My parents grew up in Poland (Krakow, Nisko) and immigrated here in 1972. I'm the only native born American in my family. I grew up in New Jersey (which I loved) and moved to Iowa (which I hate) in 1987 when I was 7 years old.
As for our (as in culture) pride and patriotism it comes from many angles. My parents grew up in communist Poland after WW2 (both were born shortly after the war ended), and they came to America to have the opportunity of making a good life and giving me and my sister everything we ever needed or wanted. They are Patriotic and proud to be here but its not a blind stupid patriotism. Who knows how our lives would have panned out in Communist Poland and I'm damn glad I never found out. So they are patriotic for the freedoms and opportunities they've had here whereas they couldn't have gotten the same in Poland during the 60's,70's.
However we have a lot of dumb shits in my Podunk town (Dubuque, Iowa) who've never been outside of the US. That or their cultural expanse has never gotten past doing tequila shots off a hooker's ass in Tijuana or something. And THESE are the idiots who always say "we're #1!!! Fuck France, America Fuck yeah!". Many of them have no concept of how hard it is to be an immigrant and work from the ground up. So a lot of immigrants who've made a good life here are very appreciative of America and are patriotic for a good reason. And thats what America is all about. Its a huge country with ppl who've come from all over the world to make a better life. Sadly we killed off most of the native American population. Like Chris Rock said, "whens the last time you saw a whole family of Native Americans eating at KFC?". So really most of America is made of immigrants. And many of those aren't blindly patriotic to the point of fanaticism.
Unfortunately we have a fair share of Bobby-Ray types who think they own the country. Most of these morons are descendants from Germany (my town while founded by a Frenchman, hence is namesake, was settled mostly by German/Irish), Britain, Ireland etc. Yet they seem to hate Europeans with a passion. The irony. You can see their point though. I mean France and Germany et al refused to send their troops to die in a useless unjust and evil war in Iraq and didn't want to send their economy down the shitter while paying for it so of course the French are assholes. The French/Germans aren't suffering like we are and they hate you for it. They act as if their ancestors were native to the Americas, even though they have last names like "Sherman" and "McDonnelly".
Also we Americans do have a lot to be proud about. We went to the Moon (albeit with help from German scientists taken out of Germany so that the Soviets wouldnt get them after Nazi germany fell) and pioneered the Space Industry where we still dominate. We created the internet out of the Military Arpanet program in the late 60's. We practically created the computer industry and digital age. 2 hippies from California got together and built the first home PC in the mid 70's and started a revolution. Henry Ford transitioned our country from the horse to the car because it was more reliable and cheaper to use a car than feed a horse all year long. We created the Atom Bomb, while a horrific invention we wish we could take back, required MASSIVE resources and scientific know-how to accomplish. We created and still maintain the most powerful military force the world has ever known.
Theres a lot of big huge things we pioneered so naturally a nation's citizens would be proud of things no other country could quite do at the time. Also after WW2, America had phenomenal prosperity. It seemed anyone in middle class America lived in a pleasant suburb with a car and a white picket fence, cooking hotdogs (invented by the Germans in the germantown section of New York in the early 20th) on the 4th of July while little Timmy and little Suzy said their prayers and drank their milk and never ever talked back to Mommy and Daddy. While Europe was recovering the from the ashes of WW2 and struggling, it seemed good jobs were plentiful in America and the American dream wasnt far off for a lot of ppl....
...A lot of white Christian ppl. If you were a minority, we'll you were screwed. Race is the biggest issue in America and probably one that will never go away. The crimes commited by my government against those of color are just awful and I will always be ashamed of that part of our history. I think a true Patriot is one that supports his country, but is not afraid to criticize it. Blind patriotism is dangerous. One guy on TV here said it best: "I don't hate America. I love America. Its Americans that I cant stand.".
It think its very dangerous to assume America will always be the leader of the free world. Rome was the most powerful nation in its prime. But it crumbled in spectacular fashion. Are we Rome? Well you can certainly make connections and examples. We have the most money, the most powerful Army etc. And you only need to look back on history to see nations with the most power always fall. The thing that pisses me off about some of my fellow (embarrassingly) countrymen is that they think everything is ok and that we really are number one. We're not. We seem to create the technology and industry (computers and particular) and dominate for a little while. Then the rest of the world catches up and inevitably out does us. We're not number 1 in education, exports, automobiles, broadband and connectivity etc. We used to be but not for a long while now. And the fact that so many ppl refuse to even acknowledge this fact and even go so far as to claim that if you DO criticize and acknowledge these faults we have, your unpatriotic and unamerican. Look at what the neocon republicans are doing to Obama. Anyone watch the RNC today? It was shameful, and I truly would be very ashamed to call myself an American if America is dumb enough to elect McCain and the new psycho Vice President (her speech tonight was frightening).
America is a good country. Is the best ever in the history of mankind? No. Its just good for me.
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Now as for Germany and what I think of it. As a child immigrants from Europe I may take a different view on it than those who had American parents and relatives. Most of my relatives are from Poland, though a few are in Germany etc. I visited Poland (Krakow and Nisko respectively) in 2006. I hated every minute. The ppl for the most part were very rude to me (I tried to be as nice as possible, I really didn't want to be the ugly gregarious American). It was probably due to the way I looked or something, but I got a lot of nasty looks and several just outright treated me like garbage and made no mistake in my knowing it. Needless to say I would never go back to Poland if I could help it.
But I'd love to visit Germany, France and Switzerland in particular. I like the German language, sounds so guttural and machine like to me. Perhaps because I'm really into Rammstein and they sound like robots so that was my first introduction to German music and language (I understand Till overdoes the rolling Rs and so on though). I really dig Kraftwerk and a lot of the German industrial music scene. There is of course the amazing engineering prowess Germans seem to possess. I like the food, the beer, and Germany looks beautiful. I can definitely see why so many are proud of their country's features. In fact if I could I'd love to spend a few years living there if I could learn the language. Plus you have the Autobahn. Any country that has beautiful roads and large sections of which that have no speed limit is automatically the coolest nation.
Sure there are stereotypes of Germany here just like there is in Germany about us. WW2 has something to do with it, though thats mostly an issue for older folks who grew up during WW2, or who's fathers fought in WW2 or something. The newest generation I don't think care either way. Lets face it, a lot of our teens are fucking idiots who think the Brits were the Nazi's and WW2 happened in the middle ages. I'm not kidding, watch "Jaywalking" on the Jay Leno show sometime. Its embarrassing how little history some kids are being taught in schools today. Number one indeed...
(caution: liberal rhetoric starts now, neocons please avert your eyes!)
Also politically Germany is a good friend to us. With the exception of UK, Germany is our closest ally. Thanks to our retard president though German's view of Americans, once held in high regard has sunk remarkably low and I don't blame you. I fucking hate him, and had to suffer almost 8 years under his regime now. It also didn't help when the warmonger Rumsfield said the reason Germany didn't enter the Iraq war was because Germany didn't want to rid the world of evil from Saddamn. He basically insulted an entire country and compared you to Nazi Germany, Libya, Cuba because you had the sense to not get involved, and that hurt what little feelings Rummy had.
Germany also treats our war injured. When our soldiers get hurt in Iraq or Afghanistan, they are shipped to Germany to our US military bases like Rammstein etc so its not up to Donald fucking Rumsfield to speak for the rest of us. And good riddance that old crazy bastard is gone.
In closing (I know its a long post sorry but its a good topic), I like Germany. They are our friends, and good ones at that. Both countries have stupid assholes. Unfortunately we seem to have the ones who are in power right now and have the loudest voices. But I hope the fact that 18 million+ voted for a someone named Barack Obama for nomination to the Presidency after 8 years of a catastrophic Bush administration says something about us. While I believe his ideas and leadership, I also think a lot of those votes were a major rejection against GwB for how he's ruined our country. Perhaps voting for Obama is a way to make amends to the rest of the world and I hope come November its made permanent.
Please don't think the majority of Americans are the country music listening, inbred jackass flag waving pin wearing racist douchebags types that have polluted our standing in the world. Nor are we the latte drinking hyrbid driving vegetarian Peta donating new age listening douchebags either. I'm in the middle.
Though if we elect McCain and his crazy ass running mate, maybe we are the douchebags everyone thinks we are.
