America at a Crossroads (PBS): 'The Anti-Americans'

[Oeditpus Rex]

I'm watching this right now on the San Francisco PBS station, KQED.


This film examines the current status of European attitudes towards America in three very different places: France, the United Kingdom and Poland. Freely mixing humor with provocative commentary, the program shows how Old World attitudes can be both nuanced and simplistic at the same time — sometimes contradictory, sometimes predictable, but always worthy of our interest.


GLOBAL VIEW OF UNITED STATES' ROLE IN WORLD AFFAIRS

Great Britain: A majority (57%) continues to see US influence in the world as mainly negative, while just 33 percent sees US influence as mainly positive—down slightly from 36 percent in 2006.

France: French views of the United States remain quite negative, showing little change over the previous year after sharply worsening from 2005 to 2006. Seven in ten (69%) say the US is having a mainly negative influence in the world, only slightly greater than the 65 percent who held this view in 2006.

Poland: The Polish, long the European public to express the most positive feelings toward the United States, have turned sharply cooler though a plurality is still positive. The number holding a positive view of the US has dropped from 62 to 38 percent and negative views from Poland also increased significantly, up from 15 to 24 percent.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_anti-americans.html

[emilyg]

1. Glad to see Poland is waking up.

[enid602]

2. brits

I found the British comments somewhat disengenuous given their role in the Bush/Blair Iraq folly.

[Jim Warren]

3. This film examines the current status of European attitudes towards

America, IE the Bush/Cheney cabal, not necessarily Americans.

Let's give our Euro neighbors a little credit, they know the difference

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Not entirely

They don't have many nice words for American arrogance, either. But, yeah, they do know the differences between America and the Wregime and between arrogant Americans and the rest of us.

LOL! They're showing bits of a British musical parody of the Jerry Springer Show. :rofl:

[melody]

6. Bigotry against Americans isn't funny

It's no funnier than any other ethnic stereotype (and yes, we are our own
ethnicity). I don't think Jerry Lewis' Asian impressions are funny, I don't
laugh at other forms of racist comedy, and I don't think this is funny.

I do hope that one day they'll wake up and realize that Jerry Springer is as
fake as the WWE. Do these people REALLY think there's such a thing as the
midget KKK to say nothing of the midget Black Panthers?

[The Vinyl Ripper]

7. I wish Jerry Springer was fake..

I used to have neighbors who would have been right at home on Jerry Springer.

His guests are real, as much as we would like to deny it.

[melody]

9. No, they're not -- it's 75% staged

It's an inside secret, but Springer is primarily fake.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

12. I've seen enough of what happens on Jerry Springer..

In real life to know that, while it may be exaggerated somewhat, JS is essentially accurate in depicting a certain subset of Americans.

[melody]

13. It's accurate in depicting a certain subset of ALL humans

But it's still staged.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

16. Listen to right wing talk radio

For a month or two and get back with me.

There may be an analog of right wing talk radio in Europe but it is nowhere near as popular as in the USA.

[melody]

18. The same degree of inanity expresses itself in other ways

That's what makes bigotry logically indefensible. You can't generalize about any group of
people with anything close to a relative degree of accuracy. There are 300 million Americans.
Generalizing about us is as wrong as generalizing about gay people, black people, etc, etc.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

19. What are these

"Other ways" of which you speak?

Certainly other countries have their right wing wackos but they aren't given nearly the prominence that they are in the US.

[melody]

22. They have their wackos, of whatever variety

We all have them, in equal measure. Domesticated primates are alarmingly
consistent.

[melody]

5. Many do, but just as we have idiots who are prejudiced here, they do there

It has also been whipped into a frenzy by the corporate forces in the EU that would love
to see Amurkins destroyed. Sadly, they're drinking the Kool-Aid, too.

But this has been around forever. Just as we have our southern anti-French fringe, I was
called a "septic tank" (Yank in cockney) back in 1987 and for doing nothing more than sitting in a chair, reading a book.

This has always been the intention -- to use our success against us, then paint us as lazy,
ignorant, etc. Gosh, sounds a lot like we do to our southern neighbors.

Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

8. Who gave the cabal the opportunity to do what they are doing?

Recall that bush was "elected" twice.

That it was even close enough for them to steal says a lot about Americans.

Particularly so for the 2004 election.

[melody]

10. It only says a lot about Americans if we wish to make knee-jerk, prejudiced assumptions

Reality is far more complex.

2000 and 2004 were stolen. We have no idea if it was "close".
Beyond which fact, plenty of people twice voted in Blair and Howard --
and Putin (a murdering thug) is very popular in Europe.

There's a whole lot of stupidity to go around. I'm sick to death
of people insulting my people with comments that would be considered
egregiously bigoted if spoken about any other group in the world.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

11. If bush had gotten 30% of the vote..

Which in my estimation would have been too much.

Then there would have been no opportunity to steal the election.

That the felonious five were not tarred, feathered and run out of DC on a rail is also an indictment of American's tolerance for evil bullshit.

There should have been literally millions of protesters surrounding the SCOTUS immediately after the Bush v Gore decision was handed down.

[melody]

14. If you honestly think that Americans are the only ones with these problems

You would be mistaken.

All humans have equal problems -- we're no better but certainly no worse than any
other nationality. Bush is as popular in Europe as he is here.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

15. Perhaps now..

But not in 2000 or 2004..

[melody]

17. Sorry, but he has always had a fairly large following in Europe

He always had one. And they had no "hometown boy" excuse to hide behind.

There are stupid people all over.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

21. Nearly fifty percent?

I seriously doubt that.

Else Yurp wouldn't have "socialized medicine".

[melody]

23. Bush never had 50% support here

He barely had 30%, when you take into account the number of people who voted for him.
His support after 9/11 shouldn't be taken as any support of the pigman, but rather our
nature as a people to hang together when things like that happen.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

24. And Gore had barely 30% too by that measure..

Likewise Kerry.

[melody]

26. Apathy and hopelessness (both signs of an oppressed people) are the problem

Insulting the people and demeaning them further will not help the problem.

On that note, I have a deadline to file and then I get to sleep. lol Good night.

[PVnRT]

20. And what was the voter turnout again?

Let us know when you find out.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

25. And the voter turnout..

Was of course much lower in 2000 and 2004 than in other previous elections. :eyes:

[PVnRT]

31. Wow, you're particularly dense

The point is, the turnout is low, well below even 50% of eligible voters, meaning that not even half of this country voted Bush in.

But, please, continue in your uber-hipster "Americans are stoopid" rants, because they're amusing to read.

[Le Taz Hot]

27. I think it's sad that people in other countries

can't seem to distinguish between America's GOVERNMENT and America's PEOPLE. We're not ALL assholes, thank you.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

28. In a democratic republic

The government *is* the people..

[Le Taz Hot]

29. You've not been paying attention

to election news, have you? ;-)

[Solon]

30. Uhm, excuse me, but isn't the specific question in the OP about our foriegn policy?

I don't see it as a condemnation of America's people so much as our belligerent nationalism and empire building.