How does the World view America these days?

  On 12/18/2014 at 6:27 PM, jsmcpn2 said:

 

  On 12/18/2014 at 5:09 PM, hoggy said:

some amazing creativity has come from america, and some atrocious hypocrisy, there are beautiful landscapes and amazing people, and swathes of mediocrity and rampant exploitation

 

Can't the same be said for almost every country? I think more countries are more alike (people-wise) than they think. It is a shame our respective media outlets and governments have so much power to shape how different people perceive each other, because despite the Internet and how "connected" we are, there is still much distortion, stereotype and prejudice.

 

sure - I'd have to think a bit harder to say what defines america uniquely - I was making the more general point that in a broad impression of something as massive as america, you find opposites and contradictions - the combination of excitement and hypocrisy is the first thing I think of

  On 12/18/2014 at 6:51 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

 

  On 12/18/2014 at 1:44 PM, Squee said:

Haven't read the rest of the thread, so I might just be repeating whatever everyone else has said...

 

Lately, the media has mostly focused on the Fergusson and Garner cases which haven't really put the white cops - nor the court - in the best light. And those two cases are totally fucked up.

But since I don't pay that much attention to the news (why would you? It'll only end up making you depressed. I've found my own news sources and only read about the things that I care about and that make me smile) I don't really know if things are looking unusually bleak, but those two cases are definitely two big fat skid marks across the US' face.

 

You missed the shooting of Tamir Rice.

 

 

and the shooting of John Crawford.

 

 

You also missed Dillon Daylor.

Unarmed 20 year old white guy in a convenience store. Cop cleared by grand jury.

http://conservativetribune.com/black-cop-cleared-shooting/

Point is these cases are ALL exceptions to the norm.

  On 12/18/2014 at 5:09 PM, hoggy said:

some amazing creativity has come from america, and some atrocious hypocrisy, there are beautiful landscapes and amazing people, and swathes of mediocrity and rampant exploitation

  On 12/18/2014 at 5:06 PM, StephenG said:

I don't really understand that sequence of pictures or its meaning. Can you explain? (I'm dumb I know)

 

it means that usa is north america, not all of america

North America is Mexico, USA, and Canada, fyi.

fuck all you euro pussies and your anti gun sentements.. you know why mconalds is so rich? because people fucking love it and u know what? without the U S of A mcdonalds wouldn't exist anyway, making cheap food available to africans in the hoods. u realyl think theyre gonna eat brocolli and shit? you know whats gonna happen when the taliban comes to take your heads in sweden or whatever the fuck ? your gonna come cryin to the america and well have to invade with our m16s and jet bombs to save your weak asses. god blessed the usa for a reason, and thats cause its his favorite country so fuck off god loves this fucking place. say what you wnat about walmart and whatever but the fact is they are open 24/7 and don't close at 5 like your POS euro stores. what if i need some chips at night where the fuck am i going to go?

  On 12/18/2014 at 8:03 PM, fiznuthian said:

fuck all you euro pussies and your anti gun sentements.. you know why mconalds is so rich? because people fucking love it and u know what? without the U S of A mcdonalds wouldn't exist anyway, making cheap food available to africans in the hoods. u realyl think theyre gonna eat brocolli and shit? you know whats gonna happen when the taliban comes to take your heads in sweden or whatever the fuck ? your gonna come cryin to the america and well have to invade with our m16s and jet bombs to save your weak asses. god blessed the usa for a reason, and thats cause its his favorite country so fuck off god loves this fucking place. say what you wnat about walmart and whatever but the fact is they are open 24/7 and don't close at 5 like your POS euro stores. what if i need some chips at night where the fuck am i going to go?

  On 12/18/2014 at 12:16 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

I have never, ever been able to get my head around patriotism, at all, so the anthem-singing, flag-waving aspects of American culture, and the near-sacrosant status of the US military make me deeply suspicious. To me, being proud of your country is like being proud of having size 10 feet, it's pretty much an accident of birth (I know not all Americans are like this, and I find it just as weird when it's England, for instance, going bananas over a royal wedding).

well said

  On 12/18/2014 at 7:56 PM, Braintree said:

 

  On 12/18/2014 at 5:09 PM, hoggy said:

some amazing creativity has come from america, and some atrocious hypocrisy, there are beautiful landscapes and amazing people, and swathes of mediocrity and rampant exploitation

  On 12/18/2014 at 5:06 PM, StephenG said:

I don't really understand that sequence of pictures or its meaning. Can you explain? (I'm dumb I know)

 

it means that usa is north america, not all of america

 

North America is Mexico, USA, and Canada, fyi.

 

my geography is not that great!

  On 12/18/2014 at 8:26 PM, Bread said:

 

  On 12/18/2014 at 12:16 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

I have never, ever been able to get my head around patriotism, at all, so the anthem-singing, flag-waving aspects of American culture, and the near-sacrosant status of the US military make me deeply suspicious. To me, being proud of your country is like being proud of having size 10 feet, it's pretty much an accident of birth (I know not all Americans are like this, and I find it just as weird when it's England, for instance, going bananas over a royal wedding).

well said

 

not many people are proud or brag about having size 10 feet, the analogy would work much better if it was replaced with 10" penis. because while yes that is an accident of your birth, it's still something that would cause a reaction if threatened to pull it out all the time

  On 12/17/2014 at 9:58 PM, autopilot said:

 

  On 12/17/2014 at 9:45 PM, Schlitze said:

One thing i think America could do (and thought they would have done by now) is wipe out the cartels in Mexico. It's just across the border and with the intelligence they have on these punks and the resources, they could serve their ass to them on a plate. Border control can only do so much, it's time to eradicate all known (trafficking) threats

 

Well who's the CIA gonna get their drugs from then?

 

Afghanistan, world's biggest heroin supply. The amount of black money coming in from that would make Scrooge McDuck shit himself

Einstein - "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

  On 12/18/2014 at 4:31 AM, eugene said:

. us' achievements is culture in science are simply unmatched by all of the rest of the world combined.

lol

Isaac "Fig" Newton was a fucking hack, dude. And that Michael Faraday chump? pfffft.

We got Steve Jobs and Bill Gates over here, bro.

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

LOL a citations index? really? Come on Eugene you know that progress is achieved mainly through standing on the shoulders of those that came before you.

So while I don't disagree that a lot of good science comes from the US, your claim that "us' achievements is culture in science are simply unmatched by all of the rest of the world combined." is a pretty good definition of hyperbole.

  On 12/18/2014 at 9:39 PM, eugene said:

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

wowzers u.s. killin it up in therr

but we better get our edge on with:

"energy engineering / power technology", http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2100&category=2102&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

and "fuel technology" http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2100&category=2103&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

cuz China's actually beating us on those little ditties lol

also looks like we need to start exporting some of our "music" to syria since theyre at the bottom of the rankings for music...

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=1200&category=1210&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

  On 12/18/2014 at 9:52 PM, chenGOD said:

LOL a citations index? really? Come on Eugene you know that progress is achieved mainly through standing on the shoulders of those that came before you.

 

So while I don't disagree that a lot of good science comes from the US, your claim that "us' achievements is culture in science are simply unmatched by all of the rest of the world combined." is a pretty good definition of hyperbole.

what citation index? the first column is number of scientific documents produced. it was a hyperbole of course, but it's not that far off.

this just in: the entire world is infested with idiots

hmm another one of those tasty indexes. wouldn't it would be nice if the data were more thorough so instead of having an univariate ranking we could also establish some correlations between lets say, population, income, education etc.?

well the whole point of this thread is to look at the country as a unit, isn't it? as a country its scientific output is way ahead of the rest.

I, also, am really bored with media constant sensationalism (like StephenG said before). Quite often I have the feeling that american society is very "media-oriented"... Too emotive.

Maybe it's not just about the U.S. by the way.

Just a question: what is the first foreign language teached in the U.S. ? French? Spanish? German? Chinese?

spanish

Congrats on finding such unappealing photos of all 3.

  On 12/18/2014 at 9:39 PM, eugene said:

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

lol

If this includes all the bullshit studies you see everyday now then no wonder