Baraka_Guru

It's not what's exported that worries me, it's what's consumed at home.

Do you mean "garbage" as in American Idol-CSI-Jessica Simpson-type garbage, or the more toxic kind that carries messages of perceived American superiority? What specifically did you have in mind that would generate such hatred? Does it involve and/or inspire chest-beating, perhaps?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Charlatan

How are they different? Why would anyone import if not to consume?

I was being tongue-in-cheek when I said that...

It don't think it matters whether it is pop culture, high culture or just information (such as news and magazines). The point is that American culture is spread via vast network of sources. It arrives in foreign nations without the original context (i.e. it is consumed by people who don't have the same context as say an American sitting in Sherman Oaks would have).

This goes without even getting into cultural imperialism, which raises a whole other kettle of fish.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Baraka_Guru

What concerns me more than non-Americans seething at the content spewing from America, are the "hell yeah" responses from Americans upon consuming their own content. As you said earlier, American media is very good at marketing the "American way." How many Americans disagree that "America is the best nation in the world"? I'm not suggesting that most people don't say the same thing about their own nations, but the American message is rather prevalent, as we have already agreed. Consider the difference between making the rest of the world sick of your garbage and having your own fellow citizens think it's nourishing...

This is what I was getting at. And to think that context is merely one ingredient in the recipe of communication. Are you thinking of the bias of the American newmedia and how it is read differently by viewers and readers of other nations? Read this interesting commentary, for example. Of course, we could also compare these American news outlets to Canadian ones to stay on the topic of this thread, but we just may find comparable parallels.

And don't forget that can of worms to catch said fish...

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Seaver

Man all of this back and forth. I've lived in Canada, I currently live in Texas, and have lived pretty much everywhere in between.

I can tell you that Canadians and Americans are pretty much the same, aside from dialect. This causes sibling rivalry, not penis envy or arrogance. Think about it, you constantly belittled your brother every chance you got growing up. Anything they did differently was inherantly inferior, however if they ever got in any type of real trouble you were there 100%.

WWI, WWII, Korea, Gulf War, Afghanistan. Pretty good track record for a country that only spends 2% of their annual budget on military spending in my opinion.

No, they can't take on a China or any strong military power on their own. However they know that no matter how much we bicker, the US would have their backs all the way.

What it breaks down to is we have pretty much the best border relations in history. And so the sibling bickering is the only thing we have left to do with each other.

__________________
"Smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge, and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth." - Ashbel Smith as he laid the first cornerstone of the University of Texas

Charlatan

Seaver, while I don't disagree on your analogy, you really should have a look at the book, Fire and Ice by Michael Adams.

Adams is a pollster and the book is data rich. It is based on polls done with Americans and Canadians through the 90s and early 00s. Asking a number of questions is charts the differences between our two nations. I was stunned at how different we ultimately are.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

highthief

Yeah, agreed - we share some basic similarities, as virtually all Western nations do, but we also have very significant differences. It's simplistic to think that because we are neighbours, we are the same. France and England are neighbours, few would say they are the same, ditto most European nations.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

dlish

this american-canadian relationship remind me of our little buddy-friendship we have with the kiwis.

we aussies may give the new zealanders shit about their country, their sheep and them wanting to come to our country for the welfare system, but at the end of the day we got their back any day any time. thats just the way it is.

i see the same deal with the american-canadian relationship.

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

highthief

Whats' all this "We got your back" stuff?

Only nation that ever tried to invade was the US anyway.

Personally, I would be more leery of a US assault, either overt or covert, than one from China or Russia. due to simple geography.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

dlish

i'm sure if i was canadian i'd rather a US invasion that a chinese or russian one... well as long as they didnt ship me over to some remote island somewhere without my rights..but then again i doubt the chinese or russians would give you a tenth of that..you'd probably just be dead. so thank the lord you have the US as your neighbour

as for covert assualts..live with it..its a fact of life that the CIA are in every country in the world... canada is no exception...im sure we've got em here in oz too..but who cares...we are americas' little sherrif down here..

....yeeehaaa....attem boy...

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

highthief

I don't think we've really ever had to fear a Chinese or Russian invasion, so your point is lost.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

Baraka_Guru

There are several reasons why an invasion of Canada would be a bad idea... one being this little fact: the world-record, 2,430 metre (7,972 foot) kill shot that happened in Afghanistan was made by members of a Canadian sniper detachment.

A comparison was drawn to suggest that it would be like taking somebody out at Yonge and Wellesley Streets while standing at the foot of Yonge. For those of you who don't know Toronto that well... let me tell you, it's like five subway stops!

And this while realizing that Canadian snipers are among the best in the world. Canadian snipers had the highest number of confirmed kills during the Shah-i-Kot Valley fight, despite the fact that there were just a few of them. If you think Afghanistan is rough terrain to fight in, try the Great White North... there aren't many open deserts here.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Ustwo

I do hope you aren't trying to be serious here but invading Canada would be pretty much a cake walk. This isn't to belittle Canadians, its just the fact of the matter. Canada has no military to speak of in modern terms. Elite units are great but they don't win wars. Canadian citizens don't have the ability to get weapons like terrorists in Iraq do. There is no place to import them from like Iran and Syria. I am a big friend of the north woods myself. Trying to survive in the woods is hard enough, you wont' be fighting much of a gurrilla war from there. Once winter comes about, how hard do you think it would be to hunt down resistance with infrared equipped helecoptors?

Canada is of course safe, we would no more invade Canada then we would invade Idaho. If any wars will be fought in this part of the world it will be after a Mexican collaspe.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Charlatan

Ustwo... I think the point being made is that an invasion of Canada would be the same kind of "cakewalk" that the US experienced in invading Iraq...

Sure you can come in but it isn't going to be all parades and roses for the invaders. Canadians, like Americans, wouldn't just roll over and let an invasion force rub our collective bellies.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Leto

my favourite cheeseball movie is Red Dawn.

Willravel

Not to mention the US citizens who would do everything they could to stop the invasion. While I was against a war on Iraq strongly, I was not against it so much that I would take action against the government. If some idiot in the government were to try and go to war with Canada, one of our best allies, I'd do something to remove those people from power.

Of course, we're talking about a situation that is extreemly unlikely, so going into it any further is rather pointless.

Ustwo

With what weapons?

You don't win shooting wars without them, so where are they going to come from?

Plus the Iraqi model wouldn't really work unless you want to kill mostly Canadians to hope the US goes away due to bad press.

While Hollywood liked to glamorize something like the French resistance, in reality it was very ineffectual.

So no I'm sorry Canadians, you couldn't stop us, you are just blessed with neighbor that by nature would not invade.

I'm not sure which is more silly here. The thought of a US invasion of Canada or Canadian's who think they could somehow win if there was one.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Willravel

Both are equally silly.

Canadian terrorism is a rather odd thought. Do you remember that bianary explosive in Die Hard with a Vengence? Do you remember the fake bomb at the school that was actually filled with maple syrup? That's the first thing that came to mind.

Ustwo

Mmmmm maple syrup and french toast.....

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Baraka_Guru

If I were serious, I would have expanded with something like this:

Furthermore, any invasion into Canada would push a seemingly friendly people into a innovative state of necessity as has been the case historically. What kind of military do you think we had before the Great Wars? Moreover, if the U.S. were the invading force (this was not implied in my last post, by the way), it might be assumed that something has gone horribly wrong--the States are no longer so United, mayhaps, having "collapsed" before Mexico had. It follows that an American invading force would be one that is desperate or fanatical, one that could reasonably be confronted by a united Canada and her loyal allies, namely, the U.K., the Pacific Northwest, and New England. (See willravel's posts)

Oh, with American weapons, as usual. And we can get more from Sweden if we really needed to. We could even barter using maple syrup.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

aberkok

Congratulations, Baraka_Guru! In your short time here on the board you managed to inadvertently troll Ustwo, giving him a taste of his own bitter pill.

Not that I should have been surprised since you were calling into question the size of the good ol' U.S and A's guns.

__________________
!check out my new blog! http://arkanamusic.wordpress.com

Warden Gentiles: "It? Perfectly innocent. But I can see how, if our roles were reversed, I might have you beaten with a pillowcase full of batteries."

highthief

I have no idea what would happen if the Excited States of Amerika ever tried to invade, but I know I'd cap ustwo just for a bit of a laugh ...

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

Charlatan

Ustwo... I didn't say we would win. I just suggested that winning would be very expensive in treasure and lives, not to mention PR.

There weapons aplenty in Canada. Besides, we have lots of fertilizer. Bombs are cheap and make splashy headlines stateside.

In the end, as usual, the US will grow tired of bleeding and go home.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke