Oh, I don't know. "Oh America, you're so batshit" seems pretty inclusive to me.
Well, if you want to get down to the semantics of it, America refers more to the nation itself as an abstract concept - its values, its ethics, etc. If I'd said "Americans," you would certainly have had valid grounds to call me up on making sweeping statements about a vast number of people.
You're correct that I over-reacted, though, and for that I apologize. It just seems that nothing can get posted here without someone finding it a reason to announce how stupid, ignorant, prejudiced, greedy or gun crazy they feel Americans are. It gets wearing after a while, and you start to get - you should pardon the phrase - gun shy about it.
I completely understand your perspective on that, but my comment was really a response to the idea of America evoked by that ad (which, by my reckoning, is somewhat removed from the genuine article), rather than any sort of genuine commentary on contemporary America. So do please forgive what may have seemed a glib generalisation and I'll forget my buttsoreness :)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-03-20 03:52 pm (UTC)Well, if you want to get down to the semantics of it, America refers more to the nation itself as an abstract concept - its values, its ethics, etc. If I'd said "Americans," you would certainly have had valid grounds to call me up on making sweeping statements about a vast number of people.
You're correct that I over-reacted, though, and for that I apologize. It just seems that nothing can get posted here without someone finding it a reason to announce how stupid, ignorant, prejudiced, greedy or gun crazy they feel Americans are. It gets wearing after a while, and you start to get - you should pardon the phrase - gun shy about it.
I completely understand your perspective on that, but my comment was really a response to the idea of America evoked by that ad (which, by my reckoning, is somewhat removed from the genuine article), rather than any sort of genuine commentary on contemporary America. So do please forgive what may have seemed a glib generalisation and I'll forget my buttsoreness :)