Why people do people blame Russians or Germans when disaster strikes?

Question

I was reading about this mid-air plane crash in 2002(involving a Russian and a DHL plane) after it happened the first thing some people said was, it was a pilot eror by the Russian pilot. It ended up small error by the Swiss air-trafic controler.

Then in 1999 it was a german taxi driver driving the british prime minister in Germany, when there was a car crash. People blamed it on the driver, but the driver was trying to avoid a french driver who caused it. And he saved Blair's life, and some people are saying he almost ended it.

So why is it people blame innosent people when bad people from their country do bad things. When it wasn't their fault.

If this sounds confusing just answer this, Why do people jump to conclusions that are usually against nations like germany and Russia?

Sorry, but Russia andGermany were the first two countries that came to mind

Answer 1

I do not think so much they were blaming them because they were foreigners but because they were easy scapegoats. Thats what humans do well. we like to blame others. That is a sad fact of history.

Answer 2

Kepjr100 has a point - but - the Russian hierarchy has historically been a bunch of self-centered jerks who thought they were the only people in the World worthy of living. They included peoples of the former Soviet Satellites in the less than equal category. They further had, and still have a vast divide between the cultured, upperclass Russians and Russian peasantry.
The Germans are a whole 'nother story. They have a LONG history of aggression - back to the days of the Barbarians. Then we move to the Prussians and then to the Nazis.
While you can't discount the many tremendous acheivements these people have made to the World's benefit - you also can't forget the horrible wrongs they have committed upon their own people as well as the entire human race.
I don't get your point on why these two groups are the only ones you picked out - I believe ALL persons/nations/groups are way too quick to place the blame on "the other guy."

Answer 3

Since the end of World war II, Germany, Russia, and Japan have always been the ones to blame when disaster strikes. Those countries left a bad reputation on the world, so the US always chooses them to blame someone. But htese days, any terrorist attacks are straight away blames at the middle-east countries (Iran, Iraq, Israel). It is just human-nature to blame someone else, and since these countries have had a bad history, or an untrustworthy past, they are the easiest candidates to blame

Answer 4

I think people find it easier to blame "the other". Some of it is about power. People like to feel that some groups of people are better than others and they belong to the right group, the good group, the chosen group, the clever group, the group that deserves things. They then reason that the other group or groups must be evil, undeserving, inhuman, etc. You can see this take place in politics, in religion, slavery, the nazi movement, it continues...

Answer 5

Unfortunately, the perception of these people as a whole preceeds them. It is true that as a whole they are not bad, but over the years they have been perceived as barbaric and uneducated. We know this is not true. The track record of a few leaders have made these people look that way too, example Stalin and Hitler. They are skilled peoples who have contributed greatly to the world as a whole, example Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Answer 6

Because "the English" (UK and USA) leader always brainwashed their people against people of "the other" cultures: Russian, German, Japanese, now against Chinese and Arabic.

Poor education in the English-speaking countries contributes a lot.

It is interesting, the Russians traditionally don't blame foreigners, but search for scapegoats among themselves.