A word about the U.S.A. and its citizens. - ACAPELLAS4u - Your #1 Resource for FREE Acapella Downloads

Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)

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October 17, 2007 at 2:32 am #543279

jefpeace
Participant

I’ve read what seems like dozens of posts where a derogatory comment was made about "Americans" or "Yanks" and I’d like to take a few minutes to comment on those.

In a number of them a moderator piped in with a warning, and for that those moderaters have my thanks.

Those of you who make such comments are basing your opinions based on what you’ve read in the papers, heard on the telly or heard from your friends and family … how many of those sources really know what they’re talking about? How many of those sources have lived in U.S. communities for most of their lives?

What you are doing is judging an entire country based on the actions of the loudest, most spoiled and greediest of us. I assure you, those loud, obnoxious, greedy pigs walking around with their sense of entitlement do NOT represent even a large portion of the population, let alone a majority.

I assure you the majority of us are quiet, unassuming, modest, friendly, helpful and non-confrontational people.

It breaks my heart and dampens my spirit to see people who love music being so bigoted … please stop.

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October 17, 2007 at 2:32 am #635329

jefpeace
Participant

I’ve read what seems like dozens of posts where a derogatory comment was made about "Americans" or "Yanks" and I’d like to take a few minutes to comment on those.

In a number of them a moderator piped in with a warning, and for that those moderaters have my thanks.

Those of you who make such comments are basing your opinions based on what you’ve read in the papers, heard on the telly or heard from your friends and family … how many of those sources really know what they’re talking about? How many of those sources have lived in U.S. communities for most of their lives?

What you are doing is judging an entire country based on the actions of the loudest, most spoiled and greediest of us. I assure you, those loud, obnoxious, greedy pigs walking around with their sense of entitlement do NOT represent even a large portion of the population, let alone a majority.

I assure you the majority of us are quiet, unassuming, modest, friendly, helpful and non-confrontational people.

It breaks my heart and dampens my spirit to see people who love music being so bigoted … please stop.

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October 17, 2007 at 4:40 am #635332

DJ Levant
Participant

A fantastic post!

jefpeace wrote:

What you are doing is judging an entire country based on the actions of the loudest, most spoiled and greediest of us. .

I could’nt agree more. I feel that in our society there is a problem with generalisations. And these generalisations tend to be focused on the negative. If someone does something stupid than the media usually caste’s that person into a group (ie their race, or background) giving it a bad name while those setting the example go overlooked and a groups name is tarnished. It’s much easier to ruin a reputation than it is build/fix one.

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October 17, 2007 at 7:00 am #635341

avalonandon
Participant

In most of what you say, I completely agree with you, and myself being an American by birth, ADORE my country and its people….mostly.

Although I dont like stereotyping, one must admit that some truth rings in some of these perceptions… ESPECIALLY when I log on here from time to time and see unbelievably rude comments made by americans like: "you arent from the US so you dont know what you are talking about. Rap originated in the US"…etc etc …towards someone who made absolutely NO derogatory or inflammatory statements.

Again, this is the exception, not the rule..BUT these kinds of things are far far more common among American posters (can I get some witnesses here?) and it "dampens MY spirit" when I know that, as you said, the vast majority of us are not like this.

Furthermore, add to this recent years of "cowboy politics" that most of the world looks upon as arrogant and aggressive…and you start to have some very powerful negative sentiments brewing or exacerbated.

And I have noticed that those sentiments are indeed tempered with just such insights as you have so rightly pointed out…that this is not the majority of the US population and Americans are , in general, good and caring people. Its just an unfortunate thing that those obnoxiously egotistical and selfish…often uneducated and isolated that represent the minority- are among the loudest and most easily heard worldwide.

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October 17, 2007 at 8:31 am #635345

Juggernaut
Participant

i’d like to say sorry if i’ve done any of the above.

But i’ll also say i live there as well as here so things are based on a first person experience (if you will). But as far as i can recall i’ve not said anything of a derogatory nature, other than america never had an empire

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October 18, 2007 at 3:51 pm #635441

jefpeace
Participant

Juggernaut – nope, you’re not guilty. Besides, I’m quite smitten by you, so you could do no wrong anyway.

avalonandon – anyone who feels compelled to flame is lacking in esteem and integrity … you’re correct that a lot of USians are this way and I understand that these idiots would give a bad impression … BUT … what I’m asking of people is to not take the actions of anyone to indicate how everyone from that given country, religion, race, etc. would act.

DJ Levant – "It’s much easier to ruin a reputation that it is to build/fix one." Absolutely. I hope our next President works very, very hard to undo the damage the imposter in the White House has done.

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October 22, 2007 at 12:47 am #635638

Def. Con. One
Participant

avalonandon wrote:

Again, this is the exception, not the rule..BUT these kinds of things are far far more common among American posters (can I get some witnesses here?) and it "dampens MY spirit" when I know that, as you said, the vast majority of us are not like this.

I think this is what you mean.

tropic786 wrote:

This site is full of s**t. im trying to upload acapellas and its telling me that it doesnt have enough bit rate,but when i check the file its higher than 192,(when uploading clearly shows file is higher than 192). I even converted the file to the highest bit rate possible and it still wont accept it. I think they jus want you to make donations instead of trading acapellas….greddy fuking Brits

thankfully the chips on the shoulders can get smaller as you get older

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October 22, 2007 at 1:08 am #635642

avalonandon
Participant

Yes! Exactly what Im referring to. Its sad.

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October 22, 2007 at 2:15 am #635648

Crusader808
Participant

avalonandon wrote:

ESPECIALLY when I log on here from time to time and see unbelievably rude comments made by americans like: "you arent from the US so you dont know what you are talking about. Rap originated in the US"…etc etc …towards someone who made absolutely NO derogatory or inflammatory statements.

[insert tongue in cheek] YOU MEAN IT DIDN’T?! [/remove tongue from cheek]

The thing a lot of people miss is when they themselves make the generalizations. Watch, I’ll make one now (ahem) "Everyone makes generalizations".

Stereotyping and generalizing is something that a lot of humans seem to do. Online communities sometimes can lower the level of discourse to where it shows up more often.

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October 23, 2007 at 9:16 pm #635759

omgitsteighlyr
Participant

I live in America, and I would love to get out sometimes. The corruption, pollution, and all the -tion problems are insane. However, on a typical day, I love being in a country of the free. But yeah, I’ll admit, our government is far from perfect. Then again, I probably couldn’t do any better of a job…

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October 24, 2007 at 3:53 pm #635798

jefpeace
Participant

Obviously, but it was my biggest problem at the moment.

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October 24, 2007 at 10:46 pm #635824

achead
Keymaster

I totally get what your saying. I happen to be 1 and can’t really move outside the US either before or after I attend college. Just kind of cut us some slack before you really trash us.

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October 25, 2007 at 12:27 am #635838

The Cutter
Participant

Interesting topic indeed. World politics aside a lot of what you see in regards to derogatory comments made on this site are made by children and usually not from mature adults. Of course this is based on my experiences moderating this site for over a year. So it does not always have to be associated with one country or another but the level of maturity of the people on this forum.

So if anyone is to be judged it should be the individual making such comments and not the society in which they are from.

I’m not even going to get into the overall political, social and economical aspects of the problems in the world. Every country has good and bad aspects related to their place in the world.

As far as America is concerned things could be better but there are many other places that have it worse. So anyone who is lucky enough to be sitting at their computer chatting in such a way as we do should be thankful for how good their lives really are.

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October 25, 2007 at 2:58 am #635844

jefpeace
Participant

Bravo!

Well said and I thank you for your post.

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October 31, 2007 at 3:07 pm #636256

gumdrop32
Participant

Basically J Peezy, most people rely on movies and novels that doesn’t have the educational quality for information on cultures rather than talking with someone who’d lived in a certain country and to understand their perspective rather than what the media make it as.

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November 1, 2007 at 12:49 am #636290

avalonandon
Participant

[quote quote="StarkZ The Phantom":8vmhk3fw]

im personally opposed to democracy, thats why i dont vote.. b/c how does it help to give a population of 60% idiots the right to vote?

…again i AM A AMERICAN[/quote:8vmhk3fw]

Ok wait….are you saying you’re an idiot? you dont vote cuz you’re an idiot? – or you’re one of the idiots that dont vote? Im confused. Or are you saying that so much of the population are idiots so why waste time?

Either way, this is ridiculous. It is EXACTLY this kind of thing that put a neanderthal like GW Bush in the most powerful office on the planet.

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November 1, 2007 at 2:20 am #636293

avalonandon
Participant

Well, considering that only 58.3 percent of those able to vote, actually voted….and that the "religious right" turned out in unprecedented numbers in the last two elections….I am led to the question – Who are the REAL idiots? Those who voted to put GW Bush in office – or those who didnt even show up in order to keep him out of it? hmmmmm?

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November 1, 2007 at 5:59 am #636297

Crusader808
Participant

avalonandon wrote:

Well, considering that only 58.3 percent of those able to vote, actually voted….and that the "religious right" turned out in unprecedented numbers in the last two elections….I am led to the question – Who are the REAL idiots? Those who voted to put GW Bush in office – or those who didnt even show up in order to keep him out of it? hmmmmm?

The worst part of that is that those who voted for him didn’t even get the things they wanted out of the deal.

Military voters – Screwed of benefits, sent into a conflict and not given clear direction, and then not given proper medical care. Wilbur Tango Foxtrot?

Religious Right – No federal morality legislation (note – federal, the states pulled crap with marriage amendments…crap that will hopefully be going away soon)

Rural/Farmers – Screwed in farm subsidies cuts

Want to talk naive? His base, for the most part, got screwed in his first term then they voted for him again! Fool me once….

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November 1, 2007 at 3:45 pm #636317

jefpeace
Participant

Well, we’re in agreement then … the imposter in the White House is an idiot, if a dangerous one.

What we don’t seem to agree on is who put him in the White House. He stole the first election and bought the second one.

THE PEOPLE did NOT put him in the White House, he LOST the popular elections.

As avalonandanon pointed out, less than 60% of the registered voters actually voted. Even if he had won the popular election, the only way he could be said to have been put in office by THE PEOPLE would be if he had taken 95% of the votes from those who did turn out … ah, why bother. I’m either preaching to the saved or trying to change the minds of folks who don’t have minds to change in this instance. *g*

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November 5, 2007 at 1:20 pm #636489

eikcamlloyd
Participant

[quote quote="jefpeace":1goktln7]Well, we’re in agreement then … the imposter in the White House is an idiot, if a dangerous one.

What we don’t seem to agree on is who put him in the White House. He stole the first election and bought the second one.

THE PEOPLE did NOT put him in the White House, he LOST the popular elections.

As avalonandanon pointed out, less than 60% of the registered voters actually voted. Even if he had won the popular election, the only way he could be said to have been put in office by THE PEOPLE would be if he had taken 95% of the votes from those who did turn out … ah, why bother. I’m either preaching to the saved or trying to change the minds of folks who don’t have minds to change in this instance. *g*[/quote:1goktln7]

Got to agree with you there..it seem to me that evil on this planet always represent power and as civillians who are manipulated by these people we tend to hate or judge others unless you stick to your believes you end up like them…

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November 5, 2007 at 2:38 pm #636498

jefpeace
Participant

gumdrop32 wrote:

Basically J Peezy, most people rely on movies and novels that doesn’t have the educational quality for information on cultures rather than talking with someone who’d lived in a certain country and to understand their perspective rather than what the media make it as.

J Peezy … love it! I think I’ll use that … DJ Peezy … yeah, I like the way it rolls off the tongue.

Anyway, you’re absolutely correct and thanks for your post. I make it a point to ‘chat’ with folks from all around the world and compare notes on the similarities and differences in our cultures. I’m simply fascinated by the most mundane of things … for example, what we call "soccer" is called "football" in nearly every other country. We’re the only country that hasn’t adopted the metric system that I know of. Little things like that absolutely fascinate me.

Yeah, and I have a habit of going on and on about virtually nothing.

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November 9, 2007 at 3:19 pm #636851

gumdrop32
Participant

No problem JP, just some old Snoop Dogg lingo from his first album. What really makes the world go in circles JP by understanding people and their cultures, etc. Soccer’s not that bad but just have to get used to it.

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November 12, 2007 at 3:03 pm #636987

gumdrop32
Participant

RL, I agree with you on that topic and I’m also an American.

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