Hate North Americans?

[ssr]

@pericles:

"I believe in the USA there is much more antagonism to others from south of the border than here especially the immigrants from Central America... What Argentines value most are good manners and well dressed people and if you look European they will like you. I suggest though you do not eat on the streets walking as they consider this vulgar."

So ridiculous. No one, please no one, try to ever look "European." Except for pericles. You go euro-crazy, champ. Everyone else, particularly Americans, you feel free to eat wherever you want and if you happen to have a free hand while you're eating use it to beat a Central American immigrant.

@Miles Lewis

"Hey Argentines, leave hating the North Americans to the English please, we have the most reason. They exported their culture, politics and business ethics to us and we bought the whole shooting match. Now the UK is a miserable, aspirational, celebrity obsessed culture almost completely devoid of the buzz you find everywhere in BA."

Now that's the way to make friends down here in Argentina: blame the US for everything that's wrong with your own country. They eat that sort of thing up down here. In fact, a nice way to spend an afternoon with your new Argentine friends is to discuss all of the evils of that devil-country to the north while waiting on that long-ass line at the Alto Palermo Starbucks for a mocha.

 

[gouchobob]

This is a way to insure instant dislike, and a true story after I'd had a few. I was with friends two Brits and two Argies. I noticed that the Argentines were drinking scotch and the Brits were drinking Argentine wine. I made a comment that it odd that they were drinking what they were especially when we were at the time in Milvinas just north of B.A. Needless to say I offended everyone.

 

[sergio]

Nikad, there is some truth in the stereotypes you cite: overweight, very 'nationalist' (Americans call this 'patriotism' and we think it is a virtue, at least when not abused)... I'm not sure about drunk. I've seen that in Cancun among college kids but not too much here but I don't go to pubs so maybe I just don't see it. There is one thing that Argentines don't get, however, and that is that the US is such a wealthy and democratic country that virtually ANYONE can save up and take a cruise around South America, or come here for a visit. A couple of years ago I showed an American friend around BA. He is an African-American who grew up in a very humble home, never went beyond high school, and worked for many years in a factory. His company paid him a good pension and he is now living very comfortably on that and Social Security. He is a self-educated man who wants to explore the world and is doing just that on a retirement income that no factory worker could ever dream of in Argentina. There are a lot of blue collar workers in the US who have retired with savings, good homes, pensions and generous Social Security (and please don't start preaching to me about the crisis and how everyone is living in the gutter. Yes, it's not as good as it was a year or two ago but American retirees are still the envy of the world's retired people). In countries like Argentina it's mostly the upper class who can afford to travel. They are generally educated, often professional and so they make a better impression. Few working class people here could ever dream about traveling to the US or Europe, of taking cruises or of indulging in luxuries that a huge sector of the American middle class take for granted. The well-dressed Americans who have graduated from good universities and have high incomes don't get the same attention as the overweight retired construction worker getting off of a fancy Holland America cruise in Buenos Aires. That's the reality and it's a pity that there is so much SNOBBERY here and that more Argentines just can't see the reality.

 

[nikad]

Nikad, there is some truth in the stereotypes you cite: overweight, very 'nationalist' (Americans call this 'patriotism' and we think it is a virtue, at least when not abused)... I'm not sure about drunk. I've seen that in Cancun among college kids but not too much here but I don't go to pubs so maybe I just don't see it. There is one thing that Argentines don't get, however, and that is that the US is such a wealthy and democratic country that virtually ANYONE can save up and take a cruise around South America, or come here for a visit. A couple of years ago I showed an American friend around BA. He is an African-American who grew up in a very humble home, never went beyond high school, and worked for many years in a factory. His company paid him a good pension and he is now living very comfortably on that and Social Security. He is a self-educated man who wants to explore the world and is doing just that on a retirement income that no factory worker could ever dream of in Argentina. There are a lot of blue collar workers in the US who have retired with savings, good homes, pensions and generous Social Security (and please don't start preaching to me about the crisis and how everyone is living in the gutter. Yes, it's not as good as it was a year or two ago but American retirees are still the envy of the world's retired people). In countries like Argentina it's mostly the upper class who can afford to travel. They are generally educated, often professional and so they make a better impression. Few working class people here could ever dream about traveling to the US or Europe, of taking cruises or of indulging in luxuries that a huge sector of the American middle class take for granted. The well-dressed Americans who have graduated from good universities and have high incomes don't get the same attention as the overweight retired construction worker getting off of a fancy Holland America cruise in Buenos Aires. That's the reality and it's a pity that there is so much SNOBBERY here and that more Argentines just can't see the reality.

Sergio, I agree with most of what you just wrote. I know how different the situation of an average worker is here and in the US,despite the crisis, that is why I think a lot of people are jealous.

The local middle and upper class still think they are in a position where they can criticize " negros ", " cabezas " etc because of the way they dress, talk, what they eat, drink or buy.

People in general here believe ( wrongfully ) that they are superior... I for one think that we have some good things, but we surely have a lot to improve. I do not think we are inferior either.

Argentine with money are not necessarily educated and well behaved when they travel. Money does not make people educated, but education.

The American stereotype ironically was created by Americans ( Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin, Al Bundy, and I´m sure there are many others ) We do not have a single character on TV that shows what locals are like, that should tell you something

I too believe patriotism is a virtue, do not take me wrong, but when an American patriot meets an Argentine patriot, well you have some patriot issues that will arise for sure. This was taught at school, it has been losing value and strength in the last decades in Argentina.

 

[orwellian]

Working class people, who are not totally ignorant, hate ignorant gringos who doesn't know that they are the indirect cause of them being poor.

 

[Vikingo]

I am a socialist and I hate nobody. As a socialist I fell we are all equal. Discrimination and hate are for the fascists. You must judge people by what they do.

Onetime I read a poll from a US survey company saying that the US is the country who we hate most and the same results in most countries. It seems the world dislikes the US, not only us.

However I feel that "americans" expect the country to adapt to them instead the other way around.

 

[orwellian]

@Vikingo
Maybe if you were working class Argentinean, you would. But you are partly right, most people actually do not hate us, they hate our governments. But occasionally you will run into people who blame you for what our governments have done (and in some ways, righteously so).

And yes, we all hate the US government, except maybe for gouchobob

 

[davonz]

The problem is the american people vote in the american government, and people think the american people are the same as the government, or think the same.. and unless you have visited or lived in the US you only know what you hear or see in the media..

 

[RWS]

Surely, "orwellian", you're not originally from the United States? Your dislike of that country might be lessened by spending a year or two roaming the States and getting to know those Americans. You may still find many of them ignorant but, I'd guess, few the domineering sorts that propagandists (and Hollywood scriptwriters) so often imagine.

Working class people, who are not totally ignorant, hate ignorant gringos who doesn't know that they are the indirect cause of them being poor.

 

[orwellian]

@RWS
Americans abroad tend to not be ignorant. The majority of all Americans I have met have been critical of their government. I wish I could say the same for Israelis and upper class latinos. And by gringo I include myself as well, even though I am not American.