Behind the scenes, Blogger allows blogmakers to check out their visitor statistics. As this is a British blog, the biggest number of visitors have invariably and understandably hailed from the British Isles. However, this year I have seen an American takeover and the USA now sits comfortably in top spot.
For example, last month "Yorkshire Pudding" attracted 7412 visits from the USA and only 4535 visits from Great Britain (aka "The United Kingdom"). Incidentally, in third position came another English speaking country - Australia with 1239 visits recorded and fourth came Canada with 779 visits.
Now - how do I feel about this American takeover?
To tell you the truth, I'm rather pleased. As I have confessed before, I am an unashamed Americophile and during my sixty five years I have fortunately been to The States several times. There are lots of things I love about America including its natural beauty, its varied landscapes, its creativity, its bustling cities and its people...well, most of them!
In my opinion, we should never put all of the inhabitants of a country in one basket. In that respect, generalisation is usually a form of unconscious racism. For example, you might hear someone say "I love the Greek people" or "I hate the French". These are stupid remarks because each Greek is different from the next and the same is true of French people.
Inhabiting an especially wealthy and powerful country that spawned great international media empires and produced "Coca Cola", Microsoft and Ford cars, Americans often come in for unfair criticism. It's easy to knock those who walk in the spotlight and I have heard countless thoughtless and ultimately stupid remarks about Americans such as "Americans are big-headed", "Americans know nothing about the rest of the world", "Most Americans are obese and exist on fast food and fizzy drinks", "American women are sexy", "Americans are naive". It's the generalisation that is so wrong. Don't you agree?
America's present population is 326 million. As with Greeks, each member of that vast community is different from the next. There are still many thousands with Native American blood in their veins and there are black trumpeters and professors, war veterans pushing shopping trolleys filled with all of their worldly goods, people who live in cabins deep in the woods, Latinos. Muslims, loners and party goers, nurses and nutcases, inventors and fishermen, wheelchair users and dancers.
America is like one of those wonderful handmade quilts that adorn so many American beds - a patchwork of differences - shapes and colours and stories. So I say hello to any American visitors reading this blogpost and thank you for calling by. You are very welcome here and please - Have a nice day!
It's the ignorant who make such ignorant umbrella statements. Usually uttering such utterance without any educated knowledge to back their words/opinions.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reminding me of that term - "Umbrella statement". I should have used it in this blogpost.
DeleteThank you for writing this, Neil. Quite often in the past few years I've seen a lot of anti-American sentiment among some of the UK blogs I read. Now, if this were a reaction to Trump, I would understand (most of us are horrified by him, too...and he decidedly LOST the popular vote) but usually it has nothing to do with Trump and more to do with negative blanket statements about Americans in general. We're a big, big country with vast differences among our people and generalizations are usually unfair. I love my country despite our many, many faults. And I would be the first to admit to those faults, by the way. :)
ReplyDeleteWell said Jennifer! You support my point of view entirely. Americans should still be very proud of their great country. "Make America Great Again"? How can you do that when it never stopped being great?
DeleteI love reading blogs from other countries as I probably will never make it to them in my lifetime. So it is a glimpse of what your country holds and how it's people live.
ReplyDeleteBlogs are made by real people - not processed by editors. When you tune it to the kind of blogs that I like you are linking with real people and that is one of the things that make this pastime so good.
DeleteYour check is in the mail.
ReplyDeleteP.S. - The above statement is a lie.
I don't want a check Bob, I want a cheque! Or if she's blonde and athletic - a Czech!
DeleteDo I count, even though I've adopted your homeland as home? :)
ReplyDeleteOf course you're right about generalizations. Every person is different!
You are an American fugitive on the run. Please don't worry about what you did Steve - your secret is safe with me. By the way, where did you stash the money?
DeleteWell, if anyone has those stereotypes in mind about Americans, reading a few of the blogs of your American commenters would do nicely as an antidote for such thinking.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I love best about reading blogs is that we get a window into so many other lives and cultures even within our own countries. It's wonderful! And thank you for giving us this window into your life, Mr. P.
I knew I should have drawn the curtains when I stepped out of the shower!
DeleteRight on! Some people do generalize . Most of my visitors are American. I never thought to see who might be second.
ReplyDeleteAs Kline is a German name, I am guessing that many of your visitors will come from Germany or Austria Red.
DeleteWell, it was spelled Klein but we anglicized it. Apparently Germans aren't into blogging.
DeleteThank you for the welcome. I do so enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming out of the shadows Lisa and thanks for being interested.
DeleteThank you for your acceptance of us Americans visiting your blog. I read many European blogs and am aware of the criticism we Americans sometimes get and I understand it. As you say we are all different and there are many extreme differences in Americans in my opinion. Some can be quite outspoken without first thinking about what they say. But that is only a portion of us. There are many basic differences that come from the fact that our country is so large and most of us do not have the means to see and experience so many different countries and people such as those on your side of the pond. We do experience many different types of Americans. Many people consider America a wealthy country yet the majority of us do not see that wealth. There are those in our political system that would like to see only two classes: the rich and the poor with of course the poor being in the majority enabling the rich to be even richer. The middle class used to be the majority but that is changing.
ReplyDeleteAs a maker of quilts I love your analogy and I thank you for it and your kind words!
You are a wise woman Bonnie. You weigh things up with a healthy mixture of observation, intelligence and common sense. Inn this respect very many Americans are just like you.
DeleteAll us American readers just love you, Mr. Pudding. Whenever I am in a situation with people who I do not understand or agree with or look like, I always say to myself, "Everybody has a story." A life story. There are over 300 million stories in this country. Some happy, some sad, some full of riches, many just trying to get by and tell their story to their children with hopes that they will understand.
ReplyDeleteUntil the last few years, I thought that this country of as much variations as the rest of the world put together would always pull together and take care of each other when someone else dared to step on us, as it were. Now, the divides are so great, I am not so sure anymore. And, that makes me sad.
These are challenging times - not just for the USA - but for the world as a whole. A certain spray-tanned fellow with an ego as big as a blimp certainly does not help to make this world a better place,
DeleteGlad to have found you.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what Rhett Butler said to Scarlet O'Hara?
DeleteI read you always. Your blog is refreshing and usually informative/entertaining. As an Amerikan, I can say, I do not like most of us, especially going inland- it gets thick in the middle!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting Linda Sue. I once met a young man in Ohio who thought that England was "somewhere over near Maine". I doubt that he knew anything about the Atlantic Ocean.
DeleteI'm in Wisconsin, not thick in the middle, an American, and feeling a tad prickly right now.
DeleteIn England we have many jokes about The Irish and in The States I know that mid-Westerners also receive a lot of ill-judged mockery. It's a bit like racism.
DeleteI really like the comparison you made of the USA with a patchwork quilt - that is also so true about my home country, and actually, this entire planet.
ReplyDeleteMany English people remain ignorant about Germany and the German people as I am sure you have occasionally sensed when visiting Yorkshire. By the way, how is your father now? You said he had been taken into hospital quite recently.
DeleteThank you for asking; he is better, but still far from well.
Delete