Out of Pod Experience

I apologize in advance for the wall of text.

I can totally see the Berkeley situation. I love it when people from SF say SF is like a European city as well as the people. No it's not. It's nothing like a European city. It skims off the top the very base qualities of Europe and jacks up the cost of everything about 1000% because they're so ignorant about the people they're trying to copy, they throw as much money as they can at it in order to pretend they're living somewhere else and they're a different people. The difference is Europeans do what they do because it's their culture and they've been doing it for centuries. People in places like SF and NY (places where people believe their own hype) do everything in order to say, "Look at me, look at how awesome I am even though I don't know **** about anything culturally. I'm going to pretend I do by throwing more money at it because the more money you throw at something, the more culture you have and the more refined you are, right?" That's how it works in America. You don't have to know anything, just be a really good poser.

I'm originally from the south and it's very true that we are stereotyped pretty harshly. That said, while it's not always like that, many times it is. I'm originally from Louisiana so there's always been a bit of interest surrounding it for the food, New Orleans, the history, the music, etc. It's at least better than Arkansas, .

Onyx, while you are correct about the policies upsetting Europeans the most, that also bleeds over into personal relations with Americans abroad, tourists and expats alike. While it's no secret that Americans are some pretty annoying tourists, they're not even that bad compared to other tourists even within Europe ahem ahem Germans ahem ahem . You have to realize that you don't see it every day because it's normal to you. Every single day we see nothing but I HATE MURICA, **** YOU 'MURICA, 'MURICANS ARE THE DUMBEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, DEATH TO 'MURICA, 'MURICANS SHOULD ALL KILL THEMSELVES, THE ENTIRE WORLD HATES YOU, MURICA, etc. I'm not exaggerating. If I go to any site with any modicum of human interaction, I have to wade through endless diatribes about how horrible we are and how we're the worst people on earth and how our country is so stupid and fat and we should all die. Also, I see it more from Europe than anywhere else. Whenever we go abroad, we have to tiptoe around everyone and walk on eggshells the entire time and practically apologize for being born. I'm not talking harmless, friendly pub ribbing either. We have to conceal who we are at all times in order to not draw attention to ourselves because we're afraid of people finding out we're American because they immediately treat us differently. Then, after being beaten about the head and neck constantly, it's no wonder Americans are reticent to travel abroad (even though we do it anyway in droves). Europeans love to hate us and they don't hide this from us at all, then they berate Americans for not travelling. If I kicked you in the balls every time you came to my house, pretty soon you're going to stop coming to my house and talking to me altogether.

It feels like racism. It's not racism because we're not a race, but it's as close to racism as you can get. The saddest part of it is that everyone seems to be perfectly ok with it, from the individual governments to the media to the everyday people. Every single day is an uphill battle for us when interacting with people. We can never completely relax abroad because we don't want people to spit in our food or overcharge us simply because they found out where we're from.

Now, imagine if all Scandinavians were treated with such contempt on a daily basis from nearly everyone around you; pretty soon you'd start to get pissed off, and that's what happens. It's not like we aren't aware of our shortcomings, but being kicked in the balls every single day tends to make you a little bitter, so you start to defy everyone and everything. You become even MORE arrogant and MORE defensive and MORE aggressive and MORE annoying just to spite everyone. The thing that people don't seem to realize is that Americans love an underdog and we love comeuppance and vengeance. I think that's been made quite clear in the last ten years. Every time someone berates us, they're simply feeding the monster.

America can be a ****** up place, everyone knows this. There are so many ass-backward things about us that it's even comical. The European hate for Americans (yes, Americans, not just America) has gotten personal and crossed the line and I'm calling a spade a spade: anti-Americanism is simply tolerated racism. Racists spout "valid" reasons for being racists, too.