Han Shot First wrote...
Yeah, that kinda thing bugs me to no end as well. People from outside the US (especially across the Atlantic) like to call anyone from the US a "yankee." Southerners absolutely hate being called a yankee. Hell, some of the more rural Southerners still call Northerners "damnyankees" (all one word) after a little something called the American Civil War.
During the presidency of the last George Bush, 'redneck' and 'cowboy' became popular pejoratives for Americans from Europeans as well. Of course I'm sure both were used long before W came to power, but it seemed to surpass 'yankee' in popularity during those 8 years.
It is just as humorous for an urban yankee (like myself) to be called a 'cowboy' or 'redneck' on the internet, as it is for a Southerner to be called a 'yankee' I'm sure. Silly Europeans...when will they ever get their regional insults right?
Well there are two things here - first, "yank" in the UK just means people from the USA, and that's where a lot of the English-speaking people in Europe are drawing the term from.
For them (much like the English/British thing from Americans) there is no specificity to the term, because really most of them are not aware, or are barely aware of the War of Independence - understanding that there's a difference between a yankee and another American is more in the domain of people who can manage to operate a book, than your general population of troglodytes and snydes. Consequently, when "yankee" which is a word, gets mixed in and used instead of yank (perhaps even sometimes to make it sound friendlier) it's done without any sense of meaning, I think.
The one I always find the most amusing (ref insults you mention since Bush tenure) is the snyde arrogance and discourtesy based on the idea of US foreign policy being cynically driven by considerations of oil, in favour of the evil callous Israel, and on the mandate of states filled with people who don't understand international relations or history, etc. I culd go on.
I have no particular political standpoint on any of that myself, but just from a historical POV - the colossal, hilarious irony of that sort of thing is evident to anyone vaguely aware of European member states' foreign policy decisions
throughout the the last 40 or 50 years through the present day, and I don't just mean 1973.
I guess all places in the world have idiots.
wizardryforever wrote...
PS: What exactly does "chav" mean? I don't think I've ever heard the word before.
Well, it's partially a label for people who spend their lives acting like asses - everywhere has them and they're no less pathetic or unpleasant in the UK. Nobody (else) wants to live near or be near them because of their rampant criminality and nobody (else) wants their kids exposed to their rampant immorality.
On the other side of the coin, it's also a term used by Brits to dehumanise and revile their own - that inevitable (massive) underclass of people with no [money/intellectual life/self respect] left swilling around society without jobs after the UK's industries collapsed, and without basic numeracy, literacy or life skills after 50 years of failed educational and social reform.
People find it very easy to disrespect and label people for their clothes or their apparent cultural tastes as "chavs" or "townies"
on sight, and really tbh it's very very wrong. I freely admit I am as totally guilty of this as anyone else and even though it's because we get crap from chavs, it is still basically, at its core, wrong.
Modifié par Gotholhorakh, 16 février 2012 - 10:57 .
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Haha, try growing up in Essex. I can't swing an ASBO without hitting a chav. I see them like some kind of horrifying ASBO Dalek, phone in one hand and a knife in the other " Haha this'll go on youtube." How I don't have that accent nor behave like them is strange.
