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Originally Posted by Daniel_
The arrogance thing comes with the way the nation presents itself.
For example - in this country, we have had a Prevention of Terrorism Act for many years.
In your country you have a PATRIOT Act.
We have the Disability Discrimination Act.
You have the Americans With Disabilities Act.
At a sporting event, the english will sing "God Save The Queen" or "Jerusalem" - you chant "You Ess Ay" over and over again.
We know you're richer than the rest of us. We know you've a bigger military than the rest of us, but it really pisses the rest of the world off that your nation (which don't get me wrong has many many redeeming features and many great people in) as a whole seems to try to tell the rest of the world how to do stuff.
At least when my country tried to tell the rest of the world how to do stuff, we actually were running 1/4 of the planet.
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I agree to a point. The USA's 'perceived persona' is one of nauseating patriotism, condescension and insularity. This is down to a great many things including presidential speeches, foreign policy, and naming a national football contest 'the world series'.
However, anybody from the rest of the world who is naive enough to think this stereotype is true for every American citizen is just as ignorant as the stereotype they so dislike.
As for not speaking other languages, it pisses me off when British emigrate to Spain and don't bother to learn a word of Spanish, live in a community of purely other British people, open 'fish and chip' shops so it's like they never actually left Britain, then have the nerve to complain that there's 'too many foreigners' in Britain and they've ruined its national identity. At the same time it pisses me off when people come to England and do not bother to learn English or integrate with the people already living here. I have a friend who's parents immigrated from Pakistan about 30 years ago, and her mother can still only speak a few words of English and takes a very dim view of traditional western/white culture.
I think if you are visiting a country, it's only good manners to learn a bit about local culture, customs and language. After all, isn't that what makes visiting other countries fun?
You get dick heads in every walk of life, in every country, every race and every religion. That's people for you.