America

Okay, so this is coming from some discussions that I have been having at school.

Why other countries hate America:

I get it, Americans are pretty loud and obnoxious people. When we go to other countries we act like we own the place and as rude as can be. I don't even have to go to another country to see rude Ameicans, I can see that here. I'm not going to deny that I'm never loud or obnoxious, because I am. The loud thing was how I was brought up and if I wanted to be heard, I had to yell.

But that's beside the point.

So besides loud, obnoxious and rude, Americans seem to have a poor view of the world. We don't seem to be up to date on events taking place in other countries besides our own. As my teacher was saying, who is from Ireland, "The news doesn't tell you about it, if it doesn't directly affect you." So basically, the American people are left in the dark about other countries.

My teacher says that we seem selfish because we don't seem to care about the rest of the world. It isn't as if the American people are setting out to ignore the problems of the world. It is just that they are not even made aware that they are going on. They can't control the fact that they aren't being informed.

But there is another side to that. If we really care about the world as a human community, we could always do our own reseach. We could culture ourselves about the world and it's issues.

That then ties right into the American media.

Some people believe that it is easy to blame the American media for our lack of knowledge. It is their fault that my news doesn't supply me with world news. It is their fault that they supply the rest of the world with garbage televison, from which other countries' people learn about us.

It isn't that easy though. It is the media's job to sell television. People are not going to watch their news channels if they are told mostly about things happening hundreds of thousands of miles away and nothing about the goings on in their own city. People want to feel the connection to the news, that is what keeps them watching.

As for the exporting of garbage T.V. to the rest of the world, that is also their job. They are selling the programs and the movies and it isn't their fault that the highest selling things happen to be things that show Americans as rich lazy people. They aren't going to push things that don't sell and bore people because that is just bad business and stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the way that Americans act. It's embarrassing and it really needs to change in order to be taken seriously. All I'm sayin is that if you are going to make generalizations, at least try and figure out why things are they way they are. And try not to generalize because you're still going to be wrong in most cases.