[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by lindie)
I would agree that most Americans don't travel abroad enough. Because of my university studies, I travel abroad frequently and telling other Americans about my trips can be...interesting. Most people only know the basics about other nations.
Even then, I have to tell them that Czechoslovakia doesn't exist anymore and that it's the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Had a half-brother ask me to bring back a catalog for Czech mail-order brides (because apparently he heard that the highest percentage of mail-order brides come from there). I'll be studying in England later this year, and it has taken a number of times to convince people that I'm not studying in London or even be close to it (I guess when people think England, they assume London). It annoys me that some people are so proud and insistent in their ignorance.

I'm always surprised at the number of people who will proclaim: "America is the greatest country on earth because of our freedom." I'm pretty sure we're not the only nation that experiences freedom.

You could not be more right!

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by MancStudent098)
That's because 'chav' is a stereotype. What you're essentially saying there is that people who you consider dumb, poor, thuglike and dodgy are, in your eyes, dumb, poor, thuglike and dodgy.

This is actually my overriding impression of a US attitude to food. Either a 'pizza counts as a vegetable' mentality or an obsessive and frankly rather unhealthy need that everything be an organic, low-calorie, wholegrain superfood.

God help me for saying this, but you guys could learn a lot from the French.

Very true! Well put and very accurate. Btw I have been to Manchester and i love it!

[lindie]

Off-topic question, you said you were from New England so what are you doing up at 3am? :P

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by Mockery)
I'm officially bored of you, all you're doing is trying to stop others from fitting you into a stereotype, but at the same time you're constantly stereotyping whole communities and trying to justify it.

The thread is not about being opposed to stereotyping. I dont care if I am stereotyped at all; I was just trying to help people clarify their preconceived notions. By clarifying a stereotype, I had to point to where the stereotype held true. It was about sharing knowledge, not "my country is better than your country" pettiness. I think you missed the point of the thread completely, in addition to twisting my words around. All stereotypes have a root in truth; in this case it was in the people of the Southern US. If you have never been there, I would strongly suggest refraining from talking with authority about a subject that you are unfamiliar with.

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by lindie)
Off-topic question, you said you were from New England so what are you doing up at 3am? :P

True true true This is the latest I have stayed up all summer but I guess I am not tired. I have a road trip tomorrow so hopefully I can sleep through all of the mundane car travel.

[ConnorTheYank]

A point of this thread was to espouse the notion that individual personality and nationality are related. In every country I have been to, I have met nice people as well as mean people. It is inevitable that you will go to a place and not meet an unsavoury person. You must blame that on the individual themself; not the place where they live.

[green chica]

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
You can tell from her accent that she was from the southern US. They are notoriously stupid; the ones i have met seem like knuckle-dragging cavemen. They wanted to secede during the civil war...why didnt we let them?! However, the south is nothing like the north (where i am from). The north is modern, progressive, and intelligent. The north is more like Western Europe than it is like the south; again they are like two separate countries. Idiots abound, wherever you go, but it is safe to say that the south has more than their fair share of them. The hunting, shooting, incestuous, unintelligent, racist, obese, ignorant, and poor image of Americans that most Europeans see is only relative to the South. I have lived in the north my whole life and i dont know, personally, anyone like that.

Californian here. This is just pathetic. Stop trying to scapegoat the South.

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by green chica)
Californian here. This is just pathetic. Stop trying to scapegoat the South.

I guess I was a bit hard on them. But when most non-Americans think of America in an unflattering light, the South for the most part fits the description, sadly.

[AdvanceAndVanquish]

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
It does both; only because many of the European people that I have met seem to picture all Americans as you would find them in the south. And it is not as much a stereotype as it is the truth. I have been to the South more times than I can remember and I can genuinely say that the VAST majority of southerners are as they are stereotyped. When I go to England, most of my friends there stereotype the Welsh as sheep shaggers and the working class as chavs.
I am refuting the stereotypes about ALLL Americans and relegating them to the few whom they actually fit. There is always some truth in stereotypes, and you cannot refute them without showing people where they genuinely belong.

What you're doing is spewing odious bile about a huge and diverse group of Americans, while displaying a species of self-regard painfully emblematic of a little kid who considers himself a much deeper and more original thinker than he is. You're practically Obamaesque in this and your pathetic sucking up to the Europeans you idolise and whom you so badly want to accept you as one of them; they're so much better than the horrid, vulgar denizens of the land of the free.

[cool pilot dude]

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
I live in the United States and i want to give people insight as to how the US is. Americans are very often stereotyped and i want to help people understand us better. No, i am not a blindly patriotic American; i will adress all input from a neutral, truthful perspective.

Hey Philly gangsta!

I grew up in LA for a while when I was small and its my second home as I have a home there, a US passport and my dad still resides there.

Having lived in LA and going there about twice a year as well as having visited many other places (mostly in the south), I can say that some stereotypes are true and some are not.

Lets take the example of obesity..... Ive never seen many californians that are obese! so you cant say all americans are fat! having been to places like golden corals in the south, I can say that there are lots of big people down there

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by AdvanceAndVanquish)
What you're doing is spewing odious bile about a huge and diverse group of Americans, while displaying a species of self-regard painfully emblematic of a little kid who considers himself a much deeper and more original thinker than he is. You're practically Obamaesque in this and your pathetic sucking up to the Europeans you idolise and whom you so badly want to accept you as one of them; they're so much better than the horrid, vulgar denizens of the land of the free.

Believe me, if I wanted to be accepted as a European, do you really think I would say anything flattering about America at all. And by the "South", I mean like Georgia, Kentucky, or Alabama.
The "South" I am talking about is a place where the KKK thrive. Where the Confederate flag still flies next to the stars and stripes. Where you will get harrassed for being anything other than a white Protestant. I definately did stereotype it, but I guarantee if you visited, you will come out with similar opinions. Also what do you mean by Obamaesque?

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by cool pilot dude)
Hey Philly gangsta!

I grew up in LA for a while when I was small and its my second home as I have a home there, a US passport and my dad still resides there.

Having lived in LA and going there about twice a year as well as having visited many other places (mostly in the south), I can say that some stereotypes are true and some are not.

Lets take the example of obesity..... Ive never seen many californians that are obese! so you cant say all americans are fat! having been to places like golden corals in the south, I can say that there are lots of big people down there

Hey, man! And yeah you are right. Most people think this thread is about myself not wanting to be stereotyped; I could not care less. It was about addressing stereotypes. I am biased towards some things, I can admit it. As you said, some stereotypes are true. You are correct.

[Parzival]

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
In a nation with well over 300,000,000 citizens, you will need to generalise about groups; there are too many individuals. I suggest you go to the south and see that. Not all but the vast majority will be as I said. In England, chavs are stereotyped ALL the time. Why you ask. Because the vast majority are dumb, poor, thuglike, and dodgy. I have never seen a chav who didnt fit the stereotype.

Huh? "chav" is a stereotype. It makes no sense to say "I have never seen a chav who didnt fit the stereotype".

Just noticed that someone else has already pointed that out...

[kka25]

Interesting.

(Original post by Mac.)
I often get the vibe Americans are loud and slightly ignorant, but it depends though where you go.

Care to give some situation based example?

Ive been to the US a lot, I cant fully compare as each state has different vibes from people, Utah has people different than those in NY.
Most recently I've been to South carolina I think people were filled with southern charm and ignorance,
I didn't get how people still wanted to fly the confederate flag... Next to the American flag seeing as the confederacy wanted to break away etc

What kind of charm and ignorance are we talking here?
How's Utah different than NY?

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
Yes, the US does differ from region to region, but, as you said, the south is the heart of ignorance and stupidity. However, if you go to the mid-Atlantic area (NYC, Philly, New Jersey), you will find that most people are respectful, intelligent, affluent, progressive, and kind. But the more rural you get, the more the stereotype is true.

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
You can tell from her accent that she was from the southern US. They are notoriously stupid; the ones i have met seem like knuckle-dragging cavemen. They wanted to secede during the civil war...why didnt we let them?! However, the south is nothing like the north (where i am from). The north is modern, progressive, and intelligent. The north is more like Western Europe than it is like the south; again they are like two separate countries. Idiots abound, wherever you go, but it is safe to say that the south has more than their fair share of them. The hunting, shooting, incestuous, unintelligent, racist, obese, ignorant, and poor image of Americans that most Europeans see is only relative to the South. I have lived in the north my whole life and i dont know, personally, anyone like that.

Well, from what I heard, the southerners are the respectful one and not the westerners.

[ConnorB]

Constantly refer to saving "our asses" from Germany during the War yet while this is completely wrong, the Americans are perceived as not even being able to locate Germany on a map.

[TurboCretin]

(Original post by lindie)
I would agree that most Americans don't travel abroad enough. Because of my university studies, I travel abroad frequently and telling other Americans about my trips can be...interesting. Most people only know the basics about other nations.
Even then, I have to tell them that Czechoslovakia doesn't exist anymore and that it's the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Had a half-brother ask me to bring back a catalog for Czech mail-order brides (because apparently he heard that the highest percentage of mail-order brides come from there). I'll be studying in England later this year, and it has taken a number of times to convince people that I'm not studying in London or even be close to it (I guess when people think England, they assume London). It annoys me that some people are so proud and insistent in their ignorance.

I'm always surprised at the number of people who will proclaim: "America is the greatest country on earth because of our freedom." I'm pretty sure we're not the only nation that experiences freedom.

Good for you, where will you be studying?

I think the American preoccupation with freedom is both ironic and fraught. America is one of the few countries which seems to prize freedom above equality and justice. They call it liberty, but liberty is inherently self-qualifying. Freedom is something else. And at the risk of sounding like Morpheus, political freedom is hardly valuable when you're not exercised in freedom of thought. I think that the UK isn't far behind the U.S. in that respect, though.

[Aramiss18]

There was an American post-doc in the lab for a few weeks this summer. She was loud, crass, boastful, could talk about herself all day, used "like" far too much and couldn't wait to tell us if certain things were better in the US- came across as a complete believer in American Exceptionalism. She was also completely ignorant of most things in the UK- and this is someone with a PhD! A complete walking stereotype.

However another American in the lab is completely reserved, has to be drawn into any conversation in the US/UK, and is very modest despite being supremely intelligent.

Stereotypes are interesting, sometimes they are bang on and other times waaaaaaaaay off. They are only really good for setting the background for jokes.

[Nephilim]

All this thread proves is how big the Liberal and Conservative divide is in America. The liberals hate the conservatives and vice-versa. Contrary to what most believe, there are stupid people and smart people and average people in every state of the U.S. And to the British and Europeans here: your countries also have stupid, average and smart people -- it's arrogant and ignorant to think otherwise.

[ConnorTheYank]

(Original post by ConnorB)
Constantly refer to saving "our asses" from Germany during the War yet while this is completely wrong, the Americans are perceived as not even being able to locate Germany on a map.

I am sure that a lot cannot locate Germany on a map, but I also think that most people can, as the German American population is larger than any other specific European heritage. I am not a German-American, but I have visited Germany and I can surely locate it on a map.

[Joinedup]

(Original post by ConnorTheYank)
I am from the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Maybe 30 minutes away from Philly.

that's a coincidence, I used to live next door to some americans from philly, the Balbeas. Do you know them?