NationStates Jolt Archive

I was talking with someone who claims that these two poltical stances I stand for are arrogant towards foreginers (We are both American):


Opposing the Death Penalty

The government should not interfere with its citizens' personal lives, and if so, to a minimal extent


Non-US posters, your input would be most welcomed here

What exactly did he say was arrogant about those positions. They may or may not be depending.

(And what do you know? I discovered that arrogancy (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=arrogancy) really is a word. :))

I was talking with someone who claims that these two poltical stances I stand for are arrogant towards foreginers (We are both American):


Opposing the Death Penalty

The government should not interfere with its citizens' personal lives, and if so, to a minimal extent


Non-US posters, your input would be most welcomed here

1) You'll find most people from other western countries oppose the death penalty. The fact the US has a higher crime rate and an unbelieveable amount of murders every year proves to allot of non-US citizens that the death penalty just dosen't wotk. When some Americans start going on about how great it is non-US citizens see this as 'arrogant', ie. we have the evidence to prove that is just isn't working but your not listening to us. It's the 'American way is the right way' attitude that allot of us find arrogant, the death penalty situation is an example of this.

2) I don't really understand what you mean by this, I want my goverment to leave my personal life to myself too! I think you're refering to economic policy, right? Government regualtion of business etc.? Allot of Americans seem to espouse the view that a minimalist government is the best whereas in allot of other countries people support a larger government, one that runs untilities such as essential services like electricity, public transport etc. Some Americans do come across as arrogant on this point becasue again, to us it sounds like they are saying 'The US way is the best way'.

I think the main reason why some Americans come across as arrogant is becasue they seem to hold the view that their way of doing things is automatically superior to ours. There are plenty of other reasons, however;

- History: Allot of Americans have a very biased view on history, they think they created democracy, think they won WW1 & WW2, think their country has always done the right thing etc. Also, allot of Americans have very little knowledge of other countries histories, this comes across as 'arrogant'

- Geography: Americans seem to know where things inside the US are but outside of it, they seem to get a bit lost (no offence, feel free to prove me wrong).

- Freedoms: This is what I find the most arrogant, the way Americans go on and on about freedom. Yes, we are free too, yes, I have just as much freedom as you do, yes, we have a constitution but no, I don't go on about it all the time. Claiming you are 'the freest people on earth' is just down right arrogant and offensive to non-US citizens.

- Miltary: We are constantly being remided how powerful your military is, that is just arrogant no two ways about it. Again, 'the US way is the best way' attitude comes out when dealing with this.

- Culture: From what I can gather, the US is a very intro-spective society and dosen't get exposed to other ways of doing things. The amount of times of I heard "We do it like this in America" from an American exchange student who lived me for a fwe months was unbelievable, he just wasn't willing to accept different (however so slight) ways of doing things. To me, and other non-US citizens, that is very arrogant.

Well, there are plenty of other examples I could give but I don't want to come across as 'anti-American', I'm just trying to answer your question. Check out a post I made on the "**** it, we're surrounded by American haters" thread where I replied to someonelse post that claimed "Why America is great", I think it's on around page 4 or 5. That is a perfect example of American 'arrogance'.

No offence intended by this post, I know I have made some generalisations here.

I was talking with someone who claims that these two poltical stances I stand for are arrogant towards foreginers (We are both American):


Opposing the Death Penalty

The government should not interfere with its citizens' personal lives, and if so, to a minimal extent


Non-US posters, your input would be most welcomed here
I don't see how opposing the death penalty is arrogant towards foreigners. We haven't had the death penalty in Canada since 1976 and murders have declined.

Defending the death penalty could be considered arrogant, depending on the slant taken by the poster.

I also agree that the government should not have any interference in the lives of its' citizens unless it is of vital importance to the stability of the country. Is that an arrogant stand? I don't think so.