If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
Hillary Clinton, Top Gear & the hicks
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Reminded by the "Who is crazier" thread and Hillary Clinton's unpopularity, did any of you see the last Top Gear where the boys drove through Alabama with pro-Hillary Clinton slogans (amongst other inflammatory words) daubed on their motors?
The response from the locals was frightening - and they are lucky to have got out of there with their lives!
Although you might get a little verbal abuse if you drove through Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch with English flags on your car, you would probably feel that, at least, you would get out there alive!
But there were simply so many no-go areas that they encountered.
The 'greatest' nation on Earth that 'loves freedom' certainly has an evil underbelly.
I regret saying all this as I have some absolutely adorable American friends - but I dunno if I fancy ever going there now.
The response from the locals was frightening - and they are lucky to have got out of there with their lives!
Although you might get a little verbal abuse if you drove through Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch with English flags on your car, you would probably feel that, at least, you would get out there alive!
But there were simply so many no-go areas that they encountered.
The 'greatest' nation on Earth that 'loves freedom' certainly has an evil underbelly.
I regret saying all this as I have some absolutely adorable American friends - but I dunno if I fancy ever going there now.
0
Comments
True ...
In America, if everyone around you for hundreds of miles is white, poor, owns a gun and is an evangelical christian and all the people you've ever known are white, poor, armed, evangelical christians then you're going to be suspicious of anyone who's anything else.
Oh the stoning etc was real, for sure! You could also see the genuine fear in their faces ... Clarkson's face was a picture!
I'm not convinced. The previous episode where they were "laying the road" was complete tosh.
I agree that episode was tosh .... but do you think they got a bunch of hicks onto a pickup to 'chase' them out of town .. and get an actress to pretend she was the hick gas station owner? Personally, I don't. I think that was for real.
I don't think it's outside the realms of possibility. I guess Top Gear have just sewn the seed of doubt with me. It's an enjoyable show, but i can't just accept anything it purports to be true any more.
Still, i don't think my scepticism of Top Gear really detracts from the debate that there evidently are areas of America - The South in particular - where there is a mentality similar to that shown on the show.
And lets be fair people have been attacked for wearing an England shirt in Scotland.
I'm not sure that the chap who was beaten up for wearing an England shirt would necessarily have considered himself an agitator. I do agree, however, that deliberately winding people up isn’t really much better than being the retarded hick.
I should have made myself clearer. He was attacked for no real reason, so we shouldn't complain that if people are subject to attacks like that in the UK that people who go out deliberately to wind people up in the US get attacked. We're not that morally superior...
Ah ok - no we're certainly not in any real position to preach. Don’t you think that The South in America generally has more of an intolerant and bigoted mentality entrenched in its psyche than we do here?
Erm... none?
They went everywhere that claimed was "no-go" and only had problems in the place where they had intentionally tried to wind the locals up.
Sure their slogans were a bit naff really and the reaction was extreme but that is precisely what they were trying to do.
Everywhere does. The underbelly in this country is the one which gets reported on the news everyday - the murders, paedophiles etc. Reality is so completely different.
Not really - but I'm biased as my wife's from Texas
I've found the South to be the friendliest part of America. There are a lot of unfair stereotypes and generalisations about the South. There's a grain of truth in some of them but anyone who thinks most Southerners are gun-toting homophobic Klansmen should visit and discover the reality.
Some of the Southern cities are very cool, Richmond VA and Austin TX especially.
I think that it's that thought of the South that will ultimately keep them away ... who would walk into the lion's den just to see if it bites?
That the Top Gear team got into trouble doesn't mean everyone in Alabama is a violent redneck of course. Though I don't think it's unfair to say that as things have been in the US for the last few years (or decades, come to think of it) some people appear to enjoy rather more freedom of speech than others. Not in the eyes of the law perhaps, but certainly on the street.
1. Drive into a truck stop with Brown and see what reaction you get, or into Liverpool with Cameron...(or even my village - ex-miners you see, haven't seen a Tory candidate on these streets ever not local, Euro or Parliament in over ten years!)
2. Man Love - wouldn't this be an issue in Protestant areas of NI? I know that they have more than their fair share of bigot (hell they keep electing the biggest)
Try Liverpool with Boris Johnson
No more a problem than Catholic areas. And Paisley isn't as bad as Adams, but Adam puts on a smiling face and the media fawn over him.
Or Kelvin MacKenzie :eek:
After all if it was Hammond and nice bloke's slogans that they really objected to, it wouldn't have been hard to stop them jump starting an old cadillac, rather than focusing their agression on people profiting from filming them.