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I’m really wondering: why are there so many negative and slanderous claims made against the US, and how do they come to dominate the Internet?
Not a day goes by where some 100 or so ridiculous claims as to American inferiority in any given sense are made on the Internet, and any attempt by Americans to disavow it is seized on by foreigners as evidence of American arrogance, ignorance, and inferiority.
It seems that many foreign nationals feel the need to construct their own anti-American echo chambers, because this is the only way to defeat the US in a given international comparison.
The approach to talking about America among foreigners is unforgiving, uncharitable, and inherently negativistic. Everything American has to be discarded and problematized, and delusions are constructed (delusions pertaining to arrogance on the part of Americans, or even American hostility towards the UK, France, Australia, Canada) as some kind of gaslighting excuse for anti-Americanism, even though I notice a lot more xenophilia from Americans that goes back a long ways, that has now morphed into self-hatred as foreigners seek to tell young, impressionable Americans about their country and how awful it is to assuage their inferiority complexes.
I notice that American culture has become a globally coveted item, but it’s global nature has resulted in attempts to appropriate American culture while simultaneously claiming that Americans are stupid and gave the world nothing - this assertion is mostly made by Europeans, who resent the 20th century usurper of their status as “cultural influencer”. Now, it seems that Europeans often try to write American cultural influence out whenever they can, and if they cant, seek to assert their versions and interpretations of American culture as being more meaningful and innovative than the American invention.
Everything about America is immediately and unthinkingly classified as inferior (cities, housing, food, culture, people, water, shopping, quality of living, sports, language) via deliberately skewed comparisons, ignorance, and even outright lies or contradictions of established fact, especially when America is shown to do better in a given category of competition than a given western country, even most or all western countries.
Anti-Americanism has even fallen into favor among the intellectual class, so now there are any number of skewed indices or studies that purport to show American inferiority, and this only legitimizes what are otherwise crude biases held against Americans and America by those who are nationalistically insecure around the world.
Patriotism is fine, except when it’s American. “We can pass commentary on how racist Americans are, when Americans themselves have always been more ethnically and racially diverse than our nationalities have ever been”.
Even neutral facts about American demography, such as it’s diversity, or it’s climate, such as it’s wealth of different, diverse weather systems, are shouted down by an insecure foreign contingency that bristles at the idea of America having more ethnic diversity than other countries, as it makes their anti-Americanism look racist and ignorant. Neutral facts about America are ignored and swept aside should they even have a whiff of positivity to it. If America is shown to be richer than other western nations, “muh healthcare” and bizarre arguments to cut American income figures in half and boost Australia’s by the same amount will be made. Next, it will surely be considered arrogant of an American to point out that America has a larger population than Canada, Ireland, or the UK.
We are not allowed to talk about American wealth or liberalism - America, the country that gave us the Sexual Revolution and loosened cultural mores in the west from the late 19th century, is only to be defined in patronizing and prudish terms as a way to soften the influence of American popular culture on foreign youth.
As America is a big country, any negative occurrence within it can be cherry-picked for representation as the “American median”, while the actual American median, or any positive aspect of America, is pointedly ignored.
Why does the foreign world employ so much outrageous mental gymnastics to always cast America as inferior to everyone else?
Last edited by melancholic; 09-15-2021 at 11:25 PM..
As an American myself there is a lot of criticism that is deserved and it can't really be debated, sorry. If you hold yourself up as the bastion of justice, law, fairness, and freedom but fail, to varying extents, in all those senses AND rampage around the globe with overt and covert aggressions you really should be held accountable and not be shocked at scrutiny. You seem surprised by the "mean things" foreigners say but then go on the attack and pigeonhole a large majority of them as if they are all one group of people when they aren't.
Maybe be less shocked at what the rest of the world sees and stop trying to take so much issue with it and try to see WHY they do and reflect inwards. Plus when most people critique the USA, stop seeing it as a personal affront and take it for what it is, a justified critique of, for example, the government's policies, some of which have probably hurt the person making the observation which stings you so much. For me, having traveled to nearly 40 countries and live in 7 and come across people from so many more countries, it really puts into perspective how many people have been hurt by American foreign policy and actions - but they shouldn't be mad and/or critique? Please. If anything, people are pretty damn forgiving and accepting and not nearly as brutal as they could be all things (like history) considered.
I've been to Guatemala, Vietnam, Serbia and so much more that the US has hurt and yet, only got kindness.
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Most Americans I have met have been very nice decent people, and on a personal level few countries in the Anglosphere or Western world have anything against Americans.
It's generally Governments that people are critical of rather than individuals.
As for US Culture, it's a global popular culture and as such is ripe for criticism, although I wouldn't take such criticism personally.
In terms of food, the US has some great local and regional dishes, and in terms of geography and nature, many parts of the US are amazing.
As for cities, the US has some great cities, however not every one likes cities.
The US has had some internal political turmoil over recent years, however on a personal, geographic, natural and cultural scale Americans and America are both popular in many parts of the world.
I always thought of America is the California of the world. The way the rest of the rest of world views America is similar to the way the rest of the US views California, and likewise the inward views of Americans and Californians of their respective nation /state are similar.
Are there? I would say America is still very popular. It probably seems trendy to talk **** about it but that's only because America attracts a lot of attention, and the ill-informed Europeans who wouldn't shut up about how superior Europe is to America are usually the only ones stupid enough to buy the hogwash they read on internet. America has never been more popular in Asia thanks to China being a repugnant c*nt.
Here in Latin America, bashing USA and blaming them for all the evil of the world is a commonplace, especially amongst the left wing intellectuals and college students. However, there is a noticeable difference between the government of USA and the people and culture of USA, as people cannot get rid of american products and culture. On the other hand... at least in Brazil, China is taking more and more the place of USA as "the evil country to blame".
It's political, when you present your self as "The world's sheriff" you are going to get critised, in the same way any high profile politician is.
I am sure the UK would have put up with similar issues for a long time when the empire was at its height, and it still does over on the European mainland from my experience.
If you had a childhood friend who became rich and successful in adulthood while you got left behind, wouldn’t that make you resentful and envious?
The same thing happens with countries.
Been rich does not make you a nice person however, same goes with countries. It's how you use that wealth and the persona that comes with that wealth that is far more important.
Some people and countries do not put much value on material wealth.
You think the US suffers many 'negative and slanderous claims' then you should try being British! (Well English actually). Apparently we are to blame for ALL the worlds evils! At least you have an ocean between you and most of the rest of the world, we have the French as our neighbours and they abhor us. Still all the negativity thrown at us has given us English pretty 'thick skins' over the years, if I were you I wouldn't worry what other people think. I must admit though many Americans don't do themselves any favours, lets be honest there is a LOT of American exceptionalism on here many a time I've heard claims like 'the world is Americanised', 'without us you would be speaking German', 'Europe needs our protection', 'America invented everything', 'we won the war (sometimes believe it or not both wars)!' and some even try and claim the English language!
However I certainly don't judge a whole nation based on a few idiots and like previously mentioned every American I've met personally have been very nice people (well with the exception of one actually who was a bit of a knob).
I don't think social media helps either and its easy to mis-read people when you only have the written word, some people have told me I come across as aggressive but I think perhaps it could be my poor English writing skills!
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