Most Hated Nation

[FScouter]

Ted Kennedy lamented recently that the United States is the most hated nation on earth. How did we get to a point where people in other countries hate Americans? What is it about our country that makes other hate us? This isn't a new phenomenon. Remember the cry "Yankee Go Home"? What are we doing wrong?

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Teddy has been known to stretch the truth a tad and also gives in to hyperbole every so often.

 

If we are the most hated nation on earth, why do other counties accept the billions of dollars in aid we give out each year? Shouldn't their revulsion to our polcies make us such a pariah that our money and goods are tainted?

 

Other countries solicit, beg and pander to get American tourists, if we are so hated, shouldnt other countries close their country to us?

 

If we are so hated, no other country would dream of doing business with us, yet I am pretty sure most countries dont mind if they have business penetrating the American market.

 

And oh, yeah, if we are so hated, why do other countries accept all those jobs that American Companies are "outsourcing" to other areas of the globe.

 

To me Teddy has gone from promisng statesman to tired old crony who would sell his last child to defeat GW.

[Zahnada]

Other countries aren't just willing to accept our money. They also love American culture. Look at the high foreign returns on Hollywood movies. Look at all the MacDonalds and KFC that are in other countries.

 

I would say the world is in a love-hate relationship with the US. They love our money and culture. But we're also the world's scapegoat. We act regardless of public perception in the global sense. We make other countries feel small. We also exert our will over the world whenever we want. We get blamed for acting (ie Iraq) and blamed for inaction (ie Tibet or Rwanda).

 

It's kind of how a teenager views the police. The police are necessary and there are time when you really love to have them around. However, the police are not afraid to bust you for drunk driving which makes them something to fear and loathe. Now imagine the police if they had lots of money... Ok, the analogy is dying, but you get the point.

[Eagle1973]

Ted Kennedy, a promising statesman? Since when?

 

[Eamonn]

I for one Love the good old USA and the people who live here. My son is as proud an American as you will find.

I can't help thinking of my Irish Grandmother. In the living room of the farm house was a small shelve lit by a small red electric light bulb. The filament was in the shape of a cross. On the shelve there were statues of the Scared Heart, the Blessed Virgin,Saint Bridget, Saint Martin and a plate with a picture of JFK. Both my grandparents would on a regular basis kneel and say the rosary in front of this shelve.

Somehow I think that Teddy wouldn't make the shelve.

Not anti-American, not Anti-Kennedy, just Anti-Teddy,

Eamonn

[OldGreyEagle]

almost any time up to July 18, 1969,

[Eagle1973]

OGE: good answer, but when was that Univ of VA cheating scandal?

 

1969, hmmmmm, is he a Vietnam Vet?(This message has been edited by Eagle1973)

[OldGreyEagle]

Early May 2001, its hard to say the exact date as the story dribbled out in bits and pieces.

[Fat Old Guy]

We are hated for the same reason that the rich are often hated by the poor. The rich have a lot and give some of it to the poor but they remain rich and the poor remain poor.

 

We have an incomprehensible lifestyle to most of the world. Right now the biggest worry is about a shortage of outrageously expensive houses. Food? We have it. Medical care? We have it, even the poor get better medical care than people in some countries.

 

To make matters worse, we export our entertainment around the world. So people in other lands get to see incredibly wealthy (to them) Americans blowing each other up for drug money.

 

I don't think that we'll be loved as a country. Ever.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Do we want to be loved?

[LovetoCamp]

on another thread, it mentions that the two poorest counties in the United States are located at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It states on the charity web site that per capita income is approximately $10000 per year. That is half of where the poverty line sits, but it is still a substantial income to a lot of the rest of the world.

[txscoutdad]

Let me just throw this out here to the people who say that we just need to sit down with the terrorist and dicuss why the hate us so. To me it would be like having the NAACP sit down with the KKK and find out why they don't like them. There is just hatred in the world in some people.

 

[Adrianvs]

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

[dsteele]

Adrian:

 

I don't know about the above. I've found some pretty well hidden golf greens atop many a hill that couldn't be seen from the tees

 

What my analogy has to do with the topic is for the English Majors in the crowd to decipher.

 

Unc.

[Achilleez]

If it weren't for some brilliantly stupid mistakes by your generals in 1812, the USA would probably currenetly stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Davis Strait to Elsmere Island.

 

The world has a beef with America because life looks so easy there. Combine with that their tendency to intervene in foreign countries where they are not wanted, regardless of however badly they might be needed. It aggravates every single nation to know that whatever they do will be scrutinized by the all-powerful supernation in accordance with their standards of acceptability (is that a word? i don't know). That's when we see frustrated lash outs in the form of terrorism. Terrorism is the tool of the one who know's that he'll lose the fight toe-to-toe. Although there is significant reason to beleive that 911 had multiple purposes.

 

If you want to know what you're doing wrong, I would say that you could start by cleaning up your industrial areas and signing on to the Kioto agreement (why havn't you?). Then raise the wages in sweatshops in South East Asia. Aside from that, there's not much to be done short of giving away all your money and disbanding your army. The rule of everyone hating and fearing the most powerful won't go away, because it has been around forever. Just look at the Roman Empire dealing with the barbarian clans. (By the way the Empire eventually fell to the hands of the barbarians.)