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Because most of the world looks at America through the lense of years and years of their own socialist or dictatorial worlds.
They simply cannot understand liberty (what little we have left).
Right, and Americans are the only ones who can look at the world objectively
Maybe their definition of liberty is different than yours, have you ever considered that? Do you honestly think that people in other developed countries (which is where most of the criticism of the US, at least online, comes from) live in "socialist or dictatorial" worlds?
A lot of western Europeans, mostly the ones you have on the internet and not in real life, suffer from what I call faux sophistication. Many are pretend champagne socialists that think they know everything because they watch the BBC or read The Guardian. You know this when they revert, when bakced to a corner, the same tired mêmes of US has no healthcare, foreign policy, blah blah blah (does it ever seem strangely coincidental to you that these are the only retorts foreigners have of the US?)
I think the criticism of the US's healthcare system and foreign policy are perfectly valid and I'm sure even many Americans agree with me on that. If that makes me "anti-American" in your eyes, fine with me. I think it's funny when Americans keep opening these threads about why the rest of the world supposedly "hates" the US but get offended when people actually respond with their criticisms. What do you expect them to do? Discussions like these are very one-sided because people only mention what they dislike about the US. There may be a lot of things they love about the US but they're not asked about that.
Besides, if I had to base my view of Americans on what I've read online, it wouldn't be too flattering either.
But what about Canadians and Australians? I never hear as many complaints about them as I do about "Eurotrash" and "Eurosnobs" even though anti-Americanism is as prevalent, if not more so, in Canada and Australia as it is in Europe.
Edit: I think "prevalent" is not the right word to use here because it suggests that anti-Americanism prevails, which is not true. I mean to say that it occurs just as much there as it does here.
Well, the two countries you gave as examples are kind of unique. Canada is looked upon as a peaceful little brother to the north by most Americans. English-speaking Canada is very similar to the U.S. As a big brother, America views its role as protecting Canada and keeping it from harm more than anything else. That's why criticisms of the U.S. by Canadians are met with smiles and aren't taken all that seriously.
As for Australia, Americans view it as a very remote country with strange beasts that roam a vast wilderness. If an Australian is being anti-American, most Americans would probably stare and listen and wonder how a whole country of people could speak with such an exotic accent, what their women must be like, what living there must be like, etc. It would be hard to pay much attention to the content of what's being said. :-)
But what about Canadians and Australians? I never hear as many complaints about them as I do about "Eurotrash" and "Eurosnobs" even though anti-Americanism is as prevalent, if not more so, in Canada and Australia as it is in Europe.
Edit: I think "prevalent" is not the right word to use here because it suggests that anti-Americanism prevails, which is not true. I mean to say that it occurs just as much there as it does here.
That probably has something to do with the fact that there are about 20 million Aussies and 35 million Canadians, compared to 500-750 million Europeans (depending on how you define Europe).
One reason Americans might not insult Canadians as much is many don't seem to know very much about Canada, despite our shared border. Here's a humorous example of that a couple of weeks ago on another thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/27089129-post126.html
Because the US is clearly influenciating the rest of the world in a wrong way. Although being a high income country the US has a lot of things in common with some of the most undeveloped nations, such as income unequality, high crime rates, religiously, conservativism,racism (or at least obsession with race) etc.
Last edited by Don_Caballero; 12-09-2012 at 06:22 PM..
Because most (not all) americans are so paranoid and obsessed about things that are not really that relevant in the rest of the world (specially developed countries), things such as race (specially racial rights and interracial marriages/dating), gay rights and agnosticism are still frowned upon in most of the US, but they are for so long no longer a poblem in most of the developed world. Most of times when I argue with americans on internet boards they seem sort of brainwashed with sort of narrow/conservative mentalities that most people from modern or "relatively" modern countries couldnt not really believe they still exist on the 21 century. Basically because (I'm sorry for telling this) the US is a high income country but which still has the paranoia and mentality more backwards than many undeveloped countries.
54% of Americans polled by NBC said that they supported as opposed to 40% opposed. 54% of Finland supports gay marriage, and 52% of Germany does, which means we're on par with those countries. Poland has a 27 support rate, and Italy has a 41% support rate.
Europe absolutely has "race issues;" Angela Merkel stating that "multiculturalism has failed" comes to mind, as does a restriction on young Muslim women wearing hijab in French schools, the statement in French schoolbooks that "we are descendents of the Gauls" which of course has little truth for a French citizen of Senegalese, Algerian, or Vietnamese descent.
I don't think that you're being very fair or judicious in your assertations that we are "more backwards than many undeveloped countries," considering that we are not exponentially worse and in some cases much further along in the regards you listed than some European nations.
We do have a lot of problems here - our healthcare system is indeed backwards since it's run as a business as opposed to a social service. We spend far, far too little on public education... again, because there is a segment of the population that has an inability to view public schools as a social investment that benefits us all and instead look at it through the prism of business economics and thus see it as a money pit. However, it's very clear that these attitudes are shifting at a very great rate in the US (perhaps not if you don't live here and are primarily exposed to media that presents us in a negative light). Things are not perfect here, but they're hardly perfect... well, anywhere else, really.
Because the US is clearly influenciating the rest of the world in a wrong way. Although being a high income country the US has a lot of things in common with some of the most undeveloped nations, such as income unequality, high crime rates, religiously, conservativism,racism (or at least obsession with race) etc.
Should I address this nonsense, or should I simply pretend not to see this display of vague, cliched, patronizing claptrap that's so commonplace on a "Why do so many people hate America?" thread?
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