[theFIRMbss]

>Anti-Americanism is a phenomenon which, though common and ubiquitous, is difficult to explain because it is illogical, irrational, contradictory, and mysteriously primitive

People overseas
often judge America
based just on tourists

they encounter and
our movies and TV shows.
Hating us based on

our pop culture and
yuppies taking two weeks off
to get drunk and puke

at famous landmarks
isn't illogical or
irrational or

contradictory
or primitive. Most folks here
hate those same things, too!

[RMDupree]

He is Mr. America, America personified, even caricatured. He brings out all the envy, fear, and emotional anxiety which lies at the root of the anti-American disease. He is good-looking, upright, a Texan, a man of wealth and self-assurance. He is not by nature talkative, does not articulate abstract thoughts or concern himself with fine distinctions. He sees the world in black-and-white terms, with clear and absolute differences between good and evil, right and wrong. He worships God. He is a Ten Commandments man. He does not meet trouble halfway and is slow to anger, but when roused his anger is terrible and enduring. His personal life centers around the family, an institution European intellectuals view with unease and marked qualifications, not to say distaste. He does not dance effortlessly on the sacramental turf of the campus, or fit into the smoke-filled culture of the basement café, or find books axiomatically preferable to the saddle. Does he read poetry to relax, or study philosophy as a hobby, or worship Picasso? No. All this adds up to a terrible indictment.

I love our President!

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Thanks for posting this brilliant essay by one of my two favorite living historians.

With respect to the hard left, the islamofascists and the Euro-neonazis, it's obvious why they hate us. Beyond these specific groups however, I believe the explanation lies not so much in politics but psychology. In particular, the psychology of adolescents.

[RoadTest]

Well, there you have it: the reason for the unreasonable hatred of our President. It is so virulent I cast about for a reason and this guy snagged it. Nice going, Paul!

[whitedog57]

Remember the song "Everybody Needs Someone to Look Down On?"

Well, America is the logical target since ... we are the most successful. It is pure jealousy cloaked under leftist hokum. I travel around the world and get to witness firsthand the repression and insane regulations (and customs) governing other countries. Even foreigners who can't find opportunities in their own countries hate the US! A good example is my son's Swedish martial arts instructor. He complains endlessly about the repressive laws in Sweden, the social hierarchy, the lack of opportunities. He has his own business in the US and is doing well ... but always says how much better things are in Sweden than the US. e.g. "We don't have race problems in Sweden!" What I was witnessing was pure jealousy of a free society.

Sure, some Americans go overseas and embarrass themselves (and us). Also, American TV is degenerate and stupidying. And our movies as well (to quote Michael Medved, "With a 20 million dollar budget, this is all they could think of?"
So, yes, we embarrass ourselves.

But, it is jealousy, pure and simple. They defend their twisted and corrupt cultures by deflecting blame and anger at the US.

[Crawdad]

'Camp of the Saints' should be on everyone's reading list.

[Crawdad]

btt

[Dave Olson]

I'd heard reported that, so far, over 50 countries around the world are sending aid toward the hurricane damage.

I don't doubt that the intellectual left hates us, but this aid tells me that the hatred is confined within that group rather than the world in general.

[aworldtrader]

"My definition of an intellectual is someone who thinks ideas matter more than people."

Intellectuals ain't.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Lookit, anti-Americanism is anarchist/bolshevik inspired side to side, top to bottom. We are still fighting the Cold War. Comintern operatives and radical cadres in the West are on auto pilot after the fall of the Soviet Union. They remain hellbent on enforcing socialist regimes upon the world no matter what the track record of freedom in those regimes may be. Today they are for the most part cafe revolutionaries fighting a war by semantics and jihadist proxy, not having the cojones to leave their Cinzano umbrella shade to do the wet work, relying instead upon a religious zealotry that spits in the face of their own "cherished" principles of diversity, tolerance, feminism, civil rights, etc.

The need on the part of the radicals to embrace a witting schizophrenia is their achilles heel. They are in a state of abject desperation, pulling every semiotic trick in the little red book out of their media savvy top hat, pushing hard on satellite fronts such as gay marriage, abortion, church vs. state, global warming, et al in order to keep up an illusion of having the initiative in what is clearly the endgame in the great clash of civilization: capitalist vs. feudal oligarch.

Walter


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[YankeeinOkieville]

mark for later reading

[the invisib1e hand]

good post. thx. (ooh. ahh.)