Bad news, America: World doesn't like We the People

[MikeNearMcChord]

WASHINGTON — The United States long has been a source of irritation for the rest of the world, but the news is worse this year.

While Europeans and Asians and Arabs increasingly have disliked U.S. policies or specific U.S. leaders in recent years, Americans were liked and admired.

Polls show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.

"We found a rising antipathy toward Americans," said Bruce Stokes of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over four years.

Few analysts expect more than marginal improvements, short of another Sept. 11.

By David Wood

Newhouse News Service
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002999203_usimage17.html

[treestar]

1. Interesting our character improves so long as we become victims

Yet it's hard for the richest guy on the block to keep playing the sympathy card. Why would a new Sept. 11 do anything? Only if we react maturely that time, differently that we did for the first one. And hopefully the only one.

We use our victimization as an excuse to kick other people. How frustrating it is not to be able to punish the hijackers and apparently, Osama bin Laden. So let's take it out on their entire ethnic/religious group. Five or six hundred thousand people dead, and we decide maybe it's time to quit.

After all Al Qaeda cannot be fairly said to represent all Muslims. Yet in a way, our government does supposedly represent us. The voters of this country has so much to answer for, it's not funny. Sept. 11 was no excuse for all that, never was.

[xchrom]

2. i share their assessment.

too many americans believe they are entitled to rudest behaviors.


we have turned ''individualism'' into a disease.

[Toots]

3. Who Cares..."We would rather be feared than loved"

:sarcasm:

[leftofthedial]

4. that's because (relatively speaking) only repukes are now free

to travel and do business abroad

and US corporations doing business abroad are reflective of the nasty, anti-human unfettered capitalist mindset that predominates in this country now.

The Americans that Europeans and Asians know ARE greedy, violent and rude. The Americans Arabs know are illegal invaders and occupiers. Nobody likes jack-booted thugs.

[Deja Q]

8. But other countries don't stand for illegal immigration.

Or if they do, I'd love to know about it.

[Strelnikov_]

15. A.K.A. "The Ugly American"

The Ugly American is the title of a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. It became a bestseller, was influential at the time, and is still in print.

In a series of interlinked short stories, the novel describes how the United States is losing the struggle with Communism—what was later to be called the battle for hearts and minds—in Southeast Asia, because of arrogance and failure to understand the local culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American


Sounds like time for a sequel.

(and I agree with the Wiki entry, the movie did not do the book justice).

[izzie]

5. Well some times what we show to the world is really illness.

The Arab world hardly wants to import the nude women and for some odd reason we seem to send that first to the rest of the world. It is hardly our culture but it makes money so it gets over to countries very fast. That is just one thing. We do seem to send so much we do not even go for in our own country. Freedom to do anything does not seem right to many people around the world. We understand that we do not have to see nude women etc. but we all know what a fuss goes on if you put a strip club in the middle of a church group or a town that has every one going to church. Yet once it goes out side the country we seem to wonder what is wrong with a society that does not want it or like it. Not hard to see why we have such problems trying to push our way into another culture and on top of it demanding we have the same rights we have here in the USA.

[Tanuki]

6. I don't think "another Sept. 11" would help our image

Last time, Americans were still liked by many around the world and we were seen as victims of an outrage, but this time I think the general reaction would be that it served us right, we had it coming, what did we expect, etc.

[Deja Q]

7. Poland didn't forget us...

And I wonder how much of all of this is deliberate...

Peak oil...

[Deja Q]

9. Bullshit. They are happy to take jobs American corporations give out...

and all those pics of Vietnamese looking happy over Bush's visit kinda breaks the trend of the world hating us too...

[lakeguy]

19. sure, i guess if we took numbers by looking at the people

bush surrounds himself with (like a "town hall" meeting), 100% of the world would appear to love the US.

[go west young man]

10. The article goes on to quote Donald Rumsfeld at the end?

Like he would know. The Seattle Times needs to pull their heads out of their asses on that one. Why not quote some professors who would really know what's going on? Personally I think the world has become aware of the rudeness and arrogance in the behavoir of many Americans. We are a "my way or the highway" type of people. We like violence and seem to have contempt for peaceful ways. We are overreactionary and under educated yet proud of that fact. We are fat and getting fatter. We are lazy and we are racist. We let our own people down in regards to Hurricane Katrina yet we pride ourselves on how much we gave to foreigners during the 2004 Christmas Tsunami. Everything we do points to our own self interest. We are religious and tolerant but only if you agree with us. We will help feed the world but only if they convert to our christianity. We are hypocrites. We are addicted to oil for our big SUV's and we will come to your country, kill your people, and lie about why we are there as we invest in war stocks and bonds and trade your lives away so we can drive those SUV's. Then we will lie to ourselves and tell our children those lies. We are Americans. The rest of the world is intelligent enough to see it but we are so dumbed down at this point that all we can do is take offense when it's pointed out to us.

[Deja Q]

11. Self interest is inevitable.

And we all have our stories on that topic... and pointing out the foibles of others who act in that "in your face" way yet won't bother to listen to other viewpoints.

[go west young man]

17. Self interest is inevitable...

but our self interest would be much better served if we were truly benevolent, truly openminded and truly peaceseeking. These days we are more transparent than we realize. Just not to ourselves.

[Deja Q]

21. Law of nature: Survival.

When one feels personally threatened, one will do what it takes to survive.

Hence the stealing or "finding" after Katrina, amongst any number of events.

This is all conjecture; I am anything but an authority.

But it's just as possible that so many people are feeling so lost... my counselor told me that could be a cause.

But there are too many to make any single or solid conclusion; nothing makes sense. Even some of my more ribald theories, which can be countered by many projects also going on in the corporate and government sects.

[JVS]

12. meh

[Selatius]

13. Right authoritarian response: We will "make" the world "love us."

Say it!

Say you love America, UNDER GOD! Say it, motherfucker! Or I'm going to blow your goddamn brains out against the damn wall! Now you're either with me! Or you're with the fucking terrorists! Which side you gonna land on, you shit stain!?

:sarcasm:

[spanone]

14. Bushco has shamed our once Grand Nation. We are now the torturers, the invaders, the occupiers.

I.E. the enemy.

[Strelnikov_]

16. Obama

If there was ever a time we needed an African-American son of a immigrant as the 'face' of the country (POTUS) now is it. We need to (again) show the world that we are a diverse country, and not just a bunch of 'Gordon Gekko's' and his Quislings.

This country got to where it is, including 'prevailing' in the cold war, by having a wide range of allies, with associated populaces, that generally trusted the United States.

For better or worse, the POTUS is the face of the country the world sees, and for the last six years, it has been the face of a very Ugly American.

[Mist]

18. If they're going by what they see on our lunatic, RW corpo-media, they would

get that impression.

[Deja Q]

20. Is it out of base rudeness, or are Americans reating to too many bad things?

Offshoring, unfriendly treatment by support staff who they call, increased cost of living with no raises while companies report profits after higher profits yet say they are laying off more...

Most Americans aren't assholes. They're just frazzled via too much external stimuli right now.

Some, especially the younger generation, just are - I won't deny that. But the situation transcends one mere stereotype.

[Cleita]

22. "...Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, ..."

After spending years on internet discussion boards besides this one, I think I have to agree. The anonymity afforded by the internet seems to have brought out the latent personality traits of too many Americans and they aren't pretty.

One only needs to surf through Free Republic to know it's true.