Bigotry in any form discredits the one who practices it.
The United States of America elected Bill Clinton to be its president. Twice.
Does that mean that people who dislike Chinese imperialism should denounce the United States?
America's allies in Europe are besieged by a combination of coordinated disinformation and willful ignorance.
But there are many good people in Europe.
Should we abandon them because some of their neighbors are idiots?
If so, then we should abandon America as well.
Pithy sayings not withstanding, it is best to keep one's friends close.
We have a lot of friends in Europe -- people who aren't fooled by cheesy propaganda.
I say to them: thanks for standing by us, and I pray we will never do anything but the same.
It would be difficult to overstate the damage that has been done to the image of America overseas by just one entity: CNN International. Whenever I hear someone outside the US make a statement about us which they think is factual but which I know to be either false or a gross distortion, I ask them what they use as their main source of information about what is going on in America. Invariably, they cite CNN.
Many folks in Europe honestly believed that Bill Clinton was one of the most poplar presidents in our history (never elected with more than 49 % of any vote and one of only two to be impeached), the rate of violent crime in America is at an all time high (actually lower than twenty years ago, and on a per capita basis lower than in Britain), or that GWB had no possible chance to be reelected (when I was asked during the past year who I thought would win the election and would answer simply "Bush" people were genuinely astonished).
It was not always like this and I personally peg the change to the spread of CNN since the mid to late 1980's.