Note: this post got blocked on Facebook as 'abusive.'
Go figure.
Oddly, people who don't have a lot of experience with Americans either seem to think far too highly of the USA and it's inhabitants; or far too negatively about them.
Go figure.
Oddly, people who don't have a lot of experience with Americans either seem to think far too highly of the USA and it's inhabitants; or far too negatively about them.
Maybe this is true for people all over the world.
From my perspective in the Czech Republic, general opinion tends to be mostly favorable.
Which is not to say there isn't some negative stereotyping, of course, there is.
And believe me, Americans are magnets for every negative stereotype there is--not only here but everywhere in Europe, I think, judging from things I read on the Internet..
I could spend an hour writing a list of negative qualities that Czechs think Americans possess that I think are ridiculous and unfair.
I will list a few.
Things I've heard:
1. Americans are fat.
2. Americans are lazy.
3. Americans are arrogant.
4. Americans are rude.
5. Americans don't love their children like "our nationality".
6. Americans can't cook.
7. Americans are stupid.
8. Americans are health freaks.
9. Americans don't care about other people.
10. Americans are fake.
11. Americans are crazy drivers.
12. White Americans hate black people.
13. Black people and multi-culturism are to blame for America's ills.
14. Americans are exactly the same as Russians--only they chew gum.
15. Americans are prudes.
16. Americans are obsessed with sex.
17. Americans hate gays.
18. Americans are gay.
19. Americans are wildly xenophobic and hate people from abroad.
20. Americans are(fill in negative adjective here.)
Really, you can get depressed when you see the way that some people look at Americans. It's awful. Dehumanizing.
But, conversely they also appreciate aspects of our culture--not only movies and music. OR...they absolutely hate it!
Some aspects they see in American culture:
1.friendliness,
2. openness,
3.the helping hand of strangers.
4. And there are some who praise the laissez-faire approach to economics. (I don't think the USA is really all that laissez-faire in actuality, but it has that reputation among Europeans, and some of them really like that, while others don't.)
6. Sometimes people think that Americans live without problems, that our lives are happy, that we are all well-off and life is simpler.
7. That our government may not be perfect but it's less corrupt(rather than just being corrupt in a different way.)
You can find negative and positive attitudes in any group of Europeans--sometimes they happily coexist in individuals.
It's somewhat dependent on the individual European, of course: a Christian European will see Americans Christianity as a positive thing; an atheist will see it as a negative thing.
The USA itself is responsible for the vast range of opinions(good and bad).
Americans don't really think about it, but culture, media, music, films, TV is actually a major American export. Europe is bombarded by American culture and American media in a way that Americans would find...weird. This really shapes European's view of America and Americans. And maybe distorts it a little.
Americans don't really think about it, but culture, media, music, films, TV is actually a major American export. Europe is bombarded by American culture and American media in a way that Americans would find...weird. This really shapes European's view of America and Americans. And maybe distorts it a little.
Because Europe naturally looks outward at the world and observes it, due to history and geography, and the US naturally looks inward at itself.
The USA, for all it's flag-waving tendencies is far more self-critical than most European countries.
My opinion..
But anyway, of course, the more Europeans have contact with real Americans, the more specific and less stereotypical their beliefs are going to be.
And vice/versa, of course.
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