Envy & Anti-Americanism

Right Wing News ^ | November 10/11, 2003 | John Hawkins

[quidnunc]

Charles Krauthammer nails what anti-Americanism is all about at the end of this brilliant editorial entitled, "To Hell With Sympathy"…

"The fact is that the world hates us for our wealth, our success, our power. They hate us into incoherence. The Europeans, Ajami astutely observes, disdain us for our excessive religiosity (manifest, they imagine, by evolution being expelled from schools while prayer is ushered back in)--while the Arab world despises us as purveyors of secularism. We cannot win for losing. We are widely reviled as enemies of Islam, yet in the 1990s we engaged three times in combat — in the Persian Gulf and in the Balkans — to rescue Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo, Muslim peoples all. And in the last two cases, there was nothing in it for the U.S.; it was humanitarianism and good international citizenship of the highest order.

The search for logic in anti-Americanism is fruitless. It is in the air the world breathes. Its roots are envy and self-loathing — by peoples who, yearning for modernity but having failed at it, find their one satisfaction in despising modernity's great exemplar.

On Sept. 11, they gave it a rest for a day. Big deal."

You want to know what anti-Americanism is for most people?

It's a Saudi oilman who lives in a mansion paid for with American money, who sends his sons to college in America, who was spared from becoming an Iraqi subject in the Gulf War because of our country, who hates us so much that he gives money to Al-Qaeda.

It's a Liberian eating food paid for by Americans, whose son is being treated for AIDS w/ drugs paid for by America, who is alive because America helped push Charles Taylor out of power, who tells his wife every day what a lousy country America is.

It's a German schoolteacher who vacations in America, who watches American movies, who was defended from the Soviets by America and then later met an Eastern German cousin she never knew because Reagan won the Cold War, who sneers at America in front of the kids she teaches every day.

These people are no different than the 17 year-old girls who hate the most popular girl in school, an uncle who gets all bent out of shape at what some rich guy does with his money, or even your friend who can’t help but rant about how much he hates Britney Spears every time you mention her name.

You want to make them stop hating America? That’s easy; all we have to do is fail, crash, burn, and preferably have our noses rubbed in it to boot. Then once America became another Belgium or Brazil, all of these petty people would stop hating us. But as long as America continues to be an economic powerhouse, a military juggernaut, & the world’s only super power, we’re just going to have to get used to people disliking us because it comes with the territory. So as far as I’m concerned, let ‘em stew in their own hatred until they get tired of it or die of old age, whichever comes first.

11/10/03 | 07:34 PM |

An Iranian Swede Gives His Opinion About Anti-Americanism

RWN reader Teller8 pontificated about anti-Americanism in the comments section of my "Envy & Anti-Americanism" post and what he had to say was so exceptional that I thought it was worth posting on the main page (after I cleaned it up and edited it down a bit). Do keep in mind that since this is someone posting in the comments section, I cannot guarantee the factual accuracy of everything he said (although I have no reason to think anything he's saying isn't correct). In any case, much of his argument (besides the part about envy & Iraq being a direct consequence of Vietnam) rings true to my ears. Here's what he had to say...

"Anti-Americanism is a very interesting subject to me, I would like to share some of my impressions with you.

…(W)hat causes Anti-Americanism? I have an easier time analyzing Europe. To me it is quite clear that the bias is almost entirely ideological, and has nothing to do with envy (again, most Swedes feel sorry for Americans, they don’t envy them). The intellectual elite and media here is as left biased as the US. In terms of domestic policy the right usually puts up a fight with the left, using the forums they have influence in. But when it comes to anti-Americanism they really have little incentives, so their voices down. So everything you do is seen through the lens of Michel Moore (who is extremely popular in Sweden, both movie, books and TV-shows) or at best NY-times. They information is so biased that most right-wing people (who do not read anything other than Swedish news) have a very hard time arguing against them, and usually give in after a while.

Let me give you a few examples. I could give you half a million, but just to show you have bad things are, I will only pick examples from the last week:

1. Sweden largest right-wing newspaper (Expressen) writes an two side by side editorials about free speech, and how it is “disappearing”. One is about Putin's crackdown on dissidents, and the other Is about GWB. It is stated that Bush “ordered” CBS to “stop production” of a TV show about Reagan, because he did not like it.

2. Sweden’s most conservative news paper (the highly respected Svenska Dagbladet) ran an analyses of the Iraq war on the foreign news section. There they praised Saddam Hussein’s “success in restoring stability after the gulf war in 91”. They of course did not mention that this was done through massacring thousands of Shia civilians (honestly, I am not making this stuff up).

3. Sweden's largest Newspaper all categories (Aftonbladet, 1000 000 sales/day) had a huge headline a few days ago reading “Bush forbids abortions!”. Partial birth abortions are by the way since long forbidden in Sweden.

4. This … example is not as big a deal, but does show how far things have gone. A couple of days ago an article was published in the libertarian think-thank Smedjan (sort of like a mini-Cato) where readers were told that they should support the “moderate” Howard Dean, as GWB was “a born again evangelist Christian” who amongst other wanted to forbid homosexuality.

Someone mentioned Pinochet (whose installment by the way was NOT with American help, only American tacit support). I have invented something I call the “Pinochet test”. You just ask someone to name two South American dictators. I can proudly say that there are no exceptions to the rule so far: everyone immediately mentions Pinochet, but cannot think of anyone else. I suppose the reason most be that Latin America has not had any other dictators that Pinochet, specially none that were left-wing…

In this sense Anti-Americanism is essentially home-produced, this demonization of US-foreign policy was not done by Arab or German scholars, but by Chomsky and the like in American universities.

When people have only been fed lies, half-truths and left-wing propaganda in general you can’t expect them to like the US. If you want to fight anti-Americanism you have two choices: either impose socialism, or try to give a more balanced view of modern US history to the world (although I think Europe, the Middle-East, Latin America and South Korea are the worst, it seems you don’t that view (anti-Americanism) at all in other places).

Or ignore it. Let them hate you, most won’t/can’t really do anything about it. Just make sure (they) know what the consequences are. Never forget Kuwait was a direct consequence of Vietnam, and 9/11 a direct consequents of Mogadishu.

Sorry for writing so long."

11/11/03 | 07:38 PM

[jimkress]

An improved version:

"The fact is that the LEFT hates us for our wealth, our success, our power. They hate us into incoherence. The LEFT, Ajami astutely observes, disdain us for our excessive religiosity (manifest, they imagine, by evolution being expelled from schools while prayer is ushered back in).

We cannot win for losing. We are widely reviled by the LEFT as enemies of the third world, yet in the 1990s we engaged three times in combat — in the Persian Gulf and in the Balkans — to rescue Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo, third world peoples all. And in the last two cases, there was nothing in it for the U.S.; it was humanitarianism and good international citizenship of the highest order.

The search for logic in anti-Americanism is fruitless. It is in the air the LEFT breathes. Its roots are envy and self-loathing — by peoples who, yearning for modernity but having failed at it, find their one satisfaction in despising modernity's great exemplar.

On Sept. 11, they gave it a rest for a day. Big deal."

[clintonh8r]

I hope America only becomes richer, more powerful and culturally more dominant. I hope socialism and islamism are crushed by the power of freedom and prosperity.