Why so harsh on us Yanks?

Question

It seems to me there is a lot of Anti- American among you Brits,why oh why? After all we beat the Germans twice for you, we invented the Computor the Railways, Jet engines, Mc Donalds etc, etc. Come on you guys give us a break.... please!

Answer 1

The main reason is your absolutely insufferable arrogance, you make sweeping, usually untrue claims about your country all the time, and it gets on everyones nerves.

Now, I think you'll find the trains and railways were invented in and by Britain, not America.
You'll also find that the jet engine was simultaneously developed by Britain and Germany during the war, both creating jet planes before the war was out, America had nothing to do with the invention. Even now many american planes, both millitary and civillian, are powerd by rolls-royce engines, a British company.
Wow, you invented McDonalds; give yourself a pat on the bck for completely summing up your country.

But yes, people hate your country as a whole, not the individual people.

Let's look at, to start with, your government. Bush is, quite frankly, an idiot; but then again so are most people high up in your government. The only requirement for office in the USA is money, and lots of it. Without money people can't possibly get enough support to even become candidates. Yet despite this blatant corruption, you still insist on telling the rest of the world you have the world's best democracy, which is ironic because you don't.
You also regularly claim to have the world's best freedoms, when in fact your freedoms, while better than third world countries, aren't as good as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and most of Europe. Neither are your general quality of life or health care. You don't even have a completely free press, it is very difficult for the American media to directly criticise the government; for one reason it's a taboo, to say something contrary to the government is to not show complete support for your country; secondly, the government tries, and usually succeeds, to suppress stories with which it does not agree. It even subsidises the media, which is something it can hold over them.
Your government views most of the rest of the world with contempt, and supposes that it is exempt from international laws.
Look at Iraq, I'm not going to go into whether or not that war was the right thing to do, or even whether you were in it for the oil, but you have killed and blown up thousands of innocent men, women and children. There was even one case where you blew up a Mosque as a terrorist frequented it, despite the fact hundreds on innocent civilians were inside. What's more, apparently you have no shame on the matter.
Your government openly tortures people and keeps them without trial in Guantanamo Bay. Yes, they are terrorists, but torture is still forbidden by international law and if they are terrorists why do you have to worry about giving them a fair trial. It's called justice.
In fact, you have one of the poorest records of Human Rights of any economically developed country in the world. You kept slavery several hundred years later than any other major western country. Even as late as the sixties the south kept measures in place to prevent Black people voting, getting good jobs or houses or a good education; they still had segregation and they were happy that more than fifty percent of blacks were below the poverty line. Even in the 90s, there was the Rodney King case which led to the LA riots. If you can't remember, three police officers were caught on camera beating a black criminal up, and even pleaded guilt at their trial, but were still acquitted. Yea, that sounds like the land of the free to me!

You refused to sign the Kyoto protocol. You as a single country use more oil per person, and indeed more oil full stop, than any other country in the world. While other countries impose taxes and measures as a means to try and prevent over-usage, and thus protect the environment, your government is hell-bent on finding more cheap oil so that it doesn't have to raise prices. The result is that your country is doing more damage to the world than any other, but also that your economy, which is beggining to fail anyway, is completely reliant on oil. I look forward to the day when it finally runs out, it'll only be a score or so of years, because you will be completely screwed. Your hundreds of trillions in debt, when your economy begins to lose pace, people are going to ask for that money back. That is a major problem and a threat to your country, I hope you can sort it out, because if not depression looms.

Your government still allows it's citizens to run around willy-nilly with guns; how utterly stupid can you get. The result is grossly increased gun crime than in countries where people can't use guns to 'protect themselves'. In fact, your crime levels are pretty damn high anyway.

Yet despite this, you continually try to tell the rest of the world you are the best country in it and we are all jealous.

Now, I realise most Americans are perfectly nice people, but as a rule, you are still a very arrogant country.

Hollywood does nothing to help the matter; it repeatedly rewrites history in your favour. Take U-571 for example. In the case of this submarine flick, history wasn't much of a concern. The film depicts World War II-era American submariners disguising themselves and sneaking onto a U-571 submarine in an attempt to capture the Enigma cipher from the Germans. Not only was the sub type wrong--it was a U-110--but more importantly, the Americans had nothing to do with the capture. It was the British, not the Americans who managed to capture Enigma.
Then is Hollywood's insistence that you won the battle of Britain, ignoring the fact that by the time you entered the war it was already over, and we'd already won it.
D-Day too, British and commonwealth forces took on more beaches than the Americans did, and they made much more progress, and faster. Yet if you were to believe most of what Hollywood says you'd believe that only the Americans went on D-Day or that they made all the progress while we got stuck at the first sign of trouble.

There is no doubt that America's involvement in the war was very helpful and needed, but to continually suggest that if you hadn't come we'd all be speaking German, or that you won the war single handedly, is preposterous. We Brits repelled the German assaults on our country on our own long before you came along, you helped with taking Europe back, but not saving Britain.
The Germans, even before you came along, were fighting a war on two fronts. The bloodier of those being the Russian front. The Russians fought more battles, contributed more soldiers and killed more Germans than we did put together. In addition you had very little to do with defeating Rommel in Africa. In the end it is pretty certain Russia and the joint Commonwealth forces would have beaten Germany. Russia would have made it to Berlin at the same time it did, Africa and Italy would have still been taken by the British and Commonwealth, as as it was there wal little US involvement there, and I'm sure eventually France would have been taken back too. Only problem is it would have been a much longer, harder and deadlier fight that could well have crippled the countries involved.
I'm not saying you had nothing to do with the war, but you really do over-exaggerate your role in it.
Also you turned up late for both, when there was no longer any chance of you losing, and only when you were dragged in by American loss of life, rather than feeling the need to protect Europe.

Most people don't hate you, but a fairly reasonable proportion do. I'd say the vast majority of people are at least irritated by you, but I wouldn't worry that much, if you come here people as a rule have too much tact to say these things to your faces, unless they really dislike you as a person. In private though I know anti-American sentiments are very common. American has almost become a byword for stupidity, arrogance and ignorance.
Even most people who hate your county don't hate the people individually, it's you as a whole, including your government, which is disliked.

Answer 2

an english person calling an american person thick? NOW i have seen it all. i'm a south african and i've been living in the uk for the last 6 years, my forefathers were english but that is where it all ends. I've been teaching here in England and can say a lot for the lack of standards here, never mind the comments about intelligence...
i am not one to have a dig at anyone different or other to me, but i think u yanks and pommies are equally arrogant and ultimately the original sin which caused evil to fall from grace was that which you all suffer from i.e the disease of the ego. when will you ever learn? perhaps when we can all stop pointing fingers, being rude and insulting and damaging by way of verbal abuse, can one begin to consider similarities and try to shift the focus so that there is a trend towards building up relations, instead of breaking it down.

Answer 3

I respect the Americans with my whole heart-The fact that you all got through 9/11 is something to be proud of-
In the UK we have the greatest respect for you all.
We prove this by remembering the anniversary every year
Didn't we once need your help during the war ????
How can you say we are anti -american
We all love Mcdonalds
I have never heard a bad word said about an American
And I believe you are the one that used the term Yanks !!
Do you have a chip on your shoulder ???

Answer 4

I don't think that all Brits are against 'yanks' as you put it!
Whilst I do appreciate most of the things invented in the USA I do not thank you for McDonald's!
I hate to burst your bubble but it was a Brit that invented the first steam engine and gave rise to the railways, we also invented the internet and TV for our sins!
I think there are many complimentary inventions between both nations.

Answer 5

Oh man, you are having a joke aren't you?

Railways. Britain 1829. The Rocket by Robert Stephensen. Northern England.

Jet engines. Germany and Britain, Second World War

Computers: Charles Babbage, 19th Century

Germans: I seem to recall the Russians had something to do with it. Another lesser known fact that before the Second World War, Britain owned 20% of American industry. By the end, the Brits owed the Americans money!

Sorry, its not Americans that the Brits are pissed at. Its what your government does around the world and its blatant double standards, professing democracy while supporting dictatorships around the world.

McDonalds? I'll give you that one.

Answer 6

I think your own question explains the problem,
Frank Whittle dreamed up the lightweight Gas Turbine, known as the Jet engine and although the Germans produced the first jet to fly all the patents were Whittle's. Whittle was British
The first computers were developed at Bletchley Park by British Code breakers during WW2.
We had railways 20 years before the states, remember William Hedley, Wylam Dilley 1803.
We had Clan Mc Donald centuries before we slaughtered all their animals and threw them out of the Scottish to seek fame fortune and greasy gristle burgers in the good ole US of A
Ever wondered why Brits describe things what dont work as Un Serviceable and scrawl U/S across it

Answer 7

There is a lot of anti-Amercanism around in the world and looking at your present government's politics I would say it is selfinficted. I like Americans and I know a few Americans who agree with me.

B.t.w. I don't know where or when computers were invented. But I do know that trains were running in Germany and Briton long before there were any tracks in USA and enough Chinese immigrants to install them. The jet engine was invented by Germans before the end of WWII. U.S. just took it all home after the war together with rocket technology and scientists. Remember Werner von Brown?

Answer 8

It's Americans like you we hate,claiming to have invented things you didn't invent,to have won wars you haven't won,& knowing nothing about anything.It was Russia that really won ww11,the yanks were too late in both ww1 & 2.You were chased out of Vietnam with your tails between your legs,& Somalia as well.You will be chased out of Iraq & Afghanistan too.I do not mean to offend the decent Americans,but this question got my goat.

Answer 9

Because if you read the history books you didn;t beat the Germans you joined in at the last minute when it was nearly over and only because America was attacked directly anyway you invented Mc donalds is reason enough to dislike you after all they support the IRA George Stephenson (1781-1848), Inventor of the railway-engine born in the UK and yes an American invented the jet engine......... in conjunction with a German

Answer 10

A lot of Brits and other Europeans are against the war in Iraq.

I am American myself and I can see why the Europeans hate us. A lot of Americans are arrogant and too patriotic and think we are the best in the world.

I think all western countries are great. No country is better than another.

Answer 11

I think you will find it is almost global and not just restricted to the British, do pay attention to the World news old chap.

As for the inventions, the computer, railways and jet engines, all British dear boy, we will give you the McDonalds, it is quite unsavoury and probably contains some noxious american drug, both addictive and mind numbing. It would explain your national predilection towards obesity and your peculiar ability to believe every single word that your insane and belligerent government tells you.

You will get your break when we feel you deserve it old bean and no sooner !