Sometimes, I Pretend I Am Canadian (How Americns living in England cope with the hate)

The Telegraph ^ | November 13, 2004 | Helen Kirwan-Taylor

[loyalfandownunder]

Yep. Now that eveyone knows who I am and what I stand for. None of them would dare bring up any anti US message or topic. They know only too well.

[Cubs Fan]

I;'ve got relatives who don;t like Bush, but in spite of the fact that I don;t want to hurt my realtionship with them, when the subject is brought up I don't back down. I would like to see all of us do that. Be respectful but put our point of view out there. Whether in England or anywhere else we shouldn;t be intimidated into silence.

[Welsh Rabbit]

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.

LOL! I also cringed when I read, "I think we overreacted hopelessly." and "Eccentricity is encouraged here. There is huge pressure to conform in America, which is scary." More like pretending to be British is more acceptable over there... What a poof.

[GeronL]

hmmm Battle of Britain ? Lend-Lease ? the Battle of the Atlantic? D-Day? the eradication of the Nazis?

Haven't you heard???.. the newly approved EU history schoolbooks don't teach that stuff.

[Boiler Plate]

I was in Australia a while back and there are plenty of commies and socialists there. Just about every function I went to the greeting would go like this.

My reply in parenthesis.

So where are you from (DC), what do you do (engineering), why do the Americans have so many nuclear weapons blah blah blah.

I decided that the best defense was an offense. The conversation turned into this.

So where are from (DC), what do you do (I design weapons of mass destructions for a company called TRW), well how about that America's Cup?

Problem solved. See, you when ram it right down their throats libs always back off.

[libs_kma]

I've always liked GWB. All this euro-trash hate does is goes to show that he's even better than I have always given him credit for.

Ronald Reagan was the best POTUS to come along in a long time, and he was hated by Europe too.

Its like Ann says about talking to liberals, if their not in a spitting rage then you're not doing it right. Having Europe hate you must be the standard by which our greatest Presidents will be judged. If the pansy-@$$ frogs and krauts and stiff upper lip brits don't like him, he has to be doing it RIGHT!!

This Buds for you GWB! I know you wont drink it but I'll have it for you!

[loyalfandownunder]

Absolutely true and right. That's how I tackle it too. Offense, always. And they always back off. I have never lost one round. And I always give them some lessons too.

[BloodScarletMinnesota]

Wow! The depth of ignorance presumed upon the Right by their political/media 'betters'is astounding. And yet we conservatives still chuckle as we read their post-mortems. Why they lost is in plain sight. Because they don't or won't be grateful for what they have. And to be so ignorant of history and human nature. That the United States is the default Bad Guy. The left is supposed to be the sophisticated, the educated. They're not so much stupid, do not misunderestimate the opposition, but they are profoundly ignorant of history and street smarts. The left does reveal its sinister side when they hawk fraudulent Air Nat'l Guard documents during a hotly contested presidential campaign, when they say that the president addressed a crowd of the GOP faithful in West Allis, WI., to wish former president Bill Clinton well and a speedy recovery from heart surgery, and the AP reporter lied, saying the GOP partisans booed Bush! Despite the lies of the fraudcasters and their cheating, they've been dealt a soul searching blow. When they're done examining why they lost AGAIN, the SeeBS worms will still be trying to rehabilitate the image of Arafat... when is SeeBS going to do a non-fawning story on Kim Jong-Il and Jimmy Carter? For all of these reasons and more the Left lost big in '04! Thanks to the Internet their fraudmemes are being deconstructed as they spin 'em...

[Boiler Plate]

The best part was TRW seeing as they were implicated in a scandal to topple an Aussie PM (Falcon and the Snowman). I did in fact work for TRW and when I handed them my card you could see their color turn.

Are you living there now?

[noutopia]

Lived in a village called Bloxham when station in the UK at Upper Heyford between 86-89.Never had a problem.The Pub I went to very very often was as conservative as I was and they loved Americans and America! This bicth is a POS.

[loyalfandownunder]

No, in a more liberal country, New Zealand. I thought Aussies are usually pretty good, thought they are usually pro-American.

[Ginifer]

Actually it's not a lie. I was stationed in England for 3 years, lived off-base, and traveled all over England. The first thing I heard was "Yankee go home". I had the door slammed on me, was pushed around, people (young) calling us names and saying how ignorant Americans were,. What they don't say in the article is that this has been going on for years...I was stationed there in 1980 - 1984. Has nothing to do with the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan. Same thing was happening in Germany. There just Euroweenies who have their nose so far up in the air that they are catching bird crap.

[Moriartys Mycroft]

America didn't do to Bush
What England did to Churchill

[Mentos]

I was in London in September and everyone was very pleasant in spite of my American accent

But then of course they were all Pakis.

[SeaBiscuit]

"Sometimes, I Pretend I Am Canadian"

Get some guts and patriotism and stand up for your Country, if not, then don't pretend to be American either.

[BloodScarletMinnesota]

Thank God!

[TFine80]

I actually think that the UK has become more friendly to Americans since the 80's. As the EU has infringed more on their lives, the US looks better and better.

[Boiler Plate]

I thought Aussies are usually pretty good, thought they are usually pro-American.

Compared to the Kiwis they certainly are, but the Unions are pretty strong there and Aussies like to argue just for fun. I found the Kiwis to be much more like the British and the Aussies tended to be more American culturally. Most younger Aussies really wanted to come to America and I usually got a lot of questions about how life was here, from them.

[Texas Eagle]

Sometimes I pretend I'm a Canadian, too. Like when I make a stupid move in traffic. I'll roll down my window and say, "Sorry, eh! I'm a hoser from the Great White North."

[BloodScarletMinnesota]

Anti-Americanism is the default position of the European mindset. Why shouldn't it be? They don't have to fund their national defense because they still think they're not targets. The Europeans will suffer any and all indignities from terrorism, it's in their nature to succumb to that which is more aggressive... be it the United States in the 20th century, or their new fascist masters in the 21st... the Europeans are less than wothless in the GWOT. Once again, leave it to the United States to do the heavy lifting in defending Western Civilization from the depredations of Terrorism, barbarism, and voting for Democrats!