Chelsea Clinton brings up the tired A&H accusation that the rest of the world is opposed to us because we wouldn’t sign the Kyoto protocol; Alice Walker thinks Barack will negotiate more freely with foreign leaders because all the racial baggage against America will be banished; European elites think the world hates us because of McDonald’s, Canadians blame it on our ignoring others, Muslim extremists believe it is because we are decadent, the UN because we don’t listen to the UN enough, and the sons of third-world kleptocrats believe America is disliked because it exploits poorer nations.
Everyone is quite sure that their reason for being angry at America must be what everyone else’s reason is also. It’s an amazing display of narcissism and inability to understand others. Do these folks actually think China gives a rat's patooie about Kyoto, or Poland about our racial history? I don't recall any anti-McDonald's statements coming from Osama, and half of Africa is angry that we do listen to the UN.
I am not sure it's narsicism, I would rather say it is ego-centrism mixed with utter ignorance. Most of those folks know very little about other countries and cultures, and they don't think they need to know in order to form opinions.
ReplyDeleteThat many making these foreign policy points know very little about the world outside the US is a point I would heartily endorse.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein, Pelosi,John F Kerryman, Chris Dudd (deliberate),and David Duke made the pilgrimage to Damascus, as if Assad Jr. were simply a dissident Democrat out in Marin or Worcester County, instead of being the heir to the Bulldozer of Hama.
The unspoken assumption is that the world is like the US, the US is like the world. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge and/or experience about the world outside the US could tell the aforementioned fools that there are profound differences between the US and the rest of the world.