rudieboy77
Member
Ah don't mind them they're just jealous.
Why do Canadians look down on Americans?
- Thread starter CurseoftheGods
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LOL you should try calling a Canadian "American" and see how receptive they are of the idea. Only South American, non-English speaking countries get angry about us using the demonym to describe our nationality.
I'm American and I don't watch Game of Thrones, have an iPhone or the latest Lady Gaga record.
I'm sure they know Coca Cola and Mickey Mouse.
The post you're quoting that was a response to Dali? Not much besides my wanting to respond to Dali's comments. The original post that was addressed to the OP was the on topic one.
Well yeah because Canadians and most of the world knows that the word is meant to refer to the US vs North and South America.
rudieboy77
Member
No he was selected by the courts once, and won with uncertainty in Ohio in 04.
Other countries stupid leaders don't have enough power to show the world how dumb they are unless they team up with America, aka Tony Blair.
Hey, very nice and well reasoned post! Though I would point out that Canada is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. There are something like 200 countries in the world at the moment (give or take), and Canada is in the top 20 for ethnic diversity, placing it in the 90th percentile or top 10 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-most-and-least-ethnically-diverse-countries/
That map is kinda bullshit and heavily weighted by tribalism. You can take it as gospel if you want, but any study that says Central Africa is more diverse than the Americas is nuts.
Defenestrated Donut
Neo Member
Yeah, people don't usually think of Uganda when they are thinking of ethnic diversity.
WayneMorse
Banned
Yeah and you've had Harper as PM for the past seven years so go fuck yourself.
rudieboy77
Member
Yup. Canada is 90% white, but people are less likely to identify as plain old White Canadian.
This one is more representative.
Who made this determination that it isn't correct? Random guy that refuses to accept widely agreed upon nomenclature? And how is it not useful socially when everyone... As in society... understands and accepts its meaning?
Then it's not just US citizen calling themselves it, but nearly everybody else on the planet. No matter how you paint it, the vast majority of Canadians couldn't give less of a shit if Americans and everybody else uses the word to describe the country's people.
That's because most Canadians retain their cultural heritage over here. For instance, Canada has the largest Ukrainian population outside of Ukraine... And perogies are as Canadian now as Maple syrup.
In the prairies at least.
What sources would you prefer I use? Wikipedia ranks Canada as more diverse, in a 2012 report by forbes, Canada was ranked 8th in terms of workforce diversity, again above the United States. I do not believe that reports which factor tribalism are inherently invalid.
http://images.forbes.com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/global_diversity_rankings_2012.pdf
DJ_Lae
Member
God bless the Ukranians for that. Perogies are awesome.
Oh yeah and this... (I know its only Toronto)
He amounts to a single vote in council...and we completely gimped his power when we were unable to remove him from office.
If he gets re-elected, then you might have something of a legitimate comparison... Only difference is I don't think he would have ever been electable at the federal level. No way a major Canadian political party (including the cons) would back a guy like him, and even if they did, he'd likely lose the election.
And they don't in the US? I wonder if some people who say stuff like this have ever been to an American city.
Pierogi are Polish.
If you don't understand why that sentence is creepy, it would be hard to explain it to you. Attributing an individuals quality of life to government bureaucrats is something, I think, that makes sense in North Korea, or Cuba, but shouldn't make sense in free western democracies. What happened to the views of the enlightenment thinkers that government was a necessary evil, that is was a lamentable thing that we needed to government at all? What I hear from a lot of you is a love of government, something that I don't think you realize is fairly unprecedented in the history of the world, and kind of alarming given the tendency of government towards tyranny.
I would suggest that you use more up to date data.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-010-x/99-010-x2011001-eng.cfm
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Canada's population is 86% non-hispanic white. The USAs population is 63% non-hispanic white. Percentages of minority populations are larger in the US than Canada with perhaps one or two exceptions, but generally it's almost twice as diverse as canada. So yes, Canada has a diverse racial representation, but that representation makes up a very small percentage of the overall population compared to the US.
rudieboy77
Member
Well I didnt mean 'hate' in the emotional sense. I mean you wont see someone mention theyre canadian except to point out the difference in being american. Like 'You see what theyre doing down there? thank god Im canadian.'
Apart from that the only time I see canadian patriotism is during hockey games...
Night Hunter
Banned
sorry, but smh
Multinationals and private armies happened, for example. I'd much rather be a subject to the state than an object to the market. Not that that actually means something today.
MrCunningham
Member
This chart seems kind of odd to me, especially when first nations (aboriginals) make up about 4.3% of the overall Canadian population that seem to be absent from this chart.
In the town I currently reside in, natives make up roughly 20% of the overall population.
Now this chart looks a lot more accurate.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Another thing I like to do is compare Canada to California because they have about the same population sizes. In that light Canada's ethnic diversity is downright pathetic.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
It seems weird to me that Israel doesn't have Starbucks.
It's not so weird but more hilarious that Italy doesn't.
Hey, very nice and well reasoned post! Though I would point out that Canada is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. There are something like 200 countries in the world at the moment (give or take), and Canada is in the top 20 for ethnic diversity, placing it in the 90th percentile or top 10 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-most-and-least-ethnically-diverse-countries/
Isn't that somewhat skewed by the fact that most of your minorities live out in the middle of nowhere or am I wrong about that? Also do the Quebecois identify as a minority?
And the term "ethnic" could mean something other than "racial" so Canada might not be as racially diverse as the US.
Which sort of steers us back to a lot of the issues in the US... We're still dealing with major issues due to impoverished minorities that lead to a lot of gun violence, illiteracy, etc. in addition to a major drug war with our neighbors to the south. It's a huge can of worms to deal with but I'm not sure if Canada historically went through a lot of the same things that the US did to get where we are today.
Let's double back for a minute because Konka made a good point. This isn't on topic and we're going into PM territory.
Like I told you previously, I'm not on a crusade or even trying to persuade anyone here from using the word America to describe the United States. I responded to the OP's question of why Canadians look down on "Americans" by bringing up a personal pet peeve of mine with our usage of a term that is used to describe one country that should be used to describe multiple countries in North and South America. Using the term that way would be more "inclusive", or acknowledging the US's neighboring countries in a positive way and would just be a healthier attitude socially. More actions like this, vs political campaigns against illegal immigrants, etc... would change a lot of countries negative attitudes of the US.
No one is trying to change the world with a GAF post. Hell no one here is trying to change how some/many Canadians feel about the US. All we're having is a discussion and I posted my opinion. No need to put that much thought into this.
Maybe if Americans werent so 'fuck yeah' people wouldnt give a shit but it's always "America is da best, we lead the way" when your social programs, education system, crime rate, justice system, everything is fucking broken. But the worse it gets the louder you scream about how great you are. Of course people are going to look down on the states then.
Those thinkers inspired weighty systems of checks and balances that control human ambition and limit the scope of Government. In the twentieth century in particular, we've become docile in comparison to the time in which these thinkers were writing. I'm not trying to discredit their opinions by pointing out the changing of the times, but there's an extent to which certain political "liberties" no longer serve the same function that they once did. Legitimate fear of western-style representative democracies in this day and age is bordering on irrational (and in the worst cases, fanatical).
For example, the fact that fear of Government is used for the justification of lax gun control is profoundly dumb. The net result is that regardless of the second amendment (or Canada's stricter gun laws), neither Government is going to "turn on its citizens". The tendency towards tyranny, in my view, is an antiquity a this point. It's paranoia in a modern context. Let's try getting something through congress without substantial gridlock before we start worrying about the President "crushing" his own people through violent force.
All guns accomplish, in practice rather than in philosophical principle, is to facilitate gun violence carried out between citizens. I know its just one example, but it's an important one. I think it would facilitate a lot of interesting debate amongst the old enlightened thinkers if they could offer us their opinions today.
Edit:
I guess what I'm saying is that "love for Government", or at least a "more favourable attitude" is unprecedented, like you said. At the same time, I see this as a privilege. We have a lot more to gain and a lot less to fear from joining together in collective governance than ever before. That means that the principles of freedom and liberty are working. At the same time, while these principles are in broad strokes "absolute", we shouldn't see them as incapable of evolving or changing. Otherwise, they'll just become dead sets of dogma. Beliefs that are held fanatically without question, justifying polices that have horrible and irrational consequences.
Is French considered a visible minority in Canada?
All Americans do this. All Americans are the same. All 318 million.
Why so much aggression?
Can you give me just one example of a private military corporation, or even a multinational doing anything on the scale of the Holocaust, or Mao's cultural revolution? I think a topic on how videogames propagandize and teach gamers to hate private corporations more than government tyranny is probably in order. There aren't actually any Rainbow Corporation's, or Outer Haven's in the real world, they're fiction invented from a left-wing fantasy. Government tyranny, that stuff is actually real, is currently killing thousands people, and is found in every single hemisphere. People talk a lot about the prison in Guantanamo Bay while ignoring that the rest of the island is a totalitarian prison state, and has been for over 50 years.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
I've only heard very few people in America say this and when they do they get shouted down. Most Americans understand the multiple flaws that this country has. Don't get your opinions of citizens from the internet, because that's exactly what your post sounds like.
I think it's pretty naive to assume that we're past tyranny when WWII was just 70 years ago which is pretty minuscule in the scope of human civilization.
And you know what Sushi and vodka is, doesn't mean your culture is significantly influenced by those items.
Edit: looks like you even know what pierogis are.
Buba Big Guns
Banned
Toronto and Vancouver are two of the most ethnically/racially diverse cities in the world. Then you have other cities like Ottawa/Montreal/Calgary with huge immigrant/minority populations too.
...Did I even say that? I suggested that in massive western style representative democracies, with constitutions guaranteeing separation of powers, liberty, and freedom, tyranny is substantially less likely now than it ever has been. That's one of the great values of the system. Let me know next time we elect a Hitler to the executive office in a country like Canada, the United States, or the UK.
MrCunningham
Member
They're considered traitorous separatists..
No, I'm joking. I actually have no idea.
I have never met a French Canadian person outside of visiting Quebec.
Bullshit, popular opinion says we like 'Murica. I may not think its the greatest place, but hey its better than China. :lol
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada 2013 said:
Tonnes of French Canadian street kids on the streets of Vancouver, climates better here.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Calling french canadians a minority is like calling louisiana cajuns a minority.
IMHO it stems from interactions with Americans. You hear this all the time from both sides, when Americans come up to Canada they're puzzled why everyone is so nice, and when Canadians go to different places in America there is seemingly less casual social interaction and people are more standoffish.
I'm Canadian and it's the one consistent thread in differences I hear from people's accounts. It's not that extreme of a difference now as it has been in the past though. When I went to Detroit I got looked at weird for holding the door open for someone who was walking a few paces behind me. That was an eye opening experience.
And yeah, like someone said on the first page, as a Canadian who is bombarded with American media all the time, you quickly lose any motivation for wanting to live in American when you realize the things you'd gain (better Amazon product selection) probably won't make up for the stuff you take for granted (healthcare).
I'm Canadian and it's the one consistent thread in differences I hear from people's accounts. It's not that extreme of a difference now as it has been in the past though. When I went to Detroit I got looked at weird for holding the door open for someone who was walking a few paces behind me. That was an eye opening experience.
And yeah, like someone said on the first page, as a Canadian who is bombarded with American media all the time, you quickly lose any motivation for wanting to live in American when you realize the things you'd gain (better Amazon product selection) probably won't make up for the stuff you take for granted (healthcare).
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