[b]
Originally posted by RagnorakJust recently watched this old John Wayne movie called Hondo. You might want to have a look at it, since it is just one of a number of movies that defy your stereotype....
This distortion of facts to suit agendas carried on to this day. Think of cowboy and indian movies that you watched as a child. They always made you root for the poor whiteman over the terrifying Indian. Unfortunately, images of the whiteman committing massacres of women and children and continually reneging on deals with the natives doesn't make very go ...[text shortened]... he barbaric ones during the frontier days, which couldn't really be further from the truth.
If I can weigh in just bit on this whole American thing....
I've been an American for a while now, and I've lived in America for most of my life. I have lived overseas for a bit, and I've had some face-to-face interactions with folks from all over the world. I study people, and I make mental observations about their world-view and their approach to life. One of the things that's really interesting to me is how many people from places other than the US (particularly, it seems to me, Europeans) have very definite opinions of the US - quite frequently negative - and what's even more interesting is how they seem to think that people in the US actually care about their opinions.
Do Germans, or Brits, or the Dutch really give a flip what Americans think of them? Why then do they think that Americans give a flip about their opinions? Yet people wax eloquent on how terrible Americans are (particularly their politicians, or their media, or their military, yada yada yada).
But what's interesting is that when you get away from the stereotypes and you start looking at individuals, the opinions change. And that's what matters. Americans are just like the people in the rest of the world - diverse. For every stereotype, and every personality characteristic you want to bring up, you can find an awful lot of Americans who match it, and an awful lot of Americans who don't look anythink like it. Just like the Germans, and Brits, and Dutch, etc., Americans don't like to be stereotyped and generally don't fit the stereotypes that people try to throw at them.
Angie - in an honest attempt to answer your question, I think you need to look at what the "frontier" was all about. From the early 1600's until the early 1900's America always had a "frontier." There was always a place that was wild and challenging, and to the resourceful and courageous (and sometimes cruel and vicious) a place of great profit. The frontier benefited the risk-taker, the hard worker, and the lucky. Sometimes it benefited the violent, and sometimes it benefited the peace-maker. Sometimes it benefited the opportunist. In general, the frontier represented - and to a certain extent still represents - the opprtunity for the dreamer, the adventurer, the entrepeneur, and the diligent. Were there evil people and evil deeds associated with the frontier? Sure - just like everywhere else in America and in the world in general. Does that evil generally describe the frontier during those three centuries? No more than it describes the rest of America and the world.
I think, in general, the impact of having a "frontier" for 3 centuries of American life taught Americans to value hard work, to take risks, and to look for challenges. I think it taught Americans to never be completely comfortable with life and the way things are, and to always strive for something more and/or better (that can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how, when, and where it's applied). I think it taught Americans a certain sense of self-reliance (what our European friends might characterize as isolationism or a "cowboy" mentality), which once again can be both good and bad.
That's just my opinion as an American who's had a chance to get to know some non-Americans up close and personal in my brief time on this planet. It's an interesting world, and I think we could all benefit from a little more cross-polinization. Our European buddies might actually come to like us a little better if they came over here and met some real folks rather than forming their opinions based on our media (afterall, we have even less respect for our media than they do - just look at the polls). (And as for Shav's comments about Americans - I'll bet he'd collect similar data from small-town folks in just about any part of the world, not just Wisconsin.)
Originally posted by shavixmirI don't disagree that we mistreated the Native Americans, no less than I agre that Europe killed 6,000,000 Jews.....there weren't that many Native Americans in the whole universe; today, you people (Europeans) are still persecuting the Jews, in preparation for Halocaust II. Today, Native Americans have casinos and enjoy Capitalism....
Oh.
The famous American work ethic of slaving your guts out 50 weeks a year (2 weeks vacation), generally more than 40 hours a week...to make someone else richer...
Yes. I wonder why we left that ethic behind...
And I did enjoy your silence on the native American issue... 😉
Originally posted by RagnorakWhy can't you just shut your cake-hole or talk about positive aspects of America, you jealous sad example of an Irishman....can you think of anything?....Isn't your brain is more engaged than than your sphincter, no?
That's what I thought.
1 thing I can think of that they learned in the frontier days is the importance of using the media to distort factual occurances to appear in a better light for the american way of life.
Like, for example the genocide of the indians back in the frontier days. I've noticed a lot of americans (probably the same ones who think tha ...[text shortened]... s been lead through misinformation in the media.
Hope it helps, somewhat.
D