American paranoia?

Danish wrote, "I'm from Denmark"


Please accept my deepest sympathies.

BTW Welcome to A2K.

Is this a cheese danish?

Or perhaps i shouldn't have skipped breakfast.

The Americans who are paranoid are a small minority. Unfortunately they happen to be very loud... the noise they make drowns out the rest of us.

But you shouldn't think that just because they are the loudest segment of the American public that they are either the largest or the most important.

ebrown_p: Well that's good to hear. The only Americans I have met in real life were young exchange students and they seemed to like it here. Probably because you can buy alcohol when you're 16 years old here. Hehe they were drunk most of the time they spent in Denmark I think.

To be honest I don't think any countries in Europe hate USA so unless the tourists are total a-holes I don't see why there should be any problems visiting Europe. But that goes for all tourists. Hehe not just Americans. :wink:

It's just too bad the paranoid Americans are so loud... If you go to Europe expecting everyone to hate you, you wont have a very good time at all I think and a long trip like that should be a nice experience.

I haven't been to Europe since the late '60's (during the Vietnam era), so I don't know what things are like now. The Europeans I talk with via the 'net don't seem to have any prejudices towards American people, but they are not shy about criticizing American policy (domestic and foreign). Usually I agree with them.

Back when I was in Europe, though, I met with a lot of anti-American sentiment. Many times, when meeting someone, I would not tell them I was American until after he/she had a chance to know me for a while. when I would apologetically reveal my deception, they sometimes would say things such as, "Well, I thougth all Americans were ________ " (choose one: gangsters, cowboys, rude, obnoxious, loud, greedy, dishonest, selfish).

If I ever have the chance to go to Europe again, I certainly won't go expecting to be hated by anyone--as long as I behave myself.

And one of the places I've always wanted to visit is Denmark.

There called Republicans.

Danish, I think the paranoia are really feelings of guilt.

Personally, i'm not paranoid, and by damn, i wish E_brown and all the rest of you would stop saying i am.

I know one thing. I ain't going to Baja.

eclectic: I don't know the people you met in Europe obviously but I think a lot has changed since then. Today we know a lot more about the rest of the world than we did in the 60's because of tv and especially the internet. Same goes for you Americans. I doubt very many Americans in the 60's had a chance to talk to people from Denmark etc.

You're right about the policy thing though. I'm not a big fan of Bush either. Hehe but that doesn't change my view on the American population... Only on Bush himself. :wink:
That's another problem with the paranoid people... If I criticize the US gov. a lot of Americans seem to think I criticize them personally or that i make fun of their country.
There's a big difference between disagreeing with someone and hating someone. Not everyone seems to understand that. Hehe

Amigo: What do you mean by feelings of guilt? What have the Americans done to Europe? Hehe

I have travelled extensively in Europe over a long time. I have experienced as much enthusiasn for Americans as dislike or hostility. Most of the surliness I have encountered has been in Greece and in France. but in both cases I suspect that is as much a characteristic of the Greeks and French themselves, as an indication of their attitudes towards us. ( In the small towns of Tolouse and Provence the locals don't even like Parisians. The Greeks don't seem to like anyone, though they save particular hostility for the Turks.).

I like Denmark a great deal. The Danes are very easy-going and even make jokes about themselves. Norwegians take themselves far more seriously.

Hehe I don't know about the Norwegians but here in Denmark we joke about ourselves and everyone else all the time. That's probably a good thing to remember if you're not used to that in the US. We can joke about most things but very rarely is it meant in a negative way. Calling Americans for "cowboys" or whatever isn't really negative to us. It's just like calling the Danes for "vikings". If anyone from Denmark ever call you guys for cowboys, just laugh at it. It was most likely just an attempt at being a funny guy. :wink:

Greeks and Turks have had their problems on the island Malta. They both wanted it so they kinda divided it in 2. It's much better today though... Not like there's a war or anything. Hehe
I have been to France and Greece as well and in both countries they seemed very hospitable.
I'm sure some French people don't like Americans but it's the same the other way around. A lot of Americans make fun of the French on the internet... And probably in real life as well. :wink:

That's the problem. I think that many Americans do not see things that way. For example:
Recall a few years back when France did not support the US's actions in Iraq. All of a sudden, a lot of (silly) Americans began to boycott french products, and I'm sure you've heard of our changing French Fries to "Freedom" Fries.
Now, I was working in a French store located in the United States and you would be shocked if you knew how many stupid people came into the store and yelled at us (one even spit on our floor!).

So, I think that it's more about a different mentality. It's like we can't imagine anyone NOT being so irrational, because that's just the way we always are. (I'm saying we because I'm an American...But I really mean "they") :wink:

That's a good point Jennym.
And the boycott thing just happened to Denmark recently as well... You probably heard about the Mohammed drawings?

People should really try to lighten up and to not take everything so damn personal. The whole Mohammed thing kinda shows that we like to make jokes about everything like I explained in my last post. I don't know the cartoonist but I'm completely sure it was never meant to make fun of Islam. It was just meant to make people laugh a bit... Nothing else. Not like we don't do jokes about Jesus in the paper as well. Strangely the Muslims in Denmark understood that and didn't make a big deal out of it at all.

If I criticize Bush it does in no way mean that I dislike USA or the Americans. It only means that I dislike Bush. I like USA in a lot of ways (Never been there though.) but of course there are negative things to say as well. The same goes for Denmark.
If I should mention a couple of good things about Denmark it would probably have to be the free hospitals, doctors and educations. That's an awesome thing to have if you ask me. On the other hand our car prices are insane and so is the price of a drivers license etc. In US Dollars it's around $2000 to get a drivers license. Hehe so there are some good things and some bad things about every country in the world.
A cool thing about USA is the size of it... You guys have just about every climate on the earth right there in your own country. Hehe
Oh and I like how Americans often help each other out if something bad happens... Too bad something bad has to happen first though.
Denmark and USA are very different in some ways and very similar in other ways. Denmark is probably one of the most peaceful countries in the world. We're a small country and the total population is only about 5.4 million people. We have no natural disasters at all, I have never even see a real gun... Ah that's not true. The Police has them. Hehe but other than that...
It all sounds very good but when you live here you sometimes wish for something new to happen. Hehe the news and papers can talk about the same stuff for a while cause nothing new and exciting has happened.
Just saw a news paper today mentioning a murder in Denmark... It happened in the other end of the country but still it's all over the news papers here cause it's such a rare thing. Now don't get me wrong... Of course I don't want more murders or anything like that but it can just be boring when you hear about everything else going on in the world.

That's also the reason I kinda decided not to go to USA even though it would be cool. Everything sounds so dangerous over there. Hehe we're not used to all that action everywhere. Our most dangerous animal is probably the fox... Or maybe the badger. Haha well actually it's most likely the dog.

The paranoid group should calm down though... We don't hate you guys at all and we're not terrorists or anything like that either.
We eat like you guys, we drink like you guys, we shower like you guys, we go to the movies like you guys, we play online games etc. and the vast majority of Danes speak English.
Oh, and we have Coca Cola, McDonald's, Burger King, Pepsi, KFC, Budweiser and all those things as well so don't worry. Most of the popular music and movies here are from USA so you won't feel completely lost if you ever go to Denmark.

I also travel extensively around the world, and georgeob's observation about France seems to mirror my experience, although I must say there have been several Frenchmen who have been kind to me. I was in Greece just a couple of months ago, and didn't experience anything close to negative, but we were in Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

Most of my travel experiences have been positive, and still do about 6 to 8 trips a year.

Americans and other Western countries were very supportive of Denmark during the boycott by the Muslim countries, I thought. Saw many signs - Buy Danish!!!

I actually don't think many Americans lie awake at night wondering if the Danes (or any Europeans for that matter) hate us. The French actually dislike themselves more than we Americans (or anybody else) do, according to a poll I saw recently.

As far as the backlash on the Mohammed cartoons - this was just uploaded yesterday on YouTube by a couple of Danes. The last thing you see before the action rolls is this:

For a Mohammedan-free Denmark!

Muhammed effigy burned in Denmark

To the tune of................................Light My Fire

They said they burned Mohammed in 3 different places across Denmark. The next videos will be released on July 23 and August 23.

I don't know you guys obviously but I think it kinda depends on how people introduce themselves as well.
If someone came up to me and said "Hello, I'm an American." I would be be like "Who cares? What's your name?" Hehe to me it's more important WHO you are than WHAT you are.
If I meet a nice guy called Bob (or whatever) it doesn't matter to me if he's American, Canadian, Australian, English or something else. So introducing yourselves as Americans makes it sound like being American makes you better than others... And that's what we hate.
Of course we would like to know where you're from and there's no shame in telling us that you're American but it isn't exactly at the top of my Important-things-to-know-about-a-guy-I-just-met-list.
Just tell people your name and maybe be a bit more specific when telling others where you're from. We're not complete idiots over here, so if you tell us that you're from Texas (or whatever) we know it's in USA.
USA is so huge it would be like me going to USA and telling everyone "Hi, I'm from Europe".

Like I said I have only met a few Americans in real life but on the internet I often get the impression that people think they're better than everyone else just because they're American. If that's the attitude people bring to Europe I'm not surprised if people aren't being nice to them.

It's not that we hate Americans or that we're jealous. We just don't want to listen to people bragging no matter where they're from. "If it wasn't for us Americans, you would all be speaking German by now." etc. gets annoying after a while.
I honestly think it's because you Americans live so far away from Europe that you think we only say bad things about Americans. To be honest we don't really talk about you guys that often. Hehe USA is just another country... Nothing more, nothing less.

We joke a lot about each others countries etc. in Europe. It's not just about USA but of course you guys don't hear those things cause you're so far away. Hehe In Denmark we often refer to Norwegians as "Fjeldaber" which means "Mountain monkeys", The Swedish people only come to Denmark to get cheap beer, drink it and throw up all over Copenhagen (our capital)... Or so we say.
The French drink wine and eat cheese and frog legs all day, the Dutch smoke weed all day etc. Of course none of this is true but we like to tease each other over here.

I'm sure you Americans have some prejudices about a lot of other countries as well... Canada and France perhaps?

Danish, The US is a big country; many of our citizens never leave their own city, county, or state - never mind the country. Many Americans do not know much about anybody outside their own environment, and are ignorant about their own local, state, and federal government.

Even with all this isolation, most people around the world are the same when it pertains to family and friends. Most parents want their children to succeed and be happy. That's universal no matter where one lives.

Making fun of other people or being intolerant is just ignorance and prejudice. I don't find that funny or entertaining.

HokieBird: Hehe yeah I remember watching some video clips on the internet about the whole "Buy Danish!" thing and it was very cool to see.

Denmark was also one of the first countries to support USA in the war in Iraq and we also have soldiers in Afghanistan. We have always been USA-friendly in that way. Hehe If I remember correctly USA also has some missile base in Greenland right?

The video you're linking to is pretty strange... You could say it's just an attempt to provoke radical Muslims but it think it's a bit more than that to be honest. The word "Muhammedaner" used in their text is a racist word here. They're called "Muslimer", not "Muhammedanere". The word was often used by a known Danish racist leader of a political party.
That fact makes me think the video is about making fun of Muslims and p***ing them off more than anything else and I don't really see a reason to do that.

I know you didn't make the video and I don't think you're a racist or anything. Just saying that the video seems stupid.