A Typical Us Pastime - Page 5

efthimios · 20-11-2005, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Chuck the plant@Nov 21 2005, 12:22 AM
Well, the so-called "typical" American, like the people in this footage, are of white/"caucassian" descent. So am I. So how can I possibly be RACIST towards them? For whoever-you-believe-in's sake, people, at least get to know the terms you're using! :blink:

Are you kidding?

Chuck the plant · 20-11-2005, 10:43 PM

No, I'm NOT. Semi-educated people might not care about the difference between fascism, racism, nationalism and maybe even communism and socialism. I do.

If you insist on "calling me names", go ahead and call me "anti-american" (which I'm also not, because I'm neither against the country as such or ALL americans), but calling me "racist" because I have issues with the gouvernment and large parts of the population (of the same RACE as me) of a certain country is pure BS and doesn't really make you look like you know what you're talking about. Do you also cry "fascism" everytime some sort of authority is forced upon you?

Blood-Pigggy · 20-11-2005, 10:46 PM

First of all Chuck, you were never racist in the first place.
But Prejudice is, (how ironic, look at his nick) he seems to think there's a gun problem in the US.
There's a gun problem everywhere.
It doesn't matter if guns are banned, people will still have them. It doesn't matter what anyone does, people will still have weapons. It's a problem EVERYWHERE not more or less in the US.
Instead of pointing out one country's culture as a unified faultage in a certain category (racism) you need to present the problem as a whole, not simply as "Oh, those Americans have gun problems, always shooting eachother and provoking their children."

That's all I'm saying, but even if that's not what you meant, it's what I saw, and with my very poor ability to see into people's speech (not my fault at all) it's what I'm going to be able to make out of it.
So if you meant something else, please describe it more thoroughly.

P.S. - Chuck, although it sounds bizarre, you can be racist against your own kind/group/whatever the hell it is.

BeefontheBone · 20-11-2005, 10:54 PM

First off, there's a difference between racism and xenophobia, which is the point Chuck was trying to make. Secondly, the number of gun related crimes, deaths, accidents, etc and crimes involving guns is higher in the US than in most of the west - the statistics I could be bothered to find just now put them 8th in the world for gun murders per capita, behind South Africa, Colombia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Belarus and Costa Rica.

PrejudiceSucks · 20-11-2005, 10:56 PM

Oh aye? It's not prejudice when it's true.

Also, the proportion of guns in crime in the UK is an astonishigly large amount less than in the USA, regardless of the proportion of people with guns.

I also didn't say that they shot each other.

How many people have guns in the UK? Not that many. If the problem was so rife, then there'd be a lot, lot more murder around.

Us Brits are notoriously dangerous people when we are angered, if most people had guns then the world'd know about it.

Blood-Pigggy · 20-11-2005, 10:57 PM

Well, that easy to believe considering how diverse America's culture and minority status is.

The more cultures, the more availibility of racism, the more racism, the more deaths. It's quite easy to see that there are many minority problems when it comes to being comfortable with others, not only that. The U.S. is a rather large country, but even bringing that in perspective, the fact that it's split up into several different states, which all seem to have a different way of life.

The only way you can really understand the U.S. is if you lived here.
And I've only lived in this country for 3 years or so, so it's not really a good old home yet.

PrejudiceSucks · 20-11-2005, 11:13 PM

More Racism = More deaths?

Is the KKK still active in the USA then?

You can be actively racist (indeed, casual racism seems to be a popular thing in York) without actually killing people.

Also, England is split up into several counties. People don't intrinsicallly hate people from other places. People don't do that without a solid reason.

Blood-Pigggy · 20-11-2005, 11:20 PM

Racism is a big part of it believe it or not.
And to answer your question, YES the KKK is still around in the US.

What I meant by the State thing, is that each state is completely different at times, some have way different living environments and people than others.

efthimios · 20-11-2005, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PrejudiceSucks@Nov 21 2005, 01:13 AM
More Racism = More deaths?

Is the KKK still active in the USA then?

You can be actively racist (indeed, casual racism seems to be a popular thing in York) without actually killing people.

Also, England is split up into several counties. People don't intrinsicallly hate people from other places. People don't do that without a solid reason.

So, for example english from Devon do not dislike a lot, people from Cornwall?
What about welsh people? About half of them have nothing good to say about the english and would like them to get out of their country. Please don't claim that there are no problems between people from different areas in the UK or even just England, because you are at least mistaken.

Chuck, you can be racist against people of the same colour, hell, you can be racist even against people of the same nationality.
Were non jews in Germany not racist against german jews, though they were also white and german?
What about the war in the former Yugoslavia? Wasn't there some racism involved at least in parts of the killings?

Yes you and (more) PreSu are acting in a racist way. Everyone can make nasty comments about other people. Would you feel there was no problem if an american started making all sorts of negative same level comments against the german people? Or the croatian? Or ...... Or is it ok because it has become ok in Europe to bad mouth the americans?

oh and PS, yes the KKK is still alive in the USA. As are the nazis in Germany, the fascists and the communists in Italy, the BNP in England etc.

Blood-Pigggy · 20-11-2005, 11:31 PM

Good reasoning Efthi, I agree with all that you said.
It is certainly possible to be racist against your own kind, and there is racism everywhere, and it does cause problems, more than any other cause.

The US seems to be "acceptably" ridiculed in common society, but that's false, no human being or culture is subject to any kind of abuse, be it sociatal or blatant.