Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll
Sun Jul 2, 11:12 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.
The United States is no longer a symbol of hope to Britain and the British no longer have confidence in their transatlantic cousins to lead global affairs, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph.
The YouGov poll found that 77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is "a beacon of hope for the world".
As Americans prepared to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their independence on Tuesday, the poll found that only 12 percent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.
A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks.
With much of the worst criticism aimed at the US adminstration, the poll showed that 70 percent of Britons like Americans a lot or a little.
US President George W. Bush fared significantly worse, with just one percent rating him a "great leader" against 77 percent who deemed him a "pretty poor" or "terrible" leader.
More than two-thirds who offered an opinion said America is essentially an imperial power seeking world domination. And 81 per cent of those who took a view said President George W Bush hypocritically championed democracy as a cover for the pursuit of American self-interests.
US policy in Iraq was similarly derided, with only 24 percent saying they felt that the US military action there was helping to bring democracy to the country.
A spokesman for the American embassy said that the poll's findings were contradicted by its own surveys.
"We question the judgment of anyone who asserts the world would be a better place with Saddam still terrorizing his own nation and threatening people well beyond Iraq's borders," the paper quoted the unnamed spokesman as saying.
"With respect to the poll's assertions about American society, we bear some of the blame for not successfully communicating America's extraordinary dynamism.
"But frankly, so do you (the British press)."
In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business.
Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll
Moderator: Admin
-
obiwankobe
- Posts: 2828
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:56 am
- Location: Newbury Park
- Contact:
Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll
-tom
~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
obiwankobe said, Citing a press report:
"In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business."
That's what I'm talking about!.....Wooo-Woooo!!!!...par-tah!!!!
[/quote]
"In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business."
That's what I'm talking about!.....Wooo-Woooo!!!!...par-tah!!!!
[/quote]Shloemoe has gone. Adieu...Adieu!
-
gidgetgoestohell
- Posts: 4942
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
- Location: Guada La Habra, CA
-
obiwankobe
- Posts: 2828
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:56 am
- Location: Newbury Park
- Contact:
-
gidgetgoestohell
- Posts: 4942
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
- Location: Guada La Habra, CA
-
obiwankobe
- Posts: 2828
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:56 am
- Location: Newbury Park
- Contact:
-
gidgetgoestohell
- Posts: 4942
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
- Location: Guada La Habra, CA
-
obiwankobe
- Posts: 2828
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:56 am
- Location: Newbury Park
- Contact:
There really isn't any country on the planet that is free from conducting itself in a cruel manner at some point in its history. Hell I'm related to Mary Queen of Scots and would be a Prince in Scotland if the first Queen Elizabeth hadn't be-headed her. Like I said I'm over it. I like the way they talk and the music that comes out of there, and for the most part they aren't arrogant like our country is
-tom
~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
-
gidgetgoestohell
- Posts: 4942
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
- Location: Guada La Habra, CA
-
assholitis
- Posts: 1332
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:22 pm
- Location: Orange County
Zachary Taylor. Wasn't he the drummer for Hanson?gidgetgoestohell wrote:Yeah yeah yeah...well...I am related to Charles Dickens....by marriage....AND Zachary Taylor! Wait....that had nothing to do with my dislike of the British....~scratching head~
Alone we stand, together we fall apart.
*sireofwilshire*
*sireofwilshire*
-
chriswasanon
- Posts: 490
- Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:59 am
- Location: Scotland
- Contact:
Call it useless chat...
May I step in here being the Brit on the board?
I wouldn't take much notice of that poll. Who wants to be a top nation anyway?
Is this poll suggesting some kind of a comparison between the US and Britain - it is on a sticky wicket (cricketing term). Yes you have more violent crime. Yes you do have a huge underclass - whether your demographic social make-up can be seen in the same terms as ours, I do not know. But to attempt a comparison to the USA is folly. You have a greater population than us for starters. A vastly bigger country as ane fule kno.
There is this perception that the first thing a US.er will ask is:
"How much money do you make?"
I've never found that in my - albeit limited - Internet experience with you to be the case. No one has ever asked me that. Who cares?
How ignorant is the US of other places in the world? Is it important that the US has awareness that there is more to the world than itself alone?
There is some truth to the findings but only some. I've never had any problem with US.er's we've got a common language and a similiar culture. I do have a problem when people say "Fuck the British."
That poll is just another sweeping statement!
So is "Fuck the British."
It doesn't help that Bush is regularly portrayed as some kind of chimpanzee idiot in the UK media either. Then again, I sometimes wonder if it might be a better thing if we all ignored the news and the newspapers. Politicians all seem to be corrupt and fallable.
I can't help feeling whatever your own opinion that the Iraq war has not helped. A majority of Britons did feel that we should have not attacked Iraq and supported the US. Almost as if we had become the US pet poodle. I started to feel torn about wars in 1982 when Britain invaded the Falkland Islands - the feeling hasn't left me.
Although it is undoubtably true that Saddam was a tyrant with blood on his hands, the premiss that led to the invasion was proved to be false, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq poised to take out Western Cities when Iraq was attacked. There was talk that Saddam had shipped them all out to Syria anyway and other such places and that was why nothing was found. Talk only. There was the fabrication of finding reasons for yet another war. Now we get all this cobblers about democracy and a just war. A security service that connives to invade a country.
And on wars. Is there such a thing as a just war? Wasn't the 39-45 the last just war and even the allies were guilty of doing pretty unpleasant things. Refusing to commit resources to stop the destruction of European Jewry. The Russian mass rape of German women, the Katyn massacre. Nagasaki Nightmare. Things haven't improved that much. Srebenica, the Tutsi and the Hutu. Arghhhhh. The twin towers. I wish people would just stop killing and torturing each other.
As for these historical arguments about rubber bullets and Irish Nationalism that doesn't help one bit, tis all jolly and nice identifying with your old country but when that involves killing to attain self-determination. is it worth it?
There is no doubt eg. that the IRA bombing campaign in England was a bloody awful thing. Equally there is no doubt that historically we have ALL been guilty of some pretty shabby things. We've got to get over that baggage and move forward, ain't we? The idea of Peace and reconcilliation in the new South Africa was a great one - we need more of that in the world.
Iraq is becoming as bigger a balls-up as Vietnam. I tend towards the pacific side of things. Yet my dad was a serving member of the RAF who saw active service and was part of this Death Culture.
I find it very hard to reconcile that background and experience with my own beliefs about what kind of world we all want to live in.
You can call me a forces brat. Yeah we saw a bit of the world. Sequestered mostly, separated from the Greeks in Cyprus. I can swear in Greek and count to ten, that's it for 3 years of living in the Eastern Med.
I hate ignorance, even my own. Pushti Pezivengi!
We got out in 1973. The tour was cut short. The following year Turkey invaded. I ain't been back since but will. The world is a vastly bigger and wider place than we can dream of.
I want to see more of Africa than Tanger. I want to see Sri Lanka, I want to see Cyprus again, Shetland, Faeroes, Iceland. I want to take the Sea Cat over to Belfast. I wanna see the Mountains of Mourne for myself. Not just sing about it. Or the wilds of Canada. Or the SW. States. I want to take a five hundred mile run to the Norwegian book town at Fjaareland down the glaciers and the fjords. I want to be the worst kind of culture vulture! That's what I want. I bet some of you want to do that kind of stuff too!
When Inglaterre won the World Cup in 1966 - I was four and I really believed that we were top nation, it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that we weren't. But I did eventually.
Britain though a small island, in it's own way has diversification. I am patriotic towards all our islands, whether that patriotism translates to superiority is another matter. Don't think so. Alba, Sasuinn, Eirinn and Cymru. I feel protective towards our different languages. Welsh, Irish, English, Scottish Gaelic, Romany, Cant, Bengali, Urdu whatever and towards the people who left to find better lives in Australia, the USA, South Africa, Canada and took the old music and the old songs and the old stories with them and made new nations. I feel the same towards the people who are still coming here. I ain't no little Englander.
Does that make me the worst kind of wishy washy liberal?
"It is coming from somewhere else that we all are."
I've been enjoying the footie this year. The 2 semis have been very entertaining. My initial disappointment about yet another England side falling in the quarters has gone and now I'm looking forward to a good Final on the Sunday.
There have been isolated cases this year of English supporters being attacked in Scotland for wearing the Cross of St George. It used to be that the Scotland England football rivalry was a bit of a joke but when a 7 year old kid is attacked in Edinburgh's Grassmarket by some adult numpty for wearing an England football shirt, I seriously begin to question things.
Fact is to the ninety ninth degree, we all of us have come from somewhere else originally and yet we are all descended from 7 basic humans.
Wherever you will go in the world, you will find that people are basically the same. For all it's faults and for the people that inhabit it, the world is an amazing place and people despite devisiveness are surely the same. Need for food, fresh water and shelter and everything else is a bonus.
These are dark times. Mebbe the dark is always strongest just before the light returns Shloemoe.
What do I know? I'm an Englishman born in the Isle of Man who can speak Gaelic who lives in Scotland.
I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July celebrations.
Someday I'm going to come over and see the US for myself - someday...
I think Italy will win on Sunday - we'll see...
I think I rambled a bit there.
Hands across the seas!
Best!!!
Chriswasanon.
I wouldn't take much notice of that poll. Who wants to be a top nation anyway?
Is this poll suggesting some kind of a comparison between the US and Britain - it is on a sticky wicket (cricketing term). Yes you have more violent crime. Yes you do have a huge underclass - whether your demographic social make-up can be seen in the same terms as ours, I do not know. But to attempt a comparison to the USA is folly. You have a greater population than us for starters. A vastly bigger country as ane fule kno.
There is this perception that the first thing a US.er will ask is:
"How much money do you make?"
I've never found that in my - albeit limited - Internet experience with you to be the case. No one has ever asked me that. Who cares?
How ignorant is the US of other places in the world? Is it important that the US has awareness that there is more to the world than itself alone?
There is some truth to the findings but only some. I've never had any problem with US.er's we've got a common language and a similiar culture. I do have a problem when people say "Fuck the British."
That poll is just another sweeping statement!
So is "Fuck the British."
It doesn't help that Bush is regularly portrayed as some kind of chimpanzee idiot in the UK media either. Then again, I sometimes wonder if it might be a better thing if we all ignored the news and the newspapers. Politicians all seem to be corrupt and fallable.
I can't help feeling whatever your own opinion that the Iraq war has not helped. A majority of Britons did feel that we should have not attacked Iraq and supported the US. Almost as if we had become the US pet poodle. I started to feel torn about wars in 1982 when Britain invaded the Falkland Islands - the feeling hasn't left me.
Although it is undoubtably true that Saddam was a tyrant with blood on his hands, the premiss that led to the invasion was proved to be false, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq poised to take out Western Cities when Iraq was attacked. There was talk that Saddam had shipped them all out to Syria anyway and other such places and that was why nothing was found. Talk only. There was the fabrication of finding reasons for yet another war. Now we get all this cobblers about democracy and a just war. A security service that connives to invade a country.
And on wars. Is there such a thing as a just war? Wasn't the 39-45 the last just war and even the allies were guilty of doing pretty unpleasant things. Refusing to commit resources to stop the destruction of European Jewry. The Russian mass rape of German women, the Katyn massacre. Nagasaki Nightmare. Things haven't improved that much. Srebenica, the Tutsi and the Hutu. Arghhhhh. The twin towers. I wish people would just stop killing and torturing each other.
As for these historical arguments about rubber bullets and Irish Nationalism that doesn't help one bit, tis all jolly and nice identifying with your old country but when that involves killing to attain self-determination. is it worth it?
There is no doubt eg. that the IRA bombing campaign in England was a bloody awful thing. Equally there is no doubt that historically we have ALL been guilty of some pretty shabby things. We've got to get over that baggage and move forward, ain't we? The idea of Peace and reconcilliation in the new South Africa was a great one - we need more of that in the world.
Iraq is becoming as bigger a balls-up as Vietnam. I tend towards the pacific side of things. Yet my dad was a serving member of the RAF who saw active service and was part of this Death Culture.
I find it very hard to reconcile that background and experience with my own beliefs about what kind of world we all want to live in.
You can call me a forces brat. Yeah we saw a bit of the world. Sequestered mostly, separated from the Greeks in Cyprus. I can swear in Greek and count to ten, that's it for 3 years of living in the Eastern Med.
I hate ignorance, even my own. Pushti Pezivengi!
We got out in 1973. The tour was cut short. The following year Turkey invaded. I ain't been back since but will. The world is a vastly bigger and wider place than we can dream of.
I want to see more of Africa than Tanger. I want to see Sri Lanka, I want to see Cyprus again, Shetland, Faeroes, Iceland. I want to take the Sea Cat over to Belfast. I wanna see the Mountains of Mourne for myself. Not just sing about it. Or the wilds of Canada. Or the SW. States. I want to take a five hundred mile run to the Norwegian book town at Fjaareland down the glaciers and the fjords. I want to be the worst kind of culture vulture! That's what I want. I bet some of you want to do that kind of stuff too!
When Inglaterre won the World Cup in 1966 - I was four and I really believed that we were top nation, it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that we weren't. But I did eventually.
Britain though a small island, in it's own way has diversification. I am patriotic towards all our islands, whether that patriotism translates to superiority is another matter. Don't think so. Alba, Sasuinn, Eirinn and Cymru. I feel protective towards our different languages. Welsh, Irish, English, Scottish Gaelic, Romany, Cant, Bengali, Urdu whatever and towards the people who left to find better lives in Australia, the USA, South Africa, Canada and took the old music and the old songs and the old stories with them and made new nations. I feel the same towards the people who are still coming here. I ain't no little Englander.
Does that make me the worst kind of wishy washy liberal?
"It is coming from somewhere else that we all are."
I've been enjoying the footie this year. The 2 semis have been very entertaining. My initial disappointment about yet another England side falling in the quarters has gone and now I'm looking forward to a good Final on the Sunday.
There have been isolated cases this year of English supporters being attacked in Scotland for wearing the Cross of St George. It used to be that the Scotland England football rivalry was a bit of a joke but when a 7 year old kid is attacked in Edinburgh's Grassmarket by some adult numpty for wearing an England football shirt, I seriously begin to question things.
Fact is to the ninety ninth degree, we all of us have come from somewhere else originally and yet we are all descended from 7 basic humans.
Wherever you will go in the world, you will find that people are basically the same. For all it's faults and for the people that inhabit it, the world is an amazing place and people despite devisiveness are surely the same. Need for food, fresh water and shelter and everything else is a bonus.
These are dark times. Mebbe the dark is always strongest just before the light returns Shloemoe.
What do I know? I'm an Englishman born in the Isle of Man who can speak Gaelic who lives in Scotland.
I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July celebrations.
Someday I'm going to come over and see the US for myself - someday...
I think Italy will win on Sunday - we'll see...
I think I rambled a bit there.
Hands across the seas!
Best!!!
Chriswasanon.
"It is I, the gorrilla of 3b. Nigel Molesworth".
-
gidgetgoestohell
- Posts: 4942
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
- Location: Guada La Habra, CA
CwA...my problem with the British government is directly related to how they treate(d) the Irish...and by proxie...The Scottish...allowing political prisoners to die from starvation and the shooting of small children and placing Catholics in camps because of their religion....
Gidge
~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~