I read a certain number of foreign blogs — British blogs, Australian blogs, Iraqi blogs, Iranian blogs, Israeli blogs, French blogs, and German blogs. I do this for a number of reasons. I’m more interested in what Iraqis think about Iraq and what’s going on there than I am what the New York Times thinks. But one of the side benefits is seeing what utterly bizarre ideas foreigners have about what life in the United States is like.
On one blog some months ago — Peter Hitchens’s blog, I believe, though I can’t swear to it — one commenter was talking about how she’d just been mugged and how everybody on her street had been mugged and the gang warfare that was taking over her neighborhood, and she said that it was getting to be almost as bad as an American suburb.
Uh, come again? Where do these people get these ideas? Okay, I know, from the press, but do they really believe that the United States is engulfed in some sort of gang war and we’re shooting at each other in the streets all the time?
Most recently on Squander Two, a British blog, I ran across this:
It is commonly believed in the UK that American anti-abortionists are extremist nutters. What we see of them over here certainly tends to support that view.
[ . . . ]
So, if you didn’t before, now you know why American anti-abortionists seem so extreme. This is what they’re up against.
I thought this odd — I don’t see anything extreme about praying outside abortion clinics, or even passing out pamphlets — so I asked. And I was told (sorry, haloscan is down right now so I can’t pull up the exact comment) pro-lifers were seen as extreme because of all the clinics bombed and doctors murdered.
Uh, wait. I suppose if you listen to Pandagon, Catherine McKinnon, or the other feminuts who care only about being able to screw as much as they like without taking responsibility (that, and being able to milk the government for as much public assistance as they can), you’d think America was full of wild-eyed, evil, religious fundamentalists bombing clinics, murdering doctors, assaulting Muslims, and lynching blacks (it’s that left-wing fantasy world I mentioned earlier). But reality gets in the way.
When was the last time a clinic was bombed, or a doctor was murdered? And every week — perhaps even every day — across the country, there are prayer vigils and protests outside abortion clinics. Yet apparently, foreigners are under the impression that clinics are bombed and doctors are murdered all the time.
How is it that people believe this nonsense?
Here’s reality. Yes, there’s a lot of violent crime in urban areas, particularly inner cities — though nationally, crime has been decreasing since the 70s. Most Americans don’t live in the inner cities where most of the violent crime occurs, and we live with a low crime rate. No, we don’t get mugged every day. No, we don’t shoot at each other on the streets every day. No, American women aren’t raped five days out of every week. Most Americans live in areas where that sort of thing “doesn’t happen here,” and of course part of the reason for that is that we Americans take a dim view of criminals, and tend to want them locked up for a long time in prison where they belong (unlike many in other parts of the world).
Just sayin.
Wayne says:
Where do these people get these ideas? Okay, I know, from the press, but do they really believe that the United States is engulfed in some sort of gang war and we’re shooting at each other in the streets all the time?
Nothing has changed. I was on an international training team in late 80’s. In country after country I was amazed at the opinions people had about life in the U.S. These were folks who like a lot of Americans have never traveled out side of their on country. They thought race riots, shootings and rape happened everywhere on a daily basis. That it was unsafe to walk the streets at night. Its not just the press - its also the movies and TV they watch. Even though movies are not “real” if that is the only reality you have you start to believe it as fact. Its funning how Americans are generally slammed for having a naive view of other cultures but from my limited travels during that time period I saw it to be the other way around. They were alot more naive about us than we were of them. The other surprise was the amount of racism and bigory I encourtered (and I grew up in the South). Not against me but within the country. In one South American country it was not color of skin but to what degree it was shaded. In another it was what village you came from (Don’t trust those people they come from x village and everyone there is a thief) When it comes to treating people equally we are ahead of most others.
February 2, 2007, 6:13 pmEmily says:
That’s like some rubbish article I read in the Guardian a few months back after the US population crossed the 300 million mark. Some moron columnist wrote about how over-crowded and developed America was becoming. The source he cited for this cosmopolitan wisdom? A 1960s film about a woman who moves to Alaska to find solitude. I considered writing him a letter explaining just how many places in the United States one could travel and not see a person or building for hundreds of miles, but figured it wasn’t worth it in the end. Those types pretty much have their minds made up and will find evidence, bogus or otherwise, to enforce their ignorant stereotypes.
February 2, 2007, 8:23 pmKaren says:
They don’t know what truth is. You’re right. They’re just going by what they’ve seen on tv or read.
February 3, 2007, 11:03 am