h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can someone explain this to me? I've been skimming through h2g2 for the past couple of weeks, and here and there I've come across quite a bit of "Yank bashing" I believe it's referred to.

Now, I have no intention of opening up a forum for rampant "Yank bashing", but I'm curious as to what the problem seems to be. Before discovering h2g2 I was never really aware of any animosity on behalf of the English, or any other nationality for that matter. I have never felt superior to anyone, nor have I felt inferior, in a general cosmic sense.

Not only that, but actually I am very curious about the English culture. I've got a soft spot for "British humor", which is a developed taste over here, hindered by the lack of available material. BBC America is only one channel, and darn it they don't run Red Dwarf

So what gives? Not being very worldly I can't claim to know what the prejudices against Americans are. But I feel like I'm an average American, just like any other average American, maybe I can dispel a few cultural myths (read that "stereotypes")?

You are absolutely right. They should bring back Red Dwarf. Also Dame Edna, Faulty Towers, and AbFab. The reason why they bash us so is because it's easiest to hit big targets. there's lots about the late great US of A not to like. (though it's still better than anywhere else.)

...Also Black Adder.
...And you have been mislead. The reason others bash the states so isn't because it's easiest to hit big targets. It's partially due to comments akin to,
"Though it's still better than anywhere else." -Neesey3PO

Ignroance is bliss. Patriotism is one thing, but arrogance is another. You could have left it at, "This is my favorite place," but no. You had to be "better" than thou. You DO realize that the U.S. has been built on the foundations of cultures with wider roots and that those wider roots have history dating before recorded time? You also then realize that those cultures built their OWN foundations and deserve their own merit to be recognized as defining factors that shaped present day America.

You were headed somewhere when you posted that the states were "big," but allow me to steer this in a better direction. The U.S. is a "big" island. With this as a truism it is perfectly logical for your thought of superiority to flourish. No one on an island has contact with the rest of civilization and as a result declares that it is in every form the end all be all of civilization. By and large the neighbors to the North are seen as the colder version of a reflecting pool, and to the South the dirty side of the pool. This is all unfounded naturally, but an accurate representation of how many Americans view the "rest," which is sad. Thankfully, there are exceptions to every rule and the culture isn't a waste.

It is a rare gem to find an American abroad who can adjust to the host nation's culture (i.e. respect customs, communicate basic phrases... but most of it is respect, which by and large most visitors are lacking.) More often than not, Americans storm into another country treating it like their resort and don't bother to read up on customs that are different than theirs. Then they complain when that country acts "less than hospitable." Can you blame them?

Then there are those that have never been off the "island" and regard all other countries considered as inferior and not worth experiencing. If it was worth experiencing it would be in America right? Indeed, mislead one. The Flat Earth Society will be meeting at Milliway's along with other factions of dilusional groups if you wish to pursue this misconception. Hopefully I have saved you the trip and widened the horizon.

Please refrain from making any further like comments such as the aforementioned as you are giving Americans a bad name.

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If Yank-bashing upsets you that much, join the Australian team and take up Kiwi-bahing instead.

Oops...
I mean "Kiwi-bashing" not "Kiwi-bahing".

For some reason when talking about NZ, my thought take on an ovine drift.

Who-oa guys. Lets change things a little here and look again:

"... You DO realize that BRITAIN has been built on the foundations of cultures with wider roots and that those wider roots have history dating before recorded time?

BRITAIN is a "big" island. With this as a truism it is perfectly logical for your thought of superiority to flourish.

No one on an island has contact with the rest of civilization and as a result declares that it is in every form the end all be all of civilization. By and large the neighbors to the North are seen as the colder version of a reflecting pool, and to the South the dirty side of the pool.

This is all unfounded naturally, but an accurate representation of how many BRITAINS view the "rest," which is sad. Thankfully, there are exceptions to every rule and the culture isn't a waste.

It is a rare gem to find A BRITON abroad who can adjust to the host nation's culture (i.e. respect customs, communicate basic phrases... but most of it is respect, which by and large most visitors are lacking.)

More often than not, BRITONS storm into another country treating it like their resort and don't bother to read up on customs that are different than theirs. Then they complain when that country acts "less than hospitable." Can you blame them?

Then there are those that have never been off the "island" and regard all other countries considered as inferior and not worth experiencing. ...

Please refrain from making any further like comments such as the aforementioned as you are giving BRITONS a bad name."

Americans are possesed of a great sense of pride in America, and in American culture (sweeping generalization but there we go). To non Americans this comes across as disrespectful and arrogant...

I could list many traits which everyone this side of the pond would recognise as "American". They are of course extreme generalisations, but they are seen by us in many Americans. We know you're not all like this, but these are the ones that annoy us:

- unable to detect sarcasm
- unknowledgeable about things outside America
- think big is good
- unknowledgeable about history, ie anything before about 1900
- fat
- talk in loud voices
- specialist subject: stating the bleedin' obvious

Of course many of these traits apply to European nations: Italians without a doubt talk in loud voices, for example. But the "Cartoon American" has them all.

But it deminishes the thinker to think in generalisations. In other words both the bashers and the bashees are losers in this one. Americans are people too. And as I indicated in the previous post, the Brits take some beating when it comes to self-absorbed arrogance.

Absolutely!

The Brits are just as bad. I'm Irish!

Stop stop stop --- please give your geographical position and nationality before sending off postings with things like "we" or "this side of the pond in".

So - I live in Germany and am English. Also British. I get on fine with most of the Americans I've met. And the Irish. We're all together here in one small group of friends and the only common denominator on the face of it is that we speak English, but we get on great. Americans here are perhaps a bit different, mainly because by the time they get to Germany they have realised that there are other countries with other languages, customs and currencies (something experience has proved is not to be taken for granted). Please also refer to the forum "Why do the English hate the French" - you can apply a lot of the generalisations liberally to Brits, Aussies, Yanks and French, etc., etc., etc.

Any of these nationalities (and the Germans) are unbearable in a group. Individuals are fine. O God, I've just thought of groups of Japanese. I can't imagine them ripping wingmirrors off cars, but they are still an amazing phenomenon and nobody likes them.

The Americans are at a disadvantage because they are not taught anything at school. Look at the history curriculum there.

I used to love Jay Leno's quizzes he did on the street. Especially when not one single person questioned could answer this one:

"July 4 is Independence Day. Independence from whom?"

There is also somewhere on H2G2 a collection of questions people have been asked by Americans: "Do you have fridges in Germany", "our best cars are Mercedes and Porsche, do you have them in Germany?" etc., etc.

I heard that they didn't export the brilliant series "Fitz" with Robbie Coltrane to the States because it would confuse them with people driving on the left and various other things in the programmes, so they had to go and make their own copy. The rest of the world is fed ad nauseam with American way of life. Nobody has ever caused an accident in England because they just watched an American film where the cars were driving on the right. Are Americans being forced to be ignorant or what? and by whom? The Government, the board of censors or the television companies?

I agree that we brits are as bad as our americans cousins but I think that is the main reason that the yank bashing takes place.
We are rapidly becoming so much like them in many respects that we want to appear to put as much distance between us and them as possible. This would include telling people how much we don't like them and what they represent

There's nothing wrong with Americans, French people or Germans...but there is something terribly wrong about tour groups. Unfortunately we tend to encounter other nationalities as parts of a tour group and thus are our prejudices formed.

I have no problems with Americans per say but I have a problem with anyone who calls themselves e.g Irish just because some ancestor once visited there.
My Great Grandmother was from Brittany but it doesn't make me French.

Despite the list given above, I also have no problem at all with Americans. I enjoyed my one and only visit to the States, last year, in which I confined myself to Massachusetts. Everybody I met there was helpful, friendly, and as knowledgeable as anybody else.

But they do talk in loud voices.

And I did encounter a number of extremely fat people, the like of which I have never seen before.

I went to the USA two years ago and went to Boston, New Jersey and New york and met the same people.

I know some very nice Americans....

Question: Am I wrong to feel *ashamed* sometimes about being British?

Some fat people are nice.

Some loud people are nice.

Some americans are nice.

Some Brits are fat.

Some Brits are nice.

Some Brits are loud.

Some of the above are any, all three or not.

Perhaps you are not ashamed, just more enlightened than other British. These people then embarrass you, but they, not being enlightened, don't know that, or couldn't care less. You must then make an effort (No, I'm sure you don't have to make an effort, you're no doubt a great bloke) but you must take care that people you converse with realise that you are not like that, thus modifying their general view of the British.

I once let rip at H2G2 because I was ashamed of the insularity - something I often come across everywhere - of the stipulation in the Guide Editorial Guidelines that Entries should be written in British English. Why? If an American sits down and writes an entry, including some words that are written differently in BE, how is he to know they're spelt differently in GB? Intuition? If he uses the correct spelling US or Canadian-style, as he learnt it at school, why should that not be enough? I can't think of a single American spelling that changes the meaning when read by a Briton. Whole words, yes. But just because he only puts one "l" in "travelling"?

The British are often very arrogant. They often show no awareness of the fact that other people may not understand what they say. I would contend that English is the language which, when spoken, diverges most greatly from the written version, or that spoken in schools. At international meetings where the lingua franca is English, it's usually the British/American/South African/Australian contingent that no one can understand. Italians, French, Germans, Japanese, whatever, can all converse very happily in English. Chuck in an anglophone and he doesn't understand them (or try to) and they (who are making all efforts to get this conversation right) can't understand him.

I have also seen Germans do this. Mainly it is a question of education, upbringing and monolingualism, narrow horizons, - fear?

And please excuse all generalisations, but without them these conversations would be pointless.