Can any Americans tell me what 'ISOLATIONIST' means without looking it up?

Question

Just wondering...

Actually 'Beth W', I'm a 'smarmy foreigner' suggesting that Americans are ignorant and uncaring of the outside world. The fact that you assumed I was making a completely opposite point goes to show your isolationist ignorance of us 'smarmy foreigners'.

Answer 1

It means that you do not think or act globally.

It means that you do not respect other cultures or travel. It means that you think the USA is an island and has enough diversity that would not require any further exploration outside of the borders.

Answer 2

Yup. If you're a smarmy foreigner asking us to keep our noses out of someone else's business, I'll take the opportunity to remind you that we had a VERY isolationist foreign policy in the 30's during Hitler's rise to power.
By the time we came in to clean up everybody else's mess, the rest of the world was asking why we didn't step in to save the poor Jews earlier?
Sucks to be the most powerful country on earth. Somebody's pissed when you take care of business, somebody's pissed if you sit at home and turn a blind eye. Therefore, we just generally try to do the right thing and not worry about pleasing people, because (say it with me) "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time."

Yeah we've made mistakes. I'd contend that our mistakes are less heinous than most of our predecessors' and contemporaries'.

Answer 3

It means that a country chooses to proceed with an action without first determining the impact to other nations and this can cause lots of problems. America's foreign policies are being hailed as Isolationist because Bush failed to build consensus for the war in Iraq with most nations and now we are paying for it with human lives It also makes it seem as if America is arrogant - trying to shove democracy down the throats of nations that have their own system of government which is a method that rarely, if ever succeeds.

Answer 4

Isolationist, as a political term, indicates that a nation or block of people act in a manner that indicates that its self-interests take precedence over the interests of other nations or blocks of people, with the result that the isolationist acts for its own good by closing itself off from others, and acting alone or only with those who support its position, even to the detriment of others.

Given that definition, few nations of the world fall outside the category of isolationist, for most nations view their presuppositions and interests as superior or at least, as not inferior to others.

Answer 5

You may or may not be aware that roughly half of all Americans are closer in their attitudes in this respect to Europeans than we are to the isolationist right-wingers who currently occupy our government. Keep in mind that Bush received fewer votes than did Gore in the 2000 election, has been steadily opposed by at least half of all Americans, resorted to an exceptionally ugly propaganda campaign to win the 2004 election (though I have to admit that he did win that one, though I believe the margin was 51%-48%), and most importantly, loses popularity _among Americans_ each time he screws up.

In short, don't believe what you see on television: America has a lot of perfectly decent people who care about their nation and the world in which it resides. We're not all ignorant cowboy yahoo cowards hiding behind this "war on terrorism" BS. Not by a long shot.

Answer 6

I'm American and I do think we isolate ourselves much more than europeans, it has to do partly with America's obsession with the internet but also the fact that much more people live in suburban areas and they're spead out more. People don't walk around, they use their car to go everywhere. People in cities are more social, and in europe you're either in a major city where everyone is walking around and socializing more or you're in the country, there's no in between.

Answer 7

Isolationism is the pursuit of diplomatic and economic disengagement of one nation, from the rest of the world. It is the belief that ones nation would be better off if it does not trade with others or enter into treaties. It is the pursuit of self-sufficiency.

Answer 8

Well in relation to a country, it means leaving other countries alone and not having any kind of interaction with countries. I think that this may be a smart-elick question LOL.

Answer 9

Of course I can. It means for our gonvernment to only protect our country . Kinda what China was doing at the end of the last century.

Answer 10

after I went to college, we studied international historic past and geography. i develop into also a stamp collector and discovered plenty about the international's countries from the stamps. btw- the "B" in BMW is for Bavarian