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Anti-Americanism flourishes : Comments
By Brendon O'Connor, published 7/12/2007According to popular opinion Bush is an inarticulate, insular, messianic born-again Christian cowboy.
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Posted by Ho Hum, Friday, 7 December 2007 10:03:45 AM
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"According to popular opinion Bush is an inarticulate, insular, messianic born-again Christian cowboy" ....
I can find no evidence to the contrary. Posted by sneekeepete, Friday, 7 December 2007 10:09:56 AM
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It's interesting to note that most anti-American Australians have the sort of brain that allows them to watch truly awful American TV.
Posted by Leigh, Friday, 7 December 2007 10:16:00 AM
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I've never believed Bush is as "dumb" as he often appears - he quite probably has an above-average IQ. But I also believe that American Presidents need to be truly extraordinary individuals, with skills that are well above average in key areas. While I accept his father qualified (even if I didn't necessarily agree with many of his policies either), Bush Jr was never presidential material. He's never *convincingly* won an election, with serious questions still hanging over the results of both 2000 and 2004 (in both cases, exit polls consistently showed Bush to be behind), and only briefly enjoyed genuine popularity in opinion polls due to extraordinary circumstances.
And yes, I think it's fair to say Bush is overwhelming responsible for anti-US sentiment around the world. But aside from strong "anti-US" feelings, there's also a general attitude among many people that America has become a crazy, dysfunctional place. Almost monthly shootings, the horrors of Katrina, the sub-prime/foreclosure crisis, the broken health system etc. etc. all add up to a picture of a country barely able to hold itself together. Of course, much of America, especially the wealthy parts along the West coast and in the North Eastern metropolitan areas, functions quite well, and is still responsible for generating much of world's wealth and innovation. And there's little doubt that the US military, despite the foolish missions it's often sent on, generally makes the world a safer place than it would be otherwise. But as someone with relatives living there, it's hard not to worry just how much longer it can all last. Posted by dnicholson, Friday, 7 December 2007 11:31:00 AM
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Public opinion is the lowest denominator of opinion and it would be foolish to take it seriously on important issues. Often the apparent reasons for ones' aversions and hates against someone have deeper reasons that lay in the unconscious.
"Anti-Americanism flourishes" among peoples and nations that have failed to succeed in their objectives and hate and envy those who succeed. Also its virulence is even stronger among nations which in the past were the beacon of culture and civilization to the world, such as France, Britain and Germany, and therefore view with contempt the UPSTARTS, in this case the Americans, who dare to emulate them, and indeed who so incomparably succeed in their enterprises with cosmopolitan chutzpah and "cowboy" aplomb. http://kotzabasis2.wordpress.com Anti-Americanism is related to the Rupert Murdoch paradox. Everyone would have liked to be a Rupert but everyone hates Murdoch. The spell of envy is hard to exorcise.! Posted by Themistocles, Friday, 7 December 2007 6:23:14 PM
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Themistocles, so your personal opinion rates more highly than those of every one the ~200 million Americans that think poorly of George Bush?
And I can't think of a person I'd less rather be than Rupert Murdoch. Nor can I imagine myself hating him. Posted by wizofaus, Friday, 7 December 2007 7:02:13 PM
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Actually it was Karl Rove who had the brain just as it was Arthur Sinodinos who had the brain in the Howard machine.
Bush is just a moron. Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Saturday, 8 December 2007 2:04:48 AM
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wizofaus
Obviously if you didn't want to be like Rupert Murdoch you wouldn't hate him. But if you wanted to be like him and you COULDN'T, you would hate him. http://kotzabasis5.wordpress.com Posted by Themistocles, Saturday, 8 December 2007 6:47:42 AM
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Um, I wouldn't mind being like Nelson Mandela, but I can't...does that mean I'm supposed to hate him?
Posted by wizofaus, Saturday, 8 December 2007 8:09:02 PM
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wizofaus
You have to read the psychology right, not the benign and gracious person, like Mandella. If you really LOVE yourself and your aspirations and ambitions and you cannot accomplish the latter, you would deep down HATE the person who had succeeded in fulfilling these same aspirations and ambitions. The same applies to nations. That is why I used the paradox of Rupert Murdoch as an example. http://kotzabasis5.wordpress.com Posted by Themistocles, Saturday, 8 December 2007 11:10:10 PM
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America is a nation where almost half of Americans have reverted to the Dark Ages in terms of thinking and behaviour due to 50 years of progressively deteriorating education in all but the wealthiest states. (The USA rates 21st, we're 7th)
Between 10-15% percent of wealthy Americans support and gain from the plutocracy that the USA has always been. That leaves just over 35% of well educated and well traveled Americans, from the wealthy states, who see what’s wrong with and do their best to improve America but who are continually berated by those in power in the plutocracy. American’s are brainwashed from birth to believe they are superior mainly based on wars, War of Independence from Britain and winning WWII with a belief that military superiority means they should control a world-wide American Empire, a belief encouraged by the Military-Industrial Complex. They fail to see they are in decline just as other nations with dreams of empire declined, from the Roman to British. Poor education and health facilities in many states has led to an increase in fanatical religious cults as well as obsessive glorification of war as revenge and retribution. What was the lunatic fringe but sadly is now mainstream and accepted by the 50% of Americans in the Dark Ages. Bush is indeed inarticulate, insular, messianic born-again Christian cowboy. He has an IQ of 100, far lower than the IQ of any other US President and the majority of world leaders throughout history. Rove and the Neo-Cons are the ones who devised and lead Bush’s campaigns, while Bush read out what they wrote. Bush rarely deviates from his written script for obvious reasons. America will continue with warfare, in fact will increase it and preemptive strikes of who they deem ‘enemies.’ They will also continue to crumble from within, with all monies being spent on warfare and less and less on education, health and infrastructure. It would be wise for those who read this to note the similarities between America and what Howard was trying to do here in Australia Posted by Bobbicee, Sunday, 9 December 2007 1:42:15 PM
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"Just like with conservatives a century or so earlier these criticisms often tell us much more about the fears elites hold about their own nation's working class than anything insightful about American culture."
I'm sorry, perhaps you could elaborate on this point. How does criticising a country for a militarist culture or a national diet that generates an obesity epidemic whilst an economy based on consumer capitalism exhorts its victims to be obsessed with body image (To give just a few examples) reflect badly on anyone? Perhaps you don't need to elaborate because me thinking this makes me an 'elite', a convenient perjorative that avoids you ever having to answer such questions... Posted by johnerbacher, Sunday, 9 December 2007 6:55:08 PM
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Ron Paul, remember the name. He will be a US president hated world wide because he wants smaller Government, an isolationist US, he's against free trade, budget surpluses and deficits, increased taxation, increased spending, war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, National debt, Central banks and wishes to reinstate 'the Constitution and restore the Republic'.
Why will the world hate him. Simple ... he's Republican and in the same party as George W. Bush. But among Republican's he's currently the leading candidate and he is only 72 years old. Can't you see the lefties hating him for his not wanting to put things right in the world. Posted by keith, Sunday, 9 December 2007 7:53:32 PM
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There are a lot of smart people in USA.
I recall how Ronald Reagan was vilified by the left when he was in the White House. I also reflect Ronald Reagan’s political team invented “Star Wars”, the military strategy which brought down the cesspool of communist USSR. I recall when Margaret Thatcher’s team brought UK back from the edge of the socialist abyss in the 1970’s. I recall John Howard’s team retrieved Australia from socialist engineered economic oblivion in 1996. I do not expect the limp thinking left to ever say anything good about the most powerful libertarian nation on earth. I would simply prefer they once in a while recognized the hopelessness of their pathetic ideology and acknowledged the corruption it really is. I recall the political statement “A lie told often enough becomes truth” That was Lenin. I recall also that he also pronounced ”The goal of socialism is communism.” I always remember that when I think and all that crap was overturned and the corruption exposed by the political will of USA and its NATO and ANZUS allies. So some malignant lefty thinks he has a bitch against George Bush. George is just the figure head, the real power is a much larger assembly which leads a very very powerful and capable nation, more powerful and capable than the doyens of any academic and wannabe political left I lived in USA for some years, I am happy we Australians have always found ourselves on the same side as USA. And advise to all the leftie tossers out there, trust me, nothing Krudd & Co will do will not alter that. Posted by Col Rouge, Sunday, 9 December 2007 8:12:05 PM
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Col Rouge
You need some 60s music as accompaniment to this Col. Come out from looking under the bed. Look out the window - everyone else seems to have moved on. Posted by FrankGol, Sunday, 9 December 2007 8:43:48 PM
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Oops correction.
Ron Paul is against Free Trade Agreements but supports free trade. He's also creating records for Republican fundraising donations. Posted by keith, Sunday, 9 December 2007 9:06:43 PM
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I say we are lucky that they are with us. Its a case of cant live with them and we cant live without them. But what we are all seeing is our children are copying them. For example, the rap scene is turning our kids into gangster freaks! Not too mention the music is crap! And lets not forget YOU TUBE! Now our kids are hurting themselves and who are they following, the USA! Do I smell racism or is it all about them being at the top of the heap. What ever the case is, what would the world be like if they were not there. We just might be bowing to our prime minister instead of the freedom we all take for granted.
I don't mind them, as long as they don't start to tell us what to do. Whoops! I think they are. Posted by evolution, Sunday, 9 December 2007 9:25:24 PM
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Why should America or the Western world give two hoots what the rest of the world thinks of them. Do other countries give two hoots what the Western World thinks about them.
As for people in the Western World who constantly denigrate their own society and civilization. Well I don't see them breaking their necks to leave and live elsewhere. Ask immigrants and refugees what civilization or countries are their first choice to go to. That's right, the Western Countries like Europe, Australia, and America. They can't get there fast enough. If America is so bad and people in other countries so much more enlightened and better, then why do they all want to come to America and similar societies to live. Actions speak louder than words. Posted by sharkfin, Sunday, 9 December 2007 10:20:22 PM
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If actions speak louder than words, then my parents actions spoke. They migrated here during the insane McCarthy years when right wing insanity was rampant; because I wasn't getting proper education in California, one of the better states education-wise; because my father could see the USA going the way of ancient Rome. I was behind educationally but soon caught up and was eventually put up a year. Several other rellies followed for the same reasons and because of the growing obsession with guns, violence and war. Others stayed but wished they'd come.
All rellies, both here and there, have been aghast about what was happening to Australia under Howard, from Tampa onwards as he was attempting to make Australia the same what I wrote in my first post.... poor education, health, infrastructure and encourage rednecks and religious fanatics. I visited rellies in the USA for years but no longer go there because of the violence, a shooting on the San Diego Fwy when we were heading for the west San Fernando Valley before heading up to San Francisco to visit other rellies and just about everybody carrying guns. Not my thing. My rellies now come down there to visit and all are relieved that with Howard out there's a chance that Australia will return to the country I love rather than adopting all that is bad about the USA. I would suggest that anybody who can't see what has happened to the USA, or the bloke who loves it so much, return or migrate to the USA. The rednecks might like to migrate there as well as they'd love it. Posted by Bobbicee, Monday, 10 December 2007 3:51:46 AM
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FrankGol “You need some 60s music as accompaniment to this Col. Come out from looking under the bed. Look out the window - everyone else seems to have moved on.”
I would note, the only reason people have been able to, as you say “move on” is because they have a choice which would not be there if the dead hand of communism and the soviet expansionist aspirations had not been checked and eventually reversed by the indemonstrable spirit of libertarianism (lead by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher) (aided by the internal corruption of the soviet system). I would further note, the Berlin wall and Iron Curtain was designed to stop people escaping from the oppressive controls of the “socialist “ states. I would further note, there was nothing “democratic” about the “Stasi” (and the other secret police forces) or what they got up to. I would suggest Solzhenitsyn is a much better authority to how unpleasant are the things which you consider you have “moved on from”. Just ask any Russian or eastern European émigré, over the age of 40, you meet here in Australia if they still have nightmares of the old country (under 40 are too young to have significant first hand experienced of life in one of “the peoples paradises”) We learn from history only what we remember of it. Discarding the lessons of history is to condemn future generations to repeat the same mistakes. That you consider the influence of Soviet oppression so lightly means one of two things A you lived in a vacuum through the decades of the cold war. B you lack the intelligence to process the lessons of history. Considering those options, I would conclude, no one can live in a vacuum. Bobbicee “the insane McCarthy years” In USA how many people were executed under the McCarran Internal Security Act or Taft-Hartley Act,? I suspect less than the 30 million who died on Stalin’s command or the millions before and since him. McCarthy was discredited partly by a USA free press (eg Ed Murrow). No free press in USSR. Posted by Col Rouge, Thursday, 13 December 2007 5:30:34 PM
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1. http://www.ispeace723.org/realityhunanity2.htm
Plus once again I think these references provides good reasons to be "anti-American" too.
1. http://www.morrisberman.com
2. http://www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com