As an English DLer I'm fascinated by how much you Americans seem to be endlessly fascinated with us.

OP The shit's about to hit the fan.

I'll be the fly on the wall.

We're not. And you're not in England.

Troll.

0/10

[quote]We're not. And you're not in England.

Oh, GOD - YOU're back with that bullshit.

[quote] Oh, GOD - YOU're back with that bullshit.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

It's the dumb ones who think the UK is Downton Abbey. They have never been exposed to chavs, slags, or council estates.

[quote] They have never been exposed to chavs, slags, or council estates.

Americans also have their fair share of trashy lowlifes, do they not?

No

R7 of course, but Americans are exposed to it. It's a case of the "grass is greener in the other side of the pond"

Isn't a whole lot to say about Canada. It's North Alabama.

Oh except that whitey fellow on tiktok is apparently from there.

OP, we also are fascinated by serial killers and kangaroos boxing with little people.

Take the hint, Britta.

Americans are always sentimental for the little guy. After all, we kicked your asses in 1776, and saved your asses in 1911 and 1945. We like to check in from time to time to make sure you can stay out of trouble for a few years.

OP, I watch a lot of Brit tv and the image I've come away with is you have just as much white trash as every other country has and depressed dying towns plus some shitty ass weather. Downton Abbey is a soap opera set in Edwardian England that's it. I do enjoy some of your movies and tv though.

Many of us grew up with Mary Poppins and other kids' movies that featured people with English accents, and US movies are full of British actors, with a lot of movies and TV shows imported from Britain, from Masterpiece Theatre to AbFab to The Office and on and on. Of course we're going to think of Britain more than we do Canada. Canada has only given us Schitt's Creek.

And we get lots of Jane Austin adaptations, The Crown, Elizabeth, The Tudors, Upstairs Downstairs, Gosford Park and Downton Abbey-type movies and shows and so yes, we get these posh Victorian and Georgian depictions that lead us to assume Brits are well mannered and upper class. And we are taught Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton are the great bases of English-language literature—so many educated American people tend to associate Great Britain with high class and high literature and refined performance arts.

Not a lot of gritty realism makes its way here from there short of the odd Trainspotting and listening to Paddy O'Brien speak.

Honestly, there is very little discussion about anything British-related anywhere in the US. If anything, people refer to Canada much more frequently.

Brits are obsessed with American culture which is why they move here and stay

In the US today, England = the arts and Brexit, Canada = maple syrup and Justin Trudeau, Scotland still = Nessie, and Wales = wait that's a separate country?

And Brits aren't obsessed with Americans? Seems like your taste for chavtastic trash reality TV at least rivals ours.

Seeing and hearing drunk Brits screeching and pissing their ways through streets at night is a real bubble burster for any American who mistakes British culture for being mannered as we for some reason are taught it is. Whether they're in the streets of Cambridge or London or on the canals of Amsterdam, drunk Brits are loud and spraying urine around like territorial stray cats.

There's very little to say about Canada...it's not that culturally different from the US, apart from less guns and a somewhat better ratio of decent humans to right wing trash. Only Quebec is kind of exotic. British Columbia is beautiful but very similar to our Pacific Northwest. Toronto seems like a poor man's New York. Much of the rest of the country is flyover or frozen tundra. Also, British pop culture is far more interesting than Canadian.

It's the plaid. Just look at Kate Middleton's coat.

I’ll never forget the first time I went to England.

I was so excited to share a connection with other “brothers,” but I was so disappointed to learn that I had little to no shared sociocultural ANYTHING with them.

My inner thought was, “My god, these people are foreigners.”

[quote]or any American who mistakes British culture for being mannered as we for some reason are taught it is

There have always been examples of the trashy lower side of English life in literature.

It's really all about your telly programs.

That's about it.

Not to be offensive but I'm fascinated by how many British go overseas and get pissy if it's not like home.

R26 Yup.

"Doesn't anybody speak the Queen's English?" or " I'll have fish and chips, mate".

Back in the Before Times, a weekend in Amsterdam would cure any American fixated on the Buckingham Palace/Downton Abbey stereotype.

The Brits take public intox to the next level.

We tried to give you our finest like Madonna, GOOP, and Meghan... yet they all come crawling back.

Check out the hundreds of articles on DailyMail anyday, anytime to see just how absurdly and totally OBSESSED Brits are with Americans and know more about D-List celebrities than you do

Dear England DL'ers. If you were right next door, we would ignore you just like we ignore Canada which we basically consider our 51st state. Kind of like "North Minnesota".

I have exactly zero interest in Britain. It's a tiny, wet, nasty place where one has to pay to take a piss in a filthy restroom. Extremely hard pass.

For those of us of a certain age, the British Invasion, Carnaby Street, James Bond, the West End, the history, the Beatles, the Bag o’ Nails, scotch and coke, the accents, the royal jewels, the mods and rockers, the fabrics of Liberty of London, the crazy vices of the royal family, it was all so influential. We all wanted to be British; everything hip was British.

Americans are fascinated by America, sadly.

And yet, here YOU are, OP: a Brit talking about [italic]us.[/italic]

Go figure!

[quote]and saved your asses in 1911 and 1945

What happened in 1911?

I'll admit to being something of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to TV programs. Right now I'm bingeing through "A Touch of Frost" and "Inspector Morse." The list of other British shows I've binged is too long to post here, but suffice to say that I usually enjoy them. Maybe because they're foreign, yet mostly accessible. Canadian shows don't seem all that different from US shows, and there aren't that many of them.

My dream vacation would be to spend three or four months exploring all of Great Britain. (I've been twice --but only to London.)

it has to do with the brit lads porn site and the prevalence of huge dong there. We think all UK men from Chelsea have huge pendulous dongs.

Well, someone sure has a high opinion of themselves, don't they?

A lot of Americans really are obsessed with England and view it with rose-colored glasses. When they think England, they tend to think of things like Queen's English, Buckingham Palace, The Royal Family, etc.

I"m not one of them though. My parents lived there and I was born there. I couldn't care less about it. But that's just me.

The Americans are jealous of the Brtis' foreskin and massive dong.

Wow there seem to be more of the r41 types than ever right now. I'd ban them.

I’m sure as fuck not. I lived in continental Europe for over a decade and I’ve never met a more boorish and despicably behaved bunch than young britons “on holiday”

Hope you all rot in your brexit nightmare

Canada is the lowly step-sister with terrible self-esteem issues. Why would Americans even give her a second thought, OP?

Agreed with some of the posts above - many Americans have only seen a very selective view of British culture. We get certain programs, but it's been selected for those that only point to period pieces and upper middle class or gentry class.

I've only been to England four times over a couple of decades, but I've come to see it as very gloomy and depressing place to live.

Invariably though, I've really liked every English, Welsh or Scottish person I've met in the States. And I genuinely have met so many lovely people in the UK. I really love their sense of humor and their approach to life. The accent also goes a long way with us Americans - it is fascinating to hear a regular sentence said with so much tonal inflection. We Americans have much more of a flat tone way of speaking.

The Brits have an upbeat way of speaking and talking - though they don't realize it. I think that may be the thing - we see only the 'nice' side of the UK via media and any connections with Brits have been usually positive.

But the majority of Americans have no idea how dire and depressing the UK is to live in.

R6 Don’t forget the grooming gangs.

I not fascinated by how rude the English were to me when I visited in 2009, but it does signify. It was my sixth trip to England. In my entire life I've never felt prejudice directed at me for being gay, or anything. I did feel it during the 10 days I was in England. I wasn't a dumb tourist, I knew my way around. What is of interest is how friendly and accommodating Americans seem to be to Europeans when they're visiting The Colonies. I'm sure there are Yanks who are isolationist and xenophobic, but I think that's comparatively rare.

OP, none of the Americans I know are in any way enamoured of Great Britain. It surprises me, having immersed myself in the culture of Engand since I was in the second grade. They seem to know nothing about Great Britain except that it's not in The United States. Wh. I find rather dumb of them, to not show any curiosity about countries and cultures other than the one they live in.

Fuck. "I'm."

90% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the US border. There's nothing remotely interesting about them.

R41 the unbearable foreskin stink, the flowery wordy entitlement, the lack of working out and muscle mass, the pale skin and bad teeth...SIGN ME UP!!!!

The English are even worse than Americans when it comes to holding their liquor.

[quote]I'm fascinated by how much you Americans seem to be endlessly fascinated with us.

Are we though?

Let's just say that Canada seems rather "sedate", at least based on my limited experience. (a few visits to Vancouver)

R53 - yeah, that is something to note. Americans don't give a fuck about Canada and they're our neighbors. We know more about UK than about Canada.

I do love the UK and can say that I am fascinated with Britain. I do not think that goes for most of America. I've lived in London. In the US, we never, ever talk about the US breaking from the UK, which comes up a lot. We don't have any grudges against Brits and I think we are a country that can be seduced by an (anglo) foreign accent. We are more friendly for the Brits, but don't take it as anything more than superficial.

East coast USA here and the only thing I ever hear about their British awful dental hygiene, undercover racism, and smelly dicks.

^ I ever hear about the British is about their ^

[quote]East coast USA here and the only thing I ever hear about their British awful dental hygiene, undercover racism, and smelly dicks.

Brit here - USA = Trump, guns, the obese, deplorables, violent racism, freaky looking bleached teeth, extraordinary stupidity of the masses.

R58 Did I hit a nerve? Guess I’ll add easily butthurt/bitch made to my list

I was really fascinated by England (Thanks Agatha Christie) when I was a teen in the mid-80s, I’d always root for British sportspeople whenever possible. As an adult, I came to realize I had a really idealized vision of Britain & the actual reality is nothing close to what Id fantasized about.

Thank you OP. I’ll just crack open a beer and sit back watching the inevitable.

It didn’t take long for WW2/teeth/foreskins to get a mention!

Typical out of touch entitled British nonsense

It's definitely the idealized period piece version shown on TV. I'll be honest though, once I went there it absolved me of that view very quickly lol. People were nice (except in the "posh" areas, asshole snobs) but just too crowded and gloomy and depressing. And the architecture was ugly.

Your best BBC and ITV are better than our best network shows (ABC, CBS, NBC). We don't see your crappy movies and TV although BBCAmerica used to show Benny Hill and Hotel Babylon. Is BBC America still on cable?

I was struck by how depressing Line of Duty's finale was. What's that about?

[quote]And the architecture was ugly.

Moron.

You must be a Brit R65. If it makes you feel better some of the very old architecture was beautiful.

Britain's architecture per se isn't "ugly", but it has way too many Brutalist concrete buildings that don't get pressure washed often enough to look good.

In Florida, concrete brutalist buildings get pressure washed every year... partly, because in Florida, they CAN BE. It never snows or freezes, so pressure-washing is a stable year-round industry (and therefore, cheap). In Britain, it's a summer (maybe spring & fall) industry that completely shuts down every winter (or, pre-Brexit, migrated to places like Spain & Italy).

Anyway, most of Britain's "ugly" buildings just need a good pressure-cleaning with bleach & detergent to wash off 10+ years' worth of mildew & grime.

Truthfully, even the UGLIEST Brutalist eyesores can be easily transformed into cool-looking faux-postmod buildings with little more than a dark-glass skirt around the bottom (to add visual mass at the base if they're top-heavy) and some thoughtful re-cladding and/or re-fenestration to bring them into the 21st century. Postmod architecture isn't REALLY all that different below the cladding, and most Brutalist buildings are kind of like 90%-complete postmod buildings that just need a little finishing work to look really good.

[quote]but it has way too many Brutalist concrete buildings

They've just bulldozed one near me.

Things I love about the UK (or England, anyway):

—The landscapes and the flowers! The US is big and varied and I live in a lush area (Washington, D.C.), but it doesn't compare with England, which seems to have been made for flower gardens.

—The old architecture. We don't have anything like it anywhere in this country.

—The scale of the country. It is so much smaller and it feels intimate to me. The US is too big.

—The dry sense of humor.

—Variation in accents.

—I actually like the normal, non-engineered and non-bleached teeth and I'm sorry to see more and more British people show up in TV and movies with big fake Milo donkey teeth.

—I love the fabled history and the fantastical pagan aspect that I believe a lot of Brits still hold onto on some level—sprites, faeries, Arthur and Merlin and all that. Stonehenge, crop circles, etc. Whether they admit it or not, I think a lot of Brits keep some place in their psyches dedicated to this sort of stuff, whereas the best we have in the US is hateful Christians and some commercialized New Age devotees. Well, we have some Native American tribal members but we hide them away on reservations. Brits are colonizers but they also retain some indigenous mystical culture of their own.

—Lovely Kate Bush.

Things I don't love so much:

—I'm sorry to give into a stereotype, but my time at Cambridge proved the rumors about England's tasteless food. It was really weird to me, actually, since a lot of it looked good but almost all of it was so flavorless. I'm not even a foodie but I was craved some kind of taste so much, my friends and I patronized "The UK's favorite restaurant," Pizza Hut, more times than I'd ever consider eating there here in the U.S. I don't understand how Britain colonized the world looking for spices and it's wedged between France and Ireland, which both have delicious food, and it fails to offer any flavor.

—People in London were mean, and people in Cambridge generally were crabby. NYC people are really, really friendly by comparison to Londoners. My experience in Paris was universally welcoming and friendly and in London it was almost universally GTFO.

—Hypocrisy about racism and xenophobia. The US has big problems with it, yes. I would never deny it. But a few people in the UK told me that the US is racist and brought up the history of slavery, and I don't understand how Britain gets off the hook for that. It was the British colonists who farmed tobacco and cotton for the king who instituted slavery in the colonies. And Brits today certainly are xenophobic. Brexit is a nationalistic act of xenophobic legislation and the majority of the country voted in favor of it. Brits may not have color-based discrimination to the extent we do, but they certainly look down on non-Brits.

—I admit I do not get the royal family AT ALL. I don't understand their purpose or why anyone has any interest in watching them travel around and wave. But I also can't imagine the UK without those figureheads.

—For a people who gave us Milton and Shakespeare, they use really and lovely and brilliant way too much with so little variety in their day-to-day speech. I expect better because as someone mentioned above, all British dialects have a musical cadence in a way no American speech does and it's wasted on so much repetitive speech with such limited vocab.

—And as I mentioned above, obnoxiously loud and eagerly urinating drunk culture. For all the country's aesthetic charms, this is really disgraceful and after a certain amount of time in Cambridge it broke the spell the beautiful landscape and architecture had cast on me. I suppose it's just an organic part of UK culture, but it sure is a cultural difference. I am not in any way a proud American and I acknowledge all our major cultural concerns, but I am really grateful that streets aren't full of agressive, pissing people at night.

[quote]I'll be the fly on the wall.

You generally are dear!

I didn't realize the UK has a lot of Brutalist architecture.

Everyone seems to think D.C. is all beautiful neoclassical buildings but the majority of federal buildings are Brutalist and to me the style feels like suicidal ideation memorialized in concrete. I hate it, with the exception of the ceilings of the Metro, which I've always thought are cool looking. This architectural style plunges me into a depressive mood. I cannot understand how it ever caught on.

Whenever I see THIS I think "Who the hell allowed that to be built?" in an area of such fine architecture.

OP many Americans are fascinated with Britain because for a very large number of Americans their ancestors came here from there. It's something they been told about since childhood. I have no English ancestors as mine came from Holland & Portugal. I've been to both countries multiple times but I admit that I am still fascinated by them.

I thought it was just the fraus who think they'll be living like Kate Middleton if they move to Britain.

R 70 Beats being on your pussy Mom.

Americans who are aware of the UK’s existence find its people endlessly fascinating for the damage they do to themselves. The teeth, stink, and public drunkenness have been discussed but they’re just a way of being by now. Lately we’ve been wondering about what you’re doing: Boris’ premiership looks like a poorly managed midlife crisis and Brexit an existential one.

You’re like a train wreck, once-great Britain: hard to watch as you slide down the tubes but harder still to look away.

Weirdly, most Brits are quite fixated on America - I think because the class-phobia is so written in the DNA they think America is one big land of equality. If they want to emigrate, it's usually either to America or Australia. Draw your own conclusions.

I'm quite jealous of Canada, to be honest. It's true, you seldom hear about them. They just live up there, doing their thing, being kind of groovy. It's true, Toronto being the poor man 's New York would be a step up - it is a grim, unfriendly, uninteresting place. But they do have better health care for more people, virtually no gun problems... basically take a problem here and on the worst day you might see ten per cent of it in Canada. To be honest, I'd love me some of that. Yes, they have easy qualities to mock, but is it contempt we're showing or jealousy?

Canada is more moderate and more modest. The US is ultra-capitalist and ultra-competitive, a land of "haves" if you can earn or cheat or steal your way to the top and don't mind crushing others along your way, and the UK has this strange tension of its empirical history, xenophobic independence and domestic democracy with snooty figureheads who serve no purpose except to retain an identity steeped in its heritage. I also respect Canada for what it is even though it's not often on my mind.

Many DLers are fixated on the UK because they think it's Klassy

Face it, we have Trump and QAnon, they have Boris and Brexit. We're both trash.

R69, good round up sis.

I think that “Special Relationship” gig our governments love to peddle is also rooted in something.

Americans love the accent and it goes a LONG way here.

For me, it’s like the “mother tongue.” The UK gave the world English. There is some sense of connection here despite all of our funny accents (yes, the rest of the Commonwealth too). Unfortunately we’re family, so we are going to have some things we love and somethings we hate about “across the pond” versus home.

We know Canada. They copy from us because they are so close. It is very cold there. The UK is a foreign land that many Americans CAN point to on a map....

Where are SurvivingAngel and UKGayGuy???

I used to be an Anglophile...then I visited London.

Within 2 minutes of a taxi ride, the white driver went on a 10-minute racist rant (and this was several years before Brexit).

[quote]I admit I do not get the royal family AT ALL. I don't understand their purpose or why anyone has any interest in watching them travel around and wave

How do you feel when you see your President symbolising the country or representing the nation? It's not the power, it's the symbolism. Clearer now? And skip the but we elected him - because there are some glaring distinctions - it is the existence of the role. The RF is just what they're used to, but it's essentially the same thing - a vessel to personify the nation.

[quote]We know Canada. They copy from us because they are so close. It is very cold there. The UK is a foreign land that many Americans CAN point to on a map....

What exactly do they copy?

You do realise that the majority of the Canadian population lives south of Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington, Maine, northern parts of South Dakota, Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York state, etc.

R85 Not at all. Our president is a figurehead but he is also a governor. He actively governs. He passes executive orders that usually end up being temporary but which can have equal weight to legislation passed by Congress. Our president is not a mere representative of the government; he serves more or less the same role as your prime minister, and I understand why you have a prime minister: to administer. Her Royal Highness blessed the McVitie's chocolate-covered digestive biscuits and the English breakfast tea I drink, according to their packages, but she doesn't spend her days brokering diplomatic relations and passing laws that affect life and economic activities. Our president does.

Ottawa's Parliament Hill > D.C. Capitol Hill.

Americans are more fascinated by Mexico than Britain.

R89 Mexico has good food. Britain has good Indian food.

So unless things are done exactly as you understand them and on your terms, R87, you can't understand anything else.

OK.

I'd concentrate on domestic travel for your own safety.

We originated from the UK did we not? my mother's family came here from the UK in the 1600's My father's mother's family came here from England around the same time so it is my history. It is also nice to watch your monarchy and know we don't have to pay for it.

One more point which you will likely also fail to grasp, monarchy is above politics. It is not partisan. It is meant to be apart. While this does not deliver unanimity, it is furthest from partisanship of all the models for head of state. Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy are different than a federal system.

"Walter Bagehot, in The English Constitution, published in 1867, asserted that a constitution needed two parts, ‘one to excite and preserve the reverence of the population’ and the other to ‘employ that homage in the work of government’. The first he called ‘dignified’ and the second ‘efficient’. The monarch was the prime example of dignity in this sense and the cabinet of efficiency. Thus Queen Victoria, while lacking executive power, had an important constitutional role. The distinction has survived and has been often cited in the twentieth century in the development of systematic theories of politics (in which the parts of a system are seen as functional in respect of the whole) and in prescriptive debates about the merits of an executive presidency vis‐à‐vis those of monarchy and other forms of ‘symbolic’ head of state."

But again, I accept, that is different from your experience which seems to be the extent of what you can understand.

We love you because of foggy nights, chimney sweeps, the cute way you all doff off your hat and say "Guv'nuh", and we love London and the Thames, plum pudding, Syllabub, the pink and gold of the English complexion (so Yardley) and endless dinners at Oxford, listening to the other professors drone on about their accomplishments. There's more but it's all along the same lines.

The English are endlessly fascinated by India. Americans, on the other hand, don't give two shits about the Philippines anymore.

Americans do have a fascination with Mexico (but not Peru or the Argentine), with Japan and to a lesser extent China, and with France and Italy. You'd think they'd be more into Germany and Korea as places where so many Americans are from and where they have had millions of soldiers stationed, but no. Greece also doesn't inspire much interest. There is a fascination with Israel, but not with British level of interest in say Egypt or Dubai or Morocco. There is some interest in Iran but not in the rest of the Islamic world. Some people are endlessly fascinated by Russia, but interest in the rest of the Slavic world tends to be limited to people of that descent. Americans are into Scandinavia (or violently against it). Americans take less interest in the Caribbean than anyone might believe, and certainly far less interest than Canadians. They do take more interest in the south seas than most Europeans. And Australia is the only country they generally prefer to their own. Datalounge is unusual in its interest in Canada and New Zealand. Americans used to be fascinated with Thailand and Vietnam, but not lately.

LOL @ R96

Yeah, they seem to think the UK is some kind of elfin fairytale kingdom filled with refined aristocrats and humble peasants.

R96 All countries seem to favor certain other countries for various reasons. When I went to Ireland, I was struck how US-obsessed the Irish seem to be. When I went to Paris, Peruvian tourism ads were everywhere (I've never seen one in the US) and at an international chocolate expo there, there was a Peruvian theme. Peru seemed so random since we never hear about it here in the US. Meanwhile, among people I know, Paris seems to be the number-one romanticized vacation city. A lot of Brits seem to flock to Orlando, Florida, wheras people in my area who have kids will go there but otherwise most of us think of it as a dreadful place.

[quote]A lot of Brits seem to flock to Orlando, Florida, wheras people in my area who have kids will go there but otherwise most of us think of it as a dreadful place.

They discover how awful it is once they get there

[quote] Americans take less interest in the Caribbean than anyone might believe, and certainly far less interest than Canadians.

The Florida coast and the Keys are more convenient surrogates for the Caribbean for many. As gruesome as the people of Florida are, the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have the warm turquoise water, white sands and coral reefs of the Caribbewn without requiring international travel or feeling like a foreigner. Canadians don't have that. If they want warm, they have to fly internationally and so they may as well pick from among all the offerings.

[quote]Canadians don't have that. If they want warm, they have to fly internationally

Don't they have decent summers at least?

R100 Contemporary depictions of people from Essex make it look like they're made for Florida. No idea how exaggerated those characterizations are. (There are some sane people in Florida, but overall, people from Florida are as batshit crazy as you'd think based on news headlines.)

R102 Yes, much of Canada has warm summers, but bear in mind that it's a vast country and unlike the US, it's only bordered by oceans on the two coasts (the US has a warm southern coast) and the water of the North Atlantic and Pacific Northwest oceans never gets that warm for swimming—certainly not like thwt of Florida, the Gulf coast or the Caribbean. So Canadians who want the tropical or warm summer beach experience are better off leaving.

There's always an exception, though, and the exception is New Brunswick.

You'd think the cruise industry would have stirred American interest in the Caribbean but it hasn't. The arrogance, bland commerciality, and misdeeds of Miami Cubans have extinguished the romance of Havana for everyone. The US treatment of Puerto Rico in the last thirty years has been shameful, and Americans always treated Dominicans and Haitians as belonging to another species altogether.

Jamaicans of course have been written off because of their antigay violence and insanity. Let the Brits deal with them.

Yeah, I wouldn't even consider Jamaica. I know I'm not wanted there. Ditto all Sandals resorts.

And as for cruises...gross. No thank you.

I"m told the water on the beaches of Prince Edward Island can reach 70 degrees farenheit....about one weekend every two years.

I'm fascinated by how much Britons seem to think Americans are fascinated by Britons.

[quote]Yeah, I wouldn't even consider Jamaica. I know I'm not wanted there.

Apparently it's a shithole anyway. And I hate reggae.

Brits get daily updates on US news, as well as news from the rest of the English speaking world. Americans rarely get news from large swathes of their own country, let alone anywhere else.

[quote]Brits get daily updates on US news,

Yes

[quote] as well as news from the rest of the English speaking world.

No.

What I love about the UK:

-Ascott/Tradition - It doesn't matter what social class you are from, you could be on the tube or bus and see everyone in their version of finery, complete with girls in their fascinators. It's fun to see the chavs, the posh, the kids, all partying balls. People get wasted.

-People get WASTED - It does not matter again what class you are. I tried to keep up with British friends and it always ended up disastrous - one night I passed out in a toilet stall in an American diner in SoHo for 45 minutes, I've thrown up in a E Class Mercedes Uber, I got out of control on gin and told a lesbian off, and so forthe. I started smoking weed again and would buy off the black kids who hung out in SoHo by the big statue.

-Sunday Roast - I love this tradition.

-British moms and grandmothers - they are so warm and friendly

-Awesome nightlife straight and gay - I lived in Chelsea and there were so many fun places to. Boujis (Harry's old favorite), Raffles, the Sloaney Poney. G.A.Y, Heaven, Comptons, I wasn't that into Vauxhall, but there were some cool nights like Ducky (champagne enemas, that kind of thing)

-Pizza Express - I fucking love Pizza Express. Their pizza is really good.

-Interesting Gays - We would do safari suppers, gin in the tea cup brunches - creative things

-Big fat British cocks - British men have bigger cocks than Americans after a large sample size. I prefer cut, so they are not as pretty, but they are huge

-Big fat Arab cocks - I can get this in the US, but there were a lot of Arabs that lived on their own in London for school while their families were in the middle east somewhere so they were more free.

-Trains, planes, and tubes - It was so easy to get around London, the UK, and to cheaply see other countries

-The BRF - Although, when I lived there I wasn't as into it. I never toured castles, which I regret

[quote]You'd think the cruise industry would have stirred American interest in the Caribbean but it hasn't.

I think the Caribbean is still fairly popular. Punta Cana, US Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Aruba are all popular vacation spots for Americans. And so is Cancun on the Mexican Gulf coast.

[quote]-Sunday Roast - I love this tradition.

I love brunch

[quote]British moms and grandmothers - they are so warm and friendly

You should meet mine, you'd change your mind in a flash.

[quote]The BRF - Although, when I lived there I wasn't as into it.

Who was back then?

[quote]I never toured castles, which I regret

I don't think I've ever even been to one. It's a very American thing "the castles".

What I didn't like about the UK, which made me believe I was a real American despite my best attempts:

-No means no - full stop: In the UK, no means no, whether in school or going after a job. In the US, a no can be flexible and a jumping off point to start negotiations, this is the not the case in the UK.

-"Say you are proactive vs. aggressive" - Being aggressive and doing whatever you can to get a job is not considered a good thing. In the US, it's good to be aggressive and go after things. In the UK, it's bullish and you need to go through the process. Someone told me to say "you are proactive vs. aggressive".

-Sense of humor - Brits can say some very cutting things all in good fun and I can say some very cutting things in response, but it didn't feel like good fun coming from me. I would feel insulted and lob something more cutting back and it just didn't work. I love British sense of humor, but their wit is biting.

-Where are the British? - I went to Uni in central London and EVERYONE was muslim or from another country. There literally were no Brits in any of my courses and nobody spoke full English, so I had to do all the writing. Now this was not Oxford, but it was solid, respectable University. Karen came out before it was a thing and I used to get into arguments with the tutors and administration that they are allowing people in who don't speak proper English.

-Nobody speaks English in London/Everyone is a foreigner - Especially in the last few years, I doesn't feel like there are any brits in London. Everyone feel like they are from somewhere else. For THE English speaking country, I felt like I was trying to navigate the tower of Babble - it's a melting pot that doesn't melt, but instead in chunks. You have all the continent living there.

-There is a low key anti-American vibe - I am saying low key. I felt embraced by the people I met, but there was a lot of American commentary. People have even advised to say I was Canadian when going out - NEVER!!!!!

-There is no American dream - obviously - The UK fosters an environment of practicality instead of pursuit of dreams. At least that's what I felt. People seemed content not to try to pursue their dreams and there always seemed to be roadblocks, those no's all the time. This is why I know I am an American. There is something in our DNA where we believe anything is possible, for better or worse. That's not the mentality in the UK.

A lot of Americans can trace their heritage back to the UK, which gives us a feeling of connection--the phrase "Our American Cousins" exists for a reason, along with the Special Relationship. Our two countries are tied by blood and by custom.

That said, when I visited London, I found the people, on the whole, to be snotty and mean. I was expecting that when I went to NYC, but on my first visit there I was pleasantly surprised. New Yorkers are in a hurry, but they are not rude or condescending the way Londoners were.

R117 The US is aggressively capitalist, and "the American dream" is a collective unsustainable nightmare because it's all about accumulating money, attainment and status. The idea is that immigrants come here for opportunity for their children, their children have more, their children have more and so on forever. The end result is Trumps and Hiltons, and the pursuit of such things often involves exploitation and crimes.

Smaller countries with less room for expansion economically and spatially are better able to find contentment in a satisfactory life that isn't dedicated to having the biggest house, the most expensive car, the biggest salary, the most impressive title.

I'm from Northern Virginia and have spent almost 15 years living in D.C., and I am honestly grossed out by most of the people whose ambitions move them here. I think I have a British-ish outlook on being comfortable enough in a smallish apartment with everything I need, and I save money but I still buy a lot of crap I don't need or even really want that much, which is the American culture. I'm happy with a stable, dependable job and income, but I am in a city of people who are aggressively upwardly mobile because they have big dreams that are entirely materialistic and ego-based. I don't find that admirable in any way. I really think it's grotesque, all about consuming and dominating others.

[quote] The US is aggressively capitalist, and "the American dream" is a collective unsustainable nightmare because it's all about accumulating money, attainment and status.

I understand. This is why I said I think this is something that is just baked into American DNA. Meghan is the consequence of when you try to merge and force two very different and long standing ideologies. I just wonder if the people who look so "knackered" at the end of the day on the tube and get piss drunk, living every day for their few holidays in the sun, content? I like the notion of anything is possible but that too can lead to never be contented no matter how much you have or wishing you had more in the US.

BTW, at least what I say in London, there is a very capitalistic vibe there too. They vast money and extreme wealth seems to be everywhere. Much more on display than in the US and I from LA. There is this massive global wealth vibe in the city. It's why I like London. It feels like the epic-center of the world.

The American Dream has been twisted and corrupted in the past 40 years to exactly what you are talking about r119. It started out as a decent life for everyone willing to work for it and has become this shitty winner-take-all society. It absolutely sucks that the modern American Dream is for a few people to become a Trump or a Bezos or Elon Musk or some other asshole and everyone else gets to live in misery and shit.

I do hope that we can get back to the actual American Dream someday.

R120 Yes, Bravo did that show Ladies of London that was basically a Housewives franchise with half Brits and half US expats and the whole thing was pretty gross, just materialistic, egotistical women competing to be important among upperclass people in London. That show also wore away a little of my anglophile tendencies because the British women seemed a lot less desperate for acceptance than the American women, but they were condescending and dismissive.

It is true about the American DNA. Self reliance, independence, it is part of the DNA, as, I would argue, a greater comfort with the collective is baked into the Canadians - they are much more European in their outlook on society than the Americans. The difference is evident in gun laws and health care. This is not meant as a criticism but purely an observation about one of the points around which both countries organise, socially. Which is neither a good thing or a bad thing, a strength or a weakness. It is just a fundamental difference. Canada was a colony, tied to the UK until comparatively recently. Although the UK would never call itself European, in the main, it did right after the war, adopt the concept of the welfare state in the election of the Atlee government. From the revolution, American only look inward. It had cut ties. It had nowhere else to look.

Well I suppose London's had that vibe off and on for a few hundred years. The Dutch sort of invented modern crazy ass capitalism, but the Brits ran with it. It's shitty though, extremes of wealth and a worship of wealth. It's always shitty wherever it crops up.

[quote] Bravo did that show Ladies of London that was basically a Housewives franchise with half Brits and half US expats and the whole thing was pretty gross, just materialistic, egotistical women competing to be important among upperclass people in London.

This was on when I was going to University in London and it made me cringe at the American "ladies". Everyone was talking about this show at the time. This and the first season of Made in Chelsea, which is the UK version of The Hills but more aristocratic.

Central London doesn't feel "English" (which let's be honest means white people who talk like the Granthams or Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.) The first time I went to London I was blown away by the accents from everywhere. Stand on a street corner and you hear everybody but the English. It is an international city that still looks fairly English (things have been worn away since the Gherkin burst the bubble.)

R123 The US Constitution promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All are individual freedoms.

The Canadian Constitution promises peace, order and good government. All are community protections.

Our governments define our sensibilities, and we in the US are free to endanger one another with guns and refuse vaccines and in Canada people are obligated to think about neighbors' well being before acting.

The so-called American dream of the house, the car, and the quarter acre, was all of it socialist and borrowed from New Zealand and Australia. None of it was "American."

If America had a dream in the 19th century it was a small farm for everyone. That dream is mostly busted but still lives on. The current mania for fame is grotesque and evil.

The U.S. is off-brand England.

OP, you're probably referring to the Anglophiles, a small minority who tend to be women and gay men, usually in the arts. The rest of the country doesn't really care about England beyond being a great ally.

[quote] The U.S. is off-brand England.

Let's not get carried away, but there definitely is that "special relationship" between Brits and Americans. I feel more connected to Brits than Canadians in terms of being cousins.

Nah, the English colonists had no idea of owning their own land in the US in the late 1600s, r128.

Do you tell history differently on the bottom part of the world?

[quote] I feel more connected to Brits than Canadians in terms of being cousins.

Why?

R130 here. That should have read "usually involved/interested in the arts."

[quote]The US Constitution promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All are individual freedoms.

Go back and finish high school. Those words are in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, which guarantees no such things.

The American Dream.

Well, you are the second-most important English-speaking nation.

Even though I do not ascribe to being woke in today's terms or SJW, a think Americans have a naturally woke tendency. I had a professor who would say things with the caveat that this is not America and that Americans cannot complain about his thoughts. It was me and one other American. He was talking about the difference between men and women's brains, how one is more linear, the other more scattered in terms of thought process. The other American and I looked at each other like, what?!?

ALERT - English actor @ R136

[quote]Nah, the English colonists had no idea of owning their own land in the US in the late 1600s, [R128].

I read that England still owns great swathes of American land.

(but don't quote me on this - I don't want trouble)

QE2 owns some huge horse cock in Kentucky.

One would wonder if she likes the whisky.

Barclay's or Meghan, r140?

Has anyone here EVERY known any American "fascinated" with England? Jesus. I can't imagine how miserable it would be to grow-up there. It's hard enough to visit but to live there would truly be awful. I'd rather spend the rest of my days in a Reno retirement village.

R143 I have. I used to be friends with a musical theater geek from NYC. I was his only 'non-theater' friend. The rest of his buddies (female and gay) were also involved/interested in the arts in some way. One thing I noticed about them is that they tended to be Anglophiles. (This may also explain why Brits tend to win at the Tonys and Oscars). Some of them would go to London to see shows (before they transferred to Broadway) and others would watch British shows/movies. This was the early 2010s so Downton Abbey was big with them, too. We drifted apart around 2015, and I haven't met another group since that was fascinated by England like that.

Brit wit is a thing.

Actors are usually classically trained and not a pretty face (or teeth).

Brit literature and theatre. And TV! They came up with many successful formats for shows borrowed by Hollywood.

Shakespeare?

If you are the least bit white, you are probably at least a bit British.

We are young. We do not have castles and kings and legends thousands of years old like King Arthur. (I know the court stories are from the Continent.)

Anyway, we are cousins. Or we are the red-headed stepchild.

No, that's Australia.

[quote]Has anyone here EVERY known any American "fascinated" with England?

Don't be ridiculous. Just because it's not YOUR thing.

Canada would be the Cousin Oliver.

America is the independent eldest child, Canada the pleasant and dutiful middle child, and Australia the wild and charming youngest child.

[quote]Actors are usually classically trained and not a pretty face (or teeth).

There's hardly a day that goes by when DL isn't [bold]fawning over one of out actors[/bold] who mostly have very nice teeth - just not those big bleached fake looking things Americans find so appealing.

Joke, dude. Where's your wit?

I think they are having a sale on veneers. See the Boy George thread.

With all due respect OP, we really aren’t fascinated by you and yours. Unfortunately the mainstream media shoves the “Royals” down our throats. To tell you the truth, we think Harry and Meagan are assholes for ditching their duties, but we just don’t care enough to think about it too often. The media is a hungry bitch that tries to tell us what we should care about, but I can assure you that the intelligent US citizens wouldn’t care if you were nuked off the globe tomorrow.

R20 Well hell,s bells. I do that. But of course I’m white trash from Hooterville.

I take it intelligence then excludes compassion or empathy or any of that fellow man malarkey, R151?

I've become so aware, post-Brexit, of the flaws in the English psyche. I live in Paris which is, unnoticed to the rest of the world, constructing a giant 24-hour automated metro system that will encircle the city, running from the NYC equivalent of Paramus to White Plains to Hempstead.

By contrast, I saw a documentary on the Crossrail line under construction in London and an interviewee intoned "the world is watching". Delusion is not just a river in you get the point.

Of course some of us are fascinated by England, at least a part of it. The part we don't have. The Royals, the big estates, actual aristocrats rather than some assholes that happen to be rich and ridiculous. It's going to be a thing forever. We want what we don't have. It's not that complicated.

And of course some bitters will pretend none of that exists because they don't want it to exist, always the stupidest form of reasoning.

Just the posh bits, Darling.

Daisy, Rose, and Oswald...

Benidorm...

R144–I know many people in the US who are Anglophiles. They are, generally, not young, they are interested in history, architecture, museums, royalty, etc. They are generally monied, and have freedom to spend time there.

The network of walking paths that cross private land alone are so beautiful. And Scotland. My god, the beauty.

I think they see things as more art and not commercial. They know when to end something. The story is over.

Smart, clever, educated, socialist (ha!) writers and creatives at the BBC.

The old man comedy...One Foot in the Grave? The main character gets hit by a car and dies in the last episode. The finale is about his funeral. You're like...wtf?

Too much! I love it.

R130, speaking as a gay man with 20 years professional life in "the arts", the only thing about England that really fascinated me was what absolute cunts they were whenever I had them as clients.

The British have the stupidest commercial gallery/art museum culture I have ever encountered. We're talking dog-food levels of dumb. And Damien Hirst needs to get caught without his 'brelly in a brief shower of anvils.

I can assure R23 that the bemused English locals watching him back shared his epiphany.

One thing I find funny is that Americans don’t understand what a powerful collective cultural opiate televised sport (most commonly the footie, but perhaps rugby or cricket or tennis if you’re a posho) is for us. Even the U.S. sports-fans one meets can’t quite access or match the level of nostalgic and nationalistic feeling we’re all weaned on when it comes to the sport. It’s subtly there in every Brit to enjoy or have an interest, even a deeply-buried flicker in those who profess they don’t care about sport at all. It seems to me that Americans find this curious.

I can tell when my depressive spirals are coming on, by how fervently I want to watch the footie at any given time. At the moment I’m looking forward to the Europa Cup more than usual, so I know it’s time to go to bed earlier and look up another therapist. When my father is angry or upset or overwhelmed by anything, he grabs a tinny, stalks off to the workshop, and sticks a match on the telly. It’s just how we’re socialised; the same as automatically sticking the kettle on for a tea whenever anything goes a bit wrong/right/sideways. Opiate for the masses, indeed.

I never had any real interest in England—I had a very Disney-type childhood movie concept of it—until I went there in college. I wanted to go to France but I had maxed out on French credits for an English major and so that would have been a waste of money, and I was invited to do an honors semester abroad at Cambridge. It sounded prestigious and so I went.

This was in 2000. I loved it beginning with Virgin Atlantic. I hated Heathrow. The aesthetic of Cambridge really captured my heart. Everywhere I went were gorgeous old churches, people punting on the river, swans. I had never seen a place so charming and I found it unreal that my dorm room was older than any building I knew of on the East Coast of the US.

I had notions that English people were going to be funny looking with freaky teeth and most of the young people were beautiful with normal teeth.

I also loved the contemporary Brit-pop culture aesthetic at the time—bold, clashing colors like pink and orange paired together, etc.

My love of it was aesthetic. As I mentioned above, the nightly wild drunkenness with screaming and peeing in the streets was a rude awakening, and the people from Cambridge seemed mostly crabby, and the people in London shops (we spent a week there after the classes) were really nasty. Like, just mean. We were over-achieving and well-behaved (read: nerdy) college kids and we felt like they were treating us like thieves everywhere we went.

The food...I mean, Pizza Hut and the Hard Rock Cafe had the best food I ate on the entire trip, and that's not a flattering assessment.

The clubs G-A-Y and Heaven were fun. One thing that struck me immediately and I never forgot was that the gay clubs I went to were all mixed, with both gay men and lesbians. That did not happen here in D.C.: clubs here are either primarily for gay men and their girl friends or else they are lesbian clubs.

I got some really adorable and strange shoes in London that were unlike anything I had ever seen (I still have them.) and the clothes in British stores fit me better than clothes in US stores; I now know European clothes have narrower shoulders and longer arms, as I do. The shoulder seams of US-made clothes always fall a few inches down my arm instead of on the shoulder.

My gaydar in the US is a heat-seeking missile and I hardly ever mistake a gay guy for a straight guy it didn't work at all in England. I had no idea who was gay and who was straight except when I saw and heard drunk dudes roaring in the streets.

I became obsessed with England after seeing "Brideshead Revisited" in high school in 1982. Then in college, movies like "Another Country", "A Room with a View" and "Maurice" only increased my obsession. I finally got the chance to go there and stay for four months in 1989 and (unlike some on here) enjoyed every second of my stay. I went to the museums and did day trips from London out to castles and to various villages where my ancestors came from. Went up to Newcastle and Edinburgh, and down to Kent. Cambridge was my favorite. I went home determined to finish my degree and then go to Cambridge, but life had other plans for me. I've never had the chance to go back, but I still love everything about it.

R164,You had me until

[quote] most of the young people were beautiful with normal teeth.

Well done.

R166 They were. I was there over the summer and there were so many tanned, floppy haired college guys pushing the punts and just hanging around the town. I couldn't believe how stunning many of them were—a young Jude Law here, a young Kit Harington there, a young Tom Hardy and Ben Barnes over there.

Unfortunately, all drunk and bellowing and peeing.

Now that I am thinking of Kit Harington, I wonder if he and the rest of the breakthrough heartthrob cast of Game of Thrones could sue the writers for ruining their careers with such devastatingly bad writing in the last two seasons leaving us sick of them.

But I digress.

[quote][R166] They were. I was there over the summer and there were so many tanned, floppy haired college guys pushing the punts and just hanging around the town. I couldn't believe how stunning many of them were

On Saturday in London there was a march, a lot of young people - I saw so many good looking men. This myth that the English aren't good looking is total bullshit but if you see what passes for sexy and/or handsome on DL it makes sense.

OP, do you consider yourself British as well, or primarily English? (Your post says English, and we in the US commonly get confused about how to refer to Brits and especially to English people, since most generally think of England when we hear of the U.K.)

[quote]

Unfortunately, all drunk and bellowing and peeing.

This sentence makes me see a gaggle of floppy-haired, bellowing toddlers. Well done.

[quote] since most generally think of England when we hear of the U.K.

They're fucking right.

Do people in the UK take Ancestry DNA tests?

I'm curious what the average breakdowns are compared with mine.

I'm American; my Irish ancestors came to the US beginning in the 1850s and my other ones go back to 1700, according to Ancestry, but I'm such a limited ethnic mix:

44% England & Northwestern European

37% Irish (all from Connacht/County Mayo)

17% Scottish

2% Swedish

I'd expect more variation after all this time.

To the point of Brits (and Irish people) being "swarthy," it's funny to me that when I was in my 20s, guys regularly messaged me on Manhunt to tell me I am "exotic" looking and to ask where I'm from. I always made them guess, and they'd guess Russia, Spain, the Middle East, Syria, the Balkans. It was so strange. I'm so white and pale with blue-gray eyes and medium-brown hair.

R117 is totally spot on with this comment: -Sense of humor - Brits can say some very cutting things all in good fun and I can say some very cutting things in response, but it didn't feel like good fun coming from me. I would feel insulted and lob something more cutting back and it just didn't work. I love British sense of humor, but their wit is biting.

Totally true. And if you come back with something, they get offended, which is weird. A contemporary example of this is Lisa Vanderpump on Bravo - gets in digs whenever she can, some of which is really mean or insulting. But they can't take it when it comes back to them because of course THEY were just saying it as a joke. It's a really strange position to put people in.

[quote] I'm so white and pale with blue-gray eyes and medium-brown hair.

You sound hot, R174. I love that coloring on Irish guys.

I find a lot of middle-class brits LOOOOVE Disney and Orlando.

OP I think you're confused. Americans are endlessly fascinated about the Scots, Welsh and Irish. The English.... well, no.

And, may I add... the teeth? What in God's name have you, as a people, done to produce that snaggle of bones in your mouths?

Yeah I have found Americans are generally interested in the Irish more than the English. They think they have a connection with the Irish. England is kind of old fashioned and dated to many Americans, Ireland is "mystical".

About 1/2 of my ancestry is British Isles, so that caused some interest. I’m also fascinated by the Roman period of British history. The English dental problem is also amusing. Oscar Wilde. Radclyffe Hall. The failure of the British automotive industry is also interesting.

Girls, girls. You're both imperialists pigs.

I'm of Scottish descent. I am very, very fond of anything involving Scottish history.

I guess that counts.

[quote]Yeah I have found Americans are generally interested in the Irish more than the English. They think they have a connection with the Irish.

Due to the American accent?

On behalf of Americans everywhere, I apologize for R15's baby tastes.

[quote] Girls, girls. You're both imperialists pigs.

As we used to say in TV commercials, we learned it by watching you.

I grew up with a British dad-Radio 4, Agatha Christie books, Enid Blyton, Sunday Times/Observer...I had an idea what Britain was.

Except when I was old enough to go there I realized that was what it used to look like-white with everyone knowing their place. Now it's a strange mix of races with a fearful and confused indigenous population having to learn to live with others of different heritage and experiences and customs.

Why would we be fascinated with your lost cause of a nation, OP?

Well, we kicked your asses in 1776 and 1812. Then we saved your asses in 1911 and 1945.

We are like the strong younger brother who likes to check in with our older and dumber and weaker brother.

I am so embarrassed for you, R188 - you’re a massive cliche and you aren’t even aware of it.

Things that kill the fascination with the UK: Brexit, Nigel Farage, British sitcoms (all of them, even "Crashing"), real estate prices in London, Jeremy Corbyn, the Daily Mail, Harry's endless bleatings, The Sun, the replacement hosts in The Great British Baking Show, the slavish worship of Diana, shows with excessive violence like Luther and Marcella, unfunny comedians. I could go on but why.

The history is what does it for me. For instance, I just saw this on Reddit yesterday - Britain's oldest door, from the time of Edward the Confessor! Fascinating!

Americans never think of Canada even though most of their bad television and movies are filmed in Vancouver. And Americans never think of anyone other than themselves even though their music, films, actors, fashion and culture comes from everywhere but the United States these days. People still come to the USA to gorge on money but we all make fun of you for being big fat Jesus-freak yokels.

[quote] 1776 thing

OP, we've been told to not worry about the 1776 thing.

This woman with the hair says we need to obsess over the 1619 thing.

[quote] Jane Austin

No, R15, Jane Austen.

Britain gave their language, their Westminster system and their ethos to their colony so it's natural that the youngsters look to their heritage.

But we can see how they've been bucking the system and trying REALLY hard to generate their own culture.

[quote]Then we saved your asses in 1911 and 1945.

Still trying to figure out what happened in 1911.

I’ve always loved Britain for giving me all the great horror thriller films from the 50s-60s onward, Benny Hill, Hayley Mills, Alfred Hitchcock, the BBC anthology series Thriller, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, Jack the Ripper, the spoooooky moors, so much great post-punk and alternative rock, 4AD the record label, the Beatles, Sleaford Mods, Malcolm McDowell...

Plus ALL the fantastically thick-as-a-baby’s-forearm hogs between the legs of the beautiful/ugly blokes, whether pasty white or oddly well-tanned... Love love love the motherland and all it’s given us.

I'm a bit stumped on 1812, R196. On a charitable day you'd call it a draw. And the Americans didn't march through London and burn Westminster.

Canada...

Laura Secord was a Yankee!

[quote]People still come to the USA to gorge on money but we all make fun of you for being big fat Jesus-freak yokels.

You can make fun of us all you like, R192. But at the end of the day, you still live in a country whose culture is dominated by ours. All day, every day, you consume our music, you consume our movies, you take your fashion cues from America and Americans. You follow American celebrities and American gossip on American websites. You connect with your friends, family and colleagues using American social media platforms. Even though you live in a country with its own markets, the American market is the only market that matters in your daily and civic life.

You are an expert in the minute details of our form of government. You can easily recite the name the last five American presidents, but if someone ask you to name your own most recent heads of state, most likely, you could not even name two. Meanwhile, you go about life completely oblivious to the fact that, most likely, you live in a country that could not defend itself against external threats without the benefit of American taxpayer generosity. You are quick to criticize our foreign policy mistakes, and yet, there you are since the year 1945, clinging to our defense alliance like a battered housewife who is desperate to keep her bed at the shelter.

You spend all day at work plodding away and feeding data into enterprise applications that were pioneered and developed right here in America by American companies. When you are not working, your face is buried in a smart phone whose form, function, and design was perfected right here in, you guessed it, the United States of America. And even if that device is not American, it most certainly runs on American operating software, connecting you to the people, places and things that you love via the internet, which is only the most recent American invention to completely transform the world.

I could go on but I don't think I need to. Indeed, R192, please feel free to make fun of us all you like. The truth is, you don't even know who the hell you are outside the context of the life that America has given you, whoever you are.

JJ McCullough, gay Canadian, explains the Canadian constitution to us.

Why did the OP think "I'm a dumb as dirt subject of TQ" is a worthwhile?

Damn. R201 just dropped the American made mic.

Wanker

England is an island of inbred fuckwits and the SJWs and political correctness is out of control there.

[Quote]You've got Canada just over the border but you rarely talk about them.

Oh dear goodness. Seriously?!

Please tell us Americans why we should talk about you?!

That idiot Canadian socialite who killed the tropical cop is only on the Daily Mail.

And it took 201 responses before “we saved your asses in WW2”.

You guys are slipping!

You're really, really overestimating how much the average American thinks about the UK. Other than a few TV shows and maybe Harry Styles and the Royals?

We don't really care.

It's not you, btw. We just don't really care much about the large world because we don't really have to.

[Quote]Harry Styles

In America? Isn't Robert Pattinson killing (as in dreadful) the imperiled Batman pic?

And 209 responses before “we don’t care about you”, from someone who navigated to the thread, scrolled through 209 responses then cared enough to type the above.

Of course what you don’t realise, R209, is that bragging about not caring much about the “large world”, isn’t really anything of which to be proud.

But you wouldn’t understand that, being American.

That doesn't mean Pattison or Styles aren't shits, r211. Unless you find virtue, or something, in them.

Maybe it's because I live in D.C. and see it all the time, but after having traveled to Ottawa and seen Parliament Hill, I am a little embarrassed at how relatively small and rinkydink Capitol Hill looks by comparison.

Our neoclassical architecture is recognizable throughout the world but it feels like an imitation to me compared with the British/French gothic revival architecture that feels so substantial.

I love English architecture, in other words.

Founders of the U.S. emphasized efficiency and action over spirit and aesthetics, and they changed word spellings to eliminate silent letters they felt were unnecessary, they built characterless Protestant churches to eliminate all the awe-inspiring elements of places of worship, etc. It's really sad to me in a way. The US is just about producing, selling, buying, and moving product without looking back, and that capitalist sell-sell-sell, buy-buy-buy spirit is imbued in everything we think and do. I'm an arts-oriented person and I find the average American's attitude toward fine arts—they're impractical and therefore a trivial waste of monetary resources and time—to be devastatingly inhumane.

[quote]But you wouldn’t understand that, being American.

What's to understand? We ARE the world, R211.

I mean, who else do you have? China?

If you love the fine arts, R213, I wouldn't look to the UK as an example of how to do them.

And it's been a long, long, long time, since they built any of that flummoxed soot-catching Victorian mish-mash you evidently admire. The architectural equivalent of speaking in tongues.

R214, they DID have China! Briefly and right after the Opium Wars. The looting of the Summer Palace is one of those great hallmarks of British history. It's where the first Pekinese dogs in the UK came from - they were taken from the corpse of an elderly noblewoman. One was gifted to Queen Victoria who named it "Looty". That madcap irony they do over there! Really, the sort of thing that I dare say makes them proud!

#LootyMcLootFace

Canadian here. I don't honestly mind the lack of "obsesssion" about Canada. It's kind of nice to be in the background and not always No. 1 topic of fascination.

I will say that I agree there is a kind of "funky reverence" for UK on DL. I don't know if it's because a lot of folks have parents, grandparents (like me) who hail from Ireland, Scotland or wherever in the UK. There's also, which I remember quite clearly, this incredible sense of (or used to be) nationalism that I envy. Tony Blair and his minions coined Cool Britannia back in the 90s and it was kind of the Beatles invasion all over again.

I haven't head this whole thread, so pardon if I am repeating stuff.....I also believe there is incredible fascination with the UK in terms of certain products (not in any particular order):

Jaguar (who own it now, who knows?)

Great "Clubs" in London, very exclusive

The BRF (DL's favourite family) with some exceptions (u no who u r)

Theatre, Museums, Jazz Clubs

Royal Alberta Hall

Stunning Isle of Wight (and other spots)

Great world reknown, almost iconic performers (Connery, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Maggie Smith, Pink Floyd, The Beatles etc)

There's a certain confidence the British have and they have a right to that confidence. I think as a Canadian, I've always envied the U.K. for being more social (especially the Irish), polite, they love to queue (!), and so on. I think my fascination is due to grandparents being born in the U.K., I don't know.

They have also their loveable and intelligent eccentrics (Stephen Fry, Jilly Cooper, Boris (Bojo or Alex) Johnson with his XX numbers of kids) and Sarah Miles (who drinks urine), etc.

And to think they all live on a tiny little piece of land that would fit in one our Canadian provinces (Labrador). Hysterical.

^^^ Royal Albert Hall

Confess, you're really GermanGayGuy.

Yeah, wouldn't the poster have said "British?"

R138 was the professor French? French people have very traditional views of gender roles when observed through an Anglo-Saxon cultural lens.

What was the class subject, r138?

R214 Don’t be proud of your ignorance.

Unless you we’re making a joke about American parochialism, in which case - well played, sir!

R217 A lot of Americans are of Irish descent, but only Northern Ireland is part of the UK and so it doesn't really apply.

That said, a lot of us also have British ancestors. The UK and US obviously have a common history given that Britain colonized the US, and the puritans and the pilgrims and many of the entrepreneurs and the debtors and other indentured servants came from Britain, but I don't think most of us even consider British heritage when thinking about ancestry. I grew up thinking I am descended from people from Ireland, Germany and France primarily, and my DNA test reveals that I am nearly 50 percent British and nearly 40 percent Irish. I was surprised by the British part at first because I never even considered it an ethnicity. It's just sort of there, part and parcel with the US in a lot of ways.

But someone above said something interesting, that people of the UK are an indigenous people who are currently freaking out over people from different places moving into their territory and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Of course British people have been invaded by Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Normans, Vikings and others in various waves, but they've held their home islands pretty well and have seeded much of the world with their own ethnic group, which many still seem to assume to be superior in many ways. Their value is tied to their royalty and their past empire and their current hold over member colonies throughout the world. Their queen sigs on a magical space rock, for goodness's sake. British people really are an ethnic group with a specific culture that is currently in flux, and hundreds of years apart from it has made US culture entirely different, which surprises many of us when we go to the UK for the first time. I definitely had some culture shock when I went to Cambridge and I was really naive not to expect a different country to feel like a foreign country. As much pomp and circumstance as the Brits have, with their queen, and as much familiar pop culture as they've given us, there's also a lot of remaining Game of Thrones type mentality among UK culture and it is a big surprise to most American people who expect Brits will be a lot like Americans but with loverly accents and a lot of "I'm sorry!"

R201 is a total panty dropper, talk that talk...

We're fascinated by your stanksleeves.

[quote] pushing the punts

??

[quote] Let's not get carried away, but there definitely is that "special relationship" between Brits and Americans. I feel more connected to Brits than Canadians in terms of being cousins.

American here. I feel more connected to Canada than the U.K.

R227 Punts are boats that are powered/steered by someone who stands on the bow and steers with a long pole. It's a thing in Cambridge, punting on the Cam River. You hire locals to take you on rides down the river, similar to gondolas in Venice but the boats are different and gondolas are oar powered and punts are pole powered.

I've never been to Britain, but the quaint villages and vast countryside appeals to me. Like everyplace else, there's good and bad. One day I'll visit.

Thank you, R229.

That’s what appeals to me, too, R230. I love the rolling hills, seaside cliffs, manor houses, etc. I would go to the cities to look for huge 9” sausages to suck, primarily.

Here's a virtual tour of Cambridge on a punt! Watch it. It's really cool.

You can only see parts of the town that are visible from the river, of course, and so not the city center, but still so many gorgeous old buildings are visible.

I love the thatched roofed, quaint English cottages and gardens. I love old quirky homes.

R211, I never once said it was a good thing. Nor did I brag about it. I certainly never said it something to be proud of. Interesting that you took it that way.

But none of that makes what I wrote any less true. And because it is (mostly) true, it renders the OP's thesis indefensible. That was my point.

But what about all those blokes were their beefy bums and all those accents?

I lived in England. I never met an Englishman I could stand - or woman. Every time I met someone interesting, educated, open, honest and straightforward, the person turned out to be Scottish, Welsh, Irish or Belgian with superb English because of being educated in Britain.

The English are defunct and too entitled to know it. They're either pretentious, over-reaching and status-mad or so feral one expect to see them eating rats in the mews.

R229 Punts rely on poles in the mud.

Let's arrange the first annual DL Punting River Cruise with riparian refreshments!

Most Americans could not care less . It’s the other way around, the British are obsessed with American culture.

R213 You say some interesting things but I think it's incorrect to frame it in terms of the US versus Britain.

[quote] I love English architecture

Is a foolish generalisation because Britain went through a Gothic revival as well as a Neo-classical revival, just as both the US and Canada went through a Gothic revival and a Neo-classical revival.

The US Capitol is obviously an homage to London St Paul's Cathedral. And Canada's Parliament Hill is obviously an homage to London's Parliament.

London's Parliament was built at the height of Britain’s Gothic Fad.

Great Britain is one of the nations at the center of the Western cultural and economic world for the last few hundred years. Add its royalty and military might to that and you've got a lot for people to obsess about. Canada doesn't possess any of those things in quantity enough to attain the same level of interest to outsiders, I don't think.

Exactly. The English language didn’t spread out of Canada, for instance.

Not to burst your bubble, op, but not everyone is super interested. Or interested at all.

I'm of partial English descent, my ancestors having come to America in about 1660. Over the years we've mixed it up so much that I can claim ancestry from many places besides the British Isles. My mother, however, so proud of her English/Welsh heritage that she bragged it up so much that we came to think of Merry Olde England as our mother country. She always looked askance at the Irish, mainly because she was not a fan of Catholics and their unseemly large families.

I'm a fan of British village mysteries and Hyacinth Bouquet and was obsessed with Monty Python for many years. I've always loved British history, entertainment, music, architecture, and literature and have been to Great Britain many times. I prefer the weather of Italy and I think now I'd like to live there.

In the end, however, my sister got her DNA tested and found we are more Irish than anything else. Poor mother didn't live long enough to find that out, it would have put her in a tizzy.

R201 just delivered an Miranda Priestly, American style smackdown to the UK and the rest of the world. That was impressive.

See the English bounce up and down.

The white flag with the red cross is the English flag, which is more and more common as the years go by (and the British flag less so)

Compare to 2018.

Anyone who thinks the English aren't patriotic needs to watch thisl

The London NYE fireworks are GREAT!

^The GuysOnly guy looks like he'd willingly take an earlobe from any unwitting suburban passerby. No subway station in sight.

Well, that makes sense.

I just watched a Nigella Lawson Christmas show and it makes it clear that we are different countries. She said she loves all Christmas food except the turkey and then gushed about traditional mango chutney—it wouldn't be Christmas without it!

She also put sponge cake batter into a pie tin, poured cranberry sauce on top and then smeared more cake batter on top of it, cooked it into a weird sloppy mess and then poured some kind of cream on top.

Then she put her kids to bed and laid an empty stocking on top of each of them in bed and then put on a bunch of makeup to cook shrimp and steak for her friends.

I'm also a little perplexed about her having Christmas traditions since she is Jewish, but that's a different point of confusion. I think Christmas in the UK and the US are entirely different experiences with very different traditions.

We read British Literature in school. We don't read Canadian works. Canada simply doesn't loom large.

R16, Since when, and where, do Americans speak more of Canada than they do of Britain? Maine and Washington?

Where America goes the world follows.

That's just a fact!

[quote] Where America goes the world follows.

American "culture" is going down into the trash can.

> We don't read Canadian works

We read a LOT of "Canadian" works. They just don't really look any DIFFERENT than American works.

And at least a quarter of the TV shows (esp. CW's DC Universe shows and half the shows on HGTV & Discovery Channel) we watch are made in Canada. Be honest... how many episodes of Schitt's Creek did you watch before you even REALIZED it was literally a Canadian show?

Canada's film industry is HOT, because most Canadians are at least technically bilingual, so you can make movies there where you just shoot the scenes with spoken dialogue (and visible mouth) twice... once in English, once in French, then edit it into two versions that are BOTH "native-quality" (no subtitles or visible dubbing).

Lately, Norwegian TV shows have started doing the same thing (since almost everyone in Norway is fluent in English and can do their own Norwegian/English double-takes). But Canadian producers are the ones who really started using the technique for EVERYTHING starting ~20 years ago... initially, to satisfy French-equality requirements, then quickly realizing it doubled their international market reach to include France, Belgium, half of Africa, etc.

Supposedly, to French viewers, Canadians speaking French in scenarios where everyone knows they'd REALLY be speaking English ist kind of like Americans vatching Hogan's Heroes (the spelling was intentional, btw) ;-D

[quote] You've got Canada just over the border but you rarely talk about them.

They have 20 million people and aren't a glaring hot mess with trashy celebrities like the UK. America likes that which is similar to itself. It's a like a parallel world's somewhat similar dumpster fire that gives Americans some variety.

UK is so trashy.

I'm surprised no one laughed when he started taking his "balls" out, r260. Wasn't that supposed to be funny?