As an American who both loves his country and despises the attitudes of some of the folks who live here, watching Jeremy rant is both hilarious, and occasionally uncomfortable. But we need to be jabbed at occasionally. Its the folks here who never hear the opinions of non-Americans who never question their own values and attitudes. And that's tragic.
I understand JC's revulsion, but I think he's getting it from the wrong place. Let's face it, there are good reasons to find the US culturally unappealing. But he picks all the superficial reasons. We're fat. We make cars out of cheap plastic. The bar in his hotel in the middle of the freakin' desert closes too early. Come on, man.
See, I think he doesn't want to confront the real cultural ugliness in America, because it's starting to appear in the UK, too. Things like generations of kids growing up in vast soulless tracts of identical suburban homes, shopping at big box stores and drinking Starbucks. The UK isn't far behind us on this score. The bland sameness that's spreading across our country hasn't stopped at our borders.
And the bottom line is that JC is, by his own admission, a professional jackass. That's what he does for a living, and he's really good at it. And we benefit, because it's funny. So I say long live Clarkson.
