{"id":4036,"date":"2003-02-24T10:55:58","date_gmt":"2003-02-24T17:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4036"},"modified":"2014-11-07T09:44:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T16:44:28","slug":"face_of_america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/24\/face_of_america.html","title":{"rendered":"Face of America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doyce writes an interesting bit about the view of Americans abroad<\/a>, and the perils of taking Government Positions as being the actual positions of the populace therein. Worthwhile reading.<\/p>\n

I have<\/i> heard that there’s something of a backlash against French wine these days. Which will no doubt be used by some folks back there as more grist for the mill. “Those simplisme <\/i>Americains … zey not only are wild cowboys, zey a are out to ‘arm ze French farmehrs and <\/i>ruin zeir own palates! Incroyable!<\/i>“<\/p>\n

These things, over time, pass.<\/p>\n

Still, Doyce’s comments on the infiltration of American Stuff into the British cityscape are worth thinking about. One of the things I noted the last time I was in Britain is that chain restaurants were virtually unheard of, except for the relatively rare American fast food place in London, or the innumerable Burger Kings, KFCs and (home grown) Little Chef joints along the Motorways.<\/p>\n

Doyce is right. There’s a lot more McDs and BKs and Starbucks visible than their used to be.<\/p>\n

But let’s also remember that it’s not American tourists making that happen. (Tourism, especially from the US to the UK, is still very down; most tourists in Britain are either from the Continent or from within Britain herself.) It’s the Brits themselves, deciding that they want a quick Big Mac instead of fish and chips, or that they’d rather read a Newsweek <\/i>than the Sun<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Ditto for those McDonalds in Paris, which French radicals so love to burn down. Even if they managed to wangle their way into the City of Lights through some underhanded payoff of politicians by American Big Business Conglomerates, they’re being supported by the ordinary French (or British) man-on-the-street. The bland predictability of franchise fat and salt and gristle is apparently something people want — and if there’s no French or British business ready to step into that evolutionary niche, then McDonalds wins.<\/p>\n

I can see why people resent it. Heck, I<\/i> resent the ubiquitous-throughout-Shadow Starbucks — except when I actually want a caffeine-and-sugar pick-me-up, and I know what it is that I want.<\/p>\n

Which ties back into this post<\/a>, earlier today.<\/p>\n

I don’t know. I’d hate to see a Starbucks in the British Museum, rather than the cafe they have there. On the other hand, I’d hate to tell the Brits they can’t drink a Fudge Brownie Frappacino if they really want one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doyce writes an interesting bit about the view of Americans abroad, and the perils of taking Government Positions as being the actual positions of the populace therein. Worthwhile reading. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-nationalism-exceptionalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41781,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/22\/but-zey-vere-all-bad.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":0},"title":""But zey vere all bad"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Apr-14 10:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not terribly surprising to have confirmed, but it appears that people are much more\u00a0likely to remember justifications for atrocities and crimes committed by people they like or identify with, than by people who are on the \"other side\".(h\/t +Kee Hinckley)Reshared post from +Susan Stone People selectively remember the details\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48990,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/16\/but-zey-vere-all-bad-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":1},"title":""But zey vere all BAD!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Dec-14 3:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Arnold's punch line from True Lies (when he admits to his heretofore unsuspecting wife that he's been a spy \/ action hero all during their marriage, and has, in fact, killed people) still draws a chuckle. But it's a strained one, as it presumes that we're the Good Guys and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/When%2BIs%2BTorture%2BTorture.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/When%2BIs%2BTorture%2BTorture.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/When%2BIs%2BTorture%2BTorture.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/28\/but-zey-vere-all-bad-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":2},"title":""But zey vere all BAD!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 28-May-15 6:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Folk have been schadenfreudenly poking fun at Texas for being so conservative and yet so struck down by massive rain and flooding. It turns out the answer is simple: only the evil parts of Texas were being smitten; all the virtuous parts avoided God's wrath.Life is much easier, I guess,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30095,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/the-kill-list.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":3},"title":"The Kill List","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-12 6:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not quite an Arnie \"But zey vere all BAD\" moment, but a journalist who actually has the cojones to ask Obama about how he can justify exercising executive power to target people -- including US citizens, without due process -- for assassination, gets the expected run-around answers about \"Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38310,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/17\/the-law-is-not-good-with-fuzziness.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":4},"title":"The law is not good with fuzziness","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Jul-13 10:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"People tend to think of the law as ... well ... black and white. \u00a0Something is illegal, or it is not. \u00a0Or some act is a crime, some item is a weapon of mass destruction, some person is a terrorist ... or not.But definitions are fuzzy things, especially when you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17284,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/unblogged-bits-wed-5-may-10-1401.html","url_meta":{"origin":4036,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Wed. 5-May-10 1401)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-May-10 12:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... FDA: McNeil Plant That Made Recalled Tylenol Is A Dirty Stinkpot With No Quality Control - Remember this next time some pharmaceutical company insists that name brand is so much better than generic. Ridley\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47256,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions\/47256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}