Solomonia: European Ignorance the Real Source of Anti-Americanism

Monday, September 15, 2008

European Ignorance the Real Source of Anti-Americanism

Mike Nesmith: "You are the dummy, dummy!"
Peter Tork: "I'm the dummy, Micky. I'm always the dummy!"

-Head

Actually, the real dummies are those anti-American Europeans, as anyone not blinded by that horrid "Oh please don't hate me because I'm an American" self-hate so many people seem to suffer from. A nice run-down at PJM: Anti-Americanism in Europe Fueled by Ignorance

More than 50 percent of Britons believe that polygamy is legal in the United States; in fact, it is illegal in all 50 states. Almost one-third of Britons believe that Americans who have not paid their hospital fees or insurance premiums are not entitled to emergency medical care; in fact, such treatment must be provided by law.

Seventy percent of Britons think the United States has done a worse job than the European Union in reducing carbon emissions since 2000; in fact, America's rate of growth of carbon emissions has decreased by almost ten percent since 2000, while that of the EU has increased by 2.3 percent.

Eighty percent of Britons believe that "from 1973 to 1990, the United States sold Saddam Hussein more than a quarter of his weapons." In fact, the United States sold just 0.46 percent of Saddam's arsenal to him; Russia, France, and China supplied 57 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent, respectively.

The majority of Britons believe that since the Second World War, the United States has more often sided with non-Muslims than with Muslims. In fact, in 11 out of 12 major conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims, Muslims and secular forces, or Arabs and non-Arabs, the United States has sided with Muslims and/or Arabs...

My experience has certainly been in line with the article's sub-head: "Those who know the least about America seem to hate it the most." They tend to like to trumpet their supposed superiority in geography -- as though being able to locate Minnesota on a map grants one some special insight into American political thought. Most of the anti-Americanism I've encountered has been born of a certain childish ignorance combined with a foot-stomping petulance that tries to manipulate through insults, all fed by an establishment leftist European press.

Posted by Solomon at 2:55 PM on Monday, Sep 15, 2008 | Comments (3)
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3 Comments

#1 Kit | September 17, 2008 3:55 AM

What a strange and somewhat convoluted use of statistics;

Does the USA have polygamous communities living unchallenged within its bounds?

Comparing the carbon emissions of a single fully developed country to a group of 27 member states, some of which aren't even First World.
Also, was the distinction "rate of growth of carbon emissions" the only statement at which the USA could get attach the word DECREASED to?

The USA was responsible for 0.46% of Iraq's weapons by weight perhaps. Was probably just the guidance systems, chemistry instructions and warranty cards though...

USA on the side of Muslims since WWII ! Umm... except that whole period from Then until Now where they have sanctioned, invaded and occupied Muslim states not to mention they supported and sold weapons and technology to Israel in order to crush the Muslim citizens since very shortly after 1948...

Some quite twisted number-smithing going on here.

#2 Eddie | September 17, 2008 1:31 PM

Kitty,

If you like statistics, how about statistics on the percent of Western European population that is Muslim...

- 10% in France
- 2.5% in the UK - Londons 7/7 attacks thanks to wahabbist imams
- 3.0% in Sweden
- 3.02% in Denmark
- 5.4% in the Netherlands - ask Theo Van Goghs survivors

Sounds like an invasion.

What percent of the population in Saudi Arabia is non-Muslim?

Polygamous communities in the UK - must be unchallenged due to "cultural sensitivity".

Tell us about China's "carbon footprint". It's getting bigger every day with it's population 1 billion +.

Israel has weapons to defend itself and punish attackers.

BTW Kitty, if the US or India (almost had a nuke war between itself and Muslim Pakistan) or Israel suffer a nuke attack, the "holy" cities of Mecca/Makkah, Medina and Qom will be destroyed in retaliation.

Kitty, do you know of Islamofascists love Makka more than they hate Israel?

Nappy-headed Ho' | September 17, 2008 6:33 PM

Last night, Tavis Smiley interviewed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who's got a new book Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism, a critique of the Left's totalitarian tendencies and their reflexive anti-Americanism.

Here's the last paragraph of Adam Kirsch's review in the New York Sun (Sigh.):

Mr. Lévy offers the best summary I have seen of that worldview, which can be glimpsed in the works of many influential left-wing philosophers and journalists. "We are in a world in which, on the one hand, we have the United States, its English poodle, its Israeli lackey — a three-headed gorgon that commits all the sins in the world — and, on the other side, all those who, no matter what their crimes, their ideology, their treatment of their own minorities, their internal policies, their anti-Semitism and their racism, their disdain for women and homosexuals, their lack of press freedom and of any freedom whatsoever, are challenging the former." After reading Left in Dark Times, it is impossible to deny that the left, whatever its past glories — and Mr. Lévy remembers them all, from the Dreyfus affair to the events of 1968 — is now a danger to truly liberal values. A danger, despite its decrepitude: for as Mr. Lévy says, "even when they're not in charge of anything, ideas are what, for better or worse, drive, and allow us to change, the world."