"Anti-Americanism is really incoherent". Discuss.

[Tooting Carmen]

Anti-Americanism (and I have been guilty of it myself at times) is really incoherent. Leftists criticise the US for its real or putative racism; rightists criticise the US for it being too multiethnic and based on the principal that "anyone can become American". Leftists criticise the US for its real or putative social, sexual and religious conservatism; rightists criticise the US for its supposed crassness and vulgarity. Leftists criticise the US for it being putatively the vanguard of extreme free-market capitalism (in truth, Britain is in some ways actually more 'extreme' than the US - the latter still has government-owned airports, railways and utilities, unlike the former); rightists criticise the US for it being putatively the vanguard of 'political correctness'. The US is damned both for its imperialistic politics AND for its isolationist culture, where they are accused of wanting to dominate countries they know little about.

I will admit that, as a linguist and a firm believer in linguistic diversity myself, I do deplore the fact that relatively few (White and Black) Americans speak foreign languages, and that the US has spearheaded the attempt to force English down everyone else's throats. Nevertheless, even here some nuance and balance is required. The truth is that Britain (a) has been at least equally culpable for forcing English down everyone else's throats as has the US - let us not forget how big the British Empire was and (b) is nowadays IMO a lot less accomodating towards foreign languages than the US is. Put simply, multilingual signs, menus, adverts and timetables are far more common in New York and Miami than in London and Birmingham, starting with the airports. Furthermore, when the French (and to a much smaller scale some other nations, like the Russians or Spaniards) complain about English-language imperialism and enact legislation to 'protect' their own languages, let's face it: this is just pure hypocrisy and jealousy - they are annoyed that English was just a tad more successful in taking over other countries than their own languages have been.

[The Lawspeaker]

My criticism of the U.S is that it a nation that has abandoned everything it supposedly stood for while wrapping itself in a Made in China Stars and Stripes while taking a big dump on their lofty ideals and wiping their arse with those documents that outlined and codified those ideals. It could have been something but that time is gone.. alas...and I actually think that Europe should try to take over that mantle. Let us become that Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Everything America could have been.

[Tooting Carmen]

My criticism of the U.S is that it a nation that has abandoned everything it supposedly stood for while wrapping itself in a Made in China Stars and Stripes while taking a big dump on their lofty ideals and wiping their arse with those documents that outlined and codified those ideals. It could have been something but that time is gone.. alas...and I actually think that Europe should try to take over that mantle. Let us become that Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Everything America could have been.

But to a large extent that surely gets things the wrong way round? It was Europeans who wanted to live in freedom who therefore fled to the US and wanted to get away from the old ways of the Continent. It has been precisely the deformities of Europe - feudalism, monarchy, Communism, Fascism - that drove millions to the US, not the opposite.

[KMack]

[KMack]

I can link African message forums where the travel section is dominated with how in the hell do I get to USA/Canada or XYZ Euro country.

[Tooting Carmen]

Which countries were surveyed?

[Tooting Carmen]

I can link African message forums where the travel section is dominated with how in the hell do I get to USA/Canada or XYZ Euro country.

No doubt. That said, I am not sure how representative they are of African countries and peoples as a whole, given that Internet coverage would still be relatively low there.

[JosephK]

Which countries were surveyed?

Mexico, I'd guess.

[KMack]

Which countries were surveyed?

https://news.gallup.com/poll/245255/...e-migrate.aspx

[KMack]

Mexico, I'd guess.

Not including border apprehensions, USA deported 267,000 people from the interior last year, the majority to Mexico.