# I'm starting to dislike some Americans... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526 "2003-07-01T06:44:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NoGoodNamesLeft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8797f3/32.png) [@NoGoodNamesLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoGoodNamesLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/1 "2003-07-01T06:44:13Z")
Really…I am. Especially after reading [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=193960) ignorant post! I won’t say I dislike _all_ Americans because I know the cultural differences between say people from Alabama and people from Idaho, unlike some Americans who can’t tell French Canadians from the other 95% of us. I won’t go into how some Americans seem to think this continent was named after them, rather than the other way around. You are the centre of the universe, right? I won’t get into how we haven’t been the “Dominion of Canada” since the freakin’ 60’s. I won’t bother calling the US mint to see if you’ve yet minted a $2 coin with a combination of 2 metals, giving the finished coin a golden centre with a siver-ish outer ring. After all, all our coins are exactly like yours, right? Yeah, 5% of our GNP must come from ripping off other nations…not like Americans who ‘invented’ such profit making TV shows like ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’, ‘Survivor’, and so on. Yes, we are “without exception, rude and so, so convinced of our natural superiority”…that’s why we can point out other countries on a map! That must be why we know the world doesn’t stop after the Atlantic coast. While our military may leave much to be desired, we sleep well at night knowing we didn’t blow up innocent people’s homes in a misguided attempt at revenge (Did you find those “weapons of mass destruction” yet, by the way?). We need our sleep anyway, we have to get up early to clean up after you time and time again! Yeah, dumb Canadian fell asleep at the beach. Duh! We can’t handle sun. I guess you didn’t notice it can get up to 90 degrees in the most populated parts of Canada each and every summer. (“Hey, how come your igloos don’t melt?”). Of course, that’s mostly humidity trapped in the lower atmosphere by the pollution brought up in the Hudson’s Bay Vortex…thanks for that, by the way! And for the record: -Our beer really is better. -We won both Golds in Hockey in Salt Lake, you didn’t… nah nah nah nah nah nah… -We invented Basketball, penecilin, and the telephone. -We burned down the White House, and may have to do it again if you don’t stop pissing us off! -Canuck is not derogatory…that’s why we have a sports team named the “Canucks”. -I have NEVER, EVER heard anyone say ‘aboot’. Nice try with trying to invent a stereotype though… Lastly, most of us hate the French as well…you know, the other 95% of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/2 "2003-07-01T06:48:07Z")
> [@](#): > > -We burned down the White House, and may have to do it again if you don’t stop pissing us off! As I recall, it was the British who burned it down, as Canada hadn’t even officially become a country yet. [/nitpick] And yes. We are Americans. Our country is the United States of _America_. We called it first. Don’t be jealous! Stupid Canadese! Nyah! ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/3 "2003-07-01T07:04:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoGoodNamesLeft \* > \*\*…And for the record: > -Our beer really is better. > -We won both Golds in Hockey in Salt Lake, you didn’t… nah nah nah nah nah nah… > -We invented Basketball, penecilin, and the telephone. > -We burned down the White House, and may have to do it again if you don’t stop pissing us off! > -Canuck is not derogatory…that’s why we have a sports team named the “Canucks”. > -I have NEVER, EVER heard anyone say ‘aboot’. Nice try with trying to invent a stereotype though… > > Lastly, most of us hate the French as well…you know, the other 95% of the country. \*\* -A Scotsman dicovered Penicillin. -Basketball was invented in Massachusetts. -Bell or Gray invented the telephone. Both are Americans, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Read\_Neck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Read\_Neck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Read_Neck)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/4 "2003-07-01T07:11:14Z")
Basketball was invented in Massachusetts,Brutus? [http://www.ku.edu/heritage/graphics/people/naismith.html](http://www.ku.edu/heritage/graphics/people/naismith.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/5 "2003-07-01T07:16:27Z")
> [@](#): > > After serving as McGill’s Athletic Director, he moved on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891 where the sport of basketball was born. Yes. Nationality is irrelevant! ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/6 "2003-07-01T07:26:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoGoodNamesLeft \* > **-I have NEVER, EVER heard anyone say ‘aboot’. Nice try with trying to invent a stereotype though…** Yeah, that sucks, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/7 "2003-07-01T07:29:03Z")
Obviously, Mssr.Naismith was fleeing persecution. By inventing a new sport, he implied that there were sports other than hockey. Blasphemy in The Great White North. (Kooooorookookookoo or however you spell that little jingle) ---
**Author:** ![Tee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@Tee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tee)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/8 "2003-07-01T07:32:27Z")
I hate seeing this stuff. Massachusetts has its own personal relationships with Canada. My hometown has for years sent a baseball team there for a tourney during the summer, other cities send hockey teams, they host Canadian teams in turn, the city of Boston gets its huge Christmas tree every year from Halifax, as a gift. (Paul Celucci is from here, yes, I know…) The Christmas tree is actually a thank you to Boston for the help it provided to Halifax after two ships collided in their harbor in 1917. Explosion, massive casualties…Boston sent food, medical staff and supplies…so every year since then we get a thank you note along with a gigantic tree, which is then all decorated and set up in the Prudential Center with tree lighting ceremony and things. Not so long ago now, 9/11/01, people hijacked two planes out of our airport…which began the events that led to all US flights being grounded immediately until further notice. Halifax and Gander ended up hosting 38 airplanes full of stranded people, unexpectedly, for two days or so…in their homes, motels, their schools, pretty much wherever thousands of unexpected guests would fit, they stayed and were looked after by people of Nova Scotia, and packed up and sent off again when flights resumed. Over 6,000 people. Never, ever, will I forget that story, and I know there must be others from other parts of Canada too. As well as the US. So, in closing I’d just like to whack the OP and its American counterpart, elsewhere in the Pit, over their heads with a folded newspaper. :::_whack_::: :::_thwack_::: OK then. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/9 "2003-07-01T07:43:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brutus \* > \*\*-Bell or Gray invented the telephone. Both are Americans, eh? \*\* Antonio Meucci is recognised as the inventor. He was born in Italy, did the development work in Cuba, and then moved to Staten Island. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/10 "2003-07-01T07:47:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Antonio Meucci is recognised as the inventor. He was born in Italy, did the development work in Cuba, and then moved to Staten Island. \*\* Learn something new everyday. Anyhooo, no mention of Canadia, so consider my hackles un-raised. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/11 "2003-07-01T09:45:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Brutus \* > > \*\*-Bell or Gray invented the telephone. Both are Americans, eh? \*\* > > Antonio Meucci is recognised as the inventor. He was born in Italy, did the development work in Cuba, and then moved to Staten Island. \*\* It’s not as clear cut as all that: [http://www.alecbell.org/BellandMeucci.html](http://www.alecbell.org/BellandMeucci.html) Lots of debate continues - Did Bell rip off Meucci, or was Meucci pulling a scam when his device was actually a mechnically based system. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/12 "2003-07-01T09:56:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brutus \* > \*\*-Bell or Gray invented the telephone. Both are Americans, eh? \*\* Bell was Scottish. As much as I couldn’t help being slightly insuted by some of the comments in the other thread, I have to say this one here is a prime example of an attitude that really gets on my nerves. Patriotic Canadian inferiority complex. You rarely, if ever, see lists of major Aussie accomplishment, half of which aren’t accomplishments and the other half not really Aussie, making e-mail inbox rounds. Why the need to boast? Like it or not, answering base stereotypes about your country with knee-jerk America-bashing _is_ arrogant. So Canadian beer is better than American beer. What in the fuck does that prove? So a guy invented a sport, how in the hell does that make _you_ or the place where you live any better? Anyway, Georges said it better: > [@](#): > > Maudits soient ces enfants de leur mère patrie > Empalés une fois pour toutes sur leur clocher, > Qu’ils vous montrent leurs tours, leurs musées, leur mairie > Vous font voir du pays natal jusqu’à loucher. > Qu’ils sortent de Paris, ou de Rome, ou de Sète, > Ou du diable Vauvert ou bien de Zanzibar, > Ou même de mon cul, ils s’en flattent, mazette, > Les imbéciles heureux qui sont nés quelque part. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/13 "2003-07-01T09:56:59Z")
What? People of another nationality are mad at Americans? I’m afraid you’ll just have to get in line … it ends somewhere in Patagonia, I believe … ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/14 "2003-07-01T11:12:26Z")
Another US and Canada pissing contest, huh? OK, let’s settle it right here. Whip it out and let’s see whose is bigger. We got Florida; you got… Nova Scotia. You call that a penninsula? please. No fine mother country mamma is gonna go for that small, mishapen thing. And keep it away from Labrador; that’s just sick. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/15 "2003-07-01T11:52:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoGoodNamesLeft \* > **-Our beer really is better.** Only on bizarro world. \*\* > [@](#): > > -We won both Golds in Hockey in Salt Lake, you didn’t… nah nah nah nah nah nah…\*\* Who’s got the Stanley Cup? \*\* > [@](#): > > -We invented Basketball, penecilin, and the telephone.\*\* Congrats. Of course, how you are claiming credit for penicillin and the telephone is beyond me. You can claim credit for insulin, though, and for your Supreme Court declaring women aren’t really people in 1928…so that was good. \*\* > [@](#): > > -We burned down the White House, and may have to do it again if you don’t stop pissing us off!\*\* Sure, if by Canadian you mean British (which were the same thing back then, kinda). \*\* > [@](#): > > -Canuck is not derogatory…that’s why we have a sports team named the “Canucks”.\*\* We have the Redskins… \*\* > [@](#): > > -I have NEVER, EVER heard anyone say ‘aboot’. Nice try with trying to invent a stereotype though…\*\* That’s because stupid Americans can’t properly transcribe the pronunciation. It’s actually “aboat.” Like a boat. Cross-border pissing contests are the most funnest kind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/16 "2003-07-01T12:03:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat \* > It’s not as clear cut as all that: > > [http://www.alecbell.org/BellandMeucci.html](http://www.alecbell.org/BellandMeucci.html) > > Lots of debate continues - Did Bell rip off Meucci, or was Meucci pulling a scam when his device was actually a mechnically based system. \*\* OK, let’s be more precise. Meucci is _now_ recognised by the government of the U.S. as the inventor. He’s not recognised by _everyone_, particularly not by the journalist Edwin Grosvenor. Grosvener’s objections to the House Resolution “HONORING THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF 19TH CENTURY ITALIAN-AMERICAN INVENTOR ANTONIO MEUCCI – (House of Representatives - June 11, 2002)” revolve around the precedent: the 1887 case found in favor of Bell, and apparently another 600 decisions followed the precedent. Grosvener’s argument is that the 1887 decision was technically correct. He also throws in some conspiracy stuff about how the government of the day _really_ wanted the court to rule the other way, but was thwarted. So now, more than 100 years later, the evil government finally had its way. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/17 "2003-07-01T12:19:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Our beer really is better. Only if you consider the national brands like Bud, Cooors, and Miller, but our regional breweries surpass any beer manufactured in the Great White North. Just try a Carolina Blonde, a Victory Hop Devil, Old Dominion Hop Pocket, Yeungling Black and Tan, or a Dogfish Head Chicory Stout, and then you will see the light. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/18 "2003-07-01T12:28:10Z")
Pfeh. Belgium has some mighty fine beers, but I still wouldn’t want to live there. ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/19 "2003-07-01T12:45:57Z")
and why not? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526/20 "2003-07-01T13:03:43Z")
It’s _center_ of the Universe. What is “hockey”? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-starting-to-dislike-some-americans/185526.md?page=2)