:glugglug

You didn't tear down shit.

All you did is agree that most of the great scientists you claim as your own were actually Europeans.

That's because its true.

LOL, you didn't tear him down, except in your own mind maybe...his post was a response to what prictor had said, you went off on a complete tangent

Explain how I went off on a tangent?


Your a lieing moron. You still dislike me from the whole paris hilton DRM fiasco when you claimed to have cracked DRM. :1orglaugh

You didn't totally misunderstand the reason for his post?

Quote:

Your a lieing moron. You still dislike me from the whole paris hilton DRM fiasco when you claimed to have cracked DRM. :1orglaugh

hehe, wtf are you talking about? I was just fucking around, you're the only one who got pissed off as far as I remember:1orglaugh

I misunderstood nothing and YOUR the one who came in here swinging at me.

Damnit, I hate having people on my ignore list but your gonna have to join IPK, sorry.

LOL, you're a total moron. Swinging at you? heh
Looks like YOU'RE the one who's still pissed about the Paris Hilton thing :Graucho

Okay, black people were slaves in America but there were also slaves in Africa, Europe, and other parts of the world. So did we just get the musically talented black folk as slaves or what, because I don't see the continent of Africa putting out a lot of influential modern music.

As for The Beatles, they embraced American culture and American culture embraced them. As Homer Simpson said while visiting England, "America rules! Our Beatles are way better than your Rolling Stones."

As for film, it was my minor for 4 years. Now you could argue that there were great films produced in France, Italy, and other parts of Europe, but Russia and Germany? You have to be talking about technology and not art.

I'm not a fan of Hollywood schlock. I hate a happy ending in a film, what they call an American ending. But there are dozens of great independent films produced in this country every year. And the Hollywood stuff, while not high art, actually had more cultural influence than the artistic stuff.

America is the greatest civilization on earth to date.

Rictor is right that it has been the center for world culture for quite some time now for entertainment and science.

Beatles - never would have existed without American musical influences

Einstein - fled his homeland for America where he wouldn't be killed for being Jewish. Sure, he wasn't American by birth but only within the American infrastructure did he become the Einstein we celebrate today.

Science - The Industrial Revolution started in England but America quickly became the leaders in all things industrious whether it's the Intel chip, the automobile, or the sky scraper.

America also has dark roots and ones that continue to this day. There is also a face of America that other counties see but that is hidden from American citizens such as our true role in many of the unnecessary or pre-emptive wars of past and present (Vietnam and now Iraq).

Still, I don't think anybody can really deny American standing in world culture. We are strong because we all the cultures here provide a dynamic found nowhere else. There can be no Hitleresque Nazi regime here because our population is too heterogenous. This fact provides a sort of checks and balances by itself.

Nobody knows what the future holds. America is and has always been a unique example in human history.

Growing debt, illegal immigration, majority of high tech jobs being sent overseas, being involved in a war with an inescapable precendent does worry me though. Our overwhelming strength and affluence may be our downfall as greed and displays of overzealous power on a global level begin to take their toll.

The American people are a resilient, industrious, ingenious people. We have over time become more soft and not very well informed. Even with our strengths I fear if these things will be enough to sustain us as leaders in the ever changing global community.

You just answered your original question: the reason Americans are so cocky is because of their blessed, blind ignorance.

And I hate saying that because this is a wonderful country. I spent part of my schooldays here, I worked here on and off for most of my adult life, and I have lived here for the past 6 years. I really don't understand why so many Americans seem unable to be proud of their country without resorting to myths and without putting other countries down.

There are many other great countries and like all of them, the US has things which are not so good. A lot of Americans do recognize those truths, but far too many insist that everything American is the best that there is and neither needs nor is capable of improvement. Which is sad, because this country is rich enough that if more people recognized its flaws and refused to accept them, most could be fixed. The US doesn't need to settle for second-rate health care and third-rate education, nor any of the other things which are a consequence of so many living with their heads in the sand.

FUCK all ya all, I'm moving to Mexico.



Hola, mi gusta el zapotos:321GFY

Have you not heard of German Expressionist film? Herzog? Murnau? Fritz Lang? Films like Sunrise, Nosferatu, the Kabinet of Dr. Kaligari?

And as for the Russians, have you not heard of Sergei Eisenstein and his development of montage editing? Battleship Potempkin? The Odessa Steps sequence?

Nobody pioneed early film art like the Russians and the Germans. Later, the French and Italians became just as important.

How much film history did you actually study?

Where in Mexico?

Very true, we have a wide breadth of film making here, some artistic, others more for entertainment only. I can't even think of a sci-fi film made anywhere else but in America by American film makers.

TJ:glugglug

Yes, I like a lot of American independent film too.

But I thought we were talking about the origins of the art form?

why would I take the time to pointout all the wonderful qualities in the middle of being bashed....

ok so here goes a crack...

the smelly stuck up spineless french have great wine and art

germans have great cars and sound equipment among an impressive list of technology brekthroughs

our asian friends are amazing with philosophy and electronics

the world has so many cultures that offer great things but the red neck american in everyone of us would just assume say fuck you bring it on........ because we are the ones who have lived with the target on our back....we dont want you to kiss our ass but we sure as fuck wont let you kick it either......

Sweden is the best country to live in, cuz of the hot girls!

I don't even need to go into personal details.

Repression: Look at the stupid fucking outcry over Janet's tit.

Oppression: Just look at the attack dogs in this thread for stating one opinion against the "state" That happens within the US boundaries to anyone who doesn't worship the flag and the American dream.

As someone says in this thread "why would I take the time to point out all the wonderful qualities in the middle of being bashed...."

The US is not being bashed. This thread was started with the "we are the greatest" vein. Which belittles, or "bashes" the rest of us. Why would we take the time to point out all the wonderful qualities of the US? We have them shoved down our throats at any and all opportunities. If we try to point out that the US is just as good/bad as the rest of us we're told we're jealous/anti-American/bashing the US. So who really does the bashing if the US doesn't want to admit it's no better than the rest?

Look at this thread.. the USers patting themselves on the back for how good they are.. if we don't pat with them we're labelled. That is oppression at it's roots. Not allowing freedom of opinion without punishment for it. It's society wide in the US. It's just not recognised because it's touted from every available soap box that it's the land of freedom and democracy, and it's blindly believed by the masses to the extent they don't even know how controlled they are, how controlled and conforming the whole society is.. even the "democracy" having the choice of one centre right party and a bit more to the right party, what kind of democratic choice is that anyway? Where's the left wing choice? Oh dear can't have that.. the lilly livered liberals or worse the commie bastards might get some power. Again oppression.

There are some parts of the US that I love. But there are equal parts that I hate. Same with every country I've lived in, there's always good and bad. I have no desire to live in that repression or the underhand oppression.

sorry, but I don't read posts with more than 5 words in it:winkwink:

100 yanks

100% Alaskin:winkwink:

Probably best! I should take that track too and save myself some hassle..

Sorry it's more than 5 words :winkwink:

You better get your tinfoil hat ready. The aliens are coming.

Some of the stuff you said is very true but some of it is just conspiracy theory style malarky.

Thats the problem with this entire thread. 1 part truth 5 parts BS to almost all of the replies.

Moo.

Careful, Rebel, don't disagree with him, he'll put you on his ignore list. :Graucho

At first glance this might make sense to the lesser intelligent person. And this being GFY I'm sure lots read it and might see some kind of point in that post but it is for the most very shallow.

Now the whole thing about film. Yes the US can make big blockbusters. But it can also make some pretty good masterpieces. Just because it makes money doesn't mean it wasn't art or it wasn't good. We do things and we make money with them. That's what makes us different from a lot of nations.

It amazes me that in the little over 200 years the US had been the US it took less then a hundred years to be a world power. And that was proved in WWI and WWII. It seems that when the shit hits the fan it's always the US to come to the rescue.

Oh and this shit about blacks being dragged from Africa. Ya that was a bad thing I'll give ya that. But please. I personally think the fact that Africans sold themselves is much more offensive. The overwhelming majority of Africans that were "dragged" here actually were paid for. And who got paid? Other Africans. It was big business for them. The selling and trading of their own race. Amazing, that truly is pathetic. But ya, we're the bad guys because no one likes to bring up the truth about what happened with slavery. That wouldn't be politically correct.

And I think you should go on about science because I'll own you just as easily on that topic to.

Name another country that exists today that was started 200 years ago and is a dominating force in the world today. Whose very economy affects the world? I can't really think of any.

The US has a great many flaws. But being top dog ain't one of them. So please get back to me when another country achieves what the US has in such a short time. Because it ain't ever happened before or since.


:thumbsup

because their grandparents and great parents were really cool

In other words, you can't come up with anything.

There's a difference between the orgin of a technology and the origin of the artform that technology spawned.

But no, not talking about origins of anything. I'm talking about worldwide cultural influence. Who sets the pace for the world?

So fucking what? Why does that give anyone a reason to be cocky? Did you personally invent a lightbulb, fly to the moon, build a plane? Because I was born in South Africa, should I go around puffing up my chest because the first heart transplant was performed there? I'd look pretty stupid, don't you think? Well, that's what it looks like to the rest of the world when you do it.

You are talking about mass market, mainstream popular culture.

Do you think places like Paris and Milan don't set the pace for things like fashion?

You are talking about McCulture.

I'm not saying that nothing good has come out of America but it sure isn't the mass marketed shit.

Stop confusing popularity with artistic worth, it makes you look silly.

I think you're missing a link there:


http://www.english-vancouver.com/can...n-development/

that's just an exerp, I can't find the full source UN link...was posted here in GFY a few months back...


I'm familiar with both sides of this argument and both hold some water depending on the looking glass you peer through...

it really depends on your background and reasoning at the moment on which you find more convincing....

...for a few minutes into reading this thread I was wondering when I was gonna see:

"Do you live by the 14 words?"

Point is that most Americans do not truly appreciate the life they have. Anyone who does not appreciate things tends to be cocky, the two go hand and hand.

To say that you would be more cocky is ridiculous. You would be thankful, very thankful. Probably very humble.

It's easy to say "America is the best" and "we rule" but what do you really know to compare that to? How do you really know we are the best? What are you cocky about? Because you have been told that America is the best... or because you know from first hand experience?

Half of you people have never been to Europe, stop talking and thinking your the best.

Go to a place where you can have easy fuck buddies, not a country where people shun free loving.

I'm so glad you noticed little 'ol me. I didn't know you even existed.

America is the greatest civilization on earth to date? How stupid are you, man? Forget about the Japanese that have been around for thousands of years? You wouldn't even have your 500lb bombs if the Japanese hadn't invented black powder.

why do people keep saying look at what we've done in 200/400 years...who cares!
what counts is today and today out of all the countries i'd choose australia as being the best :thumbsup
it's a good thing i live there then :winkwink:

Being cocky and being vocal are not the same. You would be thankful and voicing that is fine. Being cocky over "superiority" is not. "Superiority" is relative to where you are standing.

By all means, tell the world how thankful you are to live in this great country. Talk about it everyday, but to be cocky about living here is not the right thing to do. Depending on your beliefs, you could of just as easily been born into poverty in Somalia. By chance you were born here, and that is nothing to be cocky about.

To copy Bill Clinton, it totally depends on what you mean by "are" :1orglaugh

DUH? I keep trying to kill this characterization that "Americans are dumb", but it keeps popping up at a rate ya can't help but notice.

Clearly this is some words from the ... na.. "ignorant" is lacking...