Euroblogs | 85 comments (85 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: American sites (none / 0)

Helen's experience wasn't mine. I didn't get insulted. But I didn't find much interest in what a non-American might have to say -- even when the topic was ostensibly something like the health service in different European countries. Now it's true I have never posted a diary on DKos, and things might have been different there. Might.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 26th, 2006 at 04:34:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: American sites (4.00 / 2)

My views about Americans and non-Americans on the net are colored by having spent the past three years of regular attendance at The Guardian talk board. There is a substantial group of Americans who have invaded the place for the entertainment value of picking fights with the "Euro lefties". It is not hard to find similar people on US based web sites. Even for people with liberal domestic politics there is a pervasive attitude of American exceptional ism that has been dumped into us from the cradle. I think the the Rest of the World is thoroughly sick and tired of it.

by Richard Lyon (rllyon@gmail.com) on Sat Aug 26th, 2006 at 05:03:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: American sites (none / 1)

Well, "exceptionalism" can cover a range of things. It can be aggressive (the kind you mention on The Guardian), or it can be naive -- meaning spontaneous, unthinking, "innocent" in the sense not meaning any harm. And shades in between. But whatever shade, it's a considerable obstacle to communication.

And it's something that, over time, I thought would lessen. Looking back, young Americans of the Vietnam era I knew were (it seemed) more critical of the American Way (of life or whatever), less imbued with the unexamined conviction that there was just one natural way of doing things, than Americans now. In other words, things don't appear to have improved, meaning that America has remained as isolated as ever. What I sometimes get is the impression (and, please, this is not some superior, elitist, condescending, arrogant European position, and it is not coming from any certainty that the EU is a miracle-working solution to anybody's problems) of an American regression, by which I mean that (despite hi-tech etc) America has missed a train somewhere.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 26th, 2006 at 05:32:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: American sites (4.00 / 2)

As one of those Americans who was young during the Vietnam era, I often feel that the train is headed in the wrong direction. As a nation and a society we did not not learn what we needed to learn from Vietnam and that has led us into a similar quagmire. Even though a growing number of Americans are beginning to get the smell of quagmire in their nostrils they are mostly sitting there saying how could this have happened to us. When someone attempts to explain that, the response is predictably defensive.

by Richard Lyon (rllyon@gmail.com) on Sat Aug 26th, 2006 at 05:52:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Euroblogs | 85 comments (85 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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