You say “But why does everyone seem to hate us until they are getting taken over by someone and then they beg for our help? And why do so many people still want to come here if we are so despised”?

Who told you that people hat you, have you spoken with the people?

We are all brain washed by the media.

http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/

I will watch zeitgeist and post my comments on it.

@35 Ahmed

Well the whole purpose of this was to try and understand the rest of the worlds point of view which is pretty much hidden from us (at least in my opinion) by our communist media. All we ever see on TV is country X is getting invaded by Country Z (lets use Kuwait is getting invaded by Iraq) so because we need to protect them (and in my example I’m sure the oil as well) we need to go in and kick out Country Z.

Now unlike the USSR we have never taken over a country and made it part of the USA and as far a Iraq I have spoken with many who have lived under Saddam’s rule and some Assyrians who are almost wiped out as a result of him as well. None of them felt we did the wrong thing and they would know much better than I would since they all lived there before coming to the USA.

But I have an open mind so if you can point me to some information I will be willing to read it unless it’s something about Bush being part of the 4th Reich and he blew up the WTC which I cannot believe how many Europeans actually believe that bunch of crap.

No, People do not hate Americans they hate the policy of the American government.

Why don’t you open your eyes to see what your goverment is doing, the truth is everywhere, and will not take you much to see it, unless you don’t want to

Firearms are just one of the freedoms we have. And so we have a problem because we have guns? Well we typically don’t have people blowing each other up over religious differences aka the IRA so I could make a good case about that as well.

It may really interest you though that most of the US allows concealed carry of a firearm and the places that have banned guns have the HIGHEST CRIME RATE BASED ON FBI DATA. Criminals will always have guns and that is a fact. Just look at how the violent crime rates have risen over 40% in the UK and Australia since they banned guns and that is all you need to see.

I have a concealed carry permit myself and to have that I need to get fingerprinted by the FBI every 5 years and have no criminal history what so ever. Law abiding people do not say “oh lets go out a shoot someone today” it’s the CRIMINALS that will always have guns or some other weapon to prey on the honest people.

That was a really well thought out response and I am glad to see you have an open mind. Knowing how easily it is for people to point fingers at others because it is the easiest answer (we have a lot of this in the USA) I will wholeheartedly agree with you. I think that for the most part, Americans have become lazy and have had too many good years and we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. It is easier to listen to our communist liberal news media then to search out the truth.

Perhaps the best way the people of the world will get to know and understand one another is by communicating in a civil way with our neighbors in other countries around the world. I always keep an open mind and knowledge is power so the more we all know the less likely ANY government will be able to deceive us.

So I sincerely hope we all are willing to keep open minds without stereotyping and keep the lines of communication open. I am German as well so it’s nice to see you are able to analyze the world around you and keep on open mind.

@26 Neo

In regards to the link I hope you are kidding me. George W. is part of the 4th Riech? He is planning on starting WWIII before the elections?

In the USA CONGRESS HAS TO APPROVE A STATE OF WAR and I think George W. would have a hard time convincing them to attack the entire world. You must have some gross misconceptions of how this country works if you honestly believe such things.

Was it not Gen Anatoly Nogovitsy of Russia who stressed Moscow was ready to use nuclear weapons “against allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them”. How many times in history have you seen the US threaten a nuclear attack? The Cuban missile crisis with JFK way before I was born is the only time I know of because the USSR (who took over most of Europe after WWII) was putting ICBS a hundred miles off the coast of the USA.

I have heard comments from foreigners that George W. planned the world trade center attacks and all I could do is laugh at such ludicrous notions. While I know there is a lot the government does not tell us there would be no point in it.

By the way, to hate the dominating class of the USA is not to hate the USA. (However, if you are content with the system that keeps you in comfort on the price of other cultures social problems and foreign wars, then you are not innocent after all)

WHERE THE F*CK IS THE SENSE IN THAT? THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE USA!

Here, in Ireland, there are no firearms. In fact, we do not even have an armed police force, except for extreme military/tactical teams.

Gun based crime is very low, only major drug gangs use them.

We do not need guns to “protect ourselves”.
If everyone was protecting themselves from everybody else with guns, its going to turn into bloodshed. The same with our policing forces. If you are a criminal and think the the policing force are armed to the teeth with a “shoot first” policy then you are going to gear up to match that. However, if you know the police have tasers/batons then you’re not going to be dumb enough.

Someone try to make sense of the logic behind American’s so called right to bear arms. Because it just f*cking baffles me.

–nakquada

I am German and from my point of view, this is all politics. I can only speak for Germany and even for that it is only my personal opinion, but I very often get the impression that German politicians try to distract from our very own problems by “fomenting” stupid, plain and simple cliches for other nations. And what’s easier than blaimng someone else. The politicians say it, the press prints it and people read it. And you always will have people who believe it or at least don’t question it at all. Of course, I am making things quite easier here than it is, but basically I think this has something very true.
From my experience, especially people who haven’t travelled a lot (i.e. haven’t even BEEN to the country they are talking about) totally believe in stereotypes such as the “stupid war-making gun-owning US-Americans”, the “communist patent-infringing Chinese”, the “Nazi Germans” and so on. For them, this is easy, and most people like easy explanations. So politicians use it.

So coming to your question, why it happens so often that Americans are confronted with negative emotions about them and their country: it is just so easy to blame somebody else, and especially to the US it happens quite often because you are quite a big and influential country to say the least (but it happens to ALL countries)! You might think this sounds too obvious, but think about it! It’s what many people are always doing.

So what I want to say is this: if somebody is blaming you for “your country” or what your politicians did in the past, do not listen. We should always learn from history and especially from our own country’s history, but we should never dare to judge others. Every country in the world could be blamed for something, but this is not our fault. The only things we can do are to not listen to such people and to make it better by e.g. having an attentive view towards other nations instead of plain, stereotypical one, and by not lumping together all the people of a country by prejudices. By taking a closer look and give them a chance to be different and have different opinions and help them to understand things about our own country they probably don’t know yet.

By that, we maybe would not even have terrorism. But unfortunately, bein open towards others is not as easy as blaming, so many people don’t even try.

Just my 2 cents.