may 11, 2006

Ugly Americans?

How bizarre is this? A Reuters story with the headline  “Behavior Guide Aims at Demise of ‘the Ugly American.’” It begins, “Alarmed by the relentless rise of anti-Americanism around the world, a business-backed group is trying to change the behavior that spawned an enduring stereotype of Americans abroad -- loud, arrogant, ill-dressed, ill-mannered and lacking respect for other cultures.”

Arrogance and rudeness know no national boundaries. But the main cause of Anti- Americanism around the world is not how we act, but rather the daily, unrelenting anti-American media bias that’sfound primarily in the Western European, Pan-Arab/Muslim, and Chinese media.

Get on a crowded plane in Europe, with people from several wealthy countries, and watch the boorish behavior by many of the Europeans. Not always, but often, you can guess correctly which are Americans. More times than not the Americans are the kindest and most patient and happiest people on the plane.  The business group in the Reuters story needs to find a real problem.

Global media bias against the U.S. is a real problem. We are not even fighting it, yet we are getting trounced.

Anti-American media bias in Europe has a dominant politically correct ideology.  The media is appalled at our evangelical religious zeal, which is seen as simple-minded and even dangerous; our lack of zeal for extreme environmentalism, which is viewed as greedy and uncaring; and various other transgressions such as our liberal gun laws and our death penalty, which are believed to be barbaric. Add to that post-imperial jealousy over Europe’s shrinking clout in the world.

In the Arab/Muslim world, it comes not only from animus toward Christianity and our support for Israel, but also our hypocritical support of dictators like Egypt’s
Hosni Mubarak.

China’s anti-American media bias is state-orchestrated and strategic.  It is only subtly displayed on the state-run Xinhua news service’s English language site.

This comprises much of the planet’s media, and it is turning people against this country every day.