Anti-Americanism

[Michael6084]

i'm sorry but i have to vent. i dont hate Europeans/Canadians/Australians, i just hate the ignorant ones all over the world


this gets quite annoying as an american. so many people take the stereotype of an american as a "fat, lazy, white, mcdonalds loving people"

yet while this country is still new speaking in relative terms compared to places in europe or asia, what it lacks in depth of culture i believe makes up in diversity. the history of black americans is not the same as white americans, or hispanic americans, or asian americans.

i dont mind people hating bush, but what i hate is ppl who hate 300 million americans because of bush. but we're supposedly an "inferior people", were "mindless killing machines", we are a "backwards nation".

the truth is every nation has their flaws. we invaded iraq and that's wrong, yet the EU looks at us as "murderers" yet they dont speak up about the colonial days when they took out whole civilizations and exterminated many people, including africans and south american indians. they took over large parts of africa, took over many places in asia including india. as for the british colonies here, they misrepresented us in parliament and put up unfair taxes.

then europeans tell us that if it werent for them and people like john locke and others in the Enlightenment, then the American Revolution wouldve never started. still, the American Revolution is the spark that helped inspire other places to start revolutions, such as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution.

we don't live under a "dictatorship". if we did we would have no freedom of speech, no form of electing a president, no anti-bush propaganda like fahrenheit 9/11, no right to or for assembly, and the media would be government-owned. other countries have history books and whatnot about their culture and that's pride, yet you have it here and it's "the brainwashing of the american people from the gov't." a non-american answers a question wrong and it's "bad wording" or a mistake, yet an american answers a question wrong and its "an effortful attempt with the full power of the mind and they are so stupid they cant get the question right."

yet we're such an idiotic country, how did we become a superpower? the long-lasting lightbulb and the phonograph was created by an "idiotic american". the manhattan project was headed by "idiotic americans". rock, hip hop, and jazz was created by "idiotic americans". the richest man in the world is an "idiotic american". the supreme allied commander in world war II was an "idiotic american". one of the men who helped the cold war end was an "idiotic american"


i'm glad i'm an american regardless of our flaws, yet i guess many Europeans see this as a threat or something and have to put us down or something to make themselves feel better. anyone can be a critic but not too many people have the courage to simply take action. yet there are Americans who forget to be proud of the country and forget some of the flaws because of peer pressure from outside the United States.


i'm sorry, but all this criticism gets on your nerves sometimes.

[vashti]

I agree. I think this mindset is similar to people hating ANYONE with power. It sucks when you can't get those in charge to wield power the way we want it.

Yes, there are plenty of fat, stupid, lazy people here, and probably in a greater proportion than the intelligent people, but that is true everywhere. Human nature is constant. There are a few highly intelligent at the top, a few brainless at the bottom, and the vast majority are mush-heads in the middle.

[DoesntMatter]

I have so much I want to post for this I might crash LF. But I can't right now because I'm still 50 pages behind in reading for bio and have an exam Tuesday so I gotta get back to reading.

But yes, I agree with you completely. Anti-Americanism is like a plague on other nations.

I'll vent when I have more time to do so

[GrkScorp]

I have so much I want to post for this I might crash LF. But I can't right now because I'm still 50 pages behind in reading for bio and have an exam Tuesday so I gotta get back to reading.

But yes, I agree with you completely. Anti-Americanism is like a plague on other nations.

I'll vent when I have more time to do so

I dunno.. I think news around the world is as biased as FOX news or CNN over here.. so people get distorted news in countries besides the U.S... I know.. i know.. hard to believe.. but it's true..

So.. while there are people in New York, Cali, NJ, FL, IL, etc.. that don't support the administration at all.. all the world sees are clips of people from Texas & North Virginia... just to build up an image that sells the idea of "ALL AMERICANS ARE AS IGNORANT AS BUSH"..

But.. the only place you would really get that is France.. they wouldn't care if you're just regular old joe.. or Bush himself...

On the other hand.. the rest of europe.. hates america with a passion (except the UK).. but sympathize with american citizens.. for their losses.. and having to live under a government that obviously doesn't represent their view..

Unlike here.. europeans actually care about politics.. as a whole.. even the kids... so they actually go online and research.. so it's very hard to distort.. which is why this anti-americanism thing.. towards the citizens anyway.. is most likely from ignorant europeans.. which are the worst kind.. those people came up with christianity.. so they're capable of all kinds of crazy stuff..

[Stalin_Skaya]

I live in Sweden and I must say that you are stereotyping. Not all Europeans hate Americans, I used to but not any more.

Maybe cause I've been to America. It's a nice country nice people. And I didn't see much fat people. But then again I was in New York only for a business trip. And America is a big country.

I do however hate things that are American. Like Hollywood movies, and Hip Hop music. And I hate KFC and Mcdonald's.

[bluesummer]

Well, I'm Canadian and I certainly don't hate Americans. (I do however, hate your government with a passion). But I can tell you, my sentiments are roughly the same on behalf of my country....I'm tired of being mocked by Americans about how our country is useless and should just be part of America and we all live in igloos and talk with some retard-accent blah blah blah.

The problem with some Americans, which most other countries of the world don't seem to suffer from, is a ridiculous amount of rude, radical patriotism. Now don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that not all Americans are like this. Unfortuntely, these loudmouth morons ruin it for the rest of you. There they are on the media, talking about how they have the right to be blowing the rest of the world halfway to hell, and how powerful America is, and how they run the world. Like, enough already.

Why do you think the rest of the world gets pissy? How about Canada having heavy export taxes slammed on us because we chose not to join a war that was completely unjustified? How about Americans showing open disdain for the French for the same reason by changing the name of 'french fries' to 'freedom fries' and other retarded crap? Again, this is not all Americans, but that's what gets emblazoned all over the media, and yes it pisses other countries off. Why do you not understand this?

Don't forget for all of America's wonderful contributions, there are other countries (including MINE) that have contributed a lot to this world, and indeed there are some that have contributed far more than yours. So I agree, anti-Americanism is wrong, but so it over-patriotism. We don't need yet another person standing on his soapbox praising America, while the rest of us continue contributing to the world silently and humbly, taking America's abuse for being useless pansy countries.

[vashti]

Ugh, I don't know where you meet Americans, Blue, but I've never seen any American EVER say anything negative about a Canadian. EVER.
(I've seen plenty of the opposite, though.) Maybe this is more of a problem with the northern states?

BTW - I am not an economist, but you've brought up the export tax thing before. Perhaps the huge trade deficit we had with Canada contributed (at least in part) to the decision to increase export taxes? I believe lack of war support caused a heightened interest in the trade deficit, which to that point had been largely overlooked. I dunno, just a guess.

[url]http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2003/06/30/story1.html[/url]

[Stalin_Skaya]

I don't like how Americans think that they saved Europe. 3/4 that where in Normandy where British. The rest where Canadians, Americans, Irish, South African, Australian, New Zeelanders et c.

And The Germans surrendered to the western powers. It was the Eastern they really fought.

And lets not forget all the French that died freeing America from the British in the American revolution.

[bluesummer]

Ugh, I don't know where you meet Americans, Blue, but I've never seen any American EVER say anything negative about a Canadian. EVER.
(I've seen plenty of the opposite, though.) Maybe this is more of a problem with the northern states?

BTW - I am not an economist, but you've brought up the export tax thing before. Perhaps the huge trade deficit we had with Canada contributed (at least in part) to the decision to increase export taxes? I believe lack of war support caused a heightened interest in the trade deficit, which to that point had been largely overlooked. I dunno, just a guess.

[url]http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2003/06/30/story1.html[/url]

Well, I've travelled quite a bit around the US, and have found most Americans quite pleasant and amiable towards me. But I have been met with occasionally sneers and jeers when I've told people where I'm from. And online, it's brutal. I've been savaged by people for no reason, just for being Canadian, especially after 9/11 when we refused to join the stupid war.

[bluesummer]

I don't like how Americans think that they saved Europe. 3/4 that where in Normandy where British. The rest where Canadians, Americans, Irish, South African, Australian, New Zeelanders et c.

And The Germans surrendered to the western powers. It was the Eastern they really fought.

And lets not forget all the French that died freeing America from the British in the American revolution.

Yeah, if you go over to Europe, Canadians are still heroes over there for our war efforts, but no one seems to remember that. Because we fought for the ENTIRE WAR, not just the end.

[Stalin_Skaya]

Yeah, if you go over to Europe, Canadians are still heroes over there for our war efforts, but no one seems to remember that. Because we fought for the ENTIRE WAR, not just the end.

Yeah America joined when the war was pretty much over.

But you got to give the Americans credit. The European infrastructure was bombed to ashes. America was far away and all of its industry survived making it a super power.
That is pretty smart waiting the war out.

[anachronistic]

i think if government spent the funds on more useful things than campaigns and iraqi war, and instead, establishing things like an official language and focus on carbon dioxide emissions, america would be able to develop further, both culturally and economically...

*shrug*

[Tedel]

I think that anti-Americanism is half true and half another stereotype. As I see things, the US government is very hypocrit. On the one hand, they promote freedom and on the other, they close their markets and pass protective laws. I am also from those who agree that both the attack to the World Trade Center and Iraq were planned to have an excuse to attack and get oil reserves. Actually, Osama Bin Laden's video two days before the re-election of Bush was more than suspicious for me.

From the American people I have met, I'd say you are kind people. The problem is just that: you are perhaps too kind. It seems your culture is so civilized that your lives lack the passions other people have to live with, like, for example, when you struggle daily to eat or not to eat. So how do you inject some passion to your lives? Through your very developed, but also very stereotyped, entertainment industry. The problem is that when you sell your TV shows and films (British English, sorry) to the rest of the world, it is this stereotyped view what we see. Friends, Sex and the City, SmallVille, Ally McBeal... you name them.

A third ingredient would be your Paris-Hilton-styled individualism and materialism. American culture was born with the philgrims (sorry if misspelled) who you remember in your Thanksgiving Day. They were the Calvinists that were escaping from the English queen's Anglicanism of the time, and they were people who believed in predestination: God already knew if you were going to Heaven or Hell at the end of your life, so the clue for them was success in life. Now you live upon those principles: striving for more success and striving for being successful for yourselves. It's not "bad" nor "selfish" because you were raised under those cultural principles; however, when you see it from another point of view it is just a selfish way to see live! So I think this is the third source of anti-Americanism.

Actually, Inca's policies included sharing a lot and here in Peru you can still see people sharing food if the others are too poor. You wait for the government to provide you with the stuff you need if you have an emergency.

[Gribble]

On the one hand foreigners denounce American entertainment. On the other they consume it voraciously. That in and of itself is hypocrisy. American culture is hailed as bankrupt. Dead. Worthless. And yet you'll see people throughout the entire world mimicking American style of dress, listening to American music...

[Junket]

Why don't you all just set aside your stupid countries and talk about why each one of you as individuals are better than the other?

That's pretty much what you all are getting at anyway.