To: tolerance, understanding and democracy: please return to sender

[Louis VI the Fat]

OMG, that was hilarious!

And there I was, thinking hicks in pick-up trucks and ready to crash onto the scene at any time were just a movie cliche.


Ah, I feel like going on a rant about the deep south now, but I'll just quote this YouTube commentary instead: I've seen what happens when someone wears a Rangers shirt and walks into a Celtic pub.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Heh, I wondered if someone was going to post this.

It certainly doesn't paint the south in a very good light.

[Vladimir]

Wow, how lame. Aussies and Brits shouldn't try to offend Americans, they just embarrass themselves (where the hell are these guys from). "Country and Western is Rubbish?

Oh dear, I want to shoot them myself.

Haha, the lady called them out! And who tries to put diesel into their car?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I thought that was quite endearing, actually.

It's a prime time show, so they couldn't write 'Country and Western is ****'.

[Stig]

Ah America, the most democratic and free country in the world

[Sasaki Kojiro]

haha, that was awesome.

[Fisherking]

I thought the slogans were brain-dead. If they really wanted to get one another shot I am sure they could have done better.

They should try this out in Britton. I know they aren't much into interaction with strangers but I am sure there is a place or two in London where you might get dragged from your car and beaten for some inane slogan painted on your car.

Has it ever been a difficult task to find the violent streak in the human race?

[Louis VI the Fat]

I was a bit lazy I guess. I'll quote myself and rephrase it properly.

Ah, I feel like going on a rant about the deep south now, but I'll just quote this YouTube commentary instead: I've seen what happens when someone wears a Rangers shirt and walks into a Celtic pub.

I could go on a rant about the deep south here. But wouldn't people respond like this in a similar manner elsewhere? You'll find the same sort of lower class people responding to provocation with physical threats everywhere. Fists, not wit, are their means of defense.

This tv-show could find themselves in the same situation without ever leaving the UK. Take for example this clever quote which I took from the same YouTube page as the video: I've seen what happens when someone wears a Rangers shirt and walks into a Celtic pub..
These presentators could simply walk into a catholic Glaswegian pub wearing an emblem of protestantism to achieve the same result. Or I could drive down to Orange or Marseille, paint some fine references to pied-noirs or harkis on my hood and get myself into trouble really quick.

So no matter how ridiculous the agression of these trigger-happy hicks is, there's really no point in turning this into a dismissal of the South at large.

See?

[English assassin]

These presentators could simply walk into a catholic Glaswegian pub wearing an emblem of protestantism to achieve the same result.

Actually that wouldn't be funny. Death or serious injury would be nearly inevitable.

No one would be that mad. Not that you have to go as far as Glasgow. I remember walking down the Kings road (in Chelsea) behind a beefy skinhead in a West Ham top, with a pit bull on a lead. He was merrily shouting out "Chelsea are ****. Chelsea are ****." (Shakespeare lives!)

Now, at the top of the Kings Road you are about as likely to meet a Chelsea headhunter as you are to meet a Wildebeest. In fact you have to get a long way down before that is much of a risk, (the mad fans, not the wildebeest) but before that bit, only a part of the way down the road, there is a pub, the Trafalgar, which is as close to rough as it gets around there. (Ie what anyone else would call "normal".)

Aha, I said to my wife, lets see what he does when he gets near the Trafalgar.

Wisely, matey shut up, and crossed the road to boot. Otherwise he would have got a beating.

So there you go Don, you could get you head kicked in on the Kings road if you annoyed people enough.

[Redleg]

Whats interesting is that the video has now been removed from the site.

For violations of the user agreements.

[Tribesman]

rant away Don , but don't you think this.....

We don't paint swaztikas all over Jewish cemetaries either, but I guess that's high-brow racism, cause it happens in France.

......is an incredibly stupid statement ?

And who tries to put diesel into their car?

Hey Vlad , its a big world outside your bedroom .
diesel in cars like OhmyGod whatever will they think of next , its like just soooo kinda ridiculous

[Don Corleone]

rant away Don , but don't you think this..... ......is an incredibly stupid statement ?

I don't, but I'm not surprised to see you jump on this particular bandwagon.

Perhaps I'm projecting, but in the mindset of the average European, I see a superiority complex that I believe is unfounded. You seem to believe that Americans are more ignorant, more given to predjudices and are less civilized than the rest of the Western world.

This television program may have been a joke. Goofball's thread on Evolution last August may have been a serious attempt at sociology. But at the end of the day, for every example you cite against us, I can find one to act as a correlary in Europe (and if I looked hard enough, I'm sure, Canada. Don't forget that Navaros is Canadian).

I do take people in this country to task for making jokes about Europeans, and by the same token, I'm not going to sit back and play the good little Neanderthal for your entertainment, just to prove I can take a joke. I can take a joke. I can take 5 jokes. But when it becomes an endless litany, I'm going to take you to task on some of the messes in your own backyard.

The fact is, about every 4 or 5 months, there's some act of anti-semitism or the like over in Europe (desecrated Jewish cemetaries are just one example). I don't think you're any worse off than we are. God knows we have plenty of bigots over here. But I don't think you're any better, either, and if I can challenge your pre-conceived notion that you are, I will.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

They designed it to provoke but to be honest guys throwing rocks and "getting the boys" is, I think far more than they expected. They did try to explain it was a joke, and to be honest the really funny thing would have been if nothing happened.

Which might well have been what they were expecting.

As to the whole football thing. We have a saying.

"Don't talk about religion, politics, or football."

I think though that if you went to Cornwall with a St. George's Cross Flag and a slogan saying, "All Cornish are pointy-heads" you'd be ignored.

The Catholic-Protestant thing is a bad comparison, considering we've only recently wound up a religious war.

[Tribesman]

I don't, but I'm not surprised to see you jump on this particular bandwagon.

interesting , so you don't see that line I quoted as being an incredibly stupid example to use
So you follow with ......

The fact is, about every 4 or 5 months, there's some act of anti-semitism or the like over in Europe (desecrated Jewish cemetaries are just one example).

The fact is jewish cemetaries get desecrated over there too . One in particular springs to mind , smashed up headstones and daubed with nazi graffiti 7 times in one year .
Then again if you think that anti semetic violence , vandalism or other general nasty stuff happens about every 4-5 months in Europe then you don't read any the annual reports on anti-semitism that lots of different groups compile about Europe , or the ones about the US .

Anyhow , what is this "particular bandwagon" that I am jumping on ?

[SwordsMaster]

How about this:

Isn't it a measure of civilisation if a person can laugh at themselves? The ability to view things in perspective, and appreciating the humour not necessarily in the person, but the action, no matter who is the perpetrator.


Isn't that the level at which one can see his own shortcomings, but laugh about them instead of covering them with insecurity and aggressiveness?

[Rameusb5]

LOL... It's amazing how people get so offended by that clip. On another forum people were just freaking out about it.

Personally, I think the guys on the show (and I'm a big fan of Top Gear despite the fact that I can't watch it) were just having a bit of fun and didn't realize what violent reaction they'd get. Yeah, they SAID that they'd expect a violent reaction, but saying it and believing it are two different things.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they got the reaction that they did. Most of the people "of that type" (figure that one out for yourselves) do NOT respond well to criticism and do NOT like to be laughed at.

And guess what, that's EXACTLY what the boys from TG were doing to them.

In short, they underestimated the total lack of humor that we Americans have. Sure, we like to laugh, but only at OTHERS. Not ourselves...


PS- I grew up in a small "hick" town. This is pretty much EXACTLY how I'd expect it to go down.

[Rameusb5]

Double post-

Don, aren't you projecting the EXACT same stereotypes by saying that Europeans all feel superior to Americans?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

rant away Don , but don't you think this..... ......is an incredibly stupid statement ?

If he had meant it in the literalist "there have been zero incidents of such an occurrence in the United States throughout its history" sense, possibly.

However, since you are well aware that he was hyperbolizing to make his counter-point (i.e. that anti-semitism is far less of an issue in the USA than it has been -- at least historically -- in Europe and that Europe sneering at Americans was a bit of the old pot/kettle thing) your assessment is a bit harsh.

Don, I don't find it too surprising that Euros laugh at this stereotypical representation.

We have far too many of our own people who hear a southern accent and associate it with a Gomer Pyle-style intellect. Urbies are always confident of the in-bred stupidity of the rurals, that stereotype has a long history. Heavens, The Romans named an entire rural Italian province Bruttium.