Does the US hate Europe? (living, eat, design)

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by Moth

Of course! The Master Plan has many twists and turns.

Oh, I should have known that. How could I forget!

[fp1978]

We don't hate Europe, but I will say that we are frustrated with Europe. We came to their aid in 2 devastating World Wars that they started, and lost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers in the process. Then after the Second World War the world was faced with a situation unmatched in history.

We, the US, were the unchallenged and undisputed military and economic giant in the world after WWII; while every other country was in ruins and nearly bankrupt. The Soviet Union was the only country that came close to our military power but they had no ability to project that power as we did. Not only that but we were already occupying much of Western Europe. At no time in history has a country held such overwhelming and unchallenged power, and at no time in history were other countries so weak and devastated.

Given this situation, what did we do? We paid to rebuild what was destroyed, including rebuilding the nations that had just been our sworn enemies. We also built up new democratically elected governments in nations of our enemies. Many years and billions of dollars were spent by the US to pull to our allies and sworn enemies out of the ashes. And then we handed control over those governments back to their people and WE WENT HOME.

Now, whenever we hear the elitists in Europe talk about the US they invariably call us ruthless imperialists in one form or another. So yeah, I think it's safe to say that many Americans are frustrated with Europe's attitude towards us, but to say we hate them is totally ridiculous.

By the way, anyone who thinks that Europe's disdain and criticism of the US is something new that came about with the presence of the Bush administration is completely ignorant of the situation prior to 2001.

[mead]

I hate French and Germans. Some Scandanavians p*ss me off as well. I used to have to live around a lot of these Euros while I was living in Asia.

Irish are cool, and so are most Brits so long as they aren't gloating about how better the UK is compared to Ireland. Southern Europeans are usually pretty nice despite their Anti-Americanism. I've met lots of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians who are really nice people.

[LordBalfor]

Well, I tend to think that Conservatives tend to view the world in terms of black and white (ie "Something is either right or it's wrong", "You are either with us or you are against us" etc, etc, etc) whereas Liberals tend to view things in shades of gray (ie "Yes a fetus is a human being, but only after a certain point", "Yes illegal immigrants broke the law entering the US but if they've not broken the law since then perhaps they should be allowed to stay", etc, etc, etc) - and this difference is abundantly clear in regards to the Global War On Terror.

So it seems to me that Liberals in America tend to have a much less antagonistic view of Europe than Conservatives in America since many Conservatives take the view expressed above that the Euopeans "turned their back on America in it's hour of need" - while Liberals are more likely to take the view that while the Europeans take the GWOT seriously, they merely have a difference of opinion on how best to go about it and that Europeans tend to believe that the Bush Administration's hard-line approach has proven to be counter-productive.

Ken

[LINCOLNSHIRE]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

Well, I tend to think that Conservatives tend to view the world in terms of black and white (ie "Something is either right or it's wrong", "You are either with us or you are against us" etc, etc, etc) whereas Liberals tend to view things in shades of gray (ie "Yes a fetus is a human being, but only after a certain point",

Ken

Sorry Ken but you too are guilty of ``Black and White``,,,Take a look at your opinion [ see above ] and surely there is something in-between??
Take a moment to think. There is a world between Conservative and Liberal that only those that are in, know exists??

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by LINCOLNSHIRE

Sorry Ken but you too are guilty of ``Black and White``,,,Take a look at your opinion [ see above ] and surely there is something in-between??
Take a moment to think. There is a world between Conservative and Liberal that only those that are in, know exists??

Sure there are - those in the middle - like myself - who tend to vote first one way and then the other. My post wasn't meant to categorize EVERYONE as one or the other, merely to mark the difference between the two extremes and to point out that it's largely Conservatives who tend to be more critical of Europe (you'll find criticism of Europe more frequently on Fox News than MSNBC for example). America is roughly 40% who lean to the left and 40% who lean to the right and 20% in then middle.

Ken

[LINCOLNSHIRE]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

Sure there are - those in the middle - like myself - who tend to vote first one way and then the other. My post wasn't meant to categorize EVERYONE as one or the other, merely to mark the difference between the two extremes and to point out that it's largely Conservatives who tend to be more critical of Europe (you'll find criticism of Europe more frequently on Fox News than MSNBC for example). America is roughly 40% who lean to the left and 40% who lean to the right and 20% in then middle.

Ken

Cheers Ken.. I`ve always said, well to be honest it was once 30yrs ago, that the disinterested 20% ,would ,in the end decide things. I was wrong. It turned out to be the disinterested 5%..

[Sweden]

Originally Posted by fp1978

We, the US, were the unchallenged and undisputed military and economic giant in the world after WWII; while every other country was in ruins and nearly bankrupt.

I'm not going to comment on the thread in general since I'm not an american, but I believe I can comment on this though

This is NOT even nearly true. Every country in the world did not take part in the world wars- far from it actually. Sweden didn't, for example, so we were not in ruins nor were we bankrupt. Far from it.

My belief is that the "world-war-problems regarding attitudes" from both Americans and "Europeans" (you will not find the same or even similar attitudes regarding the US or any other nation in the Europeans nations) derive from the different perspectives of what went on during the world wars and who did what and who did the most. So, in order to prevent "negative feelings" towards each others, maybe we should all be more humble with what our nations did, instead of everyone acting as if "we" did the most and "you" just took from us?

[jonjj]

I don't hate the Europeans at all. In fact, I am a bit jealous of them. They have good mass transit, less crime, cleaner cities, health care. I could go on....Also, for the most part, they don't but their noses into other countries business.

[fp1978]

Originally Posted by Sweden

I'm not going to comment on the thread in general since I'm not an american, but I believe I can comment on this though

This is NOT even nearly true. Every country in the world did not take part in the world wars- far from it actually. Sweden didn't, for example, so we were not in ruins nor were we bankrupt. Far from it.

Perhaps I should have made myself more clear. The countries that were involved in the war were that way. Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, USSR, Japan, China, etc.