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Anti-American)
Anti-American sentiment is a hostility towards or disapproval of the government, culture, history, and/or people of the United States of America.
The nature of anti-American sentiments are hotly debated. Some see them as pure Anti-Americanism. Others argue that those sentiments are an expression of legitimate criticism leveled towards the US, particularly in regards to its foreign policy. This article discusses history and merits of such criticism.
Causes
Some anti-American sentiments started to appear as America entered the competition for influence in the Pacific, and anti-Americanism was widespread in the Central Powers after the U.S. entered First World War. These sentiments became even more widespread during the interbellum and depression. The belief that America was ruled by a Jewish conspiracy emerged in countries ruled by national socialists. After the Second World War anti-Americanism grew within the influence of the Soviet Union, and spread to other parts of the world to some extent. Paradoxically the fall of the Soviet Empire may have brought an increase in anti-Americanism, because the US was left as the world's only superpower, and people who formerly saw the US as a bastion against communism no longer felt the need to support the US for this reason.
Some people believe anti-Americanism is rooted in envy as much as in any legitimate grievance; these people claim that similar feelings have been held towards every other nation that has gained prominence over its contemporaries. Examples include Spain (Black Legend), Britain, Imperial China, and the Roman Empire.
For this reason, criticism of America does not necessarily fall into the category of xenophobia. However, many people have specific criticisms of the United States, which are explained below.
American economic philosophy
America is usually perceived as having a free market economy with a strong focus on competitive markets, privatization, and self-sufficiency, based in part on individualism. Some opponents, for example socialists, believe American capitalism is a deeply flawed system that creates massive inequalities. They accuse America of perpetuating and promoting this economic system across the globe, and fighting against the forces of socialism, Marxism, and communism. During the Cold War this was often a primary criticism of the United States. Earlier, workers protested the industrial methods of Taylorism which were seen as dehumanizing. America-based multinationals like United Fruit are felt to use the strength of the American government to unfairly trade with small countries, that end as banana republics. The European Parliament has accused American firms of using the Echelon spy network to outbid European competitors.
American firms are seen as imposing a uniform way-of-life around the world. The term cocacolonization is sometimes used to describe this, because of the beverage sold by the Coca-Cola Company worldwide. Fast-food franchises like McDonalds, Burger King, supermarkets and malls are seen as symbols of the American way of life substituting the traditional local businesses. However, consumers (especially teenagers) often have accepted the American products happily. Anti-Americanism is sometimes used in promoting alternative products like Mecca-Cola.
However, not all criticism of American economic philosophy is rooted in support for Marxism/socialism/communism. Some see America's high level of military spending as government support for a large sector of the U.S. economy. Cf. also below international trade and trade embargoes.
American domestic policy
In some countries, particularly in Europe, American retention of capital punishment contributes to the general view that the United States continued to engage in barbarous practices, which is perceived as a contradiction to America's insistence on human rights. Europeans often profess being shocked by the widespread popular support the death penalty continues to have in the United States, where as of May 2004 all but 12 U.S. states (as well as all U.S. territories, such as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico) have the death penalty. A minority of American states allows people under 18 years old to be sentenced to death for capital crimes — something allowed in only a handful of the world's countries.
All European countries except Belarus have adopted the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which abolishes capital punishment during peacetime. Japan is generally considered the only industrialized nation with a good human rights record that retains capital punishment.
Foreigners, especially Europeans, are often perplexed by America's liberal laws on gun ownership, and interpret this, along with the relatively high rates of murder and violent crime, plus the often violent content of American films and television programs, as meaning that American society had widespread tolerance and acceptance of violence. Gun politics are vigorously debated in the United States by both gun-rights advocates like the National Rifle Association and gun-control advocates such as James Brady or Michael Moore.
The War on Drugs is also considered an oppressive activity by many who are socially liberal, both within and outside of the United States. It has resulted in a large prison population, much of it composed of nonviolent drug offenders, who are often economically lower-class. A significant minority of the American population views the War on Drugs as a second Prohibition. It has also resulted in damaging international pressure and intervention directed against other countries involved in the drug trade, such as Colombia.
Some criticize the United States for the low rates of women with important political positions, for example, in the 108th United States Congress only 14 percent of congressmen were women. Several countries have twice these rates (Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, the Netherlands) and some have three times the percentage of women in legislative assemblies (Sweden, 42 percent). The U.S. figures are far above the world average, and higher than some other industrialized countries, notably those with a typically patriarchal culture (Italy, nine percent; Japan, two percent).
All of this contributes to the perceived image of some that the United States was generally more "backwards" and "regressive" than other First World nations, in the sense that it kept old attitudes and values alive which are largely being outphased in Europe and elsewhere.
American foreign policy
US foreign policy has often led to anti-American sentiments, and some American commentators use the term anti-Americanism to denote opposition to US foreign policy. See opposition to US foreign policy
Free speech in America
American free speech law has become an international issue ever since the rise of the Internet as a medium of communication. This is because Internet service providers based in the United States can be used to spred messages to other countries where these are banned for moral, religious or political reasons. As for the U.S. perspective, many Americans dislike attempts by other jurisdictions to extend their personal jurisdiction to American defendants whose alleged defamatory speech acts occurred over the Internet and were not targeted only towards those jurisdictions.
Religion and America
Religion, especially in its more conservative or fundamentalist forms, is stronger in America than in much of the rest of the Western world. People who fear or dislike religious extremism, conservatism, or religion in general may have anti-American attitudes as a result.
Some resent hearing Americans preach a perceived American moral superiority over the rest of the world. They reject the vision of American leaders who consider the role of the United States of America to be responsible for defending the world from "Evil," and strongly disapprove of such initiatives as "Project for the New American Century." Further concern is generated by the US Congress's adoption of a day of prayer for the protection of America and its soldiers against terrorism. These policies question the separation of church and state, causing some to view Bush as leading a religious crusade. Proponents of separation of church and state cite evidence of this hypocritical behavior over the years, such as the national motto In God We Trust or the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, and would favor a more rigid separation.
During the Clinton administration, the United States government repeatedly alleged that some of its European allies, such as France and Germany, did not respect freedom of religion by unfairly discriminating against some minority religions, such as the Church of Scientology, and pressured the government of those countries to adopt different rules. Those countries consider that some of these religions are not bona fide religions, but rather cults with criminal activities; in those countries, the Church of Scientology is widely considered a mafia-like organization practicing extortion from its members and influence peddling with politicians. The American pressures were widely criticized in Europe as unwarranted and uninformed meddling of the American government into the internal affairs of independent countries. Since the coming of the Bush administration, American criticism on those issues has largely receded.
In contrast, people from cultures that have still stronger religious beliefs, Islamic cultures in particular, find offensive the notion of a country of religious tolerance and diversity, with an official separation of church and state.
Worldwide, some in the Catholic Church consider American popular culture opposed to Catholic values. Further, the preaching of religious ideologies founded in the United States, such as Christian Fundamentalism, Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism in traditionally Catholic lands add weight to these feelings.
Perceived American hypocrisy
US politicians and industrial leaders frequently cite principles such as free trade, free speech and democracy, which are held to be universally beneficial; but in practice their actions can sometimes be interpreted as contradicting these principles.
English language
The prominence of English language around the world is seen as a mark of cultural colonization by Americans (with other countries of the Anglosphere playing a role). English is used for communication among people of different languages (and even sometimes among people of the same language). Thus, native English speakers do not have to learn other languages, saving effort and expense, and those who can't speak English are disadvantaged no matter how qualified they are otherwise. The issue of whether English should become the sole official language of the European Union raises vocal opposition, since it is spoken natively only by an eighth of Europeans in the EU; a majority of Europeans do not speak English at all, but it is the most widely taught second language in the EU. There are those who feel that electing English would mean imposing the American domination on a part of the European identity.
In Wikipedia itself, the followers of Enciclopedia Libre chose to work independently of the Spanish language Wikipedia since they perceived that English language Wikipedia was given unfair preponderance.
American popular culture
Popular culture -- contemporary music, films, books, advertising, web sites and other computer-based media, and especially television -- is America's most visible and one of its most pervasive exports. There is an enormous American "trade surplus" in cultural matters. In countries without strong cultural protection laws, American music, films, and television programs appear far more frequently than other countries' music, films, and television programs appear in the United States. The home-grown film industries in at least some countries (such as Australia) were bought out and closed down by American interests. The United States has a history of using "free trade" negotiations to open up foreign markets to its cultural products. Many in the US, as well as non-Americans, fear the growing Americanization of the world.
In many countries, such media carry a large body of material that embodies values considerably different from those of much of the viewing public. Some find that most American dramatic narratives were overly violent, hypocritical about sex (combining prudery and exploitation), and portrayed simplistic attitudes to good and evil.
Another concern is the sheer volume of American cultural export, irrespective of any specific concerns with content, which has profound homogenizing effects on societies, limiting opportunities for diverse and original perspectives. Many contend that the market for films and television programs is an uneven playing field; for instance, foreign movies are less frequently imported into the US for show in major theater circuits than imports are shown in other Western countries. Some Americans answer that this was a sign of the high quality of American movies with respect to movies from other countries, and that Americans are not interested in seeing unknown foreign actors in movies, or movies shot in a foreign language. Such explanations are often considered a sign of arrogance, exceptionalism and provincialism on the part of the United States.
Meanwhile, other societies, notably Islamic societies see popular Western culture, and popular American culture above all, as propaganda for a secular, sexually, and socially libertine society. As such, they also object to American values portrayed in popular culture. In other societies some find American culture to be too prudish.
Some non-Americans see trade barriers as a means of protecting their cultures, and view America's lobbying to remove them as insensitivity to this and as cultural imperialism. Many believe that America's political and business establishment viewed culture as a commodity to be freely traded just like any other.
At least in part because popular culture products have become such a significant export industry for the United States, the United States has been steadily increasing the restrictiveness of its copyright laws to help support its entertainment industry at the expense of several previously protected rights. Examples include enforcing the use of DVD region coding to restrict the import of DVDs from foreign markets (permitted by "first sale" doctrine) or the use of "copy prevention" techniques on compact discs to prevent music from being converted to other formats for use by the CD's owner. There has been significant pressure on other nations to do likewise, to such an extent that in January 2002 the U.S. imposed punitive economic sanctions on Ukraine because they failed to pass stricter domestic copyright laws. China, on the other hand, continued to retain most-favored-nation trading status despite being widely recognized as the largest center of intellectual property violation in the world. See also: WIPO, Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
In the summer of 2004, the German franchises of the Subway sandwich chain, in co-promotion with the film Super Size Me, included tray liners with an image of a fat Statue of Liberty, and the caption, "Warum sind die Amis so fett?" ("Why are Americans so fat?") The implication was that Americans are, in general, overweight because they eat too much fast food.
Perceived American arrogance
The American media, educational system, and politicians often tout the real or supposed merits of their country as unique. Although in American debate other nations are often held up by various groups as better embodying certain values the Americans cherish, cultures or lifestyles of other countries are also often derided, and non-Americans often perceive American attitudes on this point as arrogant.
One recent instance was the response in U.S. media opinion forums to certain nations' strong opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Harshly critical words in opinion pieces appearing even in first class U.S. media, primarily directed against France and the French president Jacques Chirac, was by many foreign observers perceived as a joint campaign by the US government and the US mass media to express aggressive attitudes, biased reporting, and counterfactual hate speech against those nations whose public opinions voiced their opposition to the proposed war and against their governments. [1] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/899082/posts [2] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6005 This influenced the perception of American media, and Americans, in allied countries, including those that were not the subject of such criticism. The emphasis on freedom of the press, perceived to be frequently expressed by Americans as a guarantee for a working democracy, seemed by foreign observers not to be met by the factual conditions. In fact, however, not only did many non-mainstream media outlets strongly and consistently oppose the war, but America's leading newspaper, the New York Times, editorialized strongly against going to war right up to its onset.
The previous year, at the height of the general election campaigns in allied Germany, chancellor Gerhard Schröder was the first major European leader to warn against attacking Iraq, vowing that if he was to be re-elected, no Germans would participate, with or without a UN Security Council mandate; after which the American government unabashedly expressed their support for the opposition. When the German minister of justice Herta Däubler-Gmelin argued in an election speech that Bush was distracting from domestic concerns by focusing on foreign policy, she reportedly remarked (a distortion of what she actually said) that that was a strategy Germans knew from the times of Adolf Hitler, a comparison observers on both sides of the Atlantic considered inflammatory, the U.S. government pushed for her removal from office. After the elections, the U.S. requested that Germany participate in the war in Iraq, which was perceived by many as in violation of Germany's constitution's prohibition against wars of aggression (Article 26), although whether this war constituted aggression is disputed. As this stipulation was created by the Allied victors after World War II, and as the U.S. was perceived as having been its leading proponent, the supposed change in position and perceived disrespect for an allied democracy's constitution and election process caused some consternation in Germany. Public opinion in one of the more pro-American nations of the world thus shifted somewhat in an anti-American direction.
Americans are often perceived as astonishingly proud of their standard of living, compared to other western countries; of their country's achievements in the fields of international science and business; and for their allegiance to at least some of the ideals of the founders of the country, now often taken for granted in most of the industrialized world, such as freedom and equal justice under the law. Some say that American patriotism was the first patriotism founded on a set of political ideals, rather than on nationalism or ethnicity, although the early Napoleonic era is a challenger on this point. Patriotism in the US often appears offensively arrogant to people from the rest of the world. For example, public persons in America frequently assert America being "the greatest nation that has ever existed on the face of the Earth"; such superlatives may be understood as either diminishing and disparaging the standing of other nations, or as an ignorance that is hard to believe from prominent Americans. While patriotism and nationalism to different degrees exist all throughout the world, no other nation has been as successful, through the modern mass media, in the wholesale export of this view that easily is perceived as less than flattering by international consumers of CNN and Hollywood motion picture productions.
Perceived American ignorance
Many, especially in Europe and Canada, contend that the American public are generally ignorant of international issues and lack historical, geographical, and cultural knowledge of the world outside of the United States. A 2002 study http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/highlights.html made for National Geographic showed that "US young adults are lagging" in their geographical knowledge compared to young adults in other developed countries. Many contend that such ignorance is reinforced by the Americentrist coverage of American media, and by the emphasis given in America's educational system and media to American issues and the benefits of living in America, while supposedly failing to mention that many of these benefits exist in all modern democratic countries. Few Americans hold passports and travel abroad in comparison to their European counterparts. It is argued that international travel is too expensive and inconvenient for most Americans and that someone vacationing within the borders of the United States can experience just as much diversity of climate and terrain as elsewhere. Some non-Americans contend that while this is true, it means that Americans are not exposed to international culture in the same way as people of some other nationalities. The vast majority of Americans are monolingual, while many Europeans speak one or two more languages in addition to their mother tongue, and many Japanese have at least a fundamental knowledge of English. This is another factor that makes outsiders see Americans as ignorant. It has also been reported that American tourists behave disrespectfully, and as customers seem too demanding, no doubt following the proverb "the customer is always right."
America and the environment
The American way of life is regarded by environmentalists as wasteful and environmentally irresponsible. Americans have the highest per-capita consumption of resources and energy in the world, and the fact that the U.S. government does not take decisive action to curb this use creates hostility. For instance, statistics show that the four percent of the world's population that live within the United States creates 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, and allegedly overutilize fuel-inefficient automobiles. Critics point out that the United States uses significant more resources per capita than even other industrialized countries who nonetheless maintain a similarly high standard of living.
In reply to these allegations it is said that the United States does have stringent environmental laws which, unlike those in many countries, are actually enforced; that America itself produces a great many of the items it consumes, and that America pays for the resources it imports. Some Americans also point out that the United States is one of the world's leaders in protecting environmental areas with its National Park Service, and in fact the country invented the concept of a national park.
In 1997, the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 aganist ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, declining to sign a protocol that "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States" and would not impose similar binding targets for limiting or reducing greenhouse gases on developing nations such as the People's Republic of China (second in emissions), which are presently exempted. (The Protocol has been signed and will be ratified by all sizeable economic powers except the USA and Australia.) This refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is often quoted as an example of America's irresponsibility in this area.
American values
Although it's questionable to what degree non-Westerners understand American values as they are understood in the United States, some critics of America point to the multicultural society as a sign of danger and degeneration that could spread and infest other societies. America is often regarded as an "immigrant country", whose lack of apartheid some critiques disdain as "race-mixing". Third Reich critiques of America fall under this category; the U.S. was a portrayed as a nightmare of miscegenation, riddled with Africans, Asians, and Jews. Radical Islam has also been interpreted as opposing American-style religious tolerance, in which Muslims and non-Muslims are not sufficiently separated.
By country
In Spain
Anti-Americanism in Spain started with the Spanish-American War. The sinking of USS Maine was seen as an accident or even provoked to provide an excuse for the war. Spanish press promoted the view that America was a "land of lard sellers", no match for Spanish caballeros. The war ended with the Spanish defeat and the transfer of the last remains of the Spanish Empire.
During the Second World War, the government of General Franco supported the Axis and was opposed to Jews and Freemasons. However as the Axis was losing, the Spanish orientation changed to neutrality and later friendship with America on the basis of common anti-Communism. However, war-ruined Spain was not admitted to the Marshall Plan. The film censure authorized the comedy Bienvenido Míster Marshall that expressed the mixed feelings of admiration, fear, and disappointment of Spaniards towards America. The film has become a common place of Spanish anti-Americanism.
During the 60s and the 70s, the democratic opposition to the dictatorship was often leftist and viewed America as a supporter of Franco. The solidarity with the revolutionary movements in Spanish America also contributed to anti-Americanism.
In spite of a current of vocal disparage of America, Spaniards voted for entering NATO and are fond of many American products.
During the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s, the support given by the government of José María Aznar to Bush policies has reawaken anti-American feelings among those opposed to the war.
In Canada
In Canada, Anti-American sentiment first developed during the American Revolution. French Canadians felt that the mainly Protestant thirteen colonies would never recognize French culture and Catholic religion, and Aboriginal groups feared the loss of the protection they had been granted through treaties with Britain. When the rebelling colonies tried to invade Quebec and "liberate" their neighbors by force, many Canadians began to think Americans were arrogant, violent, and dangerous. These feelings were only escalated by the sudden migration of thousands of British Loyalists from the thirteen colonies.
During the War of 1812, Canadians' fears were suddenly realized when an American force invaded Upper Canada. Many people died, and to this day many Canadians feel the Americans really lost the war, but are too proud to admit they could ever lose to Canada (even though the US was fighting against Britain, and Canada as a distinct identity did not exist).
In fact, the American threat was one of the reasons that Canada was formed in 1867. After many attacks against Canada by the Fenian Brotherhood stationed in the US, and the expansion of the US westwards, Canadian and British authorities felt their land was threatened. These fears were not unfounded as the American government was pursuing a program of Manifest Destiny, and wished to spread their democratic values to their neighbors to the north. Since Confederation, Canadians have never forgotten the American threat to Canadian culture.
A feeling of companionship with the US arose during World War I and World War II that brought Canada and the US closer together politically and economically. The formation of NATO, NORAD, and NAFTA cemented this relationship.
Today, few Canadians would consider themselves "Anti-American", but more might call themselves anti-American-government, although Canadians jokingly refer to the supposed ignorance of Americans about foreign culture, especially Canada. Canadians generally have more progressive attitudes than most Americans, so it is little surprise that Canadians find American views on the welfare state, feminism, abortion, capital punishment, relations with Cuba, the environment, same-sex rights, the war on drugs, immigration, the Star Wars program, and the war in Iraq as either extremely conservative, or an overreaction.
In the U.S.
Many of the criticisms that form the core of world-wide anti-Americanism are shared by a significant portion of the U.S. population itself (to varying degrees and over specific issues). There is a history in the U.S. of conservatives charging liberals of holding anti-American views. At times, the debate between conservatism and liberalism has lead to serious confrontation, such as happened during the era of McCarthyism and perhaps best typified by the violence of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
In Brazil
Anti-Americanism in Brazil started around 1964 when many people blamed the USA for the military coup d'etat that happened in that year. As in Spain under Franco, a large part of the opposition to the dictatorship in Brazil was formed by leftists (some of them with strong relations to Cuba).
The Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal is nowadays one of the major reasons for the current Anti-Americanism as many Brazilians, ignoring potential economical beneficts for Brazil that could come with this proposal, see it as an evidence of American imperialism which supposedly wants to unindustrialize Brazil.
The International Monetary Fund's so-called "Conditionalities" and the loan interests that have to be paid afterwards also reinforces the Anti-Americanism in Brazil due to the popular conception that the IMF is controlled by the United States and used by them to retard the development of poorer countries.
In the early 2000s, there was a rumour (mostly on the Internet) in Brazil that American schools were teaching that the Amazon Rainforest would be converted into an internationally administrated region. This rumour was proved unfounded later, but many people still believe it is part of an American plan to dominate the region.
Many Brazilians (like several other Latin Americans) also tend to dislike the use of the words "American" and "America" to refer respectively to the US-born people and to the USA (as a country). They prefer the words "Estadunidense" (meaning "Unitedstatesian") and "Norte-Americano" (meaning North American) when referring to a person born in the United States; and the name "Estados Unidos" (meaning United States) for referring to the USA.
See also
References
- Anti-Americanism by Jean-Francois Revel
-
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
- Anti-Americanism by Paul Hollander
- Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies by Ian Buruma, Avishai Margalit
External links
- After the attacks: America's new cold war http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4265809,00.html by Anatol Lieven, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC
- The BBC: BNP questioned over US fund-raising http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1524000/1524014.stm
- Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime minister, explores the motives of the Islamic extremists hatred of the West and the U.S. http://www.netanyahu.org/statofforisp.html
- Guardian article on The Great Divide between Europe and the United States http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,468151,00.html
- Tony Judt about "The Paradox of American Power" http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=15632
- Newsweek article explaining Anti-Americanism through history http://www.msnbc.com/news/885222.asp?0cv=KA01&cp1=1
- CBC News special: How do the world's nations relate to the new American Empire? http://www.cbc.ca/news/america/
- Genocide Watch: 8 Stages of Genocide http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages.htm
- Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973 http://www.fas.org/irp/world/chile/allende.htm
- Views of U.S. Plummet http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=18586
- Pew Research Center : A Year After Iraq War http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=206
- Story and image of the fat Statue of Liberty accompanying Subway sandwiches in Germany http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/subwayad.asp
- The historical, cultural, and economic roots of anti-Americanism http://samvak.tripod.com/pp112.html
- Two wise books by French authors take a critical look at France's tradition of America-bashing and try to explain its persistence http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030301fareviewessay10345/walter-russell-mead/why
-do-they-hate-us-two-books-take-aim-at-french-anti-americanism.html
Last updated: 04-25-2005 03:06:01