How the USA is regarded from the rest of the world

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Despite whatever few faults Jefferson may have had he was still a brilliant man and that should stand on its own merit.
For whatever it's worth it's been hypothesized that he may have been on the spectrum, too.

America is a big place. Many of my favourite public figures are from America, and many of my least favourite public figures are also from America.

From an outside perspective, America is dangerous. It is the only superpower in the world, and it acts like it, too. If there is one thing that irritates me about the American people, it is that they give up on politics too easily. Don't they understand that they can at least be marginally influential in how the world's only superpower behaves? As the American public gives up on politics more and more, America's policies will become more and more detached from public opinion. That means that we could end up with the world's only superpower effectively not being a democracy at all. Scary stuff.

There is a strong tradition of anti-Americanism in New Zealand, but a lot of it is irrational and does not distinguish between the government and the people. At the moment, it's flaring up particularly badly because of the US attempting to extradite Kim Dotcom.

I think the sentence "Most disappointing superpower ever" sums it up nicely.

Let's get back to selling Texas. (Note, the Mexicans may have claim under international theft provisions.) But, seriously are there any rational bids to buy Texas out there. Some of us here in the colonies might be amenable for the right price.

Nations do not exist to satisfy the desires of the people of other nations. They exist and evolve according to the choices made by their people and events that befall their people.

The U.S. has fallen short of its highest visions and ideals. Just like every other nation or empire that h as ever existed.

Athens fell short of its great intellectual promise as did Alexandria. Rome fell short of its most glorious visions of itself.

All nations and empires as well as all people will fall short of their potential and aspirations.

So why single out the U.S.?

ruveyn

Disappointing in what sense? Duration?

The U.S. holds the world's record for duration of a republic under the same constitution.

ruveyn

Perhaps but it's only been a superpower since WW2.

That is just a happenstance. Prior to WW2 the U.S. was not a superpower. Being a superpower is not a reward for virtue, but curse of circumstance.

ruveyn

and that attitude is part of the problem.

in the modern world no country stands alone and when one decides everyone else can simply sod it it reflects very badly on the country as a whole.

Do you really think that Unitedsteatseans give a rats a** about what Europeans think of them? I have news for you. They don't.

Unitedsteaseans do not give a damn.

If we prosper the world will hate us out of envy. If we fail the world will hate us because we failed. The world will hate us no matter what happens.

ruveyn

I can't disagree. But it's a short duration. Other than that, as superpowers go ... the US didn't do too badly at all with it, in my books. For most of that period, it was a very progressive era. People forget quickly.

Nonsense. The people who really hate America don't do so out of jealousy. They do it because you kill them.

I can see how the stance of the US not owing anything to other countries, or having to do anything for them, is reasonable. But what do you think of the cases where the US has it's progress at the expense of other countries

Last edited by Shatbat on 02 Jul 2012, 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Could at least part of the reason we're a big bad superpower be that we were caught un-prepared to go over to EUROPE to fight twice in a 25 year period?
I think Ruveyn hit the nail on the head: It doesn't matter what we do we'll be the bad guy.
Say what you want but in some cases it's pretty much a simple case of envy.

The US military is about the only enviable thing you have, and to most countries outside of the US, China, North Korea, Iran, etc, military is not the item used to judge success. For the most part, the rest of the world just wants powers like the US to leave them alone. The US was a far greater nation when it was isolationist and true to its origins, and not allowing chickenhawks in bed with big business to dictate foreign policy