Quote:
Originally Posted by rolmos
Spira|_ is an idiot, yes, but a harmless one. Rairun, you come out as a soaring asshole. His nationality has nothing to do with him being irritating.
Also, what kind of ignorant fool labels Portugal as a third world country? And equating being a third world country to the word 'insignificant'... Fuck you.
|
Ah, what the hell, okay. So this is where I go on one of my useless rants:
Obviously, your nationality doesn't determine if you're irritating or not. I don't think I'm irritating (not for the same reasons, anyway), and I'm from Brazil, a lusophone third world country. I've also been to Portugal several times in the past 4 years because my girlfriend is Portuguese. I don't think she's irritating, nor are the other Pumpkins fans I met there.
Still, there are certain trends of thought in these countries that are pretty much self-evident when you know their culture well. It's so obvious here in Brazil that there was even a TV commercial recently that played on that notion. There are two Brazilians and one Argentinian on the beach, and the Brazilians are talking about how it's crazy that this country is so rich and yet suffers with so many problems. The Argentinian agrees, and says it's a shame Brazil is so full of problems. The two Brazilians glare at him and say, "What the fuck? Who said we have any problems? This country is perfect, you moron."
About 8 years ago, when I played Everquest, I'd sometimes run into Brazilians who would be rude in much the same way as Spira|_, but who would act normally around other Brazilians. When I talked to them, I always got the impression that they dismissed "those Americans" outright, because they
assumed Americans were arrogant and thought themselves superior to everyone else. It was specially common among the ones who didn't speak English very well and felt insecure. So they were rude without provocation as a preemptive strike of sorts. When I said this was common among people from "insignificant countries", I didn't mean that they are actually insignificant--I was just referring to the tendency that many people here have to feel insignificant around foreigners, even when there's no discrimination whatsoever against them.
From what I've seen, this kind of feeling is just as common in Portugal as it is in Brazil. Again, this doesn't mean that every Brazilian and Portuguese person is going to act that way. But I think it'd be a mistake to say it isn't common. I don't think Spira|_ is an idiot because he's Portuguese, I think he's an idiot because he feels inferior. It just happens that the reason why he feels inferior here might be related to his nationality and his linguistic skills.