Out of Pod Experience

Booooooooooo officers booooooooooooooo..........

Haha semper fi

Wish I could wake up in my cammies with my Ka-bar and my rifle... in the weeks following my EAS I woke up in a panic because I couldn't find my rifle

*Edit: Here's the EAS song (only Marines will understand it )

I know that America has this almost pathological need to pat themselves on the back for whatever reason.

But clue me in. What is anti-American?

I don't think justified criticism of American companies, American policies, American politics and even American individuals could ever be called anti-American. Do you?

Really? I think people are capable of crimes and unspeakable horrors regardless what country they are from.

My 0.2 euro cents.

That's worth like 0.34 US cents! oh wait.... I think I did that thing again because I can't math

That's the point. Sometimes it's justified, sometimes it's not. However, to most Europeans (particularly in the northern part of Europe) sometimes = all the time, no matter what.

The only thing that keeps them from being racist is that American isn't a race. I live in Europe as an American and I see it every day. I've been here for over a decade. Some countries are more relaxed than others, but the sentiment is the same. It's civil, but it's still hateful. They stopped rationalizing it years ago and it's pretty much acceptable to be anti-American in Europe today. If it were any other culture, people would be throwing giant fits and apologizing profusely and prostrating themselves in front of the entire world to show how "tolerant" Europe is, but since it's America all bets are off. It's like a racist loophole.

Then there's the classic line: "We don't hate you people, we just hate your country and everything it stands for." :lol:

Now it should be said, however, this isn't Iranian-style anti-Americanism with burning effigies or the like. When you visit, no one will spit on you or attack you or anything, and as I said, they're quite civil and friendly. However, just the word "American" conjures up eye-rolling, snickering, and jeers from them. I'm not talking about the UK; the UK has hated Americans for centuries, and I don't consider them a part of Europe when I speak about anti-Americanism because in the UK it's the norm.

Do Americans bring it on themselves? Sure, absolutely. It's no secret that there are legions of us who are mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging morons, but there are people like that everywhere and in every country. We are the people they love to hate. They can do it with impunity and with a clear conscience because the hypocrisy of Europe is that it's ok to hate a people as long as said people doesn't belong to a specific race. It's not racism if there's no race. This is the hypocrisy rife among Europeans today, particularly northern Europe. I'm not just talking about the average citizen, I'm speaking about big things like their media and politicians. We are less than human to them and in their eyes and short memories we deserve every bit of it. There's some truth in that to be honest, but the amount of scorn they have is extremely disproportionate to reality.

The internet doesn't help and exacerbates the problem because it creates a buffer between reality and fiction that gets blurred every day because you can say anything with impunity, whether it's real or not, correct or not. What was once a harmless joke is now quite literally a movement of anti-Americanism among the people. It honestly bears resemblance to that famous German dictator and his propaganda towards a certain people.

While I love Europe and everything it offers, and while I love living here and will probably never leave, Europeans love a scapegoat and they love a bandwagon. You just have to hope you're not either one. I'm lucky to live in Italy, as there is a sort of kinship between us. "They hate you too? Awesome. Let's be friends. **** those assholes."

Racism, xenophopia, anti-[whatever group or class]. Apparently it's hard for humans to notice that they're doing it. Even fairly sophisticated ones.

Example:
Berkeley, CA. Supposedly one of the most liberal, free-est thinking places on Earth. But, as free-thinking as it's supposed to be, it's actually a pretty intolerant place. You can walk around naked, or pretty openly smoke a doob in the park. But you can't openly eat a chili dog without people giving you disapproving or disgusted looks. (Because can't believe you'd be eating something so unhealthy, or because you're eating an animal, or whatever their personal reason for disapproval is). And you can't say anything that's outside of PC (political correctness) or standard liberal dogma. Some years ago a writer with controversial non-PC views was going to speak on the UC Berkeley campus. A huge uproar and almost a riot erupted. They had to cancel the presentation. I had Texas license plates on my car when Dubya Bush was elected, and people would drive past and give me dirty looks. (They didn't know that I was a more qualified Dubya-despiser than they were-- I knew him from when he was governor of Texas.

One more:
In the U.S., it's generally taboo to stereotype any certain group. With one exception-- people from the South. Movies and TV love to stereotype them all as ignorant Walmart-shopping, NASCAR-watching rednecks. With corrupt rural sheriffs. It's a fully acceptable trope. PC rules don't apply. It's such an acceptable trope that ignorant people in other parts of the country actually think it's 100% true. You can hear "sophisticated" people in New York or California say, 'If it's east of the Missippi and south of the Mason-Dixon line, I'm never going there."

People might think they're sophisticated, educated liberal free-thinkers. But in reality, they're just a prejudiced andbigoted as anybody else. And they don't have enough self-awareness to even realize it.

I will stick my UK penneth in.

Good luck to y'all.

So far you brought us blues, rock and country. I love all of those so keep on bringing it.

Nothing wrong with the USA apart from their weird timezones! Oh and their prediliction for war. Other than that - cool.

I am in Scandinavia and most of the criticism here is related to foreign policies, like the NSA scandal and war on terror, and how meek our own governments are when it comes to standing up to the US government.

I wouldn't go as far to call it hateful, but there is a lot of contempt in Europe for shenanigans that the US is trying to pull or push one way or another (like when the US government lobbies against EU on behalf of Monsanto) so much of the irritation with US is in fact justified, and completely understandable to any sane individual.

As I can only speak for myself, I do think the United States is a great country, with great people but as any other country on the planet, the United States and her people are just as capable as any one else to do truly wondrous things as they are doing some pretty shocking and stunningly stupid things. And that is just how things are.

Am I the only one who read this in R. Lee Ermey's voice?