Unlike, say, the English national anthem, God Save the Queen.
“an bizarre” 
As a Canadian, I notice quite a few Americanisms. But I do agree that they are regional as well. If you ask someone from Alabama to describe Canada, odds are you will have someone say “covered in snow”. Meanwhile, a Minnesotan asked the same question will have a different point of view.
But I do wonder about American fascination with the following:
Baseball - The sport is boring, IMO. Mind you, I also wonder the same about cricket. (No offense intended)
Guns - Why do Americans like guns so much?
Unable to accept honest criticism - You only need to watch the American Idol auditions to see what I am talking about.
The Electoral College - I agree with the OP. Fairly different than the democratic methods currently used elsewhere in the world
Aversion to Socialism - I’m not talking Communism here, but the fact that the US has such a huge fear of developing widespread social welfare reforms, ie Medicare for everyone. They are the only g-7 country where there isn’t a major socialist party.
UN Peacekeeping - Despite having one of the world’s largest militaries, compared to other countries, they don’t have that large of a presence in UN peacekeeping missions. Why don’t they participate?
Ebonics - I can understand using slang with your friends, but why do so many Americans, white, black, or hispanic, insist on using ebonics or other regional slang in professional settings, and then get offended when a person dones’ know what they mean?
I do agree that some of the ideals revolving around nudity on television, and swearing in public amongst most adults is because of the fact that a majority of the original people to come to the US were Puritans.
For those who say that Americans are overly patriotic, I do disagree. Americans, while being proud of where they are from, tend to not be as exuberant in displaying it outside of the United States. Canadians, on the other hand…Who else makes sure that they place Canadian Flag patches on their bags before backpacking through Europe. (I have heard though that it is so they don’t get confused with Americans)
Of course, one can also have an entire thread devoted to Canadian pecularities if they wanted, which I think would be even longer.
Okay, how about I keep count of the number of times Britons spontaneously burst into the national anthem–as if each lyric is sung with intent–and you count the number of times an American politician, news pundit, radio personality, sportsman, religious leader or billboard says, “God Bless America!”
Also, it’s called the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Not England.
It’s called a typo. How about that.
No. It’s way more pronounced in the US than in other western countries. And it’s way more asserted by many Americans overseas. If you’re claiming that the appearance of the US as more fervently nationalistic than other countries is incorrect, then I’m afraid you’re mistaken.
Actually, “Britain is kind of decent sub[/sub]” would sum up how a lot of UKers I know would put it. It’s be considered a bit crass to blow one’s own trumpet, so to speak.
MM/DD/YYYY
Good God, am I from Norfolk now? (No offence to Norfolks)…
Guns - What’s the deal with that? Why on earth would anyone want to have a handgun in his home - or any other guns for that matter - unless he is a hunter or Rambo?
What’s up?
I really don’t know… Should I point to the sky? Should I say “What’s up?” back, answering a question with a question?
How are you?
I mean… it’s usually the first and only time I meet these people, I’m not going to spill my heart out to this man and I don’t think he wants me to. Us Icelanders are often called “dry” because we don’t smile all the time and do all the “Please sir, thank you sir, how are you sir?” but IMO it’s better than fake niceties. Is that a word?
Now don’t get me wrong, I genuinely like around 90% percent of the Americans I meet and I meet a LOT of Americans. In fact, I think I generally like them better than any other nationality except Danes (… I love Danes…), Americans are usually easygoing, very likeable people that I genuinely like talking to. But they do have a “different” way of …being.
Well, I will accept your views on Americans being like that overseas, as I’ve not been there to see it myself. I’ve seen a few people visiting the states (not from any specific country, I’ve ran into a arrogant people from many cultures) who; despite the fact that our country was good enough to visit, attend school in, or move to, have a tendency to tell everyone what’s wrong with America, our lack of culture, art, good manners, decent food or wine.
I wasn’t expressly stating that it wasn’t true, just trying to give a few reasons that could be a cause for such behavior that everyone should be able to relate too. Every group of people has their fair share of zealots, and I know we have some extras over here. But it boils down to cultural beliefs on what is polite or impolite. This kind of thing could be equated to bragging about your favorite sports team versus your friend’s favorite team. It’s most likely done in the spirit of healthy competition in most cases, unless the situation is more drastic than just a bunch of drunken tourists shouting USA USA.
Had I a better grasp of what is considered good manners to people in the UK, perhaps I could provide some contrasting examples, things that you consider normal, that most Americans would find rude.
In UselessGit’s post, he mentions:
This is something that shows an example of such differences if I take his meaning properly. In most of this country phrases like those are not considered false platitudes; but are just an example of commonly accepted good manners.
I am no way justifying US-bashers, but the constant bombardment of US patriotism to which we are prone, not just with relation to tourists, but via our media - the news, and the US’s TV and movie output, coupled with your country’s overbearing foreign policy, perhaps gives us furriners a skewed view of US attitudes. Thus it is perhaps in the same spirit of “healthy competition” that some non-US people tend to find the necessity to bash aspects of the US: “you’re the best and you don’t mind telling us all the time, so we’re going to point out where you’re wrong about that” may be the attitude.
Unfortunately the “extra” zealots are much of the problem. They’re very loud.
Slight hijack about the Electoral College:
Many of you have expressed confusion about the electoral college. This stems from your misconception of how the USA is composed.
We are a federation of states, states that are for all intents and purposes of independent entities (save for national defense); not merely a nation subdivided into 50 regions. This is key!
Think of electing a “president” of Europe who had real power and could control all of your military forces combined.
Now say Russia had 51% of the population of Europe. Would you want them to dominate elections merely because of they had the majority of people? No, because this would be reflecting only the desire of that one part of Europe.
The electoral college gives all the regions (states) a say in who’s in charge of the whole.
It’s a winner take all situation; if you get 50+% of the votes in a state, you get all the electoral votes from that state. This is why the over all winner might not have the plurality of individual votes (if they were massed into one pile; which they never are; it is meaningless to look at it that way). It has happened twice in our history and it will probably happen again some time.
Of course, they just seem strange to us because our views of “good manners” vary slightly. I’m sure I would be considered rude in America and I know the English think I am loud and rude.
I’m just glad we’re not all the same.
I have to say, though, that I’ve never seen or heard that “USA is no. 1!” thingy from Americans. In fact, many Americans are rather sheepish and “admit” that they are Americans because they think everyone hates them in Europe. What the hell is the U.S. media telling them?
We got the Puritans, and Austrailia got the criminals.
Lucky bastards.
Maybe now that the sun does set on the British Empire?
There are lots of hunters in the US. In some places it actually approaches 100% of the male population and a large portion of the wimminfolk. Secondly, people in some areas have them for home defense. Third, we consider the it a RIGHT of Americans, not voidable by the government, to own and possess deadly weapons ith which to defend ourselves, from both private criminals and the government, if neccessary. Contrary to European opinion, we are not psycho murderers.
And some people just collect them. My father is quite proud of his collection of some rather rare firearms.
Hmmm… if you are looking at American Idol to draw conclusions about the US, you have a major surprise coming.
There is a large reason behind this. First, the UN is not trusted by a large portion of Americans. Fact is, the UN has not shown that it is effective. Moreover, its “peacekeeping” missions are ill-planned, often have no real goal other than “stop stuff from happening” and do not, in fact, make any long-range plans for actually fixing the problems that caused the violence. It exposes our soldiers for what we see as little benefit to us or the target population. Additionally, certain actions undertaken (or not taken) by European soldiers many European militaries in our eyes. We do not consider them trustworthy battlefield forces.
Never seen this.
We consider it quite friendly to just start talking. They’re not asking you for your life story. They just want to know how you are today. How do you make friends? As often as not, we just start talking to strangers; thats how you get to know someone. You see this more in the SOuth and the MidWest than the Coasts.
I’m afraid its not the US media telling us this. I read European newpapers and articles, and I find that a very large proportion of them are increasingly anti-American and hostile to us, and its not simply about the recent War. Especially French and German publications. This goes back decades.
You make good points jjiim, and yes, the healthy competition works both ways, I’ll admit I talked myself in a circle while trying to better clarify what I was trying to get across. I took the original meaning in boofy_bloke’s post to be on a smaller scale, something along the lines of the slogans one might hear shouted at international competitions, races, even at the Olympics, when everyone would have been voicing support for their respective nations. But as far as a general attitude yes, it is widely considered within this nations borders that we are the most powerful country in the world, more so in recent times thanks to Mr. Bush and his administration showing little or no concern for international treaties, but that’s another topic. So it’s quite easy to see how sickening that would get in short fashion. I’ll be sure to bring it up at the next meeting. 
Except that your gun crime rate exceeds the rest of the West by a large degree.
Aesiron, I love how you take a political pot shot and then close off debate so that you don’t have to listen to a contrasting point of view. What country are YOU from? Is that a characteristic unique to people from your country? While many have used this thread to attack the U.S., it is an interesting question and I will give you credit for that.
About the most intelligent thing mentioned on this thread so far is American’s (apologies - its is what we call ourselves since it is part of the full name of our country - no slight to other members of the Western Hemisphere intended) aversion to socialism. Many on this thread act as if that is a bad thing. Free enterpreise and an aversion to socialism are deeply held values in the U.S. Our country was created as a refuge from those who were oppressed, and continues to harbor those seeking asylum. I hope you are not suggesting we are unkind because we are not socialist - I bet a search on the internet would reveal that Americans are among the most generous domestically as well as internationally.
In contrast, I find old Europe’s embrace of statism intriguing, particularly their rush to surrender their sovereignty to the EU. Many yanks also wonder why Europeans are so balkanized and have trouble innovating. Viva la difference` I suppose
As for guns, the right to own one was thought fundamental when we obtained our independence. Most Americans do not own guns. Gun ownership certainly makes criminals more dangerous, but on the other hand the elderly and others who might not be able to physically defend themselves can protect themselves in the U.S. The prevalence of guns also stems from American’s spirit of self reliance and individualism, which is also a deeply held value. From my experience, Japanese and Chinese cultures seem to value society as a whole more so than the individual, and this is somewhat true of socialist Europe as well. These are interesting differences.
As for languages, the U.S. has the greatest number of Polish speakers outside of Poland. I would expect there are numerous examples of such language diversity. However, because of our history and geographic separation, few Americans have needed to learn another language. Most college students do study a second language, although few become proficient.
baseball - I can’t defend this boring sport, although I will not that there are professional teams in Japan and Canada which are equivalent to the US teams. The sport is also very popular throughout central American, parts of the Carribean and South America, especially Venezeala.
soccer/football - soccer is growing in popularity in the U.S., but is not a top sport. Few of our best athletes conisider it their first sport. Still, the U.S. has qualified for the last 3 world cups and advanced to the quarter finals in 2002, beating among others Mexico and Portugal. The Americans might have even beaten Germany and continued to the semifinals if the Scottish referee would have seen a handball by a German defender which prevented an American goal.
U.S. govt. - I don’t think our federal system of government is unique. I think Canada, Germany, Australia etc. have similar federal systems. And the EU is taking this one step further.
Another difference not mentioned is that our government pays for our highways, and taxes on gasoline are only about 100% of the price of the gas itself. As a result, the cost to operate a vehicle is practical for the middle class and even poor. I suppose you could say that this amounts to a subsidy, and this would have some truth to it although it is not completely true - the gas taxes we do pay roughly equal the cost of expenditures for roads and bridges. So its probably more accurate to say that Europe taxes gasoline in order to discourage the use of automobiles. The prevelance of automobiles in the U.S. leads to numerous differences, such as where Americans live, drive through ATM’s, etc.
Perhaps we should add ‘defensiveness’ to the list.
You misinterpret ‘socialism’ - there are policies in many other western countries that would be called ‘socialistic’ by US conservatives, but the countries aren’t socialist by any means.
For a couple of years, and then also became a place where people came to make their fortune - and no bad thing!
So do all western countries.
Wrong. Check the stats yourself. The US gives the least per capita of any donor country for which figures are available.
I see your point about the rush to federalism (though you should know there’s signficant resistance here). But can you be more specific about ‘trouble innovating’?
I agree interesting, and quite possibly with some truth in it, but please stop with the ‘socialist’ thing. We’re not.
North Ireland has a higher firearm homicide rate. Admititly, the NI numbers are from 94, and the US numbers are from 99.