When there is a steady stream of unsolicited criticism, often after the fact proven false, but never corrected.
Example: Missile defense today, nuclear deterrence in the 80s. BTW, what happened to Kyoto?
When vile and slanderous comments are thrown around and comparisons to Bush-Hitler, locust capitalists ...etc. (By German political figures) are made.
When this 'pattern' of behavior has been going on for -40 YEARS-, and this despite the US being a benevolent nation after WWII and actually reigning the others in who wanted to put a foot on your neck. A nation that quickly transformed itself into an ally and sacrificed its kids, its money, in your defense. When your national interests are parallel in all aspects. Maybe what you have are other underlying motivations for this constant criticism. But that leap in thought is a bit too much to ask for most Germans.
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Like it or not-
(History)
There are still some sour grapes over WWII. Not much but some. But there is another aspect that is related to this. There is a desire to make the US look bad, since if they are bad took then maybe the Holocaust wasn’t so bad, right? Why do you think the comparison to Indians always comes up? It’s a BS argument to anyone that knows history, but the idea is to rationalize ones own conduct. Is there a reason why the bombing of Dresden pops up ever so often?
(Idiology)
Germany ideologically moved left after 1989 and there is a deep ideological divide. Many of those growing up in the former DDR have the US as a threat picture, not ally. How does one explain the merits of an ‘ordentliche Sozial Politik’ to kids when your economy like all socialist economies is beginning to slip behind and those who embrace capitalism from Singapore to Hong Kong, what happens? People begin to concoct conspiracies and become resentful. The German has a ‘Glaube’ in this Soziale Ordnung, and he will try to force the world to fit this picture, even if it is talking about 14% population that is living at or bellow the poverty live in the US. Never mind that if the same standards are applied to Germany near 1/3 of the population would be defined as at or bellow poverty.
(Envy)
When you have the US dominate the way they do you get ‘envy’. From the Olympics, to Nobel prizes, patents, copyrights, GDP, defense, to per capita income or unemployment….. From the creation of the UN or NATO, to the global reach of the US in other political reach, turn on your TV, look at your computer and what your operating system is and who the core processor is from or what switches you run on- The US is everywhere. When most nations in Europe don’t even have the GDP of California, when a single Joint Naval Reserve station in Fort Worth has more fighters, that are more modern, than the entire air force of Austria, you realize who the power out there is. There is a reason why they spit on a cancer patient who won the Tour de France and why they hound him the way they do.
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Is there anti-Americanism in Germany? You bet. But it’s not for the reasons you’d like to believe. Maybe you need to ask your countrymen to look into a mirror to find the reason.
But the fact that this anti-Americanism is there, is slowly being understood by the American public. Do you think this will help you?
But of course there's anti-Americanism in Germany, there is also anti-Europeanism in the USA. Of course all of this anti is just a reaction to the other side feeling so high and mighty over a few things bla bla bla. Essentially that whole thing bores me to death. But I'll admit that using anti-Americanism for political goals over here is worth reporting. But this is just no A-A if you read it in context, this is just something where people that are already pissed can find another reason if they try hard enough.