Why do people hate America?

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pbcoll
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02 Oct 2008, 1:55 pm

Cyanide wrote:

Okay, a half black man is probably going to be our next president and we're so extremely racist? Uh...huh..... Where did you get your sources? Jesse Jackson? He just stirs the pot and exaggerates to keep his power. I'm not saying there isn't *any* racism, but it's not nearly as bad as the NAACP wants you to think.

Agreed, there is racism but, at least in the Northern cities, it's just not in the same league as the cesspit of racism that is Paris.

Dox47 wrote:

I'm both surprised and not that I haven't seen jealousy and schadenfreude mentioned yet, as I'm quite certain that both of them have a lot to do with foreign dislike of America. Not only are we a wealthy and successful nation, our rise eclipsed Europe, which had formally occupied our position for hundreds of years, and that must have caused resentment.

This is surely the main reason for European anti-Americanism, and why Europeans insist on their alleged moral and cultural superiority. I think at heart Europeans view themselves as the world's natural and legitimate rulers, and hence American domination is seen as a temporary aberration. Talk to Europeans about the rise of China, and you'll often get a reaction of, frankly, hysteria.

Quote:

Our poor are often better off than the rich of many countries

Not really, I doubt the rich of any country are worse off than poor Americans. But yes, poor Americans are better off than most citizens of most countries. In the case of glee over the current financial crisis, there is also an element of resentment of other countries at being told how to run their economies by the US, either directly or via the IMF and the World Bank.

monty wrote:

Too many Scandinavians hassled and harassed for trivial reasons after 9/11 ... Technically, the US was entirely within its rights to do that - but it was heavy handed and alienated millions of potential tourists and immigrants.

True, immigration regulations in the US are often not only heavy-handed and burdensome, but sometimes completely irrational (Why get finger printed twice at the Embassy, on the same day for the same purpose? How come you can be present in the US perfectly legally, but it may not be legal to leave and then enter again, when it would be completely legal to stay in the US during the same period? )

I loathe Bush and wouldn't want to live again in the US - but that does not mean I hate Americans generally, or that I dislike everything about the country. I do see the US as a country in rapid decline, but the US is certainly not alone in that (Italy comes to mind).

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pheonixiis
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02 Oct 2008, 2:32 pm

Loborojo wrote:

pheonixiis wrote:

Loborojo wrote:

philosopherBoi wrote:

The real reason is George W. Bush and elected officials like George W. Bush, many Americans don't like the way things are, its not just foreigners. Thank god the world will get some relief soon because George W. Bush the biggest screw up in the world won't be president of the untied states of america anymore.

don't tell me that Bush started or is to blame for teh overall world opinion on America. Trace some centuries back where you will find a few more presidents acting as if they owned the world

Centuries huh?

We've only been around for a little over 200 years. I suppose you could find them, or interpret the behavior of individual presidents that way. We've been A**holes since our conception on your timeline though. Perhaps looking through a rather jaded microscope(?)

Centuries is still equal to 2 centuries and a half. Look at your policy of invading South and Central American countries. America needs tungsten, silver, gas, copper and now recently bio fuel from those exploited countries (your own back yard) for you to keep and maintain your comforable lives.

In Brazil they even raise cattle to provide with beef for MCDonalds, bio theft and patenting of millenary sacred plants from indigenous peoples to be sold at lucrative prices by your pharmaceutical giants.

You even got sweat shops in NY with third world employees. Did you know how many illegal immigrants died in the twin towers? An estimate of 3000. Their relatives, illegal too, never dared to ask for their bodies of fear of getting deported...

Without the slaves ti would never have become that big a power, you were all immigrants and now you bar Mexicans with "a Berlin" wall between you and the Mexico.

One could ask, who gives you the right to stop immigration when you have killed off 80% of the native population to build your god's on country and make the American dream come true. Not ot mention that California was part of Mexico and before that of teh Aztec empire...you gobbled it all up and did nuclear experiments in the Pacific not caring that it would affect the indigenous peoples who lived on those islands.

You pointed at Saddam Hussein and at Apartheid and yet you hold a Native American Indian leader in jail since 1974's uprising in Wounded Knee. The list is loooooooooooooooooooooooong of atrocities committed in your country and outside of it, you live in a police state and you think you got a choice to choose a leader (democrats and Reps are just the same and the choice between 2 parties is rather limited and flawed).

Just check a few flags I made of your countries history

http://www.alann.info/site/kunstwerken/ ... 1_NEW.html

I'm not denying any of those things. They are horrible, a travesty against humanity. You still haven't pointed out the names or policies of any specific presidents from over two centuries ago.

You are highlighting policies from the 19th century to current. (With the exception of slavery (which many European countries still indulged in during the time as well, although I will admit we were one of the last to do away with it; and the systematic decimation of the Native Population, which again was following a precedent set by Spain and Britain.) All disgusting. True.

However, as I said, Spain and Britain don't have great track records themselves when it comes to human rights and exploitation over the centuries, particularly during the time period you were trying to stretch our all-pervasive-immorality to.

Over the last 5 decades or so, I will admit that the United States probably wins the prize, but you still haven't proven your "centuries" statement.

You were trying to establish that we have a track record of travesty that spans nearly our entire history, which isn't true. Or at least, is no worse and in many cases better then the crimes against humanity committed by contemporary peers. That is all I am disputing.

Bringing up the World Trade Center, our current police state, our current immigration policies are side-stepping the dispute I brought up, with more than a bit of emotionally driven propaganda. It frankly looks like you are trying to change the subject.

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