Why r US neo rads so willing to remake America into Europe?

[Wyldgusechaz]

I have traveled extensively in Europe. I will grant that their healthcare system from this distance seems better but that would be it. Europeans have very small lives. Italians strongly dislike Germans, and French. There is a very real sense of class separation everywhere I traveled, in that the youth feel they are at a dead end, there is no chance of ever movng up,

Do neo rads really want us Americans to shrink our lives and futures to the smallness of the European life? Europeans see children as burdens, Europeans seem to believe in nothing but the self. Europe seems to have no courage, Darfur was Europe's chance to show fortitude but it did nothing.

Other than health care, why would anyone want to mimic the cynicism of Europe? Their movies even reflect nothing but cynicism. Name any innovation or image from Europe that reflects optimism.

 

[D_Jared Padalicki]

You are clearly not from Europe

 

[pym]

AS usual......psychotic,twisted drivel. My experiances and observations throughout Europe were NOTHING like yours.

I can truly see why the rest of the world harbors deep seated indignation towards the USA. Especially when they see themselves described as our forum NAZI describes them.

I am ashamed that you are a "FELLOW" citizen of mine......ASHAMED To The Core.

 

[D_Jared Padalicki]

Name any innovation or image from Europe that reflects optimism.

Although Switzerland don't belong to Europe, it is in Europe and they invented the World Wide Web that is rather cool and innovative.
Then their is the NAVO. Very good thing, because they will fight for similar rights. And it was the USA that was mad at the NAVO because we didn't wanted to work together and only focus on anti-terrorism... A very good decision I believe.

 

[pym]

Fair play i say........The European point of view via Britain and Rodger Waters describing "GUZ" DEAD-ON.
PINK FLOYD
Waiting for the Worms:
YouTube - Pink Floyd - Waiting for the Worms

Oooo You cannot reach me now,
Oooo No matter how you try.
Goodbye cruel world, it's over.
Walk on by.
Sitting in a bunker,
Here behind my wall,
Waiting for the worms to come.
In perfect isolation,
Here behind my wall,
Waiting for the worms to come.
Waiting, to cut out the deadwood.
Waiting, to clean up the city.
Waiting, to follow the worms.
Waiting, to put on a black shirt.
Waiting, to weed out the weaklings.
Waiting, to smash in their windows and kick in their doors.
Waiting, for the final solution to strengthen the strain.
Waiting, to follow the worms.
Waiting, to turn on the showers and fire the ovens.
Waiting, for the queers and the coons and the Reds and the Jews.
Waiting, to follow the worms.
Would you like to see Britannia,
Rule again, my friend?
All you have to do is follow the worms.
Would you like to send our colored cousins,
Home again, my friend?
All you need to do is follow the worms

 

[Gl3nn]

It's not like that AT ALL.

I don't think there's a big seperation of class. Ok, we do have nobility, but we don't see them as more than us. They just have more money. It's the same in Europe as in America, some people have more money than others. I think here it's quite well maintained. The richer have to pay more taxes than the ones who earn less. (Last time I checked, the biggest earners lose about 50% to social security). But it's absolutely worth it. You get health care, our schools and universities are funded by the government (yes, can you imagine not having to get a loan at 18 that you'll still be paying off in ten years?), poor people are being taken care of (given houses, an income, ...), ...

No chance of climbing up and at a dead end? You have to be kidding. Because our universities are funded by the government, a lot of people have the chance of going there and thus climbing up in life. Seriously...what places did you travel to? Extensively might be an overstatement here, I feel.

Then...Italians strongly hate Germans, and French people.... where do you get this from? You've traveled a lot you say...apparently you didn't pay a lot of attention. There IS some friendly competition between the countries, but they do certainly NOT strongly dislike each other. Of course you'll find some people that think otherwise and that do dislike some people for no reason, but there aren't a lot of them.

Also, if you traveled extensively, shouldn't you speak more than one language? I see only English in your profile. One would think that learning another language while being in a foreign country comes in handy and broadens the horizon.

Europeans see children as a burden...uhm...NO!!! Honestly, are you just making this stuff up? They do certainly not see children as a burden. Otherwise they just wouldn't get them, now wouldn't they? Also, there are a lot of older people here, so the more children there are, the more that can take care of them (because at the rate it's going, even social security can't keep up with it).

Europe has no courage? Hmm...yeah...because America has been around for as long as Europe has and all the wars and conquests made in that period don't count...
Btw...courage? Going into a war without any good reason is not called courage. We try the diplomatic way first...

Our movies reflect nothing but cynicism? How many movies of here have you actually seen? Last time I checked, most Americans don't like subtitled movies, so most european movies aren't even watched there. And some movies, I guess do reflect cynicism, but most do certainly not.

You act like America is superior to Europe. It is not. So get off your high horse.

Get educated and don't generalize what you have seen in the few places you've been (IF you've been there).

 

[Gl3nn]

Although Switzerland don't belong to Europe, it is in Europe and they invented the World Wide Web that is rather cool and innovative.

Pieter of course means that Switzerland isn't part of the European Union, but it IS part of Europe.

 

[dong20]

One [of many] great things about Europe ... is the absence of Wyldgusechaz.

 

[Bbucko]

Alexander Graham Bell was Scots, but lived in Boston. The telephone was invented in Boston, Massachusetts, just off of Scully Square (now Government Center thanks to an especially terrible try at Urban Removal in the late 50s/early 60s)

I'll have more on this topic when I'm not working. I don't have the focus nor time to post something meaningful right now, and as someone who lived in Paris for several years, I have real experience to contribute, not just mindlessly regurgitated blather.

Contemporary conservative dogma seems to have latched unto two untransmutable "truths", which are anything but:
1) Europe is rotting from within and are hopeless basket-cases economically, socially and politically; and
2) The 1960s poisoned the well of American goodness and that all (or nearly all) of our social troubles started because of the social upheavals that took place from 1963-1975.

It's strange how they insist on clinging on such false paradigms. But it's a brave conservative indeed who can think outside of the cocoons/boxes such false thinking propagates.

 

[koval]

Name any innovation or image from Europe that reflects optimism.

How about

• the jet engine (allowing faster air travel)
• Penicillin (helping to save lifes)
• Geneva convention of human rights & international court of justice (something the US army doesn't like)
• Asphalt by Edward de Smedt (making it easier and more comfortable to drive across America.

or better still;

• Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (French) - creator of the Statue of Liberty (can you say this statue does not signify optimism?)

 

[MH07]

Europe is fantastic.

Many (not all, but many) of the things that make America what it is came DIRECTLY from Europe---our system of laws (British), our love of fine things, cuisine and culture (France), our work ethic (Germany), our excitement for life (Ireland), the list goes on and on and on.

Yeah, Europe really stinks. This is the continent that gave us BMW's, the BBC, all manner of whiskey, vodka, beer, fish-n-chips, hamburgers, souffle's, cheese, organized sport, the foundation games for football and baseball, wireless communication, alternating current, locomotives (therefore rail and the Industrial Revolution), not to mention "lazy people" like oh, I don't know, Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Dante, Johnson, Rembrandt, Vivaldi, the concept of the symphony, the opera, and the play (that Shakespeare dude...). Oh: and a language (English). Languages (add Spanish) if you prefer. Last time I checked, England and Spain were still in Europe.

Yeah, those Europeans---they really suck. I hate them. What have they accomplished?

(Europeans: come on, now, don't you have a job for me? I'm talented and I would LOVE to live in Europe, specifically London (the center of the civilised universe) but anywhere would do...).

 

[Gl3nn]

Actually, Bbucko...

the telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci. Bell just took a patent on it. Meucci couldn't afford it, but he did sue Bell. Sadly enough he passed away before the judge made a decision. So from then on...Bell was the owner of the telephone. And many believe he invented it, but he did not. But Meucci was Italian, so it's also european. Thank you for your input though.

 

[Simon9]

Americans don't like to read. And that's why we hate subtitled movies. If the Europeans would simply blow more things up, their movies would be fine. Or they could crash a car into other things: villains, buildings, immigrant schools, other cars, bullet trains, The French, whatever grabs their European fancy.

Too many words in European movies. American movies, if most were subtitled, would mostly be "Crash!" and "RIP!" and "Boom!!". And a lot of "OUCH!". Of course, Americans hardly say "Ouch". Or "Gosh darn it." Mostly we just say "Shit." Or "Ah, fuck." Because sometimes you blow up things you don't intend to.

We like blowing things up. Then we rebuild them. Then we blow them up again. Oops, there were kids on that bridge?

Shit.

 

[D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse]

Wyldgusechaz writes:

"I have traveled extensively in Europe.... Europeans have very small lives....the youth feel they are at a dead end, there is no chance of ever movng up... Europeans see children as burdens, Europeans seem to believe in nothing but the self. Europe seems to have no courage... Their movies even reflect nothing but cynicism..."

--------------------'

(Ms. Wyldgusechaz is traveling across Europe with her daughter, Ginny.)


Ginny: Mother? Is that a peasant buying coffee from the street vendor?

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: Yes, Ginny. Don't point. Just enjoy the europeans in their natural habitat.

Ginny: (looking at a travel guide) Mother, can we visit the Louvre next?

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: The louvre? What's a louvre?.... It's that, like, a toilet?

Ginny: Mother, why are those people headed towards the university? You said all young people feel like they're at a "dead end"...

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: Just watch, Ginny. By tonight they'll be rioting and setting fire to police vehicles. Like I saw on TV. I believe the word is "anomie"...they all feel alienated. It's very troubling.

Ginny: This guide says that the university is paid for by the state. It's taxpayer funded.

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: (grabs the travel guide out of Ginny's hands) Gimme that! That's SOCIALISM, Ginny! Just look at the châteaux and shut up!

Ginny: Mother, we're on a busy boulevard, There are no "châteaux" around here!

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: Drink the freaking Pepsi I bought you and pipe down, missy!

Ginny: I wanted to try a cafe au lait...plus de sucre, s'il vous plait.

Ms. Wyldgusechaz: I swear, Ginny, you're beginning to sound as cynical and dead end as all these youths arounds here!

Ginny: I want to see the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur! And give me my travel guide back!.... I want to try saint-jacques a la dieppoise for dinner, mother.

Ms.Wyldgusechaz: We're eating cheeseburgers and fries like normal people. With lots of ketchup. Stop using all them high-falutin' words!

Ginny: Are you a "culture vulture", mother?

 

[Gl3nn]

Reading is not that difficult. And subtitled movies help you learn languages. When the movies are dubbed, then you see mouths moving but you don't hear anything. That's just stupid. When watching a movie...reading 2 lines every few seconds is not that much.

Some movies do blow up a lot of stuff, some don't. I guess Europe has more cultural movies too, but not only those. Also normal ones like they make in America.

And too many words is hardly a reason.

Really...foreign movies: 1) you learn new languages and 2) they're interesting and most of the time good when you know which one to pick to watch.

 

[Gl3nn]

And LOL Willtom!

 

[D_Jared Padalicki]

Reading is not that difficult. And subtitled movies help you learn languages. When the movies are dubbed, then you see mouths moving but you don't hear anything. That's just stupid. When watching a movie...reading 2 lines every few seconds is not that much.

Some movies do blow up a lot of stuff, some don't. I guess Europe has more cultural movies too, but not only those. Also normal ones like they make in America.

And too many words is hardly a reason.

Really...foreign movies: 1) you learn new languages and 2) they're interesting and most of the time good when you know which one to pick to watch.

But we must admit that Belgium and the Netherlands are one of the few countries that subtitle their movies. Countries like Germany, Spain, Italy, France and a few others always dubb their movies and tv-shows. Horrible I must say. That is probably one of the reasons why Dutch people are better in other languages because we could hear them while reading the translation. I can say it helped me a lot.

 

[Gl3nn]

Agreed. More countries should do it.

 

[B_Nick8]

I don't know about you Wyldgusechaz, but I'm in the mood to play chess with Death.

 

[deleted15807]

How about the fact that Europeans are way happier than the 'leaders of the free world'. What does that say when the leader isn't even happy as the 'followers'? Where exactly is the 'leader' leading them? To being as unhappy as they are? Look around apparently that's true.


NationMaster - Happiness net (most recent) by country


#1 Iceland:94%
#2 Sweden:91%
#3 Denmark:91%
#4 Netherlands:91%
#5 Australia:90%
#6 Ireland:89%
#7 Switzerland:89%
#8 Norway:88%
#9 United Kingdom:87%
#10 Venezuela:87%
#11 Belgium:86%
#12 Philippines:85%
#13 United States:84%
#14 France:84%