Lawrence Solomon: False hope for global unity

[CLite]

Jesus, I'm a new poster here but you guys have a hardon for the OP. The article he posted was interesting piece if not really fact based. My grandmother is in the 100 country club and her experiences were wonderous always meeting very nice people and when I was a kid she would get me penpals from Congo to Vietnam.

However living in Australia for 6 months in '04 there was a huge undercurrent of emotion that was deeply anti-american, along with Europe when I backpacked there for 3 months in '05. I never pretended to be Canadian but I do know that is a huge trend for backpackers nowadays.

The fall of the U.S.S.R has dispersed the world's feeling with regards to the U.S. Before there was a clear right and wrong and the free world typically sided with the U.S. Nowadays there is only one power left and feeling towards a super power always run high whether they are positive or negative. I believe the current administration greatly increased world tensions and hope Obama can relieve them but as long as there is no "enemy" people will continue to resent the U.S. imo.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I'm waiting for the reaction to the first Wal*Mart popping up in Europe. :evil:

You're like 10 years too late. It has already happened.

I guess it just doesn't hit the news like the Wal*Mart protests around the U.S. Stores will spread across Europe, and they will hate the U.S. for it. *But*, their citizens *will* shop there in mass.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: sammyunltd

Originally posted by: eskimospy
What a crock of shit. I've been to more than 20 countries on every continent and people don't hate Americans, they hate our foreign policy.

No. They hate Americans. Come to Quebec and you'll see. Or to France. They say they like because it is proven that American tourists are the ones that spend the most on trips.

I haven't traveled a lot, but I live in New Zealand and I can tell you that this is categorically untrue of anyone I know. I don't hate Americans and no one I have met has ever told me that they do. I don't care about tourist revenue, but I have the mental capacity to differentiate between the people of a country and that country's foreign policy.

Hate to say it, but I do know a fair number of Canadians who say "I hate Americans" and mean the people, not the government/policies. Most of them live/study in Quebec or are originally from overseas, though.

True. Bush is not popular here, and the American people are not popular here either. The Star-Spangled Banner gets booed every time it is played at the Bell Centre (Home of The Montreal Canadiens), your culture (fast-food, Coca-Cola, Microsoft) gets criticized everyday in our newspapers, your environmental record is making us clean Quebecers really frustrated and your arrogance, your "individualism", your "USA is the best country in the world", and your hate for French-culture are not helping your cause at all...

What is true in Quebec, is true also in Europe since Quebecers are basically Europeans (as well as being the heart and soul of Canada, but that's another story).

The only thing is, we won't say it straight to your face. We like it when you come spend a lot of money in our country.

The French are some of the most xenophobic people on this planet. Them booing our national anthem just reinforces the sterotype that French/French Canadians are a bunch of d-bags.

 

[CanOWorms]

You people are so isolated in your news sources. This stuff has been discussed for months. Obama is primarily popular overseas because of his personality and youth, not his politics. For example, he does not categorically deny support for the death penalty - a heinous thought in many countries.

He has already bitchslapped European leaders in their request for a meeting regarding the financial crisis.

 

[chess9]

Originally posted by: Farang
I haven't traveled to 60 countries, but I've been to 22 and I have to disagree. While most people certainly did not like Bush I more often than not saw eyes light up when I said I was an American and rarely (if ever) was treated with contempt. This in places like Vietnam, the Philippines, India, France, and elsewhere. People are able to separate politics from people an it is our politics that is most offensive, if that were to change then the majority of folks in the world would have nothing to dislike us for.

Also those American backpackers he mentions with the Canadian flags anger me to no end. I'm not much of a nationalist but there is something to be said of a person who doesn't even have the testicular fortitude to tell people where he or she is from.

edit: in the case of a "she," I suppose ovarian fortitude is lacking

Ditto. I've only been to about 30 countries or so, but I'd say that I always encountered interest in America, our culture, our food, our religiosity, and our politicians. In England, which I love like a second home, the major question I get is how could we have elected GW Bush twice. To which I reply: "How many years did Tony Blair serve as PM?" Of course, Blair wasn't an idiot, just very wrong about everything the last 4 or 5 years of his 'service'.

Anyway, this guy is a right winger despite his homey, hippy dippy 'A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu'. Nice try, but he didn't come off as ever having had much of a liberal bent, and he doesn't write like Proust.

-Robert

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: CLite
Jesus, I'm a new poster here but you guys have a hardon for the OP.
...

Yes, son, the op is a severe disappointment. I've considered calling him back but I'm hoping that he'll find humanity. I'll just keep giving him more rope until he sees his fundamental error.