!!!!!!!!!!AMERICA SUCKS!!!!!!!!

hendrik.

hendrik.

Active member
you think so? are you from the republik of canukistan?

READ THIS

taken from herehttp://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...8&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112188062620

We're all 'American-Canadians' now *

Spec - News Section 300x250

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Andrew Cohen's book The Unfinished Canadian brilliantly skewers anti-Americanism

By Dianne Rinehart

The Hamilton Spectator

More articles by this columnist

(May 12, 2007) It's lonely being pro-American in Canada -- and sometimes at a dinner party, after a good ration of wine, slightly dangerous.

But why should it be so?

The

friendliest city I've ever walked in -- and I've visited scores on five

continents -- is New York. The most pristine beach I've ever stood on

is in Florida. The best food I've ever eaten -- sorry Italy, France! --

is in California's Sonoma Valley.

Still, you won't hear many people admit that.

No, we love to hate America -- and Americans.

We sniff that our medical system is superior to theirs, then sneak down to their world-class clinics when we fall sick.

We

call ourselves peacemakers and Americans warmongers -- but do the math

on peacekeeping assignments and the United States comes out ahead. It

picks up 26 per cent of the annual $5 billion budget for UN

Peacekeeping, and despite the fact it's slightly distracted by the war

in Iraq, it currently has twice as many UN peacekeepers in the field as

Canada.

Meanwhile, we sniff our disdain for Hollywood movies,

though we attend them in droves (as we should, they make some of the

best) -- while completely ignoring our own.

And as author,

journalist and Carleton University professor Andrew Cohen points out in

his intelligently argued and entertaining new book, The Unfinished

Canadian (McClelland & Stewart, $29.99), which delivers both

amusing and incredible insight into the Canadian psyche, we're not

afraid to attack Americans -- not only when we're wrong, but when we

know we're wrong.

Consider former Prime Minister Paul Martin's 2005 election campaign "chiding" of the US over its commitment to the Kyoto accord.

"The

United States lacked 'a global conscience' for reneging on its

obligations under Kyoto," he said, though America's emissions have

risen 13 per cent since 1990 while ours are up 24 per cent.

"Rebuking

the Americans on Kyoto -- fully aware that Canada's record was even

worse than America's -- was trafficking in hyperbole and hypocrisy,"

Cohen notes. So why do it? Anti-Americanism wins votes.

And we think their politicians are pathetic?

How

about our snobbery that we're multiculturalists and bilingual ("Quoi?"

dit le Quebec!) -- and they're not. Consider, Cohen asks, that of the

41 million Hispanics in the United States, 31 million speak Spanish at

home, and that automatic tellers in major cities provide instructions

in Spanish and English, as ours do in English and French. Or that "in

1973, 78 per cent of students in public schools were white, and 22 per

cent were minorities while in 2004, 57 per cent were white and 43 per

cent were minorities." Or how about this: A 2005 Ipsos-Reid poll

reported: "When asked whether people from diverse backgrounds would be

better off if they became more like the majority, 44 per cent of

Canadians said yes in contrast to 38 per cent of Americans."

"Is this a melting pot?" Cohen asks rhetorically. Say no more.

Here's

another: They're fat and we're fit! Ahem. Cohen reports half of

Americans are fat, while a third of Canadians are. And, alarmingly, he

says: "The rate of growth in obesity is about the same on both sides of

the border." And I've interviewed Canadian obesity experts who say our

adult obesity rate is already at the halfway mark, and that 37 per cent

of our children are also overweight. So who's calling whom fat?

While

myth bashing quickly gets the point across, Cohen's chapter on the

American Canadian (the others he analyzes are the Hybrid, Observed,

Unconscious, Casual, Capital, Chameleon and Future Canadians) also

makes a strong analytical case that suggests our values are converging

with those of Americans.

In the end, the American-Canadian

"watches American movies and television, wears American jeans, listens

to American music, reads American books and magazines.

"He drinks

coffee at Starbucks, eats hamburgers at McDonald's and ice cream at Ben

and Jerry's," Cohen notes. "He aspires to the American Dream, whether

it is represented by minivan or an SUV, and the greatest obstacle to

achieving it isn't desire but money."

Oh yeah, they're better at

creating wealth -- which they use to feed the world, promote democracy

and human rights, and defend the free world -- than we are. Now there's

a difference we can be proud of.

In short, Cohen points out: "If

Canadians were really anti-American, we would have to denounce

ourselves, or everything about our country and our place in it."

So how does he define us? "We are contradictory, inconsistent and, yes, occasionally hypocritical."

In

short, we're not so different from Americans as we may like to believe.

And those of us who value the freedoms that attract refugees and

immigrants the world over think that's a good thing.

Vive l'Amerique libre!

 
Haha the Hamilton Spectator. That discredited rag is my local town paper. That article makes some good points though. National pride blinds people (ALL people) to the way things really are in the world around them.
 
those stats are totally taken out of context and are completely irrelevant without taking into account other demographic and economic data.
 
hahaha im sorry...but i cant stand snobby people. both canada and the guy that wrote this article, along with anyone who sees themselves as better than anyone else suck. why cant people just chill and get along.
 
i don't understand.....why was that such a bad article? you guys are just proving her point - everyone loves to hate america, even though we're the most generous nation in the world.
 
generous?? haha to what extent? yes you do use plenty of money on peacekeeping, through war and military actions. Money is not how you measure somebodys effort in keeping peace. well the author is totaly subjective. And since americans positions them selves as they do as the rulers of the world, they should be more considerate to other people/countries. But then again the rest of the world gains alot on research done in america. they are leading scientists, and are doing a good effort in making the world a better place. but America also causes alot of problems themselves, so calling america the most generous and best country world be pretty far fetched.
 
You're absolutely right. But I find it fair game to be doing this, if nothing else but to prove the point that a large part of canadians are hypocrites. It annoys me to no end when people here will insult all Americans by calling them either all fat, or all stupid or all etc... Way to generalise douchebag. Like what's up with this, bashing America is so hot right now, let's all do it and show how ignorant we are.

Whatever, I think people try to do it in hopes to differentiate themselves from Americans, but really I dont see why some people cant accept we arent two extremely different people.
 
it is kinda true that canada is always baggin on america. my boss is from BC and she always is talking about how canada is superior. but us americans do the exact same thing for every country. we need to start learning that if things are working for one country we need to leave them alone
 
How is the writer being snobby? As far as I can see, he's trying to say us canadians should be less snobby. As a whole, we act like we are so great, and love to insult americans, but in many respects we are very similar to them.

As yes, obviously this article doesn't take everything into account, for example the gap between rich and poor, or crime/gun violence rate, but that wasn't the writer's aim. It's an opinion piece, take it for what it is.
 
i dont have time to read the article but i can say that i agree, the america hating (esp by people in america) is fucking retarded. all it shows is there are too many spoiled idiots around that dont have any idea how lucky they are to live in a country where they CAN bitch about their country like that
 
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gordonsinclairtheamericans.htm

The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French, and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971, and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous, and possibly the least-appreciated, people in all the earth.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Well who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan, and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. And I was there -- I saw that. When distant cities are hit by earthquake, it is the United States that hurries into help, Managua, Nicaragua, is one of the most recent examples.

So far this spring, fifty-nine American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans.

Now, I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.

Come on now, you, let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar, or the Douglas 10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or a women on the moon?

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times, and, safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They're right here on our streets in Toronto. Most of them, unless they're breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend up here.

When the Americans get out of this bind -- as they will -- who could blame them if they said "the hell with the rest of the world." Let somebody else buy the Israel bonds. Let somebody else build or repair foreign dams, or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes." When the railways of France, and Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both of 'em are still broke.

I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name to me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They'll come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they're entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.

And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.

This year's disasters -- with the year less than half-over -- has taken it all. And nobody, but nobody, has helped.
 
Biased Mcnobody of the hamilton spectator really nailed it there. what a brilliant piece of insightful social commentary. end sarcasm.
 
Wow new york the friendliest city? I thought it was known for the rude people?

People from the south are friendly
 
It doesn't matter how prestigious the author is, he's just making a point. Canadians like to bash on Americans. He's just trying to open up some eyes.
 
"We call ourselves peacemakers and Americans warmongers -- but do the math on peacekeeping assignments and the United States comes out ahead. It picks up 26 per cent of the annual $5 billion budget for UN Peacekeeping, and despite the fact it's slightly distracted by the war in Iraq, it currently has twice as many UN peacekeepers in the field as Canada."

Twice as many peacekeepers then Candada? For a country that is 10 times larger? Good job america. Per capita we have 5 times more peacekeeps then you do.

 
i read a wiiiiiiiiide variety of news sources with the belief that the American media is a load of shit because their main concern is not educating and informing the people about world happenings, but instead sensational reporting, similar, in a way, to the muck racking US journalists of the early 20th century. Therefor, i read pretty much any news site i come across, but limited to those in french and in english.

and thats how in a nutshell.
 
there is a saying "don't hate the player, hate the game."

the same goes for america, dont hate americans even though many of us are ignorant and believe anything that we hear. for the most part that is due to the government, all the major news and media have the same stuff on, and generally the most important news is just what our gov't wants us to hear. the news elsewhere is different than in the united states b/c it is all part of that country's agenda too. hate the game, hate america, hate our corrupt government, just don't hate on americans because we do care and are good people and are probably more similar to you fucking canadians than anybody else.
 
You realize that this is essentially snide Canada-hating, and makes you every bit as big a hypocrite as you seem to think we are?

The simple truth of the matter is that no country on Earth has an overall favourable impression of America other than America. Why single Canada out? Great food, great cities, great entertainment, and even a little bit of culture here and there aren't really what people are criticizing. No one's saying there isn't good food in the Sonoma Valley (though, sidebar, are we actually arguing that obesity isn't a problem in the USA and that Hollywood doesn't put out a greater and greater percentage of mindless trash every year? Come on). What we are saying is that your leaders aren't able to self-examine and stop fucking things up for everyone else When you're the big guy, you have the responsibility to go with the prosperity, for no better reason than because you have the ability. Twice as many peacekeepers? What a joke. There are 10 times as many people and the country is GEARED towards international interventionism, you ought to have ten times as many. Check the stats on charitable donations per capita and take a look at Scandinavia. Look at the relative standing of your education system. This is an utterly useless argument simply because statistics can be interpreted in innumerable ways. The problem is with international policy, the position the rest of the world sees America as a country taking towards it. Don't bitch about it. Elect someone else, learn a little modesty, and stop calling the innocent dead of foreign nations "collateral damage", and you'll have a start.
 
America is a democracy you moron which means that "getting the hell out of the stadium" isn’t the answer.

If everyone who didn’t like the home team moved out of the USA you wouldn’t have very many people left.

 
first off, that is a quote from south park. Second, you dont have to like who runs the country, but you should embrace the country.
 
Everybod knows that canada is the 51st state, so why should it matter?

Just kidding, but seriously, Everybody needs to hate somebody. Someitmes Americans hate the french, now we hate the terrorists(for good reason). I think most people just need someone to hate/dislike. Canada and most other countries can't really hate terrorists, cause they haven't been affected by them that much.

The writer says that canadians are hypocrits. I find that almost everyone is hypocritical at somepoint, so I dont see the point in generalizing one particular group with hypocracy.
 
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