Anti-American sentiment in SL forums

different topic, same guy - word smithing a defense for bigotry. i'm slightly amused and saddened at the same time.

Not everyone pretends not to have opinions, Jauani. I tend to prefer honesty to obfuscation. I can have strong opinions about philosophies, political positions, cultural affectations, and so on, without disliking those with differing opinions about them. I've always found it disingenuous to gloss over or candycoat the fact that every last one of us has opinions about all of those things, many of which are negative. I will always believe pretending otherwise is a source of division, not unity. Welcome to reality.

are you insinuating i don't voice my opinions? what forum have you been reading for the last 3 years? maybe you need a welcome to reality.

Decades after the invention of the atomic bomb there is nothing approaching atomic warfare. In fact only twice have atomic weapons been used. In 6 decades only twice. Pretty amazing actually.

For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire there have been 6 decades of peace in Western Europe. Pretty amazing. The longest border in the world between two countries is also the longest unfortified border in the world. Pretty amazing.

Things are improving. I kind of like us humans.

No, Jauani. That's not what I'm saying. When people (including you) assert that someone who expresses a negative opinion about something like religion, politics, cultural affectations, and so on, is a bigot, it invariably involves them, in that moment, pretending they themselves are neutral about all such things when in fact almost no one is. They might be neutral about the particular subject at hand, but it's highly unlikely that they don't hold a corrolary opinion about something else.

that is not what people (including myself) assert in regards to bigots. people can have opinions without being bigots.

It's going to be interesting when China becomes the next super power. Are we there yet? Any day now... hold on to your hats folks.

Not sure where you got that from. At all.

You can express negative opinions all you want. Do you really see no difference between, "I don't agree with the Neo-Con point of view." and "They're all a bunch of maggots ruining our country." I think I've highlighted the word intolerance enough. If you don't know what bigotry is by now, it won't help to explain it anymore.

And for the record, I hold plenty of negative views about groups of people I don't know individually. But I'm not so hypocritical as to try and change the meaning of the word bigot just so I don't have to apply it to myself from time to time. When I say I want to line up the religious right and slap them all 3 Stooges style because they're all so illogical, that is bigotry. It's what the word means, even when we portray it.

Get off the atomic bomb as the "end all" aspect in the argument. The bomb is merely one thing that humans could use to continue the human race's history of conflict.

OTOH, consider the Rwandan genocides, the SE Asian killing fields in Laos, Cambodia and parts of Burma in the 1970s, and the 10 year Iran-Iraq war. Heck, on a smaller scale, consider the Hatfield-McCoy feud that dragged on interminably. The events suggest that man is incapable of an uninterrupted period of peaceful coexistence --- they occured in various times, locals, and as a result of extremely diverse and unrelated origins.

Things are NOT improving in terms of people actually "behaving human"/nicely to one another... they are merely acting differently - sometimes. Their internal desires, drives and attitudes, in general I believe, are genetically the same as that which was necessary to drag us out of the primordial ooze to where we first stood erect. That genetic history, I believe, is what will prevent the Star Trekkian Utopia of no conflict due to satisfying all physical needs globally - even should that ever happen.

Oh, and lest I forget...
Seems to me that I remember a little situation in 1990 or so in the Balkans... Yugoslavia, Serbia... that area. You remember? Yeah.. pretty peaceful. No one was "run out of town on a rail", right? The obvious error of your argument is not only selective memory here (probably accidentally), but also that you've generalized to the entire human species from a limited regional and temporal observation. Sorry. Wrong number.

Yehbut bigots still suck. Every last one of them are scum. No exceptions. I think that's a concept all of us can rally around. Except for those who are bigots or bigot-lovers. Right?

Any of you know what a granfalloon is? Kurt Vonnegut invented the term to identify social groups which, being human, rely on themselves to define the reality outside of their group.

Granfalloons


I have my own granfalloon, and NONE of y'all are invited. We're sekrit.

I see the whole matter of anti-america like this: people from other countries doent like what they read in the newspaper about North American Government (aka Bush) and they blame the american people for that. Well, there are indeed some people that are too patriot in the meaning of protecting what it is American Native and stuff and kicking outsiders from it(recently watched that movie called Crash that describes it pretty well) so theres issues inside and outside, and I think USA is the easiest target for whinning because theres news about it everyday everywhere, it's world model kinda. Not only in Second Life, its about everywhere you go.

American Native? Like Indians?

Firstly I though so, it seems to have other meanings, most probably the first guys after the indians

Just look at all the anti american sentiment as a compliment, I do. Nobody bitches about Chad or Argentina. And terrorists don't want to attack Mexico, or Canada, no way, they want to hit the U.S.
People only attack targets that are worthwhile. Frankly, I'll be sad when the world no longer writes scathing blogs and forum posts about us, that means we've fallen off the cultural relevance radar.
All this America bashing all just stems from a deep seated second class, second rate psychology, that sadly, a lotta folks suffer with everyday, and so their gonna lash out, and pick the easiest target they can see. "My home sucks, so I'm gonna blame those guys way over there, 'cuz nobody local has absolutely anything to do with my home sucking, no way, not ever, not in a million years..." ;P

I don't think the bad feeling is for your nation, but more for anyone that expresses exactly this kind of attitude

Yes, that's just wanker-bashing, which it's something that's understandable in all cultures and societies.

have you ever read a newspaper in your life?

I read one once. Got black crud all over my hands and my whities. Never again. This wouldn't have happened if the USAers weren't stoopid, overly aggressive redneck asses.

please educate me, I want to be smrt like u... I mean smart... then i can have more better opinions, and therefore more friends, especially here in the forums, and maybe more bacon someday. yay! thanks. ;P

Well I have lived in a couple countries, travelled in a bunch of countries, and even worked in the governement of another country (the brits would be truly scared if someone were to publish an accurate report of how much the house of commons relies on the research skills of american college students looking for academic credit). Ultimately, all things considered, I like the US system better than the rest. Not a big fan of the current administration, its just that over-all Southern California is a great place to live, and I am free to visit other places.

Its all good.

go read a newspaper. i can't guarantee friends though.

Don't you know? California is where all the wierdos live. LOL Just kidding. But really... Californians are a rather strange bunch. I should know. My sister in law is from there and my nieces and nephews are strange....

1: Freedom of speech, a concept championed by America. You suddenly don't like it when it's used to say things you don't like?

2: America has invaded two countries since the start of this century, and has been responsible for the deaths of (by conservative estimate: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/), over 30,000 innocent civilians in Iraq. If ever there was a reason for ill-will against a particular country, this is one.

3: America is the richest, most powerful, most prominent country in the world. Each individual American produces 2.3 times more CO2 than each individual Briton. America's GDP is far ahead of the second-place nation (Japan). America's military budget is larger than the 20 next largest combined. Americans dominate the English-speaking internet. Other countries get plenty of flakk...but none are so visible, so well known, and so accessable as America. Other countries are being insulted...but you just aren't seeing it. Chileans and Bolivians loathe eachother. Why don't you hear about it? When was the last time you saw a person from either of those countries on SL?

Musuko.

Exactly my point. A twelve year old acts like a twelve year old (one hopes) but this has nothing to do with the person's intelligence. Right? Intelligence and age are different factors entirely.

As for Americans and anti-American sentiment, the USA is a bit of an international bully at times and, when it throws its weight around, tends to bruise others. It is only natural that people would resent that. It's silly to generalize about Americans, though, just as it is foolhardy to generalize about any other group and think that the assumptions made are anywhere near true.