Hatred of America/Americans

Whilst browsing through ATS its quite apparent that there is a fair amount of America bashing and conversly pro Americans bashing others, but is it all just bad press. I know that many people inside/outside of America are not happy and do not support America's foreign policy but does that provide people with a reason to hate America and therfore Americans.

Despite the war on terror and the changes to the constitution, America is still seen as one of the worlds great democracy's. Tens of millions visit the country every year and there must be hundreds of thousands who take up citizenship every year. People are free to do what they like (within the law) and there is opportunity for all to better themselves, so with this in mind does America/Americans deserve the hate label it is now being tagged with.

Are the majority being tainted by the few (you know like the Muslims), is it not the case that most Americans are hard working, honest citizens just like most of us elsewhere. So is the hate label unjust, is it done through fear, jealousy, ignorance, envy, a whole nation cannot be bad can it.

i think the bashing is not directed to the american people, rather to their leaders, no? Anyway, whilst browsing the forum, i noticed a much greater deal of amercans bashing middle-eastern people, europeans, asians, etc. I have to agree that the US of A is probably a good place to live, pretty much like all other western industrialized states.

peace & let's stop bashing each other
life's too short
mister Jones

Us American citizens have a way about us. I'm probably one of a few that will actually stand up and admit this, but, simply put, we're arrogant. We think we are the best. At many things, we are, or one of the best. That gives us citizens a bad reputation, but I personally don't care. I just don't care what other people think of me, and that doesn't come from being an American. If I was Canadian, Mexican, Arab, I wouldn't care what other people thought of me. That's their opinion.

I think our government has given us an even worse reputation though. Some people around the world don't understand that. They see our government as greedy bastards and think we all are as well. I'm not denying that we have some bad American citizens, believe me, we do. But, world events and politics and war in this country is not a priority like it is to some countries. We're not religious radicals. Sure, we have religious people, but it's not a mainstream event. Point being, I don't think it's right to put is in the same group as our government officials. Whatever they do is all them. Most people that pay attention to politics in this country are against the wars going on. That's what people in the Middle East and Europe and all over fail to see.

If you're going to hate us, that's fine, that's your opinion. But, at the very least, know who is filling you with this hate. It's our government, not the American people. We didn't elect them to kill innocent children. We didn't elect them to steal from us. We didn't elect them to spy on us. We elected them to protect our rights, freedoms, and security to provide us with the oppurtunity for a safe, comfortable life, but that's not what has happened. You people in other countries that hate Americans, just know that you're not the only one's that are being stripped of your human rights one by one, so direct your hate at the right people.

I think that's an attitude that people have with this administration, both inside and outside of the States. It's foriegn policy totally sucks. On the other hand, some here think that dissing the admin is a slap at America. This isn't the case as you see many Americans that are doing this as well. We should all just chill.

Problem is that the foreign policy of most western countries suck bigtime. Lots of African, South American, and Asian domestic problems are caused by colonial and post-colonial times for example... Just look at the way the borders were made in the occupied portions of these continents.... But the foreign policy of the U.S. is more under a magnifying glass than anyone else.

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Problem is that the foreign policy of most western countries suck bigtime. Lots of African, South American, and Asian domestic problems are caused by colonial and post-colonial times for example... Just look at the way the borders were made in the occupied portions of these continents.... But the foreign policy of the U.S. is more under a magnifying glass than anyone else.

True but would this not be because it is more overt and capable in it's actions?

Could be. Part of Europe's foreign policy is being handled by the IMF. And we know how disastrous that is for third world countries.

Originally posted by magicmushroom
Whilst browsing through ATS its quite apparent that there is a fair amount of America bashing and conversly pro Americans bashing others, but is it all just bad press. I know that many people inside/outside of America are not happy and do not support America's foreign policy but does that provide people with a reason to hate America and therfore Americans.

Despite the war on terror and the changes to the constitution, America is still seen as one of the worlds great democracy's.

MM, Thanks for the kind words. I am assuming you are not an American. I"d like to clarify one issue that seems to be widely misunderstood by Americans and non-Americans alike, both on this forum, and in the arena of public opinion in general.

The US Constitution has not been changed or amended since 1992.

The Patriot Act, The Military Commisions Act, The Electronic Surveillence Modernization Act etc. are all additions or modifications to the US Code of Federal Regulations. These are the detailed laws of United States.

I know many will not agree with me on this, but IMO, NONE of the rights of US Citizens garanteed and protected by the US Constitution have been restricted or infringed upon by the Bush Administration.


US Constitution

Speaking for myself and the environment that surrounds me I don't hate Americans nor have I ever seen Americans being treated with hatred or prejudice of any kind where I live - be them tourists or sudents. When I was in college two of my teachers were American and their relationship with all students was awsome. Even in an instance where a soccer game between Portugal and the US (that the US won as a matter in fact) was taking place and a lot of students were watching it at the bar - one of our American teachers showed up to watch it with us wearing a US team jersey and everyone had a great time it was a blast.

Watching some American news reports and political analysis I've often seen the argument that "the rest of the world hates us more every day", "europeans can't stand us", and so forth - in my opinion that is more about internal political strugles (questioning each others' policies and using the rest of the world as an argument) than an actual truth.

I've been relating to people on the internet since I was a kid and most of the people I met online were American. Some people you like others you don't but not because of nationality or culture - the reasons that would make me dislike any American are the same that would make me dislike anyone else regardless of where they live or come from. Basically... I'd say the world is filled with people and though it is hard to get along with everyone I really never met an American that did, thought, felt or said (for good or bad) anything that anyone living where I live wouldn't.

[edit on 10-10-2006 by InTrueFiction]

American does not equal American.

How many people live within the borders of the U.S.?....Many

How many people adhere to a single idealogy?....Variant

I live in California....technically, I am an american.....but not. I didn't choose my region of birth....If there are social issues based on the matter of choice, such as Abortion and gay marriage and health care, then why should I be called an american, with its highly connotative value and the difference of opinion prominent throughout?.....with an inherent Variant Connotative Value? To devout conservatives and liberals alike, being american is a tribute....a benefit. To Europeans being american is a wave of the hand.....a curiosity or a source of disdain. To the MiddleEast being american is at the least a skeptical turn of the tide...To Asia being american is...etc...


Kind of bums me out......because as much as I want to know the opinions of people who were not raised as I was....I can recognize that there are some who are willing to discount anything I have to say based on my LOCALE. How lame is that? If I want to be as informed as possible, then I require the opinion/perspective of "non-americans." Even Non-humans, if I can find it.........

The irony of my participation in this thread is that I Hate this subject, because in my experience, the subject entails people wanting to talk about the people.....where I believe that the people/person are not necassarily the point, on a conceptual level........

america may be a good country, but it's got a lot of bones in the closet

the wealth of this nation was built on the corpses of native americans, using african american slave labor

sure, it's not perfect, but some of the people are pretty nice

i love america

i hate the current american government, political mindset, and about half of the people (and it takes a lot for me to not like you)

You want to know why people hate us? There's basically one reason: We have it all. Being number 1 means everyone expects you to be perfect. One little mistake is blown out of porportion, every time. Now I'm going to jump out on a ledge.

You want to know why people hate Bush? Same reason. Like it or not, any president in his position who has had to deal with all of the controversey and change in the world would be in the same boat, ratings-wise. I'm not saying Bush is a great president, but I am saying that anyone in his position would be hated. He is the most powerful man in the world, and has a lot of pressure on him to be perfect, just like we average Americans do, too.

Compare our country to most others. Compared to 90% of the world, we're pretty darn good, as a whole.

But, when there are problems in the world, they blame us, ESPECIALLY when we get involved. Like all of the starving people in Africa. I'm not saying that it isn't important to try to help them, but every time we hear about it, it's, "The US is sitting on it's lazy arse not doing anything!" Why is it our fault?

Think of it like a family situation. Who always takes the blame? Why, Big Brother, of course.

you see, the common answer you'll find is that they dont hate the american people, just the american government. even world leaders such as ahmadinejad of iran and chavez of venezuela say they do not have a problem with the american people, that their verbal attacks are not directed to the american people, but to the american government.

thats all fine and dandy as long as its just words being spread, but when bullets and explosives start to spread, then the american people are targeted, it's inevitble. even if all the fighting took place away from the country, the soldiers of the country are still it's people too, and thus they are the targets.

besides, the american politicians in office have been elected so are supposed' representations, in the flesh, of thousands upon thousands of people, their combined necessities and opinions, because they were majority elected like i said. so they are speaking for us americans, and even we dont usually like what theyre saying and doing. but when it comes down to the polls again, there will be some more leftward leaning politicians elected into offices(*cough*presidential election of 2008*cough*) because people are about fed up with the 'Grande Ole Party' at this point.

I really think that everyone DOES hate Americans. Regardless of their orientations, political stances, or administration, the world hates America.

When they do something, they're criticized for being baby-murdering scum. When they don't, they're called uncaring, imperialistic scum. Hell, even Americans can't stand each other. It doesn't matter- they'll be called imperialistic, fatass, uneducated, and a whole host of other things regardless of creed or color.

America, and the Americans within, have become the pariahs of teh world, almost as much as the Jews. Well, ironically enough, the people who want to pogrom one from earth often want to pogrom the other.

All you people who say you hate the administration and not the people, you're lying. You hate America, and all people within.

/rant

DE

I can easily see why america is hated, we're a country of excess on top of excess, we toss out more food in a week than most countries' peoples consume in a year, we're stupidly fat, and for the most part completely oblivious to whatever we're not force-fed by the machine.

Contempt for the average american stems from the fact that out of a society of 300 million people, most know the direction of the country is wrong, but are too poultry-excrement to stand up against it. Most people i meet are completely programmed meat robots.

Example, when it became clear that the last elections were fixed, through media's mind control machine and diebold's voting machines, I was out in the streets ready to join the masses, except everyone was sitting at home wringing their hands at the television, the streets were empty, ratings were up, and the mediam was raking in dough at the expense of our freedom to fair elections. Where's the outcry? When this happens in other countries the people stand up, call bs, and do something about it. Here, we shrug our shoulders, turn on the playstation and zone out for 4 more years and "hope things get better" at no expense to us and our excessive lifestyle.

I was in the streets, but the streets were empty in a time where the great freedom machine should hav been standing up freedom, against all threats, foreign and DOMESTIC. At times when our future was at stake, america's voice was not boots on pavement, but asses on sofas and minds cued by the government controlled media. We're hated be cause it appears we can spot every tiny bit of oppression in other countries but delude ourselves into believeing that mind control doesn't count as oppression. We're too blind to see what's blinding us, and hence, too damn stupid to stand up and fight for the valuses in which you supposedly beleive in, but merely pay lip service to. I'm sick of it too, i try to make a diffrence, but a one man revolution doesn't quite work.

Imho i think most of the anti-american rhetoric stems from the iraq war.The bush admin.used a media blitz after 9/11 2 convince the public that iraq was the biggest evil in the world and on the doorstep 2 nuclear weapon.many naively believed this(still being stunned by 9/11).But if you are 2 take a look@opinion polls now you would see MOST americans think this war is a disaster.

Let me start by saying that I am not an American. I was born in New Zealand but have lived in many countries around the world. Two of those countries being ones which have been severely impacted by the US Military. The first one is Vietnam. In Vietnam they don't call it the "Vietnam War" they call it the "American War". During the two years I lived there I never heard any negative comments about Americans from the Vietnamese people. They also never made any comments about Bush. I worked as an English teacher there and worked with the Vietnamese government getting the staff ready for entry into the WTO. When the women in government were asked the question "Which famous person would you like to have dinner with?", 90% of them answered Bill Clinton..

Compare that to the attitude in South Korea...very different. A high percentage of South Koreans will make negative comments about the US Military and George Bushie -- the devil. There are signs in restaurants and bars in Itaewon saying "No Americans". Protests are regularly held outside bases. Ironically though, they all want to have an American accent when they learn English.

Originally posted by deessell
Compare that to the attitude in South Korea...very different. A high percentage of South Koreans will make negative comments about the US Military and George Bushie -- the devil. There are signs in restaurants and bars in Itaewon saying "No Americans". Protests are regularly held outside bases. Ironically though, they all want to have an American accent when they learn English.

Really? I would think that they would want us to stay around there with ol' Kim Jung at their doorstep. I wouldn't know, though.

That's the problem with alot of countries these days. They all say they hate us that is until they need military support...

Yep, allot of the world hates Americans. It's all one big hypocritcal stereotype fed to them by crappy statistics.

If America is such a terrible place, and Americans are such horrible people, why are we contemplating building a fence to keep people OUT? Just my 2 cp.