The most american blogger

Heya! So, i was browsing bearblog, and i found a rather interesting blogpost. Anyways, let’s not waste any time, we’re here to make fun of americans.

Irina is such a German girl. I can’t tell you how I know it because really I’ve only had contact with Swiss German people but She really wanted to pay us back for the carpool but we didn’t want any money so she went to the store and searched for ages for kale chips (...) and she took a bit of fern and a flower bud and put them on top of the packs of kale chips with a rubber band

The presentation was gorgeous in that elegant natural German way

(…)

Why are the French supposedly the knowers of romance and charm when they’ve literally never done anything so wholesome and sweet? I feel there is something very Beethoven and Bach about the German culture, which is to say that they are a passionate people with a clean, pious upbringing. There is something pure and wholesome about them. And their efficacy and competence and cleanliness are extremely attractive

Alrighty. So! What, i think, most stood out to me about this section, what really encapsulates the ridiculousness of it all is this one, single sentence:

Why are the French supposedly the knowers of romance and charm when they’ve literally never done anything so wholesome and sweet?

This, i think, really encapsulates the sort of odd xenophobic overtones of this post. This person defines the country of France and all of its people with the few interactions they have had with the people that originate from there. They’ve never had a nice interaction with someone who was raised in france, so logically that must mean that all people residing there are incapable of being nice. It wasn’t the few french people they’ve personally met (if they have met any), no, it is “The French” that are not considerate.

This sort of attitude is so on its face ridiculous that I don’t even know how to respond. Sadly, it’s also an attitude adopted by a lot of people. I guess it’s because its easy to just base your opinions off of cliches and anecdotal evidence. It takes courage to admit you don’t know enough, and it takes effort to do the research necessary to actually have an opinion on these things.

It’s easier to just think of all germans as punctual and efficient or all french people as romantic and to then get mad at the world once you realize people don’t neatly fit into these categories - Or to romanticize the countries and dig yourself deeper into a pit of ignorance if the few interactions you have with people outside your country conforms with your expectations of what people of their descent are “supposed” to act like.

Oh, right, the german cliches she mentioned. I can comment on those.

they are a passionate people with a clean, pious upbringing. There is something pure and wholesome about them. And their efficacy and competence and cleanliness are extremely attractive

First of all, TLDR; all of this is wrong.

Alright, “pious upbringing” 38% percent of germans are religious. As you might be able to tell if you have eyes and/or ears, that is less than half.

I went to a religious school myself, and even there most people were christian because that’s just how they grew up. People went to church on christmas and maybe easter, but that was about as much influence as religion had on their lifes. I’m not saying there’s no religious germans, but generally the attitude towards religion here is a lot more relaxed than for example, the U.S., even with people that identify as christians.

“efficacy” All right, I’m assuming you meant to write efficiency there seeing as using efficacy in this case really doesn’t make any sense.

Anyways. German Efficiency. It’s not a thing lol. Maybe it was at one point. It is not, currently. Our government uses ridiculously outdated technology and is about as slow as can be. Things are getting better, but if you have to deal with anything involving the german government you should expect it to take at least two weeks before anything happens. Same thing with our trains. Things are improving in that department too, but at least right now it’s rare to see a train that isn’t delayed.

“cleanliness” Eh? I mean, that depends on the person i guess? My room is a mess most of the time lol. I didn’t even know that this was a stereotype about germany until i read this post.

But yeah. You can’t really stereotype and entire country worth of people. I mean - you can. It just won’t be accurate whatsoever. Sure, the cultural norms of the country you’re born into and the things that are generally deemed to be socially acceptable influence you, but that only goes so far.

And most importantly, knowing what those cultural norms and expectations are requires you to actually know things about the country you’re talking about. Unless someone has lived in the country they’re talking about for at least a year or two i would not trust them to make any generalizations about the people living there. And even if they have lived there for a while - generalizations are just that, generalizations. They don’t apply to everyone and you shouldn’t use them as a basis to judge others.