# The smug English **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 5, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399 "2014-12-05T12:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/1 "2014-12-05T12:00:00Z")
For months a couple of years ago, two English workers at my office constantly made jokes about how stupid America was regarding healthcare. This went on for many days and finally I popped a cork and suggested that if England were so fucking great, why didn’t they catch a flight back or STFU. Here on SD, it seems as if every single gun or Police thread, some lame ass Englishman has to pop in and announce how few gun deaths there are in England and how great their cops are. Again, please STFU you smug bastards. England would fit within the borders of Oregon. Oregon!!! That is one of our FIFTY states. The landmass of the UK is 241,930 Sq KMs while the US is 9.857 million Sq KM. Perhaps it is just a lot easier to fix problems in such a small place as opposed to a really big place. Regarding guns, lets remember that in many areas of the US, humans are not necessarily at the top of the food chain. England has to worry about what? Squirrels? Here, we have bears, wolves, mountain lions and such that nobody in England need worry about. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/2 "2014-12-05T12:03:49Z")
Well, America really is really, really, really stupid about both healthcare and guns. Sorry you guys are so fucked up, but it has very little to do with your country’s size, or with bears. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/3 "2014-12-05T12:03:58Z")
I live in a Canadian province bigger than Texas and we have single-payer health insurance and far fewer per-capita gun deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/4 "2014-12-05T12:08:14Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I live in a Canadian province bigger than Texas and we have single-payer health insurance and far fewer per-capita gun deaths. So how do you protect yourselves from all the bears, wolves, and mountain lions prowling the streets of Montreal? With a pointed stick? Or a banana? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/5 "2014-12-05T12:09:39Z")
Hockey sticks, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/6 "2014-12-05T12:12:16Z")
This is Yahoo Answers-level logic: “You have health care and gun control, but…we’re big! So there! So just shut up already!” ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/7 "2014-12-05T12:24:01Z")
Yes, everyone knows how just wonderful and perfect both England and Canada are, too. It must be nothing but peaches and cream all the time. Only America has failed to solve all of its problems. Smug bastards. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/8 "2014-12-05T12:28:20Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > … about how stupid America was … Sounds like a nasty charge, if untrue. > [@MostlyUseless](#): > > England would fit within the borders of Oregon. Oregon!!! That is one of our FIFTY states. > … England has to worry about what? Squirrels? Here, we have bears, wolves, mountain lions and such that nobody in England need worry about. Uh … Sounds like the English coworkers win. (Cop: “I had to kill the 12-year old because I thought he might be a mountain lion.”) Apologies to **MostlyUseless** if his was intended as clever parody. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/9 "2014-12-05T12:31:18Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Or a banana? Look at the shape of a banana, and behold its slippery peel. God made bananas so that we could defend ourselves from bears. [/Kirk Cameron] ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/10 "2014-12-05T12:35:13Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > So how do you protect yourselves from all the bears, wolves, and mountain lions . . . Dogs. (My neighbourhood has bears, wolves and mountain lions – the dogs alert us.) ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/11 "2014-12-05T12:37:31Z")
Agree, it is crass and annoying to talk in the terms described. On the other hand, it does help to understand the extent to which you’ve been lied to and deceived for decades. For literally decades lobbyists and paid politicians spoke of socialized medicine and death panals and generally wrapped the debate in a national flag - any other system was un-American. Only now can you get annoyed about it - before you’d laughed off socialized medicine and pitied those subjected to it. On guns - sorry, but the US makes no sense in any first world context. Way, way off the scale. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/12 "2014-12-05T12:41:48Z")
Clever parody was never one of my strengths. I don’t believe that anyone outside of politicians in the US would defend the healthcare policy nor an abusive Police culture. At the same time, do we have to have a minimum of one UKer pop into every thread on the topics to announce with glee how they have solved ALL of their problems while the US is stupid? There is plenty of stupid and damaged in England; its just that most Americans find little time to care much less endlessly, smugly comment. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/13 "2014-12-05T12:44:35Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > At the same time, do we have to have a minimum of one UKer pop into every thread on the topics to announce with glee how they have solved ALL of their problems while the US is stupid? I don’t find that to be the case. They may claim that they have a solution to health care, or guns, that works better than the U.S.–and they’d be right–but I haven’t seen anyone from the U.K. or Canada claiming that their country has solved ALL its problems. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/14 "2014-12-05T12:45:24Z")
tbf, on healthcare\* and guns, it’s kind of hard to not be smug. On other stuff … not so much. I refer the Honourable Internet to the Opening Ceremony of yer Olympic Games. - god bless NHS workers, all of whom are under a terrible strain atm. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/15 "2014-12-05T12:50:12Z")
Why would foreigners give a crap about your precious sensibilities when you don’t give a crap about the lives lost through your fetish for guns and your hatred of socialized healthcare? You’ve chosen your path, so grow a set and stop crying and bleating when you are held responsible for it. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/16 "2014-12-05T12:50:55Z")
Maybe its the guns that are attracting all the bears and mountain lions? We don’t carry guns, and I don’t see any bears here, do you? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/17 "2014-12-05T12:56:57Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > There is plenty of stupid and damaged in England; its just that most Americans find little time to care much less endlessly, smugly comment. In all fairness, Americans are miopic when it comes to greater social conscience, and they do cling to guns and religion compared to most first world countries we call our friends, i.e. Canada and England, to name just two. So while you may be right in that your English friends are being smug/rude, they are not wrong on these particular issues. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/18 "2014-12-05T12:58:19Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Maybe its the guns that are attracting all the bears and mountain lions? We don’t carry guns, and I don’t see any bears here, do you? What about leprechauns? The place is lousy with 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/19 "2014-12-05T13:10:46Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > Perhaps it is just a lot easier to fix problems in such a small place as opposed to a really big place. Or perhaps their politicians have simply done a better job fixing (certain) problems than our politicians. The reality is that every industrialized First World nation besides ourselves has health care coverage for every resident. They use a variety of methods, but their populace does not have to deal with anything remotely resembling the clusterfuck that is Modern American Medicine. We are so pathetic that we can’t even COPY plans that have been proven to work elsewhere. Exceptional my ass. WRT guns, Bears and Wolves kill enough people per year to populate a post-it note. You’re justifying our gun culture because of the 3 people this year who may die from bear attack? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/20 "2014-12-05T13:11:11Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > In all fairness, Americans are miopic when it comes to greater social conscience, and they do cling to guns and religion compared to most first world countries we call our friends, i.e. Canada and England, to name just two. > > So while you may be right in that your English friends are being smug/rude, they are not wrong on these particular issues. Nations don’t have “friends.” They have alliances of mutual benefit that may be relatively stable or transient. The benefit(s) may not even necessarily be symmetrical. WRT gun laws, I see no reason why the US needs to emulate the UK or vice versa. If you honestly, even passionately, believe the English laws are superior and that you would be much safer living under such a set of laws, then I submit that you will more likely achieve your desired feeling of safety by moving to England than by enacting sweeping legal changes here. The English seem content with their laws. A substantial, organized, and well-funded portion of the populace here actively resists the type of legislation you want. OTOH, there is no defending the health care system in this country. Resistance to change there is nothing more than too many people like making lots of money from the system the way it works now. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399.md?page=2)