A woman in San Francisco called Americans juvenile and materialistic. The speaker pushes back on blanket stereotypes, contrasting them with Brad Thunder's more nuanced view. He argues we accept demeaning generalizations about Americans in ways we wouldn't tolerate for other nationalities.
Well, this is a video response to Brad Thunder's video, um, one that I just watched where he was answering some questions. And, uh, the part of the video that I particularly wanted to respond to is the part where he talked about how YouTube has, um, changed his perception of we Americans. And that triggered a memory of a conversation that I had with someone I know a couple of weeks ago. I was out in San Francisco and we were having a conversation and this person said some things about we Americans that just hit me kind of the wrong way, you know? And it infuriated me, actually. It infuriated me. Because it was sort of like, you know, you Americans are so juvenile. And, you know, we're so— something to the effect that, you know, we're such children, we Americans. You know, we are easily entertained. You know, with stupid television and we're such materialistic characters and such creeps. And I just, you know, I boom, I just felt myself go off. I was infuriated by this derogatory, demeaning reduction to stereotypes that was so easy for this woman who's an intelligent woman. So easy for her to fall into. And, um, you know, and, and listening to, to Brad, who's, you know, a serious person who talked about how, you know, as a result of, of a few months of actually watching and listening to people who live in America, that his, his opinion of us has changed. And, um, uh The thing that this all kind of means to me is that somehow or other, being an American means that it's okay for people from other countries to have all sorts of simplistic ways of thinking about us and opinions about us. And it's kind of like, that's all right because we're Americans. And many of us, I'm gonna play a song in the background of this video called North American Scum that I think really does a great job of capturing this sense of how, like, you know, we sort of— some of us are a little sheepish about, you know, we don't really want to kind of react too badly to that because, you know, you know, we are kind of, you know, we're overweight, you know, boy, and, you know, we use all this energy, you know, we're We're really terrible. We're really, you know, it's the sense that we're awful people and that, you know, we really deserve, we really ought to just shut up and take it when people from other places say, you know, well, you Americans, you know, you're kind of, and I'm not trying to say that we aren't shallow. I'm not trying to say that we aren't overweight. I'm not trying to say that we aren't materialistic. I'm not trying to say, All I'm trying to say is that we ain't all that much different, however, from lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of other people in the world. And the idea that somehow we're a virus is the other part of this, and that we're infecting other parts of the world, and that, you know, really all the good innocent people of the world are being affected, infected by we, you know, kind of bacterial, viral Americans. Is just something that I find to be really intriguing, that it's sort of okay for others to look at us and to kind of put us into these pictures. They don't know me, they don't know, you know, my wife, they don't know my friends, but, you know, because we are citizens of this country, that it's kind of, you know, sort of an okay thing. And, you know, Brad, who was not saying that at all, not at all, he was in fact saying just the opposite. That he'd come to be able to see us in a more— sound alike— in a more nuanced and a more individualist, individual kind of way. But there is this sort of, you know, and I guess every country has these sort of stereotypes that are overlaid on top of it. But I have a feeling we got a big, big pile overlaid on top of us that at this point in time, it's fascinating to feel it and to watch and listen as people express those. Thoughts. So that's what occurred to me listening to your video, Brad. Thanks a lot, because it really helps me to kind of, you know, maybe for us to get into a conversation about what this is about and what we're, you know, what we're thinking about one another. So take it easy, Tom Guarriello. But don't blame the Canadians. Look out, North America!
