Why do some Americans say they don't care what people around the world think?

Question

I find it odd that some Americans don't care what the rest of the world thinks of them. They don't care that the USA has an image problem and that so many people hate them. Why is this? Is it because the USA is the most powerful country in the world so who cares or is it simply because Americans are unaware of things outside of their country and when they here someone say something negative they just think it's because they are jealous?

Answer 1

The rest of the world is more in tune to other countries where American media is focused on internal issues only. It's rare that we turn on the t.v. and listen to broadcasts of bombings in other countries, we tend to tune it out becuase of all the issues we have going on right here in our back yard. We are just masked with our own issues and don't have enough time/energy to devote to other countries issues, in turn we become numb to world issues.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, many Americans have never been outside of America, never had any experiences out side of American borders. What are your cares for life in other Galaxies?

Their experiences are limited to their tiny sphere which they live in. Too, many have never even traveled to another state. There are many Americans that were born in Hawaii and never been off that island.

How should they relate, meaningfully to world issues? How do I describe, to a man, physical relationship with a female, who is still a virgin?

Too bad you had to mess up a good question with a negative comment. (Jealous?) On that note, America is the only country, in the history of man, that provide the freedoms found there.
No citizenship has ever been sought at, from all the lands of the earth, as American Citizenship! At the present, no country has the capability to with stand the destructive force American can release while its masses watch TV, play golf, or just sleep.

Arrogant, lazy, sometimes inconsiderate, confident, rich, filled with Pride, what ever label you wan to use but NEVER Jealousy! Nothing exists, nowhere on this earth, in no country, for America to be jealous of! ZILCH! America has it ALL, everything, too include your jealousy!

Answer 3

I don't think many Americans are well-informed. We have it so good here, we are regrettably apathetic (thus illustrated by all of the comments that people wrote about how they "don't care" what the rest of the world thinks).

Taking an "us" against "them" stance only works in sporting events, it doesn't help us properly function as a global community.

I think most Americans really are good people (look how we came together after 9/11), but we are so isolated from world events. We mostly hear about our own events and what we're being involved with (like Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Lebannon).

For example, if you go to another country like Canada, you'll see news about our country there, though we don't exactly see Canadian news here, so we don't really have the same perspective.

Answer 4

I do care what the world thinks but at the same time, what the world thinks doesn't really matter for the most part, since they don't LIVE in the USA. Others should worry about their own countries. If we worried about everything that other countries thought we wouldn't be our own country, what would be the point? We aren't here to please you. Sadly it's like school, when people ignore you for being something THEY don't like, some will change to fit it, others won't. I don't think others are jealous, its that they believe everything they hear and talk badly about the US when they don't even preside there, that's ignorant.

Answer 5

The Americans that you are speaking about, as they are totally unaware of what other nations think of us, really could give a flying fig. I view these Americans as ethnocentric and uninformed. I do care what other countries think about us and many people I know also care. Many of us don't want other nations to think that all Americans are war mongers, as many of us are not.

Addendum: I've read some of the comments that people wrote in and basically it sums up what I've said and thought all along. How sad.
Also, the US press really doesn't tell the whole picture in our news. I learned more about what was going on in our country when I was in Italy and Spain. That is a sad commentary of our press.

Answer 6

Personally, I don't care about world opinion for the same reason that I don't care what the majority of strangers feel about me. They don't know me, so how can they judge me?

Most other countries don't really know anything about America except what the liberal media tells them. When you only get one side of the story, how can you make an informed decision? If someone is making a judgment about me or my country when they only know part of the story, then, no, I don't give a flying fling what they think.

I do not live my life trying to make everyone like me. It's a horrible way to go through life. If America makes its decisions based on world opinion, it's even worse because that effects all of us.

Answer 7

Because some Americans act like they are self concience yet inside they realize that they are not. Why because the rest of the world hates America and Bush so they act like they dont care yet inside they do. When a conflict arrises as the one in Lebanon the Americans are the first ones to jump in. But instead of helping they end up being Israels *****. Then when they get blamed for doing something stupid they act like they dont care.

Answer 8

They might say this because they know they have a bad reputation but don't know what to do about it. Kind of like when the cool kid on the playground goes, "You can't play!" And you go, "I don't care. You're just jealous cuz I have a new ball." But they really do! They are hurt and don't know what else to say. I'm an American and I don't like being hated. Whenever I hear others bad-mouth Americans it hurts me. I don't like being thought of as part of the bully country. I want others to like me. I am intensely interested in people in other countries and of other cultures. I like to know what they think, how they feel, why they do what they do. And I really, really, really want you to like me.

Answer 9

Because most of the world is jealous of the fact the America is so prosperous. Also, a lot of countries hate the fact the we have the freedom to do just about whatever you want or be whatever you want to be. This is a fact, plain and simple.

Answer 10

Some of it is jealousy, but not all of it is. For instance, why would many european countries be jealous of America? Many have a better quality of life, healthcare is either cheap or free, culture is better. Why would these countries be jealous of America when they have a better life than a lot of Americans do? Yet these countries still criticise America, mostly for greed and its foreign policy.