4 ms·
Slightly related: I'm always off-put by American arrogance. North American talk and behave like only they have some universal source of truth, like someone gave
by anticodon 5y ago
Slightly related: I'm always off-put by American arrogance. North American talk and behave like only they have some universal source of truth, like someone gave them the right to decide what's right and what's wrong.
Especially annoying when Americans talk about the rest of the world. E.g. when I read or hear what Americans think they know about history or culture or current events in my country (Russia), it makes my hair stand, because most of the time it's complete bullshit, stupid stereotypes and exaggeration. All generations at least in the last 100 years read from the early years only highly intensive rusophobic propaganda (even when it came directly from Russians, like famous liar Solzhenitsyn). And reading western media, especially social networks (reddit /r/worldnews, for example) I can only see that it intensifies and becomes more and more aggressive and absurd.
Also, Americans are highly intolerant to other cultures, despite all the PC craziness.
Just a few weeks ago I read that some reader of HN wants to see Disneyland in Iraq. This is so awful. Americans came and destroyed the culture that was several times older than theirs to create fake Disneyland in its place... They would want to put their awful Disneylands everywhere because consider all other nations and cultures inferior.
I continue to read few sources in English and mostly look at it with disgust because of the arrogance, ignorance and extreme aggressiveness of Americans.
- indigochill 5y agoWhile I wouldn't disagree entirely (I've been surprised in more recent years how deeply russophobic ideas have been ingrained in me, and this is after years of working with Russian colleagues), consider that your own perspective is limited as well, apparently mostly to typical media outlets that portray a warped view of the world. When you get off the internet and just go interact with people one-on-one in person, you'll find although these sorts of stereotypes might apply to some portion of the group they apply to, everyone's a lot more nuanced than comes across in various media sources.
- anticodon 5y agoThere's a big difference between Americans and me: I can read in English, watch TV news in English, listen to podcasts from USA. Population of the Western world is limited to the distorted view that is presented through the prism of their media (which is considered "unprecedentedly honest", hahaha). In the best case what USA citizen may say is: "My neighbour emigrated from USSR and he says that party bosses ate toddlers!" When I meet westerners face-to-face I'd say that they have all the usual stereotypes. E.g. first thing they'll say to you is "Na zdorovie!" (95% of persons met by me) and will ask you something like "Would you like to drink vodka today?". And it's better not even start talking about politics, although sometimes such conversations are really funny.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoJust a few weeks ago I read that some reader of HN wants to see Disneyland in Iraq. Here is the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27340031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27340031 I think you are mis-representing what they said.
- anticodon 5y agoThank you for finding this. Mis-representing, but only by a tiny bit.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago"wants to see" seems quite different to what was actually said.