Why Hate America?

[Richter]

There are those laws.  Petty, small, micromanaging laws.  Don't drive like this here, don't buy this until your and age or on the right date.  Walk here, don't walk there.  THOU SHALT NOT!  Enforced, unenforced, under enforced, or excuses tagged on to make sure they GET you for something.

There's the media.  Alarmist, coddling, self righteous, indignant. 

There are the people.  Where to start with them?  Obese, demanding, entitled, making noise, yet somehow utterly impotent when it comes to IMPORTANT things.

It's trendy.  It's an easy out.  Say you hate it give up on it.  Cramming your head into the distaste is as easy and effective as cramming your head into the sand.

[Mangrove]

We don't hate America.

We just hate the America of the people we hate.

[Remington]

We don't hate America.

We just hate the America of the people we hate.

YES. This!

It's hard to know which America people are talking about nowadays. Some reference the America of days past, some look to America as they see it in the future.
Few people, I think, look to America as it is now.

[Cain]

I don't hate America, helping in its eventual downfall is merely business and common sense.

[East Coast Hustle]

I don't hate America, helping in its eventual downfall is merely business and common sense.

revenge IS a dish best served cold, yes?

[Cain]

Well yes, but also America can't even be trusted to act in its own self-interest any more, let alone anyone elses.   Sorry, but the rest of the world is seeing a flashing sign above your country that reads Palin 20-- (fill in the blanks, we know it's a done deal sooner or later), and, well, we'd rather bring the sky falling down around your heads than ours.

Which is ultimately fair, I think.  Britain still needs to get a proper comeuppance for the 19th century, I feel (having State Dept weenies make fun of them after the war doesn't count), but I'm sure something can be worked out.

[Freeky]

Well yes, but also America can't even be trusted to act in its own self-interest any more, let alone anyone elses.   Sorry, but the rest of the world is seeing a flashing sign above your country that reads Palin 20-- (fill in the blanks, we know it's a done deal sooner or later), and, well, we'd rather bring the sky falling down around your heads than ours.

Which is ultimately fair, I think.  Britain still needs to get a proper comeuppance for the 19th century, I feel (having State Dept weenies make fun of them after the war doesn't count), but I'm sure something can be worked out.

Hey, when you're right, you're right. Fair is fair.

The rest of the world really ought to be getting off their ass about this. Srsly.

[BadBeast]

 Britain still needs to get a proper comeuppance for the 19th century, I feel (having State Dept weenies make fun of them after the war doesn't count), but I'm sure something can be worked out.

What? Like losing nearly three generations of men in 40 years to WWI & WWII wasn't direct comeuppance for the Imperialism of the 19th century?

State Dept weenies made fun of us after the War?  Must've done it very quietly then. (Either that, or it was so subtle it went right over our heads)

And what did we ever do to America, that needs "Working out?" We gave you your independence, we even
let you think you fought us for it, in the hope that you would value it, and cherish it!  But seeing the way you've whored your independence out to the highest bidder, and the way that you let your Governments abuse anybody they feel like, (including your own citizens) I've a good mind to come over there, and re-colonise you!
You'd never get away with such talk if we didn't have such a special relationship!   

[Jasper]

You poor bastards should have killed us all when you had the chance.

[BadBeast]

You poor bastards should have killed us all when you had the chance.

But we're not really as such big ol' bastards as you think, or we would have done!

There's a lot of really top stuff going on in America, and it's produced some of the finest people I can think of. I have met many Americans, and I can honestly say, that I've never met one I didn't like. Individually, I think Americans are pretty reasonable people. Once you get past the disproportionate sense of Nationalism many of you have, and the oversensitive knee-jerk reactions to criticism, there is much similarity between the Americans and the British. And I'm sure we can work something out, to improve your International image.
Like tweaking your Foreign Policies to include things other than War, and exploitation. After all, 250 years ago, our own Imperialism was the scourge of the World, pretty much like yours is today, but we adapted, and changed our shit, and now everybody loves us!  (Don't they?) 

[BadBeast]

Well, almost everyone. There's the Irish, (Who only hate us, because we're the closest geographical fight, but we always kicked their arses)  and the French, (because we held out for longer than 10 minutes against the Nazis, sinking their Navy in the process)   

[Jasper]

Don't the Irish hate Britain because it systematically crushed their souls with poverty and hunger?

America is in some ways like imperial tyrants of old, but I think it is also a new creature.  No empire in history had TV and nukes until America.  Now nothing with the brain damage to stop us has the clout.

[Cain]

 Britain still needs to get a proper comeuppance for the 19th century, I feel (having State Dept weenies make fun of them after the war doesn't count), but I'm sure something can be worked out.

What? Like losing nearly three generations of men in 40 years to WWI & WWII wasn't direct comeuppance for the Imperialism of the 19th century?

Not compared to what happened to the Romans, no.  You could always ask them about that, but as I recall, their empire got overrun by hairy barbarians.  Also Britain didn't take nearly as many casualties as Germany or Russia, in real or proportional terms, so it's not like Britain uniquely suffered or anything. 

State Dept weenies made fun of us after the War?  Must've done it very quietly then. (Either that, or it was so subtle it went right over our heads)

Er no.  The State Dept was so condescending to and dismissive of the British Cabinet, the Cabinet launched a nuclear weapons program.  That is the very definition of butthurt.

And what did we ever do to America, that needs "Working out?" We gave you your independence, we even
let you think you fought us for it, in the hope that you would value it, and cherish it!  But seeing the way you've whored your independence out to the highest bidder, and the way that you let your Governments abuse anybody they feel like, (including your own citizens) I've a good mind to come over there, and re-colonise you!
You'd never get away with such talk if we didn't have such a special relationship!   

I'm not American, and you'd be lucky if my country recolonised yours.  At least it has a functioning economy.  And can win sports without going into quasi-religious hysteria. 

[Cain]

You poor bastards should have killed us all when you had the chance.

But we're not really as such big ol' bastards as you think, or we would have done!

There's a lot of really top stuff going on in America, and it's produced some of the finest people I can think of. I have met many Americans, and I can honestly say, that I've never met one I didn't like. Individually, I think Americans are pretty reasonable people. Once you get past the disproportionate sense of Nationalism many of you have, and the oversensitive knee-jerk reactions to criticism, there is much similarity between the Americans and the British. And I'm sure we can work something out, to improve your International image.
Like tweaking your Foreign Policies to include things other than War, and exploitation. After all, 250 years ago, our own Imperialism was the scourge of the World, pretty much like yours is today, but we adapted, and changed our shit, and now everybody loves us!  (Don't they?)  

No, everyone pretty much still hates your guts.  I don't use my British passport when travelling abroad and I get treated much better.

As for British bastardry, you don't think racism played into that any?  Lets play "compare how the, white, Christian, American colonists and the brown, Buddhist Sri Lankans were treated":

The mercenaries the Brits sent to crush the Kandyans were Malays, Muslims from SE Asia who didn't need a lot of pep talks to slaughter South Asian Buddhists (and steal their chickens). That was life for the Brits back then, at the top of their game: picking up pieces from one part of the world and dropping them where they'd do the most harm, half the world away. "Ah yes, let's ferry some Malay mercs to Kandy, that should give the bloody idol-worshippers something to think about!"

Destroying Buddhism was a big part of Brit policy. The Buddhist routine, the temples, begging monks, long boring prayers–it was the glue that kept Kandy together. So the Brits decided to destroy it. They even said so, in private memos to each other. They weren't shy in them days. Here's the Brit governor in 1807: "Reliance on Buddhism must be destroyed. Make sure all [village] chiefs are Christian."

[...]

The "Wasteland" policy was smart and mean at the same time–another sure mark of the Brit Imperial Touch. It was designed to deny the "rebels" support in the short term, but in the long term it was pure punishment, taking away the land, livestock and other assets of all the Sinhalese who were even suspected of being "rebel"-lovers.

And it worked. To this day, 200 years later, the Sinhalese castes who backed the rebels are dirt poor, and worse: they're hated by everybody around them and they even hate themselves. And nobody even remembers who did it to them, poor lab rats. They think it's their own fault, that there's something wrong with them.

There's more, and worse, but to tell the truth, this is making me sick. I've tried to tell this story a dozen times and nobody wants to know. You just end up vomiting battery acid all night, and pigs like Mister Jeremy Brown of the Times of London never lose one second of sleep over all those bodies, and all those lies and sheer nastiness. What's the use? I'll just fastforward through a couple of highlight shots. Take reprisals. You know, like those bad ol' Nazis used to do after a "rebel" attack? The Brits were there way before the Nazis. They took revenge for a half-assed Kandyan revolt by killing one out of every hundred Sinhalese. Like, at random. To keep it fair, you know, not play favorites.

And then the nastiest CI weapon of all, the demographic bomb. This was a Brit specialty all over the world (see Fiji for a weirdly similar case). The Brits ran India, so they had total control over millions of obedient Tamil peasants who were starving, desperate, and ready to go anywhere, just pile into the hold of a ship and get out to cut cane or plant rice in some place that may as well have been on the Moon for all they knew.

So along with the massacre/reprisals, the Brits came up with one of their classic two-birds-one-stone plans: to neutralize the Sinhalese, let's import huge hordes of Tamils from India! They're cheap and docile and they'll give the Sinhala something to keep them busy even after we have to leave the island, haw! And meanwhile they'll drive the price of labor down even further! Brilliant, chaps, absolutely brilliant!

Its amazing how Brits are so entirely ignorant of their colonial history.  Just how do you think Britain got to rule a quarter of the globe?  By asking nicely?

[BadBeast]

Don't the Irish hate Britain because it systematically crushed their souls with poverty and hunger?

Oh yeah, and that.