Will: Quarantine Trump

[Dill]

(05-06-2017, 08:25 PM)hollodero Wrote: Well ok, that is basically true. But I think you need to put that in context. We admire american technology, american culture, we more or less exclusively listen to your music, watch your films and TV series. We "admire" your militaristic strength, it gives us a feeling of being protected by a big brother. We admire american lifestyle, even if we refute certain aspects of it. The admiration I meant goes deeper than the critizism on the surface, towards American people.
And don't ask what we think of other folk... usually even way harsher things then the ones you mentioned with some valid reason. At least you don't eat frogs or bang our women or take our jobs or...

But words are words, you might not feel admired and have understandable reason for that. To me this was the least important aspect of my response.

Hollo, part of the American instinct that leans our foreign policy to the right is that YOU ALL hate us for no good reason. You are jealous of our freedom or because we have worked hard to earn what we have. And you (well, mainly the French) haven't thanked us enough for ridding the world of Nazi's and giving your country back and  fixing Europe. This hatred-of-us is monolithic, ungrounded, universal and so unworthy of response--other than our fantasies about how elite and cultured you snobs all think you are.

But it helps our politicians simplify foreign policy proposals and win votes. Why do we need to listen to haters when "suggesting" to our European friends how they should arrange their alliances and trade deals?  Why would we consider European healthcare policies or learn automotive engineering from people who work less than 40 hrs a week, take month-long vacations, and don't appreciate our entrepreneurial genius? We can be pretty sure our culture is really  better than yours and we know we are doing good all round the world when we see others jealous of our excellence.

However, you are undermining this simplifying and unifying instinct with your nuance and considered appreciation of those aspects our culture we ourselves admire, and your argument implicitly establishes this standard for us as well.  Which is pretty unfair if you think about it, since you all tend to know more about us than we know about you.  And you cap it off by explaining how the admiration goes deeper, to the people themselves, and this is not indiscriminate for there are others you manifestly do not admire.  I finished your post unable to dismiss Austrians as jealous haters who don't really understand us. 

Now it might seem counter-intuitive, but positive and balanced evaluations of Americans such as yours might weaken our national security were they to spread and, god forbid, destroy our traditional stereotypes of the "Other"--those non-Americans out there. Americans themselves might begin demanding more information about the peoples and countries we are meddling with before supporting our national efforts to re-arrange other parts of the world. What if a lot of "those people" actually like us and our culture? What if they think they have same enemies as we do and see themselves as on our side in whatever global battles we are fighting, military or economic.  This would be less alarming in regards to Europe, but positively destructive of our foreign policy in the Middle East and Asia were Americans, as a group, to begin viewing "enemies" in those regions with similar caution and nuance.  I shudder to think the consequences if a Syrian or Chinese poster popped up here  talking about his favorite American rap artist and how great the McDonald's Big Breakfast is.

So I must ask you to dial back the informed nuance a bit on future posts, Hollo. Let's contain it on this forum. On the next thread maybe criticize us for our guns and crime rate or something. We like a violent game called football--maybe that means our culture is more ready to violence? Our coffee is pretty watery, isn't it?