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Originally Posted by Bitsy  I wondered if you could provide an example of this phenomenon for me? (referring to pro socialist news) I lived in Europe for over 10 years and I have no idea what this slant could be. |
So you don't think that there is a subtle slant to providing data and statistics to how socialism is better than America's form of capitalism in Europe? You are kidding right? Hey if I paid 40% to 80% in taxes like most European countries I'd tune in to see how bad America is.
Some examples are:
1. Focus on comparing European high school education with US high school education and downplaying the US college graduates. Did you ever notice that most studies only compare high schools and not colleges? The US colleges are great and a large portion of Americans do attend college so should this be taken into consideration?
2. Focus on how few Americans have health care and playing down the quality of American health care. My German colleague pays the same for health care per month as I do. In addition to higher taxes he is also paying monthly for health care. But yet he tells me how bad the US healthcare is. He has some valid points but you can tell he's fed only the bad news.
3. A lot of attention in European news is on comparing their system to the US's however there is not as much talk about their high taxes that pay for that system. Are you prepared to work half the year and give the taxes to the gov't? You know if you'd like to mail the US gov't money I'm sure they'd accept it. I don't see the gov't managing anything properly myself.
4. Focus on the freedoms that the US has lost while ignoring the freedoms that we have. My German colleage tells me that Germany has more freedoms than the US now. Did you know that the German gov't even regulates what names you can give your child? If you want to call your child "Moon Beam" it would most likely be denied. I love Germany and its so well ran but at the expense of higher taxes, a larger gov't and more regulations. Yes they have free speech and yes their media is better than ours in my opinion but it does have a pro socialist slant to it.
5. Focusing on "Stupid American" videos. Where's the "Stupid French" videos? Believe me, there are un informed people all around the world.
In my experience educated Americans seem to know more about Canada, Mexico and Asian more than educated Europeans. Just because an educated and worldly European knows more about Italy and France doesn't make them any more international. Canada and Mexico are our neighbors and don't they constitute international countries? As for Americans not speaking other languages, I live in Florida where Spanish/English is common. Again, our neighbors speak mostly English and Spanish. I would say there are more Spanish speaking people in the US than in the UK. Do you agree? Does Spanish not constitute a second language?
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Originally Posted by Bitsy Also, which languages are you fluent in and on which European country's news are you observations based? |
I am not sure why this is important but I bet you'd assume that since I'm an American I speak no other languages. I happen to also speak, read and write Japanese. I speak a little of various other languages as well.
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Originally Posted by Bitsy I, for one, don't really like living in the U.S. I recently arrived here from abroad and I feel totally cut off from the world here. News here is all about America. If there isn't an American connection, it's not in the news. Even real American news isn't reported in this country. This is not where things are happening. Being here is like being in a bubble, far away and cut off from the rest of the world. Canada was less cut off from the rest of the world. |
I have a huge beef with the American news too. I think that the American news channels are far worse than the European or Asian ones. My point is only that the European news that I have seen have been very pro socialist and that they seem to revel in reading about how bad the American system is.
You feel like you are living in a bubble in the US? The US is a melting pot and maybe you could befriend someone from Cambodia, Brazil or Puerto Rico. Or do those countries not cut the mustard for you? Why don't you watch BBC and subscribe to the New York Times? You obviously have an internet connection so can't you obtain information about the world?
To me it sounds like you are buying into the Anti American rhetoric you obtained from abroad and you are only looking for the bad. If thats what you are looking for then thats what you'll find.
Let me also add that the US has 50 states and a very large land mass. You could drive 15 hours in every direction in most cases and still be in the US. If you are in the center of Europe you could be in a multitude of countries. Its not fair to compare. Secondly, the US is a young country that is a melting pot. Most second generation people only speak English and they merge into the US's pop culture. Now that you have the Euro, how much longer before Europe's culture and languages slowly eroded like they have been in the US.
In a five thousand years the world will most likely have one language and many races and languages will be forgotten. You might even say that the US is the start of that transition. Hey, maybe I hate the US too.
