# What would happen if the ENTIRE world starts hating the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 3, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118 "2003-04-03T03:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dick\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Dick\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Brown)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/1 "2003-04-03T03:08:47Z")
That´s not even far from the truth, cuz right now the entire world IS hating the USA :smack:, but let´s try to imagine a scenario of The World vs. U.S.A… Who wins? I guess a Korean nuke at the center of Yellowstone´s supervolcano would be more than enough to end all threats :rolleyes:, but that´s just me… ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/2 "2003-04-03T03:23:11Z")
Hey, Dick. Let me recommend doing a search for the keywords ‘America vs.’ and/or ‘America versus’. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/3 "2003-04-03T04:23:30Z")
Oh, quit bellyaching, the whole world does **not** hate you. Saying so is a way of evading responsibility, i.e. the whole world hates you because of some mass insanity or conspiracy, and it’s not true that _some_ of the world might hate you for valid reasons. If someone expresses discontent at American actions, it’s because he has a knee-jerk streak of anti-Americanism, and not because his objections might have merit. I personally think Canadians should have standing beside the Americans and the British and staged D-Day 2 in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/4 "2003-04-03T04:33:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dick Brown \* > I guess a Korean nuke at the center of Yellowstone´s supervolcano would be more than enough to end all threats :rolleyes:, but that´s just me… Unless the [Yellowstone supervolcano](http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/) is anywhere near a violent eruption, a nuclear detontation as you envision would probably just relieve the pressure and reduce the chance of a violent eruption. ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/5 "2003-04-03T09:18:15Z")
Seen this plan yet? Subject: The Plan I see a lot of people on the television yelling for peace, but I have not heard of one plan for peace. “Books, not Bombs” won’t work. The head mullahs won’t let anyone read them. If they do, they poke their eyes out. Here’s the plan: 1. The US will apologize to the world for our “interference” in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Marshal Petain and the rest of them good old boys. We will never “interfere” again. 2. We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, France, South Korea and the Philippines. They don’t want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence. 3. All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We’ll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them. 4. All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days in America unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don’t like it there, change it yourself, don’t hide here Asylum would not ever be available to anyone. We don’t need any more cab drivers. 5. No “students” over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don’t attend classes, they get a “F” and it’s back home, baby. 6. The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non-polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while. 7. Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don’t like it, we go someplace else. 8. If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not “interfere”. They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any, anyway. 9. Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don’t need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens. 10. All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us “Ugly Americans” any longer. Now, ain’t that a winner of a plan? (This plan was appropriate at this time do to the OP “what would happen” if everybody hated US. Scary thought.) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/6 "2003-04-03T10:22:46Z")
Silly rhetoric aside, few people are Anti-American per se - they’re anti US foreign policy, and these days anti-Bush. I think the thing to work around is the 97% disapproval rating for Bush in countries like Jordan. In the UK (aka main ally) it’s only 91% disapproval - gotta work on that extra 6% in Arabia… (All figures from the radio yesterday.) ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/7 "2003-04-03T10:51:39Z")
In other words, **yola** , a disagreement between the US and the rest of the world will precipitate a violent lurch to the right and an ultra-isolationist withdrawal from all international participatory bodies, even famine relief, on the part of the US. Does this sound like _“play the game my way or I’m taking the ball home”_ to you? 18 months ago, the US had the **sympathy and admiration** of almost the entire world, save for a few extremists. Yet the question “Why do _they_ (the radical Islamic fundamentalists) hate us so?” has somehow morphed into “Why does _the entire world_ hate us so?”. I believe careful, patient and sincere diplomacy on the part of the current US administration could have garnered support for almost any US military action _anywhere_ from the rest of the world , and perhaps even much of the _Arab_ world if handled with enough capable and earnest attention. If much of the world sees the current administration’s policies as a myopic, hegemonic tantrum which might ultimately make the world a _more_ rather than less dangerous place, then might I suggest that it is not because the Republicans have tread on a few toes but because they have stomped around the room in hobnailed boots. ---
**Author:** ![Optihut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/edb3f5/32.png) [@Optihut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Optihut)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/8 "2003-04-03T10:57:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Dick Brown wrote: > **but let´s try to imagine a scenario of The World vs. U.S.A… Who wins?** Nobody wins, unless ruling a radioactive wasteland counts as winning. ---
**Author:** ![McDuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@McDuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDuff)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/9 "2003-04-03T11:24:10Z")
You know what, I’m actually beginning to think that all this weeping and whingeing about “Anti-Americanism” might end up becoming justifiable soon. Up to now, there has been no such thing as kneejerk anti-Americanism beyond a very few people, the extreme left and the religious right of the Islamists. But [this article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,927712,00.html) by Arundhati Roy was published yesterday, and contained the following passage: > [@](#): > > In most parts of the world, the invasion of Iraq is being seen as a racist war. The real danger of a racist war unleashed by racist regimes is that it engenders racism in everybody - perpetrators, victims, spectators. It sets the parameters for the debate, it lays out a grid for a particular way of thinking. There is a tidal wave of hatred for the US rising from the ancient heart of the world. In Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Australia. I encounter it every day. Sometimes it comes from the most unlikely sources. Bankers, businessmen, yuppie students, and they bring to it all the crassness of their conservative, illiberal politics. That absurd inability to separate governments from people: America is a nation of morons, a nation of murderers, they say, (with the same carelessness with which they say, “All Muslims are terrorists”). Even in the grotesque universe of racist insult, the British make their entry as add-ons. Arse-lickers, they’re called. > > **Suddenly, I, who have been vilified for being “anti-American” and “anti-west”, find myself in the extraordinary position of defending the people of America. And Britain.** I, too, have been labeled as Anti-American by some who have seen criticism as unjustified, or who have become defensive. But over the past few weeks, I have found myself explaining to people “you think you understand the average American? You don’t. You see Hollywood and Bush, and that’s nothing like the average American.” I’m a huge defender of the goodness and fire which characterises the American public. I’m a big fan of something like 84.6% of everything America does or has done, including the war of independence from us darn Brits. At the moment, I’m beginning to agree with [Jonathan Freedland](http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,927754,00.html) more, to realise that the reason I’m so sickened off with Bush is the exact reason that people in the States are sickened off with him: he’s behaving in an un-American way. Not in the brain-tumour-induced definition which means “unpatriotic” or “disagrees with authority,” but in the way which means that there is a way that America - which is after all one of the few countries in the world founded, for all intents and purposes, on an ideal and a dream - should act, and a way which it has acted, and a way which it shouldn’t act, and at the moment, on the world stage America is behaving as it shouldn’t act. Our illusions about America are being shattered further. But that’s me. I’ve lived in Alabama, as close to “the Heartland” as it’s possible to get. I’ve known American people, in Montgomery and Detroit and LA. I’ve travelled up the country on a Greyhound. I’ve slept on a couch in ATL airport. Most people haven’t done any of those things. Most people haven’t seen the real America, all they see is the belligerence and posturing of an administration which just looks to me like the worst bits of America all rolled up into one, with none of the good bits I know you have. And that’s why I think we’ll start to see genuine Anti-Americanism becoming more and more prevalent in the mainstream. And I reckon that a lot of Americans will be nostalgic for the time when they could call people like me Anti-American, even though I criticise you because I love you, and they didn’t know what it was like to really be really hated by stupid, blind people who need a scapegoat for their own problems. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/10 "2003-04-03T11:48:51Z")
Good stuff, **McDuff**. German President adds his piece: > [@](#): > > German President Johannes Rau has added his voice to the millions of others expressing harsh criticism of U.S. President George W. Bush and the war he is leading against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. > > In a television interview broadcast on Monday evening, Rau (photo) challenged Bush on a subject that is very close to the U.S. president’s heart – religion. The German president, whose position usually puts him above the daily skirmishing among Germany’s political parties, said the Bible did not call on anyone to conduct crusades. “I don’t believe that a people receives a message from God to free another people,” Rau said. > > He added that Pope John Paul II actually had the right religious approach to the conflict with Iraq. In the days leading up to the fighting, the pope stressed that the war would be a defeat for humanity. “Whoever decides that all peaceful means available under international law are exhausted assumes a grave responsibility before God, his own conscience and history,” the Vatican said last month. [Germany’s President Rau Criticizes Bush’s Religious Fervor](http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,7489_A_822390_1_A,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/11 "2003-04-03T11:50:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > Silly rhetoric aside, few people are Anti-American per se - they’re anti US foreign policy, and these days anti-Bush. > > I think the thing to work around is the 97% disapproval rating for Bush in countries like Jordan. > > In the UK (aka main ally) it’s only 91% disapproval - gotta work on that extra 6% in Arabia… > > (All figures from the radio yesterday.) The 91% is a figure for Brits who don’t back the war (mainly because they think it shouldn’t have been started without UN approval). Given that the US speaks the same language as here, offers a massive choice of popular film and TV (CSI! Law and Order!!), provides fast food and a splendid range of holiday destinations, it would be **completely ludicrous** to say that Brits hate the US. Personally I worry that Bush and his immediate advisers don’t understand the World. (A major worry). I’m not keen on the deprivation of legal counsel of the prisoners in Cuba. And I hope the undercover narcotics cop in Tulsa gets prosecuted. So that leaves about 300 million jolly nice chaps (and chappesses) who earnestly strive for freedom and democracy. Jolly good show, America!\* \*This is typical British understatement. We love you really! ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/12 "2003-04-03T11:58:32Z")
I hereby add my voice to the chorus of Jolly Good Fellow for our friends over the pond. I cannot help but admire the fundamental positivity and creativity inherent in what I perceive as the “American spirit”. But please, _please_, **stop voting for morons**. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/13 "2003-04-03T12:15:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*I hereby add my voice to the chorus of Jolly Good Fellow for our friends over the pond. I cannot help but admire the fundamental positivity and creativity inherent in what I perceive as the “American spirit”. > > But please, _please_, **stop voting for morons**. \*\* Hey, I voted for Gore, as did a majority of Americans, but the antiquated electoral system here, combined with the highhandedness of the Supreme Court, managed to thrust the guy who got the least number of votes into the office. If the Democrats had behaved the way the Republicans did and Gore had won the way Bush did, the GOP would be trying to impeach him this very minute. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/14 "2003-04-03T12:25:46Z")
BTW, **glee** , the 91% was “Do you approve of/like pres. Bush?” survey on the World Service - I actually thought a higher number were now “in favour” since the war had actually started. I think another problem Bush has is that he tailors his rhetoric for “domestic” or “international” audiences, in an old-fashioned style, when of course nowadays, belligerent claptrap said at home is telegraphed round the world instantly, and he looks like a warmonger. Then when he makes more dovish speeches for world audiences, he looks like a hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/15 "2003-04-03T12:27:52Z")
Correction ‘a higher number were now “in favour” of the war’ in first sentence. ---
**Author:** ![diffdam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@diffdam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diffdam)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/16 "2003-04-03T12:28:28Z")
Glee’;s figures are wrong.I think he makes them [up.UK](http://up.UK) figure varies from 55% for to 55% against.It gets worse for the US every time we catch sight of Bush. If the US doesn’t want its popularity to fall further, it should keep Bush off the TV. Seriously, he more than anything else is making the US unpopular. Even those who are all for the war start grinding their teeth when he comes on, & most of those against it are mainly so because they hate Bush. Nobody in Europe can take him seriously - even the right wingers admit he’s just a placeman for business interests.Sentient meat is right, stop voting for morons, also stop funding psycho megalomaniacs (Saddam,Osama,Pinochet,Sharon etc) -they all cause big probs in the end.You CANNOT control a loony. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Sleeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@The\_Sleeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Sleeper)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/17 "2003-04-03T13:04:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*If the Democrats had behaved the way the Republicans did and Gore had won the way Bush did, the GOP would be trying to impeach him this very minute. \*\* Hmm, well what do you know another GWB bashing/psychic prediction thread at the SDMB. :o ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/18 "2003-04-03T13:41:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Sleeper \* > \*\*Hmm, well what do you know another GWB bashing/psychic prediction thread at the SDMB. > :o \*\* Psychic prediction? Pshaw! All you have to do is to see the depsicable behavior of the GOP during Clinton’s administration wasting millions of dollars to harrass the Clintons over a failed land deal, not to mention the despicable behavior of GOP goons physically threatening the votecounters in Florida. Given that the GOP still uses Clinton as a whipping boy in debates, the idea that the GOP would be gracious losers if Gore had won in Florida is laughable. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/19 "2003-04-03T17:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by diffdam \* > Glee’;s figures are wrong.I think he makes them up. As jjimm has already posted, I simply gave the wrong poll question. So I find your suggestion that I ‘make things up’ offensive. Do you have cites to back your allegation, or are you just making this up yourself? > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by diffdam \* > UK figure varies from 55% for to 55% against. Oh really. :rolleyes: I suppose you just ‘made this up’. “The results of the tracker question on an Iraq war shows that opposition to a war has risen steadily from 37% in October to 47% now. Over the same period support for military action has fallen from a peak of 42% to only 30% now.” Cite: > **[Support for war falls to new low](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/21/uk.iraq2)** > > Support among British voters for military action against Iraq has slumped six points in the last month. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by diffdam \* > It gets worse for the US every time we catch sight of Bush. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118/20 "2003-04-03T17:58:34Z")
Just give us a coalition of the willing. I’ll take two powerful island nations: the UK and Australia. Then I pick Italy and Spain and the Vilnius Group. First move, we conquer Canada, Mexico, Central and South America to kick off the war.\* Oh, and Cuba. Whee! Pretend war is like Risk. After that we can speculate forever. \*A reasonable expectation in a total world war. Someone else suggested it first on one of the other “what if” threads, to be fair. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-starts-hating-the-usa/166118.md?page=2)