Actually, I did have a very similar conversation in France while I was there. The people I was staying with asked me what I did and didn’t like about their country. Funny, though - no one called me a cunt for it. Then again, the French tend to be a lot less crude in public than Americans (a trait I liked about the French). I, of course, was as tactful as I could be in a second language, usually emphasizing that it was strangeness/unexpected difference that was the main thing. At least the OP ewasn’t struggling with a language barrier.
Frankly, I don’t understand why you get so bent about the OP’s statement that she finds our flag fetish odd and uncomfortable - it IS odd compared to other countries, which you might know if you actually gave a damn about honest answers to questions rather than demanding everyone else in the world make you feel good.
Except, of course, on a message board where you feel free to spew everything you’ve otherwise suppressed. Why is it OK to tell the truth on a public message board but a requirement to lie face to face?
Oh, of course they can be dahling. That’s why, for me, pledging the flag is up there with seeing your parents naked, or finding a giant greasy dildo in your mother’s purse, or getting a surprise finger up your ass at doctor’s office. They all make me so…uncomfortable, you know? Like the time I woke up with a bruise on my bum. After I had the servants search the bedding, they found a pea at the very bottom of all those mattresses. A pea! Can you imagine!
We’re just delicate, you and I. The little things make us so…unsettled. Le sigh.
Come on now! With a user name like Grossbottom your ass should be able to withstand a steel toe boot! When I see your name I think Nasty Ass. I figured it might be more about your personality than your hygiene though.
I think that in the surrender documents after Yorktown, Cornwallis specifically agreed to the idea that Americans could tell you Brits off any time we wanted.
You got a little uppity in 1812, and we showed you again. Will you people never learn?
If you guys even had this lady’s own friends laughing at her, I’m not why you should come away feeling your night’s been ruined. Sure, it’s best if there are no such confrontations, but if there is one, and you take the rhetorical upper hand so handily, can’t you call it a good outcome?
Uppity? Yes, we did. Tell the President that his dinner was delicious, by the way. Sorry about that little bit of cosmetic damage to the White House, but we’re sure it’ll scrub up with a spot of elbow grease.
We’re ashamed of our poor showing in this minor dust-up, but we do have bigger fish to fry over on our side of the ocean. If you ever paid attention to what was going on outside of your own shores you might have heard of it. So I’m afraid our A team was otherwise engaged, donchaknow?
Broomstick, it’s hard to respond to someone who has so grossly misunderstood the content of my posts, but I’ll give it a shot.
What did I say about what I want her to do? Nothing. I said she shouldn’t be surprised she got called out for it when doing it in a public place. I personally would’ve omitted the negative things in that situation, which I believe were more than she has let on.
What are you, a judge? It depends on context, personal preference, opinion, etc. You are getting bent out of shape about this.
Again, since when was this about what I want?
This paragraph is practically agreeing with me so I don’t think I need to address it beyond pointing that out.
I got “bent out of shape” by the OP acting like an annoying douche. Show me where I specifically got mad that she criticized our flag. (I didn’t get bent out of shape, by the way.)
You’re really stretching. Did you read my posts or did a martian who heard them second-hand dramatise them for you through interpretive dance?
:rolleyes: Fuck you, read what I wrote. Your posts in this thread are far more dishonest than me leaving out the negatives when someone asks me about their homeland. Did you tell your grandma her crust tastes like shit when she baked you an apple pie?
What the fuck have a supressed? Your posts in this thread are just . . . bizarre. I know you’re an intelligent person - I’ve read many of your posts on aviation - but go back and read what I’ve written here and how you’ve responded. You’re barking up the wrong tree.
To the OP: welcome to our country, where morons tend to be the loudest (cisco, I’m looking at you–go wave a flag somewhere and watch you don’t poke someone’s eye out with it). The woman in the bar was rude to you, yes. She was also drunk, and eavesdropping, and an idiot. You’ll meet a lot of those if you stick around the states. She was wrong to pick a fight with you. You were wrong to rise to her bait.
As a lifelong, born here, died in the wool, citizen, I find the flag waving/pledge saying jingoism to be ridiculous, tedious and rather silly. My neighbor does have a flagpole and does display the flag properly (he’s an ex-Marine), but he’s the only one who flies one regularly.
I don’t get this whole “a guest here can’t complain” stuff. I was once taken to task (screamed at, really) by a British taxi driver who was contemptuous of me traveling around UK. Apparently I wasn’t staying in places long enough to suit him. He and I were alone in the cab and he had asked me my itinerary; I found it quite rude that he castigated me with his “You Americans have no culture, and don’t appreciate history; Americans, too much money and not enough sense” lecture. So, I stiffed him. I hope I really ticked him off.
You, sadly, had no such recourse, but have stumbled onto this drunk woman’s nearest relative (that being cisco). Have at it, cisco, show the OP that famous, easy-going American talent for tolerance. You do us proud.
And I disagree with your characterization. I walked my block today, and out of 35 houses, there was one flag. Less than 3%. How is that a “considerable number”, or a “very large proportion”, or even "10%’, as has been claimed?
What I don’t get is why people are making shit up.
If grandma screwed up baking an apple pie I’d say “Grandma, this pie didn’t come out right, it tastes bad” rather than choke it down then have to puke it back up later. I come from a family that values honesty. I was taught that lying by omission is every bit as much of a lie as a deliberate, bald-faced falsehood.
If I ask someone’s opinion I don’t want a “polite” falsehood, I want to know what they actually think. Do you you understand this? Your “polite” evasions are falsehoods, that is, they are lies. I would lie to save a life, or lie to avoid actual danger, but neither exception applied in this case. The Rude Butt-In Lady was just that - rude. And a few other things.
I was also taught to accept criticism with a grain of salt, but to listen to it. I might disagree with a criticism, but knowing what others think is important to maintaining a realistic view of the world, rather than one built on falsehoods (polite or otherwise).
A sensitive soul you are indeed, dear heart. Again, though, while I feel almost boorish in reminding you, I have to point out that the OP was asked for her opinion, and a not particularly contentious one it was to boot. It does strike me as strange that you’re accusing the OP of being oversensitive though, when you yourself are so discomfited by the rather mild word “uncomfortable”. It’s all very confusing, I must admit. Perhaps a bit of nationalistic fervour makes everything clear.
eleanorigby, I’m currently reading a book called “The Book of Dave” by Will Self, which is about a demented, misogynistic cabbie who writes a book which, a couple of hundred years later (and after a global warming-instigated inundation), is discovered by post-diluvian people and turned in to a national religion. I think you might like it; it’s really quite funny (and might explain even more about your horrible cab ride than was already obvious). That said, large swathes of it might make no sense to anyone other than a Londoner, so take this recommendation with a pinch of salt.
Wow, you’re kidding, right? You are kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding. Right? Right?
Can someone chime in to say they read and understood any of my posts, like oh, say, #32? Because I’m seriously starting to lose faith in the reading comprehension skills of a lot of SDMB members.
Well, I wouldn’t. You can’t see that this is a perfectly normal variation in our personalities and views? You think it makes me a liar? You’re out of line.
I took your position from your first page posts. Here’s an example:
Did you think that calling names(I believe that was “limey pussy”) and being shrill (all of your posts, even the one where you talk about a favorite book of yours–post #32) required more elucidation? Are you going to try to say that your point is somehow finely nuanced?
Go on, pull the other one. If you happened to fine tune your castigation on page 3, I missed it. It’s not interesting enough to follow, frankly.
I tend to think that my reading comprehension is pretty good, and what I’m getting from your posts in this thread is mostly, “Hey, everyone! I’ve decided to suddenly act like a gigantic cunt for no good reason! Whee!” If you had some other, subtler point, I’m afraid I’ve missed it.
So I’m afraid our A team was otherwise engaged, donchaknow?