The problem with Guys like Lars....

"America... the land we love to hate... and by we I mean Americans..."


I agree with a good deal of your assessment. I do think the underlying philosophy of many of Trier's films is sound, but it is also fed by the faddish movement to *only* observe the easiest target when it comes to cultural commentary, and there's little doubt which country is the biggest, eaiest target in these cases.

America struggles daily with education, crime, poverty within its own borders... the same basic struggles every country deals with, yet somehow our own struggle is inflated to a level of megalomania... the internet is plastered with accounts of "stupid americans", yet anyone who's visited any other industrialized nation isn't going to harbor any doubts about stupidity being a human traight, not one determined by national borders. America's flaws in these areas are highlighted to the exclusion of all else.

America has hosted slavery, human rights inequalities, and the full gammut of nationalist error. Again, this is something we share in common with almost every country, yet when it is discussed in today's context, somehow America's errors become the glaring issue, and magically all else is eclipsed. America has become a fabulous target for others highlighting what others decry in a nation while happily ignoring the same qualities in their own, both past and present, and that sums the issue up: As long as America is "the lazy, fat, stupid, unfair, warmongering" country, then the others don't have to be.

We bungle and struggle, like any other nation. We just happen to be the one under the magnifying glass right now. Other's need to keep it that way, for fear the same glass will turn upon them in time. Lord help them when it does, because they've busily built up a full generation of resentment in this mindless passtime.

All four posts=epic fail

Just to be clear on this, Germany declared war on the USA - not the other way around.

And quite honestly all the points [American] people raise about Von Trier making films about things he hasn't experienced first hand can be levelled against popular American culture for sticking to silly, unfounded national stereotypes. The smelly, cowardly Frenchman; the uptight Englishman who lives in a mansion; the drunken Irishman; the lazy Spaniard.. blah blah.

The average American probably won't know much about Denmark or New Zealand or Paraguay; but you can be DAMN sure we all know about America. And how do we see ourselves portrayed on American tv or film if we are allowed a mention? By whatever idiotic, pejorative national stereotype they can pluck out of the air.

We perceive people how we want to, or how it best suits our mood. Types 1 - 7, it's easy.

We [Europeans] think all Americans are fat, moronic, xenophobic imbeciles; you think we're drunks/lazy/have bad teeth/whatever. What's the difference?

Another showcase of the rampant hypocrisy from the inhabitants of the US and A.
Lars is only picking at that huge hypocrisy from many (not all, of course) yanks.
How many times we have seen Hollywood portraying the "vices" of other nations in the most grotesque and despicable way? How many propaganda films about how *beep* great is Amuhrrika have produced Hollywood in the last 90 years?
Practically every other country have been vilified ad nasueam by hundreds if not thousands of movies that depicts africans, latin-americans, europeans, asians, etc. no better than savage beasts.
In how many Hollywood films the villains are always: arabs, latinos, germans, frenchs, russians, slavs in general, japanese, chinese, north-koreans, vietnamites, cambodians, africans, spaniards, turks, even englishmen and canucks!?
But don't dare you to make a movie about one BIG truth on the very recent past of the USA because then you are the worst scumbag in the history of mankind! Hypocrites!
Recently across USA everybody was celebrating the fall of Berlin Wall, but at the same time the US government is rising a bigger wall in the border with Mexico, pushing honest and humble hardworkers who are only looking for a decent job, to cross across the merciless desert.
MORE people have died because of that Wall in the border in the last 2 years than whole the people who died while trying to leave East-Berlin since it was built until it was demolished. What about that?
Don't chicken out from your own vicious past. USA practically exterminated native-americans. Stole whole the south-west after imposing an unfair war on Mexico, african-americans were used as slaves for centuries and even now, african-americans and other minorities are treated like 2nd class citizens. Face it!
And what about Vietnam? Cambodia? Laos? Korea?, Somalia? Afganistan? Iraq? Nicaragua? Honduras? Guatemala? El Salvador? Dominican Republic? Grenada? Haiti? Cuba? Should I continue?
Who fully supported the rogue fascist dictatorships around the world during the cold-war? Who helped to dethrone democratically elected governments just because they were "leftists"? Does Chile? Guatemala? Argentina? Brazil? Spain? rings you a bell?

EVERY modern nation have its share of crimes and unjust acts against either their own population or another countries. Lars is only pointing out to the fact that USA is not better than any other country in that regard. But when frenchs, spaniards, english, germans, russians, japanese, etc. Are all of them reflecting on the crimes commited by their countrymen in the past. USA citizens apparently still believes that they are the embodiment of ALL the good things on earth, that they are superior, chosen by God to guide the rest of the world, etc. Sorry to burst your bubble but you are NOT! You are like us, perhaps richer and better armed (one thing leads the other and vice versa), that's all. Open your eyes, you are not alone, the world existed long before you and will exist after you (unless you start a nuclear war with China or Russia). And the world will miss you as much as we miss the macedonians, romans, the napoleonic empire, the spanish empire, the mongols, etc. Your good deeds will be appreciated and your crimes remembered.
Try to left behind a better heritage to the mankind instead of continuous invasions to weaker countries in order to control their natural resources. Try it. I've met lots of US citizens and I know that most of you are good people. I still believe in you, IMO Lars as well, believe it or not.

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What is it with Americans, they sure as hell like to dish it out but they don't seem to be able to take it.

I'l bet you can find 300 million people outside of USA that knows more about the country than it's own 300 million inhabitans.

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Humankind cannot bear very much reality