Typical American

Originally posted by hotbakedtater

Originally posted by NewlyAwakened

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Yes, typically a person is only a "racist" until they actually travel...then suddenly they realize the people whom are generalizing a entire nation are often the backwoods idiots that never travel anyhow.

This squares with my experience with travel as well, and reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."

With the internet, one can educate them selves on any country, and communicate with actual real people from other countries, and that can also can be fatal to bigotry and narrow mindedness.

The Internet is a double edged sword, especially message boards such as ATS - the sense of "anonymity" empowers folks to lie, exaggerate, comment without remorse or guilt, and spew hatred without any reflection. So while, yes, the Internet can help educate you to remove prejudice and bigotry, you still must travel for the full experience. (Obviously).

As an American, I have traveled quite a bit and served in the US Armed Services, and I have to say, I absolutely LOVE coming home to the USA. Why? It's home, and if I want to go to a tropical beach/mountain climbing/big cities/hiking/skiing/camping in the desert... whatever, I can do it in the confines of my large and beautiful country, and still get home rather quickly. Sure Europe has history, but so do we - just not the architectural, biblical type.

And to note, in my travels I've found more people curious about America than when traveling with friends of other nationalities - they love us out there. Even when they hate us, they still love us. Everyone else is just angry, but that is something home grown, America didn't do it to them, for the most part.

On a side note - Hollywood/US TV have done nothing but created the worst image of us. Sensationalist crap, all of it. But whatever, I live here and know what's real.

OMG!

I'm an American Hipster Yuppy Princess!

YARG!

I have a Benz, I live in nice area (million $ + homes), I can't cook or clean and waste alot of time at the beach.

I even have blonde hair!

I typed this on a Mac.

Oooh Jesus - I got stuffed animals in Das Benz.

Oh. My. God.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


This is a typical american for most european:

www.youtube.com...

Only, most of the americans are overweight than her on the video.

This is how most of us here see you yankees!

even I was ashamed to look at the video!

reply to post by anjan


The dumbest Americans wish to be on TV.... I am sure that's a fact (easy money, lots of it, not mention the glories of fame). As for being fat - blame the south and mid-west, both coasts are in much better shape. And as for Europe, well the UK, they are getting larger.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7633e93d48b9.png[/atsimg]

Not wishing to derail this thread, typical Americans wear Mickey Mouse ears, chow down at KFC nightly, buy all their clothes from Wal-Mart, drive SUVs, hoard money, own 2.1 guns, and die of heart disease at 49 years-old, love war, are racist, and would drink oil if they bottled it into a fizzy drink.

Originally posted by nik1halo
reply to post by astrogolf

 

When I hear things like "typical american" I try to consider the source. Normally, this term is used by a non-american. It's a slight. A way of saying we're all a bunch of cookie cutter simpletons.
Most frequently it comes from the europeans. Makes me wonder why the entire world, including the left wing here in the United States loves to bash the "typical american" so much.
Here's why. We invented cars, airplanes, the telephone, the computer, nuclear power, the automobile, the assembly line, modern medicine, space travel, television, radio, the elevator, steel frame buildings (the skyscraper), petroleum extraction and use, the internal combustion engine, automatic weaponry, the calculator, the telegraph, the internet, and captialism just to rattle off a few.

The Car (Gasoline powered) - Invented in 1885 by Karl Benz (as in Mercedes-Benz) he was a German.
The telephone - 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, a Scot
The computer - Could be Charles Babbage, an English man, or for what we would today call a modern computer, it would be Alan Turing during WWII, also English.
Modern Medicine - Really? Modern medicine wasn't invented, it evolved throughout the world over centuries and is still being improved in research labs in many different countries. A lot of the real cutting edge stuff these days is coming from Japan.
Space Travel - Those damned Ruskies got there first. On the back of German Nazi research into the V2 rocket may I add.
Television - John Logie Baird, another Scot in 1925.
The Radio - Nikola Tesla, a Serbian

I can't be bothered to carry on, I think I've made my point. Without looking them up, I would say very few of the others could be classed as American inventions either.

And this thread asks why outsiders see Americans as ignorant, egocentric, uneducated and unaware of other countries

edit on 18-11-2010 by nik1halo because: (no reason given)

Isn't it funny how they're all like "They're stereotyping us ", and then the most ignorant and arrogant thing that someone says gets the most stars .

Typical Americans.

I suppose you all think you won the War of 1812 and Vietnam?

And that the troops are "defending our freedoms"!

The nationalism in the U.S. is a plague.

"They're just jealous!"

Yea, guys... that's what it is. They're jealous of us . Cause the U.S. is so incredible at making things as of late due to their capitalist interest, right ? Last time I checked everything made these days is just made to break so that some corporate zombies can scam their way to the top of the ladder. America: Queen of Innovation! .

Shameful.

reply to post by Jason88


Blame the south and midwest?

Please watch

Although, to be fair, Vt., Miss., R.I., Conn., and D.C. have all seen some very good progress in the last year or so.

I persoannly think that the "fat epidemic" is at an end in America.

Now onto the recovery phase (I hope).

Originally posted by viperdave
i can confirm this statement, it was told to me by a man from south africa who immigrated here 30 years ago, he said his villiage elders told him, "when you go to america, you have fun with american women YOU DONT MARRY THEM!"

I tour in a Heavy Metal band and we say that in EVERY country!
So what???!

Originally posted by peck420
reply to post by Jason88

 

Blame the south and midwest?

Please watch

Although, to be fair, Vt., Miss., R.I., Conn., and D.C. have all seen some very good progress in the last year or so.

I persoannly think that the "fat epidemic" is at an end in America.

Now onto the recovery phase (I hope).

I hope you're right, I hope the fat epidemic is reversing as we all pay better attention to the food they provide for us.

Interesting (to me) side note, in noticed in the map you provided that in 2001 Mississippi became the first state to fall over fat, then others tumbled along in similar suit... what happened in 2001? Why did the first state topple to obesity that year, what changed in our food? Was more corn by/products introduced in 2000 or something... I smell another conspiracy right there.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater

Originally posted by NewlyAwakened

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Yes, typically a person is only a "racist" until they actually travel...then suddenly they realize the people whom are generalizing a entire nation are often the backwoods idiots that never travel anyhow.

This squares with my experience with travel as well, and reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."

So is education fatal to those personality defects.

With the internet, one can educate them selves on any country, and communicate with actual real people from other countries, and that can also can be fatal to bigotry and narrow mindedness.

And there is nothing wrong with being ignorant, if when you discover your ignorance you take steps to obliterate it.

e-gad...the internet to form your opinions is a disaster. a person trying to figure out what America is through the internet would consider us to be racist porn addict overweight trolls whom are super proud of our nationality and at the same time taking guns to storm washington and kill the people we just got done electing into office for taxing our poor rich.

and the problem is, not everyone here has a gun...so clearly that is wrong...the rest sounds about right though



anyhow, your correct...a person doesn't need to travel around to dismiss their own preprogrammed xenophobia...but it does help. I would venture to say that after travelling around, it is almost impossible to remain xenophobic and overly patriotic...a person whom doesn't have that option though has to truely try and cut through the nonsense and noise to find out the truth...that people are people no matter where you go, soil under your feet is soil under your feet, and all nations have both greatness and suck combined.
6 in one hand, half dozen in the other.

reply to post by Jason88


Typical American Breakfast started in Mississippi?

I jest .

I don't know what the cause was. I think it could have to do with the prevalence of economy vs fast food prices, but that's just my opinion.

Could have started in Mississippi simply by chance.

Originally posted by Jason88
reply to post by anjan

 

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7633e93d48b9.png[/atsimg]

Not wishing to derail this thread, typical Americans wear Mickey Mouse ears, chow down at KFC nightly, buy all their clothes from Wal-Mart, drive SUVs, hoard money, own 2.1 guns, and die of heart disease at 49 years-old, love war, are racist, and would drink oil if they bottled it into a fizzy drink.

edit on 18-11-2010 by Jason88 because: added fat map

Observe the correlation:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e46e66fc0233.png[/atsimg]

reply to post by buddhasystem


That's really not much of a correlation.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater

Originally posted by arbitrarygeneraiist
Whenever I hear somebody mention anything about the "typical American" I instantly realize that the person talking is an idiot. And idiots don't ever have anything intelligent to say, so I don't listen.

Really? That's a lie, you "listened" enough to post in this thread. Thank you for the thread bump, as posting in threads brings them to the top and makes all the members aware they exist!

Anyway, what was that about intelligence, again?

Listening actually entails learning something of value. It is a polite and respectful gesture. One that involves the willingness and interest to learn. People who believe in stereotypes and who describe other people by using stereotypes clearly do not have a broad enough view to contribute anything of substantive or intelligent value to a conversation, at least not anything other than that person's own ignorance and dullness of mind. The people who I described in the previous sentence do not deserve that kind of respect and listening beyond the initial intake of a few words, especially when their ignorant and biased views restrict that individual's ability to better expand and enhance their own cultural and worldly outlook. It means that the people in question have already accepted those stereotypes, have accepted their own ignorance and perhaps hate, as the norm... and that's fine with them.

So unless you support stereotypes, racism, bigotry, etc like your post very well may imply, I'm not really sure why you decided to selectively call me out on my post in the immature way that you did. My response was meant to convey how I don't support stereotypes, and how stereotypes are formed from a callous ignorance.

For example, I'm going to stereotype you. Let me know how accurate my depiction of you is, and whether or not you appreciate being stereotyped by others.

By your profile picture I'm assuming you're female. By your original post I'm assuming that you enjoy being classified as the typical American, which means you are a fat, lazy Mcdonalds eating moron. It means that you are arrogant and selfish, and undeservedly so. Now, by your callow response to my previous post... which came off as fairly aggressive and direct, I'm going to assume that you hate men (being that I'm male), which automatically makes you a feminist and a lesbian. And anybody who stereotypes already knows that lesbians, especially the feminist kind, are the butch and ugly ones who look like redneck truckers. So you probably like Nascar and firearms, too.

Combine all of the following descriptions and labels, and you have effectively been stereotyped as a fat lazy selfish gun-toting lesbian who likes Nascar and who resembles Larry the Cable Guy. And you must have a lot of cats as well.

Now you tell me, would you rightly listen to a person who stereotyped you like that and who actually believed what he or she said to you? Did you honestly learn anything from that?

Stereotyping means that I basically conceptualized my own opinion and image of who you are without even bothering to get to know the real you, and I believe it to be well-informed at that. That's what stereotyping is.

You asked for the reader's view on stereotypes and the typical American stereotype. I gave you my view on stereotypes. My apologies if you wanted something a little more offensive, but I personally don't like it when somebody generically lumps everybody from a specific country, religion or ethnic group into one callous classification that embodies personal hate, ignorance, and stupidity. Which is why I called people who stereotype others idiots. I know. Hypocritical of me, right?

So I'll return to you your own question that you originally posed to me. What was that about intelligence?

Originally posted by kalamatas
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

That's really not much of a correlation.

Sort of. I did the math and it's 24.7 for the blue states vs 26.7 for the red ones.

Typical American:

Watches American Idol
Eats fast food
Watches Glenn Beck and the rest of the Fox News circus
Votes Republican
Owns a gun
Drinks beer at the dinner table.



Thankfully I'm not typical.

Originally posted by SeventhSeal
Typical American:

Watches American Idol
Eats fast food
Watches Glenn Beck and the rest of the Fox News circus
Votes Republican
Owns a gun
Drinks beer at the dinner table.

Thankfully I'm not typical.

i`d say you are typically pretentious and way far off the mark.

Originally posted by buddhasystem

Originally posted by kalamatas
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

That's really not much of a correlation.

Sort of. I did the math and it's 24.7 for the blue states vs 26.7 for the red ones.

wow, that`s a huge difference!

reply to post by hotbakedtater


This is why they want to censor the Internet, because the Internet shows all perspectives, and all points of view, plus has a propaganda from all sides therefore helps form a more balanced and moderate picture of the world, rather than a Western picture, created to make the enemies of the West, or the chosen enemies of the West look like evil donkey riding psychos.

Wake up America.

It is all your fault you sheep.

Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee

Turn on Jerry Springer. Now look at that crowd - those people in the crowd are semi-presentable. Your typical American is your stay at home Jerry Springer watcher, they wish they could be in that crowd.

Sad but true.

Originally posted by delicatessen

Originally posted by buddhasystem

Originally posted by kalamatas
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

That's really not much of a correlation.

Sort of. I did the math and it's 24.7 for the blue states vs 26.7 for the red ones.

wow, that`s a huge difference!

Dude, I went to trouble to quantify my initial observation, by calculation, and presented the numbers as best I could. Do something similar before being sarcastic, it's cheap.