Posted on 11/12/2004 6:34:35 PM PST by quidnunc
There was a moment when we Americans living in Britain, all 200,000 or so of us, thought we were home free. The years of being mocked and antagonised for our country's leader were coming to an end. "Actually, I'm voting for Kerry" was the simplest way of getting out of a difficult conversation. The truth is that many Americans in Britain probably voted for Bush, but have kept it to themselves. It's about as fashionable as admitting to having the clap.
"Every meeting I go to, every social occasion, even when I'm out shopping, someone hears my accent and challenges me to a debate," says Annie Ouroussof Jordan, an executive headhunter who, though American, spent years in France and the Middle East before moving to Britain 15 years ago. She did not vote.
"There wasn't a proper candidate as far as I'm concerned and I wasn't going to vote for Kerry just not to vote for Bush. The truth is that I would have voted for Bush if I had to make a choice. Many of us Americans feel this way because we don't know what Kerry believes in. He stands for nothing. I have gotten flak for it but part of being an American is speaking up. I am often provoked in social situations and have taken to avoiding the subject altogether." Still, this is nothing compared with French anti-Americanism. "It's pure hatred there," she says.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
awwhh boo hoo... some more liberal jiberish! do us a favor and stay in England or migrate to Canada and make it a reality.
In this case, she deserves to be labelled as a Canadian. She is nothing but a coward. I live in a very liberal country too, and I work in a even more liberal place, a university. But every time when questioned, I gave these people the proud anwer:"I am an American, and a very proud one". When questioned if I voted, the answer is:"Yes, I did, I voted for George W Bush." And I just love the sight of their disbelief, priceless.
These poor libs, they have nowhere to go! They think about secession, but that's not really an option. If they go to Europe or Canada, they don't like them because they're American. Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Oh, PL-L-E-E-Z-E!
Alfred, who is proud to sport the very same hairstyle he has been wearing since he was ten, is an ungrateful and self-deluding homosexual. As evidence I point to his fundamental silliness, his lack of reality contact, and his use of the word "hopelessly" in this context.
"I was at a dinner recently. The host became increasingly rude about Americans, even though he happened to be married to one," says Diane Kordas, a jewellery designer married to a banker. "I confronted him and he became even more unpleasant. He said: 'Don't you know that everyone hates America?' " She shrugged it off.
She shrugged it off? She was invited to this man's house to endure gratuitous insults, and she just bore them? To anyone who was so clumsy and arrogant as to speak this way to me, I would have spoken coldly, in the manner the British understand: "I beg your pardon. I was under a misconception: I thought you had extended hospitality to me and did not realise that it was the custom in this house to insult and deride invited guests. Good evening to you." And I would have thrown down my napkin and left, never to return.
It is always so satisfying to make a great scene like that and make one's attacker look like the vulgar fool he is.
From what I hear, there's not too many Brits left in London.
It's about as fashionable as admitting to having the clap.
I wonder if she found this out the hard way.
Screw Europe. We should have stayed out of WW2 and left them to the tender mercies of Hitler and Stalin, for all the good it's done us in the long run.
We stand alone. Suits me.
Very true. They don't realize that it is their attitude that fuels the anti American sentiment. If they actually stand up tall to these people, they back off. I just love it when anyone questions me. I usually give them a very good speech that they wish they never start it. I am never nasty with them either, always tell them as it is with a smile. It just kills them.
And of course they think if they can just prove they are anti-Bush they are scot-free...
What the liberals don't understand is that in many of these countries, thinking about the US is a national obsession. The reason these people go nuts when they see an American is that they finally have someone on the inside to listen to their insane theories... Americans shouldn't take it personally, and it's usually easily to get on their good side if you're clever. Flash a grin and say, "Yeah, we're sure a bunch of sons of bitches, aren't we?" or something, and they are silenced.
So true.
Oh put a sock in it!
Americans don't harangue foreign visitors to the US about their perceived shortcomings, and we shouldn't have to put up with abuse from them. Americans are — thankfully — getting fed up and have decided that they don't have to drop trou, bend over and grab the ankles just because some foreign feces-fondler decides to get in an American's face and deliver himself of whatever half-assed conventional wisdom is making the rounds in his chamber-pot neck of the woods.
Very true, half of them are in New Zealand.
Exactly... trying to pretend you're not really American or hate Bush or something makes the situation worse. Then they blame you for not solving the problem. Easier just to quickly beat them in argument or gently point out their hypocrisy.
All the persons quoted in this story are wimpy pseudo-Americans, who feel their conforming to European anti-Americanism is preferable to being proud of being an American.
Europe has wallowed in hatred toward other nations for over 2000 years. The next time the Europeans decide to go at each others' throats or the Muslims decide to invoke Sharia over Continental Europe, The USA should step back and let them fight it out.
No more US military blood should be spilled for the Europeans, not one ounce.
"Americans have an uncanny way of getting where they want to be in Britain, be that into the best clubs, schools, social circles or jobs. Even the BBC's director of television, Jana Bennett, is an American. The City is dominated by America; many of my friends work for American banks, law firms, magazine publishers and advertising agencies. I call my neighbourhood, Notting Hill, a suburb of New York because, effectively, it is. One American writer calls London a blue state, that's how close it is to liberal East Coast America. But the fact that we wholeheartedly embrace Britain and British ways probably makes Britain wholeheartedly not want to embrace us."
Hehehehe!
There's quite a few British immigrants around my area and some of them fly the Union Jack and proudly talk about home. There's enormous tolerance for that here yet Americans are constantly called xenophobic and racist towards foreigners. Actually when I see how other countries act against outsiders we are probably one of the most tolerant societies in the world.
"She shrugged it off. "Deep down, I think the British admire us and we all get along really well. We've brought a lot of positive things with us. When I first moved here, nine years ago, London was a drab place. To get anyone to do anything took for ever. Now - thanks to us - Britain has power showers, concierge services and restaurants like Nobu."
"By being hostile, the British are trying to say that we are not like you [Republicans]: we believe in fair play, in integrity, in doing the right thing," says Mark McDermott, a reader in psychology at the University of East London.“
Why, you sanctimonious lime-sucking poofter. You wouldn’t know integrity if the next pickle you smooch were marinated in it.
“Even the BBC's director of television, Jana Bennett, is an American.”
Well, that explains a lot.
"I felt my patriotism come to the fore when the American system was attacked, as foolish as that may be."
Patriotism is foolish, is it? Perhaps some of the hatred the pommy b@stards have for America is caused by the heavy blue-state representation there.
"I don't know what I'm talking about half the time, do you?" says Lauren Crowe, a magazine editor. "
Finally, a media slug admits it.
"To pretend there's a war when there isn't is really terrifying," says American architect Alfred Munkenbeck. "One terrorist incident doesn't mean you go to war with every small country. I think we overreacted hopelessly.”
I wonder if this ignorant POS also realizes that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“There is huge pressure to conform in America, which is scary."
You need to see somebody for help with those delusions, spanky.
“Don't you know that everyone hates America?"
Well, then, I guess there’s no reason for us to come to your rescue the next time you get your tit caught in the wringer, eh?
"Because the British assume that we are loud and demanding “
So, when faced with insulting stereotypes, your response is to change to match them?
Good thinking, chump.
enlightened Europe... they still have hate?? and I thought they were suopposed to be Soooo enlightened
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