What do you think about the USA as a country? (Society and G

[jannareed]

I m Mexican by the way.
So you will not offend me if you say bad things

[UndercoverElephant]

I m Mexican by the way.
So you will not offend me if you say bad things

Since you asked...

The only people I dislike more intensely than Americans are Israelis. They still have an enormous amount of natual resources (per head of population), but they have amongst the worst cultural problems anywhere in the world. They have a very poor understanding of how the rest of the world views them, 75% of the population think Darwin was wrong and Climate Change is a communist conspiracy and most of them appear to believe it is a good idea for everybody to own a gun.

[PS_RalphW]

Most of the American people I meet are decent, friendly, a lot of them are intelligent, caring. A bit like people everywhere.... they do have strange misconceptions and are surprisingly ignorant of the world outside their own country.

The American state, on the other hand...

[DominicJ]

An entire nation where no one says "what would the neighbours think", it sounds like heaven.

[Ludwig]

On a purely personal level, I like Americans. Most of them I meet are open, friendly and more likely to go out of their way to help a stranger than the British.

However, even when one comes from a reactionary country like Britain, it can be shocking just how right-wing Americans are, and how even many intelligent Americans have a dogmatic belief that leftist principles are not just wrong, but positively evil.

There's no bigger discrepancy for me between how much I like a people, and how much I dislike their politics, as with Americans.

[emordnilap]

I think we should club together to send DomJ to his spiritual home. I didn't care for Britain, so I left. Remember fifthcolumn?

I hope jannareed is not a spambot. Come on, jannareed, prove you're not!

All the Americans I know (quite a lot, when I start adding them up) are incredibly friendly and I love some some of them to bits. Political America though, you can stick it, it's an abomination.

[DominicJ]

Emord
The only way I could get to the US is if I won the lottery.
I think investor entry is set at $1mn, I know a few US business owners, if you dont mind stumping up the cash, I an be out of your hair by the end of 2012

[ujoni08]

I know a few people from the US, and they are very friendly, polite, hard-working and easy-going. They have a 'can-do' attitude I admire (they do bemoan the insularity and religious closed-mindedness of many of their countrymen, though).

The US state, and the greed of large corporations, however, are another matter...

[RenewableCandy]

Well I lived there for a year. All the people I met were smashing, and I can say in all honesty that in 1969 it was a great place to be a kid. My parents, however, remember things a bit differently. They, too, were constantly surprised at how reactionary everybody's ideas were, and they're not exactly radicals themselves. Writers and other "liberal" people would come from miles around to meet them because we were Brits. Our neighbours, a Catholic family and therefore also a bit non-"mainstream", became great friends and my Mum's stil in touch with them.

I've been back only once since then, and the 2 things that took me aback were the "security" (clumsy but ineffective, and this was before 9-11) and the religiosity...you'd walk past some massive box of a building, and find out it was the HQ of some sect or other...Sundays were like German Sundays. It was disconcerting. But perhaps that's just in Boston?

There's a phrase "the tyranny of distance". Only 10% of Usonians have passports, so they have less of a chance to experience other countries directly and are more reliant on their news media for that than, say, are British middle class people like me. Now that things like "homeland security" are crippling international connections (the IEEE is complaining bitterly how hard it is for people to come to conferences and on exchanges) it's probably not going to get any better in the short-term. It all makes me glad our family didn't stay there.

[DominicJ]

There's a phrase "the tyranny of distance". Only 10% of Usonians have passports, so they have less of a chance to experience other countries directly and are more reliant on their news media for that than, say, are British middle class people like me

I'd be interested to know how many Brits have been outside Europe, inclusing turkey, compared with how many Americans have left the 50 states.

The US news networks are far more diverse than those in the UK, the largest by a mile is state ran over here, and rest muist all follow judicialy determined "fairness tests".

You might not like Fox, but its hard to argue it conforms with the rest...

[biffvernon]

Biggest per capita carbon emitters.
Greatest proportion of population in jail.
Amongst the greatest wealth disparities.
Capital punishment and abroad they don't even bother with a trial before killing.
Home of GM crops, agent orange, neonicotinoids.
Maintainers of Guantanamo Bay extra-judicial incarceration.
They kept our hero Bradley Manning in solitary confinement.
McDonalds.
A habit of overthrowing foreign governments, with open warfare if covert means fail.
The world's greatest nuclear arsenal.
Home to most of the world's global warming deniers.
and on and on...

What's to like?

Oh yes, every American I've actually met in person. Weird.

[RenewableCandy]

There's a phrase "the tyranny of distance". Only 10% of Usonians have passports, so they have less of a chance to experience other countries directly and are more reliant on their news media for that than, say, are British middle class people like me

I'd be interested to know how many Brits have been outside Europe,

Some people say that's a fair comparison, and some people don't. What I'm saying is that the very fact that people from the USA have to travel to another continent (erm or to central/south America, which can also be a long way) in order to see a culture different from their own, has its effect on their worldview.

In spite of that, I've a feeling the Saudis, the Aussies, and even the Canadians outdo them for per capita CO_2 emissions.

[biffvernon]

Some of the best music comes from the USA.

This is particularly powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJp ... ture=share

It tells us a lot about America.

[ujoni08]

Thanks for that link, Biff

[snow hope]

I have never been to America and I have never had an urge to go. I have been to Australia, N Africa, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, France.

Any Americans I have met have been very nice, although I always feel they are somewhat nieve (I really can't spell that word!). But you have to admit their foreign policy and politics really stink!

And in recent decades they always seem to pick crap leaders! They do tend to come across a little short on IQ at times.... but I am sure this is a media thing.

As for the country, it seems to be fairly resource rich, has very varied landscapes and it is probably very beautiful in many ways and regions. Come to think of it, maybe I would quite like to visit.