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Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. It's built into your nature, like an autom

Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. It's built into your nature, like an automatic response. Great, a few European newspapers did stories on US politics. They also did stories on the rest of the world too which is something you don't see much in US newspapers. Don't get me wrong, I love America (and live here, originally from UK) but the country has some serious issues.

silvestrov 14y ago
In addition to this: staying informed is not the same as caring (being emotional involved) about somebody. Europeans just want to know about the rest of the world because the world is connected. What happens all over the world has consequences for Europeans too. You can very well want to know what's going on in America without caring (feeling sorry) if they're going into the shitter.
- philh 14y ago
  My model of human beings is that we are usually much quicker to get emotionally involved in something than to become informed about it.
  - felipellrocha 14y ago
    That might be true at the micro level, but I don't think it might be necessarily true at the macro level.
ambler0 14y ago
I don't see how the post proves that at all. They're making an assertion about matters of fact, not a value judgement. Many of us Americans express the desire for the end of the American Empire, yet the world's hegemon America remains.
ender7 14y ago
Yeah...that doesn't really "prove" anything. I'll thank you to have some better evidence before claiming things about my true "nature". I remember traveling in France the summer before the 2008 presidential election. Every newspaper and tabloid on the stands had Obama's face on it. I'm not saying that a mild preoccupation with American politics is a good thing for the world to have, but to say that it doesn't exist doesn't seem...accurate.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- vacri 14y ago
  When a US president can cause significant economic problems because you refuse to join in war with them, it tends to make them a bit more important. All the rhetoric spewed by the US executive about 'with us or against us' created the 'freedom fries' debacle and lots of open hostility of anything French by many Americans. The US is an important country and always will be, but the article is saying that there's weird things about the country that he recognises, not that it's a banana republic that doesn't know it yet.
brown9-2 14y ago
Refuting "most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us" is not refuting a criticism of America.
tjic 14y ago
> Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. This is a rhetorical fallacy. Person A: "You're always defensive" Person B: "I don't think I am." Person A: "SEEE!!!" Look, if you make a statement that is IMPOSSIBLE to disagree with, you've just said something non-falsifiable. In other words, your statement is so poorly formed that it's Not Even Wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong

silvestrov 14y ago

In addition to this: staying informed is not the same as caring (being emotional involved) about somebody. Europeans just want to know about the rest of the world because the world is connected. What happens all over the world has consequences for Europeans too. You can very well want to know what's going on in America without caring (feeling sorry) if they're going into the shitter.

philh 14y ago
My model of human beings is that we are usually much quicker to get emotionally involved in something than to become informed about it.
- felipellrocha 14y ago
  That might be true at the micro level, but I don't think it might be necessarily true at the macro level.

ambler0 14y ago

I don't see how the post proves that at all. They're making an assertion about matters of fact, not a value judgement. Many of us Americans express the desire for the end of the American Empire, yet the world's hegemon America remains.

ender7 14y ago

Yeah...that doesn't really "prove" anything. I'll thank you to have some better evidence before claiming things about my true "nature". I remember traveling in France the summer before the 2008 presidential election. Every newspaper and tabloid on the stands had Obama's face on it. I'm not saying that a mild preoccupation with American politics is a good thing for the world to have, but to say that it doesn't exist doesn't seem...accurate.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
vacri 14y ago
When a US president can cause significant economic problems because you refuse to join in war with them, it tends to make them a bit more important. All the rhetoric spewed by the US executive about 'with us or against us' created the 'freedom fries' debacle and lots of open hostility of anything French by many Americans. The US is an important country and always will be, but the article is saying that there's weird things about the country that he recognises, not that it's a banana republic that doesn't know it yet.

brown9-2 14y ago

Refuting "most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us" is not refuting a criticism of America.

tjic 14y ago

> Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. This is a rhetorical fallacy. Person A: "You're always defensive" Person B: "I don't think I am." Person A: "SEEE!!!" Look, if you make a statement that is IMPOSSIBLE to disagree with, you've just said something non-falsifiable. In other words, your statement is so poorly formed that it's Not Even Wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong