coughJFKjrcoughcough
Sorry, got something stuck in my throat there.
Regards,
Shodan
Sure…lots of really stupid, provincial, piss-ignorant Americans who get their information from prime-time television. They also think the French all wear berets and striped shirts and eat frogs, and every German sports a monocle and goose-steps around his apartment, and all the Irish are Leprechauns.
I was really surprised to see a comment like that coming out of Libertarian, though.
Just the ones who took my testimony as an opportunity to live out the very stereotype that I thought I had learned was false. I was sharing what I thought was a positive experience — a change of heart and mind, and got submarined by people who prefered to smear me for what I used to think. I’m still a bit stunned.
Of course, you see the whole thing differently. Some bizarre thing about me being a racist or whatever. But even that absurd accusation wasn’t enough for you. Now, you have to taunt me like a bunch of drunks in a gang bang.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Diana wasn’t British.
Anyway, fuck it. As you were. Or are.
Is there anyone here who could not have done a little bit of charity work if they’d married into a royal family?
Jesus H Christ Lib, what planet are you on? You said you used to think we were all unfeeling snobs. Then you said Diana, saint that she is, changed your perceptions of us and made you think we might be human after all.
I replied that I disagree with you and that what you saw Diana as is simply not what she was. That the outpouring of grief and love for her was media manipulation. That we’re not some homogenous mass, to be thought of as “snobbish” or otherwise. None of us have behaved like “a bunch of drunks in a gang bang” and it feels an awful lot like you’re projecting what you feel onto our words.
I do not behave a certain way just because your preconceived notions say I should. I behave like me, an English woman, not a snob, not a football hooligan, not any kind of stereotype. I am, unsurprisingly, insulted by you calling me a shithead. I have not been a shithead. I disagreed with you and called you on something I thought you had wrong. I did not insult you. You seem intent on insulting us, as English people, instead.
Jesus H Christ Lib, what planet are you on? You said you used to think we were all unfeeling snobs. Then you said Diana, saint that she is, changed your perceptions of us and made you think we might be human after all.
I replied that I disagree with you and that what you saw Diana as is simply not what she was. That the outpouring of grief and love for her was media manipulation. That we’re not some homogenous mass, to be thought of as “snobbish” or otherwise. None of us have behaved like “a bunch of drunks in a gang bang” and it feels an awful lot like you’re projecting what you feel onto our words.
I do not behave a certain way just because your preconceived notions say I should. I behave like me, an English woman, not a snob, not a football hooligan, not any kind of stereotype. I am, unsurprisingly, insulted by you calling me a shithead. I have not been a shithead. I disagreed with you and called you on something I thought you had wrong. I did not insult you. You seem intent on insulting us, as English people, instead.
Are you really surprised that the fact that you replaced one media-conconcoted stereotype with another wasn’t received with joy?
Jesus H Christ Lib, what planet are you on? You said you used to think we were all unfeeling snobs. Then you said Diana, saint that she is, changed your perceptions of us and made you think we might be human after all.
I replied that I disagree with you and that what you saw Diana as is simply not what she was. That the outpouring of grief and love for her was media manipulation. That we’re not some homogenous mass, to be thought of as “snobbish” or otherwise. None of us have behaved like “a bunch of drunks in a gang bang” and it feels an awful lot like you’re projecting what you feel onto our words.
I do not behave a certain way just because your preconceived notions say I should. I behave like me, an English woman, not a snob, not a football hooligan, not any kind of stereotype. I am, unsurprisingly, insulted by you calling me a shithead. I have not been a shithead. I disagreed with you and called you on something I thought you had wrong. I did not insult you. You seem intent on insulting us, as English people, instead.
Are you really surprised that the fact that you replaced one media-conconcoted stereotype with another wasn’t received with joy? Surely you’ve seen me or Crusoe or casdave or jjimm around on this message board long enough to know we’re not the same people?
Well. Triple post. I believe I’ll have a cup of tea.
::puts the kettle on::
Come on, folks, give Libertarian a break. Surely you’ve held some views about Americans, or even people from some part of America, which weren’t necessarily true? I’ve met a few Americans who thought a lot higher of Diana than I ever did, including some who couldn’t understand why I wasn’t broken up over her death. On this board, have you seen Libertarian show predjudiced behaviour? If so, it’ll be a surprise to me.
CJ
Believe it or not, I actually like Lib a lot and admire his passion. But that doesn’t stop me from disagreeing with him. I’ve hardly set the wolves on him or anything. It’s not his former attitude of English people being “unfeeling snobs” that I have a problem with at all - plenty of people have misconceptions and we can change that. It’s that he’s surprised that I’m not overjoyed he’s rejected one media stereotype for another and called me a shithead because I took issue with it.
Mmm, what Francesca said. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Lib (almost as far back as I’ve been posting here, thanks to a comment he made in a thread I posted when I was having a rough spell), but I too was a little surprised and annoyed to be reduced to what I felt was a one-dimensional stereotype.
Oh, dear, I’d better never disagree with Libertarian then. He might turn into a Canadian-hating homophobe. Well, I’ll consider myself warned.
Just goes to show. In the Elian Gonzalez incident, Castro probably never thought of mobilizing his dim puking clothes-horse parasitic bint divisions. Could have been persuasive.
If Princess Di had resembled, say, Fergie, physically, is there even a chance that we would be discussing her greatness?
You’re taking the piss, right?
In case you really are that thick, let me help you. Yes, Britons are a race.
Okay, Lib, I’ll be the first to admit that you’re simply the best target in range here, but I’m gonna rant anyway.
This is a major part of what bugs me about British-Royalty fandom in general and Diana fandom specifically among My Fellow Americans. In context, the fact that this is regarded as remarkable doesn’t show that Diana was ground-breaking - it shows that the British monarchy was (and for that matter is) behind the freakin’ times! But the US media don’t care to write much about the other royal families of Yurrup except for Britain and, once in a while, Monaco, so few Americans realize that monarchy can be any other way.
Phew. I feel better now.
Gary Kumquat, one may have been able to speak of “the British race” in Edward VII’s time, but the UK is a multiracial society nowadays, and I doubt very much that UK citizens of Jamaican descent in Brixton or of Indian descent in Bermondsey would appreciate talk of the “British race”. It’s a bit too close to skinhead rhetoric.
In any event, Lib is being exceptionally foolish here. It is ridiculous to think that media stereotypes of other nationalities are at all accurate, especially the P.G. Wodehouse/Agatha Christie
bowler hat, “Pip, cheeerio” crapola.
Brits wear saris and jumpers, they speak in different accents, from Glaswegian to Scouse to the lilt of Caribbean patois. Nowadays, your average Brit is far more likely to have a pint of lager and a takeaway curry than to guzzle tea and crumpets. Hanif Kureishi is as British as Mike Leigh or Rowan Atkinson. (I’d mention footballers, but I’m hopeless when it comes to knowng sports figures). GB is a multiracial, muticultural nation, just like the US, so you’re going to have to schedule a visit and check out the UK, and see it as it is, not as you imagine it to be.
How would **Lib/b] like it if foreigners got their impressions of Indians from John Wayne movies?
I’ve been to Britain and I’ve lived, worked, and slept with plenty of Brits in my peregrinations around the world. Britons are unfeeling and sentimental, clever and stupid, charming and annoying–in fact, they’re people, with the same spectrum of attributes that you find in any other nationality. Thinking that Brtis are all wonderful, touch-feely people because you saw the media orgy after Di’s death is just as foolish as thinking that Brits are all impassive twits because you saw one too many Merchant/Ivory dramas.
Steady on!
She won a prize for dancing and several cups for swimming.