American Eejits......

[mdehners]

One of the things I learned from my parents was a profound disgust of many AMericans when they're Overseas. They can't seem to get it through their pointy little skulls that they AREN'T in America when they're NOT IN AMERICA.
It's like they Beleive that America IS where they happen to BE. That local Laws, Customs, Craziness,etc. are no more effective on them than they would be back in their living rooms back home. The news is always filled with some eejit that acts the same way Overseas that they would at home:backtalking the police, choosing what laws to obey and to blow off, flapping their gums for the sake of flapping their gums,etc. It always Amuses me that Americans will go to countries that the folks there are terrified of the Police and Military and then get upset when they are treated like everyone else in that country....
Folks need to GROW UP.....
Truth,
Pat

Comments

[weofodthignen]

I would blame some of this on the US blurring of nationality with national origin or even ancestry. To me, if you claim to be Swedish that means you take responsibility for paying Swedish taxes and otherwise being subject to Swedish law. It doesn't make you Swedish if your grandmother immigrated from Uppsala or even if you did so as a child, unless you are maintaining dual citizenship (which didn't even use to be allowed under US law). The distinction between pride in family origins and claiming to be what you personally are not is flouted by almost all Americans and it demeans other nationalities. So does the misuse of "nationality" to mean "family origins" and the refusal to realize that "state" means something other than "part of the US" in other contexts. I can understand the last error from people with bad educations, but it's one of those things that ought to be gotten straight in high school if not before . . . and the lousy and propaganda-ridden state of US education probably bears a lot of the rest of the blame for what you are talking about.

So do Disney's parks: I read a blog entry ages ago pointing out that US travelers wear their gaudiest and silliest costumes to visit the most sacred patriotic and religious sites of other countries because they confuse them with the Disney versions and that's what you wear on vacation in Orlando or Anaheim.

However, for foolish citizens of relatively free countries not to show appropriate fear in dangerous places is not confined to Americans. Brits have got thrown in Turkish prisons for drug running, too - just as that asshole American actor served time in the UK for turning up at Heathrow with drugs. And I once had a friend who was living in East Cyprus and noted that groups of British college students frequently cross the border from Greek Cyprus and sass the soldiers, only to be very surprised that an outlaw state has real soldiers armed with real guns who react in a real way. That part of it I think has a lot to do with national hubris and is kind of unavoidable in foolish citizens of a democracy. After all, it's one of the basic points of pride that if a citizen of a mighty free country gets arrested in a nasty foreign hellhole, their Embassy/Marines/gunboats/President will spring them in no time, showing the jackbooted thugs what's what.

M

[mdehners]

It's the lack of Personal Responsibility that gets me. To me it's no different than folks who do "Extreme" sports and then expect everyone else to foot the bill for their "Adventuressness".....
Truth,
Pat