Why has America gained international infamy status?(long read)

As a man who has studied history for a long time and has had history as one of my favorite topics and hobbies to learn about, I can never really say the one day where America started getting all its hate. I know that this hate did not come over night but developed throughout many events.

During WW1 and WW2 America was praised world wide as a great nation of bravery and overcoming tragedies. Known as the land of wealth, abundance and opportunity(its still a land of opportunity and I would know since I moved here).

Its the super power military of the world ruled by people chosen by the people. A democratic nation of liberty and freedom that supports and carries the economic system of Capitalism.

So, why has America gotten so unpopular? Is it because we get into everyone's business? While this has been a huge reason, it comes from a another chain of events and lead us to negative involvement. But despite a lot of hate from nations we invade and the request for isolation, America has in fact gained a good reputation for getting into the world's business. of course America has had many bad and unfortunate involvement's in the world that perhaps would be best if we had stayed out of it, but we also send a lot of help for tragedies, disasters, and turmoil, America has always been there to send their abundance of everything to help any country in need.

Is it because many of Americans are stupid? I think not. While there is a typical ignorant population, every nation has an ignorant population. America still has many intelligent and open minded people. We have many bright students and have some top notch universities. While our education system is lacking, people always have a choice of private school, homeschool, or public school and uses many sources to be informed.

Is it because America is warmongering? America isnt a warmongering nation, we dont create every war or conflict, we simply get involved. While US has the most powerful and largest military structure in the world, they are not free to do whatever they want with it. The military is restricted in their actions. They are not as restricted as they should be. In the constitution it clearly states that the US should not have a standing army, but since we get involved in a conflict every decade, there is no way unfortunately.

Why do I believe America is hated? It all started with the cold war. America has a problem with despising and fearing ideas that conflict with the way we live. We think we know everything but we dont. Our fear of ideas such as communism took fear and hate to a whole other level. The conflict with the Soviet Union created this hate of communists against capitalists. US went through a phase of so much fear and hate that we started creating all these events in countries and started manipulating nations out of this fear. Communism grew and while it is a very flawed idea and no one has come near real communism, we started hating all these ideas. We got involved in the Korean war because of this and then we went on to Vietnam which was an atrocity. The fear of communism grew so large that we simply used everything at hand to try and get rid of it except nukes. America's hate came from the Imperialism ideas and fear. Had America been more acceptance of others ideas from this era, we would not have so much hate. we would not have invaded nations because of their communist influences. From Vietnam we went to the gulf war which I do not fully condemn because Iraq wanted to invade Kuwait. We got involved to help a small nation when suddenly UN came and told America to **** off and not letting them finish the Job. The second Iraq war brought a lot more infamy due to no true reason for involvement except for the need of natural resource and Bush's need to finish his father's unfinished job.

We have never had a President loved by all. we always look at their flaws and judge them solely by that. And that is good, but everyone commits errors thus every president will have a flaw to be judged upon. We see many as better than others such as John F. Kennedy, Ted and Franklin Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. In the infamous side we have, Lyndon B. Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush, Bush .Sr, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.

America in the end, is a country in constant change and political restriction due to our 2 party system only allowing limited ideals to reach the surface and the media.We will always go in a circle because the same people in the same parties have the same ideas. There is no independent thought because we fear true change and true new ideals. I am nor communist, nor democrat, nor republican or anarchist or fascist. I am simply an independent thinker hoping that America allows new people to have a chance at being in charge in fixing the image, violence, and economy of this nation.

Thoughts? Agree or disagree?

Interesting write updarkfox101

Good post. I don't know about America being hated, I mean there are people here in the middle east who definitely hate the US, but I kind of appreciate it, dunno why. Perhaps its due to the fact that I have been doing this whole Internet thing since I was 14 or so and I have always been in touch with Americans. I wanted to learn and Gaza did not satisfy my hunger. Americans did, to a great extent.GazaAli

Is America really hated that much overseas? I ask international students that, and they usually tell me that the US is pretty well regarded where they come from.

Though, those are from people who came to the US to study, so it's very possible that they could be a biased sample.

Because we are in the public eye and are a nation that typically "airs it's dirty laundry".

But on a side note, Reagan is on the better camp? really? Isn't he the crazy guy or is it Nixon?GazaAli

I believe it was Nixon. He did the watergate scandal and escalated the Vietnam war ever more. Reagan did make many bad choices but he also did many great things for the nation.

[QUOTE="GazaAli"]But on a side note, Reagan is on the better camp? really? Isn't he the crazy guy or is it Nixon?RadecSupreme

I believe it was Nixon. He did the watergate scandal and escalated the Vietnam war ever more. Reagan did make many bad choices but he also did many great things for the nation.

[QUOTE="GazaAli"]But on a side note, Reagan is on the better camp? really? Isn't he the crazy guy or is it Nixon?RadecSupreme

I believe it was Nixon. He did the watergate scandal and escalated the Vietnam war ever more. Reagan did make many bad choices but he also did many great things for the nation.

The hate we get usually comes from one or more of the following:

1. Jealousy

2. The idea we're always in everyone's business

3. Arrogance that is seen from some Americans

4. Countries who think we want to go to war with everybody (kind of a continuation of number 2)

5. Propaganda

1. Jealousy comes from some countries that aren't as well off as us. Obviously, you have great countries that have no reason to be jealous, such as the UK, Canada, Australia, or any other first world country. On the other hand, you have places like Pakistan, Iran, and others that aren't in the same league in terms of living conditions.

2. You're pretty much damned if you do and damned if you don't when it comes to this one. People are complaining that we're helping attack Libya and a few are even trying to say we're only doing it to get a share of their oil. On the other hand, if we don't help we're called selfish and uncaring.

3. Some Americans act like the US is the only country that matters and everybody else is garbage. This is not the right way to look at things.

4. When we fought in Iraq most people automatically said we were only going in there for oil. They say that every time we have a conflict it's because we're after something.

5. You should hear some of the stuff that is said in North Korea about us. That's only one example.

No country is perfect. But America is an easy country to pick on. You even get people in America who knock the country for various reasons. Not much you can do about it, people will have their opinion.

Meh. When you have seen some of the 'quality programming' on MTV etc, its not hard to work out why America and Americans are disliked...

Because in WW2 were were isolated till towards the end of the war in which we pwned.

I do often feel like America is hated sometimes.

Our two party system is hardly the problem.. The United States party system does not work like other Western nations... It is a candidate based system in which party affiliation as considered loose at best.. This is completely different where in other nations they don't vote for a candidate they vote for a party, and the said party puts a candidate in office.. You suggest there is a stagnation of ideas, when that can easily be argued for a multi party system.. Multiparty systems are forced to make alliances all the time in which only the basest of ideas and values are put forward by the group.. To me when people blame it specifically on this, it sounds like they are mistaken on multiple fronts with the political system within the United States.. It is by no means perfect, but nor is it completely flawed..

And to answer the main question... Its because the United States since the 1950s has replaced the British Empire as the upcoming industrial military complex.. Cold War politics has led to dicatatorships (including ones the US actually installed) in strategic areas of economic gain.. This has bled into post Cold War politics unfortunately, where the United States has a uneccesary vaste military to which it has been used to combat extremely poor nations.. It only makes matters worse when politicians try to disregard this or act like it never happened.. Which creats back lash in not only being hostile towards US policies (many would call imperialism) when the US is acting on the moral high ground in claiming they did none such things or it wasn't the reason to do for it.. Iran is a poster child for this... People wonder why Iran despises the United States.. One need only open a history book to see that the CIA and MI6 overthrew the democratic president Mosdeqq and install a brutal and corrupt dictator Shah into power... Than there is the fact that the United States openly supports Israel with out question, regardless of what violations and actions they have done to their neighbors as a government.

Meh. When you have seen some of the 'quality programming' on MTV etc, its not hard to work out why America and Americans are disliked...

Urworstnhtmare

And yet an imitation of each of those programs you are hating on occurs in almost every country that would allow it...

I think people hate America for several reasons.

1. They are over-saturated with American culture. Other countries have a lot of American programming on TV, a lot of American restaurants, stores, news, etc. Put yourself in that position and say, a country like Germany was EVERYWHERE you look in your country.

2. Arrogance. Many people see the USA as arrogant... not only in the government, but it's people. People often say things like "America is the greatest country on Earth." If somebody from Germany said that "Germany is the greatest country on Earth", people don't really care. But since America is the "super power" of the world, and there is that over-saturation of American culture, people get fed-up and "lash out" at the Americans. Because America is in the position of being a super-power, they have a real point if they say that America is the greatest because of their super-power status. So this makes people defensive.

3. I think the creation of the internet made this worse. Before, people didn't mind the American culture in their countries too much. But then, with the creation of the internet, people from other countries came into contact with American citizens much more. They found out that Americans think their country is better than all of the other countries out there, and that other countries should be greatful for American culture that has made their way to their country.

This would of course piss people off. This in turn has pushed people to become overly-proud of their own country. This is evidenced by threads right here on Gamespot... "SAS vs. Navy Seals", "Corvette vs. Ferrari", etc, etc.

The rest of the world has an "anti-American" stance, now. So everybody is against anything American, no matter if they are from Italy or England. So in those threads, many people who are from somewhere like Italy would pick the SAS over the Navy Seals because that is a way to "get back" at Americans. Or people from England would pick a Ferrari over a Corvette because the Corvette is American. I'm just using those as broad examples.

In general, I often feel that it is USA vs. the world. People from other countries stick together to bash America. Just my 2 cents.

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

mrbojangles25

We are?

Also, let me abridge the comments of everyone who criticizes America for American arrogance: "LOL stupid Americans, you think your country is so great. WATCH AS I GLOAT ARROGANTLY OVER MY FREE* HEALTH CARE!"

*=Which you pay for in taxes and debt.

TC, I thought your original post was well written, personally I don't agree. But I'll be damned if I'm going to go into why here :lol:

[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"]

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

789shadow

We are?

Also, let me abridge the comments of everyone who criticizes America for American arrogance: "LOL stupid Americans, you think your country is so great. WATCH AS I GLOAT ARROGANTLY OVER MY FREE* HEALTH CARE!"

*=Which you pay for in taxes and debt.

yeah we are pretty damn tolerant of it, and accepting of it most of the time. Its a shame same-sex marriage has not been given the go, true, but yeah we are pretty good in that department.

this is as a californian, though...dontk now how the rest of the country really feels.

and yeah, lol at the arrogance

it just comes with the territory of being the most powerful nation. spain was hated when it had a world monopoly and britain is still hated for it

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

mrbojangles25

The religious extremism in the US would suggest little tolerance for same sex relationships, and i am not sure tolerance of many religions would be the right word either?

Americans greatly overestimate how much the rest of the world cares about them. "Hate" is far too strong a term, most just don't care, occasionally are annoyed when something American (whatever it may be) pops up. It really speaks volumes about the arrogance of some Americans when they assume that everything American is naturally the best, and anyone disliking it is just hating on America (e.g. ferrari vs. corvette, SAS vs seals)F1_2004

Just as Americans grew up being told that the USA is the greatest country in the world, people today are growing up in their country where they learn that the USA sucks and is full of fat, stupid, greedy, loud, obnoxious, backwoods, arrogant goofballs who can't do anything right. They grow up thinking America = bad.

[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"]

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

THUMPTABLE

The religious extremism in the US would suggest little tolerance for same sex relationships, and i am not sure tolerance of many religions would be the right word either?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMGlR6LT4co

Dear thread starter, read this it will explain why the United States has become hated. Skip to page 11 (Arabic numbers) or page 19 in Adobe.

It's signed by Paul Wolfowitz.

it all boils down to a tiny portion of the population using national policy to gain personal wealth.

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

mrbojangles25

If that was the case, the Netherlands would be the most hated country in the world. The U.S. is hated because it's a hypocritical nation, it preaches democracy with its mouth and installs dictators with its hand. It's not exactly rocket science.

tl;dr

And it's because we like to blow s*** up.

Meh. When you have seen some of the 'quality programming' on MTV etc, its not hard to work out why America and Americans are disliked...

Urworstnhtmare

The people who hate us dont truely understand America, and neither do the people who love America. There are plently of reasons to love and hate us I say, just like with every other country in the world.

[QUOTE="THUMPTABLE"]

[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"]

I dont think people really hate the US, I think we are just the best example of all the things some people hate. Capitalism, social expression, tolerance of many religions, tolerance of same-sex relationships, tolerance of various forms of media, and so forth. A lot of people do not like those things, and America embraces all of it and more.

You cant really declare war on capitalism. So what do you do? Declare war on the best example of it (i.e. America).

I think if a lot of the people that "hate" America walked around this country for a little bit, they'd notice that 98% of the time we are people just like them.

BMD004

The religious extremism in the US would suggest little tolerance for same sex relationships, and i am not sure tolerance of many religions would be the right word either?

I don't know, the bible belt is a pretty big area. I'm sure other christains would disagree with you on the same sex couples. Its is obviously argued that it goes against the bible.

Jealousy. They have the biggest (and what is possibly the most cutting-edge in in terms of technology) military on the planet. That should sum it all up. The fact they have military presence almost anywhere on the globe feeds more fuel to the fire. Of course, there are some people who don't like outsiders meddling in their homeland. It may seem like America is treating the country like a colony to them.

But what I believe is the true case, IMO anyways, is the majority of their mass media products (coughteenstarsandMTVcough). The **** they pump out and feed to other countries. It's pretty much media globalization. This makes others think that their popular culture is basically American-izing their youths. But then, let's blame the companies that do this, not the country itself.

Various explanations:

1. The government's foreign policy: openly promoting freedom and democracy but things are not always what it seems. Stationing troops around key spots and two controversial wars have been met with mixed opinions.

2. Jealousy: Powerful military, strong economy, dominant culture. Though when rubbing people the wrong way with this point, it leads to...

3. Opinions of some on the Internet which have further created and maintained American stereotypes.

4. Some bandwagoners on the hate wagon.

5. Relatively conservative views on a rather liberal world climate.

I saw this. Hope it gets to illustrate on why there is a lot of... hatred... Fact 1: There are no WMDs in Libya. Fact 2: Libya has oil. Fact 3: The US is dependent upon foreign oil. Fact 4: America only "defends" civilians in oil producing countries. Fact 5: The attack on Libya, a sovereign nation, is no different that the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. Fact 6: America is quickly becoming an enemy of the entire globe. Either militarily, culturally, or economically. Fact 7: A declining education system is the second step in the move towards fascism. Fact 8: Iran is next. Fact 9: This is part of an Israeli/American plot to keep the promised land safe. Fact 10: This is worrisome.curono

for starters, most of those are theories.

second, so what if they have oil? There is no shame in a mutually beneficial relationship; one country protects another's population from a cruel dictator, while in exchange perhaps getting a good deal on oil in the future. Nobody goes to war simply for the good of it, there are always additional motives.

Third, I find it funny America is singled out in this conflict when A.) people were crying for Western help not more than a month ago "Oh, God, won't someone help the civilians", and B.) Europe, specifically France, initiated outside assistance in Libya. The "World" literallyasked for the the US's help, and we were even hesitant to give it, partly because we already know how the world views our "meddling" in that, errrmmmm, screwed up part of the world.

We stayed out of Egypt. They have oil too, you know, but it was a relatively peaceful revolution, so no military involvement was needed. Again, sort of funny how no one mentions that similar scenario. Maybe, just maybe, do you think the US actually cares about an oppressive regime killing its own people (in addition to other things, of course) versus a peaceful revolution.

You claim the US is becoming an enemy of the entire globe when in truth we are its best friend. The aid we send to all parts of the world eclipses the combined aid the rest of the world sends out by a huge amount. Our contributions to Japan, for example, in money, aid, and work hours is incredible. Keep in mind that we do this during one of the worst economic times in our history, when unemplyoment is around 10% and our debt is incredible.

Declining education? I beg to differ; people still flock to the US for their college degrees, and our universities are among the best in the world. K-12 is debatable in terms of quality, and it varies way too much to give an accurate idea of what is offered, but college/university-level education is the best there is. And all I can do is "lol" at fascism.

Iran "is next?" Last time I checked they also had a brief revolution a few months ago, and we kept out of it. Iran is one of the more progressive Muslim countries in the world; while their leader is a bit crazy, the people are good, and we know this. We had an opportunity to get involved and we stayed out.

Israel might think that, but the US is not a theocracy. We do not believe in a "promised land" despite what a few politicians might say. "Promised land" is what Jewish and Muslim theocracies babble about, fight over, and kill over...the US will do a lot of babbling, fighting, and killing, but never over stupid religious prophecies.

Worrisome? Only if youre the leader of a country and a jerk.

[QUOTE="Urworstnhtmare"]

Meh. When you have seen some of the 'quality programming' on MTV etc, its not hard to work out why America and Americans are disliked...

Espada12

And yet an imitation of each of those programs you are hating on occurs in almost every country that would allow it...

exactly, i.e. Japan

[QUOTE="BMD004"][QUOTE="THUMPTABLE"]

The religious extremism in the US would suggest little tolerance for same sex relationships, and i am not sure tolerance of many religions would be the right word either?

THUMPTABLE

I don't know, the bible belt is a pretty big area. I'm sure other christains would disagree with you on the same sex couples. Its is obviously argued that it goes against the bible.

its true there are a lot of people out there that dont approve of same-sex relationships. Not denying that. But they do tolerate them. There are problably hundreds of thousands of homosexuals living in the bible belt in relative peace, but thats not fun to hear about on the news. No no, we have to hear about the guy thats gets tied to a fence and left to die.

But they are protected by law, which is a lot more than many other countries can say.

I see it as Americans forcing English on others. That's the reason.

I hanvt read the op but from the topic title, I will sumise it this way. Americas infamy comes from the "we are the best" attitude that your country has. *reading the op now, and will edit this depending on how his argument goes.

Well the OP sums up my point above perfectly, to paraphrase he comes from somewhere where he hasnt had the ability to I suppose express himself as he would in the US, with that being said every other western country in the world has the same freedoms and in many cases the implementation of democracy is better in these countries. From my years on the internet the consenus seems to be that this is not an issue because of A) the military and B) gpd (not including per capita), this leads to the situation where other countries with better living conditions are shut down by a few randoms pushing the stereotype that americans think they are better than everyone else. This is also furthered in your countries catch phrase "god bless america" seriously what is that. In a supposedly secular nation you can't go and say things like that as it forms a basis for religous segregation. Infact this brings me to my last point the bill of rights, the bill of rights is in essence the bible of theUS governent, why is it that a doucment so old forms the basis of all legislation? Yes the ideals within it are generally correct and noble but the world ahs moved on from then, it needs to be altered to take into account themodern world. Yet on this website I have had the bill of rights lorded over me becuase my country doesnt have one, our rights are written into law, there is no difference here, infact I would go so far as to say that its actually better like this becuase these laws can be updated when the status quo changes. All of this contributes towards the "we are the best culture" that forms the basis for Americas infamy.

I think what it comes down to is this -- for whatever various reasons non-American people hold, the US isn't especially well liked outside of... well... the US... 67gt500

idunno the libyans seem to like the US :P