What fuels anti-Americanism?

Mostly our foreign policy. No matter what you think of it, it is the cause of most of the ill will toward us in certain parts of the world.

The same thing that fuels any anti-somethingism. Disagreement with that particular somethingism. One group thinks things should be a certain way, another group disagrees. Then each group hates the other group instead of the policies/practices/etc. For example: Some people hate militarism, and then a country acts in a militaristic way, and that country becomes a target for people's anti-militarism.

Other countries hated us long before Bush took office. It is no worse now than before, the difference is the media coverage of it since 9/11.

Why? Well that's a hard one to answer being as there are so many different reasons. Here are some I have come up with in my many travels around the world.

1) Our government sticks it's nose where it's not needed or wanted.

2) We have rights that others do not.

3) We put values and importance on different things than they do.

4) Too many Americans bad mouth their own country and government so much that they figure it's a bad place.

5) When Americans travel they forget that they are no longer in their own country and do not respect the customs and traditions of the country that they are visiting.

Those are just a few that I have personally heard others state. Their are definately more though I'm sure.

Well, in the case of home-grown Anti-Americanism, it seems to be jealousy and politics. One group has power, another doesn't. The group in power seems to be patriotic, the group who doesn't is seen as other than patriotic. That has been going on since the beginning of America. This is nothing new.

The cause of foreign anti-Americanism depends on where you are. In Europe, its mostly penis envy. It's similar to the power group and non-power group as described in the preceeding paragraph. Europe used to swing the big stick, now they don't. We're the big swingers now.

In the mid-East its fed via indoctrination. The governments control what is taught in the classrooms of the students. They tell them that America is the great Satan and that we deserve to die. Add that to a religious policy of jihad, and it is not hard to see why so many want to blow us up. It was what they were raised to believe.

There is nothing anyone can do about the first two. It's petty and is really nothing to worry too much about. Why do so many people hate the New York Yankees? Because they win. When they spend all that money to get all the good players, they aren't breaking any rules. They simply have more money than everyone else. That is thier competitive advantage. It would be silly for them NOT to use it.

The last kind is what worries me. The mid-east brand of terrorism. How do you try and negotiate with people that have been indoctrinated and acculturated to hate you? Or do you try and change the government to be free, and take out the ones who have already been indoctrinated?

(Note: I am not calling everyone in the mid-east a terrorist. I am saying that the culture is rife for anti-American sentiment. If you take a corrupt government that has total control, especially over education with a zealous religion that has a militaristic twist to it, and add manipulative leaders, you get terrorism.)

Acting like the world's bully doesn't help.

Having a stupid leader, that actually is a war criminal makes it worse.

The threat is huge, because the US keeps p*ssing off people all over the planet day in and day out.

And yes while there maybe a certain jealousy because of the riches the US enjoys, that has been the case for at least 50 years.

The level of hate experienced today is almost exclusively attributable to the actions of this administration of fools and crooks since the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Remember 9/11 - the whole planet with the exception of a very few was standing side by side with the US. Where was the envy then. Bull*cks...

Get the idiot and his vice impeached and re-moved - Pelosi would be President it can only be better.

Stop the war.

Fear and envy. Fear because everybody knows that the USA has the power to defend it's own interest even if other nations object.

Envy because life is generally better here than in almost any other nation and many risk their lives to get here.

Also every time small countries have conflicts with each other they come crying to the USA asking them to intervene then they don't like the outcome when they are made to compromise. One example is the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

BTW, I was born and raised in Europe and anti-Americanism has been around for a long time, way before Clinton or Bush. I once heard this Brit go on about how much he hated the Americans so virulently, I thought that he was going to start foaming at the mouth. That was almost 30 years ago and he was not alone.

Take the answer by Corisa and add to it the answer by dancelovetigger and that pretty much sums it up.

*looks over to Iraq and winces. looks over to America and all the big heading 'America is God' signs and winces* anymore questions?

Seriously though, we take it upon ourselves to try and fix every little thing. we think democracy is the only form of government that is correct. well the fact is that it isnt, not for every country in the world. we have forgotten how much work we had to put into our government. other countries need to experience that too and if it turns out that they are communist or whatever then that is their choice but it doesnt really matter if we support it or not because they arent our concern. we have tried to help other countries so much that when we dont we are persecuted for it and when we do we are persecuted for it as well. we have gotten ourselves into a position that whatever we do it is going to be the wrong move. so people hate us because we are pushy or we dont help enough. and it started with us forming our own government.

Part of what fuesl ani-American feelings is that we meddle in places we shouldn't but another reason if our sense of etnocentricity that exists in the U.S. as an example when we travel to another country we expect everything to be like America and everybody should speak English instead of us embracing their culture and at least attempting to speak some of their language. This is the reason we are seen as rude, crude and people want to bring us down.

i guess it's the continuous intervention of the American government with some of the countries' domestic policies. The way they set conditions that they might pull back their assistance if their suggestion is not applied... it really sounds pissing but if that's the way they make sure world peace is promoted, then good luck to them...