Americans don't you just love them

Bram J":3cxrlbkw said:

We were discussing courses we found interesting at school and I must have said something in the trend of 'I find history interesting, but only modern history' and then she said something like 'Ah, how we came to the rescue in the second WW' and me replying 'I'm sure Stalin did most of the work' and then she said 'who's Stalin?'

She didn't knew Lenin or Trotsky either btw.

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You only find modern history interesting? Odd from someone who talks about science and evolution.

Perhaps this young American was not interested in talking to you. Perhaps WW2 it is a subject that involves her forebears, given her country's forces were involved for a lot more than the couple of weeks the Belgian Army resisted.

I would take any combination of fat, stupid or whatever other undeserved labels you lazily apply to citizens of the U.S. over pompous, racist and cowardly.

An old article about EU racism: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/belgium-heads-eu-racism-league-1289695.html

Belgium in WW2 timeline: http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/belgium-ww2-events-timeline.asp

sylus":htyx0tp9 said:

I can assure you that most countries have their dumb people and it's certainly not limited to one country

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Indeed - dragons be there, trying to assume jingoism makes sense in that type of argument.

Going back in time, it always seemed to be something of an indication about the person I was speaking to - that they knew more about things in general, or other periods in time, or countries, civilisations, customs, maybe languages. That whole concept of a world outside of themselves, does seem to be dwindling - and I suspect multi-factorial too - not just the politics of a certain time and onwards, not merely how technology has changed behaviour and interaction, not merely a change in society and values - but I suspect a blended whisky of them all.

Something I find poignant, though, that was something I talked about to my own kids - as a kid growing up, there simply wasn't anything like the same degree of things for kids and young people to do around the home. TVs were in the main sitting room, and either only on at certain times, or mostly ruled by what the grown-ups wanted to watch. Computers were pretty much non-existent until around the early 80s. Music was possible, but awkward, and limited and hard to do personally.

Books were a sudden passport to something to fill times when you couldn't be off and out, running around knocking on peoples' doors for amusement, whizzing around on bikes with absolutely no consideration about helmets, and generally doing things that would have 'elf-n-safety experts apoplectic these days. As a young kid, I read, A LOT - partly because there was sod all else to do, and partly because it was something that captured my interest where there was nothing else, really, to do so.

I can't help but think that having no true option than read a lot more in younger years, than kids and young people seem to do these days, had some significant impact on language skills and comprehension, plus, perhaps, an exposure to things and information that perhaps you wouldn't have naturally sought. These days, it seems to be more about pre-empting boredom in kids, rather than kids dealing with boredom in a relatively healthy fashion.

Ductape":1y6wgvwn said:

I met a belgian woman once.
Tapped her and sent her on her way.

Population of belguim= 11,094,000 (2013)

Population of the Americas= 953,565,000 (2012)

Wonder if this makes a difference?


Figure this is good for the next 85 or so stories you read about Americans:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... aster.html

Click to expand...

Funny. I thought the states had a population of only about 300,000,000?
Anyway the numbers do account for some part of more stories involving stupid people coming from the US.

Bram J":yd5oxhoa said:

Ductape":yd5oxhoa said:

I met a belgian woman once.
Tapped her and sent her on her way.

Population of belguim= 11,094,000 (2013)

Population of the Americas= 953,565,000 (2012)

Wonder if this makes a difference?


Figure this is good for the next 85 or so stories you read about Americans:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... aster.html

Click to expand...

Funny. I thought the states had a population of only about 300,000,000?
Anyway the numbers do account for some part of more stories involving stupid people coming from the US.

Click to expand...

The Americas. Do try to keep up.

Go back to your original post. You weren't stereotyping people from the U.S.A., You were addressing Americans. Time to use your superior intellect and get out the world atlas.

Let me help. All Europeans are not belgians, but all belgians are Europeans.
All the people in the U.S. are Americans but not all Americans are from the U.S.

America consists of two continents one called North America and one called South America.

Cheers,
T

highlandsflyer":2zjcsp71 said:

Bram J":2zjcsp71 said:

We were discussing courses we found interesting at school and I must have said something in the trend of 'I find history interesting, but only modern history' and then she said something like 'Ah, how we came to the rescue in the second WW' and me replying 'I'm sure Stalin did most of the work' and then she said 'who's Stalin?'

She didn't knew Lenin or Trotsky either btw.

Click to expand...

You only find modern history interesting? Odd from someone who talks about science and evolution.

Perhaps this young American was not interested in talking to you. Perhaps WW2 it is a subject that involves her forebears, given her country's forces were involved for a lot more than the couple of weeks the Belgian Army resisted.

I would take any combination of fat, stupid or whatever other undeserved labels you lazily apply to citizens of the U.S. over pompous, racist and cowardly.

An old article about EU racism: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/belgium-heads-eu-racism-league-1289695.html

Belgium in WW2 timeline: http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/belgium-ww2-events-timeline.asp

Click to expand...

It's not strange to find ancient and medieval times boring as a scientist. Since that is what people generally understand under 'history'. If someone tells me he's interested in history, I won't go jibbering on about the Permian extinction, the Ediacara fauna or the endosymbiont origin of eukaryotes.

She was more than willing to talk to me. It would surprise me if her forebears were involved in the war since she mentioned the war so lightly, with a smile on her face.

I have never lazily applied the labels fat, stupid and ignorant to the Americans. They were applied already a long time ago. Certainly I am not to blame for how Americans in general are viewed by the rest of the world?

I know there are prejudices against every nationality, also against Belgians. I think you shouldn't take them too seriously. I'm neither pompous, racist or a coward. I am also not a pedophile.
I don't care much about my own nationality, nor do I care much about that of others.

There are some Americans who put it quite well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPDT5qHtZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGKEkI8IV2o

relax, it's comedy

Ductape":3ddac8no said:

Go back to your original post. You weren't stereotyping people from the U.S.A., You were addressing Americans. Time to use your superior intellect and get out the world atlas.

Let me help. All Europeans are not belgians, but all belgians are Europeans.
All the people in the U.S. are Americans but not all Americans are from the U.S.

America consists of two continents one called North America and one called South America.

Cheers,
T

Click to expand...

Well, for your information, in Europe it is common to refer to people from the United States as 'Americans'. This is how we call you. The others we call by their country. Canadian, Mexican, Brazilian. When we talk about Americans we talk about the 'yanks'.
No need to be so patronizing.

What do the french call french doors?............doors...boom boom :facepalm: :mrgreen:

Bram J":201k4jaj said:

highlandsflyer":201k4jaj said:

Bram J":201k4jaj said:

We were discussing courses we found interesting at school and I must have said something in the trend of 'I find history interesting, but only modern history' and then she said something like 'Ah, how we came to the rescue in the second WW' and me replying 'I'm sure Stalin did most of the work' and then she said 'who's Stalin?'

She didn't knew Lenin or Trotsky either btw.

Click to expand...

You only find modern history interesting? Odd from someone who talks about science and evolution.

Perhaps this young American was not interested in talking to you. Perhaps WW2 it is a subject that involves her forebears, given her country's forces were involved for a lot more than the couple of weeks the Belgian Army resisted.

I would take any combination of fat, stupid or whatever other undeserved labels you lazily apply to citizens of the U.S. over pompous, racist and cowardly.

An old article about EU racism: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/belgium-heads-eu-racism-league-1289695.html

Belgium in WW2 timeline: http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/belgium-ww2-events-timeline.asp

Click to expand...

It's not strange to find ancient and medieval times boring as a scientist. Since that is what people generally understand under 'history'. If someone tells me he's interested in history, I won't go jibbering on about the Permian extinction, the Ediacara fauna or the endosymbiont origin of eukaryotes.

She was more than willing to talk to me. It would surprise me if her forebears were involved in the war since she mentioned the war so lightly, with a smile on her face.

I have never lazily applied the labels fat, stupid and ignorant to the Americans. They were applied already a long time ago. Certainly I am not to blame for how Americans in general are viewed by the rest of the world?

I know there are prejudices against every nationality, also against Belgians. I think you shouldn't take them too seriously. I'm neither pompous, racist or a coward. I am also not a pedophile.
I don't care much about my own nationality, nor do I care much about that of others.

There are some Americans who put it quite well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPDT5qHtZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGKEkI8IV2o

relax, it's comedy

Click to expand...

You are clearly unable to define history, let alone generalize about others' definition of it.

Given no information to the contrary, you would be idiotic to assume a young American had no familial link to WW2.

You don't speak for the rest of the world; not in any way.

It really is up to others to decide if your posts are racist, pompous or cowardly.

You suggest you don't care about nationality, yet you freely use it as the basis for lazy stereotyping.

Humour? Now I will indulge in a little stereotyping. No offence to our other Belgian members who have shown great humour, but you really are in no position to tell people to relax, it is only comedy BramJ.

Your posts on this site have already betrayed your total lack of humour.

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

You are clearly unable to define history, let alone generalize about others' definition of it.

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Disagree, in general when people think of history they think of cavemen, ancient Egypt, knights and the world wars; the topics handled in the history lessons at school. Not Dinosaurs or stromatolites. I don't see how you could not agree.

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

Given no information to the contrary, you would be idiotic to assume a young American had no familial link to WW2

Click to expand...

Well I explained earlier why I think this hadn't had to be the case. And even if she did have parents who were involved in the war, she seemed very willing to talk about it, since she brought the topic up herself. Why do I even have to explain to you why and how I came to the topic and why should I even have to explain myself to you for talking to an american woman, with whom I had a nice conversation, about the second WW. Are you so concerned about this young women's feelings?

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

You don't speak for the rest of the world; not in any way.

Click to expand...

No-one does and I've never claimed this.

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

It really is up to others to decide if your posts are racist, pompous or cowardly.

Click to expand...

True, but I consider myself not to be any of these three.

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

You suggest you don't care about nationality, yet you freely use it as the basis for lazy stereotyping.

Click to expand...

I've explained this already. My stance on this should be clear to you. I don't even agree with all these stupid stereotypes.

highlandsflyer":1liw46zh said:

Humour? Now I will indulge in a little stereotyping. No offence to our other Belgian members who have shown great humour, but you really are in no position to tell people to relax, it is only comedy BramJ.

Your posts on this site have already betrayed your total lack of humour.

Click to expand...

You have resorted to personal insults here.
I will not do the same.