What's up with Brits hating Americans?

Question

My mom is from England so I'm not trying to offend you

1) YES we know we have issues just like every other country!

2) YES we know that people have died in this war! Duh it's a war would rather innocent people in other countries die?

3) SOME of us are arrogant not all we are not that stuppid!

4) YES we know you hate our president GET over it we reelected for a reason!

5) WE ARE NOT ENERGY HOGS.

Answer 1

No offence taken.I don't think that's true of the majority of Brits.I myself have American friends whom I mail on a daily basis.There is much banter between the Brits and Americans here on Yahoo,both sides trying to wind each other up,but I'm sure its not meant to be taken seriously. Yes its true to say many Brits have a dislike for George Bush,but then there is much dislike of Tony Blair as well!! Look,there are arrogant Americans,as well as arrogant Brits,and as far as stupidity goes,aren't all of us stupid at some stage or another? Most of us have an opinion on the war in Iraq,to which we are all entitled,war is always an emotive issue. Lighten up,ignore those who try to stir up problems,there is enough political strife in both our countries without arguing amongst ourselves.

Answer 2

I'm not British, I'm American. So far, the British have been perfectly nice to me, so they must not hate ALL Americans. As for your other points:
1) We do have issues, just like other countries, but we rarely act as if we KNOW we do. A great many Americans throw the word "traitor" around the moment someone indicates that America might not be perfect.
2) Not only have PEOPLE died in this war (duh). American soldiers have killed British soldiers--more than once!--in friendly fire incidents. Yes, they were mistakes. But you can't blame the Brits for being ticked off about this! Especially in incidents where the US Army did its best to hide all the facts for months at a time, while the families of the dead British soldiers couldn't even know what, exactly, had happened.
3) Americans do tend to be more arrogant than many (by no means all) other country's citizens. In good times, it comes across as confidence. Considering how ticked off we get by the supposed arrogance of the French, again, I'm not sure the British can be condemned for similar attitudes toward us.
4) Everyone is allowed to express themselves. Freedom of speech, and all. If the Brits should "get over" their hatred of Bush, shouldn't we Americans "get over" our hatred of Hugo Chavez? I didn't think so.
5) Yeah. We are energy hogs. Just look at the statistics. Americans use significantly more energy per person than anyone else in the world.

I admire you're "support America" attitude, but it helps to moderate that attitude with the truth and a sense of fairness.

Answer 3

What gives you the idea that we hate you?
Just read the criticism on this site and in the press and you will see that you have (in common with us ) twisted and bent politicians who are in the pockets of the armament and oil industries so war is their main agenda.
Did you know that G.W Bush stated some three weeks after coming into office that China was now the enemy of the U.S, the Chinese government had not made a hostile threat or committed an aggressive act against the U.S.
Is it then any wonder that people the world over are fed up with the threats and intimidation made by the U.S government in the name of the American people.
Why don't they mind their own business, confine their efforts to improve the well being of their people and leave the rest of us alone.

Answer 4

In my experience Brits don't hate Americans in the same way that they loathe the French. I just think Brits (in particular the English) feel they are above Americans culturally, academically and historically. This could be a back lash to 'globalisation' which may as well be termed Americanisation. This Americanisation (which is fast replacing ancient cultues like China's) hasn't thrown up many 'cultural' positives (the exeption being jazz and maybe rock and roll). I also think Brits (being a mainly secular bunch) get extremely irritated with US Christian fundementalism, and comments like Bush's "God told me to invade Iraq," surely one of the scariest comments ever made.

America is now regarded as the biggest threat to world peace although as an Englishman I can't crow to much about Empire building.

I live in China with several members of the US peace corps who are lovely people but extremely irritating, Limeys and Yanks are (for the most part) on entirely different wave-lengths. Maybe this is the intrinsic problem! Because of out shared heritage we expect to be more similar to each other than we actually are.

Answer 5

We don't hate all Americans, I've met some really nice ones.

Bush and his policies are about as popular as a bad case of venereal disease and he doesn't do your country any favours in the world popularity stakes.

Its the ones who scream "We are the greatest country on Gods Earth (without knowing that there actually *are* other countries) and "We saved your a*s in WWII blah blah" that annoy people. They are just ignorant and arrogant. But as far as I can tell they are usually ignorant inbred Conservative rednecks and not the majority. Also the ones who donated to the IRA then declared "war on terror" when their own country was hit by terrorists. Seems pretty hypocritcal.

Anyway I think we Brits do like to take the mickey out of Americans but its all fairly good humoured. We love ya really.

Answer 6

Brits don't hate Americans as such.
I work with a couple of Americans and they are some of the sweetest and politest people I have ever met.
But I think that Brits do dislike the "stereotypical American" - the one who weighs 300lbs, eats nothing but fast food, doesn't know where to find Spain or Turkey on a map, and has never been abroad. I know that stereotyping is not fair, but I think that's just how it is.
Not all Frenchmen eat cheese and frogs legs and smell of garlic, but we still call them names because of our perceived notions of what a Frenchman is like.
It's probably something to do with us being similar. Obviously UK and France are geographically very close and at times in the past we have been governed by the same people. Same with the US - we have the same language and culture and obviously a shared history up to a point. I think it's a way of expressing our individuality as a nation. I think the media plays on it too much as well.
As for your president though, he would not be welcome in our house - but then neither would Tony B-liar!
Don't take it to heart and don't let it stop you visiting the UK. Most of us are lovely as, I'm sure, are you.

Answer 7

1. yes, everyone knows that. but the government fails to help them, and most of the time the government doesn't even care.
2. don't even try to justify war. you wrote "YES we know that people have died in this war! Duh it's a war would rather innocent people in other countries die?" hell, that doesn't even make sense. but killing innocent people to protect yourself from literally nothing is so incredibly selfish, it really disgusts me.
3. oh the irony...you can't even spell "stupid" correctly. yes some of you are arrogant, but in my view, arrogant=stupid.
4. you "reelected" him for a reason? then how come you lot always moan and groan about him? and if so many of you claim to be against the war, then why did you re-elect him in the first bloody place?
5. that's the best joke i've ever read. who drives around in Hummers to show off their status? which country's governor has five 4x4s all to himself? who's using up all the forests in Brazil? WHO INVADED IRAQ FOR ITS OIL?

so...is it any wonder why Brits (and may i add, the whole world) hate you? not only can you not spell correctly, but you're hypocrites without a clue. gawd, you really are dumb. get some education in your thick head, you numbskull.

Answer 8

1) you're right, we do have our fair share of issues

2) innocent people shouldn't be dying anywhere for any reason. but we (and this war) have caused a lot of that

3) you're right, we're not all arrogant or stupid

4) right now, according to polls, more than half of our country hates our president, too. and yes, we did reelect for a reason. no viable alternative.

5) you're very wrong there. yes, we are energy hogs.

Answer 9

I'm sure that not all Brits hate Americans. However, to those Brits who need to slam us about Iraq, I would recommend that they open a history book and peruse the section on the Opium Trade!

Answer 10

They not only hate us they hate everyone including themselves. I have never seen such self centered people in my life. I have met some nice, kind, friendly, Brits while I was there But as a whole there terrible.My car broke down in The middle of the most segregated city in America (Milwaukee WI ). I asked for help and received more than I needed and walked 1 mile to a repair garage and felt safe and was treated with respect. In England I had old women pushing me out of there was to get on a bus. Give me the ghetto it is safer than England.