Domestic / cross cultural issues - Thai / Foreigner concerns

America bashing at Esplanade Mall

By gohmer, Created on: 09/05/2010, Last updated on: 11/06/2011

» I putting this post up because it is related to international relationships with American citizens living and visiting Thailand. It illustrated to me that little is known about America by most people in Thailand, in fact, I think that few in the world truly understand what America is about and how...

• Na Fianna commented : Ok Gohmer, Just a couple of things this time, this thread is supposed to be about your horror and disgust at a T-shirt on which the stars and stripes are insulted. [quote:tvr0fnb6]You'd have to dig hard with someone over 65 to find a believer there, and there's a crap load of documentaries shown on American TV daily about that era and how wrong crazy he was.[/quote:tvr0fnb6] Absolutely correct. However the ideals of this man and many many more like him shaped US foreign policy for some time and in at least one instance still does(Cuba). To put this in the same context of your (remarkably Bush-like) collateral damage statement, expect blowback! [quote:tvr0fnb6]Second, I too am Irish (1 of the 30 million that choose America over the 5 million that chose to stay in Ireland). [/quote:tvr0fnb6] Is that supposed to be disaparaging remark regarding Ireland? I think the choice made was mainly between the potato and the not-potato and then work and no work. [quote:tvr0fnb6]McCarthy actually had good cause for worrying about communism[/quote:tvr0fnb6] Of course he did, perhaps even rightly so. It did not excuse his and his country's paranoid, undemocratic internal and external behaviour however. If you're ever talking to Vietnamese people ask them who they would rather run their country, China? Soviet Union? France? USA? each and everyone will tell you that they will only ever be Vietnamese! I think you regard the American way of life as something everyone on earth, either overtly or secretly, aspires to. If people had paid attention to this many moons ago countless innocent lives could have been saved, however America's paranoia regarding Communism led to it invading a land literally on the other side of the world and getting a very bloody nose doing so. [quote:tvr0fnb6]Mao is a hero of China. He ended forced marriages and brought love to China for the first time in its history, an unintended consequence of shipping millions of youth off to co-ed work camps.[/quote:tvr0fnb6] He ended a lot more than forced marriage, however here is another example of what good, staunchly enforced propaganda can do! [quote:tvr0fnb6]Fifth, there are small countries around the world that America is credited for having a bad reputation due to intervention, Chile, El Salvador, Iran, etc; however, all of these are unfortunate collateral damage due to the bigger picture of the conflict with Stalin and other Soviet leaders.[/quote:tvr0fnb6] Well it seems in this case you're part of the collateral damage in that America's 'bad reputation' has led to a (slightly) offensive T-Shirt being printed and ended up offending an American. [quote:tvr0fnb6]And, I would argue that had the Soviets not been a world threat for 50 years, there would have been drastically different agendas in Asia. [/quote:tvr0fnb6] I think it Ironic that Russian history can use this exact phrase, with justification, substituting 'Soviets' for 'Americans'. Anyway, as you've admitted in your post America has a bad reputation(regardless of whether you agree with the reasons why) in a lot of places around the world. So why whine when you see something as ridiculous as an American flag being slightly insulted?

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