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| Britain |
| Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll |
| 2006-07-03 |
| BWAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! Kill them and eat them! The Evil Bush demands it to quench our blood lust! 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. Damn. How do we survive? 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". Did they ask who they thought was? I'd be interested in those answers. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #25 Brilliant comments, y'all. Swamp Blondie, I've saved the PJ O'Rourke quote to my PalmPilot. I'm sure it will help me through difficult moments in the future. Tony (UK), I've enjoyed and learnt from you since I found this wonderful site sometime after you, but today you outdid yourself. JFM, thank you for once again giving a factual basis for our innate understanding. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-03 23:22 |
| #24 #7 And the Brits opinion in 1944 was that the Yanks were oversexed, overpaid, and overhere. To which the Yanks replied that they thought the Brits to be undersex, underpaid, and under Monty. Actually, it was "undersexed, underpaid, and under Eisenhower. :-) |
| Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden 2006-07-03 21:30 |
| #23 Don't be cruel....Elvis |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-07-03 18:27 |
| #22 A loong time ago I was statitician and the first thing you are teached ias that this kind of polls has zero (zero as in zilch, nada) value. That is because they are highly vulenerable to militancy factor. In fact as predictor of elections outcomes or as an indicator of tastes of the populace or its opinions (even on non-political subjects) they have ever been beaten by those surveys where statistican selects randomly or near randomly (the quota method) the people who will be interviewed. People who vote at YouGov have too much time in their hands and 90% of these are leftists. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-07-03 17:41 |
| #21 The Brits are OK, though their media elite are a bunch of idiotarians. (But, then again so are ours). |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-07-03 17:35 |
| #20 A more realistic poll would have asked: Who do you consider a greater threat to civilization: George Bush or Sven-Goran Erikkson? |
| Posted by: Matt 2006-07-03 16:13 |
| #19 Please ignore my fellow Brits, our brains have been eaten away by years of socialism and EU serfdom. The parlous state of our national psyche is revealed by our favourite tv program, Big Brother, which allows us to feel better about ourselves by giving us the opportunity to gloat over the suffering of mentally ill "contestants". And we're rubbish at sport as well, which doesn't help. |
| Posted by: Kratos 2006-07-03 15:57 |
| #18 Funny I ever thought the country who invented Punks was the epithome of vulgarity. Ah yes, British sophistication - all those bands saw the Ramones and missed that they were kidding. |
| Posted by: Flish Glelet2299 2006-07-03 15:50 |
| #17 Ok, I'm gonna put my oar in here, and some of it is going to be rambling... YouGov is like any self-selecting poll, you get the people that want to make a thing of it participating and skewing the results accordingly. It's exactly like all the exit polls after elections, and we all know what happened in 2004 and 2000 don't we? I've been on Rantburg since soon after 9/11 and I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I do think it's helped me retain my sanity in the crazy times we've had since then. Since then, I have learnt a huge amount about what makes America America and am convinced that it *is* the best hope for freedom and ultimately humanity in the world. I am also convinced that sometimes America's 'PR' is not what it could be/should be - for instance, the American government gives more in aid than any other government, but private individuals give more than the American government - how many people know that? I have also become convinced of this idea of 'Americans born outside America', by which I mean those people who have 'American' ideals of freedom, liberty and self-reliance, but who might find themselves born in a country where those values are lambasted, denigrated or simply not allowed. Those people exist in every country (don't believe me, look at the makeup of America - all nationalities are represented), and you'll have seen plenty of them here on the 'Burg. Unfortunately, you get the converse, where people born in America aren't really Americans - some examples are; Mother Sheehan, the NYT editors, Micheal Moore, some elected officials and anti-American events such as the Kelo decision. I've met many Americans, and so far, have always been treated with courtesy and politeness. Ok, there was one store guy in Santa Barbara in 2000 who, on finding out I was from England said, with a rather pronounced sneer, "what's Great about Great Britain?". I replied with "Not much, but we do tend to side with America". He wasn't impressed - I put it down to him being an asshole. So there you are, don't believe all you read in the press, being American is more a state of mind than anything else (except those living in the US obviously have a head start) and the vast majority of Americans I've met have been pretty ok people, and certainly didn't give me the impression they were after an empire - after all, what did Colin Powell (full quote at the link) say? .
One last question; an asteroid is approaching Earth. It's gonna to hit. Who you gonna call? Not the EU that's for fucking sure... |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-07-03 15:48 |
| #16 Funny I ever thought the country who invented Punks was the epithome of vulgarity. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-07-03 15:43 |
| #15 It was written way back during the Eeeevil Empire of Ronald Reagan by P J O'Rourke in his book "Holidays in Hell", but I believe our rebuttal to this poll would be something like this: "A John Wayne movie," I said. "That's what you were going to say, wasn't it? We think war is a John Wayne movie. We think life is a John Wayne movie -- with good guys and bad guys, as simple as that. Well you know something, Mr. Limey Poofter? You're right. And let me tell you who those bad guys are. They're us. WE BE BAD. "We're the baddest-assed sons of bitches that ever jogged in Reeboks. We're three-quarters grizzly bear and two-thirds car-wreck and descended from a stock-market crash on our mother's side. You take your Germany, France, and Spain, roll them all together, and it wouldn't give us room to park our cars. We're the big boys, Jack, the original giant, economy-sized new and improved butt-kickers of all time. When we snort coke in Houston, people lose their hats Cap d'Antibes. And we've got an American Express credit card limit higher than your piss-ant metric numbers go." "You say our country's never been invaded? You're right, little buddy. Because I'd like to see the needle-dicked foreigners who'd have the guts to try. We drink napalm to get our hearts started in the morning. A rape and a mugging is our way of saying 'Cheerio'. Hell can't hold our sock-hops. We walk taller, talk louder, spit further, fuck longer, and buy more things than you know the name of. I'd rather be a junkie in a New York City jail than King, Queen, and Jack of all you Europeans. We eat little countries like this for breakfast and spit them out before lunch." Of course, the guy should have punched me. But this was Europe. He just smiled his shabby, superior European smile. (God, don't these people have dentists?) |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-07-03 14:39 |
| #14 Anytime I hear "polls" or opinions like this (childish, spoiled, "look at me" type comments), I always think back to my childhood and think of two comments we always had to commentary like this: (1) Oh yeah, well whadya gonna do about it? (2) Oh yeah, you and what army? And, I do know (like polls taken here) that this doesn't represent the entire British population. I mean the average Brit could probably care less about a "YouGov poll", so (like here) it skews the #s to those who just want to rant and rave like a 2 year old (Donks here in the States). It's just the #s are so skewed (and 7/11 was not that long ago), you'd think the "average" Brit would be cheering us on, I know their comrades in arms in Afghanistan do. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-07-03 13:43 |
| #13 ha ha ha heeee.....! It's the lord hath blessed us with sunlight and superior dentistry you see. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-07-03 13:25 |
| #12 ...armed to the white, straight teeth... |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2006-07-03 13:24 |
| #11 vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president And don't forget armed to the damned teeth with a short attention span. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-07-03 13:17 |
| #10 Lemme see...Yes. It was US citizens that rioted with Germans over soccer a week ago. And yes, it was US citizens that are banned from Europen travel for drunken, brawling rioting across Europe. Damn those Americans! |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-07-03 13:00 |
| #9 Look at who is responsible for creating and exporting the really vulgar things that are associated with America culture. Its people that are aligned with the political left of American politics: for example Hollywood, the television industry and the music industry. Ironic isnÂ’t it? |
| Posted by: Canaveral Dan 2006-07-03 12:57 |
| #8 A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks. I wish... No, no, they do careÂ…in the blue European colonial enclaves like Boston, New York, Washington, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, etc. ItÂ’s just the rest of the [Red] Inland that donÂ’t care after forking over billions and billions of taxes dollars and maintaining an unnatural peacetime draft to defend an ungrateful Europe which is suffering a severe bout of intellectual depression and realization of its pending mortality. Honestly, does anyone like a party pooper. Oh, and a note to our European brethren, Jerry Springer is not America. ItÂ’s entertaining because it is extreme even for us. |
| Posted by: Omolush Shurt8640 2006-07-03 12:23 |
| #7 And the Brits opinion in 1944 was that the Yanks were oversexed, overpaid, and overhere. To which the Yanks replied that they thought the Brits to be undersex, underpaid, and under Monty. |
| Posted by: Hupinemble Flaiger2203 2006-07-03 12:06 |
| #6 I thought those 'tabloid' papers were pretty popular in GB? They'd come across as pretty vulgar anywhere in the US. And cruel? 'A Clockwork Orange' was set in GB for a reason. |
| Posted by: glenmore 2006-07-03 12:03 |
| #5 O'it's Yankie this, An' Yankie that. O'what a loutist brute, But he's our dearest friend When the guns begin to shoot. (Sorry 'bout that Rudyard. I couldn't help myself.) |
| Posted by: GK 2006-07-03 11:57 |
| #4 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. Wonder what results the REAL "Great Leader," Kim Jong Il got? Oh yeah, he's the "Dear Leader," silly me, I always get those titles confused. And, I've gotta wonder if "the anti-Christ" was even an option for the YouGov pollsters? 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. This coming from a nation that was TRULY an imperial power at one time? And, how dare we (Americans) act in our own self-interest? I guess we're only "good for them" when we're handing out free money. Sorry to our British RBers across the pond, but this is just pure hogwash, as we say here in da South. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-07-03 11:50 |
| #3 The article fails to identify which Muslim ghetto was polled. |
| Posted by: HammerHead 2006-07-03 11:30 |
| #2 We can't get no respect. |
| Posted by: Nathanial Bacon 2006-07-03 11:28 |
| #1 And how many Americans would look at Brits as vulgar, asthmatic, sexually inhibited, inferiority-complexed and neurotic, and led by a weakling, but totalitarian socialist government that ignores what a government is supposed to do in favor of obsessing over the minutiae of people's lives? Americans are the cowboy in the outer office who says to Britain: "Arthur Pewty! Are you a man... or a mouse? You've been running too long, Arthur Pewty; it's time to stop. Time to turn and fight like a man! Go back in there, Arthur Pewty! Go back in there and pull your finger out!" |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-03 11:17 |