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#Post#: 14470--------------------------------------------------
The bad reputation of the USA in Germany?
By: SHL Date: April 16, 2019, 9:44 pm
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I debated posting or not posting this, but I decided why not.
I‘m not saying it is representative of anything, not really, but
it could be. I thought most anti-US sentiment was confined to
social media platforms, like Quora, but it seems to have spilled
over causally into at least one German movie, maybe more. And,
it may be nothing new. I don‘t know.
Last evening I started watching a rather unusual German movie (I
suppose a movie for TV) called „Die Konfirmation“ (the
confirmation). It‘s a somewhat strange movie of sorts and takes
place in Berlin, in 2017, when it was filmed. It tells the story
of a 15-year old boy who comes home late from school one day.
When he enters the apartment, living with his mother and
step-father, and two younger sisters, his mother asks him why
he‘s late getting home. He say, „I was in church.“ His mother
looks a bit puzzled and asked, „what were you doing there?“ He
answers „I got baptized.“ She is dumbfounded and looks at her
husband like the boy had gone crazy. When asked why he did that,
he just casually answers „because I need it to go though
confirmation.“ She sort of follows him around the apartment
rather angry asking questions while the dad just tells her to
calm down and says the English phrase „no big deal“, (he has a
habit of tossing in an English phrase now and then). The mother
angrily confront the female pastor of the church he went to and
the pastor sort of calms her down. It‘s really somewhat funny in
parts, such as when the mom and dad are lying in bed discussing
it and the dad says, „well Buddhism might have been a better
choice I think. You know they are pretty easy going about
things-not as dogmatic.“ The mother eventually accepts it, and
decides it‘s just a phase of puberty the boy is going through
being a little rebellious, breaking away from his parents, who
have no religious affiliation at all (I suppose we can assume
they are atheists or agnostics, but they never say-they elected
not to pay the German church tax she admits).
The boy we learn has applied for a scholarship to go to school
for a year, of all places, to the USA. And, he is waiting for an
acceptance notice. At one point the step-dad and the boy go on a
camping trip together and are sitting around a little campfire
they‘ve made, and they are roasting Hot Dogs, (or whatever you
want to call them). The father suddenly says, „Now, one point I
just totally don’t understand. Of all places, why the USA?“ The
boy says, „well, they haven’t accepted me yet.“ At this point
the film really caught my attention and I thought, „Oh boy. Here
it comes! I gotta hear this!“ I really had to laugh because I
knew the USA was going to get hammered in this discussion. The
father says, „Ah, you know, maybe it won‘t be right for you.‘
The boy asks , „What‘s suppose to not be right about the USA?“
The father says, „...because it‘s the home of the NSA, White
Supremacists (he uses the English word), the superior White
race“ ...“Or, that the Amis (Americans) have this sick body
culture that they push (I believe he‘s referring to working out
at gyms, having lots of cosmetic surgery, etc)...they‘re a lot
of enormously fat people there...that in 2014 a German teenage
exchange student was shot and killed in a garage...“ The boy
says, „That doesn‘t bother me.“ Then the dad takes a Hot Dog out
of the fire that‘s been in a bit too long, takes a bit and spits
it out because it‘s so hot and yells, „f—k!“ Then the boy smiles
and says, „I think the Amis would say the same thing.“
Since there was mention of a 2014 shooting of an exchange
student, I googled it and sure enough it‘s true. A teenager
(maybe 17) from Hamburg was shot and killed in a garage in
Missoula, Montana. Apparently, a garage door of someone‘s house
was left open one evening and the exchange student was on the
street, playing around with some friends, and ran into the
garage for some reason. The homeowner thought it was an intruder
and came out with guns blazing and shot and killed the kid.
Fortunately, the local DA‘s Office charged the shooter with
murder and the guy got convicted and sentenced to 70 years, and
not eligible for parole for the first 20. Part of his defense
was the „stand your ground“ laws of Montana, which essentially
state you don‘t have to run from trouble to avoid using deadly
force, if necessary, to project yourself or your family. That
defense didn‘t work.
Plus, the shooter‘s homeowners insurance paid out the policy
limits to the victim‘s family.
So,I guess the USA‘s bad reputation in the world is not getting
any better.
#Post#: 14472--------------------------------------------------
Re: The bad reputation of the USA in Germany?
By: Alharacas Date: April 17, 2019, 4:41 am
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I remember reading about the film you're talking about (don't
watch much TV) and thinking it was quite a cute idea, turning
teenage rebellion upside down by having a boy become a
Christian. However, to put this into perspective, over half of
all Germans (about 45 out of 80+ million) are still paying*
members of one the big Christian churches (Roman Catholic or
Protestant).
*That means almost 10% of what your income tax amounts to is
automatically deducted from your salary every month, on top of
your income tax, health insurance, pension fund payments, etc.
If you had a taxable income of about €60.000 per year, for
example, you'd be paying almost €1.500 in church tax. Meaning if
you became an atheist (no church wedding, no priest at your
funeral, but you'd still be able to go to church at Christmas,
which is all "being a Christian" amounts to for most Germans,
anyway), you'd simply have that much more money to spend every
year.
As to the United States' supposedly bad reputation in Germany,
you need to differentiate between what Germans think about your
country in terms of politics (meh, but it's been like that for
decades, longer than I can remember, at any rate) and what they
think about it on a more individual level (mostly quite
brilliant, home of all things pop culture, Harley Davidson,
Hollywood, Gangsta Rap, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans,
Silicon Valley and Disneyland).
Here are a few statistics and/or numbers if you can be bothered:
If you have a look at
HTML https://weltweiser.de/ratgeber-auslandsaufenthalte/schueleraustausch-studie/
and scroll down a little, to the graphs titled "Beliebteste
Gastländer" (favourite exchange countries), you'll find the US
at the top of the list of those countries where German exchange
students (at school level) would like to spend some time (up to
one school year).
Yes, the figures have dipped, down from almost 10.000 in 2001 to
a little below 6.000 in 2017, but still, no other country comes
even close, with the next favourite country, Canada, currently
at about 2.000 students per year.
And well, yes, of course I remember that German exchange student
getting killed - most Germans will. As you can imagine, it was
headline stuff and even made it onto the national news. Still, I
don't think 1 student out of about 5000 getting killed (in how
many years?) would have discouraged more than maybe a handful of
parents from sending their kid to the US.
For university students, the figures are quite different, the US
ranking 6th, with between 6 and 9% of all German exchange
students spending at least some of their time at a university in
the US. However, that's probably due more to prohibitive costs
than to inclination.
HTML https://www.studis-online.de/Studieren/Auslandsstudium/beliebte-laender.php
As to holidays, Germans tend to spend them either inside their
own country or within Europe. However, outside of Europe, the US
are still their favourite destination with about 2 million
Germans travelling there every year.
#Post#: 14473--------------------------------------------------
Re: The bad reputation of the USA in Germany?
By: Truman Overby Date: April 17, 2019, 5:20 am
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Still true today:
HTML https://youtu.be/z4i3LmR0K74
HTML https://youtu.be/Mwv-dndrMDE
Vietnam War song:
HTML https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrumm...
Gordon Sinclair was a well known Canadian radio broadcaster,
from Toronto. On 5 June 1973 he wrote the editorial "The
Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)" - inspired by the news that
the American Red Cross had run out of funds because of recent
aid efforts in reaction to natural disasters. The editorial
praised the efforts of the US to help the world, but said that
nobody helped the US when they faced trouble.
US News and World Report published the monologue in full which
led to its explosion across the US. Sinclair released the
single, with all profits going to the American Red Cross,
reaching # 24 in the Billboard charts. Its commercial success
and patriotic stance led to several US covers. Byron MacGregor,
a news director of an Ontario (Canadian) radio station, which
also services Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, released the
single Americans, which reached # 4 in the charts. (It also
featured as the title track of his 1974 album Americans, which
included 14 US patriotic tracks). This was a far more successful
version than the Gordon Sinclair single, selling over 3 and half
million copies, with the proceeds also donated to the American
Red Cross. Country singer Tex Ritter covered the monologue in
1974: The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion), released just after
he died (reaching # 90 in the Billboard charts; #35 in the
country charts).
The monologue included a reference to Vietnam, including draft
dodgers, and praising American democracy:
"You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in
the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers
are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most
of them...unless they are breaking Canadian laws..are getting
American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here [Canada].
When the Americans get out of this bind...as they will...who
could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the
world'".
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