Europeans Share "Hard Truths" About We Americans

I hear many of those comments or observations all the time regarding single issues.

Can't necessarily cut and paste what works in Europe or most other places for that matter because there are differences in demographics, geography, cultures, politics, monetary systems etc.

What is an Utopian dream for some could be a nightmare to others.
 
There are some habits I find strange, for example the obsession of the English people with the Royals or that the people of the U.S call them "God's Own Country". And for sure there are people from all over the world that find strange things of Germany and the Germans too. Nothing wrong with it. I'm also a critic of some German habits and of German politics in general.
 
Paco Dennis said:
There have been hundreds of more "famous" bands/artists from America. It is a little bit bigger, with a very wide variety of cultures. The United States has a rich and diverse musical landscape, making it impossible to list every "famous" artist or band.
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Traditions may be strong in Europe, but there's been plenty of innovation in/from there. For instance, the steam-engine development & tech revolution.

Music is one area to discuss. Film & visual arts are others. Can't forget artists of the modern era, like Van Gogh. And have you seen "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio"? (There's also a half-hour documentary about the astonishing methods by which it was made.

Pavel Tchelitchew painted this in 1942...

Hide-and-Seek ,_Pavel_Tchelitchew.jpg
 
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oldaunt said:
We have the gun culture because Europe did not send their best. Just like what we are getting from down south.
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Did this bit of nastiness slip through the cracks? Europe did not "send" their - what? Their worst? The European immigrants who were lucky enough to arrive here were mostly escaping from horrors, violence, poverty, and unspeakable atrocities.

And "what we are getting from down south?" Really? Desperate immigrants who love this country and only want to come here to work?

Whoever or whatever you are oldaunt, you should be ashamed.
 
Sunny said:
And "what we are getting from down south?" Really? Desperate immigrants who love this country and only want to come here to work?
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But they're asylum seekers, no??? Lives in danger and all. Rhetorical question since you already answered it. Many are illegal economic migrants in no danger in their home countries and are beginning to realize how stupid they are chasing an American Dream that's becoming a thing of the past for most Americans. How many criminals are coming across as well? We don't know do we because lawful immigration paperwork and background checks are bypassed by the illegals.
 
IMO responses in this thread are ridiculous because the news article question posed is purposely overly broad and overly generalized in order to draw in those emotional easily baited into defensive over reactions. Yes there are a minority of pinheads across the planet that have ignorant easily manipulated by news media, small minded opinions of those in distant lands they barely understand. So what?
 
horseless carriage said:
Interesting points Diva. My wife and I spent most of our vacations Stateside. We travelled there almost once a year, I had a schoolfriend, married to an American whom we would visit regularly. We just loved America,

Then one day, an incident with a firearm changed all that. We were not involved, didn't even witness anything. Later we heard that a thief dragged the driver from his car whilst the car was stationary at the traffic lights. The thief then jumped into the car and drove off. The victim did no more than pull a pistol out and fired at the thief, hitting him in the shoulder. That didn't kill him, but in losing control of the car causing him to collide with one of those monster eighteen wheeler trucks, that killed him.

It was the reaction of those who thought that the thief got his just desserts that distressed us so. Here in the UK you don't see a weapon, ever. It's true that our police have a firearms unit but their weapons are only used as a last resort, they are never carried openly. Our security companies are not armed, nor are anyone else.

We still love America and reminisce so many happy times spent there, but the gun culture is something that we have called time on.
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Read it and realize crime is becoming much more "popular" these days no matter if you live across the pond or not...
Crime Rate Lower in United States, Canada Than in Britain
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I'd be interested to know how our members feel about these points.
Europeans Are Sharing "Hard Truths" That Americans May Not Be Ready To Hear, And They're Harsh But Fair TBH - NewsBreak
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The way I perceive the article, this topic of discussion, is in similar light of the photo accompanying my two-cents, which is; a fresh reminder that the image of every country possesses an image of duality, with a light and dark side, even America.

It’s important to remember, that without the dark, we wouldn’t have the wondrous bountiful light that represents the brilliant majestic features of our stately country.

I believe that in every situation in life, under the “spiritual law of duality,” there exists an ultimate goal to harmonize, embrace, our duality. And, that, the overall agenda is not to focus on the extremes, as much as finding, maintaining the middle path to the best of our ability.

For me, this discussion reminds me of the fact, that duality always sets up “energy of conflict”. Which has already been blatantly expressed, seen, felt, in multi-fashion while addressing the sensitive, insensitive, subject of other countries perceptions of America.

Sure our country struggles with internal societal issues, yet, our country, despite its failings, stays the course in striving for national ideology we believe in, that being higher standards rooted in the principles and virtues of the Constitution.

I believe all of us agree that our country is a fruitful democratic society, truly blessed in the name of freedom, that amply endows us with precious domestic tranquility we peacefully enjoy, and appreciate in our personal lives and hearts. And, hence, I’d like to think that this is a national heartfelt sentiment of truth, that possesses authentic durability to withstand gracefully the subjective onslaught of opinions, criticism, of our country’s obvious duality, with dignified intelligence, and understanding.
 
oldaunt said:
And so? Its a known fact that most of the early settlers were rebels who left European countries because of persecution. BTW yes, I am mostly N/A With a Scots rebel thrown in for good measure. Truth may feel insulting to those who would attempt to deny it.
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Your truth is spun with elements of stretching, grasping, and vinegar. You know how everyone claims to be Irish or have Irish blood on St. Patrick's Day? Many people also claim to be of N.A. descent when chastised on a forum board.
 
oldaunt said:
We have the gun culture because Europe did not send their best. Just like what we are getting from down south.
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Yes, Europe always sent their worst. ;)

On German immigrants (before the US was even a country and Pennsylvania was just a British colony):
"Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion….
Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own nation… Not being used to Liberty, they know not how to make a modest use of it… in short unless the stream of their importation be turned from this to the surrounding colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will so outnumber us,, that all the advantages we have will not in my opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”
-Benjamin Franklin, 1750, on the large number of new German immigrants to Pennsylvania at the time.

On Irish immigrants:
“[T]hey steal, they are cruel and bloody, full of revenge, and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murderers of children.” —Edmund Spencer

"The judgement of God sent the calamity (Irish potato famine) to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated. …The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people."Charles Trevelyan, head of administration for famine relief during the Great Irish famine

“The emigrants who land at New York, whether they remain in that city or come on in the interior, are not merely ignorant and poor—which might be their misfortune rather than their fault—but they are drunken, dirty, indolent, and riotous, so as to be the objects of dislike and fear to all in whose neighbourhood they congregate in large numbers.” —James Silk Buckingham

On Catholics:
I do not like the late Reappearance of the Jesuits. They have a General, now in Russia, in correspondence with the Jesuits in the U.S. who are more numerous than every body knows. Shall We not have Swarms of them here. In as many shapes and disguises as ever a King of Gypsies, Bamfield More Carew himself, assumed? In the shape of Printers, Editors, Writers School masters etc. If ever any Congregation of Men could merit, eternal Perdition on Earth and in Hell, it is this Company of Loiola [Ignatius Loyola -- Ed.]. Our System however of Religious Liberty must afford them an Assylum. But if they do not put the Purity of our Elections to a severe Tryal, it will be a Wonder."
-John Adams

"We should build a wall of brass around the country."
- John Jay, first chief justice of Supreme always Court, regarding “Catholic alien invaders”

On Poles:
The people of this country are too tolerant. There’s no other country in the world where they’d allow it... After all we built up this country and then we allow a lot of foreigners, the scum of Europe, the offscourings of Polish ghettos to come and run it for us.
– John Dos Passos, early 20th century novelist, on U.S. immigration policy

On Jews:
They are coming in such numbers and we are unable adequately to take care of them…It simply amounts to unrestricted and indiscriminate dumping into this country of people of every character and description…If there were in existence a ship that could hold three million human beings, then three million Jews of Poland would board to escape to America.
-Congressional hearing, 1920

On Chinese:
"Standing behind them are Christian employers of this land, who would rather import heathen willing to work for barely enough to sustain life than retain a brother Christian at a wage sufficient in to live as becomes a Christian. We do not want Opium or the Chinese who grow it."
- Terence Powderly, Irish-American labor leader, 1892

On Italians:
Now, what do we find in all our large cities? Entire sections containing a population incapable of understanding our institutions, with no comprehension of our national ideals, and for the most part incapable of speaking the English language. Foreign language information service gives evidence that many southern Europeans resent as an unjust discrimination the quota laws and represent America as showing race hatred and unmindful of its mission to the world. The reverse is true. America’s first duty is to those already within her own shores.
- Representative Grant Hudson, 1924
 
Sarci said:
Your truth is spun with elements of stretching, grasping, and vinegar. You know how everyone claims to be Irish or have Irish blood on St. Patrick's Day? Many people also claim to be of N.A. descent when chastised on a forum board.
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Sorry but here in Canada, First Nations People are identified by their "Indian Status Card " issued by the Canadian Government, so "claiming to be a native " is hard to fake. https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.905502/publication.html

By the way in Canada about 16 percent of the national population of 40 million people are descendants of Irish immigrants to Canada and 14 percent are descendants of Scottish immigrants. The Irish and Scots are the largest minority population in Canada in 2024. The Irish and the Scots built Canada. JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Sorry but here in Canada, First Nations People are identified by their "Indian Status Card " issued by the Canadian Government, so "claiming to be a native " is hard to fake.
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Nonsense. It happens regularly. They may not get a status card, but they do make the claim and it can help get them what they want.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was removed from the Order-of-Canada for all the ways she misrepresented herself to get into high ranking positions.
A mother and her two daughters were charged with fraud for years of claiming Indian ancestry.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has stopped claiming she is Cree.
 
Jules said:
Nonsense. It happens regularly. They may not get a status card, but they do make the claim and it can help get them what they want.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was removed from the Order-of-Canada for all the ways she misrepresented herself to get into high ranking positions.
A mother and her two daughters were charged with fraud for years of claiming Indian ancestry.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has stopped claiming she is Cree.
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I said it was "Hard to Fake " I didn't say it was impossible. On Buffy , she has been forced to recant most of her made up past stories. The most telling thing about her is that she never had either a US or Canadian passport, which would have exposed her birth details. Jimb.
 
hollydolly said:
we didn't need guns to make our own country..and we still don't need them. Dennis you always try and start arguments when you don't have the correct facts... you did it yesterday on another thread.. with other people, and they told you to Stop.. now you're doing it here... Know when you're wrong...
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Many years ago I worked with a man who joined the RAF at the start of WW2. He told me that he was posted to sentry duty. He said they gave him a wooden pole that was sharpened on one end. "What is this" he asked ?" He was told "it is a pike, it is the only weapon we have to give you". The gun makers had been starved out of existence.
 
First I can easily say my bucket list doesn't include any where of out a USA.
Second all the trouble today is being caused by really bad people.
Sure I prefer the option to not kiss any of em.
 
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It's disheartening and disappointing to see grown adults regress to playground spats over an article that isn't anything more than yet another social media dissention technique.

Separate your emotions from the facts and let that guide you.
 

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