Invitation To Americans To Find Fault With The British.. (page 14)

dubla

six-

Face the criticism, own it, and where it is accurate, fix it.

where would that be exactly? most of the criticism is leveled on our politicians (obviously not us personally)....so what can one do to "fix it", other than vote? write to our senators?

as far as other "criticisms" go, i was talking of emans criticism of "american unwillingness" to travel. you see, thats a gross generalization, not a helpful criticism.....to "fix it", i suppose i could travel abroad, which i have already done, and will continue to do so. how else should i "own it" as you say? your logic seems to be off base here.

aa

Englishman

as far as other "criticisms" go, i was talking of emans criticism of "american unwillingness" to travel. you see, thats a gross generalization, not a helpful criticism.....to "fix it

Dubla,

No offence intended. I remember someone saying here that only 17% of Americans held passports, now I'm reading one of Michael Moore's books and he says it's 5%.

Englishman.

Crazy151drinker

Maybe the U.S. and Britian should team up and invade France? That would heal the rifts.....

dubla

eman-

Dubla,
No offence intended. I remember someone saying here that only 17% of Americans held passports, now I'm reading one of Michael Moore's books and he says it's 5%.

i dont know the accurate statstics on passports in the u.s., but it would make sense logistically that the u.k. percentage would be much, much higher. traveling from country to country here isnt as easy or inexpensive as just hopping on a train. the fact is, we can travel quite extensively (read: an entire lifetime) without leaving the country, which isnt necessarily true of you. i can get in my car today and drive south for 6 hours, and never even leave my state. throw in the fact that the countries we can travel to by land dont require a passport, and i would definitely guess the percentage of passport owners would be quite a bit lower than yours. now, to compare the percentage of british who travel overseas to the percentage of americans who travel overseas would be a bit more difficult......im sure there are no accurate statistics on that.

bottom line on the travel issue anyhow, is that you claimed the reason your countrymen have such an obsession with the shortcomings of others is due to your increased travel.......and back to my response, i hope that no matter how much i travel in my lifetime, i never get obsessed with such fruitless endeavors.......so as far as the "who travels more" issue, no offense taken at all.

aa

Englishman

Hey!

Just had an amazing insight!

Now. I'm sure that there are more anti-American posts popping up on this board than ever happens in real life. I mean, the Brits basically love the Yanks, if they can get them to stop waving the Stars & Stripes around for 5 minutes.

Is it possible that: British ex's mentally associate American with the WTBTS?

You know, we all read Watchtowers with funny spelling, saw NK Knorr doing his bit with the painted tie and frameless specs, listened to Fred Franz waxing about 1975 and crushing testicles, I mean, as dubs we were Americanned to death!

Maybe that's why our Simon gets so hot under the collar about America?

Englishman.

undercover

I haven't read every post on this long thread, but here's my input:

I have always admired and liked the British. I went on a whirlwind tour of England, Scotland and Ireland. I loved London. Great city. It was exciting to see so many historical places that are centuries older than our entire nation. The people were friendly and nice, but a little stuffy. The Scots were by far the friendliest. The Irish were nice once they decided to trust us.

I could list the faults of the British along with a lot of other nationalities, but who am I to critisize another? I'm an American. While I'm proud to be American, I don't think I have any room to find fault with any other nationality knowing that I and my countrymen have so many faults ourselves.

I did notice this quote below and just had to say something:

That's because we travel abroad much more than the Americans do.

That's because you live on a freaking island. To visit anywhere you have to go abroad.

Englishman

That's because you live on a freaking island. To visit anywhere you have to go abroad.

Well, yeah!

Englishman.

Big Tex

Is it possible that: British ex's mentally associate American with the WTBTS?

Now that's interesting. I'd never thought of that. Funny how different a situation can look when it's turned around.

So do xJWs (and active JWs for that matter) in England and Europe feel it is an American religion? I wonder if European Baptists or Mormons feel that way. Do American Catholics feel it is an Italian religion?

Just asking. Very interesting.

Chris

franklin J

Mike, could you not think of a better topic?

Some of our best friends here in North America are British subjects. They left the UK 15 years ago to find employment here in the USA, and became so enormously wealthy that he just traded his Bristish passport for an American one. It all has to do with taxation of the (American) fortune, and his wife and daughters inheritance. They have told us that they left the UK mainly because she was from a very aristocratic family; and he was from the "wrong side" of London. Something to do with class distinctions and not being accepted.

His biotech company here in New York went public and he became a millionaire overnight. His picture is always in the local papers as the new " leader of the tech stocks" l Pity we did not buy the company stocks when they were pennies.

Anyway, they visit the UK every year and seem to be very much at home in the USA. His wife still cannot part with her British passport, and their three daughter were all born in the USA and have dual citizenship. He has a definitive "cockney" accent, and his wifes speaks the "Kings English"; daughters have a crisp North American accent.

They are staunch Royal supporters ( we get all the monarchy dirt from them).

hillary_step

"England is the paradise of individuality, eccentrics, heresy, anomalies, hobbies and humor" - George Santayana, Sololiquies in English

Obviously written by a man who has never been to Ireland.

HS

Invitation To Americans To Find Fault With The British..

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