Why does anti-Americanism seem to be more common in America than elsewhere?

I am completely opposed to the term anti-Americanism. What possible purpose does it serve other than to stifle unpopular opinion?

What does that term mean for you?

Because if anybody knew America better, it will be Americans themselves. They are capable of self-reflection and reflect they do.

Let me begin by saying that the reality of how America is perceived domestically and abroad is far, far more complex than the question implies. But without wading into that, I’ll just observe the following:

Most of the world lives in poverty. America, especially the America portrayed on the screen, looks incredibly rich. And along with that goes the ideal of equal opportunity. The idea is out there that if you can just get your foot in the door in America, then your hard work can open the door to all these material marvels. It just looks very easy to get rich in America. That has incredible appeal to someone who sees no hope of ever getting out of material misery in their country.

But Americans are not on the outside looking in. The consumption-based culture doesn’t look so pretty up close. Some—not all, by any means—feel that the material prosperity in America has been gained at the expense of other important values: family cohesion, social solidarity, simplicity, calm, to name a few. There can be a sense of losing touch with essential parts of our humanity for the privilege of feeding at the trough. Plus, few have experienced grinding poverty, so the abundance of all this stuff is less dazzling.

Not many Americans would really want to give up the goodies, but many do want to see a more balanced, human-centered society. Many immigrants to America do find the economic opportunities that motivated them to come here, and they revel in that. But I’ve known many of them that are shocked by the “spiritual” poverty of this culture, and by “spirit” I mean the human spirit, the deeper connection to our common humanity.

Wow, I could not disagree more strongly with your premise. Nearly every European, Canadian, Australian, and South American I’ve met in the last few years has had major concerns about the way the US has been behaving internationally.

And these concerns are legitimate. We lag behind most first world countries in terms of health care, education, and income inequality. Most Americans are completely out of touch with international politics. We consume 25% of the world’s energy with less than 5% of the world’s population.

In addition to the ongoing military operations in the Middle East being carried out under false pretenses for our own benefit, we have a long history of interfering in international politics in ways that are outrageously inappropriate. We sold weapons to Iran illegally and provided material support to Iraq in their conflict with Iran in the 1980s. We participated in the overthrow of a democratically elected leader in Chile while publicly denouncing the coup. Not to mention the Vietnam War.

Finally, we are not members of the International Criminal Court, which I guess is consistent with our routine violations of human rights, sanctioned by the government.

Despite all this, I am not “anti-American.” But I think we need to all be aware of the problems facing this country and the atrocities our elected government has been responsible for. To be fooled into thinking that anti-Americanism is a consequence of lack of education is profoundly ironic.

@nikipedia – great answer. seriously.

The reason I had asked @josie what he means by the term is that I didn’t want to put words in his mouth. He may have come up with a completely different definition of the term that makes sense. I can’t think of one, however, that differs from the way the US and former Soviet Union would use to stifle dissidents. We should be humiliated that such a term even exists. Does Canada, England, or Italy have a similar term? If an Italian citizen spoke out against the actions of the Italian government, and they were labeled “anti-Italian”, would we not laugh and use the opportunity to write articles about the “creeping totalitarianism in Italy”?

Not only is dissent completely necessary, I believe it is our moral obligation. We can whine about how awful some other country is treating it’s citizens, but we may not have any control or influence of that. We do, however, have some level of influence in what our government does in our name both here and internationally.

I recall marching in Boston with my 6-month-old daughter on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. There were people on the sidewalk telling me to leave the US if I hate it so much. I found it odd that I was in the street trying to make the US a safer, better place for my daughter and everyone else, yet I was being told I was an inferior citizen.

Agree with @nikipedia and in my travels I have found lots of negative thoughts/talk about Americans. Some stuff I never even considered before. It’s strange viewing ones own country through the lens of a foreigner.

I am a US citizen, but I’m not really happy here. I think the reason that anti-Americanism is so rampant here is this: Most of us here feel free to
talk about how we feel about
this country. I know that we
aren’t the only country whose
citizens have the freedom to talk about how we really feel,
but having the freedom to say
how we really feel is something we take for granted.
Like @thorninmud said before because we live here we see everything, “warts and all”.

“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.”
– Clarence Darrow