Anti-Americanism in Europe.

If there is one thing that you have to love about the media, both in the U.S., and in Europe, is how much of a grip it has on their audiences. I was just watching this video on videosift (great website, has 15 top notch videos every day, many of them hilariously good), and it got me thinking about the whole thing.

In the U.S., Americans are brainwashed in one way. We're constantly bombarded by companies who want us to buy their products. Yes, even worse than Europe. It has been a while since I've lived in the U.S., but I'm certain that nothing has changed since then. Consumerism is rampant in the U.S., and political propaganda is running wild at the moment with the Presidential elections coming up in November. But for the most part, if ever, you never see anti-European messages on U.S.-based television and news stations - with the exception of prior to the Iraq war, when Chirac and Schroeder of France and Germany respectively, opposed the U.S. invasion. But that's another story in itself.

So, why do the Europeans hate the U.S. so much? Well, the invasion of Iraq didn't help. Some of Bush's policies were unilateralist and did not take into account the multilateral leanings of Europeans. Abu Gharib, Guantanamo bay, the refusal to join the Kyoto protocol, and the refusal to accept the notion of an International Criminal Court are all things which irked the Europeans and helped to fuel anti-American propaganda.

Now, I'm going to be 100% honest. I'm going to say what I believe is the truth in my own mind. There are many things which the U.S. has done over the past 6 years or so which I did not agree with. The refusal to join the ICC is one of those things which I think was not a smart move. Abu Gharib was pretty bad as well. The Kyoto protocol, which deals with environmental planning and what not, should have been considered. Yes, the U.S. has made mistakes. But then again, which country has not made mistakes? Which country has the media coverage of every thing it does, which country can say it is under the microscope as often as the U.S.? No one. There's no argument about that, I'm sure.

So, is all the anti-American rhetoric justified? Not really. In that video link i've posted above, someone asked a U.S. journalist if everyone walks with M-16 rifles in the streets in the U.S. Seriously? I mean, are there people who actually believe that?

I've lived in the U.S., and I know what kind of people live there. No, we're not warmongers. No, we don't want to dominate the world, even if that's what happened, because we won the Cold War. The Europeans don't feel the need to look up to the U.S. anymore, simply because the EU is coming along nicely(...even if they don't know where it's going) and that western Europe has no threats to existence as it did during the Cold War.

So, where does that leave us? The Europeans, fueled by anti-American propaganda, and yes, all news is propaganda of some sort, have come to hate the U.S. more and more. There are legitimate reasons to disagree with the U.S. foreign policy, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But outright hatred of a country, and claiming they are an ignorant population is what i call a false sense of elitism. I only ask those people which claim Americans (all Americans) are ignorant to reflect on how much knowledge they actually have of the U.S. How often have they come into contact with Americans? Yes, we have Americans who give us a bad name, saying they are better than everyone else in world, but then again - aren't there Europeans who boasted the same thing in the past? Britain, France, Russia, and Germany are all countries which had vast empires at some point over the past 200 years. Mind you, there wasn't the global media coverage there was today. So they didn't have the scrutiny of billions on their asses at every minute of the day.

So, is anti-Americanism justified? Well, let me say this. I believe in moderation. In politics, i'm a centrist, which means I'm not an outright liberal, or conservative, I'm neither a dedicated right-winger, nor left-winger. If someone fails to see both sides of a coin, then they have failed to intellectually develop to a point where they can say they are experts on any issue in the international arena. America has fucked up on certain issues, that's true. But guess what - so have Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians, and anyone else who has been a player in the game.

No one is better than anyone else. In a time of a supposed higher education and literacy rate, we show more ignorance and elitism (a volatile mix) than ever before. If you honestly think the U.S. is that evil, you need only look to the past for a taste of when it helped Western Europe in both World Wars and the Cold War.

Don't paint a person, or a country, with one brush. Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking fool.