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Hillary Clinton, Top Gear & the hicks

Former MemberFormer 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. :blush:

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I didn't really want to go to America before that programme. I'm wondering how much of that was absolutely genuine, because after all, it is TV. But if it was a genuine reaction, then it's fucking retarded, and a true testiment to how many people in the world genuinely value freedom of speech when it doesn't corrospond to their own views. I wonder what reaction you'd get going to a Celtic game in a Rangers shirt and chanting a load of abuse about Celtic though? Assuming there was no security there. I don't think this is specific to America.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I wonder what reaction you'd get going to a Celtic game in a Rangers shirt and chanting a load of abuse about Celtic though? Assuming there was no security there. I don't think this is specific to America.

    True ...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's the problem of being such a vast country, communities are isolated and insular, especially in the South.

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Top Gear is as heavily scripted as most movies. I'm never sure what's real and what's not on the show.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Top Gear is as heavily scripted as most movies. I'm never sure what's real and what's not on the show.


    Oh the stoning etc was real, for sure! You could also see the genuine fear in their faces ... Clarkson's face was a picture! :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Violette wrote: »
    i don't think it was like your example, i'm with stupid, because they weren't abusive, it was quite clear it was a joke and they got met with full on abuse and prejudice.
    Oh come on, they were driving cars that were basically slagging off everything that that particular part of the world stands for. Pull into a garage in a village in north Wales with "Speak English not Welsh" written on your car and see how far you get. It wouldn't be hard to drive around a few until you found an owner that didn't have a sense of humour. Who knows, this might have been the tenth garage they visited, and the rest might've seen the funny side.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teagan wrote: »
    Oh the stoning etc was real, for sure! You could also see the genuine fear in their faces ... Clarkson's face was a picture! :lol:

    I'm not convinced. The previous episode where they were "laying the road" was complete tosh.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teagan wrote: »
    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You go out to wind up people - don't be suprised when you succeed.

    And lets be fair people have been attacked for wearing an England shirt in Scotland.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You go out to wind up people - don't be suprised when you succeed.

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yuuuup, us Americans, just a bunch of backward thinking, violent hicks. THaaaatts us alright.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I thought it was highly amusing!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If anyone walked through my village with a rangers or england top on they'd get a beating. Simiarily, if I walked down the Shankill with a celtic top on I wouldn't come out alive.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teagan wrote: »
    But there were simply so many no-go areas that they encountered.

    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.
    The 'greatest' nation on Earth that 'loves freedom' certainly has an evil underbelly.

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    All true ... :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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?

    Not really - but I'm biased as my wife's from Texas
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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?

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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.

    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? :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm not sure the Rangers/Celtic comparison is a fair one to be honest. The question should be, would anyone in this country have to run for their lives if they had 'David Cameron' (or Gordon Brown) for Prime Minister, or 'Man Love Rules' painted on their cars?

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    I'm not sure the Rangers/Celtic comparison is a fair one to be honest. The question should be, would anyone in this country have to run for their lives if they had 'David Cameron' (or Gordon Brown) for Prime Minister, or 'Man Love Rules' painted on their cars?

    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)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    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!))

    Try Liverpool with Boris Johnson
    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)

    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.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Try Liverpool with Boris Johnson

    Or Kelvin MacKenzie :eek:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Or Salman Rushdie in Bradford.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    To be frank, although the arguement was pretty heated between the presenters and the woman at the gas station - it was the camera crew that got stones thrown at them. Now you could see that as a sign that they wanted the tv out of the way - but in the light of a film like Borat and shows like Trailer Park Boys, etc, isn't it more likely that the people were reacting to what they thought was themselves and their beliefs being made fun of by a tv crew (which they were).

    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.
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