Ya know, it’s been bugging me for some time now, but I never had the courage to speak up. I know this is a Chicago based newspaper running this, but clearly the audience is international, although certainly slanted towards English-speaking countries.
If I post something pertaining to my specific geographical laws and regulations I will fucking state where I’m from and what I’m contesting.
Yet 99% of the time posts from U.S. citizens will contain no location information and moronic questions like “Can I buy NA beer if I’m under 21?”
Fuck off. Yes. In most countries in the world. Get your head out of your ass and post something that makes sense globally, since that’s who your audience is. Fucking introverted dicks.
BTW I love the US. I’m just pissed at the centric dipshits who don’t believe other countries or laws exist.
Even my spam is US-centric. When I go to a website to find a local retailer, it asks me what state I’m in. Just try to get an American company to return your call. (“How do I dial that?”) It is perfectly reasonable for me to call them however.
A lot of online job applications I’ve filled out, when asking me to provide the address and phone number of my previous employers and schools, do not let me enter international numbers and insist that I fill out the “state” field. :rolleyes: Yeah, because no one looking for a job in the US has ever worked abroad.
The reason that people don’t ask about laws from other countries is because they are not from other countries. What good would it do me to ask about the traffic laws in the UK if I’m concerned about a ticket I got the other day? I’m sure the judge will be fascinated by my dissertation on the speed limits on the M1, but what difference will it make for my personal situation? None.
It’s not apathy or xenophobia. It’s just not relevant. Don’t take it so personally.
Well… let’s be fair here. It can get a bit tricky for Canadians, say, to ask legal questions (no cite offhand). Then there was that time when one of our major politically inclined posters went on a bit of a tear about British politics… in a thread about Canadian politics. There are some silly moments. (And actually, in GQ, it would be perfectly reasonable to bring up UK laws too, wouldn’t it? Or is that a hijack?)
Yes, but sometimes people in the US don’t say what state they are in, even when it it relevant (eg, buying NA beer if under 21.)
A similar thing that bugs me is when geography is relevant, but the poster doesn’t say where they are. For example, in bike vs. car pit threads, it makes so much difference what kind of geography people are talking about, and yet they all talk past each other as if driving/biking on country roads and city streets are the exact same thing.
Before i got married to an American citizen, the emergency contact person i listed with my university was my mother in Australia.
This university, a world-renowned institution with faculty and students from all over the globe, had no space in the emergency contact section for an international telephone number. I would try to write the international number in, including the Australian country code and the area code, but the printed form i got back would invariably cut off the last couple of digits, making the number completely useless.
If you are not with us, you are against us. If you are against us, why should we cater to you? Be happy we even talk to you.
(I didn’t mean it. Honest. I like furriners; y’all tawk funny.)
I understand the OP’s frustration, but I’ve pretty much given up objecting to it. I fight fire with fire, by often making my location-relevant responses without saying where I’m from. Leave them to figure it out. (Which does only take five seconds with my ‘location’ and Google.)
I’m not really seeing the issue here. This board is located in the United States and the vast majority of its users are as well. If a poster doesn’t state any different, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re from the US… otherwise, they would say so. I mean, what difference does it make if this hypothetical poster can drink NA beer in whatever country you’re in? He doesn’t care, so he doesn’t feel the need to include his location. The people he’s soliciting information from already figure he’s in the US just because he’s posting on this board.
I guess I can understand the (minor) annoyance, but I don’t think that makes the poster a “fucking introverted dick.”
I think this rant is a little OTT. I lived overseas for many years, so it’s not as if I don’t notice these things.
Fact is, part of the problem is that so many people have fake or cutesy locations listed… so it’s not always evident where they’re from.
The other issue is that yes, this is a board based on the work of Cecil Adams, who is a US-based columnist, and as the OP notes, hosted by the Chicago Reader. So one would expect a US bias, I would think.
I mean, I frequent other boards, like one for the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, and it’s certainly UK-centric. No worries.
So what, we’re all supposed to feel like guests, our presence currently being tolerated on the American Intarwebs? :rolleyes:
(And no, I don’t give a flying fuck about Cecil Adams, I didn’t end up here because of him, and I know I’m not the only one. Only one small part of this board is ‘based on his work’.)
I didn’t say that. What I said was that this is a message board physically located in the United States, and populated mostly by people who live there. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess what country someone on this board is probably from if they don’t specify. I doubt there are many people on, for instance, the Daily Mirror forums who feel the need to tell everyone that they live in the UK every time they ask a question.
Best example of this I’ve seen was some thread where someone questioned whether foreign visitors to the USA should be granted some of the same sorts of rights and freedoms as citizens during their visit - apparently unaware that those rights and freedoms aren’t actually endemic to the USA - and that John Q Foreigner already has them.