Subject:
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Re: A small rant...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 18 Jul 2003 01:38:00 GMT
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Viewed:
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199 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Stefan Garcia wrote:
¦ The world has hated and distrusted Americans for a lot longer than 2 years.
I disagree with you here. The world doesn’t necessarily “hate” the US, and even
the distrust you mention is not universal.
I suppose you won’t find hard to understand that the vast majority of
non-american citizens don’t exactly develop their own form of “americanism”,
right? Well, that’s much in the same way that hard-core anti-americanism is only
true when it refers to those whose lives are made worse as a result of actions
perceived as american; nothing awkward in there, the extremes are defined by
those who are themselves americans and those who “can’t be (insert name here)
because of America”.
If anything, the RotW has a very complex love AND hate relationship with America
- it’s like a relative who lives far away, sometimes on the paper for being a
hero, some others because he behaved like a spoiled brat. And don’t pretend
Americans don’t have that approach to foreign countries as well, that would not
be true: IIRC, you tossed the british out because they were in your home and
telling you what to do... now transpose to current times this line of reasoning,
and voilá.
Never mind pure rhetoric that sometimes makes the headlines - the USA have been
painted the devil by many in the past, for all kind of reasons, but only a tiny,
tiny portion of those has ever felt the reasons were strong enough to hate the
guts of every living american. Please note that I’m deliberately excluding
Anti-globalization protestors and the like, since that has turned into folklore
by now.
As whether GW2 is or not a reason to hate, that is something only time will
tell. I venture it is not, but that it will be a reason for mistrust in years to
come, as far as foreign policy is concerned.
Now, as an exercise, check the Tour de France - Lance Armstrong has had the same
(high) level of support from the locals he always enjoyed, despite all the
diplomatic rows in the recent past... that adds to my point: when it comes to
the human, who cares what flag he salutes? Real xenophobia (1) is a lot rarer
than one might expect, which is “A Good Thing™” given that boundaries did not
come painted in the Earth from the beginning.
Pedro
(foreigner, who drinks Coke without facing ethic dilemmas :-)
(1) - as opposed to “circumstantial xenophobia” (ie, “Freedom Fries”), or even
racist behaviour (ie, Apartheid).
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: A small rant...
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| (...) Glad to be here! :^p (...) It was necessary to protect the chain of command, remember. They didn't know if there'd be a follow-up attack of some sort. (...) The world has hated and distrusted Americans for a lot longer than 2 years. (...) You (...) (21 years ago, 18-Jul-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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