Well, for one thing, what the world thinks about America is that we shouldn’t call ourselves America. But this site is full of much more. It not only provides insight into what the world thinks, but into what Americans (or U.S. citizens, to be precise) think about the world. That’s often rather ugly, but it’s instructive nonetheless. For example, this recent post:

It is baffling that there is even a web site dedicated to anti-Americanism.

As an American, I could care less what the world thinks of our nation, people, culture, heritage, and values. Perhaps if the world has such disdain and hatred for the American people, they should turn to the ideals of Red China, their Communism, and their deplorable human rights record.

It’s time for America to pull the purse strings on humanitarian aid and AIDS drugs to Africa. It is time for America to revoke their green revolution and being involved in global climate issues. And it is time for America to pull our troops out of the Middle East so that Israel and Iran can finally attack each other. Screw peace, humanity, and love.

Let the world crumble with the Communist Chinese, the Russians, or the French surrender monkeys at the helm in order to sort out the problems. Because trust me, I can guarantee you that conditions will worsen than they already are right now.

I found the lack of current news awareness rather startling in this one, but was equally amazed by the good spelling and reasonable grammar. We do occasionally edit posts, but in general you see them as they come in, and I am puzzled by the way people who write fairly well and clearly can have ideas that seem so ignorant. That does speak to my own concerns and presumptions, I know, but I would love to seem more reasoned and informed commentary from the America, Love It or Leave It crowd.

Submitted on 2006/12/13 at 7:48pm

Well, I don’t like it very much either when my country is being criticized - unfairly and ignorantly most of the time - but what riles me is this: when one tells an American that some stuff (tool, system, car, whatever - even the metric system) is actually better in some other country. They just stare (glare?) and they cannot “take it.” It is not saying to them “you are no good at making ….” It is just saying that, for example, over there, houses are built with stones and therefore stronger, or “why America hasn’t joined the metric system which the rest of the world uses… etc. “What? you mean we aren’t number one?” is what they think and they can’t bear it. It is the same thing with soccer which the whole world calls football, and which Americans think is a girlie sport. And only American football can be called football!

EJ’s experience is not, I’m sure, unique, and one reason we created this site is to bring this kind of discussion into a public forum.

It isn’t military strength that will win the battle for hearts and minds, a considerable challenge for those who want to reduce fundamentalist terrorism. This article explains how the election of Barack Obama poses a PR issue for Al Qaeda:

America’s improved global image and the new administration’s focus on Afghanistan threatens Al Qaeda and has led to what experts see as a confused, racist, and off-kilter response reflective of an organization on the defensive.

There have been many new comments here about what the world thinks about America, and from Americans with widely differing views about the new path we’re taking. Please continue to add your thoughts and stories. We would especially like to hear accounts from around the world, and around the States, of what your friends and family have to say, memories that recent events provoke, and what excites you, or worries you, about the global outlook.

I know Obama is much cooler than Bush - or Clinton. He’s on Facebook, plays basketball, and wears a baseball cap. (Hey, maybe Bush and Clinton wear baseball caps, too, but they don’t look cool, do they?) But is America really cool again? Do tell us what you think, and let us have some details about what the world really thinks about America. This site is a place where you can throw in comments about ordinary stuff - clothes, music, food - as well as politics. Thanksgiving is coming up and I’d love to hear what people elsewhere in the world think about this holiday, if you’ve had a chance to experience it, and I hope Americans will tell us what Thanksgiving says about our values and sense of family and community. I promise to write about how I celebrated Thanksgiving every single year I lived in England, and about the time I found myself walking up a south London street with a huge, hot, and somewhat burned turkey to a group of American and English friends.

I’ve been reading through recent entries and am so impressed by the ideas and experiences and stories contributors are sharing with us. While there are other projects on this theme–and I’m getting to know some of them, and will be meeting with another in Washington DC next week–I think we have something different, and important, going on. What we’re doing here is creating an ethnographic study of global perspectives on the United States. Not just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a survey (”Do you like America?”) but providing much more nuanced information, with real life examples to back up your opinions. Please keep ‘em coming!

Taste it for yourself, the definitive scholarly research project that inspired LoveUsHateUS.com: Berkshire’s Global Perspectives on the United States. This is an experiment - free Open Access publishing of a work we’re selling in print and as a database - we’re running with European colleagues at Exact Editions. Please visit Berkshire Publishing at Exact Editions and start searching your favorite topics. This is great for students, too.

The recent event that has had the most deleterious effect on global opinion of the United States is the Iraq War, but the US government handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans probably comes second. FEMA is the agency that was criticized so vociferously, and rightly. How extraordinary, then to see this story today today: “The Federal Emergency Management Agency staged a fake news conference this week, with agency staff officials, pretending to be reporters, peppering one of their own bosses with decidedly friendly questions about the response to the California fires, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged Friday.”

“I don’t want to see poverty. I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think that these people don’t have enough to eat.” This is a quote from American tourist Helen Murphy of St. Paul (Minnesota, I assume), on vacation in Labadie, Haiti from a NYT article on page 4 of today’s paper titled “Beyond Mountains of Woe, a Haitian Paradise Beckons.” The article is about the pleasures of Labadie on Haiti’s north coast and how tourists who go there are sheltered and protected from the poverty and violence that is the daily life of most Haitians.

Having edited the just published Global Perspectives on the United States: A Nation by Nation Survey, I wonder if Helen Murphy or any of the other thousands of tourists who frolic at Labadie ever think about how their presence effects Haitians and their opinion of the U.S. She knows that Haitians are poor. And they are; Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas and receives more economic assistance per capita than any other nation in the world. Haiti is also violent and political repression or revolt has long been its fate. Haitians wonder why we invaded Iraq to depose a dictator and encourage democracy while we have often stood by or even supported cruel Haitian dictators and have limited Haitian emigration to our land.

American use of Haiti as a resort while ignoring poverty and violence contributes to what many people around the world criticize most about the U.S. and Americans – our seemingly endless consumption of other places and their physical and human resources accompanied by a lack of concern about how our consumption effects those places and people.

This is from the BBC: “Annan chides US in final speech”: “No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over others,” Mr Annan said, urging the US to respect human rights in its “war on terror.”