Why are so many Brits American haters

[dave32]

I used to think that, until I lived in Europe for a year and started visiting other places -- then I had to broaden my definition to: people are dumb. (including me).

[SpiceMan]

I fear this will become another anti-American thread but I will post anyway. I don't believe we Brits care about losing the American colonies. We lost most of the world but don't worry about that. We are faced daily with the overwhelming success of American culture - movies, TV and music. This leads some people to jealousy and anti-American feelings. They then cite examples of American foreign policy to show that America is evil and therefore all Americans must be stupid to support it. Or so the bigots would have it.

 

Fortunately most Brits are somewhat more open minded than the above scenario would suggest and the number who are actually rabidly anti-American is small. The fact that such people can be met in Bangkok shows that a bigoted mind is not broadened by travel.

 

I met citizens of former British colonies who blame all the ills of their current society on the fact that it was British ruled. India is full of people who think like this. They also claim everything that is good about their country is due to themselves.

 

[chuckwoww]

Yes I think dumb is far from being an American monopoly. We're all human.

[ghostdog]

Americans don't hate Brits. We just think Brits are gay. We have bar arguments over who is more gay, the Brits or the French.

[chuckwoww]

The French are just snobs who refuse to eat Big Macs and run away from Nazis. Brits are mostly sinister evil geniuses or gay butlers with funny accents. Staunch allies though, when they aren't whining about something.

[waerth]

I hate the British they took most of the world from from us in the beginning of the 19th century.

 

By all means many countries should have spoken the one intelligent language! Dutch

[shygye]

I hate the Dutch and their evil tulip cartel.

[unit731]

I don't think anyone should forget all of those crosses and stars in the cemetaries in France.

[Central Scrutinizer]

 

 

 

 

A Yank replies. :-) Click the link you American haters. 55555!

 

 

Political Science

------Randy Newman

 

No one likes us-I don't know why

We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try

But all around, even our old friends put us down

Let's drop the big one and see what happens

 

We give them money-but are they grateful?

No, they're spiteful and they're hateful

They don't respect us-so let's surprise them

We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

 

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old

Africa is far too hot

And Canada's too cold

And South America stole our name

Let's drop the big one

There'll be no one left to blame us

 

We'll save Australia

Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo

We'll build an All American amusement park there

They got surfin', too

 

Boom goes London and boom Paris

More room for you and more room for me

And every city the whole world round

Will just be another American town

Oh, how peaceful it will be

We'll set everybody free

You'll wear a Japanese kimono babe

And there'll be Italian shoes for me

 

They all hate us anyhow

So let's drop the big one now

Let's drop the big one now

[Steve]

I fear this will become another anti-American thread but I will post anyway. I don't believe we Brits care about losing the American colonies. We lost most of the world but don't worry about that. We are faced daily with the overwhelming success of American culture - movies, TV and music. This leads some people to jealousy and anti-American feelings. They then cite examples of American foreign policy to show that America is evil and therefore all Americans must be stupid to support it. Or so the bigots would have it.

 

Fortunately most Brits are somewhat more open minded than the above scenario would suggest and the number who are actually rabidly anti-American is small. The fact that such people can be met in Bangkok shows that a bigoted mind is not broadened by travel.

 

I met citizens of former British colonies who blame all the ills of their current society on the fact that it was British ruled. India is full of people who think like this. They also claim everything that is good about their country is due to themselves.

 

That's pretty much it. We've had discussions on this before. I call it the 'Manchester United' thing. Man United is hated in England by many simply because they are the biggest and the most successful.

 

America has helped itself being hated with foreign policy fiascos up to and including unpopular wars. A lot of Europeans, especially the french, young, educated europeans have a special dislike for us.

 

I am on football (soccer) forums daily and its apparant to me that more than what I would call insignificant amount of english people have a dislike if not hatred of America. It varies from seeing us as uncouth and annoying to downright Darth Vadar type evil.

 

By and large, most Americans are anglophiles. People love the accent and view Britain as our closest allies and friends. Even more than Canada in which we share more culturally.

 

When GB had their empire they were much more hated than we were. It comes with the territory of being the pre-eminent super power. No matter what you do. The interesting thing was that a generation ago, the USSR were much worse than America and the main rival for world's strongest super power but didn't seem to be as despised by Brits and europeans. Maybe the U.S. was seen as a reason why peace (and with that world peace) with the old USSR was difficult to achieve.

 

I have met Brits who are utterly amazed I don't hate America because I'm black and our history here and looked at as crazy for being patriotic. My response is 'well, name a better country to be black in?' England, France and a few other western countries have sizable black populations. Other than sports and entertainment, would I really fare better? Possibly but I suspect not. Its not inconceivable in America that my child could grow up to be CEO of General Motors, IBM or Microsoft or President. Could a black child in England, France or Holland have the same access to its biggest companies or be its head of state?

 

Generally speaking I don't see much vitriol from any Brits or europeans that have lived in America for any period of time or visited often. Usually its from those have never visited.