Today Gleen goes screedy on America’s loss of international standing, according to data compiled by Pew, during the Bush administration.
If one argues — as I frequently do, including as a central argument in A Tragic Legacy — that America’s hard-earned moral credibility in the world has collapsed as a result of the Bush presidency, one can hear similar objections from each side — namely, that while America is despised in much of the world, that has little or nothing to do with events over the last six years.
Instead, this line of reasoning goes, America was disliked well prior to the advent of Bush radicalism, either because (in the view of neoconservatives as illustrated by Hugh Hewitt here), those who dislike America are intrinsically hateful of America and our values no matter what we do. Or (in the view of a small group on the Left), America is hated not because of what we have done in the last six years, but because America has been a bullying force of Evil in the world for the last several decades (at least) and our behavior under Bush is nothing new for America; it is but a natural extension of the country’s foundational or long-embraced values (a portion of that argument, though not its entirety, was made by Chris Floyd here).
The new comprehensive worldwide Pew poll of public opinion conclusively disproves both of those views. The polling data demonstrates that while America’s standing in the world is dangerously low on every continent in the world (the sole exception being Christian nations in Africa), pervasive anti-American sentiment has emerged only in the last six years. Prior to the Bush administration, America was respected and admired in most of the world, its values a source of inspiration, the ideals it espoused a source of widespread respect. Those are just facts.
I find it outlandish that Gleen feels that he’s in a position to discuss anyone’s “moral credibility” in the wake of his own very real scandal regarding the use of sockpuppets to defend himself in the blogosphere. He seems not to feel the irony of his position in the least. And considering that, like other serial liars such as Michael Moore, he has a ready audience for his insinuating diatribes at the podium supplied to him by the abettors at Salon, it is perhaps too much to wish that he would come clean and take responsibility for his own deceptions as well as those of his imaginary roommates.
The media will trust anyone who hews to their narratives and subscribes to their banalities, just so they don’t themselves have to be subject to the same standards that they would like to hold others to, including those who put their lives and reputations on the line to bring us first-hand accounts–people like Michael Yon. Any stringer’s tale of atrocities in Iraq merits instantaneous and general circulation, on the other hand. The data that he reproduces is sobering: nobody likes being disliked. On the other hand, the United States is deeply despised by the media elites who help fashion public opinion abroad because it has taken notice of the abject failure of the “international community” to perform any useful benefit to places such as Iraq on its own, preferring instead to cozy up to the now-departed murderous bastard Saddam, to let Darfur be raped and pillaged, bogged down in the former Yugoslavia with no end in sight, allowing Mugabe and his thugs to destroy and bring Zimbabwe to the break of terrible famine, unable to disarm foreign militants in Lebanon, watching as Chavez systematically undermines the economy of Venezuela, permits China to imprison Falun-Gong, watches helplessly as Iran promotes Sharia law abroad much to the detriment of human rights in the entire Muslim world, and while Christians and Jews are systematically disenfranchised and subjected to intolerance or outright violence throughout almost all of the same (which may have something to do with the US’s anomolous popularity in “Christian Africa,” though their opinion hardly counts).
That a member of Sarkozy’s cabinet has expressed her belief that BushCo might have been behind 9/11 isn’t worth a comment from Gleen and similar pundits, because, after all, who can blame them, when the Chairman of the DNC has floated the same idea? Whatever he thinks of Mitterand’s having been on board with the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda just so long as it didn’t succumb to Anglo-Saxonism, whatever he thinks of actual Orwellian pronouncements by the new Prime Minister of the UK at the behest of the EU, whatever he thinks regarding the UN’s appointment of a Mugabe crony to head the UN Development Committee, we do not know, because it’s clearly more dangerous to the world that Bush has commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence, leaving aside Brazil, where a man of my acquaintance was murdered in a restaurant last year, and France’s troubles, about which he would have had a lot to say had they occurred in the US.
It is perhaps a pity that some misguided Jihadiyahoos decided to murder a bunch of Spanish tourists in Yemen, because otherwise Pew would not have had to display a decided uptick in Spanish sympathy towards the US during Bush’s reign–a matter of popularity that Gleen insists on denominating “moral authority.” Beneficiary of popularity contests hosted by Technorati that are sometimes equated with credibility, it is once again possibly excusable that Gleen wouldn’t know the difference. It’s possible, on the other hand, that the Spanish, having had the historical temerity to have driven the Moors from Iberia at just about the same time that Columbus was sent to the New World to commit atrocities against the enlightened inhabitants of that hitherto unknown land, and having realized that their attempts to appease the Jihadis by not demonstrating Crusader-ness haven’t been particularly helpful to them, now have begun to admire Anglosphere solidity in the face of threats and atrocities. We are still waiting for a Bartolomeo de las Casas to defend our manifest humanity to the mullahs.
But if Gleen really wishes to retrieve a crumb of moral authority for himself, he’ll first cop to having sockpuppeted, or produce for our perusal (since we’re skeptics) the putative defenders. Until then, he can pound sand–in Ipanima, if he likes. That’s what a “patriot” would do.
Oh, but look! Bush must be hiding his own turpitude by pardoning Libby! How could it be otherwise?
Ususally prison sentences are commuted after they’re begun, after the prisoner has, you know, actually entered jail. Not this time. Bush couldn’t wait. What does Libby know that he’s not talking about, that Bush has to make sure he does not talk about? Why is it so important that his sentence is commuted now?
Lots at Talking Points Memo. Such as this, on why this action is so offensive:
The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.
The president’s power to pardon is full and unchecked, one of the few such powers given the president in the constitution. Yet here the president has used it to further obstruct justice.
Well, if the pardonee (is that a word?) were contributing to the presidential library, it would be a different matter altogether! Because then his motives would be pure as the driven snow, & ct.
Why they envy us? (h/t Barcepundit)
It is possible that you are unfairly condemning Gleen. I seem to recall him suggesting that the posts appearing under names other than his own but from his IM address MAY have been posted by individuals who broke into his home to use his computer. In other words, a home burglar was responsible.
Excellent post Dan .
Monumentally strong. Absolutely Rushmorian, and I don’t mean the movie.
It is understandable that craven, servile personalities will seek and usually find in “world opinion”–which is most times reliably craven and servile–broad validation for what in truth is a moral shortcoming.
Cordially…
Yeesh. Perhaps there is some sort of card we could issue to these foreign-approval-sucking limpwrists, something which has a statement along the lines of “Although Mr. Pleaseloveme is an American citizen, please know that he has undergone extensive surgery to have his conscience, his spine, and his sense of gratitude to his parents and other forebearers removed in the interests of becoming some overseas Rajah’s suppository. His star sign is the Parasite; his favorite gift is lubricant.”
Until then, he can pound sand-–in Ipanima [sic], if he likes.
Agreed, Cartouchebag.
It wasn’t funny the first time, either. But keep trying.
Is this funnier?
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=5zEdIQjh1MU
Why Greenwald(s) and his fellow media hypocrites think we need the approval of the contempible is beyond me.
Considerably.
Have a good evening.
Likewise, Anthony.
Those who are concerned with American popularity, instead of whether or not we are improving the world, demonstrate only their shallowness.
Dan, this is the first of your posts that I mistook for a Jeff G. post until I checked the title again.
That should count for high praise.
OHNOES, that counts for high praise indeed, but I should mention that when I’m posting on Jeff’s time, I take it a bit more seriously, and I’ve been hanging around for long enough to be really pissed at Gleen.
Dan – simply typing the words Gleen and credibility in the same sentence had to be painful.
I grow increasingly tired of “international opinion” coming in the form of Gleen’s rants, Sully’s babbling, used as reinforcement for Leftist can’t, or in judicial opinions.
I wonder about how international opinion would be effected should these people no longer live under the umbrella of security provided by the US, or without our international and economic aid.
JD–Let’s pull out, then, man. They’re grown ups, right? They can take care of themselves while we take care of Darfuur & Zimbabwe, doncha think? No worries with Putin.
My daughter’s take on “The Manchurian Candidate”– a sad and confusing film, Daddy. So, there you go.
A truther French cabinet member indicates the prevalence of America hatred, while the election of Sarkozy indicates nothing, apparently.
What a bunch of Gleens.
Grrr…
Or aliens. I hear they love Gleen on Pluto. Read from his blog on the floor of the Supreme Council or some such.
I haven’t checked the Pew poll. Does it go back to Reagan’s stewardship? Or are we just looking at that brief and happy time at the end of history?
Well, apparently history begins during the Clinton administration, Jeff.
It seems like 2002 is the baseline:
The survey, conducted in Apr and May, is by far the largest Pew has carried out since 2002, covering 47 countries in Europe,
Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, and assessing the opinions of more than 45,000 people. It found that concern
about global warming has increased dramatically in the last five years.
But these are the same people that spoon-fed the MSM phony evidence of a “grassroots” enthusiasm for campaign finance reform.
i so suck
Good post Dan. It’s a weird dynamic–the more you and your circle hate him the better paying his gigs become and the more copies his books sell.
Be honest–is he giving you a few points on the royalties?
No, but the puppets owe me BIG TIME.
Seems like 2002 is about right. They list surveys going back only til 2001. But there is a vague reference to a “13-nation 1991 benchmark survey, the Pulse of Europe.” Madeleine Albright, who I believe has ties to the Democratic Part here in the U.S., has chaired both the current studies and the 1991 work.
suck, i do
It is a sad state of affairs that Gleen is paid for his blather. On the flip side, given the nature of the audience that buys his book, it harkens back to that old phrase about a fool and his money being soon parted.
Themosticles, stop projecting. Hate is for Gleens.
I can’t bring myself to hate an overwrought dweeb.
I’ve already made myself disagreeable at CQ tonight regarding Hillary so I might as well continue here. A couple of drinks, a bad day, a piss poor attitude in general, you know how it goes sometimes–I’m pissed at the incessant stupidity and self delusion. Gleen and his fellow sobsisters can rant all they want about how we have squandered our international standing and moral authority. Have we now? In the eyes and consideration of what intellectual authority and better? The morally vacant progressives? The self-elevated intellectual elites who delude themselves that they have answers to problems they pretend to comprehend? Frankly, I don’t see it. Pompous hypocrites and moral cretins! Who cares? Why should we care? Screw them! Screw them all! As far as I am concerned we should do what is in our own best interest. If that disturbs them or twists their knickers, too bad!!!! If Gleen is outraged or Andy Sullivan’s head explodes because it violates his intellectual self-importance I don’t give a shit! Those in the UN, NGO’s, various civil liberies organizations, and EU governments across the pond plying the same spineless platitudes and memes that echo those like Gleen and Andrew here, —Go for it! On your own Goddamn dime! Sort it out on your own. If you end killing thousands, even millions, on whatever side of whatever conflict you initiate or cannot preclude, I DO NOT CARE! You have done it before, you will do it again. You insist it is my problem, but it is not, it is your own. I am tired of being blamed for your inabilities, your inadequacies, and your failings! If you are our moral and intellectual superiors, as you seem to believe, great! Do something. But quit pissing and moaning about our attempts to save your sorry asses. My thought; I’ll give you 10 years without any input, second thoughts, assistance or financial aide from us in any way, shape, or form. Go ahead guys, if you are so prescient, so superior, you have my blessings. But when you f*ck it up—and you know you pseudo-intellectual, spineless bastards will, it is your problem and your failure. In 2017, if we decide to have any sympathy for you sorry morons, if we haven’t self-imploded ourselves, we MAY try to salvage the whole thing. But don’t count on it. It may not be worth the trouble.
Pablo–Did I say hate? I meant “good naturedly rib” of course.
BTW do you have anything more up to date than that “projecting” angle? It’s like I’m getting roughed up by Yahoo Serious or something.
Yes, you said “hate”.
Jeff, what’s the deal with quoting more than one passage? It seems that the second response always gets eaten by the blog. At any rate,
Funny that you should disavow your own words and then gripe about being called out on them. It feels like I’m debating Paris Hilton or something.
If the shoe fits, buddy….
The insinuation that the President is rewarding Libby to be silent is hilarious … because they can’t come up with any evidence about what Libby is supposed to be silent about. There is not anything given that there is nothing left of Fitzgerald’s investigation.
Greenwald is an ass.
“The happening to our America, abroad as well as at home, these years, is indeed most strange. The democratic republic has paid her to-day the terrible and resplendent compliment of the united wish of all the nations of the world that her union should be broken, her future cut off, and that she should be compell’d to descend to the level of kingdoms and empires ordinarily great.
There is certainly not one government in Europe but is now watching the war… with the ardent prayer that the United States may be effectually split, crippled, and dismember’d by it. There is not one but would help toward that dismemberment, if it dared…
We need this hot lesson of general hatred, and henceforth must never forget it. Never again will we trust the moral sense nor abstract friendliness of a single government of the old world.”
Walt Whitman, 1864
“It’s a weird dynamic–the more you and your circle hate him the better paying his gigs become and the more copies his books sell.”
Are you a climatologist, Themistocles?
That’s Hot.
Let’s see…given the choice between doing what’s popular but wrong and doing what’s not popular but what’s right, I’ll take not popular and right…ehhh, 95% of the time.
Robin – The entire notion that the investigation of a non-crime, committed by Armitage has not been fully investigated by Fitz is beyond laughable. We are still looking for Leopold’s impending indictment of Rove. The idea that a pardon or commutation, as they describe it, being an obstruction of justice is beyond absurd. It Congress or the American people do not want the President to have those powers, then they should take steps to repeal them. Until that point, pardons and commutations are absolutely part of the process.
Well, I’m certainly happy to know that Jean-Jacques Revel is actually full of shit. I was a bit worried there…
Gleen tells you more about himself than he would like you to know by hypothesizing that moral credibility is measured by public opinion polls.
Does that mean we can stop defending the border because nobody wants to come here? That’s the poll I’d believe.
Really, Gleen(s)? Are you sure? Because, were he still alive, Richard Nixon might be surprised to hear that (scroll down to the section titled “Goodwill Ambassador,” second paragraph).
That this douchebag(s) Greenwald(s) is considered any sort of authority on anything regarding American politics is baffling. But I guess I’m just jealous that he’s a bestselling author whose blog posts have been read on the Senate floor and have inspired articles in major newspapers.
way to go to analyze Pew facts about international opinion.
great explanation, why that opinion went down during Bush’s years in the office.
Did anybody even bother to check on Pew facts and graphic stats.
What a bunch of right-wing cretins on this side
sashal – Thanks for the insightful comment. How could we have been so wrong ?
Maybe we could ask all trolls to please remove hats before posting. it would help to see their point, I think.
Hey, sasha–just because I didn’t do that yesterday evening doesn’t mean we won’t. But go ahead, knock yourself out. Meanwhile, here’s more evidence of the kind of perfidy that those who criticise the US seem not to pay much attention to:
“Police searched the home of Dominique de Villepin, the former French Prime Minister, yesterday as judges appeared close to charging him with conspiring to implicate Nicolas Sarkozy, now the President, in a corruption scandal. Criminal charges are thought likely after examining judges unearthed new evidence that appears to put Mr de Villepin, 56, close to the heart of the so-called Clearstream affair.
The scandal, under investigation since 2005, involves forged bank records that suggested falsely that Mr Sarkozy and other senior figures had received big bribes in the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
Mr de Villepin was serving as Foreign and then Interior Minister and Mr Sarkozy, his rival for the future presidency, was Finance, then Interior Minister.
The affair poisoned the already strained relations between Mr de Villepin, the protégé of Mr Chirac, and the President’s mutinous subordinate, who was intent on succeeding him.
Investigating judges and police arrived yesterday afternoon at the expensive Paris apartment building where Mr de Villepin lives.
They were acting on material that was extracted last week from erased data on an intelligence officer’s computer. This added to evidence that Mr Chirac had been briefed on the affair at the time, according to leaked judicial transcripts. Two weeks ago the former President refused to obey a judicial summons for questioning over the case. His lawyers argued that he was immune from inquiries into any acts undertaken during his presidency.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2033979.ece
So, bite me, you carping prat–and buy a few question marks, capital letters, and periods.
I know that anybody who bases an argument on America’s ‘Hard Earned Moral Credibility in the World’ is a fantasist. There’s never been such a time, including the Autumn of 1945.
Where does Greenwald and his myrmidons–by the way, I love your nails, girls–think this “…hard-earned moral credibility…” came from? It came from American soldiers fighting and dying for the liberation of Europe 60 years ago. That’s where our moral standing came from. It’s the source of hope for millions.
If the rest of the world is disenchanted with the US, it’s because of our current moral equivocation and cultural cowardice, of which, Glenn owns a big, rotting, chunk. An unspoken assumption in world politics is that, no matter how fucked up everything gets, people can always count on the United States to stand up for the right. That they can no longer do so is undoubtedly the source of peoples’ discontent. The Islamists are breaking into the house and no one seems to care enough to oppose them.
Incidentally, sash, I see you are a product of the American school system. My condolences.
ahem–Is it possible you’ve confused “myrmidons” with “myrnaloys”?
Does anyone take Greenwald(s) seriously?
What does he mean by dangerously low ? Are we at risk from being attacked by Greenland? Do the Canadians think that this is their chance? Maybe a stampeding horde of Fijians will come knocking?
I will worry about world opinion when people from all over the world quit waiting years to immigrate here. As is, the world looks to us to solve problems, provide security, a place where people send their family members when they need the best medical care, and the economic engine for the world. Other than that, we are just a bunch of rubes, that wish the Greenwalds of the world would move to Brazil, for good.
I lived in Italy during 80% of the Clinton era. They hated us then too. They liked the fact that Clinton was doing his secretary (which fit their view of what politicians should be doing) just enough that they stopped talking about how much they hated us in public.
Collins – you leave Myrna Loy out of this!!! Old school hot, was she.
Funny, I’ve been growing convinced lately that world opinion has lost its credibility. And when the Rapid Response Troll Armada descends upon us yet again with empty bomb-bays, trying to defend world opinion, well…
“Funny, I’ve been growing convinced lately that world opinion has lost its credibility.”
I imagine Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney feel similarly about American public opinion.
ps-someone needs to throw you guys a life preserver, you’re really drowning on this one.
I mean…”Really, Gleen(s)? Are you sure? Because, were he still alive, Richard Nixon might be surprised to hear that (scroll down to the section titled “Goodwill Ambassador,†second paragraph).”?
Pathetic.
david – Explain to us the import of world opinion, or just your opinion, for that matter.
You really are a fuckstick.
If Bush/Cheney are worried, what pray tell are Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of Congress doing ? They ought to be building fall-out shelters, and ought to pray for President Bush levels of approval.
“way to go to analyze Pew facts about international opinion.
great explanation, why that opinion went down during Bush’s years in the office.
Did anybody even bother to check on Pew facts and graphic stats.
What a bunch of right-wing cretins on this side”
Sashal, I know you’re an idiot, but who cares about their opinions? They’ll change…or not. It doesn’t matter. OMG, islamonuts the world over hate us! Or more importantly George Bush. Again, who cares. Bush is gone in a year and a half. Socialists hate us! They always have. They always will. Why this bothers you ninnies is beyond comprehension.
The Troll Brigade/Armada (better known as the Screaming Beagles) descends upon the blog, yets lacks one, critical thing.
Amongst the spitting, name calling and horrendous sentance structure, has any one of them made a substantive, clearly outlined argument?
You Beagles slander your own partisan ideology by the very (lack of) content of your comments. but I should remember that Mona decreed we are not to be engaged, only utterly destroyed.
I actually miss timb. At least he tries in his own way…
Major John–how come you’re always telling me to lay off someone? I mean, c’mon! How do you think the Myrmidons feel about that?
Hey, I like Ethel Myrmidon, she’s a great singer!
I mean “There’s No Business Like Show Business”?
Gotta love it.
Did you bother to follow my link, david? No? Hardly surprising.
Just swallow whatever Gleen(s) is telling you, david. It’ll be so much easier to digest than the facts.
To use the parlance (and level of sourcing) that a troll might understand —
Anti-Americanism: GOOGLE IT!!!
Sean M
“Just swallow whatever Gleen(s) is giving you”. Were you trying to make me hork up my lunch by referencing the sock puppet’s love juice?
God, I’m tired of this red herring. The only picture of America most people on this planet will ever see is comprised of words and images selected by editors and producers in the politically-compromised newsrooms of the West and their state-controlled counterparts in places like the Middle East and China.
Elite media present the United States almost exclusively in the worst possble light — then blame Americans for the willingness of others to believe the worst about them. Invoking manufactured animosity to cow and ostracize is a Struggle Session tactic that works quite well among insecure elites who think its more important to be well liked than to do the right thing.
In the absence of an alternative to the media narrative of non-stop American wickedness, the answer to the question ‘why they hate us’ is that ‘they’ are given precious little choice.
JD on 7/6 @ 5:57 am: Bingo. What did P.J. O’Rourke once say about the mob demonstrating in front of an American embassy being outnumbered by the folks waiting in line for visas . . . ?
I said “telling,” not “giving,” JD.
(But I still flinched before hitting the post button.)
ahem on 7/6 @ 5:29 am: Absolutely. As someone who spends a great deal of time abroad, I can assure you that the waffling, hand-wringing and pandering of our so-called leadership classes — especially given our resources and capacity for firmer leadership — earn nothing but contempt. Many of those back in the States who wave passports to demonstrate their internationalist bona fides often don’t understand that admirable reflexes, like compromise, concilliation and concession are perceived as weaknesses to be expoited and invitations to aggression.
Further, the idea that we should be judged by our shortcomings, or that all moral authority evaporates the instant we fail to meet the standards we champion and to which we aspire is, frankly, simpleminded.
So, it’s all a big conspiracy, with narratives and conspirators conspiring and stuff. Oh. OK. Now I get it. My bad, sorry.
I feel safe in speaking for everyone here, david, when I say it is not likely that you could ever get it.
So all that stuff I used to hear in the 60s about “Yankee Go Home,” and the Paris tourist office worker (no less) in early 2000 who threw a bunch of brochures at me when I asked in English for hotel recommendations in Normandy, that was Bush’s fault? Pre-emptively hating an American for what GWB was going to do in a few years. That rat bastard. Boy, we’ll be well rid of him. Then the rest of the world can go back to America worship like before. That’ll be awesome.
It’s worth noting that whenever you travel outside the US, virtually the only media channels you see are anti-American. If that shit was pumped into my skull 24/7, I’d be brimming with hatred for the United States–just like this butthole, david, is.
The MSM never thinks of that while they’re wanking off to their latest Anti-Bush propaganda. It never occurs to them that they’re fomenting (I realize it’s not as good a myrmidon, Dan; gimme a break) a hostility for the US that will imperil not only those they hate but themselves as well.
david: You tip your hand, O Pissy One. The only time you come over here is when you’re feeling desperate and off your meds. Go throw a tantrum somewhere else.
DanG:
Yes, it’s always been there, even during the reign of Bubba the Beloved. But I reckon there are those who believe (hope?) volume of vitriol, ridicule and abuse hurled at us every day will get turned down once Americans elect leaders more easily seduced by smooth-talking European diplomats, more easily conned and guilted by third world grievance hustlers and UN charlatans, and more easily cowed by gangsters masquerading as statesmen.
Like I posted earlier, it’s a struggle session.
The lengths to which the anti-American set will go to justify their hatred was illustrated for me when a New Zealander explained that his dislike for Americans was the result of a bar fight.
That he wasn’t even involved in.
During WWII.
And this was in about 1995.
Then there’s the latest French fad of despising jogging because it’s too “Anglo-Saxon”. Apparently jogging’s one of those things only fat, McDonald’s swilling Americans do…
ahem:
No kidding. And it’s not just the local media outlets. CNN International serves up some of the worst of it.
You’re right. They’re playing with fire. I’m not talking about disarming the inevitable cliched dinner party critique of American foreign policy encountered abroad (and more frequently, here at home). As accidental ambassadors, I believe we’re all tasked representing the folks back home — and that this can be accomplished without arrogance or pandering for approval.
But, at the risk of invoking Goodwin’s law, within living memory we’ve seen the ancient resentment and bigotry of anti-Semitism stoked into acceptance and/or approval of wholesale genocide. And there’s already way too much schadenfreud at any American misfortune, no matter how undeserved, and too many influential people issuing apologetics for violence committed by politically-fashionable groups and individuals.
Rob Crawford:
Anti-Americanism has morphed into a globally-fashionable form of bigotry for people who would otherwise keep their prejudice in check — far out of proportion to any of its alleged causes, real or perceived.
It is the only hatred I’m aware of which is justified by its very existence: ‘ask yourselves why you’re so hated’.
I can’t understand how anyone takes Greenwald seriously after this:
http://patterico.com/2006/07/27/annotated-wuzzadem-the-facts-behind-the-greenwald-sock-puppetry/
America-hatred – the world’s safest form of petulant rebellion.
I mean, seriously, do French snobs really think America is going to invade them? Do self-satisfied British academics really fear B-52’s darkening their skies?
Of course not.
But if you hate someone who hates back, that might involve some element of risk. These people are too cowardly to do that.
On the other hand, in some cases, like where the Anti-Americanism starts with a condemnation of America’s support of Israel, then I’d have to side with Vinny on the “root causes.”
Merovin:
“But if you hate someone who hates back, that might involve some element of risk.”
And that’s really it, isn’t it? Cheap anti-American showboating carries no risk.
Think the Chinese will put up with high-decibel shrieking from scolds in Europe? When the ambassador of some mid-sized Eurozone country is informed that too many papier mache puppets and hostile editorials accompanying a state visit will lead to the loss of industrial contracts worth billions of Euros and thousands of jobs, then they might understand just how cheap that criticism truly is. But I’m not holding my breath.
I think it is because the United States is like the Big Man on Campus Earth, and they are little weenie countries.
Can I have tenure, now?
B Moe,
Nope. Your thesis must explain how America is the weenie boy. No tenure for you!
This piece on tigerhawk is really quite excellant at teasing out some interesting stuff that Gleen missed in the survey at issue:
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2007/07/close-look-at-most-recent-pew-global.html
[…] Although you may not like what you get. […]
Since, historically and practically, America has been and was founded on being the “anti-Europe” I remain puzzled when natives like Gleen think that we need Europe’s approval or should even want it in the first place.