The flag at the end...

With the advances of modern technology, the differences between our nations has become smaller. I for one don't think we are the freest country in the world but we're doing pretty damn good for being pretty young. Let's face it, we have a long way to go before we're ever as hated on a global level more than England has been over the course of history.

The U.S. has it's faults, quirks we're still trying to work out that's for sure, but there also have been some major advances in the last several decades. Sure our debt and economy are currently taking a hit, but this isn't the first time, and we will climb out of it. We have in the past and will do it again.

This is a country where a poor black boy, who may or may not have been born here, can grow up to be president. Many people from across the pond like to point out our race issues, but really, can anyone in the UK say that's a possibility? Who was England's last black King or Asian Prime Minister?

Oh, and news flash. Guns aren't the only way to kill people and crazies exists in every corner of the planet. If it weren't guns it would be knives, or bombs, or fire, or just plain ole fists in the streets by hundreds of 'demonstrators'. In my entire life I can't remember two sections of people wanting to kill one another because one group was protestant and another catholic. I've read about it but never experienced it first hand.

To me, and probably to many that live here in the US, that is some stupid @ss *beep* Who cares who, what, where you worship, or no one at all. My parents never questioned the religion of anyone I ever dated, they didn't care. I didn't even know, nor cared what they were. The UK, Ireland, and Europe have some serious crazy religious nuts. Let's pull up those statistics of how many people died over something as trivial as that.

So, before you go and throw statistics and links proving why we are a bunch of morons, go and research your own back yard. Show me a country that doesn't have race issues, class distinctions, and a growing crime rate.

We are a country built up from hard work and loyalty. We don't produce goods like we once did, now we're more of a service industry. But one thing's for sure, we definitely know how to produce a handout to any other country in crisis when needed, when so many others have turned their backs.

When Katrina happened, sure our government failed in many ways, but the people came through in spades. So many countries couldn't offer a helping hand but everyone that I know sure donated their hard earned dollars, or time, for those in need. I live up North and know many people who opened their doors to take in the displaced. We're like a large family. We can have our own individual disputes but when the dominoes fall most are there to help each other out.

9/11 proved that beyond measure.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

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Actually, the butthurt people are the "Pro-America" people. Each comment that says "eh, it was pretty cheesy" is bombarded by "YOU HATE AMERICA, DON'T LIKE THE COUNTRY LEAVE, 'MURICA F@$# YEAH!"

And while you do make a valid point about how we put up flags after large-scale disasters, it never happens NEARLY as fast is it did in this movie. They either implied that someone scaled this random, crumbled building to put the flag up, or the flag miraculously stayed in place during the massive earthquake and the building partially collapsing.

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Just because you are too stupid to understand it, it does not mean that it is a plot hole

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Is there really butthurt over a flag? You people need to grow a set.

Whenever there is a major disaster in the US, there is ALWAYS someone who hangs a flag. They did it at the WTC, they did it at the Northridge quake and it makes perfect sense in the movie. They do it because it is a rallying point, it shows that the people will survive, honor those lost and then rebuild. To those that think it is some form of propaganda, you must live shallow, meaningless lives

I understand what you are saying BrotherZed, I think you need to look not so much at some people see it as propaganda, but more why these people see it in as propaganda, if they do.

I'm in the UK, when I saw the film people seemed to be enjoying it then the camera pans across and you see the flag pole with what looks like a flag wrapped around it. Quite literally people said out loud "no don't do it," "Oh here we go again" and "oh for *beep* sake."

Hearing conversations as I'm leaving the cinema when the flag was mentioned the same thing seemed to be said. Why did they have to put that into the film? I had to agree, I too thought oh no not again when I saw the flag pole. It didn't need to be there. The voice over said it all.

"What do we do now?"
"We rebuild"

This was a scene over the clearing up, salvaging and rescuing operations. What was so hard to understand that you couldn't put those two lines with the visuals and it made sense?

Couldn't the flag have been a red cross flag? Couldn't it have been saying register here for lost friends and family or something other than that flag? Wouldn't it have shown that the process of rebuilding was beginning?

I don't believe the people I overheard were particularly anti-American bar possibly one who I will get to in a moment. I think people were more frustrated that once again the flag was used in such a way that it was coming across as we will over come thins BECAUSE we are America(ns) when in reality other countries have suffered Earthquakes, terrorism and so forth and they too have over time rebuilt and moved on. It wasn't because they were Argentinian, Australians, British, Japanese or whatever. It's because what humans do.

I mentioned one person who commented who I think may have been anti-American. His comment which is terrible when you think of it as what if this was real? He said he enjoyed seeing the "mighty America" get destroyed and there was *beep* all they could do about it. Where was we are America, the brave, the powerful, saviours of the world when your country was getting destroyed."
Of course its easy to dismiss it as he was talking about a bit of cinema, nobody really died, hurt lives ruined etc. The fact that he was thinking that regardless is horrible and says a lot about him as a person.

The rest of the world isn't like him, thankfully. But a lot of people in the world have got very tired of the American rhetoric often seen as patriotism as it's been over used in media and the entertainment industry to the point of it becoming boring and tedious.
It isn't the country people don't like, it's that rhetoric and how it is presented that make the a lot of the world think oh crap here it comes again the same old stuff I've heard 100 times before America blah blah blah blah!

There is a lot of patriotism around the world, it just doesn't appear to get used in the same way.
I'm English and our patriotism is a joke. For us patriotism is linked more to sport than it is to the country, it's culture, it's history and so forth. I couldn't care less as I have zero patriotism. Never have and never will. I find the whole thing incredibly tedious and stupid.

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Or a real Golden Gate Bridge destroyed by a real container ship!

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