Why people don't like the United states of America.

Hi ATS

Since there are a number of threads that ask why... I will present you all with a couple of reasons that might be the cause of disliking the US.
I hope you will not think of me as someone that hates America, cause I really don't.
I do not necessarily agree on the following. Don't shoot the messenger.

Reason 1 : American influence since 1945

The Middle East

Syria : In Spring 1949, the elected government of Syria is overthrown, This resulted in the establishment of a dictatorship under Colonel Za’im.

Iran : In 1953, Eisenhower ordered the CIA to depose Mohammed Mossadegh, the popular, elected leader of the Iranian parliament and an ardent nationalist who opposed British and American influence in Iran. The coup severely tarnished America’s reputation among Iranians, who lost trust in American claims of protecting democracy.

Iran, 1953:
Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown in a joint U.S./British operation. Mossadegh had been elected to his position by a large majority of parliament, but he had made the fateful mistake of spearheading the movement to nationalize a British-owned oil company, the sole oil company operating in Iran. The coup restored the Shah to absolute power and began a period of 25 years of repression and torture, with the oil industry being restored to foreign ownership, as follows: Britain and the U.S., each 40 percent, other nations 20 percent.

Lebanon : Nationalist forces roiled the Middle East and threatened to topple Lebanon’s Christian-led government, Eisenhower ordered the first landing of U.S. troops in Beirut to protect the regime.

Meanwhile, in Jordan nationalistic anti-government rioting has broken out and the U.S. decides to send a battalion of Marines to Lebanon in case of possibly having to intervene in Jordan later that year

Iraq, 1990s:
Relentless bombing for more than 40 days and nights, against one of the most advanced nations in the Middle East, devastating its ancient and modern capital city; 177 million pounds of bombs falling on the people of Iraq, the most concentrated aerial onslaught in the history of the world; depleted uranium weapons incinerating people, causing cancer; blasting chemical and biological weapon storage and oil facilities; poisoning the atmosphere to a degree perhaps never matched anywhere; burying soldiers alive, deliberately; the infrastructure destroyed, with a terrible effect on health; sanctions continued to this day multiplying the health problems; perhaps a million children dead by now from all of these things, even more adults.
Iraq was the strongest military power among the Arab states. This may have been their crime. Noam Chomsky has written: "It's been a leading, driving doctrine of U.S. foreign policy since the 1940s that the vast and unparalleled energy resources of the Gulf region will be effectively dominated by the United States and its clients, and, crucially, that no independent, indigenous force will be permitted to have a substantial influence on the administration of oil production and price. "

Note : This was written in 1999.

Afghanistan, 1979-92:
Everyone knows of the unbelievable repression of women in Afghanistan, carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, even before the Taliban. But how many people know that during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly backward nation into the 20th century, including giving women equal rights? What happened, however, is that the United States poured billions of dollars into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet Union. Prior to this, CIA operations had knowingly increased the probability of a Soviet intervention, which is what occurred. In the end, the United States won, and the women, and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million dead, three million disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.

Throughout the 1980s, the Reagan Administration supported Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied territories. The administration also supported Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, which ended in 1988. The administration provided logistical and intelligence support, believing, wrongly, that Saddam could destabilize the Iranian regime and defeat the Islamic Revolution.

And you people wonder why there are middle eastern people willing to blow themselves up ? or behead an American soldier ?

American influence in Asia has also caused a lot of pain and misery. Places like China, Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor.

South America has also been victim of American influence. Places like Guatemala, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Chile, Niceragua, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Haiti, British Gyana.

Africa also had its share of the pie, although a smaller one. Go figure...
Places like, Congo/Zaire, Libya even Egypt however this was a more positive one as it stopped a war.

Even Europe isn't forgotten as Germany, Italy, Greece, Albania and the former Yugoslavian nations.


Reason 2 : American Corporatism.

What is corporatism? Socialism for the bourgeois. It has the outward form of capitalism in that it preserves private ownership and private management, but with a crucial difference: as under socialism, government guarantees the flow of material goods, which under true capitalism it does not. In classical capitalism, what has been called the "night-watchman" state, government's role in the economy is simply to prevent force or fraud from disrupting the autonomous operation of the free market. The market is trusted to provide. Under corporatism, it is not, instead being systematically manipulated to deliver goods to political constituencies. This now includes basically everyone from the economic elite to ordinary consumers.

People do not like to be considered as products.

Examples from American corporatist history:

Case #1: duPont Chemicals
The duPont corporation is the perfect example of why these global companies think something like a whipping boy is a damn good idea.We have this silly idea in America that we are no longer controlled by the monarchs and scoundrels of medieval Europe, but is that really true?

It’s hard to believe that is true when I look at a family like duPont, who were Burgundian nobility who emigrated to the United States to escape the guillotine for their injustices to the lower class during the French Revolution.

Case #2: Chiquita
You see, rather than grow by producing affordable, delicious fruit… they bribed government officials in third-world countries, amassing enormous power over the politics of these developing nations and using it to exploit the workers in those places, to grow the cheapest fruit known to man (second to slave labor, I guess). Hence the banana republic.

Case #3: Ford, GM, IBM and the Nazis
I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like helping the Nazis massacre millions doesn’t seem like a very American way to make billions, Yet ford and GM did not bother to close shop when fascists took power in Europe; hell, they took the opportunity to borrow some slave labor from the concentration camps.

IBM too it a step further. Read it in the link in my sources list.

Reason 3 : American formats

McDonald's has said to have a negative impact as it would be creating Obesity. ( Note: I do not agree. )
Nike as it would use children to produce their products. ( Not sure about that.)

Reason 4 : American culture.

Like suing everyone, everywhere, every time you make a mistake.
Like spilling coffee over yourself. Like using your microwave to dry a pet.

Come on ! Lets face it. 9 out of ten times people themselves are to blame.

We here in the Netherlands are expected to know the law. We can not us an excuse that says : Oh dear... I'm sorry. I didn't know.

I don't want to read a whole book of things a product is not to be used for just because some idiots who were dumb enough to miss-use something in the first place.... Catch my drift...

People should take responsibility for there own stupid mistakes. When you use a product designed to cook your meal from the inside out, You don't use it as a pet dryer... Ever !

I once read something like this: Do not drink inside fluid. It could be harmful to your health.
Well... as it was a can of thinner...

Reason 5 American presentation

My experience is that The US public is presented as a bunch of morons.
Even Bush JR. He is not a moron whatsoever. However most of you fell for it to.

Reason 6 American patriotism

The kind that makes American citizens volunteer to defend their homes at the other side of the globe... Go figure.

I hope this clarifies why... As it is only the top of the ice berg.

Kind regards

~ Sinter


Sources
Third world traveler
The U.S. and the Middle East Since 1945
Caught in the Middle East
American exceptionalism ( Pdf )
Wikipedia
What Is American Corporatism? ( Recommended read.)
American Corporatism: An Abridged History
IBM and the Holocaust

Please understand that I do not judge any American different from a non- American.

Although I must admit that my opinion has been clouded occasionally. I will change it without a protest when you are so kind to address me towards my assumptive prejudice which clouds my mind. I would even appreciated it very much.

Sincerely

~ Sinter

Please do not take this thread as an attack. See it as an opurtunity to discuss the past for a better future.

[edit on 9/6/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


I'm an American but I agree with you on a lot of your points. I've always thought it was perfectly clear why other countries hate us.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas

Why people don't like the United states of America.

I agree with most of what you say but certainly NOT your thread title...

It should read

"Why people don't like the foreign and domestic policies put in place by the "so called" elected leaders of the United States of America"

Yup, yup and yup! I'm an American and I agree with you. However, let us not confuse ordinary everyday Americans with the political liars and thieves running the show and the multi-national corporations that pull their puppet strings. They are the cause of these issues. And no, you cannot blame the American voter as "elections" have been a sham for the past several decades.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


I'll see your 6 and raise you 44...


archives.tcm.ie...


You took the time to point this out, for whatever reason, and that's fine...but why confuse us with the following crap lines..?

Please understand that I do not judge any American different from a non- American

&

And you people wonder why there are middle eastern people willing to blow themselves up ? or behead an American soldier ?





For someone trying to answer the why? while claiming to not be bias, you leave a lot to the imagination...





Please let us know when you have come to a personal conclusion on the matter since taking a stance seems to be in conflict with your true nature...


*edit for mmgrraa




[edit on 5-9-2010 by facelift]

The reasons listed are all reasons to hate the powers currently occupying the American government, not America itself. With that being said, I completely agree that this is why all of American hate from both Middle Eastern countries and Latin American nations.

Furthermore, Americans ourselves are disliked because we are so oblivious to what's going on in the world and the consequences to our actions. It's kind of tragic and would be funny otherwise, but Americans are known around the globe as ignorant, just as the British are known as proper, the French rude, Germans strict, Jews froogle and the Japanese loyal. I have to tell ya, ignorance is not something that we want to be known for.

However, if America wasn't in the stooper that we currently find ourselves, we would kick but, as it's in our blood to do so. It would seem that we have contracted something like an ignorance virus that is subduing our potential.

--airspoon

i hear people saying, hate the occupying powers of america, when i have always felt that besides the many points the OP listed as well as many more, is my main theory is that we as a people let the people stay in control when we could easily overthrow them but most of us our to much of cowards to do anything every one is afriad to do real work like liberating ourselves and trying to be free. the world we live in is great beautiful but people trying to be in power mess it all up, cant wait for it to be over we need to be in the stone age again to truly appriate life, but all the amazing tech. that we have is goin to waste dont know where im going witht his just disgusted with us all

And the point of this thread is........
To explain why it is O.K. to hate Americans?
Are you frigging kidding me?
You gloss over the , no, you fail to even address all the good the U.S. has done.
Get a life, you people that are part of the "blame America" crowd are wearing thin on my good nature.
I lost a part of me in the military and I will not have people that live in their parents basement go all superior on me and mine.
Dirt-bag troll thread, I'm embarrassed by even replying to it.

reply to post by LAUGHING-CAT


I am sorry to hear that you were injured but who's war were you injured in?

BTW, I dont live in my parents basement,,

reply to post by facelift


Ahh... Of course.

Please do not take the crap lines for what you seem to think they are.
It could be my vocabulary that lacks a bunch of words to be able to fully express myself correct.

My experience is that you apparently need write down when you do not intend to offend individuals. Or there after you. It doesn't seem to work tho.

For someone trying to answer the why? while claiming to not be bias, you leave a lot to the imagination...

I'm sorry did I claim to be neutral ? I am not. I do not share the hate some people have. I can out line what I don't like or agree with, and do I do not blame any individual for it. Besides... What's wrong with imagination ? Don't blame me for your imagination filling the opening. I didn't intend to even leave an opening actually.

I created this thread for a reason mentioned in the first sentence after Hi ATS

I was addressing Americans with this thread was it not obvious ?

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I am not neutral and I do also think America is an evil empire. But... I do not hate you for it or any other. I will still happily spend some time there and I will enjoy it. I don't like any American to be killed. But if it happens I do think your own governments created an atmosphere which resulted in a I told you so kinda situation.
As if my own nation is free of blame. I mean, Apartheid is a dutch word.

Anyway why do you think it is crap when I try to explain that whatever has happened, does not make me treat you different from any other ?

reply to post by airspoon


Thank you.

That is exactly what I intended to point my finger to. I thought that I was clear about that.

It seems I have to spend more time in my presentation.

reply to post by LAUGHING-CAT


The point of this thread is mentioned.

I never said these things make it OK to hate America.
But I can understand when they are causing hate.

Why oh why did I left out all the good things America did ? Use your imagination.

Edit to add: What are you embarrassed about ? For defending your country on a thread ?

Again I will say I do not hate America but I condemn actions made in the past by your government.

I do not rule out that any situation ( like a cold war ) could have influenced choices made. But that is not the point of this thread.

[edit on 9/5/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

One thing that always confuses me as a Brit is that the Britain was at least as guilty of interference in other countries, overthrowing foreign leaders, meddling with the middle east and mass slaughter yet as I understand it we weren't subject to the same level of international hatred, obviously by the time the empire was finishing and we were getting kicked out of everywhere that had changed, but it seems that the Brits aren't judged that harshly at all even retrospectively.

Is it just a case of a change in attitude to imperialism?

[edit on 5-9-2010 by davespanners]

[edit on 5-9-2010 by davespanners]

Originally posted by LAUGHING-CAT
And the point of this thread is........
To explain why it is O.K. to hate Americans?
Are you frigging kidding me?
You gloss over the , no, you fail to even address all the good the U.S. has done.
Get a life, you people that are part of the "blame America" crowd are wearing thin on my good nature.
I lost a part of me in the military and I will not have people that live in their parents basement go all superior on me and mine.
Dirt-bag troll thread, I'm embarrassed by even replying to it.

Sounds like you are the one who has some growing up to do.

Read the realities for what they are and get over your presumptuousness. You'd think a military man could handle a little bit of dirt.

reply to post by Nosred


Exactly.. But if we suggest that perhaps our misfortunes have played part in the hate of us.. We can expect to be called anti-american.

reply to post by davespanners


If you were still in power as leading power of the world, the anger was pointed to the British empire instead. I'm sure.

Isn't it human nature to blame those in power ?

Edit for a word which only was a thought of mine until I edited it in.

[edit on 9/5/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Yee haw another "This is why people hate America thread"

Like suing everyone, everywhere, every time you make a mistake.
Like spilling coffee over yourself. Like using your microwave to dry a pet.

Come on ! Lets face it. 9 out of ten times people themselves are to blame.

Painting with a broad brush I see

We here in the Netherlands are expected to know the law. We can not us an excuse that says : Oh dear... I'm sorry. I didn't know.

I havent heard of that excuse working but hey Ill give it a shot next time I get a speeding ticket. We have to know our laws to its just the criminals that dont pay them no mind.

I looked for reasons to hate the Netherlands but since nothing comes out of the neatherlands I guess it will just have to be Nokia

I purdy shure there are more reasons to hate a country but hey dont let me keep you from your agenda

reply to post by hillbilly4rent


There are a lot of stuff you can blame the Dutch for.

The first international companies, slave trade. Apartheid is a Dutch word.

I never said my country has a clean slate. Unfortunately it is not my country that people hate, but yours.

I opened up the discussion use it in your best interests. Blaming me does not help.

[edit on 9/5/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Well done, far better than I expected. Truthfully, you could of delved deeper into each of those points, but I understand you were probably trying to keep it short and sweet.

To reiterate something Sinter Klass has already stated, this is something us in the US can use to benefit ourselves and learn from. I once met a 15 year old Japanese kid that had just moved to the US and spoke perfect english, who told me, "Americans are crazy if they think the rest of the world hates them because they have a rich and free society with hamburgers and rock and roll, I mean c'mon are you serious? You guys need a reality check!, LOL" That statement hit me hard because I knew it was so true yet so many of my fellow Americans do think we are hated because 'they' are jealous of us. Sad.

Thanks Sinter!