Australia and The States

[skramamme]

Okay, for non-Aussies on my f-list. We have a sense of humour that often involves hanging shit on others. The New Zealanders do it to us, we do it right back and yes, we like to hang shit on America (as in the US) but christ, it's tongue in cheek

Comments

[suitablyemoname]

It's a funny world when Australians (quite credibly) feel that their armed forces are more beholden to the Americans than Canadians do. I mean, considering NAFTA and the world's largest undefended land border and shared heritage yada yada yada you'd think our military apparatus would be joined at the hip, but nooooo.

I suppose it might be public pressure. Because of those economic and cutural links, Canadians have to fight harder than anyone else to not subsume into American culture, so we tend to get super-prickly about these things.

[jumpinggene]

Anybody who knows you a little more than 5 seconds should realise you function on a strictly "no-bull" principle. What you say is your honest opinion, and not a full-frontal attack (unless it IS and then that's pretty obvious too).

Seriously.

[cooperwench]

Wow, jesus, who DIDN'T think that was funny?!

[king_josie]

Agreed with jumpinggene and cooperwench

and LOL it was hilarious.

[skramamme]

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing. I really offended someone on my f-list and didn't mean to at all. I was just saying that in reality most of the world dislikes the States, but not individuals. I went on to explain an Australian term that is sometimes used to refer to yanks- sepo (septic tank=yanks=sepo... Americans=shit) i mean, it's a piss take. She got pissed off and said I was basically calling her a piece of shit, the some of her friends jumped in also and implied I can't think for myself after explaining that the attitude is part of our cultural bias (like there's no examples of that by people from other countries right?)... :(
We have a habit of taking the piss, it's a very Australian thing, but apparently I hate all Americans and so on. Yeah, I removed her from my f-list as I don't want to piss her off accidently or cause drama, but I'm pretty upset by the whole thing tbqh.

[spiltmemory]

that sucks man. sorry about that.

[kitten_wrangler]

Oh - I sympathise with you, I really do. I'm currently engaged in a headbashing debate over on Craftster about why it's ethnocentric to have a board entitled "Winter Holiday Crafts" to cover Christmas, Hanukkah, etc etc.

I'm this >-< close to posting this media release I found about attitudes towards the US:

http://sydney.edu.au/us-studies/media/07/071210_NationalOpinionSurvey_MediaRelease.pdf
"Invited to nominate, in their own words, something they ‘liked’ about the US, respondents mentioned things to do with the American people and culture (35%) or the countryside and the sights (21%), followed by various aspects of popular culture (17%). Their ‘dislikes’ focussed on the people and their culture (53%), political values and institutions (50%), and economic values and institutions (11%)."

[flyslip]

ALL OF THIS. YES.

And I speak as someone who married two of them. (The first didn't "get" the Aussie sense of humour either; the second was sweet enough to fly halfway across the world and uproot himself to be with me... so, three years later, I returned the favour.)