Poll: Hating America

bioguy

A new book called "Hating America: The New World Sport" suggests a couple of things. First, that the U.S. is generally hated by the world. Second that our historic allies are not our friends.

Questions:
1. Where are you from?
2. Do you hate the U.S.?
3. Did we deserve to be attacked on 9/11?

limerickman

I've never read the book called "Hating America - The New World Sport"
Have you read this book ?
If so, can you tell me who the author is ?

In response to your questions - I think that the subject of the USA
is so broad that it is difficult to give you one definitive answer
to any of your questions.

As I have progressed through life, I have realised that no one has
100% right or 100% wrong on their side.
Like everything in life, perception or lack of perception alters our
judgement.

The Sept 11th attacks were very, very interesting case in point.
In fact, I was on a day off work that day and I actually taped the media coverage here in Europe as events unfolded in New York.
I taped the news coverage because I realised that what happened in New York (1.45pm local time here in Europe) would
alter the world on the 11th September 2001.
I also wanted to have a record of what people did and said in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

In the cold objectivity of hindsght, these tapes make very very interesting viewing.
Bush and Blair spouting that these attacks were an attack on civilisation (they weren't - they were an attack on the USA).
Chirac, Schroder warning that Europe was under attack.(Europe
was not under attack until countries in Europe decided to peg their colours to Bush & Co.)
Berlussconi saying that planes could attack the Vatican etc.
(again not true).
All wildly over the top reactions but set in the context of an emotional event - these warnings were wrong, disinformative and were designed to influence people.

Sky/Fox showing people celebrating in Palestine was another piece of grotesque disinformation (the footage was people
out celebrating in Palestine but it was coverage of a celebration taken one year before in Palestine and was superimposed to try to convince the world that the Palestinian people condoned the
11/9/01 attacks).
Then we had our Jewish friends in Israel using the pretext of the
Sept 11th attacks to take their war on the Arabs on to another level.

In response to your question though - there are plenty of people throughout the world who have very justifiable reasons for hating the USA.
US foreign policy in countries like Venezuala, Chile, Saudia Arabia,
Iraq - US unconditional support to regimes in Uzbeckistan for example, alienate the native populations in those countires.
The unconditional support of the Zionist cause in Israel also alienates vast amounts of people.

However, on the obverse side, until the USA got involved in the Former Yugoslavia, Euope allowed the worst crimes since WW2 to be committed against the muslim people of Bosnia (and thanks to the Clinton administration - Milosovic and Co have been brought to account).

So what I am saying is that the USA is a dillemma.
On the one hand, it is a force for good (see Bosnia) on the other hand it supports Zionism (see Israel).

stevek

Hating a country is silly. it is the politics’ that are hated. Blaming the us for what the politicians do is a bit silly.
Just like the US hating the French. Or any country hating another. Hate is just ignorance and prejudice and fear.

limerickman

SteveK is absolutely right - it's the political policies of a country that alienates people.
I haven't met an American citizen who has been anything other than polite - but I can say the same for any person I've met from Britain, France, Australia as well.
Steve is right - it's the political policy of a country that someone might object to.

MisterXTR

I agree that it is silly to hate other countries. While I may not agree with some of the things that the U.S. administration does, I am proud of my homeland for better or for worse. Besides, my bloodline makes me just a misplaced European anyway -- German, Swedish, Norwegian, and English. It would be silly of me to talk smack about my blood brothers on the other side of the pond.

__________________
"Bike rides are a good excuse for anything."

MisterXTR, Seattle WA

--------------------------------------------------

Saucy

I hate to get into semantics, but is Hating America actually a "sport"? Its non-competitive and there is no physical activity involved. I prefer to think of Hating America as more of a pasttime or hobby, like knitting or gardening. If it is considered a sport, I think it would be kind of fun if it got into the Olympics. I wonder who would be the medallists? Any guesses?

Okay, I actually have something serious to say...



I completely 100% disagree with this notion and I am shocked about how often I hear this said. In any democratic society, the citizens of a country are entirely responsible for the actions of their leaders - they elect them for chrissakes!! Politicians are responsible to their voters and are supposed to be their representatives. If citizens refuse to take their representatives to task for decisions they do not agree with, if they re-elect poor leaders, if citizens refuse to vote, if citizens refuse to educate themselves about what is going on in the world, they are entirely responsible for the repercussions of their poor judgment, complacency, and ignorance.

George Bush won the 2000 election. People voted for him! Opinion polls in the US show a majority support for Bush's actions in Iraq and on other issues.

The American people are 100% responsible for every single action taken by this and every other President before him. And they should be held accountable.

stevek

Yes we do vote for them but we don't control them. We can't stop them from doing what they want. But we only have a limited say in who we vote for. We may be a democracy but we are not totally free.
Bush did not win by the number of votes. And no one knows what he would be like.
It is nice to blame the people for things they can’t control. But remember if we are to blame then everyone in every country is responsible for their leader’s actions. I mean they can always overthrow the government right??

limerickman

While I agree in principle with the notion that people elect the government – it seems to me that the people are powerless to prevent their government making policies once they are in government.
It is incumbent upon every citizen to make sure that their political representatives execute the policies upon which they were elected.
For example, the Bush government did not campaign upon the notion of invading Iraq or Afghanistan when they were lobbying for votes in the 2000 election.
Because they invaded Iraq/Afghanistan – is this breaking their election mandate ?

I go back to the question which a lot of Americans asked themselves in the immediate aftermath of Sept 11th.
The question was “Why do they hate us ?”
By even asking this question, it is obvious that a lot of American citizens have no idea what their government does in other countries, IN THEIR NAME.
If a missile lands in my home and I see General Electric and a USA address on that missile, I too would detest America.
If my family were uprooted from their house and told to occupy an area 50% smaller - and then have to watch my home taken over by complete strangers – and then I see the
same strangers being subsidized by the USA, of course I would feel very angry toward the USA.
Or if I voted in my countries presidential election – and my candidate won the election but was then overthrown in a CIA orchestrated coup, I would naturally feel angry toward the USA too.
These three instances have occurred in foreign countries in the past 4 years.
I imagine that a lot of Americans wouldn’t even know what I am talking about here.
But if I substituted a Russian name for General Electric or if Isaid that people were being forcibly removed from their homes in New Jersey or if I said that Govenor Bloomberg
was removed from office by a coup – then American people would know (and would want to know) about these issues and would take direct action.

The American correspondent Dan Rather CBS said it all when he said and I quote
“I am very uneasy with what I am told to read on the 7.00pm news each evening because I know that only one side of the story is being presented”.

stevek

no matter how much we are hated we seemed to be imitated the most though (G)

sea

In many countries the politics reflect the will of the people. In the US, people have long since lost the ability to influence much of anything in politics. Money controls US politics so the people with the money (Read big business.) control pretty much everything. The US is far more of a corporate oligopoly than a democracy.
We us citizens have been watching the stupid disgusting and appalling things our government does in our name and hating that government, and the fact that we have virtually no control over them, for years.

__________________
Computer Science: A study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the precision of the former and the success of the latter."

limerickman

What are my credentials ? Where am I getting my information from ?
My credentials as far as this discussion goes is that as a reasonably cogent human being, who takes an interest in what is going on in the world.
I am not an CIA operative.
And I have not read Richard Clarks book either.

In this part of the world, we have a station called the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The BBC is a publicly owned media station based in London, England.
BBC veteran reporter Charles Wheeler interviewed Dan Rather and Rather stated that the information which he reads on the CBS news is vetted and checked by the parent company of CBS to ensure that a certain political line is expounded when delivering the news.
Rather stated this - it is a matter of record.

Your perception of America and American being hated or liked doesn't concure with my perception of American and Americans.
99.9% of americans who I have met are thoroughly decent human beings.
In every case, they want to go about their business and not offend or upset anyone.
Unfortunately though, they also live in a comfort zone where they
have no need to know about the world in a general sense.
In fact, it is because of the self sufficiency that most americans I have met have little or no knowledge of what goes on at central goverment in the USA or throughout the world.

As regards feeling happy because someone hates you - I am assuming that you're being ironic, here ?