Anti-American sentiment in SL forums

...that's nothing to do with what I said. And not actually what occurs, either, people don't run around in US cars and wear US fashions.

Well, I have to judge from European bases here, I don't have much alternative. Perhaps in some countries they love that stuff, though I'd have to investigate more personally.

I would still argue that the US car market is going up its own arse though - that's not predicated on foreign sales, that's more a personal observation. The design priorities are based pretty much entirely on the US internal market, i.e. "make it bigger because I feel safer then".

No more thread hijacking from me, but if you want to talk auto industry, IM me in world. You're right, our car industry is certainly, um, challenged. To say the least! But what's going on in China is one of the bright spots. OK, really, done hijacking. But I could talk about this stuff forever.

Well, that proves it then. I must be entirely mistaken because you know a few people who have said they've met people who are strange.

... of course if you speak in size terms then yes US should be compared to EU as USA covers more or less 80% of a continent.

They buy US things when they're cheaper.

They don't buy US things because they've got some sort of cachet coming from the US. Very little is actually made in the US in any case, not mass market items like clothes. Is there really any difference between a pair of jeans made in a sweatshop for Levi and exported, and a pair of jeans made in a sweatshop and exported more directly?

And my point still stands that US companies are disliked when they go for a market and advertise on the same bases as they do in the US. Because advertising is culturally sensitive, and nobody likes having their native culture ignored and it being assumed that anything which works in the US works anywhere.

That's pretty much all there is to it, here, certainly. It's the arrogance. And some corporations have wised up to that - McDonalds, for instance, runs a far different campaign now than it did when I was a child.

But they wouldn't continue advertising there if there were no market for it.

Oh yes they would. Advertising inappropriately is an extremely common occurrence.

PS.... remember, "American cars" now includes Vauxhall and Jaguar, too As well as Holden, Opel, Saab and Daewoo.

If all of SL starts walking around in crotchless PVC pants, do you blame the person selling them, or the people who, for some unknown reason, thinks that's cool and buys them? I'd blame the buyer, since they weren't forced to buy the damn things in the first place, and because by buying them, they've encouraged it,

Hmm, so where does that put Daimler-Chrysler?

("foreign" and "domestic" as car adjectives don't really seem all that useful any more. My 95 Eagle Talon was made in the US, with only the engine and transmission being from Mitsubishi while the rest was from US sources, but lots of folks consider it a "foreign" car because of being a mechanical sibling to Mitsubishi Eclipses of the same model year and trim level, which were produced in the same Normal, Illinois plant... even though my "foreign" car probably has more domestic content than "domestics" made in Mexico or Canada. )

You say that like there's something wrong with crotchless PVC pants

Why is it perfectly acceptable to bash an entire group of people over and over again in these forums?

I know what you mean! Like when people say that folks from TSO have low IQs . . .

This doesn't make much sense to me, so I'm hoping you can expound on it. To use an example of a commonly excepted form of bigotry... If someone hates a black person because they're black, even though they don't know them.. that's bigotry, by your example. But, if someone hates an entire race of people based on statistics or stereotypes of that race, that's not bigotry, that's just an ignorant opinion? I don't get the qualifier you're trying to include there. To me, they're both ignorant, and bigoted, by the very definition of the words.

I exaggerate. But nobody buys American cars outside of the US, which has gone into a weird SUV spiral. I have seen a few around but in general, the American car market is strictly internal.

Who here, is against protecting United States Jobs and preventing them from going overseas?


I have yet to be convenced that its a good thing that the US have free trade. Seems more people were working meaningful jobs when we had Tariffs, and the Shermon Anti-Trust act was enforced.

Its the Mogol Big Business that has driven our jobs overseas... They are trying to avoid paying our good citizens good wages, So when the jobs go overseas, all our good employees are left with is McDonalds or Wal-Marts.

Time we get those Tariffs up in a hurry and make it a crime to send jobs overseas.

its no wonder that the world hates the United States... The United States is a Dictatorship

Are fun.

People who take the time to post here expressing Anti-American sentiment are disenfranchised. They aren't able to affect perhaps the most powerful element shaping their world, but they can speak here and vent. That's okay.

The fact is the US itself is an amalgam of 290 million people making individual choices every day. The President, love or hate him, is just a man. His name has been Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush but still just a limited, not so omniscient human being. (He has at times in the past perhaps been a more eloquent speaker.)

AS a human being, advised by other limited human beings, he tries in his best way to make the right decisions. Still, he's only turning the tiller of the Titanic...its basically going where it was going anyway. Sometimes a decision must be made, knowing that it will be savaged by either one side or the other. There is no "right answer."

That being said, in my years as a combat pilot I've seen war and almost been killed as a result of those decisions. Leaders make decisions, that's what they do. In our system we have a chance to change leaders every 4 years.

Now, the Pax Americana only exists because the majority of the people around the world tolerate it...it's better for them than the alternative. (Perhaps now there is no alternative...) In 20 years that will probably be different. (For those that dislike not having a say in affairs and express it in this forum, I'm sure the situation will be much better when you can type Chinese to appeal to the humanity and good nature of liberal power that aspires to replace the flawed, unfair, and evil American engineered system.)

Please don't get me wrong...I dislike the things about American influcence in the world also. I don't like seeing Coke machines in Saudi Arabia, but the fact is those machines (and MacDonalds) are there because the people want them...just like they are here. The products are good products. They are no more American than the weather that comes out of North America. BP stations are all across the US. Do I care? Do they give me cheaper gas..that's what I care about.

For better or worse, the world system is like weather...a prevailing pattern of alliances, interconnections and decisions. I'm American, but I don't control my country. So comment away and talk, but always remember that people are people, and nations are constructs that live in our minds. They won't last forever.

To me it's a matter of degrees. Have you ever met anyone who doesn't express opinions as generalizations? I haven't, unless they're someone without any opinions at all. Let's say you have an opinion about the Republican or Democratic party (or really any broad category of anything... styles of music, popular culture, types of foods, brands of products, etc etc etc). If you express that opinion do you alway add qualifiers like "some Replublicans" or "I realize this doesn't apply to all Democrats, but my personal opinion of this specific trait I find to be common among the Democrats that I know..." or "I really think cheese is disgusting but I must qualify that statement by admitting I haven't tried every kind of cheese ever made..." I'm guessing you don't, and neither do most people. Yes of course generalizations about groups of people can be ignorant and bigoted, but politically correct cries of bigotry are just as often a method of stifling criticism even when it's valid. People are quick to cry bigotry when a comment is about a group they're a member of but don't even notice it when it's something they agree with. Generalizations are not narrow minded bigotry by definition (though they certainly can be). They're more often than not a combination of opinion and convenience of language in the name of brevity. Where do you draw the line? Who decides what's bigotry and what's simply personal opinion? It's a fact of life that people have opinions and not all of them are going to be flattering, or correct, or false, or valid, or not valid, or informed, or completely pulled out of their ass... because those classifications are themselves personal opinions often based on generalization. What ends up being called bigotry tends to be fluid and subjective based on culture and the prevailing winds of political correctness, history, and individual disposition.

Edit to add: Take issue with individual opinions if you think they're misguided or ignorant or uninformed. That's countering opinion with opinion. Taking issue with a method of expressing opinion is a bit too broad. Take the title of this thread for example. What specific opinions about Americans are we talking about? Or are we actually saying that having any contrary opinion about American culture shouldn't be tolerated? The latter is a bit chilling wouldn't you say?