"American Wannabes"
 

One of my favourite things to do is play "Stir the Aussies", by taking the stereotypical point of view and saying "you guys love us.. you're the next America.. you're our bitch... America is a million times better" blah blah blah. Now.. I don't really believe this (and some of it is outright lies, as I am choosing to live here).. but it's great to stir up my mates (or random people at the pub).. My mates (and eventually the people at the pub) realise I'm full of shit and am just giving them shit.. but they can't resist getting their back up and trying to fight back.

This has been pretty common with everyone I speak to (except for one guy who didn't really care.. but I later found out he was South African :) ).

I suppose it makes sense somewhat.. as it's natural to defend your homeland (usually). When they try it on me though (insulting America), I just brush it off and say "whatever" (which pisses them off more, cause they can't get me back hehe). Maybe it's cause I'm used to people bagging America all the time. Anyways...

If you knew me well enough to know I was full of shit.. would you get real defensive and try to seriously argue with me about if America is better than Australia?

Probably. The thing is, a lot of people think that Australia is a lot like America. We're not. You only have to meet a handful of Aussies to realise that. So we get pissed when people compare us. Especially when they say that the States is better than Godzone. It'd be like a Pom walking up to you and saying that the English are better than the Americans at baseball. It's just so not true that it's frustrating to hear someone say it.

I found Tasmania was a lot like that. Say anything even vaguely disparaging and they were all over you like the fucking plague. People down there have a serious chip on their shoulder, compounded by the mass murder there in '96 (and the catalyst for us moving away). When I said we were planning on moving back to the mainland after almost three years there, it was like....so what's so good about the mainland? That type of crap.

Bunch of insecure, parochial twats.

The fact that us aussies love our country and our way of life means that we get pretty insulted when we are compared to crime ridden fascist countries such as american.

Slim: Ouch!

Similar reaction telling Kiwis theyre just like Aussies though...

haha...

What gets me is when people call me Canadian. I can't stand it, which makes everyone do it all the more.. so much so that people I don't know end up speaking to me and saying "ohh, you're that candian dude I heard about"... anyways.. that's supposed to be similar to Kiwis and Aussies thing... but no one seems to get as pissed off when I say that hehe.

I have nothing against Canadians mind you (it takes a lot to make me really want to hate a place/country/people/culture/etc)... but it's just annoying.

I forgot to mention as well.. Aussies usually say (to me at least) "us Yanks" are more patriotic, but I can prove them wrong very quickly by stirring them up. I mean.. they recently wanted to deny funding to schools that don't fly the Aussie flag.. that's patriotism (of sometype)! You guys are much more patriotic than we are, in my opinion.. or maybe I notice it more cause it's not my country.. anyways..

Slim, the US isn't all that bad... not sure if you were trying stir me up or not.. but if you're serious.. yeah.. it's not all bad ;)

that depends, wanna have a go at me ;)

hahahaha there's that instant, strong, defensiveness I was talking about :)

Real Aussies get to-gether for meet ups.

Talk about ...........................................

Hey.. I wanted to go.. I'm still in debt from the stuff that came up. Turns out being able to stay in the country has large costs (larger than I thought)....

I'd be happy to give it another go sometime in the future.. once I pay off lawyers (should be in the next few paychecks)

Hook,line & sinker my friend. :p

hahaha you bastard ;)

Serious about giving it another go once I have $$ again, though.

I take it the get-together didn't take place? It's great to see how if I'm not there, it just gets cancelled.. the power! (muahahahaha) :)

End of year maybe?

No aerial ping pong games though.

Maybe a one dayer at the cricket.

I'm saying now that I'm gone the whole month of Dec.. any other time should hopefully be OK hehe..

one-dayer at the cricket sounds awesome.

Let's just sit on the idea for now.. otherwise everyone'll get all excited and be over it by the time we actually get to the event hehe.

You wrecked it for us Latch you yankee bastard!!!

You owe us a get together, and I'm not leaving until you give it to us.

All of you can come to Geelong whenever you want and we'll have a get-together.

No...I reckon since Meri and I will be BrisVegas dudes, you should all come up here.

Just don't expect us to drink that xxxx shit. :rolleyes:

GO **** YOURSELF YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!!!

;)

A lot of Big Hollywood blockbusters are filmed in Aussie nowadays too which contributes a lot to the 'Australia and America are similar' debacle.

Gee, and I thought you actually liked us :(

hahahahahahahahaha

Anti-Americanism has a strong history in Australia, so that might explain part of it. I can tell you that if some random guy said that Australians are quite similar to Canadians, or Estonians, or whatever, I might agree or just shrug. But there's something about the thought of being compared to Americans that does get my back up. It's not entirely rational, but I'm pretty sure if someone said to me that Australia and America are similar, even though in some respects that may be very true, I still think I would get extremely pissed off.

As for Aussie patriotism, I think it can be rather strong in stupid ways, but I attribute some of it to American influence.

Aussies are fiercly loyal to our country. We call it Godzone (God's Own for you Seppos) for a reason. We've got the best place on Earth down here, and we don't like it being maligned.

But we're not as visibly patriotic. We don't wave flags as much as you do (partly because ours sucks), we don't have anything like the pledge of allegiance and wouldn't want or need it, and almost all of us get lost after the first verse of our national anthem (if we even get that far). I think that we just all love our country, and that's just a natural thing, so it doesn't occur to us that we need symbols to show it off. We also have a pretty relaxed attitude to politics, and are happy to bag most of our pollies. So to the outside observer, we wouldn't look like much of a patriotic bunch.

But if you ever do want to see Aussie patriotism, I can give you three places:
1) The shore of whatever body of water runs through the city (or, better, in a pub in England), on Australia day
2) The dawn service in King's Park in Perth, and
3) The rugby.

You'll never see anyone more proud of their country anywhere in the world, than at those three places.

Actually, any dawn service anywhere. I've been to a few in tiny places, and it is the same (though never to the one in King's Park - bit far from home)

Grrrr http://www.cybertavern.net/speakeasy...milies/mad.gif

They're all pretty powerful, spindles. I just singled out King's Park because it is the biggest in Australia. This year, something like 30,000 people turned up.

And this is what they saw:
http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~bondd02/images/R0010479.jpg

Kings park is a pretty good view on an ordinary day. I would really love to do the Anzac Cove Dawn service one day (though it always looks slightly cold for me). My wife has been there (not on Anzac day) and she said the whole place is just so moving...