Why do they hate us?

The animosity towards the US around the world, the degradation of American society, and our vulnerability to the attacks on Sept. 11. This is not to say they did it on their own. The blame goes to anyone who supported them.

It's easy to blame or praise an administration. They have a lot to do with policy, but the degradation of American society did not come about because of an corrupt administration. The nation did that on its own.

Which is not to say I don't agree with you. Although Americans felt safe and there was no longer a war to fight, even a cold one; the Clinton administratin did not take care of US security as well as it should have.

citizen-tom, please stop yelling. Your point would get across in a much better fashion if you stopped typing in all CAPS and CAPS in bold. Thanks

 

The general foreign reaction to the whole Clinton scandal was "why do Americans care so much about their leader's personal lives? Haven't they anything better to worry about?" as opposed to the reaction that Clinton-bashers fueled, and never happened "those immoral American pigs! How dare their president have an affair!"

 

Dan: It wasn't feeling particulary angry at you, I'm just saying, if you're going to use you're recent history of "saving" people I can use Europe's older history in fighting wars. For you that would be France helping you achieve independance.

 

Here's my take, as an American.

Even though the only foreign country I've ever been to is Canada, I can still understand why some foreigners dislike us. In general, most Americans don't brag about being citizens of the U.S.A., they're just proud of living in such a grand country. American pride is incredibly strong, and the rest of the world should actually commend us for having an enduring patriotism for over 200 years. But I definitely think that Americans are generally terrible with geography.

It's just sad. I made sure to learn where every single country is and to learn as much as I could about them so that I wouldn't appear to be 'just another dumb American.' But the sad thing is probably all most Americans can point out on a map with complete confidence are USA, Canada, and Mexico. Now, many Americans know where other countries are too - most of us can probably point out Britain, France, Italy, Russia, China, and Australia, among others. But it is indeed true that our geography skills are poorer than most other Western countries. However, you also have to think about it this way: America is HUGE. Granted, not as large as Russia or Canada, but a heck of a lot bigger than European countries. In fact, if you don't count western Russia, I believe the US is larger than the entire continent of Europe. Now that's certainly not an excuse for arrogance, but it may explain our lack of worldly knowledge. Most Americans probably have the same knowledge of the states as Europeans do about each country there.

As for the dislike towards the US, I think some of it may just be based on American tourists. Even Americans make fun of American tourists!!! For example, I live in the fine state of New Hampshire, where everyone makes fun of tourists from Massachusetts. When I used to live in Massachusetts, everyone made fun of tourists from New York. It's a cycle! And we too dislike their arrogance (not to mention their driving skills). And Americans don't always like foreign tourists, either. I think it depends on how you look at it. For example, French people have a famous reputation here as hating American tourists. This is understandable, based upon the stories I've heard. But then again, Americans hate the French, because many Americans feel that they have never repayed us for our help in World War I and II. (of course we don't realize that WWI and WWII were actually considered repayments for FRENCH aid in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812). But there are still two ways to look at this. Do the French hate the Americans because of their own pride, or do they just don't like Americans? And the same goes for us Americans.

And a final point, for the British, don't you think the dislike of the American accent is a bit absurd? I mean, we didn't exactly ruin the language...the French could've said the same thing about you when the Normans' language was meshed up with the Germanic language to form Middle English. And you have to understand that accents in America vary greatly too. There's the infamous Boston accent, where the letter 'r' is hardly ever pronounced after a vowel. The Boston accent is faded throughout New England, and it becomes meshed with the New York accent in southern New England. Then there's the Mid West accent, various degrees of the Southern accent, and then the typical 'American' accent...like that which is spoken by news anchors. Not to mention immigrant accents.

So see, there's a lot of reasons why other countries could dislike Americans, but are they really valid? Sure, our foreign policy may seem a bit rash...but we don't really know what it's like to have our homeland ravaged by war... Still, I think the most important thing here is to think of what binds us together: America's rich heritage, especially from Europe. So, just don't stereotype us all...because doing so will just result in us doing the same for you. Not all Americans are stupid!

 

Our government is a reflection of our society. If the Clinton admin. did anything, it was done because of the "will" of the people (granted, the will of the people who have the most money.)

Compared to other Presidents, Clinton's support was extremely low, not only at the voting booth, but throughout his terms. The media engaged in what was essentially a bald-faced propaganda campaign which attempted to convey the image that he was wildly popular, which he was not.

The majority of Americans enjoyed the 90's. The economy was good, and they didn't bother with "what if someone were to drive a plane into the WTC."

This does not refute my point, it supports it.

The Clinton admin. has nothing to do with why people hate America. It sounds more like your telling us why you hate the Clinton admin.

You have to look at things in context over the long term. If you look at what Ronald Reagan did on the foreign policy front, particularly with regard to the Soviet Union, the rest of the world had a right to expect a certain level of responsibility on the part of America after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Instead, we said "Oh well, that's finished, let's party, and the rest of the world can go screw itself. By the way, buy our products and watch our crap movies so we can keep the party going".

As I said, it was an abdication of responsibility, and with few exceptions, this was the attitude the Clinton Administration took to foreign affairs. All that mattered to them was massaging Clinton's approval ratings at home, and every decision they made revolved around that single-minded, narcissistic goal. It was disgraceful.

 

...constantly get this pushed into their face

"We saved your asses during WWII therefore you have no right to complain about our policies."

...constantly get this pushed into our face

"Americans are ignorant, selfish, capitalistic, unintelligent, militarilistic, ego-maniacs..."

edit: sorry, bold again

-Tom

 

The U.S. did the same thing after WWI. We went into an isolationist mode, and let the rest of the world deal with their own problems, until WWII.

What I want to know, and is why I started reading all these posts, is why people don't like the U.S., and the reasons behind it.

We do a bunch of screwed up things, and we ourselves could go on about it, but I would like to know why people in other countries think we are so bad.

 

Yes the whole Clinton Scandal was blown out of proportion. It was a way for Clinton enemies to attack him. What are the chances that no other US president has had an affair? slim IMO.

I also thin that there is a paranoid atmosphere of EVERYONE hating America. that is not true

 

I'll try this again:

1. We act like we are better than others.
2. Our foreign policies.
3. The way we spell words.
4. The Clinton Administration.

I can't believe this is all the reasons.

 

I also thin that there is a paranoid atmosphere of EVERYONE hating America. that is not true

I also think there is a paranoid atmosphere of EVERYONE in America being ego-maniacs. that is not true

 

4. The Clinton Administration.

Err, I don't think the world hates the US because of Clinton. From what I know, the world liked Clinton better than the US did.

I can't believe this is all the reasons.

There probably are more, but I think 1 and 2 are the most important reasons. I don't think 3 bothers a lot of people, but then I could be wrong

 

You think that's nothing?

You seem to have no idea how your policy affects things. It kills, and not a little bit either.

 

as posted by master-jedi-smith:

I'll try this again:

1. We act like we are better than others.
2. Our foreign policies.
3. The way we spell words.
4. The Clinton Administration.

I can't believe this is all the reasons.

Higlight number one thats what i'm getting....

 

You seem to have no idea how your policy affects things. It kills, and not a little bit either.

I think you have to be more specific.

I wouldn't expect anyone outside the US to hate us because of the Clinton Administration. In many respects, Clinton painted a "Kick Me" sign on the country's back to the rest of the world. The reason to blame the Clinton Administration is that their foreign policy was inept, and represented in many cases a betrayal of American principles. Thus, we continued to project our power, but with no moral grounds on which to do so. The rest of the world delighted in seeing us embarass ourselves, while growing increasingly resentful of our powerful position. They sat there and watched Jerry Springer and said "what right to do you have to be throwing weight around? You are a joke."

I think some of the responses in this thread bear that out. What that environment did was provide an opening for the people who really hate the US- as I said before, those who hold political ideologies which conflict with ours- to attack us.

 

1 and 2 are the biggest
we dont hate you for 3, just some people find it irritating
4, people in England love clinton for his antics, like his reception at Wimbledon was amazing last year

 

To our forgien friends.....


Guten Tag and Das Vidanya....



Don't understand these words? You would be saying them on a daily bases were it weren't for the US.

 

who has our policy killed, without mention of the horrors that were Vietnam and Japan, I think we've acknowledged that they were horrors....

 

Flamingsword, that is one of the reasons that AJA came up with.

 

Let's see: Iraqi children. Palestinian civilians. Afghani civilians. (let's bomb the country while we could just as well do it over the ground losing 4 soldiers more but killing 200 civillians less...)

That's only last year.

 

US foreign policies are probably not very well recieved in places like Hiroshima and Vietnam. Granted this was in the past but some people can not forgive and forget, especially if they lost loved ones, or have disabled offspring. This should however not be blamed on American Citizens, but the men that made these decisions

 

Yes in the last 5 years Americas actions has lead to the death of 1 000 000 + Iraqi children according to Amnasty International. But the blame should be given to Suddam Hussein, but at the end of the day America should not take out one mans actions on a nation

 

I don't think it should be blamed on the men who made the decisions. We put people in those positions so we don't have to make those types of decisions.

If we should blame anyone, it should be those who force individuals into having to make those kinds of decisions.

 

No, it was America's decision to keep those blockades in place. Other countries were against it but America kept them. Saddam Hussein is to blame for a part but America is not blameless.

(and I know that the blockade is really though, my Aunt worked there for "Artsen zonder grenzen" (doctors without borders?) and she said they couldn't even get a pump to fix the local swimmingpool because it *could* be used in a chemical attack.

Ridicilous.

 

Indeed, it's not Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, or Emperor Hirohito who should be blamed, it's the US. In these cases, where people clearly apply one set of rules to America and a completely different one to other countries, the only response I have is "go screw yourself".

 

Let's see: Iraqi children. Palestinian civilians. Afghani civilians. (let's bomb the country while we could just as well do it over the ground losing 4 soldiers more but killing 200 civillians less...)

That's only last year.

MOST of the Afghani civillians were against the Taliban! We were fighting for them! We bombed Al Queda, We Bombed the Taliban! We didn't bomb civillians! I have no idea were you get the Iraqi Children from, please let me know. And am i mistaken? I dont remember any U.S. forces in Palestine! They were Israeli Tanks! Bush told Sharon to get out! And i may have a one sided point of view, but I DONT LIKE PALESTINE! (sorry for the bold caps fs) It is palestinian terrorists that make my Israeli Cousin wanting to go shopping with friends a life and death situation!