Mein Gott! America is the new Germany

The Times (U.K.) ^ | 06/21/03 | Matthew Parris

[Southack]

Rubbish. The entire article is pure rubbish.

You can sum it up by saying "Americans are the new NAZIs".

Pathetic drivel. The author is desperately trying to find some "angle" to get the British to embrace old Europe and disdain new America.

I doubt that it works, either.

[Arkinsaw]

Nope, nope, nope. The problem is not a Germanicized America (a ridiculous concept) but instead a Francified Britain. Particularly amongst their elite class.

[Servant of the Nine]

Spooky as hell when you see the end of "Triumph of the Will".

Yes it is, but then Albert Speer and Lily Riefenstahl were geniuses at what they did.

[ffusco]

I'm so ashamed....
All Italians have done is discover and name America.

[IronJack]

Ja wohl!

[Faraday]

Another piece aimed at brainwashing the Europeons, especially the Brits, that America is the main danger in the world. Notice how he omits any discussion of our economic or political institutions and structures. It's not our (partial) Germanic heritage these socialists fear, it's our committment to liberty and capitalism.

Now, I've got to go put some brats on the grille.

[ffusco]

Ack! Non spracken zie deutche!

Translation, bitte.

[gorush]

I heard a great German knock knock joke:

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Hey! I'll ask the questions around here.

[Prodigal Son]

Yes. Fortunately, Riefenstahl moved on to a field in which I also share an interest- underwater photography.

That final speech in Triumph of the Will is the creepiest thing I ever saw. I have watched it a few dozen times. That was Hitler at his zenith. You could feel the electricity going back and forth between him and his audience. Unnerving...

[MEG33]

He really had to reach for this one!

[ffusco]

Great Beer though!

My boss, a Greek, loves Birra Peroni- You know how famous Italy is for her beers, I'd sooner leave Texas and go to NY for the Rodeo.
Guten Tag Deusch-Amerikanisces!

[ffusco]

Too funny!

[DoctorMichael]

This essay was not worth a bucket of cold spit.

[Chi-townChief]

Actually, I very much enjoy German food and music. The Berghoff Oktoberfest here in Chicago is tremendous. I still like Italian food but it got pretty old having spaghetti twice a week and every holiday plus beans and macaroni (pastafazool, in slang) every Friday for my first 16 years or so.

[The Right Stuff]

I believe it was LENI Renfenstahl, and believe it or not, she is still alive.

This article is bogus because the author takes many well-known AMERICAN characteristics (enthusiastic, endeavoring, inventive, pioneering) and tries to link them with scary Germanic characteristics - thus implying incipient fascism, as an earlier poster said.

The difference is that Americans have always challenged authority, and devotedly defended the freedom of the individual. My father, who lived in Europe for many years, told me that the ingrained Germanic instinct for obeyance even stretched to jaywalking when there was no traffic in sight.

Maybe Americans have only absorbed some of the best characteristics of all of our many cultures, while shedding the worst.

different premise, eh?

[OpusatFR]

They still don't get it.

I don't consider myself German. Or Spanish for that matter.

(Although I am really secretly proud of the Knights in my family history)....ssssshhhhhh, very un-PC..

I am a hunnerd percent Amurican and they can bank on it!

[wimpycat]

Funny how he separates the British from the Germans. The English and the Scots are mostly Anglo-Saxon and Norsemen....DUUUUUUH!

[Thud]

Leni Riefenstahl tried to get into Hitler's pants before he became Chancelllor, when Goebbels decided Hitler needed a dame for PR purposes, but Hitler panicked according to a friend of both Hitler & Riefestahl who helped Goebbels set them up. Herr & Frau Goebbels, and the friend, left the sweating Hitler alone with Riefenstahl in her loft (she had just shifted from acting to directing) "in violation of all the security regulations", but Hitler managed to keep his clothes on and get out of there by himself a while later.

See Olympia (Bfi Film Classics), by Taylor Downing.

[Chi-townChief]

Ach du lieber!! I forgot BEER!!! In the words of Drew Carey, "You CANNOT get enough beer!!"

[ffusco]

Well, it's true insofar that a large percentage of Americans can trace their ancestry back to Germany, but they are perhaps the least ethnic of all people I've met as they assimilated rapidly and have been here the longest. So to say they are Germanic in character is a bit of a stretch.