[Yudster]

The other rubbish stereotype that springs to mind is that everyone in the North is friendly and welcoming, and everyone down south is rude and cold. My experience has always been exactly the opposite - which doesn't mean that that is a universal truth either, before you jump down my throat.

I do think it is probably true that mainstream American society - led by mainstream American media - doesn't encourage a global perspective. But Americans are as capable of looking beyond the mainstream media as anyone else. But surely in such a massive country it is going to take much more specific effort for individuals to think globally, so a certain amount of national introspectiveness is inevitable? I've only been to America twice, and enjoyed it and loved the people I met both times. But its an incredibly diverse place, maybe more so than than we realise from our tiny island, so just because I have been to New York and Pittsburgh really doesn't mean I can say I "know" America at all. Whereas someone from America who has been to London and Manchester for instance is going to have a much better idea of what we are about.

[foot-loose]

Yeah but the stuff about the South is true right?

Kendra this country does have an inferiority complex and even worse it is made up of smaller countries which have inferiority complexes (Scotland and Wales). We like to believe we are still a significant force in the world but the fact is we need to focus on our own crap at home more.

lol, you think that?

[Walter Sobchak]

Um, some American bloke tried telling me there was no such country as Great Britain, USA was the only country in the world, and GB is there purely to be America's slaves

I have had the same thing said to me, as well as "the fact" that the Americans won the second world war because "some parts of your Island were under Nazi control"
I had to listen to his cr*p all the way from London (nearly 3 1/2 hours!) but he should have learnt more, the Nazis had taken over part of Britain - the Channel Isles, but he was spouting about mainland britain, and he was wrong!

Those who think like that should look at Somerset. Posh isn't what springs to mind at first thought. Like to point out that I don't hold that view, because I don't think you can generalise any place as there's different people and different cultures and such to consider.

well said! lol The only divide that there has ever been is the rich/poor divide, you can't tell me that lord muck in yorkshire acts any differently to lord muck in somerset, in fact they'd probably be related.
There is a larger amount of working class in the north (although that has changed in recent years) than in the south, but only since the Industrial revolution, in fact a huge amount of people from the south moved to the north at that time to get employment.
As for generalizations about America, that is ignorance, and it's not only America and UK that do this, any country in the world can be a victim (or vice versa) of this.
When I was going to Chicago, a lady I worked with said "I don't really like the American accent" "which one" i asked.
When in Chicago My girlfriends boss said "are you really English? you don't have an English accent"
Touche

[Sidders]

To be fair, the Americans practically did win the Second Wold War. The Nazis could easily have taken over Britain if they'd have wanted to.

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

Yeah but the stuff about the South is true right?

Kendra this country does have an inferiority complex and even worse it is made up of smaller countries which have inferiority complexes (Scotland and Wales). We like to believe we are still a significant force in the world but the fact is we need to focus on our own crap at home more.

lol, you think that?

Yes.

Sidders I would dispute easily and the Russians had a big hand in it also.

[Yudster]

Thanks sidders, I never realised that the reason the UK wasn't occupied was because the Nazis didn't want to. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

Hmm you say that but there is a school of though that Hitler always felt an affinity with the British and he believed he didn't need to invade as when we saw how he was ruling Europe we would join him.

There was also a significant number of British Aristocracy who liked Hitler.

[SAV1OUR]

a mate of mine once walked into a tatooists with a pic of the maltese cross, asked the bloke how much, he said 'I won't do it' when asked why he said 'don't you think it's a bit Nazish' so he just said back:- 'erm no but I do think you are an uneducated c***!'

The tatoo he requested is meant to be some sort of bravery medal I'm not really that up on my German history but he sure is!

[Walter Sobchak]

I work in a school, and someone keeps adding a swastika as graffitti, but they are not as clever as they think, because it is the reverse of the nazi swastika, which means peace (I believe it was the original format too)

[kendra k]

Hmm you say that but there is a school of though that Hitler always felt an affinity with the British and he believed he didn't need to invade as when we saw how he was ruling Europe we would join him.

There was also a significant number of British Aristocracy who liked Hitler.

i just finished an interesting book about lord londonderry's friendship with the nazis. it's by ian kershaw, who's one of the leading nazi historians.

hitler didn't take spain up on franco's offer of aid because they wanted british territory in africa and gibraltar. hitler hoped the brits would join his side, and didn't want to upset them any more than they had. it's odd, but true.

and yeah, as much as the americans did for europe in wwII, russia did way more. they bled the county dry.

[Sidders]

I work in a school, and someone keeps adding a swastika as graffitti, but they are not as clever as they think, because it is the reverse of the nazi swastika, which means peace (I believe it was the original format too)

It means peace either way. The Nazis just corrupted it.

Thanks sidders, I never realised that the reason the UK wasn't occupied was because the Nazis didn't want to. Thanks for clearing that up.

That is practically the only reason. You need to read up on your history a bit more.

[kendra k]

sidders, you should do the same. that's not "practically the only reason".

[Sidders]

They could easily have taken over Britain if they'd wanted to. They were just more focused on taking the Soviets out.

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

With you in charge sidders you would have probably give them the keys.

[kendra k]

They could easily have taken over Britain if they'd wanted to. They were just more focused on taking the Soviets out.

wow sidders. you're the next ajp taylor. ep thompson, or niall ferguson, aren't you?

they could have done it, maybe, if they had just started the war different. and maybe superman was a nazi.

[Sidders]

With you in charge sidders you would have probably give them the keys.

I'm not saying we would have given up without a fight, but be realistic. They commanded most of Europe.

[Mcqueen_]

I work in a school, and someone keeps adding a swastika as graffitti, but they are not as clever as they think, because it is the reverse of the nazi swastika, which means peace (I believe it was the original format too)

Maybe you're not as clever as you think and they meant it to be the peace symbol.

[Sidders]

To be fair though, anyone who uses a swastica in this day and age I feel is highly unlikely to be unaware of the connotations associated with it.

[Ballbag]

The reverse of the swastica is also the Japanese symbol for a temple (Budist temple I think).

[Odin]

yeah, the nazis at the time planted eveidence in archological digs, to make the folk think that the image was there sole right. or summit like that

[Nicola_Red]

nicola, if you seriously believe that you're either stupid of suffering from a huge inferiority complex. i guess that's to be expected from an island that lost its empire. zing!

oh, never mind. i forgot the rule that it's ok for ignorant brits to make gross generalizations about americans, but not the reverse.

ah, relax. My post wasn't 100% serious. It's also probably very true that Britain (or perhaps just england) as a country has an inferiority complex. You only have to look at the way our culture is constantly playing catch-up to America. But I do have to say that many of the Americans I've met have had the superiority complex I originally referred to; and let's face it, a living example of that is what started this thread off.

[Boboff]

Did you know all Americans are Fat, and all English men have Floppy hair, all Scottish are tight, and the Welsh, well, sheep lamp post leisure centre, the Irish are thick but friendly, and the French smell, Black people are drug dealers, women are clinically proven to be more stupid than men, and gay people walk funny.

There sorted.

[Yudster]

There's a church not far from where I live, the oldest part of which is 14th century. Part of the very oldest section of the building has stone carvings on it which are assumed to have been purely decorative, although no-one knows for sure - there are two main shapes in the carvings, the first is a swastika, and the other is a dollar sign. I don't know the origins of the dollar sign's current usage, but these 14th century carvings are exactly the same. I thinks thats interesting.

[Ballbag]

I think that's dull.

[Zoot]

Thank you for that highly creative comment Bag'o balls... are we having a case of the Mondays?

Yudster - I think the dollar sign symbol had something to do spanish slaves and the way they used to advertise them, if I remember from school...