How to be an American.

[Mole]

It's condescending.

I condescend.

I put you in your place.

Any cliche will do.

 

[Qlip]

I condescend. I stoop to conquer.

I put you in your place.

Any cliche will do.

America already attempted to put me in my place, and I've found purchase in it. There are a lot of us. Like I said, if I wanted to know about Australia, I'd ask an Aborigine. And I imagine his feeling on his country would be similar to mine, I love where I live, but it hasn't always treated me well.

 

[garbage]

Americans, what with their big fat American burgers and guns and diabetus and borderline xenophobic national pride

 

[Showbread]

The problem you are ignoring is that there are many different ways to be an American. Without actually experiencing a country you have no way of picking up on the cultural differences from region to region. With a country as large as America, there are many of them. The culture in the Pacific Northwest is completely different than Southern CA, which is so far from that of the South, or the MidWest, or the New England Area. In so many ways they are practically different countries.

The culture you pick up from media, regardless of the extent of your prestigious research or whatever it is you've been going on about, only scratches the surface of the different cultures here.

 

[Mole]

The problem you are ignoring is that there are many different ways to be an American. Without actually experiencing a country you have no way of picking up on the cultural differences from region to region. With a country as large as America, there are many of them. The culture in the Pacific Northwest is completely different than Southern CA, which is so far from that of the South, or the MidWest, or the New England Area. In so many ways they are practically different countries.

The culture you pick up from media, regardless of the extent of your prestigious research or whatever it is you've been going on about, only scratches the surface of the different cultures here.

Of course, how could I possibly tell you how to be an American? It's absurd.

The above title How to be an American is absurd.

 

[prplchknz]

The problem you are ignoring is that there are many different ways to be an American. Without actually experiencing a country you have no way of picking up on the cultural differences from region to region. With a country as large as America, there are many of them. The culture in the Pacific Northwest is completely different than Southern CA, which is so far from that of the South, or the MidWest, or the New England Area. In so many ways they are practically different countries.

The culture you pick up from media, regardless of the extent of your prestigious research or whatever it is you've been going on about, only scratches the surface of the different cultures here.

yes, I was obsessed with slavery and personal experiences of being a slave, but I could never tell anyone what it's like to be a slave, because I have never been enslaved

 

[Mole]

yes, I was obsessed with slavery and personal experiences of being a slave, but I could never tell anyone what it's like to be a slave, because I have never been enslaved

If that were true, we would have no novels, for novelists imagine what it is to be like someone they have never been.

So we can imagine what it is like to be an American as so many novelists have already done.

Or you can be an American and watch Downton Abbey and imagine what it is like to be condescending.

 

[WhoCares]

Luckily you don't know the depth of our Intelligence.

I do. Australian intelligence is an oxymoron. Someone's been drinking the kool aid...

 

[Showbread]

Of course, how could I possibly tell you how to be an American? It's absurd.

The above title How to be an American is absurd.

Hey... That's my point. You can't steal it.

 

[Mole]

Then this shows your misunderstanding of the Japanese. That's Japanese-english for No chance in hell.

C'mon, I held the Japan Desk for the Australian Government for three years. And I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Japanese nationals in Australia.

And of course we precisely understood each other. He knew I was putting him on, and I knew he made a witty but polite Japanese reply.

 

[Mole]

Hey... That's my point. You can't steal it.

Too late, I've already stolen it.

 

[Mole]

I do. Australian intelligence is an oxymoron. Someone's been drinking the kool aid...

Actually we have suprisingly good Intelligence, but is really no surprise because we generously fund our Intelligence Agencies, we share the Intelligence of Britain, the USA, Canada, New Zealand. We monitor all the phone, radio and internet traffic in Australia and Asia. And we have been able to arrest all Islamic extremists before they committed mass murder in Australia and bring them before our Criminal Courts.

And at the same time we have been able to maintain our traditional freedoms. So far, so good.

 

[WhoCares]

Note to self - don't edit ignore lists, you were right the first time.

 

[prplchknz]

If that were true, we would have no novels, for novelists imagine what it is to be like someone they have never been.

So we can imagine what it is like to be an American as so many novelists have already done.

Or you can be an American and watch Downton Abbey and imagine what it is like to be condescending.

You can imagine, but you can never actually be. and anyone can be condescending so that's comparing apples to oranges

 

[Mole]

You can imagine, but you can never actually be.

This is true. And I can never be you, however we are inter-subjective animals and I can imagine what it is like to be you.

And we respond to our imagination almost the same as we respond to reality.

 

[Cygnus]

We can't ride kangaroos and barbecue shrimp, so we have to settle for this. We have things called cities here and can't just get by through stealing other people's sheep or whatever you guys do.

Anyway, haters are annoying.

I sensed no derision in his post, Founder.

 

[Jaq]

Guaranteed, but not an enforced guarantee.

 

[Cygnus]

Antarctica! Antarctica!
The South Pole over all!
The Nephilim shall perish,
The northern swine shall fall.
Ye children of the ice land,
Let this your war cry be,
Take sword unto the condemned,
We'll reign eternally

(I fantasize about a brutal Antarctican republic filled with cannibals and I thought, what the hell, this is a post about countries and stuff.)

 

[Mole]

A Little Pirouette

Antarctica! Antarctica!
The South Pole over all!
The Nephilim shall perish,
The northern swine shall fall.
Ye children of the ice land,
Let this your war cry be,
Take sword unto the condemned,
We'll reign eternally

(I fantasize about a brutal Antarctican republic filled with cannibals and I thought, what the hell, this is a post about countries and stuff.)

The reality is that the Antarctic Treaty is the largest and most successful land treaty in the world.

And how cunning we were. We claim half of the Continent of Antarctica, as big again as the Continent of Australia. And indeed Australian Subjects in Australian Antarctica vote in my electorate of Canberra.

But we find it stretches our resources to defend one Continent, never mind defending another half of another Continent. So we said, why defend it, why don't we turn Antarctica in a National Park.

So we approached the nations of the world, to persuade them to save Antarctica for future generations. But of course we needed the American Aircraft Carrier Fleets to defend Antarctica.

And guess what! The Americans signed a Land Treaty with us and put a base right in the middle of Antarctica at the South Pole.

And so Antarctica turns and turns around the South Pole, a little pirouette, once every day.

 

[Cygnus]

The reality is that the Antarctic Treaty is the largest and most successful land treaty in the world.

And how cunning we were. We claim half of the Continent of Antarctica, as big again as the Continent of Australia. And indeed Australian Subjects in Australian Antarctica vote in my electorate of Canberra.

But we find it stretches our resources to defend one Continent, never mind defending another half of another Continent. So we said, why defend it, why don't we turn Antarctica in a National Park.

So we approached the nations of the world, to persuade them to save Antarctica for future generations. But of course we needed the American Aircraft Carrier Fleets to defend Antarctica.

And guess what! The Americans signed a Land Treaty with us and put a base right in the middle of Antartica at the South Pole.

And so Antartica turns and turns around the South Pole, a little pirouette, once every day.

Eh...I was just screwing around. Thas all