30 March 2007

Immature continent

Anti-Americanism in western Europe.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well something sure as heck has happened during recent years to further mar our image in other countries. Really, it's not all just others being immature or snooty or whatever. Partially, of course. But pointing fingers at other countries won't help us self-assess and work to be a more positive entity in the world.

30 March, 2007 12:04  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Hi Chell, thanks for reading.

My assessment is that what the US does or doesn't do has very little impact on anti-Americanism in western Europe (which certainly dates back further than the Bush administration, if that's what you're thinking of). It's more a product of a culture of reality-denial and resentment which has grown up over there, for historical reasons, since the post-World-War-II period. I've found this book (scroll down a bit), written by a left-wing American who lives in Europe, to be a good introduction for Americans to this subject.

Notice also that the article to which I linked in this posting was written by a western European, not an American.

Finally, eastern Europeans, whose historical experience since 1945 was very different, are much more pro-American.

30 March, 2007 12:28  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Infidel, I'm reading "Hating America," a bit at a time, between silly interruptions. While this doesn't take away from the fact that I think our image has been further tarnished since 9/11, this is an excellent read. Thank you for sharing! Definitely media plays a huge role in how people perceive America (or any other country), and if only a slanted, slim view is provided by the media, we must look like the Devil. And that won't change, no matter what positive things we do- until/unless the media blinders are removed. Even then, there would be the other factors that are out of our control. OK, must read more. Thank you soo much, again, for sharing the links. Real eye openers.

30 March, 2007 18:32  

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