"Dear Limey assholes" - reaction to The Guardian's campaign

[diabhal]

So I guess a lot of you didn't appreciate The Guardian's effort to affect the vote in Clark County. My favourite is:

"Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1329858,00.html

[trumad]

1. Never mind

I see these are not your words... You might want to make that clear...

Sorry

[HFishbine]

2. "Oh, yeah, one more thing...

... we don't need you in Iraq either."

[Englander]

3. Tea-sipping socialist pricks.Radical leftwing spies.

I love the Guardian!!

"As a US citizen, I want to advise you that you and anyone that participates in subverting the US presidential election can be criminally charged and perhaps even charged as spies.
California"

[sui generis]

20. charged as spies!

Well we have a whole list of good ol' U.S. citizens that are trying to subvert the election right here. I personally think they should all be sent to Gitmo, lose their right to vote, and the key.

[liberalmuse]

4. Wow!

I'm glad ignorant a-hole Americans are writing the Guardian and letting the world know just how detestable we are. And we live amongst these hateful dipsh*ts. Nice.

Thanks for posting. That is sad. :(

[diabhal]

7. All the most hateful are clearly Repugs

There are hardly any Dems who have written to say what a bad idea it is - and when they do they are entirely reasonable and moderate. All the vitriolic ones come from Republicans. So predictable.

[rkc3]

30. And we wonder why people want to blow us up.

[Guy_Montag]

5. Mine is

"Consider this: stay out of American electoral politics. Unless you would like a company of US Navy Seals - Republican to a man - to descend upon the offices of the Guardian, bag the lot of you, and transport you to Guantanamo Bay, where you can share quarters with some lonely Taliban shepherd boys.
United States"

Actually I think it's a little misguided myself, I know how annoyed I;d get if people told me how to vote.

[Michael_UK]

9. As I see it, the Guardian didn't tell people how to vote

Although we know most Guardian readers would vote for Kerry (They tend to be decent, thoughtful people), the Guardian didn't suggest writing to voters in Ohio to vote for Kerry, just to consider the opinions of great friends across the Atlantic.

[Demit]

6. the guy sounds like a failed xenophobic dentist to me

[spooky3]

15. LOL!

[papau]

8. Cute - and interesting report - now the folks at the Guardian know what we

are up against!

I think they already share out pain!

:-)

But some the GOP letters were so red neck they were fun.

And the Dem support letters were so heartfelt, I was moved.

But I think the Dem that wrote that it was a nice gesture, but feared it may do more harm than good, is in the same place I am on this idea.

I hope it helps the cause, but it is not something I expect to be a large plus.

:-)

[DebinTx]

10. Notice the Ohio undecideds welcome what the Guardian is doing?

The only ones taking offense are the RWers. That free speech thing only applies to Americans?

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. See also an existing discussion in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2505405

[Xipe Totec]

12. Man, talk about showing copper under the gilding

What a way to express to our staunchest allies in Iraq how we REALLY feel about them. Maybe next time the Brits will think twice before volunteering for cannon fodder duty in somebody else's colonial wars. :eyes:

[Tsiyu]

13. Sounds like Michael Savage has been reading

the Guardian. The response you posted sounds straight out of his deranged mind.

Yes, UK, welcome to the cesspool of xenophobia that is the US. We want your soldiers to die alongside ours, but otherwise we don't need you. Too sad.

I love the UK, and I am proud that Guardian readers care about America. Hopefully they understand that the Republicans are the ones without grace, tact or any concern for what their modern day Jeebus Bush is doing to destroy this planet.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. The underlying xenophobia in this country

is so distressing--and so ironic, considering that all except the Native Americans are descendants of immigrants.

It's probably a legacy of the early part of the twentieth century, when immigrant children were shamed into rejecting their parents' culture and becoming "100% American."

Thus we have a nation of immigrants with one of the lowest rates of foreign language proficiency in the world and a strong tradition of xenophobia.

[VaYallaDawg]

22. Foreign language proficiency

as in the kind of English (??) spoken by *.

[lakemonster11]

37. I think it's just

because the U.S. is so big and isolated. When I was living in Greece, a Greek woman I knew even admitted that when she goes to the U.S., she "gets so excited about America" and forgets all about Europe. She blamed it mostly on the media, especially the news, which is much less international than the news in Greece.

I think our relative phsyical isolation explains the lack of foreign language proficiency, necessity being the mother of invention and all that.

I think we also have a stubborn streak a mile wide, a bit of an inflated ego, and generations of kids who have gone through highly U.S.-centered school systems.

[stlchic]

16. I guess the idiots were just following *'s advice:

"Tell Tony Blair that we're going at it alone...", and decided to ignore his jibes to Kerry about insulting our allies.

Well, if they want the Brits minding their own business, then I guess they won't mind them pulling out of our grand nation building effort, eh?

I suppose it shouldn't surprise us - they won't even tolerate dissent and anti-* election involvement by their fellow citizens.

This is yet another perfect example of escalated division, not just here, but overseas. What happened to the "we are all Americans" sentiment? What happened to hailing Tony Blair as one of America's greatest friends - in the halls of Congress no less?

Hypocrites...

:puke:

[Supersedeas]

17. Bushspeak Diplomacy

[crispini]

18. Is the site down?

I can't get to it. I'd like to write someone in England a nice note.

[sister moon]

19. website

I can't get to it either. Monday morning traffic jam, perhaps? I cant' get to new york times, daily kos, and several others. fantasy explanation: shrub has had a total nervous breakdown and is hiding under his bed refusing to come out. media in a frenzy. internets are all locked-up as millions try to read about it.

[No2W2004]

21. After reading the selected replies

It's even easier to see how divided this country is. It's also plain to see how ignorant people are about their own countries history. There were the obligatory "if it wasn't for us, you all would be speaking German right now" letters, the "we kicked your asses out in 1776" letters, the "go brush your stinky yellow teeth" letters, (THIS coming from Freepers strikes me as a case of "pot...meet kettle"". One mentioned how we throughly kicked the British out of the hemisphere in the War of 1812.

The letters saying that this election was none of their concern really hit me as I've read that it was also a response the Fascist gave when other countries started asking about what was going on inside Germany.

Not only is it embarrassing, to say the least, that people who claim to be SO patriotic have no idea that ,no we never kicked out the British (never a goal) from the country, no the war of 1812 WASN'T a "limey ass kicking", no, in 1776, America was a fledging country, and NOT "kicking ass", no the British would NOT be speaking German right now. They defended their Island by themselves against the Luftwaffe, and held out.

The MOST unbelievable though is the apparent confusion between Great Brittan and the rest of Europe . Socialist? Pansies? Traitors? Maybe they should check with their "Great President" to find out who's in Iraq with us again.

In closing, I know the rest of the world sees these letters and it confirms what they already think.

[slipperduke]

23. Ah, don't take it to heart

I think most of us 'sandal wearing, musli munching, lefty' Guardian readers here now that there are two distinct USA's right now.

I thought it was a bit of a silly idea to start trying to influence the election, personally. There's no way that can come across as anything other than patronising.

Shame about the WWII references as well. Mind you, if the US Right had joined in with us in 1939 instead of just profiteering on it for a couple of years, the war would have ended much sooner. But there you go.

All the best, once again, for Nov 2. We're rooting for you.

[No2W2004]

29. Thanks very much.

we're rooting for you too, for this election will affect you as well.

I didn't take it as trying to influence as much as it is trying to open peoples eyes....that there actually IS a whole world outside the US.

A lot of people (Including our chimp-in-chief) would rather pretend it doesn't exist except when it suits them.

[Selteri]

35. Yeah, the ignorance is stunning

Like the fact that they don't understand that the war of 1812 was over hemp supplies.

As for calling them yellow teethed bastards... well, it fits with most of the nasty letters that fall between the ignorant and the mean spirited.

[chaska]

24. I just emailed the Guardian with a note of appreciation for...

this hilarious article. Maybe you would like to do the same.

[othermeans]

25. "You forgot Poland and Tony Blair and........" nt

[othermeans]

26. God this is going to do wonders for us abroad nt

[Soth]

27. They forgot the postscript...

I think they left off the postscript of one of those letters. The entire letter reads as follows:

"Who in the hell do you think you are??? Well, I'll tell you, you're a bunch of meddling socialist pricks! Stay the hell out of our country and politics. And another thing, John Kerry is a worthless lying sack of crap so it doesn't surprise me that a socialist rag like yours would back him. I hope your cynical ploy blows up in your cowardly faces, you bunch of mealy-mouthed morons!

P.S. Please send troops."

[Captain Obvious]

28. These people make me embarrassed to be American.

We can drop bombs on other countries but others can't even TALK to us?

[Catma]

31. ?

Im confused, how did we win the war of 1812. It wasn't a victory for either side. We were lucky we didn't have our asses handed to us. The only thing that saved us was the fact that the british were also fighting france. great article though

[ConservativeDemocrat]

32. Here is the most insightful response...

from the responses received:

I just read a hilarious proposal to involve your readership in the upcoming US presidential election. At least, I'm hoping that it is genius satire. Nothing will do more to undermine the Democratic cause in Ohio than having patronising Brits wander around Clark County telling people how to vote. Just, for a second, imagine if the Washington Post sent folks from Ohio to do the same in Oxfordshire. I'm saying this as a Democrat, and as someone who has spent the last few years in the UK. That is, with all due respect. Please, please, be rational, and move slowly away from the self-defeating hubris.
United States

The typical moron-freeper letters notwithstanding, the Guardian has got a real turkey of an idea on its hands.

[MADem]

33. You are absolutely correct!

The GUARDIAN handled this badly, IMHO. Of course, I do not know how they got the email addresses of these voters--did these Americans volunteer to receive these emails, or were they unsolicited? I would be a bit irritated if I got a letter from Susie Bin Bandar in Saudi Arabia telling me to vote for the weecowboy. They would have been better off if they had worked with a companion newspaper here in the US and published the letters there. All they seem to have accomplished is a GOTV effort for the idiot.

That said, the "Screw YOU!" letters are cringeworthy in the extreme. Nothing like putting your best face forward in your communications abroad! And the "Who the hell are you, remember the revolution!" remarks are kind of funny. The teeth remarks are just plain mean, as well as a bit outdated--Brits have good dental care nowadays.

You are quite right--it's a turkey of an idea.

[Kimber Scott]

43. This was a silly idea, but I just love this response:

"Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI.
United States"

ROFLMAO!!! What are THEY going to do? ROFLMAO!!!

[billyskank]

34. I thought it was a really bad idea

and if it were up to me I'd fire the editor of the Guardian for allowing it. It was obvious this was going to provoke an angry reaction, even perhaps among people who are going to vote for Kerry anyway. For better or worse, getting rid of Bush is *your* job not ours; all we can do is watch and hope. If this stunt has hurt Kerry's chances in any way then I'm very sorry for that indeed.

[The Doctor.]

36. That reminds me...

When does the next Hate Mailbag come out?

[jwirr]

38. And the bushies are trying to

convince us that bigotry in gone! What are a few emails compared to what the repugs are doing to stop voters from voting. I delete emails all the time but I couldn't stop voter fraud in 2000.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

39. Those Freepers really know how to appreciate fellow coalition members

</sarcasm> :puke:

[Supersedeas]

40. especially in light of new US request for British troops

see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20041018/ap_on_re_mi_ea/britain_iraq_9

Britain is considering a request by the United States to redeploy a small number of British troops in Iraq (news - web sites) to free up American soldiers for anti-terror operations, the defense minister told lawmakers Monday.

Geoff Hoon stressed that no decision had been made and added that, contrary to media reports, Washington had not asked for British soldiers to be sent to Baghdad or Fallujah.


Freepers have so much foresight.

[expatriate]

41. So these various foulmouthed jingoistic

folks don't like other nations meddling in American politics?

What the HELL do they think the US is doing in Iraq?

[dirkn19]

42. Republican bloggers sent most of the responses anyway

When I read the responses in the Guardian this morning, my 1st
reaction was that well meaning lefties here in the UK had
delivered a few more votes for GW Bush by lecturing voters in
Ohio on the evils of US foreign policy.

Turns out that most of the 'yellow teethed limey' comments
were sent by Republican bloggers who seem to have snagged a
few thousand of the email addresses for themselves:

http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007752.php

[GettysbergII]

44. 'Limeys assholes' may not be able to vote in our elections......

.....but they sure as hell can boycott Sinclair Network advertisers with us. As a matter of fact the whole frigging Bush-hating world can help on that venture as many of Sinclair's advertisers market products worldwide.

In the long run proving to the right-wing owned media that there are consequences to abusing the trust of the American people and also proving to the American people that we have the will and werewithal to call irresponsible media corporations on the carpet at any moment is a prerequisite for regaining our democracy. We need to maintain this boycott until we bring Sinclair Broadcasting Network to it's knees or preferably into receivership. And the really nice thing is this is one of those touchy-feely activities that can bring the whole world a little closer together. So we're telling all our international friends to join in the boycott and spread the word around the world. Please spread the word to your international friends as well. How does that saying go:

"It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a global village to raise a shitstorm on SBNI"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1036078&mesg_id=1036078

http://www.boycottsbg.com/advertisers/

http://grassrootsnation.com/sinclair/

[frankly_fedup2]

45. Those complete idiots. They are giving the right something else . . .

to run their mouths about on their hate radio, TV, and articles.

We don't need anyone to help us get Kerry elected President.

Especially, people from another country whose Prime Minister is just as corrupt as Bush.

Why don't they worry about getting rid of Tony Blair and we, ALL AMERICANS, can handle what we need to do.

YEESH! I cannot believe those idiots adding fuel to the fire is all that has done.