Article: Post-Anti-Americanism in Europe

[cowcommander]

It's a pretty depressing read...

You can still buy an American newspaper at the kiosk in Rome’s Piazza Colonna, but you have to ask the lady behind the counter. She turns from the window, paws through a stack on the floor, and produces an International Herald Tribune, holding it at arm’s length like a day-old fish. It’s the same availability and tone in Venice, the Greek islands, and Istanbul. The implicit question in the transaction is always the same: why would you want to read that thing about that place at this time?

And when you read about America in European newspapers, what you are likely to find is a tone bordering on pity. The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war. Sure, the iPad is cool, but it is evidence of what America was, not what it will be again. The stories are not angry, accusatory, or even ideological. It’s worse: they are condescendingly elegiac.

European disdain for the United States is centuries old, of course. But over the course of decades of traveling in the U.K. and on the continent, I have never gotten the sense that I got on a recently completed three-week trip to Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. America is no longer admired, imitated, or feared. We remain—for now—a safe haven for dollars (of which there are too many in the world). But we increasingly are seen less as a model or as an empire than as a cautionary tale of national neglect and decline.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/09/post-anti-americanism.html

[snagglepuss]

1. Quite the read. However the people who need to read this probably

don't know where Europe is.

[RKP5637]

4. But they will loudly tell you, "Ain't American the best place in the world!" n/t

[RKP5637]

2. Who can blame them. I live here and I'm totally fed up with what the US has

become. Years ago when traveling I used to feel good about American and its future, but not anymore. I think the article sums it up quite well. Any not seeing this have their head in the sand or are one of the ones on the take IMO.

[MellowDem]

3. Meh....

I don't usually put too much stock in public opinion, whether American or European or global etc. beause it is so fickle and based on ignorance. The truth is that Europe has been going through a recession for a very long time and economically they are no better off than us right now. Their primary concern is with their economy. The US is no longer the sole superpower of the world, and thank God for that. Remember Britain's sudden descent from the greatest Imperial power to second-rate? Well, that is what America is experiencing now, and while painful (especially economically), what has to be done has to be done. And when that is done, the US can finally focus on its domestic problems solely, much like Europe has been since the end of WWII.

[zipplewrath]

5. I'm curious who you think the other superpower is

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there's really only one.

[MellowDem]

6. I don't think there is a superpower anymore....

The US is still the single biggest economy and military country-wise, but not by such large margins anymore to grant it superpower status. The EU has a bigger economy than the US, and China is catching up. Really, I think this is a healthy thing for global politics in the long run.

[zipplewrath]

8. Definitely militarily

Much to our own economic demise. We still have one of the strongest currencies in the world. China and India are trying to gain on us in many aspects. We still can project power more than anyone.

[Arugula Latte]

7. "The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and

mindless war."

A very accurate depiction, I'd say!

Oh, and I'd add in "gun violence."

[Odin2005]

9. "Anti-Americanism" = "WAAAAH, those Europeans are not being obedient!"

[applegrove]

10. I had a picture in my canadian mind of the ugly American when I first came to the DU.

You guys erased that for me. I know the ugly ones are still out there but I realize they only make up a portion of Americans. You DUers are great!

[proteus_lives]

11. Same old, same old.

Euros have been shitting out opinions like this since before the ink was dry on the Constitution.