# A (quasi-political) McDonalds question for non-U.S. dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2002, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072 "2002-04-22T23:44:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072/21 "2002-04-23T14:10:52Z")
i’m australian, and i’m really not up on the political issues relating to mcdonalds. which is odd, since i’m up on every other lefty cause out there. i’ve never known a time where australia hasn’t had macca’s - our first one opened over ten years before i was born, so i really don’t see it as an american invasion of australia. my main complaint with macca’s is that the food is shithouse. i never eat there, which is actually useful, because it helps me seem concerned about all the issues that i know nothing about. 🙂 i find it too simplistic to paint ‘the americanisation of australian culture’ as a bad thing, and leave it at that. i prefer to think that an intelligent society will pick + choose the best bits from cultures it comes in to contact with, and that is happening to some extent in australia - while there is the ever prevalent impact of americana, i find some elements of the british culture remaining from our colonial days just as repulsive. on the other hand, other parts are delightful. interestingly, a lot of the time when people refer to the ‘proper’ ‘australian’ way of doing things, as opposed to the ‘wrong’ ‘american’ way, they are actually referring to the british way. i see no reason why i should tie myself to england any more than i should to the u.s, so i make decisions for myself. for instance, i much prefer the american word ‘fall’ over the generally used australian ‘autumn’. this does not mean that i consider american culture superior to that of australia. i just like the word ‘fall’ better. it’s wonderfully descriptive, and to me it evokes a decline from the peak of summer. but i still walk on the footpath, not the sidewalk, hate maths rather than math and live in nyoo-carstle, as opposed to noo-cassel. > [@](#): > > I guess it comes down to the fact that I don’t like it that Australians (especially kids) seem to have a massive inferiority complex about America (and most of the rest of the world), and don’t realise that Australia is a wonderful country. Maccas isn’t the cause, but they’re a symptom. i like australia, i do think it’s a wonderful country, but that doesn’t mean i’m going to ignore its obvious faults. i can’t stand many elements of australian culutre: the glorification of the outback, the drover and the digger; the ‘tall poppy’ syndrome, where anyone successful is frowned upon and ‘cut down’; the anti-intellectualism; the glorification of the ocker and the despicable racism of much of the population recently. i can’t pretend that australian culture is the best in the world, and because of this it may be seen that i don’t appreciate my country. but i really do love it, i’m just aware of its inadequacies, and i have to look elsewhere to compensate for them. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072/22 "2002-04-23T14:33:57Z")
I don’t have any problem with McDonald’s. The food is fattening; well, so is chocolate, and I don’t have any problem with Switzerland, either. If a local person can make some money starting a franchise and can give some kids some part time jobs, terrific. And I like McNuggets. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072/23 "2002-04-23T23:52:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > **Damn, when your luncheon options include a pork pie and a pint of Bass at the local and the best Indian takeout outside of New Delhi, why are you Brits even THINKING of eating US-imported fast food?** Couldn’t agree more. The humble pork pie is truly a wonderous thing. (I live just down the road from Melton Mowbry, home of the pork pie :D) As to McDonald’s - I think it’s an injustice that a country the size of Oregon has over 1,000 of the damn places but (to the best of my knowledge) no Wendy’s. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072/24 "2002-04-24T03:22:28Z")
No real opinion about it. It’s been in Japan for about 30 years, so all the people here my age or younger have had it around for their entire lives, and most seem to accept and enjoy it. There’s also pretty healthy (so to speak) competition from Japanese chains, so the whole “cultural imperialism” argument rings kind of hollow to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quasi-political-mcdonalds-question-for-non-u-s-dopers/105072.md?page=1)