American exceptionalism

[웃 910]

Same thing with Ford - many Americans wont buy Ford and buy Toyota.

I have a Toyota Corolla right now, 2001, just 101k miles. And the people I am dealing with are seriously making me never want to buy a Toyota again.

I mean this was just bought to flip, I never have bought a Toyota for personal use.

But I might avoid this brand of car altogether on all future purchases.

[Captain Oates 911]

I have a Toyota Corolla right now, 2001, just 101k miles. And the people I am dealing with are seriously making me never want to buy a Toyota again.

I mean this was just bought to flip, I never have bought a Toyota for personal use.

But I might avoid this brand of car altogether on all future purchases.

We bought 2 Toyotas in 2007 and haven't had even a light bulb out. Oh except for my battery which was made in Milwaukee. They are a sloppy drive but ok for the US with 2,000 miles of straight road.

Her indoors had fords before and kept getting stranded

Best selling car in the US for 8 out of the last 11 years..

Mine is the 268 horse V6 and would rip the tires off if I floored it. Its good in snow with the extra engine weight at the front and bridgestone blizzaks

I had a 1.8 Astra in the UK and it was like a racing car - I could stick it through a 90 degree bend at 70mph on a wet road with an adverse camber and it never leaned or twitched. Magic road holding. The Camry is like a sick elephant at that game. Good job there are no bends between here and chicago (1,900 miles)

I miss bends but not wet roads

American cars are exceptionally bad at suspension and road holding. They don't have any at all, but there again they don't need them.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Really, who ever liked the kid in class who thought they were better than everyone else because of where they lived?

That would be the French kid right?

Edited November 8, 2011 by _Simpson_

[_Simpson_ 250]

I hear a lot about American exceptionalism

Some people interpret that in supremacist way and others understand it to mean that the American constitution etc allows an egalitarian society in which anyone can do well

Chris Matthews on MSNBC has a trailer which states that only in the US could a Barack Obama make it to the white house

We don't have to go far to see that is self-congratulatory boloney

Willie Brand was an illegitimate and poor German and made it to chancellor

The UK has had Prime Ministers which were

A Jewish

B Female

C A circus trapeze artist's son with a cockney accent

The US can't equal that

I think that the US is equaled by many countries as far as upward mobility is concerned

So is American exceptionalism just a boast designed to make other peoples feel inferior ? I can turn on my telly any night of the week and hear that the US is "The finest country that has ever existed in the history of the world". Is exceptionalism just more of the same ?

I have heard Americans say that the US is exceptional but in a bad way - it is the exception in not having universal health care, declining educational standards, low life expectancy etc etc etc.

I wouldn't pile on in that way because the US is far from finished and the decline need only be temporary, but isn't it time for the boasting to stop - boasting never did help any country to gain friends - or is American exceptionalism something different to boasting and where people in other countries need not feel they are being belittled ?

You're the last person on the face of the earth that I would expect to understand what makes America unique.

[ONA 133]

I wouldn't pile on in that way because the US is far from finished and the decline need only be temporary, but isn't it time for the boasting to stop - boasting never did help any country to gain friends - or is American exceptionalism something different to boasting and where people in other countries need not feel they are being belittled ?

Does a country really need friends?

Partners - yes. Those, aware of your power - yes. But friends?

As for Americans being not modest enough... It's the way they are. Why would somebody want to change them? I mean... OK, if an American comes to the UK, you have a right to say "that's not acceptable here, you should learn false modesty" or whatever. WE came to this country, WE need to learn the rules and accept them. It doesn't mean to turn into an American entirely... Just imagine an American coming to the UK and saying: "I know what will solve your problems. You should just do this, this and that the way we do it in the States".

What works in one country may not work in a different country. There is an old Russian saying, which can roughly be translated as "What's good for a Russian, means death to a German". What's good for the UK is not necessarily going to work out good for the USA.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

When travelling I tell everyone I'm Canadian. Saves a lot of hassles.

[ONA 133]

When travelling I tell everyone I'm Canadian. Saves a lot of hassles.

Do you have the accent?

[_Simpson_ 250]

Does a country really need friends?

"Mission Accomplished"

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Do you have the accent?

What accent eh? LOL...ya I can do that accent to almost perfection. My mom was born in Canada (BC).

[Captain Oates 911]

Yes I think a country needs friends.

One of the big hits on the US economy is the huge decline in tourists since George Bush decided to trample on the world's feelings and cause universal resentment

A country being liked is very advantageous in all sorts of ways

The idea that a country should be feared is a medieval one when the world is so closely interwoven

After the war, the US was held in high regard with the Marshall plan etc and it's only recently that policies showing a disregard for all foreigners have made Americans have to claim they are Canadians when traveling abroad

Being feared is like being a bully on a trailer park. People take all the arrogance and belligerence until one day they don't - and then the bully is found dead

America needs friends and sometimes it's your friends who tell you where you are going wrong.

[Golden Gate 530]

I don't know - I got pretty sick of hearing all my childhood that we lived in the best country in the world. It just made me want to vomit. It was like living in the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory, where everything was just too sweet, and I was supposed to swallow it and have false pity for all the poor people of the world (everybody else), who just didn't have the good luck of living here.

[Captain Oates 911]

I don't know - I got pretty sick of hearing all my childhood that we lived in the best country in the world. It just made me want to vomit. It was like living in the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory, where everything was just too sweet, and I was supposed to swallow it and have false pity for all the poor people of the world (everybody else), who just didn't have the good luck of living here.

We had the same thing in England back then but it was all hush-hush. We were quietly told that Yorkshire was the best county in England and England was the best country in Britain and Britain was the best country in the world and that white people were superior to all others because the others lived in hot countries where it was too hot to work so they would always be poor. We were told that the Queen was directly appointed by god who had chosen England for her to rule from. All this was told to us by our teachers at school. They pointed to the world map which was mostly colored red. We owned the world.

So this superiority complex stuff isn't new to me. I guess its just a difference in style in that the US is loud and shouts it whereas England was quietly smug about it. As it happens, England was on the way down at the peak of her pride. I hope it isn't the same thing for the US because as bad as rednecks are, they are better than the Chinese running the joint.

I remember 'Made in Britain' and 'British is best'. It was junk for the most part but in our bluster and confidence, lay our undoing.

[ONA 133]

Yes I think a country needs friends.

One of the big hits on the US economy is the huge decline in tourists since George Bush decided to trample on the world's feelings and cause universal resentment

A country being liked is very advantageous in all sorts of ways

The idea that a country should be feared is a medieval one when the world is so closely interwoven

After the war, the US was held in high regard with the Marshall plan etc and it's only recently that policies showing a disregard for all foreigners have made Americans have to claim they are Canadians when traveling abroad

Being feared is like being a bully on a trailer park. People take all the arrogance and belligerence until one day they don't - and then the bully is found dead

America needs friends and sometimes it's your friends who tell you where you are going wrong.

I did not said that the country should be feared, not at all.

The EU countries made a lot of friends, maybe too many - and the EU is facing an economical collapse. Same thing...

As for superiority... Russia is the largest country on the face of Earth and Russians are raised believing that everything was invented in Russia. And while Russian people are usually proud of Russia's culture, scientific achievements, literature etc., there is no belief that "we're the best". The mindset is different, that's all.

We were told that the Queen was directly appointed by god who had chosen England for her to rule from.

The same belief still exists in Russia and the fact that Russian Royal family was killed is considered a big sin of all Russian people among religious people.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Chris Matthews on MSNBC has a trailer which states that only in the US could a Barack Obama make it to the white house

Well technically, that statement is true.

The US is the only place anyone could make it to the white house.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I think that the US is equaled by many countries as far as upward mobility is concerned.

Not just equaled. Aside from the UK and Italy, there isn't a peer country where social mobility is as restricted as it is in the US. Even the French enjoy more upward mobility than Americans. If social mobility is the measure, American exceptionalism clearly is a thing of the past.

The OECD, which has more than 30 developed-country members, said the UK's record – along with a number of other rich countries – was unimpressive. "Mobility in earnings across pairs of fathers and sons is particularly low in France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, while mobility is higher in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada."