Why are Americans Rude?

[AmRivlin]

I was born in the United States, and both my parents were. Recently I have been meeting people from other countries, and one individual we will call "Salah" asked me why we Americans shy away from him. He explained that some people turn away when passing by or in the event of conversation end it or ignore him. He is actually an interesting individual. Many people do not understand so they fear... I realize that Americans are extremely stuck in their ways and very racist even if you claim not to be. I feel our deepest fall is Media, NBC CBS ABC CNN MSNBC, they all report truthfull news, but do not reflect the entire story...Osama Bin Ladin...that name sounds bad, and is quite possible that he does cause harm, yet there has never been proof. We are so quick to point a finger at someone we don't take the time to think... Whether it is Race, Sex, Religion who gives a sh|t! GROW UP AMERICA, I guarentee if we took any test from say Turkey and the US Turkey participants would score better. In other countries people can not ignore English and the dollar, but without going to goolge and such, name the currency of OMAN, exactally. We may be high and mighty, but we should not rest on our laurls?.

I know this became a mini rant, but it is a cold truth.

[NiceMann]

Thats sad. I feel for your friend...but I have seen it so often. America does need to grow up. To me it doesn't matter what race you are. I could care less what your religion is (or if you even have one). The only time sex matters to me is when I am out on a date....thats the only time I expect for the other person to be female. I guess some people in American will always be racists and rude. All we can do is try not to be ourselves.

~NiceMann

[renots]

I'd say it was the milk (http://www.notmilk.com/)

;0)

[Edited by renots on 09-21-2000 at 02:22 PM]

[renots]

Originally posted by AmRivlin
name the currency of OMAN, exactally.

why, unless I was visiting OMAN, would I need to know the currency? Is there really cool hardware or software that I can only get in OMAN? Are there pay websites that only take Rial Omani?

;0)

[johnnymk]

I will bet that Americans are more tolerant than most of the world. After all, that new time religion, called tolerance has been forced down our throats for such a long time that we have pretty much accepted it. I will bet that other countries have a harder time accepting immigrants than we do.

[Nanotech9]

I lived in the Canary Is. (part of Spain, located off the NW coast of the hump of Africa) Many (if not most) spanish people disliked or even hated americans. They only tolerated them because americans and other foreigners provide a BIG chunck of the revenue on the islands through tourism. (about 2 million people go through there every year.)

Then they trave to the US to get a good education and come back to their country and talk trash about the US... kinda makes ya' wonder.

[helius]

Originally posted by Nanotech9
I lived in the Canary Is. (part of Spain, located off the NW coast of the hump of Africa) Many (if not most) spanish people disliked or even hated americans. They only tolerated them because americans and other foreigners provide a BIG chunck of the revenue on the islands through tourism. (about 2 million people go through there every year.)

Then they trave to the US to get a good education and come back to their country and talk trash about the US... kinda makes ya' wonder.


I don't think they talk trash about the US... but rather Americans. The typical American is rather ignorant of just about everything non-American[1]. Anyhow, in any given group of people, there're always idiots who're way too sure of themselves. Ignorant self-important idiots are the ones people remember - not the normal/nice ones[2].

I don't think I need to say anything about the reputation American tourists have... :D



[1] In fact, wasn't there a survey done a while back, which found that most American students (high school I think) don't know where the good ole USofA is on a world map.

[helius]

Doesn't "Salah" mean wrong or something in Indonesian? ;)

[pennypinch]

I think what some of the above posts describe is not tolerance of others, but the international distaste of Americans. If you ever travel abroad, one of the tips they tell is to pretend you're Canadian (btw, enough with the Canadian jokes...). Frankly, having traveled quite a bit, it's often embarassing to see other American's acting like they're in a mental hospital instead of another country. Yelling, simplified sentence structures: they talk to people of different countries like they're idiots. Further, the condescending nature they have towards anything non-American is disgusting.
That said, there are regular news stories about other countries' intolerance of immigration, and certainly not only in third world countries: Germany and some other Western European countries still harbour strong anti-immigration policies. In fact, wasn't an ex-Nazi supporter recently elected to the prime minister's post in Belgium (I'm probably wrong about the country).
I'd say American's give themselves a bad name, thereby creating the intolerance of Americans specifically, but in terms of general intolerance, we're probably not that far up the ladder.

[Butch]

Q - What do you call someone who speaks three languages??
A - Trilingual

Q - What do you call someone who speaks two languages??
A - Bilingual

Q - What do you call someone who speaks one language??
A - AMERICAN

I have to agree with the "ignorant" american stereotypes. Americans know FAR less about global issues than citizens of other developed countries. However, in defense of the "ignorant" american, we don't really HAVE to know that much about everyone else since we ARE in the dominant position. It is hardly a justification, but it is an excuse . . .

Oh yeah - PENNY, the country was Austria

[revil]

Originally posted by NiceMann
The only time sex matters to me is when I am out on a date...
that's strange, sex matters to me all the time, i just can't stop thinking about it.


Originally posted by Butch
Americans know FAR less about global issues than citizens of other developed countries.
I know, that's why I hate the news on broadcast tv. it's all local, and when they run out of local news the talk about something even stupider than they were talking about before. the only world news show in my area is on one channel for 30 mins, while local news is on 5 channels for 6 hours (total of all the shows) you'd think it would be the other way around since the local area is just a small part of the world. -just another reason not to watch tv-

[KornKob]

Let's accuse Americans as a whole of being biased and believing in negative racial sterotypes because we all know that if you sterotype a group of people that helps them change and shows how unbiased you are.

Ah-- the joys of nationalism. Now are we going to get into the age old 'you are corrupting the English language' BS as well (never mind that English is a mish mash of different languages itself).

[att]

what the hell are you talkin about? americans rude? shut up you f'n loser, i'm gonna kick you in the nuts!
hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate, arrrrrrr!

i dont think i'm rude, just insensitaive and desensitized to any form of community that reaches past my demographic. i speak other langauges, and have travelled around the country a lot, but not outside of our country yet, and its the same everywhere, people in general are not interested in new or unfamiliar things or people. unless you have something to tie you to another person -ie, skateboarders, smokers, druggies, sluts- these poeple-and i'm not sayin where i fit in!-gravitate towards each other and get along because they have hobbies that involve socializing to further your experience. i dont know what else to say i'm tired, never mind................

[johnnymk]

When people say that they are not prejudiced, it really makes me gag. What a phony statement.!! Just let them talk long enough and you will find out how prejudiced they are. If it's not color, race, etc. it will be something. It's a part of human nature.

[mahalo]

WHAAzzzzzUPPP!!!!!!

USA USA USA USA USA!!!!!

[LPMiller]

everyone is rude. People, as a rule, suck.

We ain't any different then anyone else. What should we be british? We are what we are...we have to accept them for their rudeness and attitude problems, they ought to be able to handle the fact that we talk loud and drink lousy beer.