Most of the “stereotypes” expressed here unfortunately are true. But it helps to bear in mind that not all Americans are alike and that culture (bad word to use, perhaps, in the same sentence with “America”) can vary greatly from region to region.
Most of the “stereotypes” (which they are not, because they are true) apply to the suburban and/or countryfied heartland culture. New York, on the other hand, is very different from the rest of the US. New York is the most European of American cities. Heartland tourists here stand out like a sore thumb with their White Shoes et al, while exotic types from all around the world do not. I can live in New York and imagine I’m in another country.
Re: the guns. Until I saw armed national guardspeople patrolling airports after September 11, I had never seen a gun in the United States. And I was an American, age 23 at that point. Previous to that, I had seen guns in Mexico, Israel, France, and Italy. And for three of those four countries, I was there only a short period of time, a week or less. (I was in Israel for much longer, and saw loads of guns all the time. Not too shocking, I suppose, but took time to get used to.) The most startling of these was when I saw armed soldiers riding the Paris Metro in 1998. No one else seemed to give them a second glance, but they seemed way out of place to me.
Later (2001-earlier this year), I had some coworkers that I think owned guns. They liked to hunt, anyway. But I certainly never came in contact with them. They were the first Americans I’ve ever met who owned guns. I’ve never touched a gun on purpose. (I bumped into an Israeli soldier’s rifle once, on accident.)
I never said that, so don’t put words in my mouth. In my experience, however, and in the experience of my European friends who have visited me, Americans tend to be far more parochial than their European counterparts.
I’m sure they do. Let me ask you a question, though. Suppose Tampere has an ice hockey team (we’ll call them the Fankees) and Turku has an ice hockey team (we’ll call them the Fed Fox). Let’s also suppose that Turku has a football team (the Fatriots). Now, the Fatriots are playing for the football championship against Helsinki (their team is the Fams) and they win. Now, while celebrating their victory over the Helsinki team, would the fans from Turku start chanting “Fankees suck” while still in the football stadium?
Well, turn Tampere into New York and the Yankees, Turku into Boston and the Red Sox and the Patriots, Helsinki into St. Louis and the Rams, ice hockey into baseball and football into American football and you’ll have the situation at last year’s Super Bowl. That’s true parochialism, when everything is directed against your rivals. In addition, there was massive opposition to the Henry group owning the Red Sox due to the sole fact that John Henry was from New York. It would have been fine had he been from any other city, but not NYC. And let’s not get started with Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Now, maybe these things regularly happen in Finland. I don’t know. Never been to Finland. But when two Europeans (a Brit and a Swede) were visiting me this winter, they both remarked on both of those things to me and expressed their amazement at American provincialism. Now, perhaps mis amigos were merely not observant about their own continent, but that’s where I got the idea.
I’m sure they are. My point was that our parochialism tends to be expressed through and reinforced that massive focus on sports that exists in this country. That certainly is the case for most high schools and universities over here, and it is only reasonable for it to apply to cities and regions. Again, using only a few European countries as my basis for comparison, I’ve noticed that there isn’t quite the emphasis on sports at all levels as there is in the United States. And so it becomes more of a tool of parochialism than in many European countries.
Again, maybe Finland is different.
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Maybe Europeans are so sensitive that they are only willing to take offense to any sort of observations, making themselves appear close minded.
People extremely rarely speak about religion over here. I’ve no clue about the religious beliefs of most people I know, for instance coworkers or relatives. People usually just don’t care and tend to think it’s pointless and just not worth it to discuss religious issues. Even when it happens it’s essentially never confrontationnal. Actually I don’t even remember having ever heard a heated argument about religion.
The amount of religious debates on american message boards is truly amazing (and I must admit I like to argue about it. Americans really do think America is the best place on Earth to live, and have no real concept of how brainwashed to believe that.
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The first half is correct. The second half is bizarre. Brainwashed? Or maybe most Americans are pretty darn happy with where they are, and can’t imagine living in a different culture.
Quite strange. I find it’s exactly the contrary. It seems to me they tend to take many steps to avoid offending anybody. They often make many cautious pre or post-statements to make sure that their point isn’t misunderstood, or state that they don’t intend to offend anyone, or point out that their statement X doesn’t imply a related and possibly offensive statement Y, etc…It’s of course truer for american in real life than on message boards, but even on the net, many seem to go out of their way to avoid to appear offensive.
As a corollary, they seem to be easily offended, to take arguments too seriously (like they expect people to jump at each other throat because they strongly voice their disagreement, on say politics or somesuch…), and to avoid any real debate in real life.
I definitely don’t find them confrontationnal at all…But of course this opinion is based on a limited sample.
American people tend to be quite obsessed with these issues, IMO. It borders religious devotion, and it tends to be quite invasive, even when the topic at hand is only very vaguely related. I would say they are more legalist than pragmatist (I’m refering to an overall attitude, not to actual legal issues). They seem to want clear cut “rules” for all sort of mundane things, to dislike grey areas, and aren’t very prone to compromise. Still in my very limited experience.
From a message board point of view, it shows when some issue is debatted and that instead of arguing about the validity of the arguments re. the actual and current situation, they argue endlessly about whether said argument is in agreement with the constitution and the intents of the founding fathers, for instance. I would also point out the debates about these mysterious “dates” which, from an outsider point of view, look like job interviews regulated by a solid jurisprudence rather than informal man/woman interaction and seduction game.
I find them gregarious too. I would add sometimes too familiar. Acting as if you were their best mate though they met you only five minutes ago and five minutes later totally ignoring you as if you’ve never existed. Puzzling.
Which makes me think about a common stereotype about american people : superficials.
(editing done to correct side-scroll; I hope I didn’t change the sense of your message, clairobscur. If you want to quote, please don’t add the dash-separators. For help quoting, please check the FAQ…
Hijack : These armed patrols appeared after several bombings by algerian muslim extremists during the mid-90’s (the most deadly attack happened in the metro…but there are similar patrols in train stations, airports, etc…). They’re reactivated each time there is a cause for concern. In particular, they have been since the 9/11.
Other measures (the armed patrols are only an element of a global security scheme) seem to be actually intended to heighten security, but I think the patrols were essentially intended to make people feel safer, since I don’t see how a soldier in the subway could prevent someone from planting a bomb. Especially since I learnt the guns aren’t loaded in order to avoid any accident (or at least weren’t last time the security plan was reactivated…perhaps it’s different this time since they’re now using professionnal soldiers instead of conscripts).
I said at all levels. There is a sports frenzy nearly all year round in the US. March Madness, the Super Bowl, Rivalry Week, All-Star games, etc. And it’s at all levels…university and professional. Even high school in some areas.
I just don’t see that sort of emphasis in other countries outside of a few professional events, like the World Cup, Olympics, or the Copa America or UEFA cup.
I think that the Americans that featherlou described are more likely to be involved in the religious conservative movement and that those attributes don’t generally apply to most Americans.
But then, religious conservatives are not big on violence or sex in movies. So that one doesn’t describe them.
I don’t think that most women like to watch violence at all, but I could be mistaken.
When you say “Americans,” are you thinking not only of whites but of white males?
Hmmm…In reading my own post, I am left wondering if I have just stereotyped religious conservatives, whites, women and men…
I remember talking to this snotty Spaniard when I lived in Japan. “You… you Americans, you have no culture,” she said. “But we have many cultures” I replied. She didn’t like that.
Somehow I don’t care about parsing the definitions. Another Aussie poster (honestly don’t remember who) said something about not much liking Americans until “meeting” so many here on the Dope.
I was grieved, grateful and suprised. Mostly I look around my ordinary life and friends and they’re…ordinary. No great shakes all around, actually. It’s just weird to try to reconcile such generic humanity with anything all that startling.
I’m not disputing the sterotypes, just trying 'em on for size. Trouble is, none of 'em are fitting all that well. The usual cross-section of human cussedness applies but I always thought the expression was the only unique part.
FWIW, I’ve never had anyone so much as ask me about my religion. True fact. It just never came up. I have several guns in the house. They were my dad’s and I keep 'em for sentimental reasons, even though he scrupulously taught me the skills and protocols of shooting. (Never at a living creature; just for the skill of it.) I’m not in the least passionate about 'em; they’re just there.
Blathering but it’s just deeply weird to somehow be so set apart on details. Sigh.
Probably because there are close associations with Americans in my family background, I was shocked when one employer of mine expressed deep, heartfelt opinions of Americans that seemed totally alien to me, even way down here in NewZild. Americans, acording to my past employer, were always loud and bossy, “getting in your face”, taking over all the time, dominating conversation.
I’ve always found tourists from the States to be well-spoken, polite, and keen to hear about our country and its background, but I do realise this is only a small fraction of your population.
I’m an American. In Denmark many, many years ago, I was treated like royalty for the entire visit.
On New Year’s Eve I was at a dinner party for about fourteen people who barely knew me. (I was with a date who knew them.) The war in Vietnam had taken a turn for the worse. These gentle and fun-loving Danes stood, lifted their glasses and sang in beautiful English, “We Shall Overcome.” I was moved beyond words.
Until I saw armed national guardspeople patrolling airports after September 11, I had never seen a gun in the United States.
…so you’ve never looked at a cop’s belt? Come on, all of these US posters claiming to have never known a gun owner or seen a gun seem to be stretching the truth a little. I don’t own a gun, but I know plenty of gun owners in NJ, PA, DE and AZ (I’ve lived in all these states).
But what do people from Tampere think about Helsinki? In Sweden there’s a great (onesided) rivalry betweeen Gothenburg and Stockholm and I’ve read somewhere that it’s almost universal that number two has a grudge against number one (I could provide you with some examples from Scotland as well).