# What do non USA dopers think of America/Americans **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 29, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629 "2006-09-29T17:21:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/41 "2006-10-01T00:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Kyla] It makes me roll MY eyes when I see annoying smug Europeans go on about how _they_ aren’t violent and can’t understand why Americans are so barbaric. [/QUOTE] Do Europeans say that? I know the OP pretty much did, but that’s just one person, and I am not aware of any stereotype about Americans being violent. There is an idea that you’re more likely to get shot in America, and widespread puzzlement about the liberal gun ownership laws, but that is not the same as thinking that Americans are “barbaric”. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/42 "2006-10-01T00:44:57Z")
[QUOTE=britboy] “Yeah we suck, we killed the Indians we’re the worst country in the world, the real evil empire”… [/QUOTE] I grew up in the fifties and sixties and I can tell you that the virulent “America sucks!” point of view of so many in this country can most likely be laid squarely at the feet of academe as it has been manifest since the late sixties. When I was growing up, this kind of attitude was virtually unheard of. It was around, to be sure, but it was largely confined to beatniks and folk singers and no one else really felt that way – at least from what you could tell by being around the general populace. However, the university environment in this country has largely been appropriated by the left beginning with the counter-culture movement of the late sixties. An element of this kind of attitude had existed prior to that time to be sure, but it really started to spring to life and flourish at that time and it has grown exponentially ever since. I recently had this suspicion confirmed when I had occasion to a relative to the University of Oklahoma. The University of _Oklahoma_, no less – the largest and most highly regarded university in the very conservative state of Oklahoma – and virtually every classroom door and professor’s door we passed was absolutely _covered_ with anti-right, anti-Republican and what many would consider anti-American cartoons and propaganda. And, if you think about it you will notice that, almost without exception, the ‘America sucks’ meme comes from people who have come of age since the late sixties…and the more recent their schooling, the more virulent will be their ‘America sucks’ attitude because leftist university brainwashing has become more and more ingrained, and thus more and more aggressive, as time has gone by. I’m sure there will be a flurry of indignant denials by someone who doesn’t feel their school experience made them an America-suxite, or from someone else who is older than dirt and always thought that America sucks, but by and large I think you’ll find that the genesis and propagation of the America sucks meme lies at the hands of the American university environment. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/43 "2006-10-01T03:49:05Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] Rune, there are more overweight people in the U.S. than Denmark, that’s true. But you have to understand we have people that live here from many countries so it’s not a fair comparison. U.S. population - 295,734,134 vs 5,432,335 Denmark If you pick a state the size of Denmark I doubt if there’s much of a difference. I bet people from Austria, Italy, Norway, Korea, Switzerland and Japan think Danes are fat. You have more overweight people in your country than they do. [/QUOTE] No offense, but I’m really not sure what you’re saying here. First, didn’t say we were all fat, he said that he’d _heard_ we were fat, but the only Americans he’d met seemed “kinda tall and muscular.” Second, surely he was talking about the percentage of the population, not the overall numbers, but going by _either_ method we DO have more obese people. And if _was_ just going by absolute population numbers, why would Japan, for example, think of the Danes as being fat since the Japanese population is far higher than the Danish population? [QUOTE=Kyla] Well, it left a lasting impression, you know? It makes me roll MY eyes when I see annoying smug Europeans go on about how they aren’t violent and can’t understand why Americans are so barbaric. Right, because no European power ever slaughtered ten million innocent people within living memory. Oh wait… Not to mention, as I recall from looking around my surroundings earlier today, I live in the Balkans. I don’t have to think back too far to remember a time when Europeans in my neck of the woods were burying their neighbors in mass graves. No one’s got a monopoly on being assholes. Alas. Because if they did, we could put them all on some island somewhere and let them duke it out amongst themselves. [/QUOTE] The Balkan Wars are fair game. The Cold War too, relatively recent that it is. And to their credit (probably because of those two recent events) I have heard very few Eastern Europeans, Russians, or people from the Balkans criticizing violence levels in the US or our supposedly war-like nature. (You’ve undoubtedly spoken to far more people from the Balkans than I have, and I think you’re completely justified to roll your eyes if anyone from that region talks that way.) But my personal pet peeve is when Americans roll out WWI and WWII to counter _any_ criticism coming from Europeans. Yes, we should remember their crimes and our heroics, but things _have_ been quite different for quite a long time now. The way I see it, many Western European nations have had enviably low crime rates for a long time, and they’re more than justified at being critical of America’s stubbornly _high_ crime rate – and WWI and WWII really have nothing to do with that. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/44 "2006-10-01T05:38:46Z")
Only to add that Americans don’t seem to have sorted out their race/ethnicity issues. And there is this odd attachment to the Imperial system. > [@](#): > > Me: _I’m not altogether pleased with the way the US Supreme Court is turning out. I mean, appointing committed conservatives to the bench rather than the juridical stars._ > > US friend: _I know, I mean Alito, like do we really need two Italians on the bench?_ > [@](#): > > US Media: _And the judge in the OJ Simpson, ‘black man kills white woman’ trial, is of course, ethnically asian_. (exaggerated for effect) > [@](#): > > US friend: \* I shipped over 270 pounds of books\*. > > Me: \* ?? Oh that’s right, you still use Imperial measurements\*. > > US friend: _What do you mean, ‘still’?_ ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/45 "2006-10-01T05:44:13Z")
**Rune** Danes the most impolite people??? You ever been to France? ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/46 "2006-10-01T05:54:58Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] **Rune** Danes the most impolite people??? You ever been to France? [/QUOTE] That only applies to the English. To everyone else they’re lovely. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/47 "2006-10-01T06:15:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] That only applies to the English. To everyone else they’re lovely. [/QUOTE] Really? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/48 "2006-10-01T06:20:32Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Really? :dubious: [/QUOTE] Even including _most_ Americans. But to the English, oh my. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/49 "2006-10-01T07:11:49Z")
**AMERICA:** Fundamentally decent (but as flawed as anywhere else) **AMERICANS:** I tend to like the ones I’ve met, but with hundreds of millions of them, it’s impossible to give an answer. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/50 "2006-10-01T08:25:35Z")
I guess you’re right **Sevastapol** …Johnny Frenchie is most certainly not one of our favourite neighbours. We’ve had our disagreements in the past y’see. Strangely enough we’ve also had a couple of spats with the Germans and yet I’d go so far as to say we prefer them over the French. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/51 "2006-10-01T10:05:43Z")
Starving Artist writes: \> The University of Oklahoma, no less – the largest and most highly regarded \> university in the very conservative state of Oklahoma – and virtually every \> classroom door and professor’s door we passed was absolutely covered with \> anti-right, anti-Republican and what many would consider anti-American \> cartoons and propaganda. I don’t believe this for a second. Let’s do a survey. Would some posters who spend a lot of time on a college campus walk around several departments (not just one, but several of them) and report on what proportion of the doors of the offices of professors are covered with “anti-right, anti-Republican and what many would consider anti-American cartoons and propaganda”? I suspect the proportion is actually fairly small. Incidentally, I was at the University of Oklahoma for four days this summer and I didn’t see a single anti-right, anti-Republican, or anti-American sign, cartoon, or other piece of writing. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/52 "2006-10-01T16:33:36Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] No offense, but I’m really not sure what you’re saying here. First, didn’t say we were all fat, he said that he’d _heard_ we were fat, but the only Americans he’d met seemed “kinda tall and muscular.” Second, surely he was talking about the percentage of the population, not the overall numbers, but going by _either_ method we DO have more obese people. And if _was_ just going by absolute population numbers, why would Japan, for example, think of the Danes as being fat since the Japanese population is far higher than the Danish population? [/QUOTE] Probably because my post didn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t have a particular issue with what he posted. I don’t know if he was talking about percentage of the population or not, he didn’t say. I was pointing out that it’s all relative. By percentage of the population if that was talking about Denmark does have more obese people than the countries I named. By that token people from Japan could very well say those Danes are chubby. There are more obese people in Denmark compared to Japan by percentage, that’s all I was saying. Although a hell of a lot less than the U.S, that’s for sure. > [@Zoe](#): > > Caridwen, it’s been over thirty years since I’ve spent any time in Denmark, but the Danes were really good at getting lots of exercise. They thought nothing of walking two miles into town, shopping, and then walking two miles home. I think this is much more common in Europe. The United States should have more sidewalks! Move to the city, you walk your ass off. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/53 "2006-10-01T18:14:06Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Starving Artist writes: \> The University of Oklahoma, no less – the largest and most highly regarded \> university in the very conservative state of Oklahoma – and virtually every \> classroom door and professor’s door we passed was absolutely covered with \> anti-right, anti-Republican and what many would consider anti-American \> cartoons and propaganda. I don’t believe this for a second. Let’s do a survey. Would some posters who spend a lot of time on a college campus walk around several departments (not just one, but several of them) and report on what proportion of the doors of the offices of professors are covered with “anti-right, anti-Republican and what many would consider anti-American cartoons and propaganda”? I suspect the proportion is actually fairly small. [/quote] Yes, probably in the same way that the number of liberals/Democrats who think the mainstream media isn’t biased (though granted it isn’t as bad as it was before the success of Fox News). I can guarantee you that every word was true. The person I was with at that time could affirm the ranting and raving (under my breath, that is; we were after all in the hallowed halls of learning 😉 ) that this display triggered on my part. [QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Incidentally, I was at the University of Oklahoma for four days this summer and I didn’t see a single anti-right, anti-Republican, or anti-American sign, cartoon, or other piece of writing. [/QUOTE] Were you, like, actually in the hallways walking past classrooms and/or the offices of the various professors, or were you merely on campus? Now, given that I didn’t enter more than one building I suppose it’s possible that the things I saw in that building were unique only to that building, but the person I was with said nothing in response to my disgust to indicate that the things I was seeing were unique to that building only. But again, every word of my post was true. Further, I find it interesting that you chose to quibble over the veracity of my comments about propaganda on the door and not on the larger issue of liberal brainwashing that has become the norm in the majority of American colleges and universities. One even hears comments around here from time to time from conservative students commenting on the uniqueness of their being both a conservative and a student, and the feeling of being an outsider that their political orientation creates within the education environment. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/54 "2006-10-01T20:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=Rune] American women have a reputation as being the absolute worst in the world… [/QUOTE] In what respect? Are we held to be the ugliest, sluttiest, dirtiest, butchest, most emasculating, or all these things? What makes women citizens of a country “the worst in the world”? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/55 "2006-10-01T21:09:32Z")
Starving Artist, I’ve started a separate thread for this: > **[What is posted on professors' doors at colleges and universities?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=390492)** > > In another thread, Starving Artist makes this claim: \> The University of Oklahoma, no less – the largest and most highly regarded \> university in the very conservative state of Oklahoma – and virtually every \> classroom door and... I just don’t believe you. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/56 "2006-10-01T22:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=bluethree] In what respect? Are we held to be the ugliest, sluttiest, dirtiest, butchest, most emasculating, or all these things? What makes women citizens of a country “the worst in the world”? [/QUOTE] I think they mean “easiest”. While that is obviously debateable, from what I’ve heard from European men I’ve known, the American ladies have a tendency to give it up over there. However, it shouldn’t be reflective of everyday attitudes as a lot of the women I personally know melt for European guys but aren’t “easy” here in the US. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/57 "2006-10-02T01:21:24Z")
I thought we had a rep for being lousy lovers. I don’t know if that’s true, having never gotten beyond handshaking with any Belgians, English, Scottish or German men I’ve met. Oh, or French. As to “easiest”-that’s an easy one. They’re on vacation (sorry, holiday) and nothing says fun like a romp through Europe, no? Maybe I’m watching the wrong movies… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629/58 "2006-10-02T03:30:27Z")
Ahem. Time to bring in this priceless classic from [The Onion.](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34198) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-non-usa-dopers-think-of-america-americans/374629.md?page=2)