# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/101 "2014-12-05T20:46:52Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I’m being serious when I tell you this: You’re the least interesting person in the thread and I find interacting with you not to be worth my time. Based on your own contributions so far, I’m quite glad you feel that way. Had we struck up a rapport I’d be a little concerned. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/102 "2014-12-05T20:51:39Z")
> [@XT](#): > > As to the OP, you really need to cut the English a break […] I mean, they are Europeans, after all Oooh, things just got nasty…can you even say that in the Pit anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/103 "2014-12-05T20:54:29Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Let’s start with you offering a premise, or an example, or some sort of actual assertion; then I will be happy to respond. Hey, you were the one who made the ridiculous assertion, not me - you back it up, princess. Failing an adequate explanation, I’ll take your knee-jerk nationalism as a given. You can take that American flag and shove it up your ass. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/104 "2014-12-05T20:56:47Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I prefer not to get killed by a drunk driver, too, but I wouldn’t go work in Ireland and spend my time insulting the Irish for being drunk yahoos who kill each other on the roads a lot. It is indisputably true that Ireland has a significant problem with drunk driving, more so than most countries, but If I came into your workplace in Ireland and starting mouthing off about the drunken Irish careening around the roads killing people, that would be an act of monumental assholery. Thought [this](http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/25-drunkest-countries-in-the-world/26/) would be interesting…it’s the top 25 drunkest countries (America is so lame we didn’t even make the top 50). Your point about deaths related to alcohol verse deaths related to guns are valid when we look at the stats for deaths per 100k. The wild US wrt guns is around 5 deaths per 100k for murders by firearms (it’s higher if you count suicides). But the deaths per 100k for alcohol in the UK are, um, a bit higher than that ([15.9](http://alcoholeducationtrust.org/Pages/factfig.html)…higher than if you count all forms of gun deaths in the US)…so, something they can be proud of, though most Western European nations are right there with them if you look at the first link. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/105 "2014-12-05T20:57:50Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Oooh, things just got nasty…can you even say that in the Pit anymore? They try and deny it, but I have it reliably that they are, indeed Europeans. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/106 "2014-12-05T21:28:32Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Don’t be excessively hard on the Brits. I am married to an immigrant from Ukraine and, as a result, have a social circle that includes people from all over eastern Europe and several of the -stans. They are bonded by having grown up in the Soviet Union. Anyway, many of them display the same attitude toward the US as you are complaining about from Brits. Never about guns, though. They love shooting and eagerly accept any invitations to the range. They bitch about other things. I too am married to an immigrant. It took me a while, but I finally got her to understand that the use of the word “American” as a pejorative (like, “that’s so \*Ameeerican. . . \*”), when actually in the United States, among Americans, was pretty much a conversation-ender. No Americans present would be interested in anything else she had to say after that. She said, in her defense, that she picked up the habit at Harvard, where she went for her undergrad and graduate degrees. Apparently it’s common at Harvard for students there, American and otherwise, to kind of look down on America a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/107 "2014-12-05T21:45:16Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I’m sure that probably reads funnier in the UK than it does here. > > How about this, then: In the time period when the US was so poorly handling the Native Americans, how was the UK doing in its dealings with the native populations in other parts of the world? Is that clearer? How about the time period when the Brits were still running the colonies and the Natives still had the run of most of the continent? How about the state India’s in now - think “our” Indians would rather they’d been “your” Indians? ---
**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, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/108 "2014-12-05T21:48:36Z")
My guess is they would rather have never been anybody’s Indians but their own. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/109 "2014-12-05T21:50:30Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > How about the time period when the Brits were still running the colonies and the Natives still had the run of most of the continent? > > How about the state India’s in now - think “our” Indians would rather they’d been “your” Indians? I think it’s safe to say ‘our’ Indians would have preferred that you European types stayed home and kept your diseases to yourself. As to your point, it’s not really valid…by the time the US came into being most of the native American population was dead from European diseases, while India never had the same issue. Neither episode was a shining example of greatness by either the US or the UK wrt our treatment of native populations, but one key difference is we lived here to by that time, while you know you never did in India…it was just a source of exploitable resources to you guys. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/110 "2014-12-05T22:01:28Z")
The best way to deal with the insufferable smug English is by invade, rape and pillage. Talking from experience here. And if they’re really insufferable smug you should also burn down and loot some of their monesteries. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/111 "2014-12-05T22:04:09Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > 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. So, we shouldn’t complain about US gun laws because there are lots of people who like them… but we can bitch all we want about our healthcare system even though there are lots of people who like it? ---
**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, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/112 "2014-12-05T22:24:37Z")
You can complain all you like about either one. Your opinion matters to me, though, only if you are American. Further, why you like or dislike either one is something I would consider important. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/113 "2014-12-05T22:32:27Z")
I think I’m particularly smug vis-a-vis the Americans because they don’t speak proper English, like what I do. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/114 "2014-12-05T22:41:14Z")
I agree us Brits can be smug when it comes to America and American culture. Indeed all Europeans can. I blame it mostly on political correctness. There was a time when we could be condescending, smug and downright nasty to Germans, Italians, Spaniards, the French(especially the French) and a whole variety of colourful ethnics. Nowadays we are only allowed to pick on the Americans. This means all our built up hatred of foreigners is almost exclusively directed at Americans. It’s all a rather sad state of affairs a pro American Brit myself. Note; we have recently had a rise in support for UKIP. I welcome the day when we can once again proudly and with dignity call the French, frogs! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/115 "2014-12-05T22:41:58Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > 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 No, I haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/116 "2014-12-05T22:43:07Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > 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. You have my permission to smack anyone in the mouth who next mentions how superior British humour is. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/117 "2014-12-05T22:46:00Z")
> [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](#): > > Says the man who lives in a country that goes out of its way to advertise itself as ‘The Greatest country in the world’, and ‘A shining city on a hill.’ > > Fuck off. > > P.S. - Your healthcare is shit. How about “Britannia Rules the Waves”? Or “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire?” > [@Jack\_of\_Words](#): > > CoughLynchingssplutterSegregationcoughAttica!atishoo > > Of course we have racists. Quaint, olde english racists who we ignore, and eccentric buffoons who we mock. _coughirishfamineindianempireboerwarbloodysundayolivercromwelletc_ -leftist living in Pittsburgh, PA, which isn’t exactly bastion of Bible-belt gun nuts. (Most of the gun owners around here are hunting enthusiasts) And yes, we know our healthcare sucks. It’s not like people aren’t trying to change that. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/118 "2014-12-05T22:51:20Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] -leftist living in Pittsburgh, PA, which isn’t exactly bastion of Bible-belt gun nuts. (Most of the gun owners around here are hunting enthusiasts) And yes, we know our healthcare sucks. It’s not like people aren’t trying to change that. [/QUOTE] Our healthcare doesn’t actually suck though…it’s quite good, in fact. The problem with it is how we pay for it and who receives it (and who doesn’t)…THAT part certainly is less than optimal. But the actual healthcare that the majority of our citizens gets? It’s at least as good if not better than what the Brits or our other European brethren and sistren get. You are right though…it’s flawed and needs to be fixed so that pretty much everyone gets the benefits of it, and so that the price if fairly distributed. And people ARE trying to change it. I wish we could all just agree on what needs to be changed and how. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/119 "2014-12-05T22:58:52Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > _coughirishfamineindianempireboerwarbloodysundayolivercromwelletc_ You forgot _coughconcentrationcamps_ Although that arguably was included in _boerwaretc_. There is also the lamentable lack of ice for drinks, but that would be piling on. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399/120 "2014-12-05T23:15:35Z")
Great OP/username combo. The English can, indeed, be insufferably smug, but not for the reasons given there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smug-english/706399.md?page=7)