Ok, I’m sure I’ll get a few “weird compared to what” and “weird from an American perspective” comments. I would just like to know what some people think about modern Germany in a cultural respect. It just seems to me that your sadist per 1000 people is much higher in Germany than in most other industrialized nations.
Note: My perspective is extremely biased, yes. This is especially true since Loveline started playing “Germany or Florida.”
Is it the question:
Quote: I would just like to know what some people think about modern Germany in a cultural respect
Or is it a request for analysis:
Q: Why is Germany so weird?
Is it simply
Q: sadist per 1000 people is much higher in Germany
or ‘weirdness’ in a broader perspective? If it’s simply sadism, the thread title “Why are Germans so sadistic” might apply better.
Why is your perspective so extremely biased? What’s the connection between Germany and Florida?
Why do you think Germany has a higher “sadist per 1000 people” stat?
My question is pretty much: Do other people feel that Germany is a little weirder than most other industrailized nations. If so, what are the causes. The sadism example was just a personal example of what I feel to be german weirdness. I can’t really explain why I feel there are more sadists in Germany, It’s just an opinion.
“Germany or Flordia” is a game on the radio show Loveline. A caller recounts a bizarre and evil story. The hosts then guess whether or not the story was from Germany or Florida. Therefore, I’ve heard quite a few weird stories from Germany, thereby skewing my perspective. If no one agrees with me here, I’ll drop it and start a Why are there so many German philosophers and composers thread.
Ever see that SNL Skit about that show, “Sprockets” I think it was called? That’s a big leap from Nazis. I think World War two and the Cold War had something to do with that cultural change.
Ever see that SNL Skit about that show, “Sprockets” I think it was called? That’s a big leap from Nazis. I think World War two and the Cold War had something to do with that cultural change.
I’ve been to Germany…didn’t strike me as weird…didn’t meet any sadists either, sorry…
People buying bits of land by the railroad tracks just for weekend gardening is about the weirdest thing I’ve even seen. Here in America the idea of actually paying to take care of a lawn that isn’t in front of your house is just plain nuts.
Also every single German girl I’ve ever met in the US or in Germany came in one of two different varieties , cold or violent.
It’s full of Germans.
Do Germans love David Hasselhoff because they’re weird, or did David Hasselhoff MAKE them weird?
I presume this is similar to “allotments”, like there are in the UK. They’re for city dwellers, usually old-aged pensioners - to grow plants on. Sometimes they supplement people’s diet, sometimes they’re for flowers, sometimes they’re just a hobby (and sometimes they’re used to grow dope!).
There’s 80 million people in Germany, 290 million in the US.
If you compare the sizes of the two this may not seem so weird at all.
YMMV
I agree on Germany being weird, though.
I know - I live there.
My husband just got home from there, and he didn’t seem to think they were weird. He did say that they listened to a lot of 80’s music. Make of that what you will.
God bless you all. So when I can I visit?
Well, they DID start two world wars in the century we just polished off. Of course, I would accept the argument that WWI was the collective responsibility of the arrogant fools running Europe at the time, and that WWII was a direct result of how badly they botched its aftermath.
I have read that Germans are more prone to be into SM than people in other countries, but not in anything that would ever be mistaken for a reliable source.
Well, I am an American living in Germany, so I think i can give you a little info about that. Basically as an American who has never left America, you’ll never have any clue about what is going on outside of your country outside of SNL sketches and Loveline bits. Sorry, but that ain’t the way to find out about the world. Come to Europe and people think that we are all violent and gun-toting rednecks, and that crime is much worse that it is. If you really want to learn something just realize that you’ll never know what a country is like untill you actually go there, and even then you’ll never know exactly what it means. Just realize that you don’t know anything, except that their view of you is just as weird as yours of them is. I’ve known some Germans very well, and I don’t really find them to be wierd. There is no David Hasselhof fascination that I know of, and in fact. The younger the population is, the more they appear homogeneous over the world. Its true. They have skaters and ghetto looking dudes and all of the typical American stereotypical kids.
*It just seems to me that your sadist per 1000 people is much higher in Germany than in most other industrialized nations. *
This statement kind of pisses me off however, as it seems that you have almost no basis on which to make that judgement. If you do then I’ll forgive you, but if you are basing it on stupid American stereotypes, then give it a rest. At least European stereotypes about other countries are a little more accurate.
Also Tito Benito:
Living in Texas kind of sucks for Germans as it would be like the same as a person living in the most liberal parts of the US going there too. Germans don’t particularly react well when you want to start sharing stories about your respective church lives
Now, I am of course being generous with my defenses here as well, I think that having lived here for a while I have a better idea than 99 percent of all Americans what Germany is like, but then again, I still don’t know so much, and to top it all off i am still amazed at some things. But they also have a lot of nice stuff here that we don’t have in 'Murika either.
[slight hijack]
Merkwurdigliebe, my dad lives in Germany too and we talked about European impressions of America and he raised a good point explaining some of the misonceptions…you have to look at the type of TV shows that get dubbed over and re-broadcast into Europe…things like Cops and Boston Public, which don’t exactly focus on the brightest points of American life…unusual name, btw…
[/slight hijack, we apologize for the inconvenience :)]
By definition, all “foreign” countries are foreign (weird) to non-locals. I am not sure why you singled out Germany, but yeah…there is lots of odd stuff going on there like in any other country. I lived there for 14 years and saw it all.
But as some of the other posters have mentioned, maybe it would be wise for you to take a step out of the USA and look back in. Europeans in general find it more than a bit odd that American kids can watch a gazillion murders on television, but the Surpreme Court is called in if there is a flash of a woman’s tit shown on broadcast television.
You make a blanket statement of there being more sadists in Germany…I think you have been reading too many comic books, but even if that were true, then how do you explain that the majority of skin-head, neo-nazi’s live in, surprise, the USA! And speaking of sadists, why don’t you Google crime statistics in Germany vs USA and see who has the most serial killers, violent crimes and percentage of population in prisons.
Yeah…Germany is “weird”, but to the rest of the world, no one compares to the wierdness of the inhabitants of your perceived “normal” USA.
American cities have a similar thing. usually a vacant lot is parcelled up by the Neighborhood committee and people grown flowers and veggies on them. It has the benfit of giving folks space to grow on, and reduces the hazard level of the vacant lot (which otherwise would be a place for broken bottles to grow.)
The downside is that kids can’t play sandlot football or baseball on said lot. But those games are falling off the kids game radar screen in any case.
Don’t think there’s much pot growing, however.