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

I was thinking today about the difference in patriotism between that practised in the US and that practiced in the UK. The patriotism we get shown, in the UK, from the US is the U.S.A. chanting flag waving national anthem singing veriety. Where as in the UK we tend not to do stuff like that. We tend to only sing the national anthem and wave flags at 'official' events and functions and other than football fans, who also wave flags and stuff and don't count, we very rarely chant. Also the chanting, flag waving etc. seem to be a new thing which appears to be something we're importing from the US.

The conclusion I came to as to the reasoning behind this is that the US is trying to convince themselves and everyone else how great they are where as we, the UK, already know that we're the greatest nation in the world and anyone who's opinion matters already knows this and so doesn't need to be told.

It's a bit like how we usedbe with jewellery. It always used to be very plain and understated as anyone who needed to know how expensive it was would know, where as there is a distressing trend to wear gaudy, vugar and generaly tastelessly overstated jewwellery which I can only think is the fault of the US and people like Victoria Beckham.

I agree

ditto

that true

"other than football fans, who also wave flags and stuff and don't count"

Why don't football fans count? Just out of interest?

It depends on the football (association) fans really. The one's that act like USians at the wrestling don't count because they're disqualified from being british because of their behaviour. Those soccer fans, however, who do not act like pillocks do still count.

It is merely unfortunate that the pillock type of soccer fan is driving the non-pillock type towards extinction.

Aha! So any examples that don't fit into your schema don't count.

Saying that - you also get racist people (atleast in the UK) who display British flags.

I remember reading a debate (not sure where) based on whether people were afraid to display the national flag because it was felt that those who displayed flags were racist.

This is an extremely small minded and fallacious arguement, starting with "The patriotism we get shown, in the UK, from the US is ...blah blah blah"

You know what people get shown in the US? Same crap, happening in the UK.

Stop believing the propaganda you're brainwashed into, and think for a second or two.

Think about why your media shows clips of people in the US being what you call patriotic.

It has nothing to do with the US, or being number one.
Think about why you don't see clips of Brits being patriotic.

(And yeah, I did try to think of nicer ways to put this, but if you actually believe what you're being told to, than you deserve to hear it straight.)

Yeah, I did take pains to point out at the very start that I was basing my conclusions on limited data, you muppet.

Oh and we get shown the same kind of USian 'patriotism' by both USian shows and British.

In fact it is the US shows that show it more

"It is merely unfortunate that the pillock type of soccer fan is driving the non-pillock type towards extinction."

You might be right in that assumption. That's if you are actually writing from the late 1970s. However, seeing as you aren't I'd probably work on justifying that (and a few other) claim...

Psy, I'm sure that at leeds matches, it is Leeds you suport, yes? Anyway I don't doubt that at Leeds matches everyone sits watching the match sensibly, occasionally cheering at apropriate moments. However at laa the football matches I've been to, and I've been to quite a few and seen many different teams playing, the behaviour of the 'fans' is much like that of the less inteligent veriety of Chav. I've heard 'fans' chanting threats, I've heard 'fans' chanting abuse and I've heard 'fans' singing extremely offensive songs.

Now I've put the word fans in ' ' specificaly because I'm not sure that the people concerned are really fans of the game and not just there to be abusive to as many people as possible.