The USA does come in for a lot of unwarranted criticism. I think it’s seen as particularly strong in Europe as that’s the region most likely to be covered by the US media. Besides, the impact of US politics, economics and culture across the world will inevitable make it a bigger target for criticism.
I do not think most people in Western nations are anti-American. I think many – but perhaps not even as many as you’d think – harbour reservations about US policy. I don’t think this equates to a general anti-American sentiment at all – even where this does occur it generally seems exaggerated by the media’s tendency to publicise the extremes over the middle ground in any given situation.
Another possible source of skewed viewpoint would be any observation of how American visitors behave here in the UK; “you can’t get a good pizza/burger” and “you call this a milkshake?” - but Americans by no means hold a monopoly on this behaviour.
There is a tendency for tourists of any nationality to adhere to their own cultural trappings and mistrust those of the locals (I cannot understand this myself, but there is an awful lot of it about and it is certainly not the exclusive behaviour of Americans)
Obviously not. Stccrd had a question, asked it and is now getting some POV’s from the kind of people s/he asked the question of. What’s the problem with that?
There’s also the old adage about not being forced into reading the thread which I’m sure you’ve trotted out once or twice in your time
I’m an American but I’m still gonna go a head and bite on this one.
I’ve always hated the “buy American made products only crap” especialy when it come to cars or motorcycles.
Its like “Yeah, I ride a F’n Honda Shadow so what? When Harley Davidson can make an afordable bike that wont break down every ten miles; I’ll buy one then. Untill then shut he f#ck up!”
Before I start, the usual disclaimer: I love America. It’s a stupendous, amazing country, with so much going for it. I have many good American friends, have lived for substantial periods of time in Connecticut and Texas, and my parents live in Tennessee.
But to answer the OP, here’s what I don’t like - and I think you’ll find that a lot of these are linked:[ol][li]Don’t like a lot of US foreign policy. From inside the US I’m sure a lot looks good, and many Americans I have spoken to IRL have an attitude that their government can do no wrong WRT overseas (see point 3). But outside the US it looks like a scary attempt at hegemony. Furthermore, a lot of Americans I’ve met have no idea what their country is doing outside US borders (in between wars), which brings me to the second point:[/li][li]Don’t like the ignorance displayed by many Americans about the rest of the world (and indeed the rest of their own country). There’s a peculiar insularity of John Does common (in my experience) to only two places: America and China. This is only my impression, but it’s a fairly strong one. It clearly doesn’t apply to people on this board.[/li][li]Blind patriotism. I don’t like the attitude that criticizing American policy is anti-American. It isn’t. Criticise my countries’ policies all you like - I may agree or disagree, and argue the point, but I’m not going to have a go at you for being a “hater”, or “anti UK” or “anti Irish”. This leads to paranoia - an inability to distinguish between criticism of an aspect of your country, and hating your country as a whole. This leads to the following statement that I’ve heard a ridiculous number of times “if people don’t like America, why do so many of them want to get into this country?” This is absurd - there are many reasons: economic necessity (think of Irish emigrés to the UK last century); because it’s the Land of Opportunity; or in my case, “love your country, dislike your foreign policy”.[/li][li]Hyperbole: for many US citizens, if the country is good at something, then they’re the “best in the world”. You might be, but you might not be. Not knowing about it (see point 2) doesn’t give you the right to assume. For example, someone on this board said America “has the best race relations in the world”. Bullshit. Tell that to my black sister living in Chattanooga, and compare what her life would be like if she lived in England. Knee-jerk patriots may say “well if she doesn’t like it, she should leave”. This again is a nonsensical statement; show me any ex-pat (American or otherwise) living anywhere who doesn’t have some problems with where they live.[/li][/ol]That’s all. Let me reiterate, if you are feeling knee-jerky about this, that I love America.
One that I’ve heard often is the following, rather mundane, really, but indicative of a broader trend. I realize it’s just semantics, but I’ve heard people from several countries comment on it.
The “World Series” isn’t really a competition amongst people in the ‘world’, it’s an American championship.
I’m an American who chooses not to live in the USA and I can say there are a terrific number of things that the USA does well, for which it is respected. However, the one issue that stands out for me and has been the deciding factor in my choosing not to live permanently in the USA is the one most often mentioned in these types of discussions.
I’d say, if I had to guess, the number one criticism I hear living overseas (I’ve lived in Japan and France) is of US foreign policy. I rarely hear negative things about Americans themselves. Of course, there are the usual ‘Ugly American tourist’ stereotypes, but those types of stereotypes exist for all groups of foreigners.
There are always those citizens of a particular country that fit the stereotype, but more often, they do not. Just wanted to clarify that I AM NOT CONDONING the stereotyping of an entire people.
I do believe Baldwin and Tedster that the American constitution is one of the great documents of history and it is necessary for its health and vitality to be continually challenged and examined.
I had written a long paragraph outlining what I thought was wrong with the second amendment debates, but the more I reread and rewrote it, the more it sounded like it was coming out of my ass. It’s your constitution, debate it as you see fit. I’ll concede that point and in the future keep my big yap shut on the issue.
There are a lot of these sorts of threads that come up. Laundry lists of “why country X sucks” seem mean-spirited at best, and “polite Pit threads” at worst. I would have said the same thing about a “who hates Ireland” thread, if there was one every week like clockwork…
Evidently, no one else thinks there are an excess of them, especially targeting the United States, as shown by the sound of the chirping crickets. But, not only did I not tell anyone to “stop talking about” anything, as you well know, but by your very same metric, I should be allowed to state this.
Look, John. You have been making little snipes in several of my posts for some time now (and you know you have been doing it too, as you yourself mentioned it to Fierra in London not too long ago). Why don’t you just start a Pit thread about me and get eeeeeeeverything off your chest, rather than continue this scattered shit about the Board? It can be a regular Irish Festivus for you.
Cool down! I never had the intent to cause any arguments, I merely asked an objective question, hoping for objective answers.
At any rate…
I heartily agree that far too many Americans are ignorant of what goes on with their own country. I myself have been guilty of this in the past, but I (as evidenced by this thread) have started to open my eyes to what really is the truth about my country, and all its lovely aspects. Thanks for your input, it really does make a difference about my opinions to see what mindsets are like outside of the US.
If everyone in the US realized that many sentiments that we have are not singular to our nation, we might not be so arrogant about the way we do things.
That is a very good and concise way to say that. But it’s not just limited to the US. It would be interesting, as an exercise, to encourage people today to look at other countries represented on this Board (England, Ireland, France, India, Canada, Iraq, and yes, even the US) and mentally make a list of:
How has this country contributed positively towards humanity?
What makes the people of this country special?
How can I learn more about their country to understand them better, and not just blindly hate or snidely sneer at them?
Isolation, both physical and cultural, means that in the US, it is not uncommon to be woefully ignorant about anything outside the borders. The US is LARGE, and even in this “connected Age”, that still has a huge impact on creating a false belief that “the US is the World”. But then too, even in my limited travels I’ve seen plenty of ignorance to come right back at us too - Hollywood and the entertainment industry-exports define the US for most people who do not live here, and I feel very strongly that that simply is just not right.
It’s a pity if this thread is going to generate a quarrel between contributors based on difficulties they may have had IRL. I didn’t interpret the thread as inviting the USA to be slammed and most comments seem to have been along the lines that “I like the USA and Americans, but I have some reservations as follows…”.
Since the OP referred to international opinion about Iraq and the military dimension to the USA’s Middle Eastern policy, I’d like to recall an episode of The BBC’s Question Time programme.
It’s a discussion forum in which a panel drawn from public life debate questions raised from a live studio audience*. Last September the US ambassador to the UK was one of the guests, and there was a very hostile audience member who told the ambassador that 9/11 had happened because “the world hates the USA” or some such remark. The ambassador was visibly upset but the rest of the audience turned on the hostile person and nearly lynched her. The BBC’s switchboard was jammed with complaints afterwards too. It turned out, btw, that she was the editor of a rapidly anti-US Islamist newsletter.
Criticism of policy about Iraq seems generally motivated by genuine fear for unforseen negative consequences, not anti-Americanism.
*A live broadcast is made on-line if you’re ever tempted to watch or join in.
It’s a pity if this thread is going to generate a quarrel between contributors based on difficulties they may have had IRL. I didn’t interpret the thread as inviting the USA to be slammed and most comments seem to have been along the lines that “I like the USA and Americans, but I have some reservations as follows…”.
Since the OP referred to international opinion about Iraq and the military dimension to the USA’s Middle Eastern policy, I’d like to recall an episode of The BBC’s Question Time programme.
It’s a discussion forum in which a panel drawn from public life debate questions raised from a live studio audience*. Last September the US ambassador to the UK was one of the guests, and there was a very hostile audience member who told the ambassador that 9/11 had happened because “the world hates the USA” or some such remark. The ambassador was visibly upset but the rest of the audience turned on the hostile person and nearly lynched her. The BBC’s switchboard was jammed with complaints afterwards too. It turned out, btw, that she was the editor of a rapidly anti-US Islamist newsletter.
Criticism of policy about Iraq seems generally motivated by genuine fear for unforseen negative consequences, not anti-Americanism.
*A live broadcast is made on-line if you’re ever tempted to watch or join in.
I don’t think a lot of people have anti-Usian sentiments as in “I hate the citizens of the US.” Rather, those sentiments are directed towards the government and certain behaviour common among US citizens.
Iran, Iraq, it makes no difference to my point of wanting to see more of people trying to find positive things about other countries and cultures. I picked a country that has of late been very much “in the press”.
Oh, I thought you were referring to me with this quote.
“That is a very good and concise way to say that. But it’s not just limited to the US. It would be interesting, as an exercise, to encourage people today to look at other countries represented on this Board (England, Ireland, France, India, Canada, Iraq, and yes, even the US) …”
