I watch quite a few vloggers and YouTubers online who are either English or Scottish and they have an entire existence online supported by and created by making comparisons between our countries. It's become a thing really. I'm almost sure, but not quite, that there are Americans who do the same thing, but for some reason, I only find the ones who originate from Britain; with the exception of Laurence Brown, who is yes, a Brit, but now lives in Chicago. Laurence is hilarious and deserves everyone's attention. He's to be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/LostinthePond. I'm not saying he's my favorite, but he is right up there! Two things that set Laurence and Shaun Alexander of Edinburgh, apart and separate from others are that they both compliment and applaud the United States more often than they try to find ways to slam it. Shaun's YouTube is found at: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShaunVlog (and if you're thinking of coming after Shaun, you need to know, he's been made an honorary Texan, so you may have to back off!) (Smile)
It's been over a year now since I've been interested in watching vloggers try and compare the two sides of the Atlantic. I find it fascinating, fun, and often interesting to find so many vast and subtle differences between the people, the places, the food, the mannerisms, the behaviors, and of course, the words we each use. Americans can be so direct, and according to every YouTuber who has ever encountered Americans both in their country and ours, we're rather loud, sometimes obnoxious, we take our sports a bit too seriously, and we fly the American flag a bit more often than any of them expected. That's actually a good thing.
Shaun and Laurence discuss the interesting differences, show their interest or lack of it, and discuss the nuances of these differences. There are YouTubers who I won't mention, who are nothing more than spoiled poshy Gen Xers who feel the need to take donations from their subs, hop flights to the U.S., stay in expensive B&Bs and run about trying to find ways to piss Americans off by trying to compare our culture to their culture in ways that both offend and set keyboards flying. It's all or ratings. These boring brats realize that they don't have what they really want and can't get it in England, so they come here looking for fame. Face it, the audience is so much bigger! Let's see, three hundred and eighty million vs maybe 18 million if you include all of the UK? Yeah, we can fit England plop dropped in the center of Oklahoma and still have room to drive around the state, circling your borders. Oklahoma isn't even one of the larger states. Pretty sure we're a more diverse lot than you like to say we are.
Making general statements about Americans can't be taken too seriously. There are simply too many of us to do that. Even Americans would have a difficult time saying "All Americans" are this way or that way. We have to say most, or some, or a good portion of...but these two Brits who like to think of themselves as educated puffballs, tend to throw around innuendo as well as banter which they feel is humorous; thinking they'll kiss-kiss to the camera and all will be better. I don't find them cute. I don't find them funny. I don't find them entertaining. I find them corrupted by what they think is fame. One of them, the woman, makes such a big deal out of times when men find her attractive enough to chat her up; she cringes at it if the man isn't a Prince Charming. Shallow much? The man isn't too much better, but at least he understands what fandom is. It's fake, and it's not as secure as they may believe. Fickle really.
When I think about it, and I do, I am quite proud of my Scottish ancestry. I am both Scottish and English, with a touch of Italian and Iberian thrown in for good measure. The Scots/English battle for my blood percentage is too close to count, and for that, I'm very sad; being far more culturally connected to the Scots than the English. I tell people that I tend to fight with myself and my Iberian ancestors to have to step in and keep me in check from time to time. I am quite proud of who I am and who I came from, but after years of personal research, travel, experience, and thoughts about actually moving to Scotland; I've decided that visiting may be the end all decision and I'll just forego the Southwestern summers for a bit of reprieve, but America takes the win in my soul.
There's a reason more than 30,000,000 of us Americans living today have Scottish ancestry, and over 63,000,000 living Americans (some overlap) who have English ancestry. The reason(s) vary from being asked to leave, to voluntarily leaving, and some were fortunate enough to make the decision without there being a political reason. My personal story is that my people on my dad's side came over in 1660 from Edinburgh. I'm not really sure about Mom's side, they were the English, and they weren't fighting with themselves. I think her side came across the pond in the mid-1800s. We've been flying that American flag at our house(s) for literally centuries. We have a lot of family traditions that stem from the Old Country, of course, but we have created our own as well. I'll keep loving my people and who they are, who they were, what they did for all of us, but I won't change much about anything I do, say, write, act, feel, or believe. I'm just not bothered enough to think it's wrong or that it needs to change.
I like my creature comforts as an American. I've written about the inconveniences before. I rather enjoy doing laundry and drying my clothes in a hot tumble dryer. I like running tap water from a faucet that has one handle. Love me some air conditioning, and real gas heating, and there's so much to be said for screens on the windows and doors. I like having larger yards, two-car garages, garbage disposals, and being able to drive where I need to drive without gasoline costing me more than my mortgage. I like being able to tell the government to fuck off without it being a national crime, and God knows I'm damn glad we don't bow to some stupid jacked-up concept of a family who thinks they deserve more than a pie to the face! Talk about outdated and obtrusive! Our president, my president, Donald Trump, didn't accept a penny for salary when he was in office. No Brit can say that.
I do like the concept of having free medical for the people. I will agree that the NHS does a superior job when it comes to taking care of its own. I am not above tipping my hat when it needs to be tipped. Other than that, I'm thinking America is the one place nearly every Brit wants to visit. I'd say a lot of Americans want to visit Britain, but not all of them. After the culture shock of being forced to seat themselves at a restaurant, most Americans still end up tipping even though the service is crap since their waitstaff is paid a working salary. There is no incentive to make the customer happy. Americans come back from the UK happy to have been there, but happier to be home where they can relax and take in a college team sport. (OK, they also enjoy legalized cannabis, we have to be honest. I don't, but a lot of Americans do. More and more Brits are moving to America these days for the same)
With the uncertainty of these times concerning Russia/Ukraine, the Nordstream pipeline, and other events which could leave the UK (islands really) stranded and in need of literally every type of anything from fuel to food, it's no wonder our borders are being flooded with more and more Europeans coming across the ocean to seek a better and more fulfilling life. Laurence Brown has been here for over 14 years. He loves it. Shaun has visited half a dozen times, and he loves it. I think time will see more and more good solid people who have just had enough; who want more, coming to America. The melting pot just keeps boiling -- and that old flag, she keeps waving, as she welcomes them all to her shores.
God Bless the U.S.A.
Photo Credit: Ebay
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