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*sigh* Having to turn my AC on.

I'm curious how many of you have actually encountered real gypsies. They're not inherently worse people than anyone else, but after seeing them I understand why most Europeans have such low opinions of them. They squat in abandoned buildings or ruins, leave trash lying around, are very often thieves, and are generally not safe to be around. Plus they stare at you while you drive past, and sometimes throw rocks. They're like antagonistic versions of the beggars you see on street corners in the US.

Those are some really flimsy justifications for prejudice.

AppleQueso wrote:Those are some really flimsy justifications for prejudice.

I'm telling you, come over here and go to the gypsy camp and you'll understand. They're enough of a problem that the government has to clear them out periodically.

It's not that people here think the gypsies are inferior or that they shouldn't be allowed to live. I think the usual line of thought is "if gypsies are going to be vagrants and thieves, they should go do it in their own country, not mine." Most nations don't have the same attitude towards immigration that we do. In most nations immigrants are looked down on from the get-go (genuinely looked down on, not like in the US), and if you fail to make yourself a valuable member of society... well, you're just asking for prejudice right there. Even the Syrian refugee camp doesn't cause as much trouble as they do.

Relevant?

http://youtu.be/ZXRfnIfFYFI

I just don't find nationalism very compelling at all.

I think what Ack pointed out about how the Roma are treated and how they behave in the US is pretty telling. Is the prejudice against Roma in Europe really a result of their behavior, or is their behavior more a result of the prejudice already against them?

Ack wrote:In the United States, the Roma and the Irish Travelers aren't generally subjected to the kinds of prejudice and harassment that they receive in Europe. That's not to say that some old worlders will just give up their views, but as there isn't a formally recognized group such as "gypsies" in the US, I stand by what I said. the closest we have to something like this would be our perception of carnival folk, but they're a profession, not an ethnicity.

Maybe you were just talking about the Roma and Irish in particular idk, but i have heard a lot of complaining from Americans about immigrants coming in (mostly Mexicans but other groups too).

Aramonde wrote:

Ack wrote:In the United States, the Roma and the Irish Travelers aren't generally subjected to the kinds of prejudice and harassment that they receive in Europe. That's not to say that some old worlders will just give up their views, but as there isn't a formally recognized group such as "gypsies" in the US, I stand by what I said. the closest we have to something like this would be our perception of carnival folk, but they're a profession, not an ethnicity.

Maybe you were just talking about the Roma and Irish in particular idk, but i have heard a lot of complaining from Americans about immigrants coming in (mostly Mexicans but other groups too).

The sort of prejudice against immigrants from Mexico here isn't anywhere near on the level of what goes on with the Roma in Europe.

AppleQueso wrote:I just don't find nationalism very compelling at all.

This reminds me of a short documentary I watched a while back. It was about how as American nationalism. To be more exact, why we as a nation think we are cut from a superior cloth than the rest of the world. It was quite interesting to step back and take a look at how we think as a nation.

oxymoron wrote:

AppleQueso wrote:I just don't find nationalism very compelling at all.

This reminds me of a short documentary I watched a while back. It was about how as American nationalism. To be more exact, why we as a nation think we are cut from a superior cloth than the rest of the world. It was quite interesting to step back and take a look at how we think as a nation.

America is not alone in that way of thinking by a long shot.