RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Good reasons to like Americans

A lot of people in many countries view Americans as ignorant warmongerers. I've seen this time and time again, no matter where I've been - Australia, Europea, China, Japan.

I received Michael Moore's Dude Where's My Country? for Christmas, and he seemed to join the America-bashing club: I thought he was being very unfair in the beginning for treating Americans as dumb xenophobes the majority of whom couldn't say where Great Britain was on a world map.

Moore comes back at the end though, and sets out some interesting stats on Americans:

57% of Americans think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

86% of the American public "agree with the goals of the Civil Rights movement".

83% of Americans say they are in agreement with the goals of the environmental movement.

94% of Americans want safety regulations on hand gun ownership.

8 in 10 Americans believe in universal health care.

62% want to send less non-violent crims to gaol

85% of Americans support equal opportunity rights in the workplace for gays and lesbians

58% of Americans thought unions were a good thing.(Even I think they're a necessary counterbalance.)

Moore obtains his stats from objective sources.

I find this quite a relief. You see, like Arabs and Muslims, I think a lot of press coverage of Americans is very biased, and displays the worst traits of the extremists amongst them.

Americans aren't a bunch of redneck, faggot hating, Christian fundie, ignorant cowboy fuckwads, and I think more people in other countries should realise this.

I can't tell you

Gee, thanks.

Yeah....what Jaburg said......uhhh Thanks.

:

some of us are ignorant fuckwads. and we do got a shitload of redneck christian fundies. Some cowboys too I think.

Yep. I think the inference was that America is a "liberal" nation. Despite the attempts to turn the word into some slur and people who hold these beleifs as some lunatic fringe.

I'm just amazed that this thread hasn't degenerated into a Moore-bash fest as of yet.

...no need to bash Moore everytime he speaks he does it for himself....

This American will be sending your Christmas present around Monday....

ZOD doesn't need approval from some kangaroo lawyer or his bearded wallaby!

CRIKEY!

WOOF-WOOF!

KANGAROO FUCKER!

FUCKER OF KANGAROOOOOOOOS!

I have nothing against the american people, it's their goverment I'm concerned about

and the Mad Cows!

Don't go taking the honour for the MJad Cows. We had the YEARS before you lot !!!

I hope that the actions of the US goverment (alot of the things Moore writes about) are not the will of the american majority. Why would you want to bankrupt yourself ?
I don't find that individuals, like politicians, are "people" , no

and please,please dont think Moore is representitive of most Americans...i gotta believe the majority of us are honest people....

Moore's no worse than Hannity, Coulter or Limbaugh. Politics aside, Bowling for Columbine is a great documentary.

LOL!

Have any of you even seen the documentary? No? Movies without comic book characters too confusing? Yes?


Seriously, without being too nitpicky with these "lies", can any of you say the documentary is bad? I don't think the lies, or "tricky editing techniques" that Moore uses subtracts from the message of the film.

LOL

You mean to tell me that all the purported 9/11 hijackers died on 9/11?

You mean to tell me that the families of the 9/11 victims aern't suing and being opposed by the Bush Administration??

Man! Anything that doesn't fit what you want to be true gets shelved under "falsehoods" I suppose.

You think some of the hijackers survived the crash?

are there any real news sources basides conspiracy theorists sites?

ok i remember seeing the one guys story on MSNBC, so whats moores take bwecause some of the identities were confused there is a coverup?

The sad part is after the lying he did in the columbine pic he's prewtty much lost all credibility so even if he were to uncover something itd be blown off......

A few years ago I went to a series of lectures at Gresham College, which had been organised by The American Embassy in London. These took place just prior to, and immediately after, the last American election, so it was an interesting time for the US.

One of the speakers from the Embassy, who would have represented the outgoing Clinton Administration, said that it looked as though the Bush Government was going to take a more isolationist stance and take less involvement in International affairs. Whether this is true or not, we'll never know, because the events of September 11th changed everything.

One of the talks at Gresham was about America's cultural contribution to the world. At the end of the lectures they always throw the floor open to public comment and questions. On that day it was more comments than questions and it soon became obvious that the people in the audience thought of America as a cultural void. The comments became increasingly catty and the people who were making them took less and less care to disguise their contempt for US culture.

I was sitting there, thinking about all the totally cool music and film and literature that has come out of the States and has enriched my life and contributed to making me the person that I am. I couldn't understand how the people who were sitting around me had forgotten this wealth of music and art that has flourished in America and mus certainly be in all their homes in one form or another.

I felt embarrassed to be a part of that audience because of their open hostility to the speaker and what she represented. I didn't speak up, because I go to these lectures to listen to what people have to say and save shooting my mouth off for the pub, but with hindsight I wish that I had said something, if only to redress the balance.

I think this is when stereotypes become dangerous - when they become so fixed in people's minds that we no longer look beyond them, either because it does not occur to us to do so, or because it is easier not to.