How do Americans view Europeans?

[magne87]

Even though we have very high taxes in Norway, is it important not to forget all the benefits we get for free. Like free health care. A welfarestate is sometimes really good to have.

[Jay Riall]

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Even though we have very high taxes in Norway, is it important not to forget all the benefits we get for free. Like free health care. A welfarestate is sometimes really good to have.

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You are soo wrong. State healthcare is the work Lenin-loving, devil-worshipping commies.

[ElliotR]

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Spanish - Woman stealers, gay

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Dude, speak for yourself. If you are not man enough to hold on to your woman against a gay Spaniard, god help you.

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Swiss - Robert Federer, again like clocks and chocolate

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D'oh!!

[ZeTurd]

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I would venture to say that a good percentage of Americans could not point out Europe on a map. And I can say with certainty that a sizeable majority of American could not point out, say, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, or any other of a number of European countries on a map. The insularity of American culture is, in my experience, something that is difficult for Europeans to fully grasp.


[/ QUOTE ] I think a sizeable majority of Europeans could not point out any US state save for maybe Florida, Hawaii and Alaska on a map.

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US States != Nations

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How not? Each state is a mostly sovereign political entity. Well, according to the Constitution anyway. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Obviously US States are more autonomous than Norwegian "fylker" or Swiss cantons, but they can hardly be likened to independent nations either.

Last time I checked you had a federal government with some influence over the various states, as well as a supreme court with some jurisdiction over direct appeals from state court decisions.

I have a feeling you wish it were not so though!

Further, it's my understanding that there really isn't that much deviation from common law in most states. At least nothing that can be compared to the differences between Norwegian and Italian law for instance.

I know state independence is important for some (most?) Americans, but it really isn't fair to expect that a European should have the same level of knowledge of American states as one might expect an American should have of independent European nations.

When it comes to placing states on the map, there's also the practical concern of American states (mostly) being lumped together in a solid mass of land with little distinct geographical features to help separate them...

[ZeTurd]

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For the record Bedreviter portrays Norway in an unnecessarily negative way. If I were to guess, you're pretty far to the right on the political scale. It's a tradition for Norwegian conservatives to bemoan the state of the press and leftist society, usually in a completely exaggerated way.

Try to be a tad more realistic in your portrayals please, and don't present your opinions as fact; it just looks stupid.

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Don't listen to this filthy hippie! There's a reason that the former Swedish minister Bjørn Rosengren called Norway "the last Soviet state". There is a lingering social democratic (read: leftist) sentiment that permeates all levels of Norwegian society. And the media especially so. It's a fact that about 70% of Norwegian journalists are voting on the left side of the political aisle, and considering that quite a few of the political parties on the conservative side would have been deemed communist in the US, I think it's fair to say that yes, we have a problem with an overly leftist press. Don't let the hippies tell you otherwise!

PS! I know that the majority of American readers probably don't want to hear more about Norway now. It's that center-of-the-universe complex getting the better of me. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Bedreviter]

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I agree with this post to some degree. Bedreviter makes Norwegian press sound a lot worse than it is.

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Our biggest newspaper is VG, a tabloid which focuses on huge headlines, big dramatic pictures and journalists that have without a doubt a very limited understanding of the complexity of many of the political issues they cover. You honestly feel that VG is covering US politics in a satisfactory way?

I also feel it is a problem that the biggest TV-station is run by the government, and its programming is heavily influnenced by the socialistic democratic ideas.

Something like 70% of journalists and journalism-students say they support SV, the party far left on the scale that has support in from about 8% of the population. Yeah, Im very critical of the Norwegian press.

Those Norwegians that claim that I am overly critical of the Norwegian press; have you ever compared the level of reporting in the American press like USA Today, NY Times or WSJ with that of VG, Dagbladet and Aftenposten?

If you have been to the US yourself and know a little about the country then you know that there is a lot of misconseptions among Norwegians about the US, and if not the press is to blame then who are?

[Kimbell175113]

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PS! I know that the majority of American readers probably don't want to hear more about Norway now. It's that center-of-the-universe complex getting the better of me. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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No, it's great. I have a reasonably clear idea of the press and tv in the UK and France, but that's about it, and learning about other European countries is always helpful and interesting (especially the great Norway, ldo).

[Dilznoofus]

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I'm not interested in teaching you a lesson. I'm saying if you dislike American foreign policy, taking it out on Americans is the game theoretically sound thing to do as long as the US is a democracy. That's one of the things that suck about being part of a democracy, people will blame you for your government's policies.

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Okay that's cool.

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I don't know what you mean by "what control does he have over how our government treats other countries?". If dealing with him is a pain for Americans, that is a negative consequence of whatever the US government did that he did not like. If electing people that will do this or that has negative consequences, it becomes a less diserable choice.

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I understand. The comment just seems unnecessary unless you think that we're all jerks who think the rest of the world can go to hell. It sounded like a lesson in treating your neighbors well, as if we needed reminding because we're Americans who don't know better.

You've made clear that wasn't your intent. I'm just explaining why it bothered me.

[Dilznoofus]

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PS! I know that the majority of American readers probably don't want to hear more about Norway now. It's that center-of-the-universe complex getting the better of me. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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No, it's great. I have a reasonably clear idea of the press and tv in the UK and France, but that's about it, and learning about other European countries is always helpful and interesting (especially the great Norway, ldo).

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Yeah. Plus you guys are making the U.S. media sound pretty great in comparison.

[RunDownHouse]

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When it comes to placing states on the map, there's also the practical concern of American states (mostly) being lumped together in a solid mass of land with little distinct geographical features to help separate them

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Because American states are (mostly) lumped together on the solid land mass of North America, whereas European nations are not lumped together on the solid land mass of... Europe?

Plenty of states' borders are drawn along geographical features, principally rivers. Believing that "American states are (mostly) lumped together on the solid land mass of North America" is completely ludicrous and basically describes every continent on the planet. I think your misconception comes mostly from scale, where several US states are the same size as several EU nations, but the sheer span of the US makes it look like those states are identical in terms of terrain where in Europe they'd encompass several different climates.